Inspired Home Organization

And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”

John 16:33 TPT

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like you were really on top of it? Up earlier than normal, breakfast on the table, off to work… home for a quick lunch and some light reading. This day is going according to my great plan! I feel amazing! Look how well I’m managing my life!

Before I get into all the details of my fabulous “on top of it” day, I want to take a second to reintroduce myself. My name is Darci. Mother of three; 14, 2, and 4 months. I am a boy mom, homeschooler, and own and operate a small business. Needless to say my life is a juggle.

For several years now I’ve had a stirring in my spirit to write and share my thoughts and experience with others. I put it off for years, coming up with many reasons why ‘now’ wasn’t a good time. In 2018 I began homeschooling and the same year my business, Inspired Home Organization, was born. In 2019 I had a burst of inspiration and pushed ahead toward my dream of writing. In 2022, my dream blog consists of one post. One. I can hear the crickets, their chirps echoing in the emptiness of what was supposed to be a space full of the many things that bounce around in my brain while spending time with my kids or working with clients…a comfy cozy place to welcome friends old and new to walk with me in the juggle of life.

Almost daily I have all these wonderful ideas and even keep a notebook (okay, on a good day they make it into the notebook… it’s more like random scraps of paper I find here and there, some lost, some found… ideas I commit to memory and promise to remember for later [you know, when the time is right] that are now long forgotten…) to jot down titles and thoughts, but I’ve never made the time to share them. Busyness? Fear? Lack of time management? Analysis paralysis? Most likely a combination depending on the day.

Okay, back to my on-top-of-it-ness… My family and I recently moved into an adorable townhome. The back patio is quite small, but perfectly fits a quaint table with a blue umbrella and cozy chairs that rock and swivel. I have been dreaming of a hot cup of coffee and a good book at that table! Anyone who’s moved even once in their life knows how much work moving is – tiring and time-consuming with every bit of spare time spent situating and making home life functional. Rainy spring weather kept me indoors, then a terrible storm touched our city and surrounding communities. To say there was considerable damage is putting it lightly. It came on so quickly turning a sunlit sky to pitch black in a matter of seconds. You’d think you could hear large trees being re-arranged and shingles being ripped off of homes, but other than the sound of 90+ mile per hour winds and rain pelting the window, it was eerily silent. People in our community have been working tirelessly to repair roof damage, fences down, moving large trees plucked right out of the ground and other damages from the storm.

As we can count on, the calm after the storm came, time marches on and the days following brought the most lovely weather. With the early morning sun shining through my window, I nursed my sweet baby and got the day started, moving fluidly from one task to the next. After my first client, I decided I had a short window of time for lunch at home. I parked my car and ran straight to the kitchen, warmed up leftover spaghetti and sliced some french bread to pop into the oven, butter and extra garlic. I grabbed that book and headed for that dreamy sunny spot on the patio. It was heaven on earth, warm sun, light breeze, taste buds happy, good book…

Most things leftover end up tasting better than the first time served, all of those flavors given time to mature and meld together. Spaghetti is one of my favorite leftovers, simple and rich. I mindlessly reached for a slice of buttery garlic bread as I read. After I’d finished the first piece, I caught in my peripheral vision little blue and white specks across the top of the other piece. Oh my nnoooooo!, bah! gross… as the realization settled in that I had just gobbled down an entire piece of moldy bread. Ha! In my swift lunch prep and anticipation of patio bliss, I didn’t even notice my half loaf of french bread had begun to mold.

On a normal day, that moldy bread would have really grossed me out, surely putting an end to my meal. Today was different, I picked up the piece that was left on my plate and inspected it, carefully removed the top half, abandoning the moldy piece and continued to enjoy my time and my meal. In that moment I unexpectedly experienced rest. It wasn’t until later in the day that I thought about the moldy bread. I wondered how many times I put an end to enjoyment because one small thing went wrong. In just a few minutes time, I was able to recall many times in my life when I allowed myself to be distracted by and focused my attention upon the mold.

I don’t share this with you because I want you to eat moldy bread, or because I enjoyed eating moldy bread myself. My response to the moldy bread was a small breakthrough for me and I hope it encourages you. In complete honesty there have been long seasons in my life where the flaws demanded my attention and distracted me from enjoying everything around it. All of us have problems in our lives that are far more significant than mold on the garlic bread. I’m not suggesting they be ignored or cast aside in an attempt to find enjoyment. We all experience things that are difficult, sometimes devastating or heartbreaking. The ability to distinguish between the two is the lesson I’m learning. The old saying “don’t sweat the small stuff” comes to mind.

Today, I allowed myself to set aside a small flaw and inconvenience and it brought me rest. So much rest… Jesus explained to us that we will experience trouble in this world, it’s a guarantee. Whether it’s my children creating chaos when I need to focus, a hurtful word from someone I love when I needed kindness and understanding, when I hit every red light when I’m already running 10 minutes late. When I feel on top of it and fail to notice the mold on my bread until it’s already down the hatch. It’s going to be okay. When we choose to receive rest, we allow ourselves to receive the physical, mental, and emotional energy to work through the difficult, devastating and heartbreaking.

This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. 
Psalms 118:24