His Mercy Falls

I love the passage of Scripture (Psalm 121) that says

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth

I think of this passage many times from the small daily struggles I face to the larger tragedies of life. The song by Casting Crowns incorporates this Scripture beautifully. My daughter, along with her Sunday School class, did an interpretive worship to this song. Very powerful.

I'm thankful for His mercy and help every day.

Praise You in This Storm
words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I was sure by now, God, You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus:
And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You
and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away

Chorus

I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

Chorus

Organizing Update

Good Monday Morning!
I'm updating my progress on the homeschool room/office organizational challenge.
My original plan is in blue and the updates are in red.

* Next week after we are done dog sitting (her kennel is in the school room), I plan to start with the piles of unfiled papers, putting them in the file cabinet or school notebooks or trash.
I've filed the papers (still have some to go through). I cleaned the bulletin board where we keep pictures and update letters from missionaries.
* Then I'm moving on to the bookcases and I'm going to go through all the books and make sure that I really want to keep what I have on the shelves currently. I've purged the bookshelves and my Hunny hauled a large tote of books to Goodwill. I've also taken 2 large trashbags of trash/recycle out of here.
* Next, I'll tackle the top of the bookshelves. (I've stacked many a thing up there.) This is where I am today. I've started, but certainly have more to purge.
* Go through toys and throw out and give away whatever I can get away with, the rest will be containerized.
* Computer desk--declutter and organize what's left.
* All around the edges of the room--what is all this stuff?? Some of the junk from around the edges has been cleaned out as I've gone around the room in somewhat of a clockwise pattern.
* The shelves on the wall that contain games, construction paper, etc.
* Assess what's left in the room and figure out where to go from there.

I've also kept up with the laundry, and all the other cleaning. So, only this room and our room are left to be deep cleaned and organized. Saturday I shampooed the carpet in the living room and hallway. It was warm and sunny and a great day to do it. One area that I think has suffered is meals. I haven't been making sure that I have plan for supper. We haven't been going without, but it's been a scramble at the last minute to get something on the table. I've got something set out for tonight and my plan is to jot down the menu for the rest of the week.

We have a birthday girl the end of this week! She is really excited..as we all are. We have invited two of her little friends and their families over for dinner and cake. My goal is to be done the homeschool room by this Friday. I realize what a big job this will be, but I work much better under pressure. :)

What I'd like to accomplish today:

• top of the bookshelves in school room--did not get done
  
• finish filing all loose papers--half way done
  
• finish laundry (including putting away clothes)--finished
• make an easy menu plan for the rest of the week--done
• make a list of things needed for birthday get-together--done
  
• have supper on the table by 5--okay, by 5:45, close enough
  
• clean kitchen--sweet daughter did this
  
• attend bridal drop-in shower at 7--yes!
  

Okay, better get rolling!

Edited: Tuesday morning
I'm getting used to this list thing. I'm usually good at making them and then not looking at them again (which of course defeats the purpose of a list!)

Homemade Bread Crumbs

Okay, I have to apologize for my pathetic post yesterday. I have nothing to complain about and so many things to be thankful for. I am still sick, however not near as pitiful as before.

Our family doesn't like the ends of the loaf of bread. So, I tie up the bag with the ends in it, toss it in the freezer and every once in a while, I blend them all into bread crumbs. In my blender, I can blend them frozen although I do tear the bread in small pieces. It's easy and makes great oven fried chicken.Please visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for me Wednesday ideas! Have a great day!

Have you even noticed?

I've been gone for over a week, have you noticed? Have you thought to call, email or call the National Guard? For all you know, I really did get lost in the midst of decluttering my homeschool room. Yes, I suppose I am having a pity party! It's probably because I've been SICK! On top of being sick, I have been trying to declutter that room I keep talking about. It's becoming a pain in my neck, oh wait that's part of being sick.

Well, that's all, really. I just wanted to invite you to my pity party, let you know I'm sick and I'm trying to organize a monster of a room.

Pity party over, I'm going to bed.

