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STAMPIN WITH CHAR

We want to welcome you to the Book Buffet family!

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Are You Adding or Subtracting for Lent?

I grew up in a Catholic town where it seemed everyone gave something up for Lent. Chocolate, coffee, meat, alcohol, sex (the adults) – lots of things, especially supposed vices, were set aside during the 6 weeks before Easter. Somebody always used this as a chance to try to quit smoking. Sometimes it worked.

But you know there is this verse in Psalm 51 where the writer says to God, “For you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you take no pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Several years ago during the days leading up to Lent I was trying to decide what to give up, prodded by my pastor at the time, when I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, “You giving stuff up does nothing for me. Remember the greatest commandment is to love Me and then to love people. It isn’t about rules.”

This year I challenged the life group I lead to add something rather than give something up. I suggested they ask God what He would like them to focus on in the next 40-some days. That answer will be different for everyone. He may tell you to give something up – like TV – but if you do, you will not be giving it up to suffer like some monk in a dank fortress. You will find something richer than the pull of manmade entertainment.

You may have a little book of some sort that your church hands out with devotional type readings for Lent, a little something to read each day and reflect upon as you head toward Easter. But if not, you might like to join my life group as we each choose a gospel and read it in the next few weeks. If you read every day from now until Easter, you have more than twice as many days as you need to finish. That gives you time to reflect, to journal, to meditate, to study something that intrigues you or even to miss a day or two when something comes up. 

Matthew was written by a Jew to Jews to show Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Note the many Old Testament references in this gospel as you read through it. It begins with the Christmas story of Christ’s birth (after you wade through a chapter of genealogy) and ends with the resurrection and Great Commission. 28 chapters. 

Mark was written to show Jesus’ human side. It begins with John the Baptist’s ministry and with Jesus calling his disciples. It ends with the resurrection. 16 chapters. 

Luke was written by a physician and is very straight forward, almost like reading a newspaper. It begins with the Christmas story and ends with the Ascension. 24 chapters. 

John is the gospel new Christians are most often advised to read. It shows Jesus as God as it is written that we may believe on Him. If you ask Christians who wrote the gospel of John, probably half of them will say “John the Baptist”, but that is not right. John the Baptist was out in the wilderness with no access to paper or pen/ink and before he hardly got started with his ministry, Herod beheaded him, so much of what is in the gospel happened after John was dead. You know that famous Last Supper painting with the young disciple laying his head on Jesus’ chest? It’s this John who wrote the gospel. He grew up to live a long life. The Romans tried to kill him. They boiled him in oil, but he lived, so they exiled him to an island called Patmos and from there he wrote the book of Revelation. John (the book) starts when Jesus begins his ministry and ends with several stories of appearances to the disciples after his resurrection. 21 chapters. 

They’re all good! Best reading anywhere. 😉 Pick one and have at it.

I’d love to hear what you are adding or subtracting or doing to prepare for Easter. Drop a comment and let’s chat!

#Lent #readingthegospels #whateachgospelislike #dontgiveupsomethingforlentaddsomething

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Nobody Likes to Work for Free

Even when you’re working for your own self, you need to get paid.

So what is your reward for all this hard work you’ve done the past month or so? You have done some serious house cleaning! Maybe you had a reward in mind the entire time. Maybe you are the kind of person who rewarded yourself every day with a small thing. Even if you did that, you deserve an I’ve-finished-this-huge-project award.

• Get a massage
• Spend an entire day reading a book
• Take a hike somewhere wonderful with someone wonderful and enjoy a picnic
• Go driving in that clean car (mountains? beach?)
• Spend a day doing your artistic thing: music, art, crafting, dancing, whatever it may be
• Bake something yummy (or buy it) and enjoy it while you read a magazine
• Head to the spa – even if it’s the one in your own bathroom (visit Mary Hunt’s site for lots of homemade spa products: http://www.everydaycheapskate.com)
• Plan your spring garden
• Ice cream!
• Call a friend you haven’t talked to in awhile (or your mom even if you talked to her yesterday)
• Pour yourself a glass of something, sit down at the computer and plan your vacation

What do you do for a reward?

Thanks for joining me on this journey to get our homes in ship shape. When we started I had a mess on my hands. Now, everything is tidy and clean. It feels completely different! Keeping it this way is not a big deal. I walk around before I go to bed and put things back where they belong. If you are a morning person, you might do this first thing. Have a great year!

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #timeforareward

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The Hardest Part of Maintenance is Maintaining

Day 23: From now on …

Hooray! We have our homes (and cars) sparkling clean. We put back just the decor items we really love. We tossed, donated or sold our clutter. Every time we walk into a room we say, “Ahh!”

Seriously. I do.

But …

If you aren’t careful, it will all start to unravel. It only takes about 3 days for your home to become a messy place again. You may have to sit the family down and chat with them. (Here in the South we call this having a “come to Jesus meeting”.)

