Get your home and your heart in order in just 31 days!
Sarah Mae wants to let you in on a little secret about being a good homemaker: It’s not about having a clean house. She’d never claim to be a natural, organized cleaner herself–yet, like you, she wants a beautiful space to call home, a place where people feel loved and at peace. Where people can really settle in with good food, comfy pillows, and wide-open hearts.
Is it possible to find a balance? To care for your heart–and your home–at the same time?
Journey with Sarah Mae on this easy, practical 31-day plan to get you moving and have your house looking and feeling fresh. But even more than that, you’ll gain a new vision for the home of your dreams, and how to make it a place of peace, comfort, and community.
Originally published as the e-book “31 Days to Clean” and now revised and expanded in print for the first time, “Having a Martha Home the Mary Way” will inspire you to find a happier, healthier . . . “cleaner” way to live.
My Thoughts
Finally, a book made for homemakers like me!!! Y’all, I used to be pretty good at keeping house! I’d clean and the house would stay clean because we didn’t make a mess… then we had children… and now I’m surrounded, outnumbered, overwhelmed, and just can’t seem to keep up.
I’ve tried other cleaning strategies, charts, lists, involved the kids, involved my husband (like he doesn’t already work hard enough, poor guy!), even tried to send them away and do it all myself! Could be that I love charts and lists too much, they look so tidy and they stay that way! They don’t actually help me clean the house unless I consistently to do what the paper says and there’s the rub!
So after all this trying and drowning and feeling like a failure (because I’m not much of a cook either… does that make me a trophy wife?), another housekeeping book is the last thing I was looking for. I had given up hope of ever having a comfortable, clutter-free home and feeling like a competent homemaker.
I picked up this book because I thought it would be a good non-fiction title to add to my blog (I’m more of a fiction gal but variety is the spice of life and I don’t eat my veggies so a non-fiction title here and there makes me feel better about that). I thought my readers might appreciate it but I didn’t really think it would help me, didn’t even plan to do anything but read and review it.
I’m getting a little teary eyed here because I’m so thankful that I was wrong. This book has encouraged me AND given me practical tools to make our house a home. One quote especially speaks to my heart, “If we are in Christ, then everything we do not only has value here on earth, but also has value for eternity.”
The fact that I do the same thing, day after day after day, and never feel like I get anywhere had left me discouraged and apathetic. So the reassurance that those mundane tasks have value just because I am doing them in obedience to God’s will for my life… HUGE! The shift in my spirit and mindset has spurred the motivation that I thought had been beaten out of me for good.
I knew my house needed to be cleaned and decluttered but I had no idea how much I needed the same thing in my spiritual life. The profound change of heart I’ve experienced while reading this book will change the way I look at my role as a homemaker. This book may even change the way our home looks but I’m finally starting to believe the words we often sing,
“…My worth is not in skill or name, in win or lose, in pride or shame, but in the blood of Christ that flowed, at the cross…”
My Worth Is Not In What I Own by Keith and Kristyn Getty
(Lyrics, Video, and more)
I requested the opportunity to read and review this title through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.
About the Author
Sarah Mae, listed as one of Christian Broadcasting Networks “Six Women Leaders to Follow on Twitter”, is an influential Christian blogger, conference cohost, and coauthor of the bestselling book, Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe.
Because of her drive to inspire women to keep on and begin again, Sarah Mae has cultivated blogs and web sites that have encouraged thousands of women all over the world. She is the author of several bestselling eBooks, a contributing writer to the DaySpring blog, (in)courage, and the cofounder of Allume, the first national Christian women’s blogging conference.
Those are her street creds.
In her everyday life, she is a wife who passionately supports her husband, even on the days when he drives her crazy (and, don’t you know, she drives him crazy sometimes too), a mom to three of her favorite people whom she homeschools, and a piecrust botcher. Oh yes, she bakes, but it’s never pretty.
She makes her home in the beautiful Amish countryside of Pennsylvania where she often ponders what life would be like if she actually finished all the laundry.
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Tell me, is housekeeping a strength, weakness, or challenge for you? Do you find yourself doing the comparison thing? Are you discouraged with the mundane? Let’s encourage one another!
Faithfully Bookish 