31 Days to Clean

     A couple of weeks ago I bought an e-book.  31 days to clean

      If you know me then you probably know I'm not a cleaning type person.   It's something I've struggled with all my life.  My bedroom when I lived at home was your typical teenage nuclear disaster area.   Now fast forward to getting married, having children, homeschooling.  I now have a house that looks like my teenager bedroom! 

    I use to think that my Mom didn't teach us to clean.  She was a single Mom raising two girls.  I do remember her making us do dishes and sweep and vacuum.  So I'm pretty sure we had to learn how to clean.  What I think now is that the key was she MADE us do it.  We knew what we had to do but we never did it with out her MAKING us do it.  Seriously!
    Now running my own home, there is no one to MAKE me do anything.  In fact I could sit on my behind all day and do nothing!  If it wasn't for the multitude of children crying for food I probably would have.  Maybe.  
   Besides teaching my children about Christ and generally how to behave, I have a desperate need to teach them how not to be me!
   I know that sounds bad, but really people I'm 35 years old and just learning how to keep a house! Sad, really sad. 
   I can learn from the mistakes my Mom made.  Not that she did anything badly, she did her best.   In hindsight I can see that hounding my children to get their required chores done, and MAKING them do it, doesn't work.  I need to teach them something I don't have.  Which is impossible, if I don't have it how do I give it??
    Here's where I cry to the Lord and He always answers.  Now this isn't going to be easy especially for me.  I have discovered many things about myself these past couple of years.  One of which is that I accept things to be true that are not actually true.  Especially if I perceive it to hard to change.  Well the truth is I can't change.  Nope I can't, but Christ can change me if I let Him. 
    I found this e-book and it's really helping me.  It has Mary challenges, which are more about spiritual growth and Martha challenges, which are cleaning jobs. 
   This combination is really working for me.
   The sweet lady who wrote this book has started a focus group for the next part.  I joined. 
   I am a little intimated to say the least.  I am praying through it.  I'm also excited.  I'm learning.  It's fun.  I do much better when there is someone to TELL me WHAT TO DO!  Hahahaha!  Ok so that is something I'll have to deal with too, but for now I'm working on establishing routine cleaning habits. 
  Sarah Mae has given us permission to blog about our journey if we like.   Writing things out helps me process, so I'll be blogging about my cleaning journey as much as possible.  
   I am doing this for a few reasons. 
   First, because I am a wife and mother and I am at home it is my job to run the home.  Scripture tells me to do everything I do as unto the Lord!   I can honestly say I don't care about housework, I skirt the edges and only do whats necessary when necessary.  I don't give it my all, never have.  But things are going to change, they have to if I want to give my children a chance to be better than I am.  I want them to be able to stand on my shoulders and reach higher than I could. 
   I believe that if I learn this, they will too, and when they leave me to run their own houses this will be one thing they won't have to struggle with.  They will have their own struggles yes, but if I can help them out with one, that's one less thing they have to do later.
    Today it begins! I've been already working through the first e-book so I feel ready for the second one. 
   It's based on the idea of building a task each day.
I will post after today, and let you know how it went;)