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THE PURGE

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I’ve been absent for Joyful Mom!  I’ve been Joyful in other places :-)

We have been purging the house.  It didn’t actually start out as a plan.  It wasn’t on the calendar.  It just has sort of “happened.”   Last week my daughter said “I can’t put my clothes away!!!” and I was thinking “no kidding–you never fold anything, you keep everything on the floor and then cram it into any drawer when you hear me coming up the stairs (in a non-joyful way). . . ”  When finished stomping up the stairs, I looked at the amount of clothes she had  I was amazed–I didn’t buy her all of these clothes . . .

Then I realized, when her older sister grows out of something . . . it goes to her drawer . . . so now she has double of everything!  I dropped everything– thinking that it would be an easy chore . . . just a little sorting . . . (If you give a mom a simple chore . . . )

  1. Girls clothes, sorted first by one fits, secondly, by season, and then out of season clothes staying in their room just up on the shelf.
  2. In order to use the shelf space I needed to open boxes that were just stuck up there since we moved . . . the girls needed to make hard decisions about their treasure and the amount of American Girl doll stuff.
  3. They LOVE the American Girl Dolls but it isn’t fun to play when everything is all over the place so we needed a plan for where.
  4. Ken (the carpenter) finished “American Girl Dollville) the place under the stairs–a hang out for the girls (pictures soon) so they worked on that area.
  5. Girls getting American Girl Dollville organized is taking longer than they thought–they have more than what they first thought about–now we need hangers . . .
  6. Created a makeshift office for my husband in the guest room.  That required:  moving 1 dresser into the boys room, moving the other dresser over to the other wall, clearing off a table from the basement (I have a huge basement project ongoing, I write about it here and a lot more through this series of honesty), clearing out under the bed.
  7. The clearing out under the bed I found my Christmas pillows that I “lost” and all the flannel sheets . . .
  8. When I found the flannel sheets I had to put them in the linen closet–which I needed to organize first.
  9. After I cleared out the linen closet I had to create another box for goodwill, a pile of things to take pictures of for Joyful Mom, and lots of toiletries to go to our local homeless shelter.
  10. Then tackled the boys room:  the dresser from the guest room replaced a rickety old dresser (that will now be used in American Girl Dollville), went through all the clothes, made piles for Goodwill, and cleared out Legos and Bionicle.
  11. Now I have several piles in the garage going out . . . I’m happy about that.
  12. In the midst of all of this I bought a desk for my daughter at a resale place that supports a pet rescue–
  13. When we bought the desk we needed to clear out the homeschool room,
  14. I had two extra desks which I found homes for . . .
  15. I wanted to clean and organize while we were at it . . .
IMG_2165

the new desk is on the right, the table is a place for kids computer and a work space for a middle schooler and the turtles are in the tank. The fish are now on the desk–a work in progress!

a cleared out kitchen cupboard, which I did fill with a few cookbooks from the basement.

a cleared out kitchen cupboard, which I did fill with a few cookbooks from the basement.

Our ongoing projects are to:

  1. Organize our master bedroom closet.
  2. Go through all of the kitchen cupboards–PURGE!
  3. Decide if we want the current homeschool room to be moved into the basement or to have the basement be a “hang out place” and a craft area for the girl and me?
  4. The basement project will take the longest–I’m having Ken put in some shelves, we need to ruthlessly go through everything . . . but I’m ready–the time is right.  Emotionally I’m in a good spot to tackle this project.

How about you . . . do you live a life of resembling “If you give a mouse a cookie.”  Do your start one thing and have it snowball into a huge project?  or Do you start with one intention and then realize part way through that what you are doing doesn’t serve your purpose?  I would love to hear your stories.  Please tell me I’m not alone!

Linking up I should be mopping the floor, Craftastic Party, motivation monday, create with joy, Busy Mondays, mindful mothering, and with Ann, The Better Mom, Rediscovering Domesticity, Titus 2 Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Titus (2)sdays, Gradituesdays, Heart and Home, Whatever Works Wednesday, Wisdom Wednesday, Show and Share Wednesday, Saturday Show and Share.

I lost 218 lbs. + 4

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My weight update:

I lost 218 lbs of stuff to go to good will.

I actually have 2 bags of clothes from the closet project . . . but I didn’t weigh those.  I didn’t include the bags of trash . . .

I let go of a bunch of physical stuff I didn’t need.

When I let go of the physical “treasures” I felt better physically–I have less visual clutter, I can breathe deeper, my mind isn’t thinking about the projects I will never complete.  I feel lighter.

