Housework Tuesday - My House Is A Mess

I truly cannot believe that I am actually going to admit this for all the world to see, but my house is a mess. Not “so disgusting you don’t want to sit anywhere for fear of catching a serious disease” mess – but a mess nonetheless. I consider myself to be a pretty clean, organized housewife. But somehow I have let things get out of control.

Remember about a week and a half ago when I was dealing with a mini life crisis and didn’t have the time or energy to blog? Not only did my blog suffer serious neglect during that week time span, but my house did as well. Fortunately for my blog, I have picked up where I left off and things have returned to normal. Not so fortunately for my house, I just haven’t been able to get back into the swing of things.

I have at least four loads of clean, unfolded clothes sitting in my closet just waiting to be folded and put away. Every time I walk past my master or guest bedroom I swear I hear my furniture shouting, “Dust me! Dust me!” While I thoroughly enjoyed the snow this weekend, my dogs’ wet paws have wreaked havoc on my hardwood floors. Steven and I stop and wipe their feet every time they come in the house (which is a pain in and of itself) and still I have muddy paw prints all over my house. And bonus – not only do we have muddy paw prints but the dogs are actually dragging in DIRT – so I don’t even want to walk barefoot on the floors! No matter how often I sweep or vacuum I just can’t keep the floors clean!

I haven’t glanced at my Motivated Moms Chorelist once in the past two weeks – and it this point I’m scared to look. I need to just thoroughly clean the house and start from scratch. Conveniently, I have offered to host a new member sleepover as an advisor for my collegiate sorority this weekend. So come rain or shine my house must be immaculate by Friday morning. Steven is traveling for an overnight tomorrow which means I can come home and focus on some deep cleaning. I think at this point I need a plan of attack, so here’s my goals (hopefully by putting this out there I’ll stick to it!)
- Tonight – fold laundry & sweep entire house
- Wednesday – dust entire house, clean all glass & mirrors, clean both bathrooms
- Thursday night – clean baseboards and hardwood floors (2 hour project – hopefully I can get done in time for Greys!)

If all goes well I will wake up Friday morning to clean house.  What about you? Do you consider yourself to a “neat freak” but sometimes find your house to be in complete disarray? How do you bounce back? Isn’t it just so much easier to be messy?

Wish me luck as I tackle my messy house this week!

My Man Is GOOD!

Apparently Steven has taken Pastor Greg's sermon yesterday to heart because he is pouring on the compliments and "love".  I'm certainly not complaining, it's wonderful to feel so loved and appreciated.

For example, just last night Steven looked at me and said, "In all seriousness, what is the most beautiful sight you've ever seen?"  At first, I thought it was a trick question and stared at him confused. "Honestly - what's the best thing you've ever seen" he asked again.  Wanting to impress him with something really "beautiful" I silently reviewed all the exotic places I have been - Victoria's Peak, Hong Kong, Negril, Jamaica, view of snow covered mountains from a recent flight.....

So I responded, "Probably the bronzed, seated Budda in the mountains of Hong Kong that we saw on our trip Junior year.  What about you?"  Without skipping a beat he replied, "You - walking down the aisle to me on our wedding day."

Two points to the hubby...I hope he keeps this up.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day - Words of Wisdom

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hubby and I celebrated Valentine's Day yesterday, so I thought today would just be another normal day, but was pleasantly surprised by an amazing sermon from Pastor Greg this morning.  His words are so applicable to today's holiday that I thought I would share his words of wisdom my readers.

As I have said before, I am so grateful that God lead Steven and I to Five Stones.  I feel like Pastor Greg is preaching directly to Steven and I every Sunday.  This morning was no different. In honor of Valentine's Day, Pastor Greg started a series titled "Explosive Love".  Over the next 6 weeks we will study our way through Song of Solomon and look at love and marriage as God intended for it to be.

The sermon focused on aspects of marriage that many take for granted.  It is important for us to remain attractive to our spouse - no you don't need to look like a supermodel every single day, but it doesn't hurt to get dolled up every once and a while for your special someone.  It is important for married couples to do fun and exciting activities together - share special time together and enjoy spending quality time with your spouse.  It is also important to guard your marriage from harmful friendships.  If your friends constantly bad mouth your husband or wife - how great of friends are they really?  Do you have a relationship with a person of the opposite sex that might cause your devotion to your spouse to stumble??  Lastly Pastor Greg discussed creating an "oasis" at home that both you and your spouse will be happy to come home to.  The outside world is so critical, so difficult - life can eat you up and spit you out in a split second.  Work to create an environment of love and peace in your home so both you and your spouse always feel welcomed and content.

I wish I could articulate Pastor Greg's words more clearly.  I sat there listening to his sermon as if he were speaking directly to me.  Too often I am so hard on Steven.  Instead of welcoming him home after a long day at the office, I immediately start asking him questions or requesting that he complete some chore.  Instead of telling him how grateful I am for how hard he works to provide a nice life for us, I focus on all the fact that he hasn't taken out the trash yet.  Instead of giving him a knee buckling kiss that says "Your my man and I love you", I brush right past him and start tending to the dogs. 

Throughout his sermon Pastor posed multiple questions that I think any married couple should ask one another - whether you are a Christian or not, these truths can be applied to your marriage.  As your spouse these questions - listen to their answers without arguing or becoming defensive - and try to apply their answers to your marriage. 

-What is one compliment you wish I told you more often?

-Is there anything I could do to be more attractive to you - physically or otherwise?
-Is there a fun activity that we could do together?
-Are there any names that I call you that are hurtful?
-Do I have any friendships that you feel may be hurting our marriage?
-What can I do to make our home an oasis for you?  A safe place from the harsh realities of life??

I know after talking with Steven and asking him the questions above, I feel like I have a better understanding of how I can make him feel respected as my husband and loved as my partner.  I'm looking forward to the remaining five weeks in Pastor Greg's series and discovering God's will for our marriage and our life together.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Holy Crow! That's A Lot Of SNOW!

It finally has happened - Charlotte got dumped with a ton of snow last night!!  Unfortunately for us, the evening ended with a car accident.  Steven and I went out to grab a couple necessities before the roads got too bad. In the span of 45 minutes the roads got really, really bad.  On the way home we saw a van stranded in a ditch.  There was a woman with two small children inside and Steven decided to pull over to help pull them out.  We were well off the side of the road and as he opened the driver side door to get out of the car, a driver on the road lost control and side swiped him.  Thank the Lord that he was able to jump back in the car and avoid being hit - not so thankfully his door is completely messed up.  It won't close!!  But again - thank God no one was truly hurt.  Now let's see how this insurance thing plays out and if her insurance company will pay for the damages.

Just trying to do a good deed - Poor Yukon

But we have decided not to let this little accident ruin our Valentine's Day weekend.  My puppies absolutely love the snow.  They have stayed outside all morning long prancing and playing.  They LOVE it! So here is a little photo shoot of the beautiful snow we received here.  :)

That's 6 Inches!

Steven left me a message in the snow! 

Playing tough with daddy

                                          

My handsome man - Bauer

 

Pretty Dixie with snow on her face - she loves to eat it!

Snow covered downtown Waxhaw

Hope you're having a great Saturday wherever you may be!