Checking In

Updated to add: A friend asked if I was planning on finishing our picture of the day for 2012, which I am, and I will be continuing to post here as well while I'm working on our clean out.  I'm not going completely on hiatus. :)  

Dan and I went to see The Hobbit over break.  We really enjoyed it and were inspired to watch The Lord of The Rings trilogy in the evenings after the kids went to bed.  It was such fun...Dan normally has to go to bed early as he gets up at 4:30 to go to work.  So it was a treat to stay up late together.   I had nightmares from the movies (those orcs scare me!) but it's a fun memory I forgot to record in my last post.
 

 

Here we are headed out for Christmas Eve church service.  What turned out to be my very favorite part of the whole Christmas holiday (the children had roles in the "living nativity").  But that's worthy of it's own post.  

Can I just pause here and point out the fact that my boys are wearing the same outfits that they wore to Christmas eve service last year?  This is some personal growth here...as I'm trying very hard to be more practical ~ though I know I'll never achieve complete practicality I am trying to move myself over toward the practical side of the continuum, as I currently reside closer to the other end....

I have many more fun holiday memories to record but I wanted to do just a quick "real time" check in.

The flurry of the holidays are over.  I don't mean to sound like a Grinch, but I'm relieved.   The last several months have been relatively intense in our house and the additional activity leading up to the holidays were honestly just a little hard for me this year.  Mom and I spent the entire day of the 27th in our PJs basically letting the children do and eat whatever they wanted.

I so needed that. 

Then a friend texted me and told me she was doing "40 bags in 40 days" for Lent.  (Getting rid of 40 bags of "stuff").

It just sparked something in me and even though Lent hasn't started, I knew I wouldn't have unscheduled days like this for months.  And being that I rested for a day and that's about all the down time I can handle, I jumped in with both feet.  For quite some time I have wanted to simplify our life in many ways.  Materially, being one of them.  I have a vision for changes I'd like to make in our life for 2013 (which I'm sure will go nothing like I have planned, because I'm finding that God just works that way), but I'm planning anyway and will adapt if necessary.

So, after I received that text, I nearly immediately went to work.  I have been working really hard ~ some days not even getting out of my PJs! ~ on cleaning out my house.  Ruthlessly, cleaning out my house.

I am SO done with stuff.  I feel like some days all I do is manage stuff.  And I am greatly determined to simplify our life to free up time and energy for other things in life.

No more holding on to something "in case" I need it "someday."  Do I really need 4 three ring binders in the closet waiting for me to put something in them?

No, thank you.

Not this girl.

Not anymore.

If I need a binder, I'll go buy a binder.

So far, we have cleaned out ALL of the children's toys.  The children's rooms have been gone through from top to bottom.  The boys assisted with their things, and are getting quite reasonable about this as we do this semi annually and I want them to have the ability to do this on their own some day.  I did Kaitlin's on the sly as she thinks she still needs everything.  I even cleaned out under the beds and tops of closets.  

I have cleaned out my desk, Dan and I have gone through our movies and I am currently working on the bonus room closet and built ins.  I am nearly done, which when I finish will feel SO good.  Since we moved into the house, the built ins have never been cleaned off.  They have always had some sort of pile of (mostly) photos, etc. on them. 

I have currently cleaned out twenty three bags.  23 bags!  That includes trash (broken toys, etc) and recycling.  The sad thing is, it has not been hard at all.  I'm not stopping at 40, I'll stop when I'm done with the house, but I'm curious to see how many bags later that will be...I might have to start borrowing bags....Good thing I'm a bit of a bag hoarder.  I still have a decent supply.

This weekend we are taking down the Christmas decorations and my plan is to go through all of my holiday bins stored under the stairs (which is something to behold) and clean all of them out as well as the closet.

I am so excited about this project and the changes I hope it makes in our day to day life.  I'm not stopping until every nook and cranny in this house has been purged.  I might have to pause to do Kaitlin's birthday.  But this project is really my focus.  I feel like life is so busy that it will not happen if I don't prioritize it and make it happen.  And it's important enough to me to do just that.

As I clean things out I'm thinking about changes I want to make in specific areas where I have too much...mainly kids clothing, okay, Kaitlin's clothing, and memorabilia ~ pictures, cards, scrapbooks, etc.  If you've read this blog for more than 2 seconds you know that I am a very sentimental person ~ and so I have a tendency to hang on to things related to my family and friends ~ I have every birth announcement, wedding program, children's photo, Christmas card, etc sent to me by my close friends & family.  And the pictures.  Oh, the pictures and cards.... I cherish these, but it can stop being a joy and become a burden when it's overdone and so I'm rethinking how I want to manage this area of my life.  I haven't figured it out quite yet, but I'm getting there.

One of the things I'm eliminating is my picture of the day.  I can't manage it right now and need to focus on other things.  I need to get caught up in other areas of life, and I honestly probably need to take fewer pictures.  So this is one things I'm eliminating this year.  I really love that project (Dan does too) and might do it again in 2014, but for now, it's something I need to let go in the name of simplifying.  One of the sacrifices I'm planning on making this year.  

And I'll write more about my plans for 2013 and how this project fits into that, but right now I have a bag to fill.... So if you need me in the next few weeks, you can find me hunkered down in a closet somewhere!