2016 - RESOLUTIONS

Over the last couple of months, I came across a few sheets of paper with NEW YEAR resolutions of the past few years, probably of the last decade. Turns out they were more or less the same.

• lose weight
• declutter
• get organized
• keep house clean
• improve piano skills
• learn new language

The amount I wanted to lose, or the language I wanted to work on has varied over the years, but all in all it has stayed the same. My conclusion? Obviously not much has changed. 

This year I have changed my approach. I obviously won't be losing the 66 lbs I want to lose, neither will I be selling tickets for my piano concerts. What I have done is look at WHY I fail to achieve those goals.

Lets take losing weight. This is what stops me:

• eating to much 
• eating at the wrong time
• eating the wrong thing
• not working out
• turning to food for comfort

This is what I am planning on doing to fix it:

• have fixed meal times
• have a meal plan
• start with a 5 min work out routine and increase it gradually
• find a different way of dealing with stress.

By not picking a certain number of pounds to lose this year I hope to take some of the stress of it away. I want to focus on a healthier me, not on the magic number.

4th DAY OF CHRISTMAS - GO AHEAD, LAUGH

So we decided to go to my parents house for New Years. Of course I got nothing done today. Besides traveling 350 miles I needed all day to "wrap things up". I really need to stop putting things off. It didn't help that I had a day less than I thought and I barely found out yesterday. So today was spent frantically getting done all the things I still wanted to do. I didn't succeed but got a lot more done than I expected. Baby was super clingy, but hey, no news.

As the boys made progress in their room thanks to my marvelous input and continued supervision I will declare their room the room of the day. Am I done? No! Of course not. But isn't it so much more fun with all these half finished projects?

I guess I will just hit "pause" on the project. Can't really continue working in my home if I am not there. I will check if there is anything that belongs to me still at my parents house. If I get it all taken care off I will treat myself to an accomplished day! How's that!

3rd DAY OF CHRISTMAS - SELF SABOTAGE

I really wanted to start on the stairs and top landing today. It is all in boxes and most of it is clothes and toys so lets face it, not too hard. Unfortunately I realized that I could tackle that "en passant". IF I deal with 1 or 2 items every time I go past the pile of baskets and boxes should be gone by the end of the day. I dealt with 1 basket this way yesterday and lets remember. Yesterday was NOT a good day. Considering it was only day 3 and I was already 2 days behind I figured I want to stay away from it, just like I would stay away from the boys room (except for coaching) and the laundry room as the "take care of something when you flip the laundry" approach seems to be working well, too. 
Considering my left over options I decided on the down stairs bathroom in the hopes of being done fast and thus allowed to finish the upstairs bathroom and the bedroom. Well. Once I got started it went fast. Too bad I didn't get started until 4 pm and too bad that I never finished. I left 1 shelf. A tiny shelf. I think I am just trying to sabotage myself again. Just making sure I can't tell myself how well I did at the end of the day. But guess what. This is what I did

• 7 baskets of dirty laundry sorted
• 8 loads of laundry washed
• 1 load hung
• 7 loads in the dryer
• 8 loads folded (I had leftover laundry from the day before)
• 6 loads put away
• cooked dinner
• baked 3 sheets of cookies
• reduced upstairs pile "en passant" 
• made progress in the laundry room
• cleaned parts of the kitchen
• kept 6 kids alive and out of trouble
• made sure said kids practiced their instruments
• made said kids take out trash and clean up at least 100 items each

Forget that little shelf. I did AWESOME!

2nd DAY OF CHRISTMAS - BAD DAY

I can't believe this. The upstairs bathroom was supposed to be the easiest. And I only got half of it done. Seriously! The baby was super fussy all day. Nothing went the way I wanted it to. So I messed up day 2, like I messed up day 1. This stinks. I am also not sure why I thought that finishing laundry on the 23rd would mean anything for this challenge. I washed 4 on Saturday, 5 today and trust me, this is not the last I have seen of the laundry room. I am not even sure which room to attempt tomorrow.  Downstairs bathroom as it's easy? Laundry room as it is started already? ARGH! Decisions, decisions. How I hate it.  

