This week I rolled right along on the cleaning challenges and really enjoyed the daily devotions. The kitchen drawers were all cleaned out and the floors were scrubbed multiple times due to milk spilling! One of the days was to clean the living room window treatments. Well we have wood blinds and drapes so this was a big job, just like in the kitchen.
These photos aren’t too bright, but here is the living room during the work. (I went even further and pulled the couches out and vacuumed under them and did the baseboards too)
And after:
Day 11 called for washing the living room walls and dusting the ceiling. The girls were upstairs during this and when Nadia came down she said, “What were you doing mom?” “Vacuuming the ceiling.” Then Nadia started cracking up and said, “Whatever mom!” After I got done laughing we explained that I used the hand vacuum and step ladder.
Here is one of the tables after dusting the living room.
The devotions were all very good this week, but my 2 favorites were day 8 and 12. Sarah talked a lot about keeping our eyes on the eternal value of the work we do around our house and in caring for our family. Are we thankful for all that God has blessed us with? I often comment that I like to clean my bathrooms to be reminded how good I have it. In a vast majority of the world people still don’t have indoor plumbing – so I need to be grateful for all these toilets!
Day 12 talked about how we are all imperfect. How even the people you think have it together – are still imperfect. The Mary Challenge got me thinking about last year when I was working for the church doing the KIDS HOPE USA program and then I took the additional part time job as area manager for World Vision. I thought for SURE I could handle both part time jobs and be a great wife and mother. Why? Because both jobs were ministries that meant a lot to my heart and both could be done from home (mostly). Turns out I wasn’t actually super woman – I was trying to be and do too much and not doing any of it well. Mike quickly noticed that I was getting stressed out trying to do everything and wanted me to step back from something. Then we decided to adopt again and so I moved back into a volunteer position with World Vision. What a relief! And I have still continued to get children sponsored. Once again, what a relief!
My favorite quote of the week that she included was:
“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.” – Martin Luther