My Advent and Dirty Laundry (literally)

Last year's Advent was spent in prayerful discernment about my career.  Not really focused on Christ's birth, but it was spent in profound prayer.  It was much needed and very therapeutic. I still received peace as a gift through the season.

As we head into Advent today, the phrase "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" has been on my heart.  I have noticed how impulsive I have become with purchases, how blind I have been to distinguish needs and wants, and how lazy I have become with my house keeping.

It's time for me to "prepare the way" for Christ to live in us. And this year, that means in my house...literally!

I am tired of being embarrassed with drop in company seeing my house look like an F4 just blew by.  I'm tired of making excuses of "it's been a crazy week, sorry for the mess".  And for being too overwhelmed with clutter that I don't even know where to start.

For me, right now, this isn't a pride thing. It's a sin-of-omission by not keeping house for our family because of my hoarding (I use this term very casually) and laziness.

I talked with Eric about this and he agreed - it's time to make room for Christ in our home.

We're going to tackle an area of our home each week.  Each of them are on the main floor and affect our day-to-day well being and the pulse and feel of our home.

Together we're going to clean the laundry room, kitchen, coat closet, and under stairs closet.  Not just tidy these spaces up, but take everything out, assess (keep, donate/sell, throw away), clean, and put back.

The goal is to remind us of how much we truly have.  And to get back to a more minimalist lifestyle. When we did this three years ago for Lent it was a fruitful exercise for both Eric and I.  We hope to learn and grow from this again.

We'll be employing methods and ideas from The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life - a super easy read with very practical how-tos for each section of the house.

Ready for our dirty laundry?   Seriously.  We NEEEED to do this!

In addition, I will be using Nap Time Diary's Advent calendar + devotional to pray daily.