I began to pray and ask God to give me a job or some more kids for my day care. "Please help me to provide for my family Lord. The cars aren't in great shape, the house needs some repairs, we are barely scraping by and I'm just so tired of job hunting and sending out applications and resumes with nothing in return." Then God spoke to me (yes, God is still in the business of speaking to us if we are quiet enough to listen). He reminded me that I already have a job. Several actually. I am to care for my husband, my children and my home. He impressed on me that those are the jobs that I am to see to at this point in time and that I need to do them to the best of my ability. He also reminded me that the second point of the talk I'll be giving in just over a week is how we can trust God's word. So am I going to trust His word, or not? The Bible says if He cares for the little sparrow, how much more does He care for us? If He sees to their needs won't He see to mine? Of course He will!! And how many times in the Bible does He tell us to "fear not"? Over 300 times!! I can't just say I trust, I've got to live it!
So up I got off of the couch and began to iron the clothes I had piled waiting for pressing. Then as the dryer buzzed I pulled out the next batch in need of de-wrinklization!
Next I headed up stairs (it's now about midnight) and made everyone's lunches for the next day and had hubbys breakfast out and ready for him in the a.m.
The next morning I got up and went right downstairs to get in my 2 mile workout before tackeling the morning routine with the boys. Once my little cherubs were out and on their way to school I then decided to tackle a project that I've wanted to get to and was inspired between last nights prayer jam with God and having read a great post by the Domestic Engineer. I cleaned my cabinets!
This was seriously labor intensive and not pretty. Below you will see what I was dealing with and what the end results were.
These are the cabinets above the stove and microwave. As you can see, this is a hodge-podge of market goods. Exactly why do I have sugar and salad dressing and rice and Rice Crispy Treats and Vinegar and... in the same cabinet?
Now this space is used for side dishes (mostly). I had found a box in this cupboard with approximately 3 grains of rice. And I was keeping that for...????
Unfortunately I did not snag a 'before' shot of this one. But let me assure you the spices were in sad shape. I found a bottle of celery salt that had expired in 2006! Better yet, my husband asked me why I threw it out?!!! Men! Please note the little bowl of meds on the top shelf. The Domestic Engineer had suggested keeping those meds you take at meal time in the kitchen. Brilliant!
Wow! This cluttered disaster is otherwise known as my baking cupboard. I am a baker. Love to bake. I am amazed looking at this now that I was ever able to find what I needed. I was expecting to find Whitey Bulger behind the light corn syrup (too much of a Boston reference?), but alas, the coast was clear and in code.
SWEET! Now I can easily access my numerous flavorings, theres a spot for my chocolate chips and a seperate container for nuts. My boys were super impressed by the extensive array of sprinkles!
DANGER! Enter this cabinet at your own risk!
I was frequently pelted with tea bags, overcome by an avalanch of snack crackers and occassionally knocked into dizziness (more than normal) by Pam!
Sniff sniff.. It's a thing of beauty, is it not?
Look at how elegantly the tea bags are displayed in the glass jar! Look at how the healthy cereals are lined up ever so neatly. It's been a day and still nothing has tried to assault me from this cabinet. Amazing!
My oldest son came home from school and noticed the neatened cabinets and then looked at the bottom ones. "Hugh. So when are you going to get to these?" Seriously?! I had best set this boy straight withing the next 15 years or so if he plans on getting married some day. Geesh!
The bottom cabinets will be next week.
So thank you again to the Domestic Engineer!! Please go visit her blog - she has some really wonderful posts!!
1 comment:
Are you sure those aren't pictures of my cabinets? I will get them looking really neat and organized, and then within a week they are back to yuck! It's not all me though. I will be looking for something on a shelf, and find empty cereal boxes or in the fridge and find an empty gallon of milk. My kids are notorious for that. That gets very frustrating. I have become somewhat of an organizing freak and appreciate your reference to the Domestic Engineer. It is a liberating feeling to have everything in it's place.
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