Want to join me in a decluttering group?

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Ok guys, there are only two days left before the Conquer Your Clutter Bundle disappears for good. I purchased mine two days ago, and I've been looking over the individual resources. There is so much quality stuff!

One of the biggest problems I've had with past bundles is my tendency to get excited at first, read a few ebooks, and then forget about the rest and let them collect dust in my hard drive. I think this is probably the number one deterrent for people who want to buy the bundle, but decide not to in the end.

When I'm left to myself, I may or may not follow through on decluttering, or reading through an ebook bundle, or exercising regularly (among other things!). Some of my best past successes have been the result of accountability. Completing a project with a few trusted pals is also way more fun!

That's gotten me thinking- what if I started a private Facebook group for those of us who purchase the bundle? We could pick one resource at a time, and work our way through the entire bundle (or at least the resources that most interest us!), taking weekends off, but tackling one challenge each week day.

You May be Able to Push Harder than You Think

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Late last year I started listening to the At Home with Sally podcast. Each week Sally Clarkson and Kristen Kill have an uplifting chat meant to encourage Christian moms. It's always a nice little boost in my week, encouraging me to hang onto my ideals, find joy in the Lord, and love my kids well.

Almost every episode it seems like Sally talks about "building your muscles." Life is hard, and perseverance is required. When you are faithful to clean your kitchen one more night, to do just one more load of laundry, and to cling to patience in one more difficult moment with an inconsolable little one, you are building your muscles.

The more you work those muscles, the easier it becomes.

I've been hearing it and seeing it in lots of places lately. People are capable of seemingly miraculous feats, and so often we can do much more than we think we can.

Please don't mistake this for a man-centered, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps sort of pep talk. Of course we are still going to sin every day, no matter how much we accomplish. Of course we need Jesus and His abundant grace every single day.

And of course, every moment we need to rest our identity and hope in the good news of the Gospel- I am a sinner, but Jesus loved me anyway. Jesus' perfect life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection have secured for me forgiveness before God, and a standing in His perfect righteousness. No matter how much I fail or accomplish, who I am in Christ cannot be altered to earn more or less favor with God.

But God has created good works beforehand for us to walk in. He calls us to faithfulness, and He calls us to holiness. In faith, resting in His glorious Gospel, I want to pursue hard after this.

One of my biggest pet sins in laziness. I am not the girl tempted to be a workaholic, who never stops, and keeps going until she crashes and burns. Not by a long shot! I'm the girl who likes to sit and chat, dawdle, and linger over tea or coffee and a book. I'd be happy to read books aloud to my kids all day if someone else would only come clean my house and cook for my family, and I'd easily give a night's work for a night of Netflix.

How's that for honesty?

I need to remember to push myself. To live by faith instead of my feelings. I want to build my muscles a little bit each day.

This can apply to so many areas in which we lack self-discipline:

• Finances
• Exercise
• Diet
• Housework
• Training our children
• Being a helper to our husband
• Cooking well-balanced meals
• Taming our tongues

The list could go on. You probably know the areas you most need growth in... I know I'm painfully aware of my own.

Instead of excusing myself {"I'm just too tired..." "It's been such a long day..." "The kids are acting up and I deserve a break..." "I'm a little under the weather..."}, I want to just try to push a little harder. Just for five minutes of housework, or one more hour of faithfully engaging the kids until bedtime, or one more day of following through on the habits I long to implement.

What is one area you need to push a little harder in? Are you more inclined to over-doing it, or under-doing it? 

If getting your home in order is one area you'd like to push harder in {it sure is for me!}, then may I recommend the Conquer Your Clutter Bundle? It's a collection of ebooks, courses, printables and other resources to help you get in control of your clutter and get organized. I'm loving the resources I've looked through so far! It's only available through Monday the 30th. Click on over and grab your copy before it's too late!

Conquering My Clutter after our Big Move

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Six months ago, my family moved cross-country from the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania to Kansas City, Kansas. It's been a huge adjustment- from making new friends, to getting to know a new church, and starting homeschool with our oldest. Good stuff, but overwhelming at times!

One of the areas in our life that doesn't feel settled yet is our home. We chose a rental as a temporary solution because we're unfamiliar with the area. We weren't sure at first where we'd want to settle long term. This home has worked for us, but there are a few tensions with it that help us look forward to buying our own home.

My TBR List {as it Currently Stands}

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The other day I saw this fantastic list from Victoria of Creative Home Keeper of the books she plans to read this year. I was so inspired by her titles that I thought it would be fun to share my own reading plans for the year.

You may already know that I'm working through Tim Challies' Reading Challenge. I don't think I will finish all 104 titles {though that would be awesome}, but I'd like to try to beat last year's 75 books. The challenge categories determine a lot of my chosen titles. I'm pleased that there is more flexibility in this year's plan, however.

We own quite a few books... and so many on our shelves have gone unread for years. So very many of these books were chosen because we already had them. I want to be familiar with my personal library! I started this list by matching unread books on my shelf to categories on the Reading Challenge.

