Monday, January 13, 2014

Multitude Monday, Take 311

Trying to crush my righteousness today by reviewing all the undeserved gifts God gave me last week, including...

5874. "soup from bones...a very practical act of redemption"
5875. read-along audio books
5876. boys giggling like crazy over the Name Game (Jude, Jude-bo-bude, Banana-fana-fo-fude...they seriously laughed over this for a good 20 minutes)
5877. turkey panzanella
5878. fleece-lined khaki pants

5879. wool sweaters
5880. mittens
5881. new New York City wall calendar
5882. coffee with a dear friend
5883. tearing down my idols

5884. Steve's feedback on my writing, helping me be more God-centered
5885. revolutionary, mind-blowing advice about housework/clutter/cleaning
5886. an opportunity to tell Elijah the gospel story as it related to helping clean up a mess he didn't make
5887. the glorious Savior who came to earth and cleaned up our mess
5888. Words with Friends with my mom

5889. snuggles with the boys
5890. Elijah promising he will still hold my hand when he grows into a man
5891. a Saturday full of decluttering and reorganizing
5892. Steve wielding his drill, patiently hanging hooks all over the house for my new frenzy
5893. hiking at Warner Park

5894. the boys' manic enthusiasm about hiking
5895. Elijah's first loose tooth!


2 comments:

Kristin Middleton said...

You can't just say you received "revolutionary, mind-blowing advice about housework/clutter/cleaning" and not share what it is!

Amy said...

Sorry! I should have just left that one off - got a question on Facebook about it too. I didn't want to recommend the book necessarily, since I haven't actually read it, but I *was* feeling thankful.

A girl on my message board was raving about "The House That Cleans Itself" and summarizing some of the material. I've requested the book from the library. The basic idea is, in many cases it's a lot easier to change environment than change behavior. So make your house work for you rather than repeatedly trying to fight against your natural inclinations/tendencies. Throw out rules about where things "SHOULD" go and just realize that where they actually go is where they are always going to go--so, *make* that the right place. For example, put hampers or trash cans where it makes sense for YOU for them to be, not where they are "supposed to be."

So you go around your house and look for patterns of mess/broken systems, and ask yourself WHY. What makes it hard to do the right thing and easier to do the wrong thing? That's step 1. There's lots more, but like I said, I haven't actually read the book. In the discussion about it on my message board, though, it did give me enough lightbulb moments to spend all day Saturday hanging hooks and reorganizing :) If and when I get the book and continue working on it, I'll be sure to post a review!