My Favorite Homemaking Apps

When I last blogged here, two years ago, I had no idea what an app was. Of course, I had heard people talking about apps in relation to i-whatevers, and I kind of looked down my nose at all the Apple devices because I thought they were too expensive. They're still too expensive, but one day my husband brought home an iPod touch
 . . . and I was hooked. He bought me one shortly thereafter, and I quickly learned what apps were and began using them myself.

It didn't take me long to begin looking for apps to help the homemaker with scheduling and housework. I discovered two apps that I love and use: Home Routines and Cozi . . .


Home Routines - This app easily integrates lists from such home-organizing structures as FlyLady, Organized Home, Totally Together Journal, and Brain on Paper. I use it to keep my FlyLady zones in order and running smoothly. You can follow daily and weekly routines, give yourself a daily focus, add to-do lists for today, this week, and later, and review your day to see how much you got done. This will show you how silly I can be, but I really love to see all those items with stars by them before I go to bed, and I love seeing how many tasks I got done that day. Crazy, I know, but apparently giving myself stars works for me! At $3.99, it's cheaper than when I bought it earlier this year, and I feel it's well worth the price!

 

Cozi - A free online calendar and app with a shared calendar, to-do lists, shopping list, and family journal. This one is great for busy families! I haven't used the app extensively, but I do like the shared calendar, which makes scheduling easy for each member of the family. The family journal is nice too. The online calendar, journal, etc., are accessible by your entire family, so each person can check to see what's coming up and schedule accordingly. And the Cozi app is free. Nice!


Have you discovered any apps that are great for homemakers? Feel free to share them in the comments or via email!


Disclosure: With the exception of the iPod touch*, I have not been compensated by anyone affiliated with either of these apps or any company or system mentioned in this post. These are my own opinions and suggestions only!

*The link to the iPod touch is an affiliate link through Amazon.com, which allows me to earn an advertising fee when someone orders an item through a link listed on my blog.

Two Years Later . . .

 It's been over two years since I last posted on this blog. I couldn't bring myself to delete it, but I didn't have the motivation to write here for quite a while. Lately, though, I've been reading through the archives and was bitten with the bug to write on homemaking once again.

I am not a Martha (Stewart or otherwise), and I don't keep a spotless home. I don't even keep an overly clean home. We live in our house and it shows. I could definitely stand to spend more time cleaning and organizing. But my heart is in my home. I know this is God's calling on my life, and I want to share with other women that we can indeed be good homemakers. We can show excellence in our homekeeping. We can be happy as homemakers. We can have full, rewarding lives at home. The world in its great wisdom says that homemaking is not a worthwhile pursuit for women today, but the eternal Word of God, which never changes and is as current as today's news, teaches that homemaking is a high calling. It's my desire to share the joys of homemaking and ways to make homekeeping easier. Many of us weren't taught how to keep our homes as children, and many of us were not born organized or knowing how to make it all work. So I want to share things that I have learned and continue to learn, to come alongside and say, "This works for me . . ."

I hope you'll rejoin me in the journey!

Are You Bored?

I found a book recently that caught my attention, The Country Life Book of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. I've always had an interest in Britain's royal family, and I've especially admired the Queen Mother (who is now deceased) because of her charm, warmth, and dignity, so this book sparked my interest right away. As I was reading about her early life, the author was relating information about the Queen Mother's own mother, pictured on the right in 1923, who was apparently quite an amazing woman. She used to tell her children,

"Life is for living and working at. If you find anything or anybody a bore, the fault is in yourself."

What a lesson to us in these days! The Queen Mother was born in 1900, almost 109 years ago, yet her mother's words are still applicable today. If I find life boring, or the people around me boring, it's not their fault; it is mine!

Are you bored today? Get up and live! Work at finding interesting things to do. Look at your children. They are definitely not boring! Look around your home at all the little things you could do to make it a haven for your family, no matter what kind of house you live in. Think about the meals you cook - all the possibilities before you in making a variety of meals for your family. Refuse to be bored; learn to be content. Be thankful for all the interesting things and people in your life!

"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice . . . for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Philippians 4:4,11

Photo courtesy of Life; permission granted for personal, non-commercial use.

What Hinders You?

I know I had a post with a similar title a few weeks ago! That one was about decorating. This one is about cleaning.