But it really doesn’t take that much to maintain a clean and clutter-free home. It takes a lot more effort to clean a trashed wreck. You need to implement some rules for yourself and your family. Consider these:

• We don’t go to bed and leave dirty dishes. The kitchen gets cleaned up, dishes done, counters wiped off, kitchen floor broomed before we retire.
• On the way to bed, each family member can walk the whole house picking up their stuff. They carry it to their rooms and put it away (not dump it in a pile).
• Clothes for the next day are prepared the night before so there are no surprises nor drama in the morning rush to get out the door. Backpacks are filled with homework, etc.
• You might want to have a shoeless house where people remove shoes at the front door and put on footies or house shoes. This keeps your floors way cleaner.
• Dirty clothes are never left on the floor nor hung back up, but go in the hamper. Clean clothes get put away pronto.
• When you come into the house after running errands, you cannot do anything (not check email, not open snail mail, not get a snack, nothing) until you have put away everything you brought into the house: groceries, discount store merch, etc.
• Discuss with the family whether it works better to clean a little every day or whether everyone wants to have a marathon session for a couple of hours and get everything cleaned all at once, say on Saturday morning or Friday evening before movies. I really believe this – a little at a time vs get it all done at once – is a personality difference and there is no right answer.
• Schedule your cleaning chores. If you wait until you notice something is dirty, it will be much harder to clean. If you routinely clean/maintain things, it will take much less time and effort.
• Using the right tools is half the battle. If something isn’t working, try something else.

Enjoy your clean space. I think better in a clean space. At first it was hard for me to let go of stuff, but the more I do it, the better I get at it. Make your plan and keep a clean space. You’ll love the difference.

Good luck to you!

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #makeamaintenanceplan

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Keep, Donate, Trash, Stash

Day 22: Go through your stuff.

Remember when I told you not to get bogged down going through your stuff while you were cleaning? I suggested you just park your decorations, perhaps all on the kitchen or dining room table (which is what I did).

Today go get them and redecorate your home. You may find you want to put back much less stuff than what you had before. You might like an uncluttered look, a clean look. The less decor you have sitting around, the easier it is to dust, to keep everything clean.

Of course, the issue then is what to do with those leftover items.

1. Throw things away that are past their prime or need repaired but you don’t want to bother with them.
2. If you think someone else might like these items, even if they are past their prime, donate them.
3. You can always box up things and save them for later, whether it’s because they have sentimental value to you or because you want to swap out your decor from summer to winter. (My grandmother did this.) But if you are tired of something, just let it go. Something else will come along later, either as a gift or, if you are a yard saler/thrift store shopper like I am, there is always a find out there.
4. You can also try selling things online. That’s a whole ‘nother discussion in itself!

See you tomorrow for our final chat!

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #gothroughthedecorations

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That Other Home on Wheels

Chances are good you’ve got a car. You may not spend much time in it. Or you may feel like you practically live in it. We have the house cleaned up, but before we say we’re through, let’s clean that rolling house, shall we?

Day 21: Clean your car.

Maybe the way you clean your car is to take it to a Place. You know, hand over the keys and sip a latte while they vacuum, wash, wax, etc. Whatever works for you and your budget.

I wash mine at home in the driveway with the garden hose. (I do have a cool attachment that sprays nicely.) Sometimes I vacuum here at home, but I prefer to go to the car wash and use their vacuum. It works so much better. Be sure you have cleaned it out before you vacuum or you’ll vacuum up your toll change! (Trust me.)

A coat of light wax is welcome in every season whether your car is fighting off snow, spring’s pollen, summer’s harshness or fall’s sticky leaves. I think team waxing is best. Grab a friend (or a kid). One rubs on the wax while the other follows, buffing it off. You can do two cars in much less time than you could each do your own car.

Spot clean any upholstery issues. Treat your leather. Take a conditioner to the dash, whether leather or vinyl. You may need to shampoo the flooring or at least the removable carpets. I try to have a “don’t eat” rule in my car, but when you take trips … you gotta eat!

Pop the hood and clean all the leaves and junk out of there. Pop the trunk, clean it out and vacuum it, too.

Hooray! It feels so good to go driving in a clean car.

See you tomorrow for our final cleaning post.

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #giveyourcarsomelove

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Catch Up Day

I like catch up days. If you schedule everything back-to-back, tight as can be, you will end up in the weeds. When I make schedules, I build in margin and leave a catch up day at the end.

Day 20: Go back over the past 19 days (or your to-do list) and see what there was you didn’t get done. Get ‘er done today or at the very least, schedule those chores for sometime in 2021. Scheduling can be a form of procrastination, but if I don’t schedule things, they never get done. I am a huge list maker. I am in awe of people who get a lot done without a list!

One day left!

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #catchupday

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Just a Touch Up

Day 19: Touch up your paint. Chances are good you have a bucket of paint in your garage or basement left from where you or your contractor painted your house (interior). If you were to put your house up for sale today, you would go get that bucket and touch up all the dings and scuffs until your house looked like new, like it had just been freshly painted everywhere.

