This morning, the children helped me organize our pantry for this week's homemaking challenge. :)

Before: A very stuffed and not organized pantry closet! Things were constantly falling out when I tried to open or shut the door.

After: Much tidier and even some extra space on a few shelves! :)

This week's Making Your Home a Haven challenge is to clean out or organize a drawer or closet! Most of us probably have at least a few over-stuffed or messy drawers in our homes... so choose one that will have a positive effect in your home and tackle it!! :)

I'll be organizing our food pantry closet (you can see a photo of that closet at the bottom of this post). It doesn't look at all like that picture right now -- it's super full with stuff stuffed everywhere!! I'm sure that a good organizing will yield more space, along with giving me a good idea of what we need to use up in the near future. :)

I'll post "before" and "after" photos later when I get it all done! :)

If you want to follow along with doing this week's challenge, just leave a comment telling us what you worked on, or post about it in your blog and leave a link in a comment here! :)

1. The Southern Housewife (junk drawer)
2. Sandra
3. Shoshana (container cupboard)
4. Deborah (mics. drawer)
5. Tanya (desk)
6. Lisa (pantry and fridge)
7.

For today's Making Your Home a Haven challenge, I'd like to focus on encouraging thankfulness in our homes.

Some ideas of ways to encourage thankfulness:

• Do something for a family member that shows how thankful you are for them!

• Spend time with your family, talking about and praising God for His many blessings!
• Brainstorm something special you and/or your children can do for someone else in need.
• Sit down (include your children if possible!) and write or make a thank-you card for someone who has blessed you recently.

And... I'm sure there are lots more ways to help spread a thankful spirit in your home! :) If you blog about one or more of these challenges, leave me a link and I'll add it to this post. :) Or, just leave a comment about the ways you've found to encourage thankfulness in your home! :)

I'll update later with details about what we did for this challenge today. :)

For this week's Making Your Home a Haven challenge, let's try to tackle several smaller projects. :)

First, I'm going to be doing my Morning Routine. (That should be a daily thing but with various "holidays" in the last week or so, I've gotten off track... again!)

Then:

1. Set a timer for 15 minutes and work on cleaning or organizing in an area that you dread getting started on. Just 15 minutes! After that you can stop if you want to. :)

2. Do something you've been procrastinating about.

3. Clean up or organize a pile. A pile of dishes, a pile of laundry, a pile of papers... whatever needs your attention most urgently! :)

4. Spend some quality time with your family. Look into their eyes and laugh with them! Do something out of the ordinary for or with at least one of your family members. :)

I already have ideas for what I need to do on each of these things. :) I'll take pictures throughout the day and share a progress report in the evening. :)

If you've completed one or more of these mini-challenges, I'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment or a link to your blog post and I'll add it here. :) Have a blessed Monday! :)

1. Sam-Is-Mad
2. Leah
3. Wisdom's Pupil
4. Melinda
5. Denise
6. Tanya
7. Mrs. Adept
8. Sandra
9. Tereza (video!)
10.

I decided to take this week off from the "Making Your Home a Haven" challenge, since Monday is a holiday here in the U.S., but we'll pick back up next Monday morning with a fun homemaking challenge for you! :)

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays will run as scheduled, and on Wednesday the In-Season Recipe Swap will be featuring rhubarb! :)

Despite lots of errands, odd jobs, and a daunting list of "to do's", I manage to tackle a couple of piles today! Yay! :)

The before and after pictures are for anyone who wishes to read more, keeping the front page of my blog full of beauty and order. Or something like that! ;)

I'm starting my week praying about various priorities while picking up the house (especially kitchen!) from the weekend.

Today's Making Your Home a Haven challenge:

Find a pile somewhere in your home and tackle it! :) This could be a pile of papers, laundry, trash, shoes, dishes, whatever! :)

I'll post again later today with before and after pictures of pile I've cleared! :)

If you blog about doing this challenge (before and after pictures are always great!), be sure to come here and leave a link to your post! :) I'll post my before and after pictures later today. :)

This morning, the children helped me complete today's Making Your Home a Haven challenge. We really cleaned up the living room, put stuff away, etc...

I took "before" and "after" pictures, but you'll have to read more to see them, since messy-house pictures on the front page of my website is a little scary! ;)

I hope you all had a blessed weekend and Mother's Day! :)

I am so thankful for my mom's wonderful example to me. She is constantly giving and serving, and she's a great cook too (as you can see by the many recipes that say "My mom made this when...")! :)

I'm also blessed with a great mom-in-law. When I met my husband, he told me that his mom was his best friend! When we got married, his mom told my mom, "I feel like I'm losing my best friend." and my mom said "I am too."

Well, they haven't really lost us, but rather have gained three precious grandchildren that we wouldn't otherwise have known. So... ;)

This week's Making Your Home a Haven challenge is to revive the main living area in your home.

Is it dusty? Cluttered? Jam-packed with stuff? Look around and decide what needs to be tossed, what needs to be cleaned, and what you can do to make your family actually enjoy that area -- together-- more. :)

I'd love to hear about your progress and thoughts/ideas/tips in the comments here! :) you can also post about doing this challenge on your blog (before and after pictures are always great!), and then come here and leave a link for us to come see! :)

This is going to be a fun one for me, since I feel as though our living room isn't much of a cozy family-togetherness room, and I have a few ideas already... :) I'll be back with pictures and an update later in the day. :)

Better late than never, here are the pictures from our home, before and after doing the entrance way clean-up challenge! :)

And because I don't like the idea of messy-house pictures on the front page of my website, you'll just have to click if you want to see more. :)