Consistency

So here's a little story for you. My dear husband came home one day from work and was very excited to tell me about something he had recently heard on a podcast. It was all about One Word That Could Change Your Life. There was a very cool story about a pastor and another person (truth be told, I am not the best listener and I am a little hazy on the details). If I have the detail right one of them challenged the other to define his year by one word. On the surface this is an easy enough task, but then when you try to do it, well, that gets a little trickier. Do you define it by the sorrows of the year? How about the triumphs? The in-between? And remember you only get one word. Not a page, not a paragraph, not even a sentence...just one single word. 

I am sure that I responded in a way like this, "That's interesting." But as time went on I began to ponder the idea. As the new year was drawing near, and 2013 was thankfully drawing to a close, how would I want to view my new year? What laser like focus would I desire it to have? I prayed about it and asked the LORD to help give me guidance- what did He will for me this year? One word (get it...Heehee) kept coming to mind. Consistency. 

I really am the queen of the new idea. I love brand new shiny plans and I love the feel of the new organizers. I love thinking about how it will go and what I will do...until day 2. Why you ask? Because day one didn't go as perfectly as I had planned or day two got off to a rough start and I couldn't finish it as I desired so my time of planning is wasted on another failed (in my mind) dream and set aside for the brand new shiny dream that is just waiting to take its place. 

This has led to a growing amount of disorder in my life, frustration in my marriage, and a growing waistline, because the plans apply to diets too- don't you know?

So what is the point I am trying to make...one word for the whole year. Everything I plan, everything I do, everything I dream and work towards filtered through this one word...consistency. This year will be less about the start and more about the journey in between. Do I work at it even once the shine has come off of the plan? The pages are bent on the organizer- do I continue? Today nothing worked out as I had planned- do I throw my hands up and walk away or do I do what I can? 

Consistency leads to progress and progress doesn't have to be perfect to make an impact in my life. 

Today wasn't shiny like my sink was last night. Today wasn't exhilarating or fun. But there was progress made. I was consistent for the first time in a long while. And that my friends was good enough for me...at least for now. Tomorrow is a new day...and new- well you all know how I feel about that. 

Love- Andrea

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Leave It To Beaver, a Sink Full of Dishes, and a Hopeful Heart.

This blog has been a long time in coming. I confess I am having a difficult time putting fingertips to keyboard and turning what comes out into something worth keeping. But this blog is all about progress. Imperfect, messy, some days almost non-existent, but still hoped for, progress.

So where does Leave It to Beaver come into this? Funny story that. My husband and I have Netflix and one day while I was suffering from the monster of perfection and moved to inaction, I stumbled upon Leave It to Beaver. And in a mood to punish myself or feeling nostalgic, I am not certain which one it was, I hit play. While watching the show I longed to be more like June Cleaver. She was well dressed. Her house was clean and inviting. Her boys were trouble makers, but of the innocent kind. I kept looking at her wardrobe. Especially the pearls. She seemed to always have them on. Even when dealing with the daily grind sort of tasks.

Want me to let you in on a little secret? How about two? While watching this domestic bliss, I was still in my PJs, in the middle of the afternoon, surrounded by the mess of my own making. The second secret...June wasn't perfect either- or rather her real life counterpart wasn't. Barbara Billingsley, the actress that played June Cleaver, had a "hollow" on her neck. So according to legend, she suggested the pearls to help distract from this imperfection. I love how one of the most iconic images of the "homemaker ideal" was created to hide a imperfection.

I don't know why this little story hit me so hard. But the idea kept rolling around in my head. Cleaning with pearls on. It seems silly or idealistic, but there was something in it that I longed for at the same time. The feeling that my "job" was worth dressing up for. Treating what I do as valuable...or rather what I was supposed to be doing.

Here comes the second portion of the story. I had come home recently to be a full time homemaker. A role that instantly makes some people scoff or their blood starts to boil. Others say, "Good for you." I, myself, wanted to love it. In fact I had asked my husband if I could come home. But found once I got here that I struggled to find my footing.

I have perfectionist tendencies...OK I have them beyond tendencies. So much so that I created this blog months ago, but then found that I didn't have the perfect first post. So it sat empty. And my house became fuller...of stuff, trash, disorder. I love the FlyLady. If you talk to me for a bit I am sure that I will share my desire to do as she says. Google her if you have never heard of her. She's fun. Now she has a program to help you get your house in order. But I would do it full speed and then poop out. That is me. 0 to 60 and then quickly returning to 0. So here is my dirty little secret...perhaps it's better if I show you...

Now imagine that everywhere. June Cleaver would cry...or maybe not. Because I had long thought of those pearls as perfection, but remember what we have learned- this was not so. Maybe June would have said, with a smile, "We all have faults. We all have strengths. Put your pearls on and get to work."

My last point for the evening. I love, love, love the New Year. I love fresh starts. I love new beginnings. I usually am good at them. It's the sticking it out to the end that I am working on. But tonight as I type this imperfect first blog post  I have a hopeful heart. I didn't wear pearls today, but I did get up, spent time with the LORD, repented of most of last year, and (are you ready for this?!) did something that June, FlyLady, and for the first time in a long time, I, am really pleased with...and here it is...

I invite you to join me this year as I work at Cleaning with Pearls On.

-Andrea

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