Why do we do that for the next person to enjoy, but we live with clutter, with broken, with scuffs and with ugly? Part of it is our survival mechanism. We are geared to tune out what we need to in order to focus on what we need to. But we can keep tuning out our surroundings, not even noticing we are living in bleh. Why do we like hotel rooms so much? Partly because everything feels tidy and fresh, because they use white linens which appear clean.

Grab your paint and touch up. Got teenagers? Hire them.

2 days left!

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #touchupthepaint

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If You Buy It, You Gotta Maintain It

This is actually one of my biggest mantras in life: before you buy it, consider the cost to maintain it, and by cost I don’t just mean dollars. I also mean time spent, energy spent, the sum of what you are exchanging for that thing.

Day 18: Maintain your major appliances. Sure, you could just ignore maintenance, and many people do. They just keep using a machine day after day then, when it gives out, they fuss and spend mega bucks replacing it. But if you do a little maintenance on it every so often, you’ll find it lasting twice as long. Whether it’s your car’s oil changes, oiling the moving parts of your sewing machine or running the cleaning cycle of your oven, the principle is the same.

This is one those items I have on my calendar. Every couple of months I do some type of maintenance on something.

Let’s start in the kitchen with your refrigerator. You may have a plastic vent cover on the front of the frig that pops off. Carefully remove it (those clamps easily break off). Spray it down with degreaser. Let it sit while you clean the frig, then clean it and replace it. Clean out your frig. Pull out all the shelves and totally clean that baby. Pull it out from the wall (mind the icemaker line hookup if you have one) and vacuum the coils in back. Sweep and mop the floor back there. Let the floor air dry completely before you shove the frig back.

While you’re in the kitchen, if you have a dishwasher, clean it, too. Refer to your machine’s manual for instructions. If you didn’t keep the manual (or maybe the machine was part of a house purchase), you can find it online, just enter the model number in a search engine. Be sure to clean the area around the door, both the tub part and the actual door itself. You can buy products to help with this. I just use a bowl of vinegar. Set it on the bottom rack and run a regular cycle, no drying.

Run the self clean cycle on your oven now that your Christmas baking is over. If you don’t have a self cleaning oven, you probably have a favorite product. Use it with caution, even use a mask. I believe oven cleaner is some of the most toxic stuff out there!

Head to the laundry room and tackle those machines. Again, check their manuals. There is a product for this also, but I use vinegar and follow Mary Hunt’s directions. Here is the link:

https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/stinky-laundry-smelly-machine-how-nasty-germs-survive-washer/

Also, clean the dryer vent. You probably need to clean from both sides: the “hole” in the laundry room as well as where it exits the house. I can always tell when my vent needs attention because it spits fluff out onto my deck (that’s where the exit hole is). If you clean the screen after every load, you will have much less buildup in the vent. Why should you care? Mainly because dryer lint buildup in the vent is a leading cause of house fires. (#1 is kitchen grease.)

You may not realize it, but your washing machine also has a lint trap. Unfortunately, most manufacturers put it on the back of the machine where it is difficult to access. While you’re pulling the dryer to clean its vent, find the washer’s lint trap and empty it. Be prepared with something to catch the water that comes spilling out. It shouldn’t be a lot, but more than just a little towel can handle.

You may have other cool machines like a trash compactor or a Jacuzzi. Give them some love following your manual’s directions. At the very least, go schedule their maintenance on your 2021 calendar.

Only a couple more days. See you tomorrow!

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #maintainyourappliances

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Doors Have Two Sides

Day 17: Clean all the doors in your house. If you want to, go count them, then double that number because every door has two sides!

Once again I use Murphy’s Oil Soap for this task plus a microfiber cloth. Wring that cloth out in the soapy water until it is barely damp, then wipe down the door and its frame. Don’t forget the flat side that meets the doorjamb as well as the other skinny side next to the hinges. Often this little side next to the doorjamb is the dirtiest where people grab the door’s edge to close it.

You may need your spray bottle of degreaser for an occasional spot especially around doorknobs. I only had a couple of places my oil soap didn’t clean (hello, garage door!).

If you have raised panel doors your job will be a bit harder as the flat edges on the panels make great dust catchers. As Charlie Brown would say, “ARRGGHHHH!!”. If you’ve been swiping your feather duster across these every time you clean house, they shouldn’t be too bad. If you haven’t, you may need to spend some time on the raised panels (and add that dust-swiping to your process from now on). Don’t leave dirt accumulated in the corners, either.

While you’ve got the oil soap and you’re walking over the whole house, wipe down the light switch covers and any other woodwork you haven’t already cleaned. When your water gets brown, change it. No sense trying to clean dirt with dirty. (I know I’ve said this before, but I am amazed when I see people cleaning with filthy water.)

You are so close to being done!

#freshyearfreshhome #newcleaningchoreeachday #howtohaveacleanhouseinonemonth #startthenewyearwithacleanhouse #cleanthedoors

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