This is What Separates the Men from the Boys...

In a word: ENDURANCE.

Helping daddy to carry wood for a building project. He carried it all the way to the garden.

This is hard. Living on this homestead is the hardest thing that I have ever done. The camper is small, and every time I bump into the walls, doors, couch, beds, etc, I feel like singing that one country song, "Wide Open Spaces." I like to have things clean, but there is a lot of mud that comes with farming, small or otherwise. There's also a lot of poop. *Ick!* Not to mention, while we are building up the homestead, not everything has a place!

My favorite organizational guru, Andrew Mellen, author of Unstuff Your Life, has a three part game plan for keeping things organized.
Part 1: Like with Like.  Put all like things in together. This means that all spoons go together and all kitchen utensils go in the kitchen, etc.
Part 2: One Home for Everything. Everything has a home, no exceptions; and the things are either in their homes or out being used. NO Exceptions!

Once you have reached what he calls "Stuff Equilibrium," part 3 comes into play.
Part 3: Stuff In, Stuff Out. You only bring in new stuff when something breaks or needs replacing, and you get rid of the old stuff that the new stuff is replacing.

It's difficult when things don't have homes, let alone when we haven't got enough space to put all of the like things together, to manage the "Stuff in, Stuff out." SO we keep getting more stuff. I don't like stuff.

BUT THERE IS HOPE!

I know what I want. I know that I want a clean, well-functioning homestead. I know that I want a house that I can breathe in. I know that I want to live The Abundant Life.

When I feel like giving up and running away, or when I feel like I can't do this, I just dig in again with even more verve than before. I DARE whatever is getting me down to try again and see what happens. My dad's favorite movie quote for a while was, "Never give up! Never surrender!" That is what I say.

This is what separates the men from the boys. Being able to endure in the face of trial. I'd love to hear what you all have to say about that! Leave me a comment. In the meantime, ENDURE TO THE END!