who's on first?

Rather, who's IN first? 

Today I'm writing about priorities. I am a notoriously awful priority-setter. I get easily distracted and, especially when cleaning, jump from one task to another. Yes, eventually everything gets done. Yes, I typically find money or memorabilia. No, it is not efficient. 

Day 5 of the 31 Days to Clean program was setting priorities. The first line that Sarah Mae writes for today is, "If you're anything like me, you have good intentions, but you fall short." Zing! Score one for Sarah Mae. This is like...the story of my life. I have THE BEST intentions. Trust me, I really do. Do any of you ever see that? Highly unlikely. You see, I really am a champion at getting distracted. I'm also abysmal at follow-through. No, I don't know why. No, I can't keep a coherent calendar so that I can stick to the things I want to do. Yes, I do say "Yes" to just about everything. No, I don't know how to stop. 

So, Day 5's "Mary Challenge" was particularly difficult for me. For one thing, I was challenged to come up with a priority list. Wait, isn't this the easy part? Of course. If I'm being fake with myself and setting a list of priorities (with explanations) that I'm sure you all want to see or that I'm supposed to write, then yes, this is simple. I really expect better of myself. I don't want to be fake. I don't want to lie about my priorities. So, the issue is two-fold. Do I write a list of priorities for where I want them to be/know they should be? Or, am I brutally honest about what I'm actually prioritizing/idolizing (hello, The Biggest Loser, Gossip Girl, and Grey's Anatomy) and then reflect on where to go from here? 

Well, I tried to blend them. For the sake of accountability, I'm posting my new priority list here. I'm going to try to give a little background on each one, too, because I know some of you will be thinking, "haha- she never does that." It's true. I know I fall short on most all of these things right now. However, in the spirit of change, I'm going to try to start focusing on these things in my life. I'm hoping to become a bit more consistent, if not master one or two.

For reference, Sarah Mae's priorities were: 
1) God
2) Husband
3) Children
4) Home 
5) Gifts 
6) Personal

Many of these were the same, but if you want to know Sarah's reasons, you'll have to get the book. :) 

1. God- exploring, figuring "it" out (whatever "it" is...I don't mean "it" to be God...just what I'm supposed to be doing), understanding what/where I am in my relationship/role/circumstances. I realize that as the wife of a youth minister, this should "come easy" to me, but it doesn't. It never really has. There's a saying that I found on Pinterest (which is apparently a quote from Will&Grace that says, "She's crazy. And just when you think you've reached the bottom of her craziness, there's a crazy underground garage." I feel this way, oohhhhh, 90% of the time. I don't know why. As a result, I have weirdo trust issues and things I can't comprehend and...I'm a control freak. Thus, sometimes Jesus & I have issues. Don't get me wrong, I never doubt that He is who He says He is, I just don't always have the easiest time figuring out how that affects me. My husband is a very good, good man. 


2. Husband. :) This is my favorite priority right now. I feel like I'm pretty good with this priority...and even when I'm bad, he knows I'm trying to be better. My hope in this whole 31 day situation is that it will help me to be his best friend, best support, encourager, and (with the cleaning shtick in mind), his home maker. That's a huge part of my priority here. Sarah Mae also includes some super pertinent Scripture in this portion of her priority list. It's really awesome.


3. Our Family(ies)- I want to figure some things out and know where we are in regards to starting our own family, welcoming our current families into "our" new nuclear family, spending time with our families, and mostly, getting my home in order so that I can spend guilt-/stress-free time with them. I really want to get my house straight so that I can go home & spend a weekend with my mom and grandparents without feeling like I'm getting more behind by not being at my house. 


4. My Job- I want to be investing in my students and using my time wisely at school and at home, so that I can work on projects in both places. Staying on top of housework=More time with/for my school work. 


5. Me: I took Sarah Mae's advice and put me last. Yes, it was difficult. No, I'm not sure it's completely honest. But, I know this is where I need to be right now. I know that by focusing on these other areas/people in my life, I'll be more of the person that I truly want to be. That being said, I do want to work on working out (P90X, take 2?), resting/relaxing more, and spending/prioritizing time with my friends to restore/recharge in ways that only girl friends can. 


I wrote this all down in a notebook and started out on Day 6 by working on the six list. It's an awesome little tool for keeping myself organized that I'm sure I'll talk about when I post pictures of the last few days of adventures. I should've taken before/afters of the massive pile of laundry I put away the other night. Literally, over an hour of my life. Ridiculous. 


