one little change

hello and welcome to one little change.  

one little change is about seeing lasting difference and making real progress on the big goals in life by being faithful in small monthly changes.

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february tends to be a busy month for our family.  probably because the schedule has started to pick up after the post-holiday lull, but we just seem to end the month feeling stretched and tired.  with this mind, jesse and i have decided to continue to focus on our january changes for this month.  which will be good.  i started to slack off on my water drinking last week.  we haven't completely finished cleaning and organizing the laundry room.  i would also like a few more weeks of learning the rhythm of preparing our home for the sabbath before moving on.  (keeping the bathroom clean has been great though!  woohoo!)

but there is one other change we made last month that i would like to tell y'all about. . .

fifth little change:  get the littles to make their beds daily

one of my roles as mama is to raise future adults.  i want to prepare them for life outside our home.  and the kiddos need to learn that part of being a family is getting to be a team.  we work together.  chores help accomplish this.  in the past, i have created a chore chart and hoped to check off each item on day one.  we end up tossing it out by the end of the week.  too much, too fast.  this year, i want to slowly add responsibility and teach skills.  i began by giving this chore a place in our morning routine.  then showed them the steps.  next i did it with them.  stepped back.  watched them do it on their own.   now i just check in after.  lately, they have surprised me a few times by making their beds before coming out of the room in the morning.  without me reminding them.  kind of amazing after only one month. 

guess what?  the beds do not look like this when they are made.  and that is okay.  but i do have to remind myself not to smooth out the sheets and center the pillows.  i want them to take pride in their work.  and that means being okay with their versions of a made bed.  

the above photo is obviously not of their sweetly rumpled (but made) beds, but it does show the mess that can quickly accrue when the littles have not been taught how to keep their closet and dressers clean.  next on the list?  i think yes. ( i snapped this before they had a chance to make their beds, but i will capture a shot of that later, because i think it is darn cute.)

and because i know staying flexible is key to my sanity, i am open to adding one possible change to this month.  the change we need to address next is taking control of our sleep schedule.  we are not very responsible when it comes to getting to bed on time.  which makes it hard to wake up as early as we would like (and need).  but i am not ready to commit to this. . . yet.  we'll see.

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how about you?

are you making any little changes in life?

please share them with us.
leave a comment.  let us encourage you.

and include a link back here so others can be inspired by all of our faithfulness. 

just make one little change.

work at it.  stick to it.

and move a step closer to your goals.

soar, however slowly, to your dreams. 

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a year of little changes can make one big difference.

(until further notice, i will not be including linky lists for these one little change posts.  please just leave a comment with your change and/or a link to your own post.  if so, i might be contacting you about including your experience in a coming week.  remember, we want to hear from you!)