Monday, May 7, 2012

Spring Cleaning


I have had a change of heart.  For the past couple of years, I have been doing the bare minimum around our home.  Oh, I organized the storage container and half-heartedly tidied up the shed, but I had no desire to waste my time improving our property, after all, I didn't really want to live here.  The more I let things go, the worse things looked, and the worse things looked, the more I wanted to move.  Let somebody else do the work, I thought.

After over two years of feeling sorry for myself, I woke up.  As much as I wanted to move, I realized that I needed to be a good steward of what I had.  And so I went to work.  I decided what was important to me and put my shoulder to the plow.  I planted two raspberry beds, planted an herb bed and prepared more beds for lettuce, beans and carrots.  I bought a lawn mower (ancient, but it works great!) and set the children to work mowing our fields.  We organized the outdoor racking and stacked lumber, barrels and tires.  We took multiple trips to the dump and set the burn pile on fire.

And then we noticed the change.  One evening, as Sir Knight and I were surveying our kingdom, he commented on how wonderful it was looking.  He mentioned that although we had done nothing monumental, all of the little things had made a huge difference.  It inspired him, he said, to do more - to tidy, to organize and to build.  By being good stewards of what we had, we had found contentment.  Rather than despising what we had, we embraced it.

As I thought about our spring cleaning, it occurred to me that our marriages could use a good spring cleaning from time to time.  How often do we become complacent, apathetic and even hostile toward one another?  How often do we allow things to get messy and then trip over our messes?  The messier things get, the less we want to deal with them.  And soon enough, we are looking for an address change.

While marriage can be challenging, it is well worth the effort to do a little spring cleaning.  If you are thinking of changing addresses, consider investing in your own real estate instead.  Take it upon yourself to be respectful (yes, even if your husband isn't being respectable).  Be kind, be patient, be cheerful.  Check your attitude at the door.  Hold your tongue if you can't say anything nice.  Little by little, with careful stewardship, your home real estate may take on a new luster.  You may come to find that home truly is where the heart is.

Spring cleaning awakened a new appreciation for our land.  Tending our marriages can do so much more.

Copyright© 2012 Enola Gay  All rights reserved

18 comments:

  1. To embelish an old fallacy of the greener grass always being on the other side ......The grass is always greener where we water it!

    It is easy to get complacent and to look only at the negative side of things. Especially I find that in a few women friends who only see the negative things about their spouse or offspring. Soon, that is all we see is the negative. Oh, and satan loves that kind of "stinkin' thinkin'. Where he does his greatest work - our thoughts!

    When we can look up and see the positive and good things God has so abundantly and graciously provided for us that is a time to be truly grateful and joyful that we have such a great and awesome heavenly Father.

    We see our family, home, etc. in a new and different light...in the Light of the Creator.
    Pat

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    1. PAT!!! I love that adage! It is so true. I have never heard that and was not witty enough to think of it on my own. I hope you don't mind if I put that on a sign and hang it in my kitchen. Thanks for that...it made my day.
      Texas Kelly

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    2. Not my saying - but OK by me if you go for it!

      Often it just takes seeing our beloved ones with new eyes.It's easy to et taken down and down into negative. We just have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get back on our heavenly Father's path.

      Excellent post Enola and God's very best for you and yours always.
      Pat

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  2. Enola,
    Good for you! It is so easy to long for what we don't have and difficult to see the blessings in what we have. I have been quilty of the same thing myself. I am at a point where I am happy with what I have (most of the time), but still have to quard that I don't fall back into the old longing habits. If I may be so bold as to suggest something that I am doing at my place. I read this earlier, and it just stayed in my mind that I wanted to mention this to you. I have begun to make some barn quilts for our property. I have seen them in magazines and always loved them, but was "stuck" LOL because I didn't have what I considered to be a real barn. Our "barn" is more of a vinyl sided shed. I had labored over how to have a barn quilt on it and awhile back decided that I would just paint the wooden doors of the shed and well house to look like quilts. I couldn't do any of the patterns I wanted to, as the doors are paneled and the logistics just didn't work. Still, I just did a free hand patchwork pattern and it has turned out well, but has been very difficult to do, what with it being mounted. Lots of sitting on the dirt to do the bottom and balancing on a step-ladder to do the top. Plus here in the south, those darned deer flies are always trying to fly up your nostrils while you do anything. I finally one day became unstuck however. Who ever made a law that a barn quilt has to be on a barn??? I am now on my third one this week. (Try to sew 3 real quilts in a week, but when you paint them, you can!!) I took scrap pressure treated plywood, had it cut into the sizes I wanted and took off. One will be mounted to the railing on the porch of the house, one on the pond dock railing and any others, my husband or son can concrete a 4X4 post in the ground and screw the barn quilt on it as a sign, sort of. Anyplace I want it. Sir Knight is certainly handy enough to mount these whereever you would like a bright, beautiful quilt. There are many websites with pictures from all of the barn quilt tours for ideas. Hope you consider it, may God bless you and your family and your home!