Thanks for reading this (if you stuck it out- don't blame you if you didn't). Honestly, it's a bit harder to have it all down here than I thought it would be. I'm going to leave you with the little photo of the mission statement that sits on my dresser. Hopefully having all of this motivation in one place will keep me going. Even when I feel like nobody is reading this, I feel guilty if I don't stick to my plan. But, thanks for reading it anyway. My priorities probably don't matter to anyone but me, but I appreciate it all the same. :) 

Click here to visit Sarah Mae.

Day 4

This day is a tad late. Day 4 was Thursday. Thursday was exhausting. I got home at...8:30 and was asleep before 9:30. No, this was not on purpose. It was really quite pathetic. I didn't even make it halfway through Grey's Anatomy. 

The 31 Days task for Day 4 is to clean your oven and microwave. It's also to invite a friend over without worrying how your house looks...just to make your house a more inviting space. I did, in fact, invite someone over, but she was more exhausted than I was, so a TV date was not in order. I realized that the Day 5 task was to clean out my cabinets which we did this summer and I decided to combine these things for today (Saturday). Well, the oven cleaning took FOREVER. I'm going to eventually show you some before/after photos, but for now, let me just say, disgusting. I decided to go green with this whole oven cleaning catastrophe. I'm pleased with my results, though some kind of chemical, eye-burning, birth-defect inducing cleaner could've been faster and/or easier. 

First, I put baking soda everywhere. I made it into a paste with some water and started a-scrubbin'. It worked well enough. Then, I realized we should take the door off...this is where the ridiculous starts. Now there's a door laying in the kitchen floor. OK. Easy enough to fix later. Then, I realize that it would be easier to clean the top of the oven without the heating elements. We take out the heating elements. Keep in mind, I started this project after 4 p.m. I had a meeting from 8:30-3:30 today. So, we're taking out heating elements and I'm scrubbing away. Hot water, baking soda, scrub, wipe, repeat. There are still some troubling spots. Baking soda is liberally thrown in there, vinegar is sprayed on...volcanic action ensues. At some point, we break for dinner. During this time, I decided to watch the 31 Day Videos. Seriously, she makes it look so easy. Apparently, normal people clean stoves/ovens more often than we do. Chris pulled out the range for me. It was awesome. Almost. You should see what was under/behind it. First, they didn't move it when they laid down our bubbling up floating laminate floor. Second, ew. I mean, this was foul (you'll see later). So, I wiped down the sides of my oven, cleaned the sides of the counters where they ran into the oven, wiped the top of the wall, and Chris vacuumed the floor and used a wet Swiffer cloth on it. Fabulous. While he was gone to dinner, I took the knobs off the stove top (didn't know you could do that until he showed me) and also soaked them in a bowl of baking soda & vinegar. That worked like a charm. **The power was off for all of these adventures.** 

Since I don't want to bore you and I have lots of disgusting photos, let me just say that our stove top was foul. I mean, it was really disgusting. Something was in there and I honestly couldn't tell you what it is/was/ever-had-potential-to-be. Gross. 

36 rounds of baking soda + vinegar + hot, hot water + Green Works All-Purpose + wiping + drying= fabulous looking range.

My sweet husband reaching vinegar for me after pulling out the range, taking off the door, and smelling the disgusting scent of baking soda paste for hours. He's a champ.



Yup. That's in my front burner. What. the. what.

This is the side of my cabinet. I had no idea. So gross.

Before: Left side. Seriously. Disgusting. Yes. That purple was the color of my paint cabinets before this summer. This is why I wish things were a little more flush and/or sealed in my kitchen. So gross.

After: Left side!

Before: Right side: Holy gross.



After: Right side! SO beautiful! So much water on the floor!



Before: Yes. That's a papery thing from in between dishes, a piece of trim that wasn't appropriately applied, dirt, hair bands, a metal beer bottle cap, a leaf, and a soda can tab. Wait, what's that? THE FLOORING ISN"T COMPLETE?! Yes. Correct. It's not complete. I don't know why. It's ridiculous. I can't even talk about it.





After! I'm still mad about the lack of complete flooring. Can't. even. go. there.

I realize that it sitll looks yucky...and doesn't have a broiler element. Yes, it broke. Yes, I'm frustrated. Yes, I got Panera for dinner. Trust me, this is way cleaner. Why they make ovens that look (and feel) rough & dirty, even when clean, is beyond me.





Gorgeous! Hooray! Beautiful Martha Stewart from my wonderful brother-in-law, too!

All done! The pots/pans drawer really is white, it just looks almond. That doesn't make it much more attractive, but it helps. Also, yes, those are pans in the floor in the reflection.

These are hanging out with some baking soda paste on them. They will be put back tomorrow.

The aftermath.

Please don't stop being my friends/followers/guests for dinner now that you've seen this. I promise it's a million times better AND won't get THIS awful ever. again. On to the next day!

Click here to visit Sarah Mae.