31 Days of Creating Purpose In Your Home

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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Today is the last day, and I thought it would be fun to do a wrap-up post and re-share some of the more popular posts, as well as leave you with a few parting words of wisdom for this series.  It has been a wonderful challenge, and I have enjoyed posting on the same topic for the whole month, but I am excited to get back into my normal, less rigorous blogging schedule.  Here are some things I want you to take away with you from the last month

1. Keep Your Family First

Above everything that we do to make purpose for our homes, we are doing it for our family.  Don't let them get lost in it.

2. Figure Out What You Want and How to Make it Work

We all want different things for our home, you want to figure out what it is that you want, and then how to make it happen.  While it is easier said than done, we can all make it happen

3. Keep Going

No one is perfect, we are all in process, keep trying and working hard to get to where you want to be.  Doing something, is always better than nothing!

Cheers!

Ashley

Motivation When Things Get Hard

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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Just as slip ups are a part of life so is loosing your motivation.  It can be hard to stay motivated to do the mound of dishes and laundry that magically reappear seemingly seconds after you completely them.  This is where you need to get to the heart of your purpose statement.  You need to remember what you are aiming for.  This is how you will stay motivated, it is the striving for your goal.  If you are having a hard time staying motivated towards your goal, make sure your goal is worth fighting for.

In the middle of laundry and dishes, I know what I am fighting for and that makes fighting worth it.

What are you fighting for?  Is it really worth it?  Does it keep you motivated?

Keep fighting the fight it is worth it.

Cheers!

Ashley

Guest Post: A Hubby's Perspective

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

Today is guest post from my husband.  I apologize in advance for anything he has to say, as they are completely his words not mine.  I asked him to write a post for me, as I am busy trying to finish the final touches on our halloween outfits.  Enjoy his post, and I will return tomorrow.

Cheers!
Ashley


Hey Party Peoples,


The wife is overwhelmed with Halloween related preparations today and as far as what needs to get done her husband (me) is about as useful as a bag of sand at the beach.  The only thing on her to do list that I could be actually helpful with was her blog post. So you get to deal with me today and not her, tough.  The wife tells me that I should make my post be related to her months topic, which she said was something about having porpoises within your home.  As much fun as having a wannabe dolphin to hang with would be, this seems entirely inconvenient, especially if you are like me and don't have a swimming pool.  So instead I'm going on a mini rant.


Now while I don't read my wife's blog, I will advise you to listen and follow all of her advice, no matter how out there it might seem.  That being said, when creating a plan for what you want everything to look like and be like in your home, I want you to remember something very important.  THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE LIVING WITH YOU, AND IT IS THERE HOUSE TOO.  Now you might think you know this, and you might think that what you do is reflective of you knowing this, but sometimes it doesn't.  When women decorate, they put up candles and baskets and pictures and nick-knacks and other what have yous.  Odds are your husband has no interest in these decorations, in fact he has no interest in any of those decorations, he may not and probably never will complain about them, but that is because men don't really about it that much.  


Almost all men have some kind of hobby, whether its sports, video games, movies, music or some other more obscure interest.  We therefore own any number of cool objects associated with our hobby that we are proud of and would like to display in some way shape or form.  When other guys come over we like to show them our cool stuff.  One of my friends is a Batman fanatic, he has a section of his house kept as a shrine to the Batman.  For a music man, he might want to display posters, his CD collection, concert tees, or his autographed Guitar.  Sports guys have jerseys and signed paraphernalia. For me its my painted miniatures that I want to display along with some of my book series and statuettes.  All of those thing we think are cool. I may not share another man's hobby, but I appreciate his collection of cool stuff that he loves just slightly less than he loves his children, and slightly more than he loves his pets.  


