Homemaker's Challenge: Week 3

The new bathroom curtains were stitched this week, the smudged paint scraped off the window, the rods hammered in, the windows washed and curtains hung. It took me rather a long time to get this far. When I bought the fabric I thought I was pressed for time and money and made a hasty decision in Hobby Lobby. When I realized I could have waited and looked longer, I was unhappy with this fabric.  The fabric sat in the bag for weeks, untouched.

I'm making an honest effort at 31 Days To Clean, and added these curtains to my "Six Other Things List." Although they took up an entire afternoon, a "One Other Thing" day. I was so pleased to be done I wondered why I can't always be a person who follows through on my ideas. This ties right into Day 16 and the question of "what is my block?"  The biggest two reasons I can come up with are laziness (I'd rather read a book) and a bad attitude (I don't like this fabric anyway).  

The other reason I don't get everything done is that I can't follow every vain imagination of my heart. I don't have time. I've prayed for a couple of years that God would help me to number my days and present before Him a heart of wisdom. Then I hit an ordinary day, one in which I'm exhausted by the hum-drum, and I ask Him, "Is this what a numbered day looks like?" Yes. Wisdom applies itself to the important first, though it is not exciting or creative. This season at home requires me to set aside most of my creative ideals and some of my ideals concerning cleanliness, to sacrifice them for something better: human hearts.

Sorry - this is very hard to photograph.

Bryan surprised us and took us away for two nights.  We had such a good time, it was well worth setting aside everything else on my to-do list. We rented canoes and floated on the river. A calm and placid river, nearly fool proof; Bryan and I were almost dry when we were finished. We saw hundreds of turtles, birds, a snake, and best of all, baby turtles the size of half dollars. We picnicked on a sandbar. Four hours of peace and calm, a little hard work, and enthused kids. This evening we were home again, sitting on the back steps, eating popcorn and apples for dinner after a little too much "foreign" food. We'll get back to the housework tomorrow. It has been waiting for us.