What is it that hinders you from keeping your house clean? That's the question I faced as I studied the first day in the Spring Clean Challenge at A Virtuous Woman. Melissa listed several things that hinder people from cleaning, and I had to admit that "all of the above" was my answer. This morning I sat down and found Scriptural thoughts to combat each of these reasons, and I wanted to share them here.

1. I don't know how to organize.

If you don't know how to organize your home - learn! James 1:5 says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Ask God to help you learn to clean and organize, and He will lead you to books and/or people that can help you. I still remember my amazement when I found FlyLady! I know, to this day, that she was a direct answer to my prayer for some way to begin keeping my home better. Ask for wisdom, then put some feet on that prayer and start looking for the information you need.

2. I have too much stuff.

Get rid of some of your stuff! Jesus warned against covetousness, the desire to have more stuff: "And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Luke 12:15 Go through your home and clear it of all those things you don't use or wear on a regular basis. You don't have to throw these things away; give them away or sell them on Craigslist or Ebay. Learn to let go of the material things of this life. They won't matter in eternity, and they are far less important than the people we love - and I want to make my home a place for my loved ones, not all my stuff.

3. I would rather be doing something else.

Wouldn't we all! Ecclesiastes 3:1 - "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" There is a time to do everything you need to do, and there is even a time to do those things you want to do. The really great thing is that, when you do the things you need to do, you can do the things you want to do without guilt! Learn to have a time for everything. Quit whining about not wanting to do what you should, and just do it.

4. I spend too much time on the computer or reading.

Again, there is time for each of those things, but we need to spend our time wisely. There's nothing wrong with being online or reading, as long as it's a wise use of our time. Two places in the New Testament we're told to redeem the time. Ephesians 5:16 - "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." And again in Colossians 4:5 - "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time." I did a little word study on these verses, focusing on redeem and time. In those two verses, time is speaking of a set or proper time - as in having a time for everything, as mentioned above. To redeem something is to buy it back or rescue it from loss. So use every minute so as not to waste it. Have some time be online, and make sure that time is profitable. Read, but make it profitable. Again, a time for everything!

As I've written these things, my heart has been saying, "What right do you have to say these things? You are guilty of all of these." That's right. All of these are things I regularly think and do. So this post was written to myself first. I have been praying much over the past few days and asking God to show me how to honor Him most, and these are the responses He is giving me. I hope they're a help to you! God's Word is relevant today, for our lives in 2009!

Be a Little Bitter

Originally published September 27, 2005

I have a friend whom I've known for about 16 years, and when I first met her, she would come over to visit and end up cleaning my house! I was embarrassed, but I was also mystified by how she kept her own house so clean. One day I asked her how she kept her house so clean, and she said, "I clean house every day!" Now, that brought to my mind images of furniture polish, mop and bucket, and hours of time every day, and I totally rejected that idea, because I didn't want to spend hours cleaning my house every day - and I didn't think it was necessary to deep clean every day (which it isn't - that's obsessive). She never explained what she meant by cleaning house every day, but now I understand what she meant - she did some cleaning every day. She made beds, picked up clutter, kept the dishes washed, wiped down the bathroom, swept, and maybe did one or two deeper cleaning jobs each day. She didn't clean it all up on Saturday and then let it go till the next Saturday. She understood the principle of doing a little bit every day, maintaining the order and cleanliness. She was a little bitter! This is what FlyLady calls "routines." I've now learned to be a little bitter myself, and I finally understand how my friend keeps her home clean. So learn to be a little bitter!

In All Labour . . .

The Seamstress or, Young Woman Working

This post was originally published July 14, 2005

Pro 14:23 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury (poverty).

We can sit and read about FlyLady's system (or any other, for that matter) all day, but until we get up and do something, there's no profit from it. In all labour there is profit: housework done incorrectly still blesses our families!

The Best Things In Life . . .

Good Housekeeping, June 1927

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

~~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~~

Take Care of Yourself

This is a portion of a post originally published July 12, 2005

Pro 11:17 The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.

