We hope you downloaded our January ‘Do It’ list and are finding it an effective tool for managing your home. Because I wanted to “practice what I preach” (as my mama used to say), I’ve been checking off my boxes along with you. It has truly been freeing to just jump in and do without needing to stop and ask, What should I do?  After the wonderful chaos of the holiday season, it has been a blessing to cycle back to rhythm and order. The ‘Do It’ list has been a great tool to help me do that.

I’ve also found that my tendency to be a teeny weeny (OK…a lot) competitive has worked to my advantage. I’m motivated to check off all the boxes before bed! Here are a couple of actions this week that earned me a check mark:

• After getting off the treadmill, I needed to let my heart rate come down before jumping in the shower. I realized the “vacuum one room” box was not checked, so I used that time to make it happen. I’m not sure I had ever vacuumed at 9 PM but I did last night!
• When a friend called (and I realized the call would be a few minutes), I was glad I answered my cordless phone—yes, we still have a home phone, as well as cell phones!—because I grabbed my dust rag and literally polished off one room during the call.
• I’ve been sorting out a load of laundry before bed so it is ready to start first thing in the morning.
• “Read One Chapter” on my list has effectively legitimized delight as duty!

Depending on your season and ongoing commitments in life, your boxes may or may not all get checked off. But I hope you are seeing visible progress, and find yourself enjoying more order (and the peace that comes as a result).

I can now personally endorse these wise words penned by Benjamin Franklin in the 18^th century:

For every minute spent in organizing an hour is earned.

Mr. Franklin’s words are timeless truth … absolutely applicable in the 21^st century!

With January coming to an end, it’s time to publish our February ‘Do It’ list. It has been tweaked just a skosh (and you can expect that each future edition will adjust the monthly tasks). Once again, we have included a blank list for those who want to completely personalize their daily, weekly and once-per-month tasks. Download links for both versions appear at the bottom of the page.

Last month’s Top Ten unpacked the Daily ‘Do It’ tasks. This month, we’ll examine the Weekly ‘Do Its’ and I will share a few tips regarding those.

1. Please try to accept the gift God has given you of a Sabbath Rest. All too often, we make Sunday a catch-up day – do the lesson plans, make a few lunches, run to the grocery store, etc., etc., etc.  Many of us connect “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy” with legalism, and it makes us want to run. The Sabbath is a gift to be enjoyed, not a rule to be kept.
2. The Weekly ‘Do Its’ can be parceled out to individual days, or all bunched into a Saturday morning or a free afternoon. The ‘Do It’ list is a tool for you to use and adjust to fit your schedule. And, of course, when you have soccer games, piano practice, and co-op schedules to juggle, that will change week to week.
3. Clean the bathroom.
   If you have two bathrooms in your house, perhaps they will only get cleaned every other week. Maybe you will delegate this task to a child. (See my ideas for Bathroom Boot Camp.) Another option to make it happen: clean a toilet on Monday, a sink and counter on Tuesday, and the tub on Wednesday. You may not have large blocks of free time to clean; the key is to effectively use the time you do have.
4. Sweep the front porch.
   Many of us rarely use our front door. We enter and exit through the garage. Sweeping the porch weekly assures that, on the rare occasion when we hear the doorbell ring, it will no longer be necessary to mumble an embarrassed apology to the Fed Ex dude for the month-old pile of damp leaves he had to wade through to reach our door. (Not that that has ever happened to me, of course….)
5. Mop the kitchen.
   As a young mom, nothing made me feel a greater sense of accomplishment than getting the floor mopped. I did, however, have to learn to release the expectation that my husband would come home and salute/praise/applaud the clean floor. In my young-and-naïve days, I remember getting right down angry with my sweet husband because he didn’t notice the clean floor! Our kind and loving Heavenly Father gently reminded me that if my husband didn’t notice on the one day it was clean, he probably didn’t notice on the other 364 days it wasn’t.
6. Plan Next Week’s Meals/Make Next Week’s Grocery List.
   Eating out is expensive and often unhealthy; we end up paying for convenience with both our health and our budget. A crazy schedule sometimes makes it necessary, but in my family, all too often it was my failure to plan that prompted fast food for dinner. Our printable meal planners are great tools for making the menu and the grocery list; find them here.
7. Organize a drawer or closet.
   It’s an overwhelming task to think about decluttering and organizing our entire home. But if we tackle just one drawer per week, we will have organized 52 areas by the end of the year! Check out Bridgitt’s post (complete with pics) for ideas!
8. Purge three things.
   It’s so easy for clutter and stuff to stack up and take over. Deliberately and intentionally—perhaps even ruthlessly—finding three things to give away (or throw away) will not only result in over 150 items eliminated by year end, it will begin to challenge us to think before we buy:  might today’s purchase become next month’s purge?
9. Encourage someone. This might be a post on their Facebook page, a handwritten note, a text message, or a phone call. Hebrews 3:13 challenges us to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today.” What a joy to simply ask God, Who shall I love on today?, then send a note to whoever comes to mind. Many times a friend has cycled back to me and tearfully asked, “How did you know?” My note was timed perfectly for what she needed at that moment. I get to smile and respond, “I didn’t, but God did.” How good He is to us!
10. Pray a Psalm.
    When I don’t have words of my own to pray, I’ve found it a huge blessing to pray God’s words back to Him. The Psalms are the best for praying Scripture. I like to call them “David’s Facebook” … whatever he was experiencing or feeling, David wrote a Psalm about it. Whether you are happy, sad, afraid, contrite, or just need to worship God, you can find a Psalm that fits your need.

Thank you for joining us on this journey to love God and our families well. We pray our February ‘Do It’ list resonates with both your Mary and your Martha self!

Download your February list
with or without pre-printed tasks:

February 2018 ‘Do-It’ List

Blank February 2018 ‘Do-It’ List