The last 31 days ended up being much different than I expected. For someone who doesn't travel much, I went out of town three times over the past 31 days, one time being a whole week in Mexico. I began this series being on top of things in preparation for our trip to Mexico, but as soon as I came back, I was fresh out of content. The remaining three weeks, posts were written only a day in advance, much later than I would have liked as someone who always plans ahead.
But something happened. I started sharing and coming up with things I never would have blogged about and surprisingly I got a great response from you all. I was stretched to dig deep within my homemaking soul and pull out things that are part of my day to day life that I didn't even realize. The discipline of sitting in front of my computer screen every single day held me accountable to looking and reflecting on my life in new ways that I began to appreciate.
I had two goals in mind when I started this series. One was to refocus and re-brand my blog (which I will talk more in depth about the next coming weeks). And the second was to help me turn my attention and priorities on homemaking for my own sake. Of course I wanted to inspire readers to also look at homemaking differently and encourage them to better love their home and families but deep down I needed the focus.
By writing these past 31 days my blog has been much more of a focus and priority than normal. I knew it was going to be this way and was willing to dedicate myself to it for a season. It consumed much of my time and energy (and left not much time for actual homemaking!) but yet my heart deepened for a love for homemaking.
I am most looking forward to a little blog down time (at least not posting every single day kind of down time!) and I anticipate being able to take what I preached this past month and live it better in my own life.
But of all the things that I loved about this series, I loved the connection we had. I put myself out there hoping this would be tangible and relatable content and many of you responded saying, "yes, I get it." We all want pretty homes, pretty lives, and happy families. But in reality, this is not a daily reality. Yet despite what life throws at us, we can still have a small say in life's chaos. We can choose to slow down for the sake of our families and we can choose to create our home in a way that will show love and appreciation for the people who come in it but as well for the physical walls we have been blessed with. They may not be perfect but in it's imperfection we can find great joy, contentment, and grace.
Check out all posts from the 31 Days of Creative Homemaking Series here.
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31 Days of Creative Homemaking for the Modern Day Woman is now available as an ebook! Click here to find out more about this entire series in an easy to read PDF download!
What a beautiful series! Thank you for the inspiration and accountability.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely loved this series! Thanks for sharing and looking forward to reading more! :)
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Thank you for this wonderful series... being a woman and wife is a wonderful and glorious job... thanks for reminding us of our beauty and grace!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job, Ashley! I enjoyed each and every day of your series and look forward to reading what else you share. I love your take on creative homemaking...especially for those of us who don't have kids yet, either!
ReplyDeleteHey, I hope you don't mind but I mentioned this series in my post today. I linked back here. Thanks again for the inspiration!
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