Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Making Your Home a Haven - Week 2


Please feel free to refer back to my week 1 post Here

Courtney, at Women Living Well, is hosting a Fall Challenge around the theme of making your home a haven.  Last week the challenge was to light a candle and pray for the family.  I did better at praying for my family then I did at lighting the candle - it's been pretty warm here this past week so lighting a candle just wasn't on the top of my list!

This week - we have to "Sing, Dance, Smile, Swoon" - just have fun!
This weeks challenge is to Play soft music every day in your home and then to focus on using peaceful words and maintaining peaceful relationships. 

Some simple ways to do this - if you play in instrument, take time to play it this week.  I'm so guilty of not playing the piano in front of my kids because they like to join me.  I have a wedding to prepare for so I guess now would be a good time to start practicing during the day :-)  Another idea - just play CD's.  I have a 5 disc player so I try to pick 3 kids CD's and 2 grown-up CD's (so I don't go crazy singing "The Wheels on the Bus"!)  I find my kids play better and are better behaved when we listen to music more than watch TV.  I used to be really good at keeping the TV off but this summer, with the horrible heat, we sat and watched tons of TV and now, my kids love "toons"!  I'm still trying to get back to the music though :-)

Once you have the music going, we need to work on ourselves :-) Take time to think before you speak and don't use harsh words.  Pretty simple, right? HA!  Not really, I know but the one thing that I try to do is have patience.  Of course, everything my kids do tends to be slower than I would like or there are extra laughs, flips, and running around but, instead of getting upset, I've starting stopping, even sitting down on the bed or on the floor and laughing with them.  I find that when I am patient, I am also kind :-) Isn't it amazing how those two things go hand in hand?   

You can read Courtney's full post by clicking HERE







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