How many times has FlyLady said to take care of yourself so that you can take care of your family? I've heard other Christians dismiss FlyLady's acronym of Finally Loving Yourself as the result of the Me generation; everything is about taking care of #1. Well, I do happen to believe that many people seek to take care of their own needs first, including many wives and mothers, to the detriment of their families. I also believe that my calling in life is to take care of my husband, children, and home. I do believe that Jesus taught putting others first, denying myself in order to serve them. All my life I've been taught that putting others first means ignoring myself. However, I've come to see that if I don't take care of myself that I won't be able to take care of my family. There's a fine line here. If I don't eat right, I'll gain weight, my diabetes will get out of control, and I'll be too sick to care for my family before I'm 45. If I don't get enough rest, I'm too cranky to be patient with my children, and I hurt our relationship by being short with them. If I don't take a couple of hours occasionally, with my husband's blessing, to do something by myself to recharge my emotional batteries, I get overwhelmed and discouraged, which affects how well I care for my family. So there is merit in taking care of ourselves; the very families we are trying to serve will be hurt if we don't. We'll be living the verse above - troubling our own flesh. So be good to yourself, not putting yourself first for selfish reasons, but to make sure you're able to care for your family, with God's help and blessing. Even Jesus and his disciples took times apart to refresh!

Photo by worak

Redeeming the Time

Lots of Clock Faces

This post was originally published August 11, 2005

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15,16

These verses have been running through my mind today. In their context, their primary application doesn't apply to housework, but I believe that we can make application to our homes.

The word circumspectly means "cautious." We're to live carefully; maybe you could even say on purpose. Live purposefully. To redeem something means to buy it back. So, to apply this to our homemaking and FLYing . . . our routines help us to walk carefully, on purpose, through our days. When we get up in the morning, we have a plan in place to start our day, and at night we have a plan to wrap up our day and prepare for the next. We have afternoon routines to help us transition from the morning to afternoon and dinner time.

Our routines also help us to redeem (buy back) our time! Following a routine each day for cleaning up the kitchen after meals helps me to clean up in 15 minutes right after a meal, rather than it taking 2 hours the next day, because I've let it pile up for 3 meals. Let's see . . . that's 45 minutes today, in 15-minute increments (after each meal), compared to 120 minutes (and a lot of stress) tomorrow. Just one routine - cleaning up after each meal - saves me an hour and 15 minutes to do something else, like playing with my kids, playing the piano, visiting with a friend, reading, studying . . . any number of things that I'd rather be doing than cleaning my kitchen! That one routine redeems 75 minutes of my time!

I wholeheartedly believe that biblical principles can be lived out in our everyday lives. I'm so glad that the Lord allowed me to find a way to learn how I can live on purpose and redeem my time!

Time Management and Me

I wasn't born with that gene. The time management one. The one that seems to come naturally to so many people. Instead, I fight a daily battle with how to spend my time wisely and productively. Over time (no pun intended) I've found five time-management principles that work best for me.

• Choose your 3 Most Important Tasks. This has changed my days! I had made lists and I had prioritized my lists, but I rarely marked things off my lists. But when I found Simple Mom and her Daily Docket, it was like the light came on. I tried it, and now I fill out my DD every night (sometimes not till after breakfast in the morning), thinking of the 3 things that absolutely must be done that day. When those 3 are done, I know I've done what had to be done, and the rest of the things on my list just seem to flow right along. Some days I still don't get everything on the entire list done, but most days I do get those 3 MITs done. And I love it.

• Set a timer. Especially on days when I have a lot of unrelated tasks to do, setting the timer for 15, 20, or 30 minutes is a lifesaver for me. When I know that I only have 15 minutes to do a task, I will focus on that task and get it done. Otherwise, I find other things to distract my attention, and then nothing gets done. For big jobs, like sewing or reading, 30 minutes is a good amount of time to make some progress but not get so involved that it overtakes my day and nothing else gets done. Sometimes I'll have two sessions. It all depends on what else needs to be done for the day. Setting a timer is very flexible; it fits what you have to do and the time you have to do it.

• Have routines. My morning routine alone has simplified my days and saved me time. I get up, shower and dress to my shoes, hair, and makeup. This frees my time for the rest of the day to do whatever comes up. My evening routine - which I have not mastered as well as my morning routine - prepares me for the next day. Routines help me get the little maintenance things out of the way, making room for the bigger things in my day. I hate playing catch-up when I don't do my routines!

• Do it now. I am the Queen of Procrastination. If I can put it off, I will. I've learned, though, that doing things right away saves time in the long run. Washing or rinsing the dishes as I cook saves time after the meal. Wiping crumbs off the counter when I make a sandwich saves time when I'm finished with lunch. Putting away my makeup as soon as I'm finished with it saves time when it's time to wipe the sink and counter. Making the bed when I first get up saves time later when I come into the room to get the laundry and realize the bed hasn't been made and I have to stop to make it. Doing it now keeps my momentum flowing so I don't have to constantly stop to take care of little things before I can do the bigger thing.

