Remember back at the beginning of the year when I was participating in the Catholic Minimalism Challenge, and making all kinds of progress, and posting impressive updates?
Well, along about week three, we got the flu. For the second time. As you might expect, that derailed basically everything except survival.
But a new challenge started last week, and I jumped at the chance to pick up where I left off.
Week One is supposed to be the Master Bedroom, which I did thoroughly in January. In addition, I have kept up with it in the months since, and have even gotten rid of more things. So I only needed to devote one day. I went through the closet and drawers, and got rid of two small bags of clothes and a stack of books. I did not go through all the jewelry and the sentimental things–I think once a year is enough for that.
I don’t have any pictures from the first day as there just isn’t that much change to show. For the rest of the week, I worked on the hallway outside my office I was SO EXCITED to tackle this area! Here’s before:
What a mess, right? Things were constantly getting knocked off the top and on to the floor, and every time I walked by all that mess it made me sad.
This was the perfect time to tackle this area, because most of this is homeschooling material, and my homeschooling days have ended. Lorelei will enter 8th grade at the local public school in August.
So I went through all of the homeschooling books, and got rid of some of them. I probably should get rid of a lot more, and I admit that putting them in boxes and moving them into the garage, which will be the VERY LAST THING that ever gets minimalized, is just punting the problem down the road. But let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, right?
Lorelei is spending some time dog-sitting for my sister with Emily, so I did not have her much-needed assistance with this project. Therefore there is another box filled with things that she will need to go through. Not my box, not my problem!
I’ll show you what it looks like now, and then I will explain what I’ve put there.
This shelf and this area now mostly belong to me. I am feeling happy that as my children grow and sort of leave, I am able to claim more space in this house for myself.
I love that the top is currently bare. I hope it can stay that way. I might consider putting some pictures or decorative items there, but the space is crowded and things might get knocked off.
The top shelf is primarily books I have received in exchange for my honest review thereof, or have won via social media giveaways. I probably don’t need to keep them all; that’s something I will revisit next time I go through the challenge. At least I want to keep a list of them. I am also keeping whatever books I am currently reading on that shelf, and my extra journals. Most of these books were previously stacked in a dusty heap on the bottom shelf, and some were sitting in a cardboard box in my office, a space that has now been freed up!
Second shelf are Catholic project items. For example, I have a binder for the Catholic Minimalism Challenge, and it lives there. My prayer journal is there. My binder with various Advent and Lent and other liturgical year tools is there.
The bottom shelf is a work in progress. It currently contains homeschool materials that I borrowed from others and need to return, and extra folders, notebooks, and such that may be needed when school begins. I’m thinking that we will need space for extra paper and school supplies for use in doing homework and I am willing to use the bottom shelf for that if need be. I will have a better idea how I will use that space by the next Challenge.
Finally, in the corner you will see a couple of totes. Yes, I found a use for some of the many totes that were taking up space in my bedroom! One of them is holding a lot of prayer journaling supplies–scissors, glue stick, colored pens and pencils and markers, Catholic coloring book, prayers, prayer cards. The tote keeps them contained, and if I want to go elsewhere to journal everything is ready! The other tote is holding a special Christmas gift from my husband–a monthly subscription to a mystery to solve. It’s really fun but also takes time we don’t seem to have, so I am keeping it all organized here so that when we devote an evening to working on it, everything is ready to go.
So there you have it! Next week is bathrooms. Again I expect to spend one day on them, and then I am planning on working on the laundry room and the upstairs hallway for the rest of the week.
Excited to start the Lenten journey!
Love this picture of Lorelei with the sign she carried when 
“Do you want the Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him often.” ~ Saint John Bosco 
“Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand.” ~ Mother Teresa 
“Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise. Whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy. It will open a new place in our hearts . . .” ~ Henri Nouwen
“This is the calling of Christians: . . . To make this kingdom of Christ a reality, to eliminate hatred and cruelty, to spread throughout the earth the strong and soothing balm of love.” ~ Saint Josemaria.
“If you . . . know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?” ~ Matthew 7:11. May we all greet God’s gifts with the same delight William showed upon opening this one! 
Psalm 130:5-6: “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”
Isaiah 6:3: “Holy holy holy, Lord God of hosts, Heaven and Earth are full of Your glory!” 
Empty me, Lord, that I may be filled with You. 
Saint Ignatius Loyola: “Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they would allow His grace to mold them accordingly.” 
Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Psalm 51:2: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
1 Corinthians 13:13: “There are three things that last . . . The greatest of these is love.”
Mother Teresa: “A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His LOVE than in your weakness.”
“All hail to Saint Patrick!” ~ Father Frederick Faber
St. Louis de Montfort: “Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray.” 
“I will trust the promise. You will carry me straight to shore.” ~ Rend Collective
Good Saint Joseph, pray for us! 
1 Corinthians 15:55: “Where, O death, is your victory?”
2 Corinthians 5:7: “We walk by faith and not by sight.”
Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Him that gives me strength.”
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.” ~ Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Lamentations 1:12: “Is it nothing to you, all who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering?” 
“Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.” ~ St. Ephraim of Syria 
“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” ~ Mother Teresa 
“The Sorrowing Soul between Doubt and Faith” Mother Teresa: “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
Saint Thomas Aquinas: “. . . Since she is the Queen of Mercy . . . She cannot refuse your petition.”
Luke 21:36: “Be always on the watch . . . that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
“The sky can never be frozen/because its vastness has chosen/all warmth of our lives as we look above/with unbreakable hearts armoured in love.” ~ Munia Khan 
“Let there be peace on earth . . .” ~ Sy Miller and Jill Jackson
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Psalm 65:8: “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.”
G.K. Chesterton: “Mary leads us to Christ, but Christ leads us back to His Mother, for without Mary’s maternity, Jesus would become a mere abstraction to us.”
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:16.17.
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” ~ John Paul the Great
Saint Therese of Lisieux: “If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.” 
“All the trees in the forest sing for joy.” Psalm 96:12
“Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love.” ~ Mother Teresa
Saint Jean Vianney: “As a vigilant gardener labors from morning till night to destroy the weeds in his garden, and to ornament it with flowers, so let us labor every day to uproot the vices of our soul and to adorn it with virtues.”
“God is light, and in Him there is no darkness.” 1 John 1:5
“Go forth and set the world on fire.” ~ Saint Ignatius Loyola
“Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.” ~ Unknown
“When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father.” Matthew 6:6 
“You pray, you love–that is the happiness of man upon the earth.” ~ Saint Jean Marie Baptist Vianney
Ecclesiastes 9:7: “Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart.”
John Paul II: “We are the Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.”
I already have another bag ready to go!
