Life Simplified: Hosting in Our Home

One of my goals in 2011 is to simplify my life more by enjoying the blessings and not wasting what God has given us.  I have been sharing with you the successes and challenges on those specific areas in my life as I go through them.  One of the areas I am working on is making the best use of my time.  While spending time hosting family and friends in our home is important to me I must also make sure there is time on the schedule to spend with my immediate family.  The girls are growing up fast and the times we have together are precious.  In order to make sure I don’t go overboard I am setting a goal for myself and asking for your help to keep me in line.

Here are the current challenges I am working on:

• First Life Simplified Goal: No Grocery Shopping
• Second Life Simplified Goal:  Meal Delivery
• Third Life Simplified Goal: Organize & De-Clutter our Home
• Fourth Life Simplified Goal: Hosting in our Home
  

Explanation of the Goal: As a family of four we LOVE hosting people in our home!  We are blessed to have a home to share with family and friends  whether it is for a party, game night or just to hang out together.  I would probably host a get together several times a week if we had the time, money, and energy to do it.  Part of learning how to simplify my life is making decisions on what to do with my time.  Hosting typically requires time for cleaning, cooking, prepping, and/or decorating for guests.  It is my goal to host at least one other family in our home once a month but no more than four.  When I spend time hosting that means I must give up some for something else.  Having up to 4 hosting events in our home means that there will be time to spend together as a family of four.  I want my girls to have the experience of hosting even at a young age.  Sharing our home and their toys is a valuable skill they can learn at an early age, but they like anyone, need a time to relax and refresh.

We have already started working on this goal.  We had 3 families of three over in the month of January.   February is a busier month in our household not because of Valentine’s day but because we will be hosting the girls birthday party.  One of the many benefits to having twins or higher multiples is their birthday parties hit at the same time.  Brina and Karlie’s birthday party will be our major event this month and we have at least one other hosting event already on the schedule.

I will share with you the challenges, successes, and updates as I go through this journey so you can keep me accountable or even go through it with me by participating  and sharing your story. Taking the extra time to invest in the lives of others is important to our family.  I hope that we have been able to host many people in our home without going over board.  It is important to me to make time for my family on the weekends as well as the people around us!

Life Simplified is a series on getting rid of the extras in our life while learning how to enjoy what God has given us so we can continue to be a blessing to others.  Our homes can quickly start are bursting with “stuff”  and if you are like us we just have too much.  I am doing a series on ways we are learning to simplifying our food, homes, and lives.  When our hearts, lives, and homes get too cluttered we may start missing out on opportunities to serve and bless the people around us.

Photo by MaryTClark