It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It is my favorite time of year! Yay for Christmas! I love the lights and the decorations and the special treats that only come out this time of year.  And I REALLY love buying presents!

I just took a few days off work to get the house ready for Christmas. I cleaned and decorated my room and my mom's. Nothing too fancy, just her Santa collection in her room and my Christmas tree in mine. My sister is working on the downstairs. It's looking very festive! And presents are piled up everywhere waiting to be wrapped and stashed under the tree.

I even had my very first Christmas pudding! My English boyfriend sent a small one to me in my Christmas gift package. It was kind of like a combination of gingerbread cake and fruit cake. It was quite tasty!

I love Christmas! And just think. We have this wonderful time of year because of God's love. I know that there is a lot of contraversy in the Christian community over Christmas. No, Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. And a lot of our traditions may be the results of the "Christianization" of pagan practices (although now even that theory has been challenged). But I think it's a great idea to take a day and a season of the year to remember God's love for us.

I wish all of my readers a wonderful Christmas season! Get out there, enjoy the sights and sounds (and treats!), and share the love of Christ with someone today!

Election Reflection

After several days to think about the election, the disappointing outcome, and the implications, I have a few thoughts about the state of our country and its future.

First of all, I am not surprised. I knew it would be a 50/50 chance. We prayed. We fasted. But most importantly, we asked God for HIS will to be done, not ours. Of course, OUR will would have been a Romney win. But apparently God has other plans for our country.

I think that we are seeing the fall of our once-great nation. God has given us time to repent of our national sins, and yet we continue to murder the unborn en masse, take Him out of our society bit by bit, make it harder to practice Christianity, and promote immorality as the new normal.

I'm not trying to sound like a prude. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not perfect. I've shacked up. I've had sex outside of marriage. I've done a lot of things that are unbecoming to a Christian. So I'm not trying to play "holier than thou."

But we do need to take a good look at our country. We kill our children and call it "choice." We promote single motherhood and call it "welfare." We allow foreigners to break our laws and call it "tolerance." We have instigated class warfare and race warfare and gender warfare. We take money away from productive people and companies and use it to build government bureaucracies that take away our freedoms.

We take money away from our own children and give it to countries who hate us, who use it to oppress their people. We have left our kids with a crippling debt so we can give subsidies to bankrupt companies. We have killed thousands of jobs in the name of environmentalism. We have killed thousands of American soldiers to protect oil fields in the Middle East rather than displacing a few polar bears and drilling our own oil.

Is it any wonder that God has given us what we wanted? I heard a lot of preachers urging America to "vote its values." Well, it looks like we did. Our values have changed, and not for the better.

When George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States, his first official act was to lead a procession to a nearby church for a prayer session. This year, God's name was taken out of the Democratic National Platform, and was boo'ed when it was put back in. We have taken God out of our schools. We have made it politically incorrect to express our faith. Christian organizations are being forced to either comply with laws that go against their core values or else shut down
altogether. Revisionist history has removed our Christian heritage from our children's text books.

We have stopped disciplining our children, and fill them up with drugs instead. We focus on school lunches to "protect the children" while thousands of children are trafficked for sex right under our noses. We allow those who victimize underage children to get off with a slap on the wrist while the children themselves are returned to their abusers. We tag underage children as "sex offenders" for sending naked pictures to their agemates while we protect actual child-rape pornography as "free speech."

Is it any wonder that the election turned out the way it did? We voted our values, and our values suck. We got what we deserve.

So is there any hope for our country? I find it interesting that there has been a movement within the evangelical community to pray for revival for our country. What if the revival we're praying for comes as a result of persecution? The church is flourishing in China, where it can be deadly to confess one's faith. Perhaps a period of persecution is what it will take to bring lukewarm Americans back to God.

But no matter what happens, God is in control. And we have His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. We must continue to pray for our country to return to God. We must pray for our brothers and sisters in other countries who are under persecution for their faith. And most importantly, we must pray that we ourselves will stand strong if we are called to be persecuted for our Christian faith.

I know my last few posts have been rather serious, and I will get back to the original intent of this blog: to give advice to single Christian women about life in general. But please take a moment to praise God for the fact that we still live in a country where we can posts blog posts like this one without being hauled away by the goolag. That day may come, so let's make the most of our freedom while we have it.