• Work ahead. I learned this principle working in the kitchen at church camp. When breakfast was over, we would begin working on lunch, buttering buns, shredding lettuce, cooking meat; we even did some work toward supper right after breakfast. All this work ahead of time made meal times for 80 people a breeze! Applied in our 5-person home, I'm finding that if I chop the veggies, thaw the meat, and make the salad, when it's time to cook I just throw it all together easily - and I even have time to wash the dishes and wipe the counters as I go. Every small thing I can get done ahead of time saves me time when time is pressured.
  

Time management is an everyday battle for me. I haven't arrived, and probably never will, but these five principles have been the biggest help in using my time wisely and productively. And when I do that, I can relax, knowing that I have looked well to the ways of my household.

What things have you learned that help you manage your time better? Do you use a schedule? Do you have routines? Does time management come easily for you?

Photo by John-Morgan

The Remedy for Real

Well, I kept it real on Monday and showed you my hot spots around the house. Today I spent about 30 minutes total putting out those hot spots.

I set the timer for 2 minutes for my desk, but that wasn't long enough, so I set it for 3 more minutes. This is my desk now:



And here is my sewing area:



My husband surprised me by clearing off the cedar chest at the foot of our bed, and I put the clothes away in just a couple of minutes. I don't have a picture, though, because my husband turned right around and began decluttering his filing cabinet, with my daughter helping. When I walked into our room, there were papers literally covering every inch of our bed and the cedar chest! It took them a couple of hours, and now it's all clear again, but I was finished taking pics by then.

And our dresser is still a mess. It probably will be for the rest of the week. Remember, my husband is a pastor whose office is also our bedroom, and this week we are preparing for a special Friend Day at our church. He is preparing lots of things for that service in his office (our bedroom), so this week will be messy in there. This is part of keepin' it real. Real life requires a little give and take; this week it's my turn to give!

If you have an area that's a mess, set the timer and put 15 minutes into it. You might be surprised at what a difference 15 minutes can make!

Vacation Slump

Dog Tired (Yellow Lab)
Cross-posted from my other blog, ByGrace.

My husband was the assistant pastor for our home church in Texas for over six years. During those years, we went through a time every summer when attendance and giving would drop significantly. Our pastor called it Summer Slump. People were on vacation and routines were unsettled. All we could do was wait for summer to be over and people to get back into their regular routines, and life would go back to normal.

Something similar happens to me whenever we take any kind of vacation, even a short one like this week's. I hit Vacation Slump. I do well immediately after we get home, like I did Thursday night, putting everything away so we're ready to live real life again the next day. But real life always runs the other way - or maybe that's ME running the other way. All I want to do is sleep and eat. I don't want to cook or wash dishes (can't we just keep eating out?); I don't want to do laundry (can't you people quit wearing all those clothes?); I don't want to do anything (doesn't a nap sound nice?). It's bad. Real bad.

So I thought I'd ask if you deal with Vacation Slump when you get home from a trip. How do you motivate yourself - and your kids - to pick up with everyday life and get back into your routines? I'd love to hear how you do it!

90 Things I Can Do in 15 Minutes

For several days I wrote down things that I accomplished in 15 minutes or less, and then I added other things to them that I knew I could do within 15 minutes. I was trying to get to 100, but when I had to start wracking my brain to find more, I decided my list was long enough. So here you have it . . . 90 things to do in 15 minutes. Please add your own!

