Day 2 and 3: Having a Martha House with a Mary Attitude.

Well as I mentioned in my first post I am the queen of procrastination and I believe it has been almost two weeks since I started Day 1 lol. However in my defense we were in St. Augustine for a few days for vacation and then I got a cold soooo now that I'm done with all my excuses I finally got to day 2 and 3. Yay!!! I started Day 2 on Monday and was actually really motivated by it...
Day 2 began with the topic of being a life-giver. God created women to be life givers.. Even the first woman was named Eve because it meant "life". God created us with purpose and that purpose is to bring life and give life to everything we do. The book defines life-giving as raising life above the level of mere existence. What an honor given to us by the Lord that it is our responsibility as women and nurturers of the home to raise our families lives above a level of mere existence. We are to encourage and empower our husbands and children and make our homes a calm and loving environment where they can truly thrive on life. It was so funny that I sat down to write my blog today (or actually last night now) because in my daily devotions I just started Galatians and today I read in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ, It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me".  I want to bring life into my home the way that Christ has raised life in me. He loved me and gave himself for me. He died so that I might live. Now im not saying I want to die here lol but I do want to love my family and give of my time, my love, my actions so that I may raise life in them and make my home an environment that flourishes.

Day 2 Mary Challenge: How can you bring life to your home and family?

I personally feel that I can bring life to my husband by speaking encouraging words to him and praying for him as he goes to work to provide for us. I am so thankful that I have a husband who works very hard to provide so that I can stay home and be with my son. I am thankful that he understands the importance of my role in the home. I know not everyone can afford to do this and it makes me all the more grateful that we were able to work it out. So I want to work on being more appreciative and encouraging to Stephen for everything he does. With Brantley I think I can bring life into my home playing with him and teaching him things. If I stay on top on my schedule with cleaning and school then I can make time to play with him and teach him new things not just educationally but spiritually as well. So then I started thinking well not only how can I bring life to my family members but how can I bring it to my actual physical home, sooo I decided to decorate my dining room table with none other than bright colors and daises! as Meg Ryan says "they are the friendliest flower" and they also so happen to be my favorite. Anyway it really brightened up my living/dining room and made me feel like I'm starting to get this homemaking stuff down lol.

Martha Challenge: Clean out your fridge and freezer. Well my wonderful hubby did that not so long ago so I decided it didn't really need it and traded it for cleaning all my stainless steel appliances with special cleaner (I even cleaned the sink). They looked almost brand new when i was done and I should definitely do that more often. You dont realize how many water spots are on your appliances until you're down there with a rag cleaning lol.

Day 3: August 17th. "Ways to give life to your Home"
This chapter was pretty much a continuation of day 2 but it gave specific examples on how to bring life to your home spiritually and physically. There were three that really stuck out to me. 1.) Making my home a place where mistakes are met with grace and love not anger and frustration. I think this is sometimes hard for moms because we're here all day with the kids and sometimes your patience is just gone and you can react to things in anger instead of showing grace and saying "honey its ok that you spilled your drink, lets clean it up together and next time be a little more careful". I'm really working on this and am praying for the Lord to help me show grace as He has shown me the ultimate grace. 2.) Being an encourager (is that a word?) to my family. Lifting them up in praise and being their cheerleader basically. Im working on it that's all I say about that lol. 3.) Playing worship music in my home throughout the day. When I first read this I was like hmmm that's a thought and the author stated how even King Saul was comforted by David's worship when the spirit had left him and how playing worship music in your home throughout the day can create a calming environment for everyone. So I played it this morning while i was doing the dishes and while we were eating breakfast and it was nice. I was so busy singing along that I felt like I was done with the dishes in two minutes lol.

Mary Challenge: Ask your family members what makes them feel the most loved in caring for your home?

Well Brantley can't really tell me because he's two but I think I could figure his out lol and it's probably playing with him. So my challenge to myself for him is to stay on top of everything else in my schedule so that during the day I have a lot of time to spend playing with him. Now Stephen he can talk haha and boy did he talk. I was almost sorry I asked. No no no I'm just kidding. My husband basically said that when he comes from work and the house is clean (not perfect but picked up and livable) and either dinner is cooking or I at least know what we're doing for dinner, it takes a lot of pressure of him because he can come home and relax after working all day instead of jumping right into cleaning and cooking too. He also said it makes him feel like I care about our home and take pride in what we worked so hard to buy. He also said even more important than a clean house would be my attitude lol. Now this is where I wish he would have stopped hahahaha but I needed to hear it. He said he loves the days when he comes home and I'm not stressed out and in a good mood and happy to see him just because I missed him not because "thank God you're home, here's Brantley, I am checking out for the night, your turn". lol I had to laugh because I am so guilty of that and I understand there are going to be days that Im stressed and I do need that but the purpose of Stephen's comment was to bring it to my attention that it is something I need to work on and manage so that I am only having those days every once in a while and not every day. So I am purposing to not be stressed and to love as the Lord loves and cast all my cares on Him.

Martha Challenge: Dust the tops of your cabinets in the kitchen and wipe down all the kitchen cabinets and shine the handles on them.

Well this prego was not about to climb up on the counter or a ladder and dust the tops of the cabinets but I did wipe down the kitchen cabinets and shine the knobs. Let me tell you kitchen cabinets get dirty especially by the stove and the sink. Wiping them down regularly for some reason is not something I think about when Im cleaning my kitchen daily. I do my counters, stove, sink, dishes everything else but forget about my cabinets... so my new challenge for myself is to daily wipe the bottom cabinets as I clean the kitchen after dinner because there was more dirt on there than I expected.

So that was day 2 and day 3 which I did August 15 and 17th and I am just now writing the blog on the 18th lol. So bear with  me as my little exhausted prego self does this challenge. Im skipping it today and will pick it up again tomorrow so be prepared for another blog this weekend. I hope Im not boring you too much with all my imperfections and stories of dirty cabinets haha.

Diane