Are you joining me for ourĀ Ultimate Home Checklist Challenge this week? Here's everything you need to know!
- Through 1/11/19 we'll do a Facebook Live between 9 and 9:30 AM Eastern Time each weekday tackling a few chores on this checklist ~ go HERE to get yours
- Each day we'll do the daily chores + AM tasks while on Facebook Live
- Each afternoon here (and I'd love to hear if you're joining in too!)
- Each week in the challenge throughout 2019 is one BIG task (the pantry this week!) along with simpler daily tasks to manage each day. You can do that task any time in the week, I just wanted to get this one out of the way. š
As I was walking around my tidy-picked-up-home after really focusing on these 2019 Home Checklists the last few days,Ā I was reminded of just how much God cares for us each moment of our lives, every step of the way.Ā
Growing up my mom worked full time as a single mom, in addition to caring for myself, my three brothers, and our aging grandmother.
On Saturday mornings she often worked, and at a very young age I started making Saturday morning chore charts (way before Pinterest-ed chore charts even existed), for myself and my brothers to tackle each Saturday.
(You can bet they thought I was super awesome as I handed them their lists.)
(*Ahem.*)Ā
I don't remember the lists perfectly, but here's what IĀ do remember always made the list:
- Tons of glass & a large bottle of Windex. We lived in Florida, and had a Florida room with large glass doors, which needed to be cleaned top to bottom just before being smudged up again in a minute or two. (Those doors had a little flower on them so you wouldn't walk right through the glass ~ anyone remember those?)
- The Pepto Bismol Pink bathroom (well, all the bathrooms made the list, but that Pepto one always comes to mind first.) šĀ We shared a pink tiled bathroom and I remember scrubbing that pink pepto-bismol tub 'til it shined underneath years of grit.
- The blessed Pledge dusting.Ā Oh my goodness. I have always always always adored the smell of Pledge. Pretty sure I went through an entire canister at least once a month, and found wayyyy too much joy inhaling that yellow can's fumes. š
- The vacuuming.Ā
- Tidying up the kitchen.
- Taking out the trash.Ā
- And of course, the laundry, which I'm pretty sure never got done. (I don't think I did much laundry ever. Pretty sure I've always hated that one and it's still my least favorite now.)
It would be easy to be super impressed with this 9, 10, 11 and 12+ year old girl who hopped up pretty eagerly on Saturday mornings to start tidying up the house, but the truth is,Ā I simply have always loved a list.
I was also pretty overweight from a very young age (more on that here), didn't have oodles of friends or family connections, and was just a pretty awkward-lonely-not-at-all-confident kid.
So for me, cleaning on Saturday mornings and checking off a tidy list let me at least feel accomplished that day.
There were so many hard, oh-so-hard things during that season for me, and a few too many tears cried as a kiddo who didn't have exactly the same experiences as many other kids did.
(Because of family I won't share too much, but they were just difficult years.)Ā
However I'm thinking God used that season of so many sad days to secretly prepare me for exactly today.
And I believe He does that for each one of us, every step of the way.
I want to encourage you today.
I don't care if you join me for a little home organization in 2019.
I don't care if you ever load your dishwasher, ever wipe down your kitchen sink, or if you leave that kitchen sink filled to the brim with 82 plates of scraped-on-soaked-in-crud.
I truly don't care if you hop up to exercise, prep one single meal, or run one load of laundry today.
But I do care about this just for you.
I want you to know that right-now-in-this-moment-today, whatever mess you're in, whatever sadness or hardship or just-not-so-awesome stuff you're walking through right now, God has aĀ perfect exact purpose in what you're surviving today.
I promise.Ā
It didn't occur to me until today when I walked through my spotless-tidy-happily-fluffed-up-kitchen, that this little-handy-easy-to-use checklist was really just a little girl's dream that startedĀ during a rocky season too.
And if He was watching out for me way back then (and could mold even this mess of a momma!), I have absolutely no doubt that He's right there hanging out with you too.
(And by the way . . . if youĀ are looking for some motivation this year to tidy up those hidden spaces, get dinner made, work out a bit and enjoy a sparkly clean kitchen, I truly believe this list might just what you need today. Go HERE to print your checklists and join our 2019 Home Checklist Private Facebook Group too.)Ā
If you missed my FB Live you can watch it HERE.
Go HERE to check the checklists out, and leave me a comment button if you have any questions at all.Ā Thank you so much for allowing me to be a small part of your journey ~ I'm praying a beautiful 2019 for you!
why can I not find your morning posts until they are almost done. I’ve lgged into everything I can think of. I don’t get any notificatuins from facebook about it
Hi Sharon! You may need to go into your Facebook settings and switch your notifications for live FB videos to “On”! š (Go to Settings, then Notifications, click “On Facebook”, scroll to Live Videos and switch “On”, or from the PPP page, click “Following” then “Notifications”, then switch to “On” under videos! Hope that helps!
Laurie thank you for always so transparent with us. I also was and am a overweight person and it’s been very hard as a child and an adult. It to say that people look at the fat and not person underneath. This has thought me not to do the same because you never what you could be losing out on. I love your posts so much and I always excited waiting on you videos. The whole team has been a blessing and I thank God for having you ladies in my life. I’ve had so much fun with you all and growing in faith with Shannon and her Bible studies and my late night owl with all her amazing finds and deals and you Laurie are the icing on the cake with all your household, recipes, challenges, transparentcy, and love for your doing. I love it all, thank you and the team for all the hard.
Yohana – I cannot thank you enough for kind words! I feel like we are just incredibly blessed with an AMAZING team, and I’m so thankful God gives us this opportunity each day. And hugs to you as I know *exactly* how hard and painful it can be… but I know God has created us both perfectly in His perfect wisdom and grace. Hugs to you today!