Pretty Organizers Defining Moment

photo:bhg
Melissa at The Inspired Room is a Saint... a dear friend of mine (and many other women) and a mentor.  She issues a challenge every Friday to link up with posts that define how we are living a Beautiful Life.  This week I thought I'd share with you how I came to have a Pretty Organized Palace... and why I'm an expert in this area... well, almost an expert... okay, I'm more of an enthusiast.

This is me.... at 33.  Yes... mid-thirties and most of the hair you see is helped along with a bottle of dye every month (or I'd look like Barbra Bush!)  I've accomplished a lot at thirty three... namely a marriage of almost 14 years and 6 children- all after marriage of course!  I've been a PTO President, co-founded a community group to help oust our Superintendent (it worked) and build community awareness of school district issues. I've been active in leadership positions in my church and am involved weekly with the Scouting program.  I'm a trained classical vocalist and have enjoyed singing the National Anthem in Qualcom stadium and doing a few musicals here and there.  I stay at home and raise my six children and this year have done it with a hubby working and going to school full-time (not a fate I'd wish on any mother.... It's been crazy)  

I've had many people ask me questions like: "How do you do all of this?  How do you manage?  6 Kids, Are they all yours?  I couldn't do it.  6 children?!?!?!  I don't know how you get all of these things done."   Well, the answer is simple.  I'm pretty organized.  I did not say organized.  I'm not a fanatic.  The laundry piles up on the couch more often than I'd like.  I'm just pretty organized in the most important areas.... "my priorities are organized my closet is not."

Some days my house looks like this...  Life is lived in this Palace to the fullest and with life comes messes... daily... hourly...  The trick is to learn how to manage life, and to be an efficient  homemaker-  Not OCD (though I do love ocd homemakers... they have a gift!)... because with 6 kids trying to enjoy life... I would be miserable... and I REFUSE TO BE MISERABLE!!
At 25 I had 3 children under the age of 4.  I was not efficient.  I was stretched thin and in many ways felt I was failing.  I looked for books on how to organize, how to clean, how to manage, how to be a mother... I thirsted for knowledge.  I found this book (really I should be getting royalties on this book because I've sold plenty over the years!)
This is a homemakers guide book.  It doesn't talk about how to fluff your pillows, or change bed sheets, or how to organize socks.  It's the guide book on how to be a homemaker.  How to make time for the things that are important to you in life.  Reading this book was the defining moment of my homemaking life... MY LIFE.  

Now, I am a guru, a semi-expert.  I can handle 6 kids, decorate a house, churn out the laundry of 8 like nobody's busines... and I wish that it were someone elses business because truthfully, I HATE IT.  I cook for my family, I serve on community boards, help with elections, help with scouting, because I put the most important priorities in my life first: God, my husband, my children, my church service, my home, my schools, my community...

Being Pretty Organized just means that your priorities are in order.  I follow that motto every day... my closets will move up the priority ladder someday.  Maybe after my last boy gets his Eagle Scout or when my last daugher graduates from High School.  

I invite you to join me often at my Palace.  I hope my blog will be an inspiration to women all over...  It shares my quest for beautifying my home, and I hope to share my passion for bringing beauty and efficiency into the home on a budget.  Mostly I hope it shares my enthusiasm for being a mother and a homemaker.  I LOVE what I do.  Not every duty.  Not the puke days.  But on the whole... I could not find joy in doing anything else.

I'd love to hear your concerns as mothers/homemakers and address some of them here on this blog.  I also would love to meet you great ladies!  I hope to help lend a hand to mothers and homemakers just starting out who feel overwhelmed... pleeeease feel free to contact me via email or comments if you have questions!!!  My goal this year is to share the way I find beauty in my life... and how I run my "Pretty" Organized Palace.

Blessings...

Pretty Organizer