1. Shine my sink
2. Sweep and damp mop my kitchen floor
3. Read a chapter (or more) in the Bible
4. Read a chapter in a book
5. Mix up a cake or brownie recipe
6. Make my bed and pick up the clutter in my bedroom
7. Swish and swipe my bathroom
8. Clean my bath tub
9. Clean the shower surround on my bath tub
10. Clean out the fridge
11. Clean out the freezer
12. Write a pantry or freezer inventory
13. Make a menu
14. Make a grocery list
15. Dust all the furniture in my house with a Swiffer Duster
16. Vacuum my entire house – just the middles
17. Declutter one cabinet
18. Declutter a bookshelf, maybe more
19. Clear my desk
20. Declutter a file cabinet
21. Start or reboot a load of laundry
22. Fold and put away a load of laundry
23. Iron three of my husband’s dress shirts
24. Iron three of my blouses and/or skirts
25. Water my plants
26. Write a blog post
27. Write a card to someone and address it
28. Make an appointment for the doctor, hairdresser, and/or dentist
29. Clean the windows in a room
30. Clean my guest bath
31. Vacuum the living room furniture
32. Take a bubble bath
33. Manicure my nails
34. Pluck my chin hairs (!)
35. Pluck my eyebrows
36. Call my son
37. Put my feet up
38. Clear out my e-mail inbox
39. Clean the baseboards in a room
40. Clean the light fixture in the dining room
41. Sweep the front or back porch
42. Sweep the carport
43. Make a card to send to someone
44. Pin a pattern to fabric to cut out
45. Cut out a pattern
46. Sew something small or a few seams of something bigger
47. Chat with a friend on instant messenger
48. Sew on a button
49. Hem a skirt or pair of pants
50. Cross stitch
51. Have a healthy snack
52. Grill a cheese sandwich
53. Make a smoothie
54. Cuddle with my husband
55. Talk with my child
56. Unload the dishwasher
57. Load the dishwasher
58. Wipe down my kitchen counters
59. Wipe my cabinet doors
60. Wipe down my fridge and stove
61. Wash the trash can
62. Empty the trash from each room
63. Organize our DVDs
64. Organize photos
65. Rub somebody’s back
66. Clean a set of mini blinds
67. Take a walk
68. Clear out my pen & pencil cup
69. Clear out my mail holder
70. Wash my face and brush my teeth
71. Put a meal in the crockpot for dinner
72. Wash and chop vegetables for supper
73. Start some bread in the bread machine
74. Wipe down the washer and dryer
75. Wash a sink of dishes
76. Reorganize my dresser drawers
77. Declutter my night stands
78. Wipe down canisters and small appliances
79. Clean all the mirrors in the house
80. File papers
81. Clean out the car and wipe the dash
82. Clean a ceiling fan or box fan
83. Clean or change the heating and/or air-conditioning filter
84. Clean the lampshades on all the lamps
85. Clean one wall, maybe more
86. Reorganize under the kitchen or bathroom sink
87. Mop a bathroom floor
88. Change the sheets on my bed
89. Wipe window sills
90. Call a friend to chat

It's now late on Wednesday night. I didn't get a lot of housework done today, just the basic routines and laundry, but I did get quite a bit of desk work done. I made a month's worth of menus, a shopping list for those menus, a pantry and freezer inventory, and a master cleaning list for the bathrooms. I also changed this blog template and added some helpful links and favorite homemaking blogs to the sidebar, as well as write on my other blog, ByGrace. I talked to my husband, who is away this week, and to both my sons, who are away for the summer, answered several e-mails, and put in a phone consult with my doctor. Not a lot of physical work, but busy nonetheless.

This week has been a bust so far concerning missions, decluttering, and zones. The only day left for those things now is Friday, as I'll be out again most of the day tomorrow. I allowed distractions to rule my time this week, which I regret, but I won't let that knock me off the FlyLady wagon. I feel like I'm behind, but one of the beauties of the FlyLady system is that you can jump back in where you are. So that's what I'm going to do. I don't have it all down yet, and that's one reason I keep this blog - to keep it real. If you've had an unproductive day or week or month, why don't you join me in jumping back in where you are? See you tomorrow!

Work

They say confession is good for the soul. So I need to make a confession: I didn't do much yesterday. I ran some important errands for my husband, called the doctor's office for an appointment, went to the library, got a prescription filled, watched a movie with my daughter; the rest of the day I piddled around surfing the internet and reading. That's what happens when I don't plan very well . . . or when I plan, but don't follow through with my plans. Which is precisely what happened yesterday. I made the plans, wrote them down, then didn't work them.

That's why all the homemaking ideas, plans, and schedules that we try don't work. We don't fail to plan; we just fail to work the plan. And sometimes that's what homemaking is all about - work. The biblical model of the ideal homemaker, the Proverbs 31 Woman, was a worker: ". . . she worketh willingly with her hands . . . and eateth not the bread of idleness," taken from verses 13 and 27 (emphasis mine).

