Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Ease On Down, Ease On Down The Road!

We've just had one of the busiest holiday seasons that I can ever recall. Between lingering and re-emerging coughs and colds, traveling to be with both sides of our family, and all the hustle required to make the celebrations festive and memorable, I am quite content to be returning to our daily routine. We came home from our final family visit on Saturday evening, expressly for the purpose of being able to ease back into "real life," and I'm so glad we did. It's certainly not original here in the blogosphere to say this, especially this week, but I love our "normal" and am grateful that The Boss and I are united on the way we manage our family pace. Even as an extrovert who thrives on Lots! and Lots! of social interactions, I could not keep that pace up forever!

The Boss took the tree down on Sunday while he stayed home with stuffy, runny Li'l Empress. It's the driest tree we've ever had and my little ones were all tired of blue spruce needles poking their piggies. We've never "de-decorated" our home so early before, but it had to be done. I REVELED in spending Sunday afternoon re-decorating, moving some things around, and sprucing up the main living space. The fun that I had doing that certainly helped lessen the pain of the Eagles big loss to Dallas later that night. Man, that was excruciating. It's a good thing we have another shot at them this coming weekend . . .

This week, I'm focusing my energies on de-cluttering and re-organizing a couple small spaces in our home that have been driving me nuts for several months now. Our former home-school cabinet is being streamlined for household management stuff: bill-paying materials, stationery, desk supplies, etc. My bookshelves FULL of cookbooks and binders crammed with recipes are being purged - most of the recipes I love the most and use frequently are accessible elsewhere. I'm hoping to sort that down enough to stash them in the aforementioned cabinet, which is closer to the kitchen and less accessible to little hands. My two little junk drawers are FINALLY getting the hard-core purge and sort. I have no idea what I'll find when I open them, but I'm gonna be ruthless. I'm also tackling a freezer inventory and menu plan, to get us back on a healthy budget and healthier bent toward eating right. I've got more planned for the physical projects of this new year, but I am enjoying easing into them with some small stuff first.

I'm still brewing over the words from my Dad's sermon two weeks ago, seeking the Lord for a few key areas which He desires for me to surrender. Our church is embarking on a 21-day period of fasting and prayer. They are calling it Breakthrough 2010 and I am anxious to experience some breakthroughs of my own in this season. I love this time of year; seeking a new vision or clarification or expansion of an on-going vision is always so exciting to me. Just as I love the streamlining and re-organizing that I get to dig into every January, I also love that right now the whole Church seems to focus its energies on seeking the Lord and committing the new year to His plans and purposes. More than anything, I want to hear His voice for changes that I can commit to making that will have eternal impact. I'm sensing a couple "no-brainers" right off the bat, but I am also sensing that He has some big things for The Gang in 2010 and want to point my heart in His direction for our family.

What about you? What New Year projects are you tackling this year? What is going on in your house that the Lord desires to hold in His hands? How are you starting off 2010?

3 comments:

Kelli said...

:) I always have some new project that I'm dreaming up to organize and streamline. ;) Thankfully, I have a husband who can do the things I dream.

Julie said...

Well, as you know I cleaned out my closet. Other than that nothing big going on around here in 2010:)

Aus said...

Wow - I'm feeling a blog post coming on....

You know that we are - like you guys - Christian (the specific Church is really unimportant!).

You know that we are - like you guys - adoptive parents of Asian kids.

You've probably figured out that when we start something we get involved pretty dang much - sometimes too much (is there such a thing regarding our kids?).

And so we've also explored what we 'americans' tend to call 'alternative' philosophy's. Thinks like fung shui and reki.

And then 'merging' them with our Faith beliefs....and it's not nearly as difficult as you would think - as long as you put God first! (Everything else - energy included - flows then from that!)

All of that said - hold onto your hats....when you start these kind of cleanup / re-organize / change purpose for use type projects you can really shake up the energy flow in your house! It's been our experience that this is good!

Kind of like that in our Spiritual lives too isn't it? Shake things up a little bit, make a few changes and - wham - it all comes back different.....and better!

Happy for you guys - enjoy the ride - and love the changes!

hugs - aus and co.