Those candles and such that you use to decorate your house with, you probably consider them shared things, your husband considers them your things.  You might not want your friends seeing all your husbands stuff decorating your house, and I honestly don't blame you for that, but keep in mind that when you are decorating your house with your things and force your husband to keep all his things in a box in the attic, he is prone to being upset about that.  Do what you can to give him a corner or room or garage to make his own, that he can bring the guy over to and say, "Look at all the cool crap that I payed too much for," and all his bros can look at and say, "Sweet!"  That's all for today, I don't know if or when I will post again but here's hoping I didn't just drive away all my wife's readership with this post.


Laterz,

The Matt

Slipping up is ok

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

Everyone makes mistakes, everyone has set backs.  Today's post is the simple reminder that we are human, and that no one is perfect.  Do not allow your imperfections to impede your progress.  Forward progress, no matter how small or how slow is still forward progress.  2 steps forward and one step back is still one step forward.  Here are some other motivational quotes, and encouragement for you when you slip up in creatine purpose in your home.

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Its ok when we fall, as long as we brush it off and keep going.  Thats what I always tell my toddler when he falls, we just brush it off, and keep going.

Cheers!

Ashley

Memories

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

Today I will be spending time actually creating some fun memories with my little ones.  I will return tomorrow.  Make sure that you are taking time with your family, not just reading about how to do it.

Cheers!

Ashley

Creating Memories: Traditions

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

Trrraaaaaaditions.... Traditions!

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Sorry, I had to.  I can't say the word "Tradition" with out singing it in my head.

A big part of families is creating memories.  I have tons of many wonderful childhood memories and traditions that where a huge part of my life growing up.  This is something that we want to pass down to our kids, a rich heritage of family traditions.  Here are some types you can easily create.

1. Create Daily Traditions

In our house, we have our bedtime routines.  After we get ready for bed the little man and I cuddle in bed.  He gets two books, then bed time prayers and then it's lights out.  He knows what to expect and it is a special time with just him and me each night.  I love this time, sometimes we sing a bit before reading if he is in bed early enough, and I hope that later we will be able to talk more about the day that we had.  I love it, and I hope that he does too!

2. Create weekly Traditions

For some this may be pancakes on saturday's or friday night pizza or even a movie night.  Find something weekly you can do that is easy and fun for your kids.  Growing up, saturday morning = doughnuts.  Sometimes we would ride our bikes down to the shop, other times my dad would pick them up and we got to eat on the floor in the living room and watch

3. Create annual and holiday traditions

Seasons and holiday's lend themselves to easy traditions and fun.  It's just as easy there are so many things to do that are season specific.  For example you can pick out your Christmas tree and then decorate it while drinking hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music.  Just do  little something to make it special each year.  When we were growing up we got to eat off of a special plate on our birthday.  It was a big deal when we were kids and we loved it.  See it below.


It doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be a big extravagant thing.  Just little things that make life special can create great memories for your kids.

Cheers!

Ashley

Kid Friendly

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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If you are a parent and kids live in your house, finding the balance between your home being kid friendly and drowning in toys can be difficult to find.  We used to have our son's toy box in the living room at our old place.  It didn't fit in his room and we spent most of our time together in the living room so it made sense, minus the fact that it looked a little TOO kid friendly.

We now have all of our little man's toys in his room, and he can bring them out (and put them back) to play with them in the living room.  Baby girl has a basket for her toys, that stays in the living room.  We also have a blanket we keep on top of the basket that she can play on.

Here are some tips to keeping your home kid friendly

1. Baby Proof (with in reason)
Sounds obvious but make sure that there are no breakables with in reach (or climbing reach), that the knives and other sharp kitchen items are safely out of reach.  Make sure your home is safe for the kids.

2. Give them some room to play
Our son used to pull our nicely organized DVD's down, they were all alphabetized and it drove us absolutely crazy when he continually did it, no mater how many time outs he received.  However we moved all of his movies to a separate shelf and told him he was allowed to play with those, and the problem was solved.  His DVD's look like a mess, but it is only one small shelf in the corner opposed to our entire collection in middle of the living room.