There is no magic formula. Being a good homemaker may come naturally for some, may have to be taught to others, but the principle is the same for all - work. So now I'm off to do just that.

Plan your work; work your plan.

Don't Get Overwhelmed

It's so easy to look at all we need to do and get overwhelmed. When I allow myself to do that, I get very irritable and can't think straight. I snap at my children, because I'm trying to figure out what to do and they're asking me questions! To keep from getting overwhelmed, first take one thing at a time. Do one job at a time. When that's finished, do another. Elisabeth Elliot says, when you don't know what to do, do the next thing. Secondly, once you get things in order, use routines to keep them that way. Will they stay that way all the time? Probably not, but if you have routines, it won't take long to get them back in order.

Here's what author John Steinbeck says about feeling overwhelmed:

"When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred
pages a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do
it. This happens every time. Then gradually I write one page and
then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to
contemplate and I eliminate the possibility of ever finishing."
John Steinbeck, Travels with Charlie

The Plain Way

The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain. Proverbs 15:19

The book of Proverbs has so much to say about a slothful (lazy) person! The idea in this verse is that the lazy person is going to find some reason (excuse) not to get the job done. She may have her morning routine all laid out, with a nice to-do list all ready for her, but when it comes right down to doing it . . . she finds some reason not to! And then decides this plan doesn't work for her after all.

The "righteous" person (which here I believe would be the one with the right heart motives), on the other hand, will make her routines and lists and then dig in and get them done. She'll plan her work and work her plan.

I have to admit that many times I'm just plain lazy. I know FlyLady tells us we aren't lazy, but I know deep in my heart that a lot of times I am. I have my lists, my routines, my Control Journal - all the plans - but I simply don't work the plan. That's why FlyLady will say "Just get off your franny and do SOMETHING. Anything is better than nothing at all." So today, instead of making excuses about why we can't do our routines or this FlyLady thing just won't work, let's just give it a try. Plan your work . . . then work that plan!

Redeeming the Time . . .

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15,16

These verses have been running through my mind today. In their context, their primary application doesn't apply to housework, but I believe that we can make application to our homes.

The word circumspectly means "cautious." We're to live carefully; maybe you could even say on purpose. Live purposefully. To redeem something means to buy it back. So, to apply this to our homemaking and FLYing . . . our routines help us to walk carefully, on purpose, through our days. When we get up in the morning, we have a plan in place to start our day, and at night we have a plan to wrap up our day and prepare for the next. We have afternoon routines to help us transition from the morning to afternoon and dinner time.

Our routines also help us to redeem (buy back) our time! Following a routine each day for cleaning up the kitchen after meals helps me to clean up in 15 minutes right after a meal, rather than it taking 2 hours the next day, because I've let it pile up for 3 meals. Let's see . . . that's 45 minutes today, in 15-minute increments (after each meal), compared to 120 minutes (and a lot of stress) tomorrow. Just one routine - cleaning up after each meal - saves me an hour and 15 minutes to do something else, like playing with my kids, playing the piano, visiting with a friend, reading, studying . . . any number of things that I'd rather be doing than cleaning my kitchen! That one routine redeems 75 minutes of my time!

I wholeheartedly believe that biblical principles can be lived out in our everyday lives. I'm so glad that the Lord allowed me to find a way to learn how I can live on purpose and redeem my time!

In All Labour . . .

Pro 14:23 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury (poverty).

We can sit and read about FlyLady's system (or any other, for that matter) all day, but until we get up and do something, there's no profit from it. In all labour there is profit: housework done incorrectly still blesses our families!

More on Taking Care of Yourself

I've been thinking more about taking care of ourselves. I consider taking care of yourself to be taking care of your basic needs, such as good food in proper portions, getting some exercise, getting some spiritual refreshment each day, and getting proper amounts of rest. Sitting on the sofa all afternoon reading a novel is not what I'm talking about! I consider taking care of myself as doing the things for myself that I would do for my dh or children. I insist that my children eat well and rest enough - I should do that for myself. I schedule checkups for them. I see that they take medicine when they need it. I take my children to church and see to their spiritual needs. I should do no less for myself.

There are times when we need to buckle down and give more time to others and forget about ourselves completely, such as when someone is sick or working overtime for you or dh, but overall, we can take better care of ourselves if we put our minds to it and make the time. You can Finally Love Yourself . . . and love your family in the process. You're the only YOU that they have!