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"A wise woman builds her house, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands." Proverbs 14:1

With a beautiful sun shining this morning, the kids and I packed a "picinic" lunch and headed out over the fields with a fuzzy blanket and camera. Everything is mostly dry thanks to sunny weather and mostly green thanks to some recent rain.



After eating, the children took such joy in running across the fields, stopping to find me itty bitty flowers and bring them to me. They know how much I love flowers.

I've been so amazed at the wonder of it all this morning - how well children get along out of doors with extra room to run and the sun shining on their faces!


While they ran about, I sat on the blanket with Catherine close by and peeled oranges. The sun and fresh air are great for thinking. I tried to think of ways to be more practical in "building my home" in this season of life. I don't consider myself wise but I strive and pray for wisdom and know that God cares enough about the little stuff to give me wisdom in keeping a home.

Isn't it much easier to build something when you can first eliminate as much of the chaos and confusion as possible? I've been turning more and more to organization lately in building our home.
Recently, I took a good hour and printed off a simple daily chore chart for the kids with each day divided into thirds: morning, noon, and evening chores. Using this more specific chart has been an immense help this past week as they are becoming aware of who is responsible for what task and when. Looking through different chore charts here gave me some good ideas of what would work best for our family. Before having a specific chart, we'd sometimes have to ask several times for a chore to be done and there just might be argument over who's turn it was to do a particular chore and fairness, blah, blah, blah and Mama and Papa and kiddos would all get a bit frustrated. Much easier now. Chores are done before playing or before dessert is served. Wonderful!
Yesterday was the master bedroom day. I took a before photo. I don't think I'll share it. Really, it was that bad. Why does the master bedroom become the drop all room in our home? Must figure that out.
Sean's dresser and mine have been sorted and heavy winter clothing put away and a pile for charity set aside as well. I have come to love getting rid of stuff.
Space is cleared on top of my dresser for the midwifery supplies. I think each child has sorted through the birth supplies at least once, all the while asking a million questions about each item's purpose. They must know more than their peers now regarding birth. And yes, I count these discussions as science lessons.
In Walmart the other day five year old Douglas wanted to know why the Mama bleeds after having a baby. Generally, we give th kids the simplest answer first and if that suffices, leave it be. He was satisfied to know that there is a lot of extra blood left inside from growing a baby that needs to come out and happy to know that it doesn't hurt when the blood comes out.
(should have labeled this post as having TMI? Sorry...)



All the bizzarre places in our home have been or are being cleaned. For some reason I think the midwife might just have to look for something in between the washer and dryer and I don't want her seeing the five mismatched socks that have fallen there with the empty mousetrap or maybe she'll have to use the back kitchen door and I don't want her to see that we still have all the mittens and snow pants out from winter even though the snow is long gone. (Bagged and put away this morning!)
Or what if she needs something in the back of the linen closet and sees that the towels and washcloths aren't separated by shelf because I let the kids put them away and they get squished in as they may? This train of thought could be never ending in our home!



Besides the practical ways we build our homes, there is also an imperative spiritual side that we cannot neglect. We've been having family worship and prayer each morning for a few months before Sean leaves for work and it is such a blessing to our family.
Lately, Sean has been reading the story of Daniel a bit at a time to the children at the breakfast table before we gather in the living room for worship. We let the kids pick the songs and then we pray for each other. It isn't at all fussy or formally done and it works great for our family.


Psalm 139:1-6 has been conquered by the majority of our children and now we'll move on to verses 7-12. Helping the kids memorize scripture brings as much benefit to me as it does to them, except that they get a dollar each time they memorize the verses we give them!
I'm having fun with this last burst of nesting/organization energy! You can listen to more about keeping a home and organizing here from one of my favorite authors, Emilie Barnes.