Can't Vote For A Mormon? Seriously?

I'd like to take a moment to encourage everyone to get out there and vote next Tuesday. I know a lot of Christians don't want to vote because they don't approve of Obama's policies and yet they don't want to vote for a Mormon.

I say, Grow Up! Seriously, people? You're going to just sit home and do nothing? But you aren't just "doing nothing." For every conservative Christian who stays home, Romney gets one less vote, and Obama gets ahead. So what if you don't share Romney's religious beliefs? We're electing a President, not a preacher! What are his values? They are in line with Evangelical Christian values.

And do you know why we have a Mormon for our candidate instead of a Christian? We had Christian candidates early in the primaries, candidates like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry. Why didn't any of them win? Because Christians like YOU didn't get out and vote for them! The same thing happened in 2008. We ended up with a RINO for a candidate, and we lost the election. If you sit home on election day because you "can't vote for a Mormon," then you are handing the election over to Obama. Do you really want four more years of him? If so, sit home on election day and pat yourself on the back because you didn't vote for a Mormon. If not, then get out there and vote!

Oh, and I've heard of some sort of movement that's going to write in Jesus as the presidential candidate. People, that is just wrong. It is immature at best, and it's disrespectful to God. Using His Name to make a political statement is taking His name in vain. So please don't join in this foolishness.

Now, I also know that not every Christian wants to vote for Romney anyway. Some feel that they should vote for Obama because he claims to be a Christian. I had a liberal clergyman tell me that no real Christian would vote for anyone besides Obama, and that voting for a non-Christian will open the door to a Muslim president down the road. I told him he was on crack and needed to look at the fruit of both candidates to see who was more Christian-like.

If you are a Christian, I ask you to please get out to the polls and vote conservatively! Oh, and if you stay home on Election Day, don't expect me to listen to you whine about the outcome!

Thoughts on Sandy

Today I am in prayer for the people affected by Hurricane Sandy. It really is a frightening thing. And such an unexpected thing! Who would've thought of a hurricane causing trouble in New York? I'm so glad I live in Ohio!

I had written most of this article, and then I saw the pictures on TV. It is horrible. It looks like a war zone. I've heard the death count is at 40, but I'm guessing that it will be more as the waters recede and they find more bodies.

I heard that the subways are completely submerged. I've been worried about the homeless people. A lot of them seek shelter in the subways. How many more bodies will they find down there?

And what about all the poor people in the ghettos? How could they get out? They most likely don't have insurance. What will they do if their homes are destroyed?

And animals, too. People's pets who had to be left behind. And looting. Will those who were spared be cruel enough to steal from those who were able to get to safety? I feel bad for everyone.

I have already seen sites collecting money to help Sandy victims. I encourage you to give if you can, but be sure to go through a reputable site. Better yet, give through a local organization or church group that you already support so you know the money will be put to good use.

I am beyond curious to find out if the little church at Ground Zero survived. I've recently read Jonathan Kahn's The Harbinger, and learned that this church was the first place President Washington went after his inauguration. He led a procession from the Federal Building to the church, and they had a church service to celebrate the official start of our nation.

When the World Trade Center was bombed, the church was protected by a sycamore tree, which blocked the shrapnel. It was seen as a sign that God was calling America back to its Christian roots. One day I will do a complete post on The Harbinger, but not today. I will wait until after the election.

Anyway, I am interested to see if it stood or fell.

But the thing I'm most curious about is how Sandy is going to affect the elections. If the polling places are destroyed, how will people vote? Will the election be postponed? Will they have alternative polling venues available? Will this make voter fraud more prevalent, or will it make it harder to commit?

Please take a few minutes before you go to bed tonight and say a prayer not only for the victims, but also for the rescue workers and relief workers. Please pray that everyone is safe, and that many will turn to God to get them through this crisis.

At Long Last, A New Post!

After a haitus of several months, I have decided to give my blog another shot. I was going to post a political entry, but I see that the last entry I did was political, lol. I will do something else today, and save my political rants for another day. :)

Since this is a blog for single Christian women, I'd like to like to bring up an important issue: having our daily quiet time with God. As single women, we have more time for Bible study and prayer than our married and/or childed counterparts. It is important to take advantage of this blessing of free time and spend some time with God each day.