In the midst of all this I lost 4 lbs.  I didn’t count calories, I went walking twice and I became still in my thoughts as I wrote my entries and thought deep thoughts.

As I worked through some things and identified other challenges that I have (and plan to write about), as I tried had to live in the moment–every moment, I realized that life is so incredibly full.

I began a practice of sitting silently during the day–I put it on the schedule to sit–not sit and fold laundry, school the kids or knit (and being in the car did not count)–but to sit and just be.  Sort of like Yoga Sitting–I think about my breathing, my purpose, my kids come in and out giving me hugs . . . I pray for friends, family and souls I will never meet on this earth.

Peace comes from within.  

I knew that–I wrote about it here.   My first ever post on 12/9/2010.  A two year journey.  And now, just now, the concept has moved from my head, to my heart and now lives deep in my soul.

It was always there–I just couldn’t find it–I was so focused on keeping up with the pace of the life I created–because if I’m really busy then I can’t just sit and think and be intentional.  I couldn’t find peace in all of the boxes of my different collections, I couldn’t find peace in a closet full of clothes that took me to the past each day, I couldn’t find it among books I’ll never get to read or magazines filled with recipes, knitting patterns and sewing tutorials that I will never make or use.

I smile a lot more.  I laugh louder–totally embarrassing my kids!  I feel joy.

Maybe in November I’ll be able to exercise more and maybe count a few calories–lose more weight.  My goal is to gain in joy what I lose in pounds!

Be blessed.

8/31 days of Honesty: honoring myself

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I’ll just jump right in–last week I wrote about clothes–but after I posted, I realized it isn’t about the clothes–it is about how I honor myself.

I do not honor myself.

How did I go from cleaning a closet to honor?  Well, I realized that the clothes that I kept did not honor who I am now.   I want to blame it on my size–but my size is just a symptom of the dishonor.  So this is what I did today:

  1. found a couple of styles in a magazine that I liked–I don’t want to be those women–they were tall and had were small busted–two things I am not!  It’s not about height or boobs anyway–it is about what I see when I look at those pictures and what I don’t see in the mirror.   I was drawn to the same style over and over.  When you find something that works stick with it!
  2. purged again–this time anything that did not fit that style–I have some cute dresses and skirts that are too foofy for me or I don’t like the color–they went–I kept to the style that I like and that I feel comfortable.  I honored my own sense of fashion (although some may argue that I have no fashion).
  3. stains went and my very favorite maternity top–I have kept it this entire time because I remember how great I felt in it–I don’t feel that way anymore when I tried it on–I put my mind on remembering how I felt–how I felt at that moment (10 years ago) is in my soul not in the shirt!  That was so powerful for me.  
  4. my mom’s clothes–again–my mom isn’t in the night gowns–it is in my memory of her.  I look a ton like my mom–I even have her bunions!  I don’t need her old clothes too.  (my mom died 10 years ago this August and I still wish that she was here).
  5. I put all the clothes that are too small, out of season or I just couldn’t decide on in bins–I will store them in the guest room for the winter and then on March 1, 2013–I will take them to the garage to sort of keep and get rid of.  That gives me 5 months of not looking at them, to lose weight and decide if I should keep or pitch.
  6. I organized my drawers in tank tops, short sleeves and long sleeves.  LIBERATING!
  7. I even went through my undergarments and got rid of the silly spanx and nursing bras–although I find nursing bras to be the most supportive and comfortable . . . it’s time to say good-bye, as for the spanx I just want to be what I am.

My wardrobe now is a bunch of shirts that I wear with sweaters and vests and I have 2 dresses, and 3 pairs of jeans and one pair of black pants.  If I can get down just one size I will have my denim skirts to wear–I’m fine with just wearing a few things.

I can honestly say that it feels good to have space that is not cluttered with things that I don’t use or can’t.  (did I mention that I cleared out under the bathroom sink–and that feels great too).  I have the book One Bite at a Time and when these 31 days are up I think I’m going to get serious about reading it.

my closet now–I only kept the things that I feel great wearing.

black maternity top, sequin tank, stained top that I love, tank dress and my pink homeschool coop shirt–I never wore it . . . leaving guilt behind.

a box of trash that came out of my closet and 5 bins of clothes that don’t fit or are out of season.

Today I’m linking up with homemakers, better mom, multitudes on monday, hear it Sunday use it Monday, On in and Around on Mondays, motivating mondays, creating joy.