3. Make it clean-able
Kids are messy, white couches look pretty but not if they are stained with crayon.  We painted our home with eggshell so that the walls are wipeable, we used scotch guard on all of our furniture to make it all as easy to clean as possible.  Try and make things as wipeable and easy to clean as possible, it will make your life with kids easier.

Bottom line, make sure your home is a place where the kids can make memories, not full of breakables and easy to clean.

Cheers!

Ashley

Guest Friendly (welcoming)

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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What do people think/feel when they walk into your home?  First impressions matter, make sure that what they see first is something that will make them feel comfortable and not running for the door.
Make sure that your home is welcoming to others, here are a few tips for when having others over, aside from it being clean.

1. Food and Drinks

Always have yummy and time appropriate snacks and beverages for your guests.  Don't serve muffins after dinner or cupcakes before lunch.

2. Make it inviting and comfortable

I'm not saying your home has to look strait out of pottery barn, but try to make sure it is something that will allow others to feel welcome.  Also, beanbags are cool in college and for under, but not for grown ups.  Ditch the bean bags and invest in a nice sectional, or couches.

3. Put the guests first

Ofter them food/drink first, allow them to choose their seats.  It makes them feel more at ease, and shows that you value them.

Cheers!

Ashley

Guest Friendly (clean)

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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Keeping a home "guest friendly" means many different things.  I'm breaking it into two parts, today we are talking about it being clean, tomorrow we will talk about it being welcoming.  Everyone has a different standard of clean.  There are the germaphoebes who will freak out at the slightest smudge, and on the other end of the spectrum you have those who wouldn't even flinch if they see a two day old pizza crust in the corner of the room.  How do you make your home feel welcoming to all without killing yourself?

Here are some basic tips.

1. Clutter free

Make sure there isn't laundry on the couches and piles of paper and junk everywhere.  Make it so that you can easily see all surface area and floor area.  Its simple, do a quick pick up so that guests don't have to look at your junk.

2. Sanitary

Make sure that all areas, specifically that bathrooms and kitchen are wiped with disinfectant of some sort and are clean.  This also includes crumbs on couches (as a mom of a toddler this is something I am constantly cleaning) which can lead to bugs and spiders.

3. Fresh

Make sure it smells pretty and not like a boys locker room.  You typically can't smell your own sent, so light a candle, use some air spray or a plug in to make sure your home smells nice.

I will also say that you may not clean the same way for everyone.  For example, if you have a pet and know that a member of your family is coming over and they are allergic, you should invest some extra time in vacuuming the furniture and try and make them as comfortable as possible.  If you best gal pal is coming over for coffee, she may not mind you folding the laundry while chatting.  If you have a friend who is OCD, you may want to make sure you have some serious time to clean your home before they come over.

Cheers!

Ashley

Day 21: Functional (Management)

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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Managing your home can be summed up in to one word, systems.  A functional home that is organized, can be managed by systems.  You may already have systems (or habits if you prefer) in place and you don't even realize it.  For example, my husband and I have several systems, mostly involving how we tag team the kids when going somewhere.  These systems help us ensure that things run smoothly, and we don't forget things.  Systems help you keep things from falling through the cracks.

1. Create a paper system
Paper is one of the hardest things to handle.  There is so much of it and it goes in so many different places.  The mail, pay stubs, receipts, notices from school, craft projects and the lists goes on.  I wrote about how I handle paper here.  Find a system that works for you and that is easy to maintain, (or we all know that it will just become piles and still be unorganized.

2. Create a cleaning system
We do the dishes before bed.  I clean the cooking dishes as I cook (as much as possible), we sweep daily, we mop 2-4x's per week and hand spot as needed.  We constantly pick up after our toddler, (which is always a loosing battle), and I deep clean everything once per week.  Find something that works for you, and stick with it.

3. Follow the KISS method
My husband loves this method, KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.  Each home will needs systems, and ways to keep order in your home.  Above I simply laid out two types of systems that we have in our home (there are many more) and your home may need different systems than ours.  The hole point of systems is to make your life easier, so don't make them super complicated.  Keep them simple and easy to follow and maintain.