P.S.
I've got a lot of interesting, fun things I want to blog about when I'm done being sick. :)

A Daunting Task

Okay, Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie has recommended that I remove all the items from my school room/office. Is anyone else running around screaming from the mere thought of this?? And if you are not, have you looked at these pictures??!

Let's just say that I'm a tiny bit overwhelmed. What will my children be doing when all the contents of the room are out in the....living room?? Oh, my.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't think she has a good idea and I even see the reasoning behind it, but oh...oh, my. So if you don't hear from me for a few days, it's because I'm lost in the enormity of stuff from this room.

By the way, we had a good Easter week. We did the Resurrection Eggs as a family all week long and then on Sunday we worshipped our risen Saviour with our church family. My Hunny was working all weekend, but the children and I had a quiet relaxing time.

And now for the pictures

Here are the pictures of our homeschool room/office.


By the looks of it, you'll see it's a very used room. However, when I am finished with it, it will be clean, organized and even more usable. (I may be speaking with more umph! than I feel in my bones right now, but that's okay. I have all you other brave organizers out there to keep me going.)
Of course, as I said in my last post, the kennel will be leaving with the puppy next week. So you'll have to take that out of the picture then. Other than that, I just started at the left side of the room and worked my way around taking pictures. Okay, I've got my work cut out for me.

Organizing Challenge

I am going to enter this organizing challenge. My first challenge has been to try to copy the cute little picture from her blog to mine. Haven't figured that out, but you can go here to see all the details. It's going to be fun...come on and join us.

I think my area is going to be the school room/ office. I will post pictures soon of the "before" and then I'll get started organizing.

Let me know if you join the challenge and we'll be able to encourage each other! :)

Later that same day...
Okay, I am directionally challenged today. I didn't follow all the directions for the Organizational Challenge. I am supposed to lay out a plan (that'd be good, huh?). I took these questions from Laura's post found here.

She writes:
You'll need to ask yourself a couple of questions. I've borrowed these from a great article I found on About.com written by Sarah Aquirre:

1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
hmm, good question. I think my main purpose of this room is to keep our homeschool supplies (books, games, toys, etc.) organized, in addition we use this room as an office where our computers are. (The kids have a hand-me-down computer for their educational games.) So, I do want it to be functional and peaceful.
2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
I need bookshelves, toy box, containers for supplies, computer desk, chairs, filing cabinet
3. What can I remove from the room? junk (HA!), outdated supplies, books we are not using, I'm sure there is more to add to this list.
4. What problems do I see with the room? E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. must have a place or else the room is in a shambles in no time.
5. What organizational tools might solve those problems? containers, clearing off shelf space to allow for extra things that may come into the room--and need to be in here.
6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems? When I bring something in this room, I HAVE to put it away promptly.
7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams? Hopefully I have everything in this room I need already to organize it, but if not, no more than $30.
8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room? Organizing Junkie is giving me a month and I'm taking it!
9. What is my plan of action?

• Next week after we are done dog sitting (her kennel is in the school room), I plan to start with the piles of unfiled papers, putting them in the file cabinet or school notebooks or trash.
• Then I'm moving on to the bookcases and I'm going to go through all the books and make sure that I really want to keep what I have on the shelves currently.
• Next, I'll tackle the top of the bookshelves. (I've stacked many a thing up there.)
• Go through toys and throw out and give away whatever I can get away with, the rest will be containerized.
  
• Computer desk--declutter and organize what's left.
• All around the edges of the room--what is all this stuff??
• The shelves on the wall that contain games, construction paper, etc.
  
• Assess what's left in the room and figure out where to go from there.

There is much to be done in this room and it looks like I'm going to need to tackle at least 2 of these points each week in order to be done in time.

Finally ask yourself:

10. Who can I ask to help me with this? I have a friend or two that I could ask (I know they are turning off their phones right now! :) My oldest daughter will be a big help and of course, my Hunny will be there to haul away the wreckage (to Goodwill or wherever).

Okay, now I'll be taking pictures and posting them in the next day or so. I have to admit that I'm tempted to clean before I take the pictures...but that would defeat the purpose and I surely won't win any great prizes that way. Hey, did I mention that there are some nifty prizes. Really you've got to check out this challenge. Stay tuned...