Impossible Task? You May Just Need to Slice it

My kids love being given an entire apple. Every time we're going to eat apples, they beg me, "Mom, PLEASE don't cut it! Give it to me whole!"

Inevitably, I know what will happen. In ten minutes I'm going to have two apples with their surfaces covered in tiny teeth marks... but no substantial eating done. The novelty wears off, it just seems like too much fruit for them to finish, and they walk away, leaving them to get brown, soft, and yucky. Then I feel guilty throwing so much food away two hours later.

To better accommodate everyone, we've made a little switch. I still give them a whole apple each. Now I just require them to finish it. When they tell me that it is too big, I offer to slice it up for them. Although they'd rather die than have a sliced apple initially, once they've enjoyed a shiny round orb for a few minutes, they are willing to have it cut. When the apple is divided into nice, manageable pieces, they can usually finish it up pretty quickly.

The other day as I was slicing yet another nibbled over apple for my son, I thought about how his apple is so much like many of life's difficult tasks. Presented as a whole, a job can seem overwhelming and impossible.

I might peck and peck, here a nibble, there a nibble, and see very little progress. But when I look at the goal, determine how it can best be divided, and attempt it one little slice at a time, it suddenly becomes more manageable.

I'm finding this to be true of running a smooth and orderly home- one little load of laundry done from start to finish every day, making sure the dishwasher runs every evening after dinner, and cleaning up a few minutes at a time as I go about my day makes my home far less overwhelming.

It was true of compiling my ebook- I wasn't able to get it together as fast as I wanted to, and I still have behind the scene's work that I'm doing spread the word {that I wish I was already done with}. But I made a list- sliced up that seemingly mammoth goal into one step at a time pieces, and I still can't believe I did it!

Whatever might be overwhelming you today, one of the best things you can do is stop staring at the giant apple and telling yourself how impossible it is. You've tried before with so many bites... now it's time to just get out a sharp knife and cut it right up. One manageable bite at a time.

By God's grace, you can do this!

God's Will for You

Often in this life, believers long for clear-cut direction from God. We want obvious, miraculous signs to show us if we should make a career change, have another baby, move cross country, embark on a new adventure, or just stay put and be faithful right where we are.

How can we know what God is calling us to do?

2 Strategies to Improve My Homemaking Game

Keeping a neat and tidy home is not my forte. I'm not the messiest person on earth, but I'm a far cry from the cleanest. I aspire to greater order and cleanliness {especially when I spend time on lovely websites like Clean Mama and Just a Girl and Her Blog, for example}. There have definitely been improvements in my housekeeping abilities since getting married and inhabiting my first apartment 8 and a half years ago, but I still fluctuate in consistency, and there is marked room for improvement.

This New Year I'm trying to adopt two major habits to conquer the beast that is housework.

A Fun Way to Track Read Alouds

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My oldest daughter is 5 years old. We've been reading chapter books aloud together for several years now, but I've never tracked the books we've read. This year I decided that I wanted that to change.

I want to engage S with the material we are reading in a book club fashion. I want to get inside her head and know what passages or characters stuck out to her, and why. I also want to help her articulate her thoughts more clearly, and to strengthen reading comprehension and memory.

Do I really want to be godly, or just more put together?

I've moved blogs- you can find the updated article HERE, as well as a free printable set of verse cards to help you meditate on the Gospel. 

Thank you for understanding! I hope it blesses you <3. 

50 Fantastic Resources for a Successful New Year!

I don't know about you, but I love planning for the New Year :). I'm a big fan of free printables, planners, and goal setting. As a bookish person, I have an affinity for fresh, clean sheets of paper. If you spend much time around here I'm guessing that might be true of you too!

Today over at My Joy Filled Life I'm sharing a post that I am SO excited about. Basically I spent hours on Pinterest and the Interwebs tracking down all of the best resources to help you plan, get organized, set goals and make changes in the New Year. This post is going to be a resource I keep referring back to again and again, as it has links to some of my all time favorite printables.

Hope it is a help to you as you voyage out into another year! You can read 50 Resources for a Successful New Year right here.

My Favorite Read of 2016

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2016 was a super good reading year for me. Like, my best year ever. All in all I read 75 books {though I'm in the middle of a few that I just couldn't finish in time}! It was a record breaker for me by nearly twenty titles.

This is completely due to attempting the Challies 2016 Reading Challenge with two awesome friends. The challenge itself really pushed me to read more broadly, and more hard books that I might not otherwise push through. Doing it with friends fueled my excitement and motivation. Those ladies carried me through!

So if you want to read a ton this year, I've got to tell you- pick a challenge, and get a few close friends to jump on board. I'm going to be working my way through the new Challies challenge this year again.

Because I read so much, I really had a nice selection to pick from when compiling this list. Lots and lots of the books I read were highly enjoyable, and might have made this list in years past. However, because I read so much I decided to only include titles that really jumped out at me as I reviewed the list. 6, 10, 12 months later these titles still have made a big impression on me. Here goes!