Just start with 10 or 15 minutes, thank God for your blessings, ask Him to forgive your sins, and read a passage from the Bible. I really like the epistles (letters) in the New Testament, and I also like the Proverbs. You may buzz through several books in a few weeks, or you may meditate on the same passage or verse for days or even weeks. Let the Spirit guide you. He will let you know what you need to read for that day.

As you grow in your faith, and as the Spirit leads you, you will find that you are adding activities to your daily devotion time. I have the following basic Devotions routine:

1. Greeting prayer
2. Praise journal (I write a page full of the things I'm thankful for)
3. Prayer journal (requests for myself and others)
4. Prayer time (first my thanks, then my requests)
5. Scripture memorization (I'm still working on this part, lol)
6. The Main Event: reading scripture :)

I try to spend about an hour or so a day with God. Sometimes my mind wanders and it takes longer, and sometimes I have to shorten it because of my schedule, but the important thing for me is spending time with God first thing in the morning.

I want to encourage all of you to do the same thing. You can spend time with God any time of the day. You can just read the Bible, or find an inspiring devotional book to help you. You can do a formal Bible study with a study guide. Do whatever works best for you!

I hope this little post will inspire you to spend some quality time with God.

On My Soapbox

Today I exercised the right to vote. This is a right I do not take lightly. Men and women fought and even died to give me this right. I consider it a slap in their faces to stay home on voting day just because I didn't keep up on the issues or I just don't feel like going.

America is the greatest nation on the face of the planet. We have more freedoms here than any other nation offers. The libtards are trying to take those freedoms away from us, and it's our job as Christians to vote for godly individuals to lead our nation. Will they win? That's in God's hands. But if we sit home and whine, "Oh, my vote won't matter," then guess what? We just hand the government over to those who want to take away our freedoms.

 If you don't believe me, look at the current attack on the Catholic church by the Obama administration. He insisted that Catholic organizations (mainly hospitals and universities) be forced to provide birth control (including abortifacients) and sterilization procedures to their employees. These are two things the Catholic church consider sinful and against God's will.

The issue here is not whether Christians can use birth control or whether sterilization is wrong. It is about the state tromping on the beliefs of the church. The concept of "separation of church and state" (albeit a false concept not actually appearing in the Constitution) was to protect the church from the state, not vice-versa.

So, ladies, when you sit home on voting day, you are putting our country in danger. Maybe you think that one little vote won't matter. Well, if hundreds, thousands, even a couple of million of us put that one little vote together, we can influence the outcome of the election. We can protect our country (and more importantly, our religious freedoms) from those who would like to take our rights away.

By the way, Obama's response to the public outcry against the birth control requirement was to transfer the requirement from the religious organizations to the insurance companies. As many of the insurance companies are also owned by the church, this did little good. It only kicked the can down the road a bit more.

So ladies, let's get this guy out of office in November! Go vote, and vote for a conservative!

Preparing for Easter

OK, I started this blog almost two months ago, and I've made 7 posts. Yikes! Time to get back on track. I have covered the "get organized" theme in honor of the New Year, so now I would like to take a more serious turn and focus on Lent.

We are in the Lenten season now, a time leading up to the greatest day of the year, Easter! Christ died for our sins, and paid the price that we could never begin to pay ourselves. That is why we call the Friday before Easter, the Friday He died, "Good Friday." Indeed, the death of Jesus is the single most scandalous event in human history. The only perfect man to ever live, Who never committed a single sin, paying for every single sin ever committed. The Son of the Godhead being separated from His beloved Father for the first time in all eternity. The most unfair moment in history.

It amazes me that God would love us enough to give us His Son. And that Jesus loves us enough to do it for us. If someone wanted to torture my CAT to death for a bunch of people, I would not want to turn him over to them. Yet here is the God of the universe turning His Son over to die for us sinners. John says "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us," and it is so true!

