Getting It Together

Lately God has been working with me on organizing my life and our household so that the functioning of it is a bit better of a representation of His children. In other words, our God of peace and orderliness is helping me to grow in this area with our ever-expanding family. I have been blessed to be part of a mom's group that is providing practice ways to do this and I have been so pleased with the results.
Honestly, I thought I was an organized person, but it has become blatantly obvious to me that it only applied when I was the only variable in my schedule. Organizing an entire household of lives is a whole other level of mastery altogether! I never realized how much thought and effort really comes into managing a large family until it was so clear to me that I was not succeeding in that area, lol. Thankfully God has a sense of humor and loads more patience than I could ever imagine. As usual, His timing was impeccable and just at the right time I joined this group. Hallelujah,
God, You are so good!
The book that we are covering is called "Large Family Logistics" by Kim Brenneman, and although I have not necessarily put to direct application everything that has been discussed or recommended in the book, I have walked away with nuggets to help progress our family in the right direction for us. In addition, my husband and I also made the leap and both got iPads, which have been super helpful for me and getting my organizational tactics up to speed. I have found some wonderful apps that have helped to consolidate my paperwork load and eliminate the oils of clutter that I cannot seem to avoid (another Hallelujahs is in order)! My favorites thus far have been Evernote and Cozi, which have pretty much covered my needs for the time being.
The biggest nugget that I have gained so far with the work God and I are doing is simply having a goal/theme for the day. Coming directly from the "Large Family Logistics" book, labeling each day of the week is a major organizer of home management. So, in my home, I have a set day for (in no particular order) Laundry Day, Office Day (which is today, and the reason I am taking the time to work on my blog), Gardening Day, Town Day, Cleaning Day, Kitchen Day, and the Lord's Day. I have found it so wonderfully helpful to alleviating my stress that when I realize that the floor boards have not been cleaned in 3 years and are in desperate need, I can simply add it to my list for Cleaning Day and move on with my day. Usually, that item would tack onto my already loaded list for the day, and I would simply become overwhelmed, having a growing list of tasks that never seemed to be getting accomplished, try as I might.
The biggest blessing in this for me is feeling a bit more free to do special things with the kids, because I know that eventually my sits of things to get done will get done, because I have it scheduled into my week. So, today was fun because we had a little "Tea Party" together. I would love to say that I am the mother who does this all the time, but I am not...and God is working with me on it, lol. The kids and I enjoyed our little out of routine time and then, once finished, continued on with the day's agenda. God is good. I've added a few pictures of our enjoyment today. Their smiles make it all worth it!