There are many different strategies that you can use, several people like Home Management Binders, but there are many different types of systems and ways to keep track of them.  The main point is, find a way to manage your home to keep it functional.

Cheers!

Ashley

Day 20: Functional (Organized)

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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I absolutely hate digging for things that I need, and use on a somewhat frequent basis.  I love having flow and placing things where they make sense for me, and my family.  Organizing your home so that it is functional and efficient is essential to your home.  All homes have at least some form of organization.  Most of us don't keep our dishes in the bathroom, our towels out side and food under the bed.  Making space for things where you use them the most will help you be more efficient and keep things picked up more.  When you start to organize an area to make it more functional, here are some steps to take

1. Determine a flow and function

How do you want the area to function.  What do you want it to do?  What is the best flow?  For example.  I have a hot beverage cabinet.  It is directly above my coffee maker.  In it is my coffee, filters, mugs, travel mugs and tea.  It has a great flow, as everything I need to make myself a hot morning beverage is all in one spot.

2. Sort and Purge

Once you have determined a flow, sort what you have in stock to see what you need.  Get rid of the excess.  When I purged my beverage station, I got rid of a ton of random mugs I have collected over the years that had no meaning or sentimental value to me.  The less stuff you have, the easier it is to organize it and keep it that way.

3.Organize and Label

Once you have sorted and purged the things you need, organize them and then label where they go.  The labels will help others in your family to keep things in the right place, and you will always know where things belong.

Making your home organized so that it is functional is essential for a home running smoothly and will help stop the digging for something you need.  Why are there no pictures of my own organized home you ask?  Well because I am still in process too, well that and my computer hard drive is out of memory and I can't post pictures until I can purchase a new external hard drive.  What space do you need to organize to make more functional for your family?

Cheers!

Ashley

Our Fortress is Stress Free: A Plan

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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This is a hard post to write as plans are challenging for me to make, however this is one of the most critical pieces to having purpose in your home.  You can have all the goals in the world, but if you don't figure out how you can make them come together it is for nothing.  I hate the mad dash to clean our house when company is heading over.  It is stressful!  I hate trying to figure out dinner at 5pm on my way home from work.  It again creates stress.  Having plans for these things help create a stress free home.


1. Look ahead
The last thing you want to do, is remember just before you go to bed that you are responsible for brining snacks to the staff meeting tomorrow, and you promised your famous home baked coffee cake.  If you look at all of your obligations for the week, and then plan when you are going to get those thing done, you will avoid this issue.

2. Draft a flexible plan
Once you look ahead you can figure out what your week looks like.  I personally like to plan a week at a time.  I try and make the plan so that I have some wiggle room.  Things happen, kids get sick, you end up with a last minute meeting.  Make sure to allow time in your plans for these occurrences.

3. Plan your meals
When my husband and I were working on taming our grocery bill, I started planing our meals, so we wouldn't buy frivolous things.  I personally found meal planing to challenging, especially when I was pregnant.  It almost never failed that on the night we were supposed to have taco's I wanted pasta, or the night we were supposed to have pizza I really wanted rice.  So I just started planing 6 different meals per week, shopped for those meals, and choose which one to make the morning of.  This has worked out wonderful for our family.  No last minutes broken, managing our grocery bill, knowing what we are going to eat and flexibility.  If you prefer knowing laying out the whole week, then do that, just plan ahead so that at 4 or 5pm you aren't scrambling to come up with dinner.

4. Plan for the maintenance of your home
There are things that need to happen in your house daily (dishes), things that happen on a regular basis (floors, windows, etc) and things that happen on a less regular basis (air filters).  I will speak to creating a routine for these things later, but you must create a plan to get them done and allow yourself the time for them to get accomplished.  Allow space in your day for the little tasks, if you book yourself from waking moment until when you go to sleep your home will not be maintained.

