I also have things I do less frequently that contribute to the clean house aura. {These are all set to recur automatically on my google calendar. My mind is more of a loose noodle than a steel trap, so I try not to leave things to chance.} Sometimes I choose not to do a particular task, but knowing that it will come around sooner or later puts my mind at ease and keeps our house looking cleaner than it is.

Do you have cleaning tasks you do on a less frequent basis? How do you remember them?

PS If you want a handy printable of the graphic above, click here: GTR Bi-weekly, Monthly, & Bi-monthly Tasks.

Ni hao!

Troy and I had such a good time in China, but it feels great to be back! My absolute favorite part was getting to visit The House of Hope in person.

My mother-in-law has spent time volunteering in different ways with The House of Hope and Maria’s House of Hope since they’ve lived in China. She sent me the book for Christmas a couple of years ago, and my heart was captured by the way God turned Robin and Joyce’s lives upside down to care for the abandoned orphans of China. They care for and provide treatment for babies with physical handicaps as if they were their own children- many of whom go on to be adopted. It’s the most beautiful picture of Christ’s hands and feet in action. They are living and breathing examples of what He calls us to be and to do:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

{From Isaiah 58}

well, we’re off to china!

i’m feeling totally prepared with my nine pieces, two whole words of chinese {ni hao/hello}, and one handsome husband. so.excited.!!!!.

if you want to follow our adventures, you can tag along via instagram. {that is, as long as my phone works over there in airplane mode. fingers crossed!}

see y’all in a week!

social media is a slippery slope. because everyone {tends to} post the best parts of their lives, it can be easy to feel bad about yours, even if you love it. {i’m not alone in this, right?}

my job requires me to be on social media, so there’s no cutting it out. i’ve been brainstorming a few ways to change how i look at it, and here’s what i’ve come up with:

• seek out {and give} encouragement. there’s a group i’m a part of on facebook where ladies post the things God is teaching them, verses that spoke to them, prayer requests, etc. getting notifications from that is one of my favorite things.
• take a break. lately, i’ve been staying {mostly} off social media during the weekends. when i do, it’s easier to be present, and i tend to feel more rested on mondays.
• stop being a consumer and be a giver. in the past, i’ve tended not to comment on anything, but i’ve begun to find that i get more joy out of cheering and encouraging the good things my friends and family are doing.
• be present. i’m bad about flicking through pinterest, facebook, words with friends, etc. on my phone, then going back again less than 5 minutes later. it’s almost become a compulsion and even happens when i’m having conversations with others. {yuck.} when i’m with people, they need to be my focus; connecting with far away friends can happen when i’m by myself. {this has been the hardest one for me. i’ve experimented with temporarily deleting the apps when i’ve been especially tuned in and need to chill out. it helps!}

what does social media look like for you? does it affect your emotions, too? and please, for the love,, tell me how you use it for good in your lives and others, so i can steal your ideas.

ps the sparkly social media icons i used are from here. carrie has 19 {free!} icons in 30 colors.

i’ve been working on building my timeless capsule wardrobe, and it’s coming in really handy for our upcoming vacation!

we’ll be gone for a week, and i don’t want to take half my closet, but there’s something about having lots of options that makes a vacation go better. {slash makes doing without that piece of clothing you spilled your very first meal on go better!}

my packing list includes 9 pieces plus 3 pairs of shoes and some accessories.

tops:

• black tank {old navy, similar}
• polka dotted tee {gap}
• sequin blouse {tj maxx}
• button up {old navy}
• striped lightweight sweater {forever 21, similar}

bottoms:

• yellow shorts {old navy, similar}
• black skinnies {gap, similar}
• black midi skirt {thrifted}
• pale pink trousers {the clothes mentor}

shoes:

• gold gladiators {dsw, similar}
• leopard flats {target}
• pale pink ballet flats {target}

keeping the palette mostly neutral makes it easy to remix. i also tried to pair casual and nicer pieces to give myself a wide range of options. if we get really fancy, i can pair the black tank and skirt to create the illusion of a dress.

before we take off, i’ll probably throw in another scarf and maybe a cardigan or two, just because i tend to get cold. but i’m pretty sure my suitcase will still be lighter than my husband’s!