But the story doesn't end there. In fact, if it did, we would have little hope for the future. Paul even said that if it's only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Jesus did not stay dead. Instead, He was raised from the dead, and lived and breathed and walked on Earth for 40 more days before being taken up to Heaven! Thank God! It is so amazing to think of this, and to ponder how it was possible. Yet for God, all things are possible.

Some may not take the resurrection of Christ too seriously. He was not the first person in the Bible to raise from the dead, and He wasn't the last. But His resurrection was different. In all the other resurrections, someone else brought the dead person back to life, be it a prophet or an apostle or Christ Himself. But Jesus raised HIMSELF from the dead! God Himself brought Jesus back to life. No human being was involved. It was a miracle within a miracle!

So what can we do to prepare for this season of Lent? A lot of churches do a Lenten fast, giving up something enjoyable for Lent. Loads of books and devotionals have been written just for this season. Some Christians like to read the story of the last week of Jesus' life from the four Gospels during this time. Others watch Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

As for me, I'm giving up my beloved coffee for Lent. It's really hard! But whenever I crave coffee, I just pray and thank God for His blessings, especially His Son. I also thank Him that I have plenty of food to eat, and pray for those who don't.

My church doesn't celebrate Lent per se, so it is a new experience for me. I celebrated Lent for the first time last year. I heard several radio preachers talking about it, so I decided to give it a go. I was glad I did! I felt closer to God, and felt like I was really focusing on the season. And let me tell you, that Easter morning cup of coffee was the best I've ever had!

I also like to spend the week of Easter ("Passion Week") reading the last week of Jesus' life. I was struck that He spent the last week of His life reasoning with the religious leaders and trying to get them to see the error of their ways. And how did they thank Him? They killed Him.

The other thing that struck me was this. While He was on the cross, in absolute agony, where was His focus? On His mama. He made sure that she was looked after by turning her care over to John. That has always touched me, and it is a testament that Jesus lived (and died) focused on others.

And that brings me to my final point. What can we do for others this Lenten season? I'm happy that our Ladies' Group at church is making up Easter baskets for our shut-ins. I have a couple of additional people I want to make up gifts for, too. Is there someone we need to visit? Is there an apology or an amend we need to make to someone? Is there something in our lives that is keeping us from God?

Now is the time to prepare our hearts for Easter. What will you do to get ready for the greatest day of the year?

Surviving Valentine's Day

I have a confession. I HATE Valentine's Day! Is it because I hate all of the lovey-dovey stuff that goes on? No. I eat that stuff up. :)

Is it because I'm all alone on V-Day? No. My boyfriend lives in England, so I'm physically alone, but I know I am loved. <3

Is it because I think it's an overrated made-up holiday invented by the greeting card and floral industries? Getting warmer!

The reason I hate Valentine's Day (drumroll, please!), is that I work in a flower shop! It is our single busiest day of the year, and we spend the week before getting ready for it! I hate it! On Valentine's Day and the day before, I worked 26 hours in two days! I was tired and exhausted. Sigh.

But I did survive, and now I'm looking forward to a big fat paycheck on Friday. Oh, and my boss was nice and gave me the TWO days after V-day off. Yay! It took a week or so for me to get physically rested up, and to get my office work caught up (I was a phone girl for most of the holiday). So now, a week after the worst day of the year, I am back to normal. :)

Now that the holiday is over and it's smooth sailing until May (another floral business biggie: Mother's Day!), I will be back to regular posts. I'm also going to learn how to promote my blog so that more people will see it. I can't wait to have someone besides my mom read my posts!

Organizing Basics

Well, it's been awhile since my last post, but I am back! And ready to organize! Now, some of this stuff is basic knowledge. But I'm sure that you can glean some new ideas, even if you're a master orgainzer!

1. Keep the stuff you use everyday close at  hand. Put the things you use only once a year (like holiday serving dishes or Christmas decorations) in those hard-to-reach areas. Keep your everyday items in areas that are easily accessible.

2. Kitchen hint #1: Keep items in cupboards next to the place they are used. For example, keep the coffee and filters in the cabinet above the coffee pot. Keep drinking glasses next to the fridge. Keep spices next to the oven. (Next to it, but not directly overhead, as the heat can cause them to lose their potency.)