5. Go to bed on time
I have been the worst at this lately.  Staying up way past my bed time in order to finish posting here, and I need to fix it.  Getting a good night sleep so that you can get up early, and be well rested will do wonders for your stress levels.

The take away here, is to make figure out a way to prevent any type of stressful scrambling.  It is a stress that can be prevented by the simple step of planing ahead.  Taking a short time to plan can save you time in the long run, and help you live a less stressful life.  This in turn will help you live a less stressed life, and not allow the stress to rub off onto your family.  How do you make plans?

Cheers!

Ashley

Day 18: Our Fortress is Stress Free: An Early Start

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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You may, or may not like what I'm about to say, but it is a very important step.  I will fully admit to being challenged in this area (although I am working on it), but I will say that when I do this, my day goes way smoother that when I don't, so here it goes, and please don't throw the coffee at me for saying it.

THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM

(pauses)

(dodges coffee and ignores the eye rolls and glares)

I know, you have heard it a million billion times.  I am going to say it again, and explain why.  When you get up early, you can make a plan and get things done before the distractions of the day start.  While I am a morning person by nature (as all my friends, college roomies can attest to), having to get up in the middle of the night for a baby kind of makes getting out of bed in the morning challenging, but it is still worth it.  Getting up early does a few things for you.

1. Stress free mornings

Have you ever overslept and had to race around trying to get out of the house on time?  While it is quite the adrenaline boost, it sets your days off on the wrong foot.  Imagine if you reversed that, got up early and had time to actually have a morning and do a few things before your kids start demanding your full attention.

2. Me time

I don't know how things work in your home, but in mine the only time I have to myself is when no one is awake.  Sure, I get to blog at night after the kids go to bed, but I still interact with my hubby, and as much as I love my blog, it isn't really what I would consider "me time".  I need time to do things that recharge my batteries, things that take care of me.  Starting each day with a little bit of this, makes it so much better.

3. Starting off on the right foot

It gives you a great chance to look at the day ahead with fresh eyes and make a plan.  How much happier would your kids (and hubby) be, if they got a hot breakfast because you had extra time?  What would happen if you came up with a way to get everyone out of the house early each morning?  It starts with you getting up early enough to make a plan and get moving before everyone else is up.

Early isn't easy, but it does make your days less stressful, and can help your families in ways you thought were beyond help.  Try it for a week, I dare you!

Cheers!

Ashley

PS If you do try it, I'd love to hear how it went!

Our Fortress is Safe

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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For us, part of the reason I chose the word fortress, is because it is a stronghold.  A place that is safe, where you are sheltered from the world, a place to be yourself.  What makes your home feel free ?  What makes you feel safe and at ease?  Find those things to make your home a safe place for your own family.  Here is what we do.

1. A Wall of Positivity

We try and surround out home with positive and encouraging words.  The world outside will do everything they can to try and tear your family down.  Make a point to make the home a safe place for your kids, where they are going to feel encouraged.  Tell them 5 encouraging/complementary things each day in your home.

2. A Wall of Prayer

Pray, it can not be said enough.  Prayer is powerful.  Daily pray for your family, their safety, their emotional well being.  Prayer will surround your house and make it a safe place.

3. Full of as much "YES" as possible

We hear "NO" so much.  Kids, even more so (especially mischievous toddlers, but I wouldn't know anything about that).  I want my kids to feel like they can ask and do things in their home.  Obviously safety, health and well being comes first (no, you may not have ANOTHER cookie followed by tears is common in our home right now).  However, where is the harm in allowing your child to pick out their clothes (weather appropriate)?  So what, if you teen want's to paint their room black?  I think there is a phrase called "picking your battles".  I fully believe that when you say yes, it makes your kids feel valued, and gives them courage, to talk to you about more stuff.  Making it a safe place for them to share with you as they grow up.

4. Physically Safe

This is as simple for us as making sure doors, cars etc are locked up tight for the night time.  Making sure that smoke alarms are functional, and that things are turned off.  Keeping things picked up off the floor means not tripping over them with attempting to warm milk at 4am.  It's the little things that keep you safe.  For families with little ones, it means baby proofing, and making sure there is nothing harmful with in your kids reach. 

