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This is a very well timed chapter for me. Because lately I’ve been feeling very plagued by limitations. We’ve been starting our first few weeks of homeschooling, we attended our first homeschool co-op day, both the kids have been sick. My grandmother is ill and my husband is under a ton of stress at work. It’s felt crazy. The kind of crazy where I want to quit everything and move just to get away from it all. During those times, cleaning is often the first thing to go. There is a reason why I haven’t touched this series in a few weeks. I can’t blog about cleaning if I’m not actually going to do any, or so I thought. But this section has been a great encouragement me.
Life is filled with limitations and there is grace for that.
Mary Challenge
Let grace cover the areas you cannot change. Our house is old and requires repairs we don’t have the money for right now. Our kitchen is poorly designed and the appliances sometimes not fully functional. That means things don’t always go smoothly around here. We are on the halting road to homeschooling. So my kid are home. Which means they make lots of messes and we’re still working on providing proper motivation for cleaning up.
But I need to extend myself grace. I need to try and do something, even a small effort. Put away a load of laundry. Bake a double batch of muffins so my kids have an easier breakfast for a few days. Load the dishwasher right after meals instead of waiting until the end of the day. These are little things I can do to give myself hope, even within my limitations.
Martha Challenge
Wash your living room walls and dust the ceiling. With all due respect to the author, the way I’m going to extend grace to myself this week is by not doing either of those things. With all that is going on around here, washing down my walls is about as high on my priority list as knitting a coat for an invisible dog.
For all of you who think your life is too crazy to even begin addressing a clean house, take heart. It will get better. Take small steps today just to give yourself hope that better times are coming.
31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary Way
Created to Give Life: 31 Days to Clean
10 Ways to Give Life to Your Home: 31 Days to Clean
A Place to Put Your Feet Up: 31 Days to Clean
The Curse – What We’re Up Against: 31 Days to Clean
Overcoming the Curse: 31 Days to Clean
Confronting Laziness: 31 Days to Clean
Feeling Overwhelmed: 31 Days to Clean
You get the award for the best simile: “as high on my priority list as knitting a coat for my invisible dog”! You should check out Flylady. She doesn’t make us wash walls.