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  3. Enola Gay,

    I've learned if you want a great marriage, home, life, ect... it requires work, determination and dedication. It won't happen over night, it happens over time. The good Lord guides us, we must have the passion to execute it.

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  4. We all need a good "boot in the patoot" once in awhile!

    "Down in the mouth" comes and goes. Sometimes it hangs around awhile. But joy comes in them morning as our Heavenly Father promises us. Bravo, Enola.

    May I suggest reading "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. Talk about heart-felt love, seeing our lives with new eyes, renewing our life with pure Holy Spirit giving joy. This is truly an awesome book and let's us see and be grateful for His majestic wonders - our family, our home, a rainy day, a moonstruck night, "jam faced" children, a farmer husband, cupcakes on the sideboard, working through the loss of a precious little one or an elder parent and reaching that place of peace in His grace. Simply awesome book. And a keeper to read and re-read.
    Pat

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  5. Enola,
    You are right on the money. At one point, I wanted to move so badly that I let things go at home. The worse things got, the more I wanted to move and it was a vicious cycle. Things were so bad that we never wanted to stay home. In fact, it wasn't really a home at all, it was a place to sleep and dump our stuff. It wasn't until I realized that if I wanted a nice home, I would have to create it that things started to get better.

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  6. Sweet and well put Enola. You are truly a blessing. Timely too! There are others of us who would like to move our homes or locations, and times being what they are can't, or maybe know that God has us where we are for our safety. There are times when I detest where we live and others when I am content to be here. I too have been trying to invest in what I have not in where I think I might be going, it is helping. This story reminds me of High School; while I was there I wanted to leave. When I got to the end and knew the end was near I finally began to appreciate where I was. The only thing that changed was my frame of mind.
    As for my wife, couldn't do without her and try to let her know, constantly. She is the beauty that God lets me see every day and appreciate without fail. Although she may be brain damaged, because for the life of me I don't know what she sees in me.

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  7. Enola-
    After living in South Georgia for most of our lives, my wife and I recently moved to our cabin in the North Georgia Mountains. We tossed and turned our lives to suit other family members. We played around with the possibility of moving and firmly decided it was the right thing to do "for us". We left the sandy beaches and made our dream a reality. It was a very hard decision but we are so glad we made the move. We are surrounded by mountains, lakes, waterfalls, natural springs, and a beautiful national forrest...with lots of black bears! LOL. We adjusted to our totally new environment. We met alot of good people through our church. People here make a living making soaps, candles,lotions,farming, and livestock. Families get together to preserve and cann. Most businesses close at noon to go to church. I have never seen anything like this. We have never been so happy and relaxed. Moving was definitely the right thing to do for us. Trust your heart, go where it takes you ot tells you to stay! But where ever you go or stay...keep on blogging! My wife and I look forward to reading your blogs. PS. Glad to see you ending your blogs with "copyright....All rights reserved".
    Your friends in the North GA Mountains.
    Michael and Joy Marie
    bearcove69@yahoo.com

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  8. Other GA folks, how exciting! Enola's blog is loved all over! :)

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    1. You are definitely right about that Mary! Us GA folks loves her blogs and recipes...So much knowledge and good advice. I see my comments above posted twice---thought I lost the original post while typing it. <> So...we deleted one of them.

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  9. I always find it amazing how God chooses to talk to me through people I respect. Thank you for being that person and posting this.

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  10. Perhaps you may find that your efforts not only make you enjoy your place more, but they may also help someone else to see all that your place has to offer. And if it doesn't, well, you are just being the good stewards that you wrote about.

    sidetracksusie

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  11. would love to see an update on your daughter in the phillipiness. god bless you.

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