 All of this helps give me peace of mind and helps me feel safe in my home, my fortress.  What do you do to make your home feel safe?

Cheers!

Ashley

A Foundation Of Faith (our Family)

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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Our home needs to be built on faith.  As a family, this looks different in each stage.  Now with a toddler and a baby, it is demonstrating and involving them in things.  Like bringing them to church, praying with them, talking to them about God.  Teaching them about God right along side of the ABC's.  As they get older, it will continue to be an intentional teaching, along side of allowing them to explore and develop their own faith.

In our previous home we had this picture on the wall when you first opened the door.  It was a daily reminder to us.  I can't wait to get a new verse up on a wall in our new home, which sadly still has empty walls, but that is another story.

Here are 5 ways to build a foundation of faith in your family

1. Do Spiritual Things Together

Go to church, pray together, talk about God.  This may seem like a no brainer, but doing these things with your children now when they are younger is important.  Serve others together, don't just talk about God, but live it along side and with your kids.

2. Pray For Your Children

It is such a simple thing, but often can be overlooked.  Make sure that you are taking the time to pray for your kids and family.  Pray for them now, pray for their future. pray for their social group.  Prayer is so critical.  Surround your kids and family with it.

3. Always Point Out Where and When God is Working

God is ALWAYS at work in our lives.  Kids love to know how!  If you have been praying for something, when it happens make a point to tell your kids.  Take every opportunity to remind them how awesome God is, it will also help to remind you.

4. Get Advice From Others Who Have Been There

Find older families who can speak wisdom into your life who have already been there.  People who can pray for you and support you.  Also, check out resources to help you on your journey.  Books, classes etc.  I am personally going to recommend Spiritual Parenting by Michelle Anthony (see below).  Not only is this a great book, but she (and her hubby) were college professors of myself and my hubby.  Their house may have been toilet papered once or twice due to us.  Honestly though, its a great book, and will give you some great insight on this topic.  There are ton of resources out there, use them!

5. Find A Good Community

You don't have to do it alone.  Find other families, other people who believe the same as you do.  They can encourage and support you along the way.  It i so important to have this.  People you can parent along side, who can poor into your kids also.  It is important as your kids grow up that they have other trusted adults to go to who will point them towards God.

Cheers!

Ashley

A Foundation of Faith (me)

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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While I know that not all my readers are Christian, I am.  These principals can still apply to you in your personal beliefs.  Our home is to be built on faith.  It is the foundation for all that we do in our home and our lives.  As a Homemaker, this starts with me.  While I firmly believe that my husband is the spiritual head of house (more on that tomorrow), this does not mean I can neglect my personal faith.  If I want my home to be built on faith, then I must take it upon myself to weave faith through out my home, my family and my personal life.

1.  Get in the Word and spend time with God DAILY

Honestly I still struggle with this.  Two young kids, midnight feedings, working, and running my family it is really hard to make the time.  However, it is SO important for me to work on my relationship with God.  I honestly couldn't imagine how I would respond to my family without my this critical relationship.

2. Talk about it

Again one of my favorite passages is Deuteronomy 6:6-9.  It is up to us to continually talk about our faith to our children.  To make sure they know what you believe and why.  If you never talk about it, how will they know?

3. Live it

As it is said, "Actions speak louder than words".  Children are the biggest copiers, they will do what they see you do.  They will repeat it over and over.  What are you modeling to your children?  What do they see you say and do every day?  This is what they will remember, this i what they will learn.

Tomorrow we will discuss ways to bring faith into your family as a whole.

Cheers!

Ashley

Step 4: Design A Way To Get It Done

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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Now that we have a purpose statement, we can begin to create and live it out in our homes.  This is where we create systems, goals and ways to achieve our purpose each and every day in our home.

For me this is what I need to work on/do in order to achieve my purpose.

