31 Days to Clean - Priorities

(Day 5-31 Days to Clean)

I'm super excited about this post because I want to share something I just stumbled across this morning.  As I was drinking my coffee and lazily scrolling down posts on Facebook, my eyes widened when I saw the post 31 Days to Clean on Facebook.  What?  Yeah!  Sure!  I'm so excited to finally have a simpler house to clean as of late that something like this doesn't feel like I'm adding more of a burden.  I love a good challenge because I just completed one and still am feeling the victory dance.

Sooo, I don't have a Kindle but it doesn't matter.  You can go HERE to download the ebook or you can just go onto Amazon like I did and download it.  I just installed the Kindle program for my PC but I could have also installed the Kindle App for my iPad if I had wanted.  Anyway, it's only $4.99 so it's super cheap.  Since I use Swagbucks as my search engine, I get free Amazon gift cards so technically, I got the book for free.  :D

Anyhow, I didn't see the Facebook post till Day 5 but better late than never, right?  Day 5 is about Priorities and gives two tasks to do just for this day.  I think this can be every ones struggle throughout life.  Everyone and everything can pull on us in all directions.

Jeremiah 31:25   “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” Mark 1:35

This one is a little hard for me because my favorite time to read and pray is at night time when the whole house is quiet.  I have kids with super sonic hearing that as soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning, at least 2 kids are immediately following behind me.  Soon after comes Ivy, then Kyle, Chaz, and last is always Ryan.  So, when I wait to read and pray when they pass out, I don't have to worry about that.  I don't know.  Would love your thoughts on that one.

“She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.” Proverbs 31:27

Training my children up in the Lord and teaching them every day is SO IMPORTANT.  More than just teaching them their reading and writing, I love to have some bible time with them geared more at their level.  In fact, yesterday the kids and I sat down to read from the bible and we decided that since it's the beginning of the year we would just start from the beginning again with the creation and Adam and Eve.  The kids absolutely love this time and always want to sing songs and have discussion afterward.  

Yes, stay at home mom do more than this... :D

The hardest part for me is saying no to people who have requests of me that would interfere with the priorities I have for my family.  I think people with smaller families, especially with kids in school, don't understand the challenge that can come with a large homeschooling family.  There can be misconceptions that people have about homeschooling and just don't understand all the work that goes into it.  It's more than just caring for our kids at home, I want to train them in other ways as well.  I don't want lazy kids that have a mom to do everything for them.  Lately we have been emphasizing that work comes before play.  It's important to finish our homeschool and daily chores before we can run off and play.  It was different when my kids were in school because they had such long school days and I knew they needed that break to just be kids for a bit before having to do their chore.  So, all this homeschool talks reminds me of a funny video I saw today.  Would love to share!

Another thing is making time to be there for my family without it being only about work.  Often, no matter what I am doing, if my husband or kids come to talk to me I give them a full listening ear.  There is no book or TV program (if I had a TV) that is more important. I save my book reading time for when my kids are resting.  Otherwise I'd be reading one or two sentences at a time before someone needed to come to me about something.  

31 Days to Clean gave me two tasks to do today.  :)  I'm getting right to it.