Sunday, October 03, 2010

Make Your Home a Haven


It is Sunday night and my littles are freshly bedded down. Now is the time to turn my thoughts to the coming week. I just finished saying to David that often on Sunday nights I feel overwhelmed at the thought of starting a new week. The idea of all that is waiting for me this week can easily overwhelm!

But, now my heart is listening to what God would have for this week together. I want it to be more than just cleaning and tidying (though my home needs these things too). I think what I need most right now is to enjoy my Haven, those in it and create special moments for all of us together.

The second thing that comes to mind is to find a Haven in God and my relationship with Him. I know that I cannot accomplish any good thing apart from Him, His strength and His guidance.

In preparation for this week, the first thing I did was look up the word haven in a concordance. This led me to Psalm 107 - below is a portion. I'll be reading this in my Quiet Time tomorrow morning - would you join me? Let's study this and see what God teaches us about the idea of a haven.

"He stilled the storm to a whisper;
the waves of the sea were hushed.
They were glad when it grew calm,
and He guided them to their desired haven.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men."
~ Psalm 107:29-31 ~

Now, onto the plan for tomorrow ~

1. Refresh your spirit. Start your morning with Him. As mentioned above, I'll be reading Psalm 107 if you would like to join me. Or, whatever He leads you to do. Pray. Then, do something to refresh the spirit of your children. Read a Bible story, practice verses, pray together, whatever works for you and your home.

You know, another thing that refreshes my spirit is creating beauty around me. Beauty and calm really have a way of refreshing my spirit. I think I will fix muffins and hot chocolate and serve them on fun dishes out on the screened porch tomorrow morning. It will be a bit cool (hallelujah!) but that is what blankets and jackets are for.

2. Do your morning routine. This may or may not be after you refresh your spirit. I usually do part of my morning routine, then have my Quiet Time and then back to my morning things. Again, whatever works for you. If something is not working for you in this area - this would be a great week to try something new! Perhaps an idea someone else shares will really work for you - I hope some of you will take the time to comment and even link up your own posts so we can encourage one another this week.

Here is my morning routine for tomorrow:

* Exercise
* Shower
* Quiet Time
* Check e-mail and moderate comments
* Start Laundry
* Water plants
* 9am - prayer time and school begins

3. Take time to plan. I've mentioned this before, but I almost always do this the night before. If you haven't already done this after finishing your morning routine - take a few minutes to think about what you need/want to accomplish with this day.

4. What's for dinner? We have a very busy afternoon/evening tomorrow with dance classes and a CC Tutor meeting for myself - so I'll be working on having dinner ready to go pretty much when we walk in the door from dance before I dash off to a meeting! We'll be having Southwest Chicken Salad with fixings and tortilla chips - I'll share the recipe tomorrow!

5. Project of the day. My goals for tomorrow are to complete my chores (water plants, iron and Fly Lady zone task of the day), work on a couple of things for my Homespun Harvest party (on Friday night) and continue to work on completing the remaining garland orders I have. In addition to that, I'd like to do something fun with my children tomorrow. I'm thinking going for a nature walk and making a fun fall snack.

I'd love to hear what you're going to do to make your home more of a haven!

14 comments:

Ginger said...

I can't wait to see what's coming up later this week!

being molded said...

What a blessing to read about this on Facebook. I have a blog that I rarely use,maybe that should be on my list for the week. ;-)
I am planning to start my morning reading James. I am struggling with a realtionship right now and, I'm ashamed to admit, need the reminder of holding my tongue. I have a list, yet to be made, about what I need to accomplish for the week and plan to check things off as I go. I just bought bunk beds for my son and daughters room and it needs to be painted. That is top on my list! I also need to make a menu for the week. I do SO much better with not ordering out when I have a plan.
Well I'm off to make my list and will be checking back each day here!
I love your blog, Monica.

rachel@thecupcakesprinklesinlife said...

I am hoping to make some pancakes and muffins for freezer stocking, finish up our Psalms chapter 1 memorization (last verse to memorize), our school lessons, Girl Scouts, "Chick'n" and Dumplings (vegetarian) for dinner, fold laundry and catch up on my blogging. :) pheww!!!

Thanks for always inspiring Monica!!!

Clorissa said...

Looking forward to this week!
I will be reading Psalm 107 along with you.

Have a great week!

Tasha said...

I LOVE this! Thank you for pushing me in the right direction at the start of a new week!
I am excited to see what else you have in store. And that chicken recipe!
Enjoy your morning.

*carrie* said...

Monica,

I'm curious:

What are you doing for exercise these days?

Have you tried eating breakfast before the kids get up yet?

angie said...

Thank you for hosting the Haven series again. It always happens at an appropriate time for me. I will be having outpatient surgery on Wed., so I want to have things prepared in advance.
Today, I am focusing on cleaning the main floor. The second floor will have to wait until tomorrow. I already made zucchini muffins this am, so they are ready for dinner. Since it is already 10:30, I need to map out the next few hours:
clean main floor
make phone calls
exercise
shower
empty dishwasher
make tuna noodle casserole
iron after dinner tonight
Can't wait to read about your Homespun Harvest party!

LynnMarie said...

I start my mornings singing to God. My voice may not be much but he loves it and I find myself much happier when I lay in bed and sing to HIM. Then I'm and moving and have to get dinner to go before I head out the door to work. After work I am meeting with a beautiful "sister" and we spend time in prayer for each other. That has been such a blessing to me! Then its home for dinner and finally time to spend with my husband. It is a full day!!! I need to plan and pray a lot over it.

Anonymous said...

Hi Monica.

Thanks so much for hosting this "Home as a Haven" party this week. I look forward to reading more of your inspirational posts and I am linking up with you this week.

BTW...thank you so much for the beautiful Christmas garland that you made for me. I can't wait to decorate for the Christmas season. I have yet to get your thank you card mailed out. While a new baby is no excuse, I will admit that I have yet to get my groove back!

Blessings to you,
Valerie

Debra said...

Hi Monica,

Thanks for hosting this. It's perfect timing.

I wonder, what time do your kids get up? I have an early riser and my husband leaves for work between 6:15 & 6:30 so it's hard to get up much earlier than I do (between 5:30 & 6). And I really like the morning quiet time.

Monica Wilkinson said...

Hi Debra,

My husband leaves for work around 6:30 - I get up when he does at 6. Our children are not allowed to get up until 7:30. I usually set a clock in their room and they can get up when it beeps. If they get up earlier than that, they have to sit and look at books quietly in my room or the living room (or their room) or they can do anything from the Bible Study Basket. I posted on this recently, but it is a basket of Bible story related coloring pages, crafts, a notebook, a children's Bible and an audio children's Bible. They can pick anything in there - but they have to do it quietly. It does not always work as I have an early riser too - but I'm trying hard to stick with this and train her to read books or do something from the Bible Study basket.
Blessings,
Monica

Anonymous said...

I have been very inspired by your blog and was delighted to link up to "Making HOME a HaVeN" week. It's such a wonderful way to share and be blessed!
♥ Kelsey

debbie @ happy little cottage said...

I am new to your blog and wanted to know if your "make your home a haven" posts were inspired by Flylady? I love your breakfast outdoors idea :)

Monica Wilkinson said...

Hi Debbie,

No - not the Fly Lady, though her methods do inspire my tasks day to day! Initially this was hosted by Crystal at Biblical Womanhood which is no more.

Since she is not doing it any more, she has given me permission to carry the idea along.

Thanks for visiting!
Monica