Create a Fortress
Keep Our Family Grounded in Faith
Make things Functional
Keep things Kid Friendly
Make Guests feel welcome
Allow for growth
Allow Fun Memories

Over the next several days I will be breaking down ways to achieve my purpose, several of which will help you as well.  For now I will leave you with a question, what is ONE THING that you can do to take a step towards creating your purpose in your home?

Cheers!

Ashley

My Purpose Statement

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

Here is our home purpose statement.

(Please don't ask me how long it took me to make this graphic, it is an embarrassingly long time.)

 As you can see, I kept the 5 F's from earlier and used them (or the general idea) in my statement.  Now that we have a purpose in our home, we can work to make it happen!  Can't wait to share the ways to make this happen in your home!

I would love for you to share your home's mission with me in the comments!

Cheers!

Ashley

Step 3: Create A Statement

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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This is the KEY step!  Once you do this step it is all down hill.  Well not really, what is left is creating a way to live out that purpose in your home, which while very rewarding is not easy, but more on that later.

As we previously discussed purpose is, what we are trying to create, why we exist and our end goal.  Creating a single statement for our home that can capture our purpose is challenging, but not impossible.  This is why we have been talking about it for the last 11 days.  To hopefully bring you to a point where you feel that you CAN create a purpose statement for your home.  Some may call it a "mission statement" and you can feel free to see it that way, but this series is about creating purpose and this statement needs to encompass the full purpose of your home.

This is a statement that you want to be able to hold on to when you are doing the many "not fun" aspects of homemaking.  It is something inspirational to you, something that you can look at and realize that yes, cleaning the toilet, changing yet another diaper, or removing vomit from the couch again really does make a difference.

Tips for creating this statement:

• Start with, "Our home exists..." while you may not keep it there, it is an easy way to start.
• Keep it as concise as possible.
• Remember the words you came up with that describe what you want for your home, you may or may not use them but they will get you in the right direction.
• Break it down.  Come up with a few items and then combine them in a way that makes sense.

Have fun playing with it, I can't wait to hear all of your ideas!

Tomorrow I will share with you mine.

Cheers!

Ashley

The Five "F's" For My Home

Welcome to my 31 Days to Create Purpose in your home!  During the month of October, I am posting every day about creating purpose in your home and joining all of these bloggers who are also posting for 31 days on a topic of their choice.  I would love for you to follow me, and check out all of the other posts in the series and the introduction to it here.

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Now that you have figured out exactly what you don't want, make sure that you know what you do.  Remember, we are Beginning with the End in Mind right now.  After thinking, praying and knowing that our home needs to have a better purpose, I came up with five key words that I want my home to be founded on, I call them the 5 F's.  

Functional

Friendly (Kid & Guest)

Fun

Faith

Fortress

Looking at the way my current home is, I know that it is far from functional which is causing stress, and friction (things I don't want).  If I create better function in my home, those things will slowly disappear.  Currently, whenever people are coming over, it is a MAD and CRAZY dash to get everything done and put together, cleaned and presentable for them.  I hate that.  I also don't want everything so clean and neat that it doesn't look like kids exist.  So we know that our home needs to be Kid and Guest Friendly at all times.  I hate stuffy model homes.  Sure they look beautiful, but no one must ever have any fun there.  Our home should be a place fun exists daily.  Faith, is central to our family and should be central to our home as well, this is simple and strait forward yet hard sometimes to put into place (more on that later).  Finally a Fortress.  This may seem like an odd word to describe your home but it is my favorite.  To me it means, safety, a place where you feel totally settled and at peace.  No matter what is going on in the rest of the world, your home is your own domain, a place you can be yourself removed from the rest of the world.  It can stand up against all of the negative that life slings your way.  I think there is a reason that there is that "king of his castle" saying.  

What words do you want to describe your home?  They really don't have to start with the same letter, mine just did.  Once we figure this out, we are well on our way to creating our purpose and making it part of our home.

Cheers!

Ashley