The Ball is In His Court

So I am in church today praying and God put something in my heart so powerful that I couldn't keep the tears away. I am not a sports fan and I do not watch sports and I praise God my husband does not watch sports, so I know this is from God...

  Today our pastor was talking about one of the essential things that every part of the body should take part in Prayer. How many times do we pray for everyone else and leave ourselves out of that prayer. I am sure it is a bunch. I know God wants us to ask because He says so in His word many times. I had also went to a ladies retreat a couple of weeks ago and the message was about asking God. I know God is doing a mighty work in each and every one of us and too many times we give up too soon. OK so here is the thought Sports lets say football or even basketball. Well Jesus has the ball!!!!! He has defeated satan, death, hell, and the grave right..He said it is FINISHED, so everything we have need of is right here right now. Jesus has the ball, He is saying let me know when your open..... I Am looking around and waiting for you to tell me you are ready to receive. We are battling all these things and those mountains are the opposite teams, but we have already WON the game!!!!! We need to quit looking at the opponent and tell Jesus we are ready to receive. Can we get a victory DANCE AMEN....

OK so that might be a bit corney, but so what I am excited to receive...
I got this picture from http://www.catholicshopper.com/products/inspirational_sport_statues.html

When did we forget?

     These past few months my eyes have seen and my ears

have heard very disturbing things.  I see families torn apart.  I

 hear people talking bad about others.  Most of these are

people who are suppose to be in the church.  How are we

supposed to be the salt and light of Christ when we are just

like the world around us?  When did we forget that we are

supposed to imitate Christ?  How did we forget that our peace

 and joy comes from Christ not from those around us? 

People are flesh and have selfish desires it is all about us.

  We are suppose to die to ourselves daily, take up our cross

and follow Him.  My heart cries out why do we continue to do

 this to ourselves and to others around us.  Paul wrote this in

Philippians 4: 6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything

by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, you’re your

requests be known to God, which surpasses all

understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through

Christ Jesus."  Then he goes on telling us the things, that

which we should meditate on.  It is NOT they hurt my feelings

, they said something bad about me, or they said something

that was true about me and I did not want to hear it.  How

about how we let our minds think that people are talking

about us, come on what have we become.  So, this is what he

says" Finally, brethren whatever things are true, whatever

things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things

are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things  are of

good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything

praiseworthy meditate on these things.  The things which you

 saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you." 

 We are overcomers in Christ.  We should walk in victory and

 bear the fruit of Christ, which is "Love, Peace, Joy, Patience,

or long- suffering, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness,

Faithfulness, Self-Control."  Galatians 5:22 There is only

one person that gives us all of the things and His

name is Jesus Christ.  Your husband, children, family, and

friends cannot provide these things for you.  It is our own

responsibility to seek God first.

Letting Go

     I was thinking today about how much people including myself remember so many bad things that happen in our lives, and we tend to forget the good memories we have. I am a pretty positive person, but I have my moments. How many times do we put the blame on someone else for our outlook on life. Like it wasn't our own choice to choose to have the bad attitude or even a bad memory. I have been recording home videos and putting them on dvd and they have brought back so many good memories that I didn't even remember ever happening. How often do we forget the good to remember the bad. The bible says light overcomes darkness. Jesus said to forgive your brother 70 x 7. How can we forgive if we don't try to remember the good. I have thought and thought about these things and how the Bible is true even for today every single word is life. All we have to do is allow Christ into our hearts and we will find forgiveness in ourselves and the sins we have committed also Christ will show us how to love even when we thought we couldn't. Starting today lets take those bad thoughts and memories captive and choose to remember the good. Put life back into our memories.

52 Weeks of organizing week 20 Take back Your Linen Closet

I'm behind on blogging, but not behind on the 52 weeks challenge.  This week Laura talks about taking back your Linen Closet. My Linen Closet does not exist, however I have taken back many other areas of the house, and many areas of the house aka master bedroom/ home office is still a major work in progress. So this week I am going to display a few areas I have been working on using the PROCESS and also talk about how some areas still need more improvement.

Here is a corner in my kitchen that houses the microwave.  I don't have a before picture here. This area stays pretty clean, but I have the occasional pile if dishes, because its right next to the sink. I did want to show off my $2.38 find I found on clearance at Target though. It's the White and silver utensil holder. Isn't it soooo cute I love it. I keep only the things I use most often in it. I love it.

 OK so now to the messy part My kids bathroom aka hall bath. This bathroom gets ignored allot because we mostly use the master bathroom. This is under the sink as you can see no organization what so ever.

