Progress

The girls did make some progress in their room yesterday!  It's not exactly how I wanted it done, but I need to give them credit where credit is due.  Here are some pictures (before and after) for your viewing, ahem, pleasure!

At least you can see the floor!

That big dark stain on the carpet was grape juice!

Don't you love how they decorate?

Much better!

Much, much better!

It will be interesting to see how long it stays this way.  I'll keep you posted.

A typical Monday...

A while back, I wrote a couple of posts (here and here)about decluttering and organizing. I am sooo not good at either! I have this wonderful book that I peruse a couple of times a week. I have implemented some new things in my home that have helped. For one thing, through much effort (and prayer), I am beginning to develop a better sense of "detachment" from material things. In essence, I just don't have a hard time throwing things away anymore. I used to agonize over it....but not anymore! I don't know what happened...but whatever it was...it happened over night!!

Anyway, this post isn't going to be about my organizing. I want to share with you some organizing that I've found around the blogosphere! I love color and I love to see colorful things sorted and organized....well....let's just say it "floats my boat"! These photos are very visually pleasing to me....maybe they will help to inspire you on this wonderful Monday! Enjoy!

(photo from Caftapalooza)

(photo from Allsorts)

(photo from Emma's Paperie)

(photo by Lisa Call)

(photo from the Domestic Diva)

(photo from Thrifty-fun)

I sure wish my pantry looked like this (sorry Mimi...it's all messed up again).

(photo from Tupperware)

(photo from Tupperware)

Isn't some of this stuff just delicious???? It's strange how visually, I love to see things neat and tidy....but when it comes to my own stuff....I can't seem to get a grip! I'm sure I need psychotherapy or something! But anyway...beware because I'm on the decluttering and organizing rampage again!!

My Middle Name

I hate clutter....but you would never know it by the way my house looks. I think "clutter" should be my middle name! When I set my mind to it, I do really well at getting rid of clutter. The problem is keeping it in check. It seems that I no sooner get something cleaned up when...in no time at all, it looks like it did before I decluttered. It reminds me of how all the pennies end up at the bottom of my purse. It's like they have babies in there! Truth be told, there are 4 other bodies in this house that contribute to this...um....issue and apparently we were all born with this same "gene".

Tonight, while I was waiting for dinner to cook, I decided to try decluttering a particularly bad area of my house! Does anyone else have an area like this....

It seems that my microwave is a magnet for junk! If something ends up on the kitchen counter and it needs to be moved....it all ends up on top of the microwave. I'm not even sure how the darn thing still works with all that stuff on top of it. I'm sure there is some fire code that is being broken here! Here's a closer look.

There are pens and pencils, a wedding invitation, EOB's from my health insurance company, GO FISH game, old issue of Magnifikid, alphabet flash cards, chore chart stickers, batteries, St. Nicholas prayer cards and cookie cutter, garlic roaster and a 2lb box of Sees Candy that my friend Cindy sent me for Christmas.....among other things. Sigh. And here's what's on top....

When I took a look up there, I was amazed! Along with the inch of dust...there is...glue, an old candle, fish food, fish tank filters and scooper, flashlights, pencil sharpener, more dust, bud vase, several plastic cups, flea medicine for the animals and two pretty ugly baskets....oh, and more dust. Frankly, this is in the kitchen and it's disgusting! I mean, I cook food in here! It's no wonder we don't all have lung disease.

Anyway...I worked hard and here is the results....

Good job wouldn't you say??? Ah, but...where did all the junk go you ask? Good question! A lot of it went into the trash...if it was old, didn't work or had expired...it got chucked. Some things got put where they were supposed to be all along....like photo albums, file folders and toy boxes. Here's the clincher....I cannot tell a lie....some clutter.....just got put into a different clutter pile. How does this happen? It's weird, my intentions were good and pure, but....I'm just not able to take it to the next level, as they say.

Before Christmas, I was reading a decluttering book (see this post) and I'm almost finished with it. I quit reading it because as I moved along in my chemo treatments, decluttering was just not on my radar as much. Obviously, I need to pick it up again. Sometimes I feel as though the walls are closing in on me...and I know part of it is because there is just so much junk laying around that I'm starting to feel claustrophobic. Since I'm beginning to get back on my feet physically, I'm feeling pretty positive about making the effort to pare down...to begin to examine our lives and live as simply as we can. This is going to entail many things...some will be easy and some will be really difficult...but this is something that am COMMITTED to doing! At least once a month, I will show you, my blogging friends, another area of my home that I'm going to get in line. It might be a drawer, it might be a cupboard or it might be a whole room! The way I figure it, if I do this every month...by January of 2010....I should have 12 areas decluttered! This will be a good thing (so long as I'm not adding clutter to other places!).

My goal in life is to be the best mother and wife that I can be....to provide for my family the way the Blessed Mother did. I'll never be able to meet that goal totally...because there is sin in my life....but I truly want our lives to be modeled after the Holy Family.

