Making My Home A Haven Monday

It's Monday, so that means it's Crytstal's Making Your Home a Haven day. :)

1) Refresh Your Spirit

Begin today with the Lord. Brew yourself something delicious to drink and sit down for a few moments of quiet before the Lord. Pray, read and meditate on Scripture, ask the Lord for His blessing upon your day, and commit this day to Him.

Even with a house full of guests, I managed to have my quiet time this morning. I read some Psalms and the first few chapters of Hebrews. I don't know why I never before thought to ask God for His blessing upon my day, but I've done it now & committed my day to Him. Thanks for the reminder Crystal! Oh, and it was tea. Twining's English Breakfast to be exact. In the red box. :)

2) Tackle your Morning Routine
Once you've committed your day to the Lord and spent some time communing with Him, attack your morning routine with a smile!

• Dressed & ready for the day
  
• Tidy a bathroom
  
• Pray
  
• Go over memory verse
  
• 5 minute room rescue
  
• Empty the dishwasher
  
• Eat breakfast & take pills
  
• Read daily devotionals
  
• Read Bible passage(s)
  

I didn't tidy a bathroom. My one bathroom is completely gone (post to come about that), and another is so full of our guests things I didn't have time to clear the counter to tidy it.  The third (half bath) can use some attention; I'll take care of it this afternoon when I'm not in such a rush to get out the door.  

3) Take Time to Plan (5 minutes)
Once your simple morning routine is finished, if you've not sat down to make a short to-do list for today, take time to do that now. A few minutes of strategic planning before you begin your day can not only help you to be much more productive, but it can also save you a lot of time.

1. Work
   
2. Call for prescription refill
   
3. Pick up prescription & other items
   
4. Piano
   
5. Clean bathroom a.k.a. finish this morning's routine
   
6. Fix dinner / clean up kitchen
   
7. Clean out fridge a.k.a. # 5 for this post
   
8. Update blog
   
9. Work on course 15 minutes
   
10. Take pictures of bathroom progress

4) What's For Dinner?
Post your dinner menu on your blog so we can all be inspired!

Dinner is planned for the entire week! Tonight is soup, salad & fresh bread - fresh from the bakery that is. The soup's homemade though!

5) Do Something! (10 minutes)
We're working in the kitchen today! Light a candle, put on your apron, turn on some uplifting music, and then set the timer for ten minutes (this job might take a bit longer, though!) and get busy! !

Bonus Project: If you have extra time, I encourage you to cook or bake something special for your family today! Involve your children or other family members and make a double batch for the freezer. It's so helpful to have a well-stocked freezer on evenings when you're short on time or for the unexpected guests which stop by!

The biggest need in my kitchen is the refrigerator itself so that's going to be my project.

No baking today - I made bread pudding yesterday and will make an apple/pear crisp tomorrow. And I still have some cookies from last week and more in the freezer so I'm actually pretty well supplied for baked goods. I try to take advantage of the cooler temperatures and get my freezer stocked. :)

Updates to come!

Update 1:
The bathroom is clean as is half of the fridge - that's all I can get to today, but I'll finish it tomorrow or Wednesday (Tuesdays are usually busy days for me, so I don't know that I'll get to it). I'm about to start dinner.  The guys will stop working on the bathroom in about 45 minutes, so sometime after that I'll take pictures of the progress they've made.  

Update 2:

Dinner is done, and L is finishing the cleanup.  I won't be working on my course at all because we ended up having to run out and buy tile so the guys have it to work tomorrow.  That took up about an hour and a half so after I finish this update I'm headed to bed. After taking pictures of the progress of course. :) 

Update 3: Tuesday evening and the fridge has been cleaned out completely. It took about 40 minutes because of the really poor design of my fridge - the drawers and bottom shelf all have to be done together - you can't remove just one of them. And they are very difficult to put back together, so it took awhile to get it reassembled. And because it's such a pain, I don't do it often enough so once I do get it apart it takes longer to scrub out the drawers. But it's all done now! Someday we hope to get a different fridge and I will be checking how the drawers and shelves are engineered - I don't want to choose one that has the same problem! This fridge came with the house so I didn't pick it but if I have a choice I will be getting a different design.