Company Girl Coffee 2.26.10

Good morning girls! I've got a cup of coffee in hand, and I'm feeling much better this week. Grab your own cup and stay for a spell. Thank you for all of your well wishes and prayers last week. There's nothing harder than taking care of your family when you feel like you're the one needing a little TLC. Most every one has fully recovered now though, and we're back on a normal routine.

I woke up this morning and my first thoughts were of Jesus. Isn't that great? I love chatting with Him in the morning, even before my feet hit the floor. Something that I read at the LPM blog (Living Proof Ministries) resonated with me this week. She (Beth Moore) sent out a challenge to be in the Word in the morning. Even if it is only for a few minutes. For me, even to just read a short devotional before I get going with my day is encouraging.

I have a lot of books placed strategically around the house to remind me to take time to be in God's Word. I re-located one of my favorites when I was cleaning out my book shelves in the corner of my living room for one of the small things this week. It is "Praying Through God's Word Day by Day" by Beth Moore. I love to take to Word and write it down in the form of a prayer. God doesn't need to be reminded of His promises, but oftentimes, I sure do.

Lately, there is a couple of verses that has been going through my head over and over. I memorized them last year for the Siesta Scripture Memorization Team, but at that time they didn't really find any real significant meaning in my heart. It seems like I meditate on them and pray them almost every day now. Perhaps that's why it was one of my memory verses last year.

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." Hebrews 10:34-35

Girls, do not throw away your confidence! You will indeed receive what He has promised. God is faithful, and He always keeps His promises.

I pray you have a great weekend!
~Melissa~

Please Don't Follow Me Just to Get Your Name Out There!

All right, this is just a short post to apologize if I offended anyone by blocking them from joining my blog. In the future, if you are that person and would like to join, please identify yourself in the comments section. If I have never heard of you then it is likely that I will block you because this is my personal blog that I share with family and friends. It is not a blog to join if you would like to advertise your organization or promote your cause. I don't even really have that many followers, so you'd be better off latching yourself on to someone else's blog. Again, my deepest apologies if you sincerely wanted to follow my blog with genuine interest in what I have to say here.

To my regular followers, I am sorry if they used my list to tack onto you.
Thank you,
~Melissa~

Company Girl Coffee 2.19.10

It's Friday morning, and the fog has lifted here. Yes, I'm talking about the weather! But I am also talking about the really thick fog that I feel like our family has been walking around in this past week. (I wrote about it yesterday) Now that I'm on an antibiotic for bronchitis and my DH is on one for his sinus infections, we are finally starting to feel better. Thank goodness for that!

Despite this bout of illness, we have had some pretty great moments happening here too. Last Friday we took our older three to see Avatar in 3D. They thought that was pretty cool. My 6 year old finally lost his front tooth that's been hanging on by a thread forever. My 7 year old is very excited about his solo part in the 2nd grade "round up" in March. And of course, my two youngest that are still at home, always find a way to make me smile.

Yes, life continues on, even in the fog. Sometimes you just have to slow down, turn on your headlights, keep your eye on what's right in front of you, and enjoy the ride as best you can while you wait for the fog to lift. :)

I plan to get plenty of rest this weekend and take it easy until my family is back to full health. That will give me plenty of opportunities to stop in and say hello to other Company Girls. Thanks for stopping by for coffee today! Have a great weekend!

~Melissa~

In His Hands

Seems like it's been forever since my last post. This is one tired mamma. Our entire family was hit with a terrible cold and it really has kept us down. I can't remember the last time that all seven of us were sick at once. Even the kids' Uncle, who is living with us at the moment, is sick. Yesterday my DH went to the doctor and all of his sinus cavities are infected. I'm going to the doctor this morning because I have ear pain that is really bothering me. My youngest is on an antibiotic for an ear infection. Two just finished up eye drops for pink eye, and two more have come up with it.

On my way to take the kids to school this morning there was a thick fog. I started praying "Lord, I feel like I'm in a thick fog right now. When will this fog lift?" Then this song started playing on the radio (Your Hands) and it was all I could do to not break down and cry. "Your hands that shape the world are holding me, they hold me still." Isn't that the truth.

God is holding me still. We're not out of the fog yet but I have a new hope knowing that we're in God's hands.

But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hands;

-Psalm 31:14-15a

To Keep, or Not to Keep...Sentimental Attachments

I have been thinking a lot lately about the reasons why I keep things. I would not consider myself a "pack rat" by definition. (A collector of miscellaneous useless objects, according to Dictionary.com) I would, however, fit into the category of someone who keeps things for sentimental reasons.

In the past 24 hours I have read two articles that addressed this issue. One was about making decisions regarding sentimental clutter, and the other was OrgJunkie's article on letting go of stuff and clutter excuses. When addressing the issue of emotional attachment, OrgJunkie said "Our memories are so wrapped up in physical material possessions…..that isn’t where the memory is and you know it. It’s in your heart…the stuff just triggers the memory for you….so many of us are afraid we will forget."

That's me. I tend to keep things because they trigger an emotional memory for me. Perhaps I think one day I will not be able to recall certain moments in life unless I have a physical item to cling to. Maybe I just have a hard time letting go because I wish that I could hold on to the past. Some things I have kept simply because they remind me of a loved one that has passed away.

I'm working on it. I don't save cards anymore unless they have a special, hand written letter in them, (like the ones from my grandmother) and those have a small box that houses them. I no longer collect key chains or other souvenirs when we go on vacation. If I really want something I buy a t-shirt instead and then when it's worn out and its usefulness to me is gone, I toss it. I take pictures of my kids' special projects and store them on my computer instead of in a box.