3. Kitchen hint #2: Put away all appliances that you don't use at least once or twice a week. I lived for years with a toaster taking up cabinet space. I never ate toast, and had poptarts or frozen French toast maybe once every 2 or 3 months. I finally wised up, moved the toaster to the cupboard, and put something cute in its spot that made me smile when I looked at it. :)

4. Bathroom hint: Do NOT store medications (prescription or OTC) in the bathroom! The heat and humidity can damage their potency. I store my everyday meds in a pretty storage box in my computer room (where I take them every night), and my occasional pills (like cold medicine and Pepto Bismal) in a drawer in the hutch in the hallway.

5. Forget the ridiculous rule of "Handle paper only once." Seriously? Who goes through the mail, pulls out a bill, pays it, and then moves on to the next piece? Sort things down and get your paper clutter under control. I have three piles: file, handle, and pitch. Okay, the "pitch" pile goes straight in the trash. The file pile (bank statements and so forth) gets filed as soon as possible. The handle pile gets "handled" appropriately: bills to pay get put in my bill-paying bin, things I need to look up on-line get put next to the computer, and so forth.

6. Make up bill-paying box. It can be a pretty box from a craft store, something you decorate yourself, or even just a plain old shoebox. Include everything you need to pay bills: Pen, stamps, envelopes, calculator, and checkbook (if you don't keep it in your purse). That way, when it's time to pay bills, just grab the pile of bills from your bill-paying pile and your box, and you're ready to go! 

In addition to my bill-paying box, I have one for sending out the missions checks from church (I am treasurer of our church's Missions Committee). It includes everything listed above, plus a highlighter for balancing up the checkbook with the bank statement. When I get a new bank statement, I just toss it in the box. That way I know just where it is, and I don't have to rummage through my office looking for it.

Those are just some organizing basics to get you started. There are tons of books and websites out there to explore when you're ready to take it to the next step! One of my favorites is a blog called IHeartOrganizing (link is below in my favorite blog list). She always has cute stuff, both from her own house, and from readers' contributions.

Now that you are getting your home under control, we'll talk about getting your life under control the next time!

Should It Stay Or Should It Go?

Today we will talk about deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. Sometimes it's hard to decide what needs to go. Sometimes we are emotionally attached to an item, even though we never use and and didn't really want it in the first place. So where do we start?

Some items are no-brainers. We all have sentimental things that we'll never get rid of. My mom made a quilt for my high school graduation gift using scraps of clothes that she had made me while I was growing up. It has been washed so many times it's falling apart and I'm afraid to use it anymore. But you can bet I'll never get rid of it!

But not everything has sentimental value. Some doesn't really have any value. How many spatulas and frying pans do we really need? How long are we going to hang on to our skinny clothes? How many medicines in our medicine cabinet are expired?

We need to address each item and ask ourselves: Do I love it? Do I use it? Do I need it? Does it mean something to me? Do I have something else that can do the same thing? How many of these will I realistically use at one time? Could someone else get more use out of it? Did I borrow this from someone else and forget to return it? lol!

As we answer these questions, it becomes much easier to sort down our items and decide what to keep. Now, here are a few tips and tricks I've heard (and often used) over the years.

1. Take all of your kitchen gadgets, spatulas, etc. and put them in a box. Over the next month, pull out each item as you need it and put it back in the drawer when it's clean. At the end of the month, pull out anything you only use once or twice a year (like a turkey baster or candy thermometer), and get rid of anything else left in the box. You don't need it!

2. If you're unsure about keeping something, put it in a box, seal it up, and date it for a year from now. At the end of the year, you probably won't even remember what's in the box. You can get rid of it! (Just don't peek, lol!)

3. At the end of each season, go through your closet & dresser, and get rid of anything seasonal you didn't wear this year. If you didn't wear it this year, you're not going to wear it next year, either.

4. Twice a year when you change your fire alarm batteries, go through your medicine cabinet and get rid of expired medications. While most of them aren't harmful, they do lose their potency over time and will not do you much good. Now, if you want to be really responsible, you can take them to your local pharmacy for safe disposal. But if you're lazy like me (and they're just OTC medications), just pitch them. :)

5. Only have 2 sets of sheets per bed: one on the bed, and one in the closet to replace them on laundry day. (I only have one set, actually. They are a lovely pale pink and match my bedspread. I wash them and put them right back on my bed when they're done.)

