Making Your Home a Haven

I've copied this post from another blog that I thought was worthy of sharing. May it inspire you to start a fresh new routine every morning!

Making Your Home a Haven Challenge:

1) Refresh Your Spirit

Begin your day with the Lord. Fix yourself a delicious hot drink and spend at least a few minutes praying, reading God's Word, and meditating on Scripture. Ask God to bless your day and to love through you. Find your joy and hope and strength in Him.

Did the Lord give you a special word of encouragement this morning? Share it with us!


2) Do Your Morning Routine


If you don't have a morning routine, take a moment to write down five things you'd like to accomplish in the same order every morning. And then get busy tackling them! Remember to keep it simple. It's better to plan a few things and get them done, than to write out an elaborate list and not do it.


3) Take Time to Plan

After your morning routine is finished, write out a short to-do for today (five items or less). Number the items in order of importance and start on number 1. Don't move on to number 2 until you've completed number 1.


4) What's on your to-do list today?


5) What's on the Menu for Dinner?


Take a moment to plan what you'll be having for dinner and then do as much of the prep work as possible before noon. Fix up a pot of soup, throw something in the crock pot, whip up a casserole, or pull something out of the freezer.

I recommend you have this dinner prep work as part of your morning routine or scheduled into your morning somewhere. Then you'll save yourself realizing it's five o'clock and you haven't a clue what to fix!

What are you serving for dinner?


6) Project of the Day

Turn some uplifting music on, light some candles, put an apron on, roll up your sleeves, and let's get busy!


Set your timer for five minutes and start at your front door again and quickly walk through the main living areas of your house straightening and picking up and putting away anything that's out of place. When the timer beeps, you're done, so work fast and don't get distracted.

Then, go to your kitchen (you knew we'd get there soon, didn't you?) and wash, dry, and put away any dirty dishes there are (or use the dishwasher) and then quickly straighten anything else that's out of place, wipe down your counters and cupboards, and replace your dish towels.

7) Enjoy your children!!

Now, go and play with your children and read them each a story and give them a hug! (This is my own addition to this challenge ~Kristi)


Thought you might want to see the back of my Tahoe full of stuff to give away. The picture doesn't do it justice since you can only see the front layer of bags, but you get the idea. I've been hard at work! It feels great to have the toys down to a minimum as well as the clothes. Just for my own sanity I put all the small toys that get left all over into a bin in the attic for a time out! The boys have larger trucks and blocks to play with for now while Mom gets a break.