Making Your Home a Haven Challenge: Day 4

Continuing on with Crystal's Making Your Home a Haven Challenge, it's day four.

1) Refresh Your Spirit (5 minutes)

As we've been doing all week, take a few moments to sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and quiet your heart before the Lord. Pray, read Scripture, and just encourage your heart in the Lord.

I encourage you to pick a special verse to meditate on today while you're going about your homemaking tasks and write it down on an index card and put it in a central location as a reminder.

Share with us what verse or verses you are meditating on today.

I'll be heading downstairs as soon as I get off the computer and do this while drinking my morning tea.

These are the verses I've focused on this week, from Psalm 139.

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.


2) Take Time to Plan (5 minutes)

In addition to writing out a short to-do list numbered in order of importance today like we did the past few days and thinking ahead to what you'll have for dinner tonight, take a moment to plan some special way to bless your family this weekend. Maybe it will be something like breakfast in bed for your children, or a treat for your husband, or a special family activity. Think of something out-of-the-ordinary which will show your love practically to your family.

Share your to-do list today and tonight's dinner menu, if you have a chance. Also, tell us about how you are going to bless your family this weekend.

Today's to-dos:
Work
Tidy kitchen
Clean downstairs bath
Spend time with L
Finish Christmas cards
Get things ready for the morning
Go to bed on time

Yes, it's brief because I'll be at work for 13 or 14 hours. I don't expect to have much energy when I get home.

I won't be cooking dinner tonight, as I'll be at a work event again. There are leftovers for L to reheat if he wants them, or frozen pizza if he wants that.

I'll have to think about what he would most want for the weekend... Since my husband's primary love language is quality time I know what he'd most want is me to just spend a lot of time with him Saturday (Sunday is already blocked off for football). I'll see if he has anything he already is wanting to do that day before I start planning too specifically. Update to come...

Update: Home from work, but L is off at a friend's house to watch the football game. I may already be asleep when he gets home (actually, I hope I am because I'm really tired and I want to go to bed early). So I'll just have to spend more time with him tomorrow.

3) Do Something! (15 minutes or so)

Today we're going to focus on maintaining the other rooms we have already tackled this week (entryway, living room, laundry room) and our bathrooms. Light a candle, put on your apron, turn on some uplifting music, and get working!

Set your timer for five minutes and do a quick pick up of your entryway, living room, and laundry room. Also, start a load of laundry if you still have some to finish up this week (like me!).

And then let's get busy cleaning the bathrooms. If you have the time, feel free to deep clean them from top to bottom. However, if you are short on time, just pick up and put away anything that's out of place, spray and wipe all surfaces with all-purpose cleaner, and change the towels. A quick-clean like this can take less than three minutes and can make a huge difference!

Post pictures of your shiny clean bathrooms if you'd like. Or, if you're behind on any of the other challenges (like I still am on the laundry room!), feel free to go back and do those and post pictures of those completed challenges as well.

No pictures, but I love this challenge because I'll be able to get it done. My downstairs bath was already up in the rotation to be cleaned today so that works out well for me. ;) It's only a half bath, so it's always so easy and quick to clean. I'll be cleaning it after I finish breakfast and before I leave for work.

Update: Well, my boss ended up saying I didn't need to stay for the evening event so I got home about 3 hours earlier than I thought I might. What a blessing! I was still very tired from the day, so I made myself tidy the kitchen, finish cleaning the bathroom (started it this morning), and I even spent 15 minutes cleaning up my laundry closet. I couldn't believe how dusty the tops of the machines were! It looks so much nicer in there now and it smells fresh and clean. After all that, THEN I let myself sit down and rest. If I'd tried to sit first I don't think I'd have ever gotten up.