Hi, my name is Wynne and I’m a organization freak.  I said it.  I love to organize.  I can’t start working on a project, until I have everything ready and organized.  Which makes it difficult to actually check things off my list.  I knew I needed a good day or two at home to finish cleaning out + organizing my house and my life.  a few Fridays ago was that day!  It was a glorious day.  No where to be, nothing to do, no one to hang out, just me and the kids chillen in our jammies at home all day.  I cleaned out.  I got organized.  I am ready to tackle the projects that now sit on my desk.  Writing letters to all our sponsor kids, making photo books for camp + asher, writing out the stories from the artisans in Uganda that work for Noonday, and the list goes on.  Fun projects.  heartfelt projects, but ones that I couldn’t do until they were organized 😉

The first room when you walk into our home is my studio.  We transformed it [see here] from the ugliest room in the house, to my favorite room.  the big window that faces the back yard + the storm door we put in make this room full of light.  the white walls and dark floors are an artists dream.  the room is filled with a mix of modern + antique [read:things I got junking] and I feel like it’s the only room in the house that fits exactly MY style.  it’s my happy place!  This room is where for 2 years I met with my photography clients.  They would come before the session to chat about everything under the sun, they would come to chose their images, and they would come to pick up their items.  This room has also been the home to my noonday samples – they lay out all pretty and ripe for the picking.  No doubt they always bring themselves attention when anyone walks into my home.  It’s an easy conversation to start.  Since the kids came home, this room has also become part of the “play area”.  They have a section of books and music toys and they love to get out a stach of paper bead necklaces I got in Uganda and wear them all over the house.  This is the room where my computer lives, and so where this blog is written most of the time.  I love this room.

This room has and will continue to transform.  I have taken down + sold all my canvas and print samples to clients and now it’s time to start over . a clean slate.  a blank white wall.  it feels weird ya know?  the ending of one season and the beginning of another.  I have a vision for my big blank white wall.  I can’t wait to wrap + hang my Dixon print [find him here] [more to come on that later!] and make that wall a “family photo wall”.  The perk of being in Africa WITH Stephen this summer is we got to take new pictures with all of our “kids” together!  So I have a vision for those photographs being hung on the wall.  A reminder of who God has placed in our lives, and our responsibility to pray for them each day.  I also have transformed an area that once housed custom designed photo cards into my prayer reminder section.  Images of kids who are being adopted, noonday artisans, kids we sponsor – their pictures will live there as a reminder.

But really what’s on my heart is the stuff.  I don’t want to fill up this room that I cleaned out, with more stuff.  I don’t want to have something new + fabulous to put on my shelf.  I don’t want to want to store up treasures on earth where moth + rust can destroy.  Why do we have so much STUFF??  well, that’s just something for you to ponder.

Last weekend I went to Dallas for my sisters birthday.  I got to spend 28 hours in the big city.  as we were walking around the mall killing time Saturday before our “dry bar” appointment, I was like a little kid in a candy shop.  Looking at all the shops and beauty in pure awe.  My heart kept thinking, if I had this avalialbe for me to see every day, I would want all of it.  but I don’t see it.  so I don’t know that I want it.  which is good for me 😉  that fact also makes making a christmas list for my fam hard, because I have to go out + search for things I want.  then I want every single thing.

So Sunday morning before church I was lying in bed waiting for my sister to wake up [dang mom life that doesn’t let me sleep in!] and I was going through facebook messages + found a link to this video by my friends Dru + Asher Collie who live in Uganda [and run Sole Hope]. I love their words, their hearts, and their desire to please Him above all else.

Their words really hit home.  They talked about serving the least of these.  about loving your neighbors.  storing up your treasures in heaven and not on earth. the  temporary vs eternal.  relationships are eternal.  they were motivated by that word of God to sacrifice and store up their treasures in heaven.  “the reward is so great and it’s worth casting aside all the things we think are important” – Asher Collie

so.  that’s where I am.  just wanted to share.

what about you?  how to you combat our “american dream” culture and flesh to really and truly want the things of God and not the things of this world? 

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