Clutter Busting Challenge April 2016 Part 2

April 2016 Reading List

The Postcard/Crossroads Series by Beverly Lewis

The Postcard
The Crossroad

 

The Sanctuary by Beverly Lewis

The River by Beverly Lewis

Child of Mine by Beverly Lewis

Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth

Our Exercise Room

Our project in January was to redo our empty first floor room. We decide to turn it into an exercise room. We painted the walls a color called Special White Chocolate and redid the floors. Shawn did the sanding along with applying the Shellac to the floor and I did most of the clean-up. 

In February we moved everything into our newly finished room. I had been exercising in our bedroom and basement. I’m happy to have a dedicated room. I had all the décor and equipment by buying over a couple years time from yard sales and thrift stores. You can get some really good deals on nice stuff second hand. The things I bought new over the years were the plastic baskets, wood baskets, kettle bell set, iPod radio, foot sliders, and 1 yoga mat. I’ll be getting curtains to finish the room. We spend about $250 to do the room.

What we bought for our project:

Shellac- Home Depot $45

Paint- Wal-Mart $15

Supplies- $75

Entertainment Center- Thrift $25

Mirror- Thrift Store $25

Metal Shelf- Home Depot $25

Mats- Wal-Mart $20 each

Curtains- $60 (Not purchased yet)

 

Clutter Busting Challenge April 2016 Part 1

I'm purging 41 items. 

My Purge Pile:

Spring Project Week Day #7

On Thursday, I worked on my blog but didn't do any project stuff.  It seems like it was a really slow week for me. I usually do more within a normal week. I wasn’t feeling too motivated this week. I’ve really worked hard over the last 5 yrs. 3 ½ months on my home. I set aside time every afternoon to work on a project, after my normal daily chores are finished.  I have several lists that I use to work from if their isn't anything that that needs my immediate attention. I’m at the point that I’m comfortable. Although, I still have projects and things that need done, I don’t feel anything pressing. I’ll have to do another Spring Project week after I gather a few supplies.

 

Spring Project Week Day #6

My project was to find free local activities for my husband and me, to do together over the next few months.  I added the ones for this month that we wanted to do to our wall calendar. The ones that I found for other months I added to our facebook calendar so that I can go back later and decide what we would like to do.

To the calendar for April I added two library activities Stories from the Holocaust and a Dish and Dine. The Stories from the Holocaust should be an interesting event and our 19 yrs. son will be going with us. The Dish and Dine cookbook theme for the month is Not Your Mothers Casserole. You make a recipe from the book to share with other library patrons. I found a few Earth Day events, because I believe it’s important to take care of the earth God made for us. Time spent in God’s creation reveals the face of God. We will probably take our grandchildren with us to one of them since it’s geared toward children. I found a night hike series every other week in our local parks. The one event that I found that cost was free admission but you pay for restaurant vendor food sample, called Taste of Marysville. I went to the Beverly Lewis book signing yesterday with my daughter Nastasja. That makes 7 activities for the month for free or minimal cost. There are a few more but I don’t want to overload us with activities or choices.

We aren’t very strict about doing activities like this. We tend to decide if we want to go or not before the event and don’t stress if we decide we’d rather stay home or do something else. We haven’t attended many local events since the fall and wanted to do something together besides our normal go out to dinner date nights. We have family dinner every other Sunday. This month we celebrate our oldest daughter Brittany's 27^th birthday. We will have a full month of family and local activities to entertain us.

Spring Project Week Day #5

I met award-winning inspirational author Beverly Lewis today. Beverly created the genre of Amish fiction with the release of her first adult novel, The Shunning, in 1997. She gave a short talk about the Amish and her books along with answering questions of library patrons. Se signed copies of her book and chatted with her reader-friends as she calls them.  My daughter Nastasja went along and bought me the book The Atonement.

After the book signing event my daughter went to work. I decided to spend the day in town running errands. I don't go to town or run errand alone very often, maybe every couple months. I like being at home and going out with my husband or family. I went to Walmart to do some browsing, we tend to go shopping for what we need and don't go to stores to just look very often. I visited the craft, clothing, and seasonal isles. I did purchase a thermal shirt and pants for $3 apiece on clearance. I dropped off donations at the Clothes Closet drop box, books went to the library drop box, and browsed a used furniture store. My last stop was Wendy's for a late lunch were I read two chapters in the book I'm reading. It was very enjoyable day, although I'm not doing so well completing projects for the week. 

Spring Project Week Day #4

I spent the day doing my daily chores, creating blog posts, and working in my Homemaking Notebook. My 19 yrs. son had three friends spend last week with us for their Spring break but they cleaned up most of their mess. I’m honestly at a loss as to how to spend my project time.  It’s gotten cold again in Ohio so my yard and garden work is on hold. I need to purchase supplies for my photo boxes so that is on hold. My husband and I got a good amount on our Project: House list done, and need to buy supplies to complete a few more. I don’t have much on my FROG list to do.  I either don’t have the supplies, need my husband’s help, or aren’t feeling motivated to do what I can that’s left.  I need a project! LOL

Spring Project Week Day #3

On Sunday, for my Spring Project week, I took the day off for the Lord’s Day. We didn’t have family dinner so I watched Hallmark movies and read all day. I’m reading The Crossroads by Beverly Lewis. Have you ever had it happen, that while reading fiction that it takes you on a rabbit trail though the bible? Yep, that is what happened to me.

As I was reading I came across 2 Timothy 2:21. In a few versions of the bible they use the word purges rather than cleanses. I found it interested not only for personal possessions but for inner heart purging as well. I ended up reading all of 2 Timothy 2 but I wanted to share 2 Timothy 2:20-21.

20. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21 (NKJV)

Oh, on a side note... I happen to be going to meet author Beverly Lewis tomorrow morning at 10:00 at a local library. I've almost read all her books and found out last week that she will be in my area of Ohio on her new book tour. Yippy.