 Here is the bathroom After Pics I did not have a before pic because this room was pretty empty and I was not planning to do the whole thing just under the sink, but once I got started I could not stop. The pictures were under the sink and now they are on the wall. I bought the bronze towel rack a few months ago and never got around to hanging it up. Yeah its out of the coat closet floor and put in its rightful place.

 The under sink area is pretty blah but at least its not scattered everywhere. I purged a bunch of things we don't use anymore. I used leftover baskets from previous organizing projects.

 I put a few extra towels the kids use under the sink and put all the sunblock stuff together. I think I still have a few too many of these I need to go through them again.

 I cleaned the mirror. I put a towel on the towel rack and hung another picture

 here is an after pic of the under sink area all together.

 Now doesn't this look inviting to our future guests

I still need to do the drawers they are sooo small I do not have any ideas on how to organize those. If you have any suggestions please feel free to help me out. I am linking up with organizing Junkies 52 weeks you should stop by and take a look at what these amazing ladies do.

Walking in Wisdom

I have been dealing with the battle of time. I use to have a set time every morning to spent Loving moments with God, but busyness got in the way the last few months. Today I take back what I let go of because of busyness. God is my peace, my joy, my strength and so much more. I was thinking about how easily we let ourselves get off track, so this morning I went in the living room with my bible and a notebook and asked God to give me the wisdom to overcome this very issue that I am battling time aka busyness. I went over my notebook and there it was the book of Ephesians. I looked over a few scriptures I had wrote down and then there was something I did not understand, so i decided to google it and it led me to Ephesians chapter 5:15-21. I have been studying out of the Amplified and the NKJV. Here is the NKJV
        
       "See then that you walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise." Eph 5:15

(What did circumspectly mean? I went to the dictionary and here is the definition: careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences. Synonyms: alert, cautious, chary (Dear, Treasured, Discreetly cautious, hesitant about dangers and risks) , careful, conservative, considerate, gingerly, heedful (attentive), safe, wary (watchfulness).

    " redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Eph 5:16

( What about redeeming? serving to offset or compensate for a defect) So we have to compensate for the time we have, because the days have a defect (evil). Be watchful that we do not let this defect take us away from what Gods good and perfect will for our lives is.

     "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Eph 5:17

( so the will of the Lord is for us to spend our time wisely that includes spending quality time with Him)

    "and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit." Eph 5:18

(What is dissipation? A wasteful expenditure, intemperate living; especially excessive drinking, an act of self-indulgence) I am not a drinker, but i can see self indulgence in many other things, spending too much time on the computer, or watching tv, shopping, sleeping,and many more. Dissipation is a stealer of time. What are some things that we allow to steal time away from us. I know I have a long list to work on. Ask God to show you areas in your life that are stealing time from you and ask with an expectant and willing heart to accept the things which He shows us and He will show us the ways we can change if we allow Him to work in our lives.

     "Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, and making melody in your   heart to the Lord." Eph 5:19

( Lets encourage one another to love the Lord our God with everything He has given us a spirit of praise and thanksgiving)

     " giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," Eph 5:20

     " submitting to one another in the fear of God" Eph 5:21

(Submitting: to yield to governance or authority. Surrender) Jesus said that he had to leave so that the comforter would be here with us, living inside of us. Lets surrender to the will of God and the plans He has made for us. Lets encourage one another to live in His will.

     Dear Lord,
We ask you to guide us and show us the changes we need to make to fulfill Your will in our lives. Mold us into what you have called us to be, you are the only one who can remove these imperfections from our lives Lord, we surrender to you. Help us bear good fruit and give us the wisdom to be willing to change and get rid of the non-producing fruits in our lives. Help us be a living testimony for you Lord and we give you all the praise and glory for it In Jesus Name we pray Amen.