This challenge has really got me looking around my house and asking myself a lot of questions about the things I own. I'm finding myself on the road to simplicity and I think I'll like it there once I arrive!

What is your #1 reason for keeping things around?

So Long Insecurity...

I'm joining an on-line book discussion group at the LPM blog. The book is Beth Moore's new one called "So Long Insecurity: You've Been a Bad Friend to Us." I'm excited to read it along with many other women (over 1,000 have signed up so far) and participate in the discussion each week. I read an excerpt from the beginning of the book and it looks very promising. I will probably be posting my thoughts here once a week. If you'd like to join in, you can visit the blog for more information.

Happy reading!

Monday Miscellany

It's Monday, and I'm ready to face another week! If only I hadn't stayed up so late last night!

Do you like the new look of my blog? I figured, as long as I'm giving my laundry room a makeover, I might as well do the same for my blog! Thanks, A, for letting me be your guinea pig as you learn a new program! :) I love how colorful it is.

Speaking of the laundry room, I'm still making progress. I have cleaned off the desk and am ready to take it apart. The huge "L" shape just does not fit well in there, so for now, we'll just keep the hutch. I'll be spending quite a bit of time down there today doing laundry, so hopefully I'll get a lot more accomplished.

I took Saturday off from the project to spend the morning at a friend's house making projects of a more creative kind. My sweet friend A (the same one who designed my blog) let me use her craft supplies to make valentine boxes for my kids. Last year the valentines that they brought home got spread all over the house. This way, they can be kept in their special containers. Thanks again A!

Today over at Home Sanctuary Rachel Anne is helping us Menu Plan for an entire month! I tend to be a weekly planner, (I have about 9 weeks of menus, recipes, and grocery lists saved on my computer so far) but if you've never menu planned before, her instructions are a great way to start! Then there's no guess work involved in what's for dinner. :)

Well, I had best get started on my laundry and other chores for the day!
Have a great week all!
~Melissa~

Company Girl Coffee 2.5.10

Welcome! Come on in and have a virtual cup of coffee or tea and visit for a while. It's been a busy week here. It was packed full of appointments, lunch dates, and school awards assembly. I also worked on my new project, the laundry room. Many of you know Org Junkie. This month I joined her 28 day Organizing Challenge. You can just scroll down to read about my progress, or take a look at my before pictures.

In my perfect world, the laundry room would be spotless, with cupboards for this, and shelves for that. There would be a beautiful tile floor and neat, organized stations for laundry, household supplies, and perhaps even some linen storage. I dream of stainless steal, front load washer/dryer on pedestals so that I can do the laundry with ease. It's a picture perfect, sparkling room right out of Home and Garden magazine!

But let's get real here...

I am lucky to have a fairly large sized laundry room. It runs almost the full length of my basement. There is plenty of room for junk, um, I mean storage, under the stairs. I've got floor to ceiling shelves at one end of it that serve as my overstock pantry. Plus, even though it's under ground, there are two windows to let the sunlight in. The problem is, since the room is so large, it has become a collect-all space! Thus, the reason for my joining in the challenge.

Yesterday a friend of mine came over and together, we came up with a plan. It has three phases, and I will be sharing them here. Stay tuned this month for the great transformation! :)

What's your "catch all" room in your house?

Have a great weekend everyone!
~Melissa~

The Laundry Room, Day 3

I thought I'd post an update on how my laundry room is coming along. I'm having so much fun with this challenge! If you don't know what I'm talking about, just scroll down to the next post and take a look at my before pictures.

On Monday I started by just picking up any obvious trash that I could find. Not just trash, but broken toys and full coloring books and whatever else looked worn out and no longer able to be used. That filled up one bag.

Then yesterday I dug in and began to go through some of the containers on my shelves. I threw out any expired food in my pantry overstock and re-arranged the food in an orderly manner. In my household supply overstock I threw away any expired medicines and old lotions. I also went through all my cleaning supplies and took inventory of what I have and what I need.

Today I picked up any stray toys and returned them to their proper homes. I packed up a few files that we have to keep for another 5 years but won't need to get into unless we get audited and moved them to the garage. I sorted the dress-up box and tossed any torn, unusable items in it.

When my DH got home, I discussed the idea of separating the parts of the desk (which is a whole other mess) and just keeping the hutch up so that the kids would still have a place for their computer and playstation, but it would take up less space. He agreed.

Tomorrow I have a good friend that I trust coming over to help me take inventory of what I should keep, give away, sell, move, or just plain throw out. She's also going to help me come up with the best way to use the space with the furniture and storage containers that I already own. Yay!

Progress! I'm feeling better already. Well, that is, until I have to confront what's lurking under my stairs...but I'll save that for another post.

The Clutter Trap! Organizing Matters

It's Monday, and it's the first day of February! I love it when the first day of the month falls on a Monday. It seems to motivate me to keep moving and get things done. :)

This month I have joined ORG Junkie's 28 Day Organizing Challenge. I am finally fed up with the way that my laundry room looks! It functions as a laundry room/ toy room/ furnace room/ tool room/ craft supply room/ pantry/ playstation & computer room! You think I'm kidding? Just take a look at my before pictures! :) It is a clutter trap, but I'm up for the challenge! If you are fed up with a room, or even a small space in your house, and you're up for the challenge, check out ORG Junkie and join in the fun! Did I mention there are prizes involved?

Ready, Set, ORGANIZE!