Journal of a Busy Mom

living one day at a time

How I Set Up My Prayer Journal

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Last year I decided that I would start a new prayer journal every year. I like to go back and read my prayers, but sometimes I couldn’t find things because I had 2-3 years shoved into one book. So, I found these nifty binders at Office Depot for $1.00.

I was so excited. I selfishly bought them all-like 15 binders. They come with five dividers with write-on tabs and a nifty storage pouch. I don’t know if they were being discontinued, but I found a similar set at Amazon. It costs more than a dollar, but worth the investment. I like my binder to fit in my prayer box so I don’t use a full size binder.

I did find something similar at Amazon, it has dividers and a pouch. Here is the link the that.

I found an amazing post over at Intentional by Grace about how she sets up her prayer journal and she takes you step by step. There is even videos. So visit her site if you want a step by step.

My prayer book and Bible

My prayer journal is similar but I have less sections:

  • Praise
  • Thanksgiving
  • Confession
  • Daily
  • Monthly
  • Days of the Week

Then I Have a Daily Section which is where I keep all my daily prayer sheets for my family, friends, loved ones. This section is followed by Monthly. This section is for specific prayers for that month. For example, in February I will start planning for our VBS this summer. I will write that in February.

My Daily Sections

Then my Days of the Week are broken down as follows:

  • Monday- my church, church in America, Fellow Believers,
  • Tuesday-Grieving, Important Events, Lost & Backslidden, Neighbors, Persecuted Church
  • Wednesday-Specific Extended Family, the Ill, Those in Authority (president, governor, mayor, etc)
  • Thursday-Peace in Jerusalem (specifically pray for Jews for Jesus), several close friends, and foster families (I know alot of them)
  • Friday- missionaries, my Compassion kids, and homeschool family (specific family I pray for each year)

I am trying to help my kids establish their own quiet time so I am linking several printables I have found for them. Including prayer and reading guides.

10 Bible Reading Plans

180 Days Guided Tour of the Bible (this is the one my son chose)

http://chico1st.com/hp_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/180DaysGuidedTour.pdf

Week One Decluttering: Done!

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Last week I started this Decluttering Diet. The first 31 days is a “detox”. Each day has a 15 minute assignment. Of course, one can choose to do more than 15 minutes but 15 minutes is the minimum.

I am happy to say that I accomplished all the little 15 minute tasks! The jobs included:

  • paperwork- Done! I had several piles of papers all over my classroom/office and I worked diligently through those.
  • entry way/closet- Done! I had several coats and jackets that I no longer wear and so I put them in a sale pile.
  • purse- Done! Although,the messiest part of my purse is the receipts. I really don’t have a messy purse because I keep everything in little pouches. I have a make-up pouch and a catch all pouch.
  • Cleaning supplies-Done! This one was a bit tricky I have cleaning supplies in all the bathrooms so I didn’t get rid of any but I did condense a few. This is a work in progress. I am actually not buying anymore cleaning supplies and when I run out I want to start making my own again
  • Fridge and freezer- I only did the inside fridge/freezer. I plan to do the garage one this week. I found lots of treasures that were buried deep inside.
  • Pantry-Ah-my proudest accomplishment. I ended up throwing out 2 garbage bags of expired food. I am not PROUD of that. I hate that! But my pantry is clean. I am doing a NO Spend Challenge so this is exactly what I needed. Here is a pictures of it.

Left side of my clean pantry

Right side of my pantry

This upcoming week I have more 15 minute jobs including:

  • Cleaning out the medicine cabinet/first aid
  • Cleaning the dining area
  • Organizing and decluttering Entertainment Area
  • Culling all the Magazines and books
  • Revisiting my Junk Drawer

I am trying to carve 15 in the morning before I start homeschooling and so far so good.

Ligia

This is the Year to Declutter

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I am excited to start the Home Decluttering Plan this next week using the amazing book by Jennifer Gifford from Clean and Scentsible.

She has it all set up on her website too, here is a link to that. In fact she has these amazing worksheets to go along with the plan. I am starting one month later. So my “January 2019 Tasks” is becoming my “February 2019 Tasks”.

The books starts off with a 31 Day Detox. Since February is short a few days, I am starting THIS Monday 28th. Will you join me?

The goal of the Detox is to GET STARTED! It give you a job everyday with a 15 minute work goal.

This weeks jobs:

  • M-Paperwork
  • T-Front Entry/Mudroom
  • W-Purse
  • Th-Cleaning Supplies
  • F-Fridge/Freezer
  • S-Pantry
  • Su-Free For All

I might swap Friday and Saturday because I am also starting a 31 NO Spend Month using Ruth Soukup’s book and the first 2 days she has you cleaning your pantry and fridge/freezer. Here is her book:

I am mildly scared because I am trying to do BOTH books at once. I think, though, that they overlap wonderfully and I need to do this for myself and my family.

Ligia