Re-excited {not a word}

So, I have recently started reading the book "Pillars of the Earth"

{My good buddy Oprah said it was awe-to-the-some, so I figured I couldn't go wrong.}
I'm a couple hundred pages in {not saying much since this whopper comes in at just under a thousand pages}and I am enjoying it...sort of. {It's a little harsh in spots, harsh but realistic, so I can't really fault him there.}

It's about a monk {well, a prior} who is passionate about building a beautiful cathedral to God.
He believes that a monk shows his love for God outwardly through the way that he cares for God's buildings, namely the small - very run down/neglected- monastery in which he is made prior.  When he arrives at his new post, he is furious with the other monk's laziness and quickly whips the monastery into shape.

As I've read about his devotion to the place he calls home, it has caused for a lot of reflection about the care of my own home and the day-to-day life I lead here.

And it has inspired me anew to get to work!
And I am really excited about it.

Creating a beautiful, clean, and orderly space is honestly the most important task I have in this phase of my life {and probably in every phase of life, really}. This is the place where I'll raise my children. The place where all of their memories will be made. The place where my husband comes to relax at the end of a long day. The place where my children will learn and grow and form life-long sibling relationships. And I want it to be a good great place for them to do all of those things.

I also want it to be a space that makes me smile when I enter it.
A space where I can relax, do the things I love to do, and regenerate day after day.

I think that I have gotten into a rut again where I am choosing to do "other things" {reading, prepping the tv segment, running errands, working on craft projects...}BEFORE I do the essential things that will make our home a happy, organized place to be.

Don't get me wrong. My kids aren't living in a pile of filth and wondering where their next meal is going to come from or anything nutsie like that. I just know that our day-to-day existences could just be that much brighter. More meaningful. More beautiful. A better outward expression of our love for God and the joy that this love infuses into every facet of the way we live our lives.

So, I'm HOPING {fingers crossed!} that I can start blogging about our daily progress and sharing small successes with you. I want to do the following:

*Make our home more beautiful by decorating it with things that we love, things that have meaning, and things that make us smile.
*Clean more and more regularly. Try to find a system that works for me - something that I can stick with.
*Go to bed early and get up early and stop taking naps when Tentens does. {He's almost one and is sleeping through the night for crying out loud! I think the good old "Sleep when the baby sleeps." adage has officially hit it's deadline! Darn.}
*Keep spending quality time with the boys each day. Today we painted a painting to hang in the kitchen. Kort had so much fun, and we had such a good talk, and if I could regularly create moments like that, our home couldn't be anything other than heavenly {even if it was "technically" a mess}.
* Go from room to room and make a list of all of the small repairs or decorating issues that need to be tackled, then make a conscious effort to check those things off. {slowly but surely}
*Go through all of the closets and drawers in my house {one by one, baby steps, of course} and purge, purge, purge!!

I am working on some really fun organizational and decorating projects that I am really excited to share. {In true Laura fashion, they are all about 50% done... heaven forbid I start and finish one thing at a time! That would like, make sense or something!}