image credit

for several months now, i’ve been considering the list of things i want to become.

i realized that if i don’t line those things out, i will probably never become them. they’re far too easily drowned out in the flood of to do’s.

outlining my to be list has been a slow, and sometimes overwhelming process, but i love it. my mind and evernote folders are overflowing with so many possibilities! so many they actually held me hostage for a while. i wasn’t sure how to organize my thoughts and move forward in them. the process i came up with may border on crazy type a, but it’s brought order, drive, and accomplishment with it.

the main areas i’ve chosen to focus on for now are financial, health, home keeping, marriage, and spiritual. they’re organized in tiers:

• main category
  • sub category (i.e.: financial includes giving, investing, learning, real estate, and saving.)
    • each sub category has an overarching goal (or two), and is ordered by importance.

because a large task feels overwhelming unless it’s broken down, i copied and pasted this hierarchy and used the individual outlines to break down action steps in order.

for example, under financial and learning, troy and i are talking about taking a real estate investment class at the local college over the summer. a few of the steps are gathering information about the class, talking about it together, and signing up for the class.

as i think of new action items, i add them where i think they fall in order of importance. every week, i review these lists and add the next action step from each category to my calendar for the week. i’ll also look at my over all goals and make sure i’m still headed toward them.

sometimes my action steps all get accomplished and sometimes it’s only one, but i’m moving forward! i think the thing i like about it most is that i know i’m moving toward the things i want my life to be about. there were so many things floating around in my head that have been lassoed and put in their place. i had no idea how much peace of mind or ability to enjoy downtime that would give me.

one small step toward organization; one giant leap toward making sure the small things aren’t holding the important ones at their mercy!

all my friends are having the most adorable little babies right now and making sure they don’t have to cook for several weeks is a must!

i tested out a couple of different meal coordinating websites and found my favorite: meal train.

favorite features:

• it’s free. {holla!}
• it’s easy to sign up, and will keep you signed in for several weeks. {no need to remember another password.}
• it doesn’t ask for the parents’ life story to start the train. {before you start, make sure you have the contact e-mail, phone, address, and any likes/dislikes, as well as their preferred time for dropping off food.}
• you make the schedule, and there’s a link to send it out to anyone who wants to join in. easy. peasy.
• you get a reminder a couple of days before that you’re slotted to bring the upcoming meal. brilliant. {i’m all about the automatic reminder!}

there is also a $10 version that allows you to coordinate additional things: appointments, rides, childcare and visitors, etc. this would be great for someone having surgery or with an ongoing medical condition…the possibilites are endless and the time saved is um, a lot!

we’ve struggled with spots on our dishes since we moved into our home. i am a clean freak by nature, and troy is ocd about anything spotted that shouldn’t be {stainless steel, glasses, dogs that aren’t dalmatians…shall i go on?} to save our sanities, i set about on the mission of the century: de-spotting the dishes.

i tried removing dishwasher parts and cleaning those, different soaps, doing a monthly dishwasher clean…nothing worked well.

until…cascade came into my life.

i very {very!} rarely buy name brand, but goodness, does this stuff make a difference. i wish i had a before and after picture to show you but i got so excited i literally washed everything in my cupboards over a two day span.

as for the dishwasher…well, i’d never cleaned my dishwasher before these little experiments…um, ever, but apparently you should do that. it helps it last longer, clean better, yada yada. plus, it’s super easy and takes five minutes. literally.

minute 1: pour a cup of vinegar into a measuring cup like so. place it on the top rack {i like to position it diagonally so it doesn’t tip over.}

minutes 2-3: take an old toothbrush and scrub the little soap trap door until it’s free of scum and build up, free the silverware tray of any clingon food deposits, and then tackle the edges of the opening. {um, gross. rinse often during that last part.} i like to leave the toothbrush in the silverware tray all the time so it’s already there when i go to clean it.

minute 4: take a cloth and mild cleaner and wipe the rim of the door all the way around.

minute 5: close the door, set whatever cycle you like {the clean and sanitize is my personal fave} and make that dishwasher clean itself.

repeat once a month, and your dishwasher will be fresh as a baby’s {clean} bottom.

