Thursday, May 23, 2013

Discipline is GOOD!

The last week or so I've implemented some new practices into our house and lives to make things flow a little smoother.  Maybe most people have these practices hard-wired into them, but I clearly did not.  Now that I'm disciplining myself to do them, I realize how sweet the fruits of training & discipline can truly be!

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."  Hebrews 12:11

These changes are simple, but effective~

#1-- "Re-setting" the kitchen and living room areas each night after Malachi is in bed.  For the last week, after putting the baby to bed, I have been "rolling up my shirt sleeves" & fully cleaning the kitchen (yes, often my husband offers to help!)  -- washing any pots/pans from supper or earlier in the day, running a load in the dishwasher, wiping counters, sweeping floors (does anyone else experience a toddler discreetly dropping the stickiest, gooiest messes onto the floor after every single meal?!)--

Wow!  What a difference it's made to wake up to a CLEAN kitchen!  I have found that I am more inspired and less overwhelmed to cook all day long the following day.  Clean, open spaces are so much more fun to cook in than the previous " leaning tower of Pisa" dishes piles that I used to glumly stare at all day long!

I also do a quick "sweep-though" of the toy-laden living room.  It takes all of 5 minutes and looks so much better when it's done!  Eventually (sooner than later) I'll have Malachi pitch in before bed to help clean his toys, but for now, it makes us all feel (subconsciously) more peaceful to wake up to the sun streaming through the slits of our living room blinds onto a spotless floor.  I've found that Malachi is more excited to play with his toys again when they are all put away-- it's like he is discovering them for the first time by taking them off the shelves and out of the baskets...

#2-- Meal Planning-- I don't know what it is, but sometimes I get into a terrible FUNK, where I cannot think of ONE thing I want to make for dinner.  Not one thing.  LOL.  Well, this week on a whim I decided to scratch out a rough outline of 4-5 meals to make this week BEFORE I went grocery shopping.  It takes a little prior planning, but what a difference!!! Around 3:30 or 4pm I am no longer racking my brain or searching through my pantry to decide what in the world I could make.  I am no longer stressed about meals.  I am no longer embarrassed about what I set in front of my husband after a long day of work... ("Uhh, sorry honey.... this is what we had on hand....")  It's just added a lot more peace and ENJOYMENT of delicious food in our household.  I definitely plan on keeping it up! :)

This week's meal plan looked like this:

Monday:  Spicy chicken and home-made guacamole on arepas (a Colombian tortilla-type food)
Tuesday:  Indonesian Den Deng with Nasi Uduk
Wednesday: Honey Mustard Chicken & Vegetable stir fry with brown rice
Thursday:  Chili w/ corn bread & honey
Friday: Leftovers!

Discipline... So painful, but so good! :)

1 comment:

  1. Love hearing about your REAL life & oh how mine is so similarly challenging. Thanks for being an example of being faithful in everyday things.

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