Creating Beauty, Choosing Joy

I know some who think spending time and money in our homes to make them beautiful, lovely places of rest is a waste of time but for me it is a necessary means of surviving an ugly world. I need to beauty of flowers in bloom,birds song, beauty all around to see God in His creation. The difference between happiness and joy is happiness depends on life circumstances true joy is contentment when our circumstances are not happy. Joy is not based on emotion, joy is a practice of choice. When I create a space in my life that is beautiful, peaceful I am choosing JOY. I am choosing to fix my eyes on the beauty of God and his perfection.Beautifying our homes conveys some of the more creative qualities of the God we serve. If we want homes that display His glory by reflecting His character, then it helps to become students of beauty and creativity. Sometimes it's decorating for different seasons like Easter

or sometimes it's just a simple vase of flowers sometimes it's a new center piece for the table or a new plant for the garden and most times it's just tidying up our home.

Our house is far from perfect and in fact need a lot of work but it's my space and I choose to make it beautiful because that brings me joy. It is my desire to make our home a relaxing, inviting,refreshing place where Christ dwells.

On the table

Ok so I haven't made my weekly menus in forever and it has been driving me crazy so in an attempt to be more organized I'm back on the menu wagon

Monday Pork Medallions with Chipotle Orange Glaze, mashed sweet potatoes and steamed asparagus
Tuesday Belizian Stewed Chicken with Stew Beans and Rice, fried plantains
Wednesday Church
Thursday Pasta with pesto, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes
Friday Pizza night
Saturday Cheese Night

For recipes for this menu go to pamelaskitchen.blogspot.com

So the big clean go t off to a good start last week but due to different events I only got 2 days done, so this week I begin again. This week I will focus on our living space..bedrooms, dinning and living rooms. These are harder I think because I have clutter I need to weed through and decide what stays and what goes. Yesterday I cleaned the dinning room

Common Areas: (1 hour per room)

o Dust ceiling, corners
o Clean ceiling fans/lights
o Clean wall art
o Polish all wood surfaces
o Vacuum cloth seats
o Sweep floor
o Scrub floor