52 Weeks of Organizing Master List

I have been participating in Organizing Junkies 52 weeks of organization Check out 52 Weeks of Organizing Here where every week you complete certain de-cluttering / Organizing tasks. I got started way late, but I plan on catching up soon. So here is my 52 weeks project list
Weston's Room
1. Desk Area
2. Under bed Storage
3. Bottom Closet
4. Upper Closet
5. Book Shelves
6. Toys
7. Media
Kelsey's Room
8. Bottom Closet
9. Upper Closet
10. Toys
11. Storage
12. Books
13. Under bed Storage
14. Media
Kids Bathroom
15. Storage
16. Decorate
17. Under Sink
18. Drawers
Hall Closets
19. Linens
20. Games
21. Wrapping Paper / Bag Storage
22. DVD Storage
23. Photo Storage
24. Coats and misc.
Laundry Area
25. Paint Shelves
26. Organize pantry area
27. storage for brooms, vacuums, etc
28. Over washer/dryer units organize
29. Crafts
30. outdoor toys
Living Room
31. Writing Desk
32. Media Cabinet
33. Misc.
Dining Room
34. Buffet Cabinet
     a) Drawers
     b) cabinets
35. Little Buffet Cabinet (AKA School/Misc. Cabinet)
      a) Drawer
      b) Organize baskets
      c) Cabinet
36. Kitchen (note to self do not tackle all at once)
      a) Drawers
      b) cabinets (Lower)
      c) cabinets (Upper)
37. Pantry
38. Freezer
39. Fridge
40. Master Closet Upper
41. Master Closet Lower
42. Master Bathroom
      a) Sink Area
      b) over toilet area
43. Master Bedroom
      a) Dresser
      b) Night Stand
      c) TV Cabinet
      d) Under bed Storage
44. Home Office (AKA next to my bed)
      a) Cabinets
      b) Shelves
      c) Storage
      d) Office Supplies
      e) Filing Cabinets (2)
      f) Books
      g) Media storage
      h) anything i forgot to mention
45. Photos / Memory Storage
46. Turn VHS into DVD
47. Garage ( afraid to look will make that list later)
48. Saturn Outlook
49. Both Work Trucks
50. Anything to do with Business
51. Recipes
52. Yard Area

52 Weeks of organizing week 17 Westons Room

Today has definately been a busy day. I was not planning on organizing today because I have so much studying to do for finals week, but I got bored around noon and decided I should go through my sons room. OH MY!!!!! I did not realize how much stuff that boy had. I had to pull out the PROCESS steps for this one BIG TIME...

 Ok so here are my before Pictures. Plan of Attack (EVERYTHING)
I use to have a pretty good system in here, but as you see we have outgrown that system. Now its time for a revision without spending much $$$$$.




Remove everything out of my sons room except bed and TV Stand

 Here is his closet before. Well some of it. My plan is to utilize this closet as much a possible, so that my son has room to play. All the bedrooms in this house are fairly small, but we have huge closets which is a major +++++



After removing all items I sorted into piles.
1) like toys in same pile
2) coloring books
3) books
4) paper
5) crafts
6) TRASH
7) DONATE or GIVE TO SOMEONE :)

And here comes the big REVEAL........

I moved the desk and bookshelf to the corner of the room.(Process Containerize) The containers I got from the dollar tree you will see them up close in a few. I took the wire thing out of the garage it wasn't getting any use out there and the red bin holds all his build and grow activities from Lowes (untill i can build a better shelf)

This is where the book shelf and dry erase board  use to be. Now its empty with a chair for reading. I am using the dry erase board somewhere alse now, but that will be a later post.

Right here is where the desk use to be. I put a blue container $5.00 at Target over there for stuffed annimals

I already had these containers, but thought they would be perfect for smaller toys. I used my trusty printer, scissors, princess glue, and storage tape to make the tags. I love it

These are the containers from Dollar Tree. I have two this size. 2 a smaller size for the dvds and 2 slightly taller for one for paper and one for TAG books

I moved the bin that was next to the desk inside the closet and it holds socks/ undies/ jammies. The tall looking shelf thing was here when we bought the house there are 4 bins 1 for blankets, 1 for out grown clothes, 1 for shorts, and the bottom one holds trains. The red bin in the corner will go up with the christmas stuff its a Polar Express Train Set. My boy LOVES!!!! TRAINS!!!!!!

I purchased some command hooks and now he can reach his backpack and jacket without help :) I move the toy bin in the closet also it holds legos and misc toys.

The desk yeah!!!! I can see the top. the little blue bin is collapsable (office depot 99cents can you believe that I bought some for the car also.) The brown and black thing is a battery holder my son made. He is a great little handy man.

Here are the other bins on the book shelf wow that looks soooo much better.

Here are the labels I made. It was time consuming, but worth it my son was soooo happy with the results

These are under bed containers I love these. I use them for storing the hot wheels race tracks AND_____

TRAIN Tracks we had a ton, but I'm sneaking some out little by little

Top of bookshelf black basket holds mp3 player and its accessories


Total $ spent
$6.00 for (DT bins)
$2.00 for (OD crates)
$5.00 for (TG blue bin)
$5.00 for (TG over door shore rack)
For a grand total of $18.00 now that makes me smile when i see his nice clean room and it did not cost alot of money.

Well thats all I have for today. Don't forget to check out The Organizing Junkie (52 Weeks)