So, what do you with the things you're getting rid of? You will either toss it in the trash or donate it. I always have a Goodwill box going, and take it in once it's full. You can also donate household items, even used ones, to your local homeless shelter. When someone is starting from scratch, they're happy to have anything. In fact, the lady from the homeless shelter told us that people will often bring back their "starter" items for others to use when they are able to buy new things for themselves.

But some things are not worth donating. Broken electronics, ripped or stained clothing, opened cosmetics, smelly shoes, and so forth need to go straight in the trash. Only donate usable items!

(My sister once had a boyfriend who worked at Salvation Army. He said a lot of people used it as a dump for things they didn't want to pay to get rid of. He said SalvA had to pay to get rid of this trash! So put your trash in the trash!)

One final note: don't leave this stuff sitting around your house for the next 6 months! Get rid of it asap! Take out the trash on your very next trash day. (Or if you're lucky enough to have a dumpster, take out each bag or box as you fill it up.) And make it a goal to take your donations to the proper place within the next week. As a box or bag fills up, put it in your car.

So what do you do with the things you've decided to keep? There have been countless books written on organizing, and I'm sure you can find lots of them at your local library. But I will cover some basics with you tomorrow. See you then!

What Do I Do With All Of This Stuff?

I have been in bed sick with the flu for the last couple of days, and nothing makes you appreciate good health like hugging the toilet for 12 hours straight! But I digress. Now I will continue with my regular posts.

If you've followed my advice in my last post, you have now taken out the trash, taken the dirty dishes to the kitchen, put away your clothes, and put away everything that has a home. Some of you are actually finished with your cleaning now. Yay! Just dust and vacuum and you're good to go!

However, if you're like me, you still have a pile of stuff that doesn't have homes. (Most of mine is my newly acquired Christmas presents.) This is called clutter. Clutter can eat you alive. It can actually cause you to feel depressed and drain your energy. It is not healthy for us.

The common way of thinking is, "I only have to be more organized." But ladies, you cannot organize clutter! You can only get rid of it! If you are out of space in your closets, dressers, cabinets, and drawers for your new things, then it's time to get rid of some old things! Nothing feels as good as a good purge. Being able to let go of the excess things that we don't use or don't enjoy or don't love anymore is very freeing.

But I also understand this can be very emotional for a lot of people. You've held on to certain things since high school or even earlier. Or your now-deceased grandmother gave you that outfit you've always hated, and it seems like giving it away would disrespect her memory. Perhaps you have a family heirloom that gives you the creeps. (Empire style, anyone?) But learning to let go will free you up, not only physically, but also emotionally and even spiritually.

While your great-grandmother's wedding corsage may not make the first round of cuts, I'm sure there are lots of things that you know you should and could get rid of without much guilt. We are going to use the simple three-box system. Get three boxes, bags, plastic totes, whatever you prefer. You are going to separate your stuff into three piles: keep, donate, throw away.

Now, don't go pulling apart the whole room! Only go one closet, one shelf, one drawer at a time until you're done. Only pull out what you know you'll be able to finish with in the amount of time you have. In fact, you may want to start with your pile of things without homes.

Once you have finished an area and weeded out the "donates" and the "throw aways", return your keeps to the same area to get it out of your way. Unless you already have a place for it somewhere else, just put it back where it came from for the time being.

Tomorrow, we will look more closely at determining what to get rid of and what to keep. For now, just repeat after me: "A place for everything, and everything in its place." :)

Where Do I Begin With This Hot Mess?

Do I have your attention? :) If you're like me, you have a huge post-holiday mess at your house: Christmas presents, dirty dishes, decorations, piles of stuff that just got dumped on the floor or the table instead of being put away because there was celebrating to do! I love the phrase "hot mess," and it is sooo appropriate for my computer room right now! So where do we start in cleaning up this hot mess?

Now, to some of you, this may seem like a silly question. You may even have a tidy house that didn't suffer from the Holiday Hurricane. You are what is called BO: Born Organized. You are so lucky! But a lot of us are messies: we have no clue where to begin. Sure, if it's a sinkful of dirty dishes, or a pile of dirty clothes, we know what to do. But what about this giant wreck that has magically appeared over the month of December?

