Three words to live by...

or at least three words I've begun to consider more closely.

Lower your standards.

"When you get to the point that the mess in your home is causing you stress, remember these three powerful words: Lower your standards. It's hard to keep up with the cleaning, laundry, and organization the way you did pre-baby..."- babycenter.com


I find it impossible to keep up with anything the way I did pre-baby.  There are not enough hours in the day to keep a truly clean & also picked-up home, all the laundry washed & put away, all the coupons organized, the dinners prepared... AND spend every waking moment I have with my wee one.

When Lillie is awake and with me, she deserves my attention {after all that is only a few hours a day}.  The laundry, the cleaning, the cooking, the everything else can wait.  What I've recently come to realize is that Lillie deserves my 100%, and so does my job and my husband and my friends and my family.  And that requires me to give up a little- so that I can sleep a little more, talk of the phone a little more to friends and take a deep breathe every now and then.

So, my standards for my home have been lowered.

This pile on my desk... it doesn't bother me.

It is a pile of coupons waiting to be filed... so I can go to southernsavers.com on Tuesday evenings, head to the Teeter on Wednesday mornings {6:30am} and come home with something, anything that we can eat for free.

This mail on the floor... it will get picked-up tonight at some point.  But it had to be sorted and you saw my desk!

And the dining room table is waiting for a sewing project to begin.  I've got to fix Lillie's crib skirt- it is a little too long now that we have moved the crib to it's lowest level.  And when I have time, I'll get that done.  But, it can wait.

There is only one room left in our home that I still hold to my pre-baby standards- or possibly higher- and it's the kitchen for obvious reasons.  So here it is- a clean counter, mopped floor, high-chair ready to go for the next feeding.

Priorities shape how I spend my time.  As my priorities have shifted- so have my standards.  Does my home define my family?  Does the fact that I cannot do it all make me less of a wife and mother?

I hope that the lowering of my Earthly standards is a reflection of my desire to store up heavenly treasures.  I began thinking more and more about my treasures after reading this.
 
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21