Happy Homemaker Monday

                                                 

    Happy Monday friends! 

  I'm actually very excited about blog things today.  Last week I finally got back into blogging.  This past week has been insanely busy, but I did manage to do a thing and I'm so excited!  I found an older blog that I had started back in 2021 when we began our decluttering journey!!!  I have been working this week to try and get it up and running, and here it is!  I'm so happy, I thought when I 'burned it to the ground' I would lose all of my past blog entries, and I did lose quite a few, but I'm so happy to have these back!  Sorry if you followed, you will have to refollow as I did have to move them to a new space, but thank you for refollowing, when you start over its really hard but its encouraging to have some to visit and encourage!  I'm so so so very glad you're here!

   We are almost into the "Ber" months, my favorite!  I'm so ready for cooler temperatures!  Today is my 'get it together' day where I have to get everything for school in order so we can start this week.  It's strange that its only my boys and me now.  My girl started college this week and she loves it so very much.  She's had a very busy week but she's very certain that she's doing exactly what she wants to do with the rest of her life.  I'm so happy for her!  So now its just me with my 8th and 11th grader this year.  I am so thankful to homeschool them though, it'll be a good year!

So without further Ado lets jump in, thanks to all who visited last week, I'm so so so happy to be here!

Linking up today with Sandra and Holly!  Happy Monday!

May the Fourth be with you!

 

May the 4th Be With You!

     If there's something that most people know about the Duncans, its that we love Jesus, we have served for many years in ministry and that we love Star Wars!  So of course, when May the 4th rolls around, we are hopeful to celebrate!!

Back in 2017, when my boys had their joint Star Wars Party!  We still have those light sabers lol....

Vacation, and we are moving!

    First off, as I've mentioned before, the second week in September is our family vacation week!  This was much needed for our little family this year!  This summer has been chaotic, confusing, and long!  More on that later...  but the vacation was just what the doctor ordered.

   We spent the first part of the vacation at Ocean Isle.  That has quickly became our family's favorite retreat.  

September is the perfect time for vacation, as the resorts are not crowded at all!  It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves most of the time!  The pool is oceanfront, and so beautiful and relaxing!

I really left my phone in the room most of the time, but I did take a few photos!

My girl and I had a girls date to a restaurant we hadn't tried before, the Pelican's Perch!

We have began a trend where we are rating the crab cakes at the Brunswick Beaches, and this one was our favorite!

Decluttering my makeup

Now- this is about to get very personal!

We all have that go-to think that just makes our world a little brighter.

   For a long time now- longer than it should.  Mine has been makeup.  It was one of the first things I was convicted about when I started thinking about minimalism.  It was one thing that I knew I had too much of, but I still wanted more of.  It was something I thought you could never-ever ever have too much of.  It was something that I thought made my life better because it was in it, and I wasn't even a little bit ready to make the step to getting rid of any of it.

   Then- minimalism walked into my life.

  And all of the sudden, I saw how much better my life was with each place of my life I started to declutter..  and it became very clear.  I HAD to let minimalism into this area of my life, no matter how much I didn't want too.

Minimizing the kitchen

 

Minimizing our kitchen... part 2!

So  last time we started our major declutter, we ended up getting a LOT out of the kitchen..

Like.. a LOT.  

   So I anticipated that round two would be much less complicated.  You know- because we already decluttered SO much and all..  well, much to my surprise, all of the minimalists are right!  It's certainly not a one and done thing.  There's always- so- much- more.  

    This is all of the things we decied to declutter from round two!  Minus- the coffee pots, the miami dolphins tervis, and the dish with fruit on it, I don't know how that got into the picture lol.  But how did I still have all of this just hanging out in my kitchen after our major declutter??  I am just floored! 

Decluttering part 1: Clothes

 

    You have to start somewhere!

    Most of the 'minimalists' that I follow said that their initial declutter took six months to a year to complete, depending on how much time they had to dedicate to it.  I can completely see how it could take a really, really long time to settle into your own grove and decide what it looks like for you personally.  

Our First Declutter: Part 2

 I wrote about our first week of decluttering, and the first post was so lengthy I decided I should break it into two separate posts! You can read the first days of declutter here!

Day 4, Thursday, February 4, 2021:

This is kind of the day I have dreaded from the beginning. I had planned this specific day because I knew number one, it was one of the only days we didn't have anything to do at church in the evening, and since my girls weren't home, Stephen had mentioned "Boys night out." So I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to go through some toys...

Where to begin?

 

Where to begin?

    Yesterday was our first major declutter day in the Duncan household.  Some of the best advice I've gotten over and over from minimalism majors are to start with something really simple.  Something that you're not overly attached too.  For my husband and I, the answer was simple.  Clothing.  We knew that it was something we had WAY too much of.  So that was an easy place to begin.

Word for the year 2021

 

Word for the year, 2021

     I wanted to start a new blog in 2021.  

     Without getting into the disaster that was 2020, I'll just sit back, smile and say that all of us were very ready for a new year when the ball landed on New Years Eve.  We all looked forward with hope and joy, knowing that 2020 didn't set the bar too high for this to be a better year.  I had struggled so much with everything in 2020, and blogging was not left out of my struggles.  So with a new year, I waited and waited for inspiration to decide exactly what I was going to write about.  I wanted to start in January.  I wanted it to be a lifestyle blog.  I wanted it to be a journey that I was committed too.  I knew all of those things, but I wasn't even sure where to start.  I even began a few different blogs, and nothing really took root for whatever reason.  I had a few ideas, I had a lot of goals, and I wanted my blog as my creative outlet.  I just wasn't sure where to begin.  Yet, God has been working overtime on my heart all month long, and a few days ago, I had my "Ah-ha!" Moment.  The moment restocked my bookshelf (or my kindle, so to speak) it took root in my heart, and it encompassed all of my goals and decisions for the year.  It gave me a new inspiration to write, it made me excited, and it filled my heart.  It took until the very last week of the month, but here we are!  My word, my encouragement, and my goal for the year can be summed up in my word for the year.