Shining Clean

So glad to have the impetus to sit and write a post of thanks.

My number one beauty secret is Jesus’ love. Here’s how to take a picture: love the person behind the camera and if not them, then silently tell Jesus how much you love him. Here’s me at noon:

This morning in preparation for getting Ravinia to baseball camp I cleaned out my Tupperware cupboard (looking for her Hello Kitty container, which she found after I gave up because of time). She got to baseball camp just in time, and I came home to finish the job.

Notice the space in front? With my husband’s encouragement I didn’t stop there but turned to the big pantry with baking elements in it, moved stuff around, organized for the first time since moving here 3 years ago. The empty top cupboard is waiting for our cookie cutter collection to come in from the garage. Seriously! I feel I’m finally finishing moving in.

It’s really amazing. I can imagine that it won’t stay this way, I might need to set myself a date yearly to reorganize (Is that Spring cleaning? We live in eternal summer here.), but I’m recapturing a sense of peace and beauty in just loving and organizing my stuff! Thank you God for my things, some of which came from Mom’s house, all of which came from you. I enjoy baking. I’m learning to enjoy cleaning.

Counting the Gifts this past week, 781-800:

Coffee date with Elena
picking up Caryn from the airport
pressure point massage with Elena
dinner at “the Chiquita house”
forgetting to bring the plant I bought them
delight Sunday night when they picked it up at Sunday dinner
VBS preparatory meeting, oh my!
recovering dining room chairs
buying same fabric to do the other half, thanks that it was still there
movie times after exhausting tennis camp for Ravinia
Abigail and Lucy joining us for pizza/movie night
shopping in Ventura on Saturday
finding mother/daughter dresses to wear to next Sunday’s wedding
seeing dolphins while driving down to Ventura (“I am so happy”)
one of them jumping all the way out of the water! (not a tame dolphin)
shopping for baseball equipment with Daddy

getting to church on time without extra stress
talking with Kate Sunday afternoon at pool about flourishing
inviting Margaret to Sunday dinner a half hour before, and all 6 Chapmans coming!
spotless job on microwave (thank you Dear) while cleaning after Sunday dinner