disclaimer: i am not receiving anything for telling you about cascade. i’m just so excited about it i wanted to share it with you. {but if you’re a cascade representative and you’d like to send something my way, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings and we could be bff’s forever.}

this week was one where all the little things took unexpected turns, lots of things broke, and i was forced to think. a lot.

i came home sick from work tuesday and had accidentally left my computer’s power cord at work. if i’d brought it home, i’d have spent the evening watching netflix, and catching up on the blog, along with all things electronic.

instead, i had zero of those options. so i took a nap {ok, three}, read a few chapters in my book, and spent more time thinking and in prayer than i have in months. it was so peaceful and i woke up feeling better- even more rested than usual.

i realized that often, during my free time, i tell myself, ‘all i want to do is relax. just sit down, watch something, and not think.’ but instead of feeling refreshed, i’m exhausted and because i don’t leave much room for thinking, there’s little time spent processing what is going on in my life, what i’ve been learning, and how to incorporate those things into my life. instead, i scurry around like a little duracell rabbit, racing to finish my list. i stress more than i love, and i hurry more than i bless.

i realized it’s true that stress can be an ignorant state, but it is also, when you think about it, a sinful and irreverent state. it is me trying my best to play God, control my life, work, the schedules of those around me…all things that are not my job.

my job is to love God and the people he has made. anything else doesn’t count for much.

but what do we do with the to do’s that must get done? what is the balance?

i’m still on the journey, so i know i don’t have it all figured out, but here’s what i’ve concluded over the last couple of days:

sometimes the to do’s have to be done. but if i can listen to a sermon while i’m getting ready or making dinner or pray while i’m cleaning the house, i think i am redeeming the time i’ve been given; or really, just using it in the first place, by being present and purposeful in what i’m doing.

on the other hand, i want to grasp and live out the fact that resting is not wasting. sometimes the to do’s don’t have to be done, and things should be allowed to pile up. especially for the sake of loving the Lord and those He’s blessed my life with.

to live the balance, i am trying to intentionally ask the Lord what He wants me to do right now and then follow through. as always, it’s easier to say it than to implement it, but hey, it’s a journey! i refuse to let my impossible desire for perfectionism ruin forward movement.

i find myself most stressed when i feel least organized. at that point, i feel frazzled, overwhelmed, and everything feels like an emergency.

the most impactful organizational thing i’ve found so far to combat that was creating two inboxes that i funnel everything through. one is physical and one is electronic.

i had a basic filing system in place, but i started where i was at, and as i had 5 minutes here or there, filed the pileup i’d been ignoring.

i realize everyone’s lives are different {read: don’t feel trapped by my methods, but consider how something like this might fit into your life}, but this is what my system looks like and it works wonders for my sanity!

physical inbox:

• i mounted a file holder to the wall above my filing cabinet in our office. 
• every day when troy or i get home, i put any papers we’ve brought that need to be filed in the inbox. i’ll also take 3 minutes to get the mail, toss or shred the junk and add important items to the file.
• one day a week, i set aside 10-15 minutes to work through the stack of papers and categorize them as immediate action {think bills to pay, anything I need to talk to Troy about right now, etc.} and file the rest. i keep a box of files handy to create a new one if needed, and right then and there, i take care of the immediate action items.
• i also scan anything i want to be able to search {a handy feature of evernote} or have electronic access to.
• i should probably mention i have a physical inbox for work, too, and i go through that one daily during the week.

electronic inbox:

• i use evernote for this because it’s always with me, whether i’m at my computer or have my phone.
• i put everything i want to remember here. i have my evernote web clipper set to send items here, i forward e-mails i want to remember, take pictures of things, add brainstorming ideas for home, work, etc.
• my goal is to file these items daily. because personal and work things get funneled through this one, it stacks up much more quickly than my physical inbox.

for the most part, when i sort and file my inboxes, i try to put everything in a place and leave them empty. but i’ll make an exception if i’m not sure where to file something yet or there’s a to do i’ve left undone. my general rule is not to spend more time “touching” something than it takes to accomplish it. for example, no putting off making that appointment 12 times when I could have made it four times over.

even if i don’t get around to filing every single time, just knowing that it’s all in one place and won’t be forgotten gives me breathing room and lowers my stress level.