Here is the simple plan I use when I'm overwhelmed with a huge mess. You can use it, too.
1. Grab a trash bag and get rid of all the trash you can find.
2. Now pick up all the dirty dishes and take them to the kitchen. Don't get sidetracked with doing them now. Just get them into the room where they belong.
3. Next, take care of clothes, blankets, and other textiles. Toss dirty clothes in the hamper and put the clean clothes away. If your clean clothes don't have a home, just pile them neatly out of the way. (We will begin to deal with clutter in another day or two.) Fold up your snuggies and put the toss pillows back where they belong.

There! I'm sure it's much better already! Now all that's left is stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. We all have way too much stuff. Our job is to figure out what stuff we need and what stuff we can get rid of. We will look more into decluttering tomorrow. But first let's deal with things that already have a home.

My organizing mantra may be an old cliche, but it endures because it is soooo practical: A place for everything, and everything in its place. If all of your things have a home, it is easy to clean up your house by simply returning each item to its home. It is the things that don't have a home that are the source of distress for a lot of us!

The fourth and final step we'll look at today is returning things to their home. We'll deal with homeless things tomorrow. :) If you have a lot of stuff out of place (like I do), then it may take awhile to do this. Even taking things into the rooms they belong in is a big help.

I have spent the last few days doing these four steps, and the results are amazing! Sure, I need to vacuum and dust. And there is still a pile of Christmas presents to find homes for. But I feel like I can breathe in my office again!

Follow these steps, and your hot mess will be reduced to a smoldering ember. :)

Using Our Time to Serve God

Well, now that I have a fabulous layout and color scheme, it is time to get down to the business of blogging! This is not going to be a blog about finding the perfect husband, or how being single is soooo much better than being married. Neither attitude is healthy, or even scriptural. Singlehood is simply the season of our life we are currently in. We all go through different seasons in life, and each has its pros and cons. No season is any better or any worse than any other. Our job, as Christians, is to be content with where God has us, and to be as productive as we can in our current season.

I want to take a moment to reflect on the main benefit of being single: free time. Now most of you are probably saying "Free time? What's that?" But without the obligations of husbands and children, we have much more time to ourselves than other women.

As single women, we can take advantage of this extra time by getting involved in church and service projects. Ladies, we should be the first to volunteer for things that need done around church: teaching Sunday School, decorating for church dinners, preparing communion, working at the food bank, and so forth. Not that I do ALL of these things myself, nor do I expect any of you to do it all. We all have different gifts, and different areas we're called to serve in.

But we should be doing our share of church work, and maybe even a little bit more. It is easy to sit back and let the older, more experienced women do everything, but how is that preparing us to take over when they're gone? We need to let them mentor us and teach us how to keep the church running smoothly after they're gone.

And let's not get frustrated with other women our age. Some of us had "Super Moms," who could do it all: family, church, and career. But most women are not super moms. While the young mothers in our churches should be doing what they can, we simply can't expect them to do as much as we do. I find myself in this mindset sometimes. "Why don't the other younger women do this or that like I do, and my sister does?" (She's married but has no kids, so she's active in church, too.) But it can't be easy to raise several kids, keep a home, and have a career. We need to go easy on them and realize that once they are past this season of their lives, they will get more involved.

But the main thing that we should be doing with our free time is building our relationship with God. Right now, we have the advantage of being able to spend lots of time in daily prayer and Bible study. Some days I spend as much as an hour and a half in daily devotions. (Not that I'm oh so holy, my mind just wanders a lot, lol.) But in this season of life, we have the opportunity to become very close to God. Building that firm foundation now will give us a base of faith to depend on when we enter other seasons of our lives.

If you haven't done so today, take a few minutes to thank God for all His blessings in your life, and read a chapter or two of the Bible. And the next time the Ladies' Group is looking for someone to help with the next church banquet, be sure to offer your services!

My Very First Post!

Hello, everyone! I am just getting the feel for this blogging thing. I don't have much here yet, but I'm working on the basics tonight. I shall get more into the content in the next couple of days. Can't wait to join the wide world of blogging!