Pray for me in these goals...and I will pray for you in yours!

Pray for us!!

Instead of snacks and a video after school today.....I laid down the law!! Before one more toy of any kind enters this house for Christmas, there needs to be a toy purge...for all three of them. Nathan is not taking this well. He is just like his dad and doesn't, uh, let's just say....appreciate change! He has a hard time letting go of things. He has pitched a complete fit every time I suggest that he get rid of a particular item. The items that he just can't part with include...a few hundred broken happy meal toys, a bunny on wheels with a string for pulling that he got when he was born, a large doll house (that belongs to the girls!), giant Lego's for toddlers, various stuffed animals...and some things that I can't even tell what they are because of missing parts!!

The girls are doing much better. Together, they have already filled one garbage bag! They had a second one almost filled....but Nathan decided he wanted to keep half of what was in there. Sigh!!! I'm not sure how to handle this. I've told him that I'm giving him the chance to choose which toys are "outta here"....if he doesn't do it....them I'm going to choose for him. I think he is under the impression that I'm fooling with him! He is in for a rude awakening!

As I type...I can here Amelia screaming at Nathan because he has taken another item out of her throw away bag to keep for himself. Dan and I have had many conversations with our kids about the difference between wants and needs and our obligation to be as generous and giving to others as we can. I think part of the problem is his age (he's 8 and it's all about him!) and the fact that...unfortunately, we are a middle class family living in 2008 and they have not been exposed to those that are truly needy. We live paycheck to paycheck. We put very little into savings as there just isn't much left. However, our kids don't know what it's like to be in need of something and not be able to get it. Some would say that we have luxuries that others don't...and I would agree. We have two vehicles, but both of them have almost 200,000 miles on them. We do have cable (I refuse to give that up) and a computer (I even have a laptop). Dan and I also have cell phones (Dan's is for work and mine is a "pay as you go" type without a camera). Every stick of furniture in our house (except for our bed) has been given to us by very generous friends who were getting rid of things. I tell you all of this to say that there is plenty of examples around us of the generosity of other people towards us...and I just wish that my children were better about this. I don't want them grow up to be spoiled little brats that constantly have the "gimmies". Sigh....(yes, another sigh!). We also have given them many opportunities to be generous themselves with the various volunteer work that we do. Perhaps it is time to do more of this as a family...even if the girls are a little young. We'll have to pray more about what it is that God would have us do in this situation.

Well...just watch out because the day (which WILL be before Christmas) that I get into their rooms and start clearing things out......you will probably be able to hear the screaming from where you are!!!

How much is too much?

I've started reading this book called Scaling Down: Living Large in a Smaller Space. No, we're not moving....I just want to STOP accumulating.....stuff! I'm not exactly sure how it happens really. One day, you wake up and absolutely every available space in your house has something in it. It's almost as though stuff has baby stuff and so on and so on.....

Honestly, I was hooked by the first sentence of the first chapter...."When Mother Teresa died, the media reported that she left behind only a bed, a chair, and a blue sweater". This was very humbling to me. As I look around my house, I see many things. I see wants and needs....but mostly wants. Could we get by with less? Absolutely!

The book goes on to say, "We also live in a country where it seems un-American not to have more things than we can keep track of, a society in which the largest homes, automobiles, or cheeseburgers are believed to be the best. Our instinct to accumulate has deep roots. Our parents and grandparents, in the shadow of the Depression, learned to keep an iron grip on anything that might still have some "good" in it. Little got thrown away. Then in the postwar 1940's and 1950's, Americans were encouraged to buy, buy, buy and to acquire every luxury they could afford".

This reminded me of a friend's grandmother who saved everything...even the little plastic strawberry containers and the big, thick, pink rubber bands that kept broccoli bunches together. Our dining room table tends to be the junk area of our house. As a matter of fact, here is a picture of my dining room table earlier this week.

I promise you that I clear off this table EVERYDAY....but...by the end of the day, it all comes back. There are times when I get most (or...all) of my discouragement as a wife and mother from this one, single place. The status of the dining room table pretty much tells you the status of our lives at any given moment. On this one table is Dan's coffee cup, Lego's, my ball cap, Olivia's baby that she sleeps with, plastic tub of crayons, my purse, place mats, pens and pencils, coloring book, Amelia's artwork and the anniversary flowers that Dan brought home for me.....among other things! How does one family of 5 eat at this table?? How does one 8 year old do his homework at this table???

I know it's not realistic to expect that we have only the things that Mother Teresa had, but, I want to be a better steward of the blessings that God has allowed us to have. I'm not sure exactly how to do this.....which is why I'm reading this book!

I will share more as I read further. Please feel free to share your thoughts on your "House of Stuff" and any decluttering ideas that have worked for your family.