PEACEFUL REST

I am not sure how to describe to you the feeling of peace and serenity you experience going to bed in a clean room. Why do I keep this kind of peace from myself? It is definitely a great motivator to keep working on this project. I want to feel this kind of serenity in EVERY room!

1st DAY OF CHRISTMAS - CHANGED PLANS

I should know myself better than to schedule a clean up to start in the middle of a holiday weekend. Besides sleeping until almost 11 I felt like watching movies, not like cleaning up. But guess what. James started cleaning up our bedroom. Before I even got out of bed. I never told him that I have this clean up planned. This way I won't feel like I am watched, or adding extra pressure. So, when James started taking care of all the things I was scared of in the bedroom I decided to change plans. I decided that instead of the upstairs bathroom I would do the bedroom. But guess what, I didn't. I started. Yes. I got about one third done. I could kick myself. What kind of a start is this? Worst of all is that James "cheated". He moved 5 baskets of stuff out. Don't judge. They grew miraculously over night when he clean up the downstairs for Christmas. As he moved them I figured I'll let it pass. Sneaky me. I worked on 2 of the baskets, none finished, started on the laundry room and figured if only I guide the boys a little they might be able to pull their room off by themselves and as agreed upon a few days ago, I get the glory. So. Never finished the room and started 3 others. This is NOT how this is supposed to work. I hope I can get myself back on track with day 2 on Monday and the upstairs bathroom. Fingers crossed.

REMEMBER THE REASON

for the season! May your Christmas be filled with love and joy, with hope and happiness!

Remember the child, born in a stable, laid down to sleep in a manger. The greatest gift of all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

PREPARING FOR THE 12 DAYS

In order to not be too sidetracked or overwhelmed during the challenge, I made sure I have laundry out of the way, fresh sheets on the beds and I have a meal plan. I will also tell the kids that we will go through their rooms together and that they should be prepared to part with things.
Stuffing things into rooms that have not been tackled is not allowed. Stuffing it into rooms that have been taken care off will results in a 2 hour attic penalty. And that would REALLY hurt. 

HERE'S THE PLAN

As I want my Sundays off, but really want to put in 12 days of work I decided to just go 2 days longer. As I will not really be doing the 12 actual days I figured I might also start a day late. SO I will go until the 8th of January. I will start with the easy stuff. This way the 26th should be a breeze and it can be done early in the morning or at night or in between, whatever works best. Around New Years I will stay in the basement rooms to not mess up the living area. I have given myself permission to switch days any time as being "in the mood" for a room is crucial. Once the day is up, that's it. I will not drag it into the new day. I will start a new room every morning. This sounds like a recipe for certain failure, but I have learned over the years to not pull it all out but go drawer by drawer. If a room goes fast and I have time left, I can keep working on a leftover room once the room of the day is done. This way I will make sure that every room will be worked on. Otherwise the rooms I hate often go untouched. I am allowed to delegate anything I want to delegate and still get the credit. I better delegate A LOT!

SPINACH

I had a crying fit over a pot of spinach today. It had been a stressful day. And yet, I still made it to the kitchen to cook a healthy dinner. Chicken, potatoes, broccoli and fresh spinach. The place was a madhouse. I had to feed the baby, keep kids working and best of all I kept my calm. Time was running out, but I kept working. I asked Matt to take out the biodegradable waste, which he did. I heard him come back in and next thing I know he is standing next to me with a clean pot and I was wondering what he wanted from me. And that is when I saw a pot with potato peels and other leftovers in the sink. He had thrown out the spinach I had just spent 10 min prepping. 

You might not believe it, but for a second I thought about going to check if I could save some. I dismissed the thought within a second and figured my time was better spent sitting on the kitchen floor, sobbing. Which I did for the next 15 min.  It's not like the tossed spinach was such a big deal. This morning I already found a basket full of clothes. Half of it clean, the other half dirty. Too late to find out which was what. So it just went back into the wash. It feels like every day is like this. No matter what I do I am doomed to fail. And plenty of people to make sure I do. Why do laundry if someone gets the clean stuff mixed in with the dirty? They can wear soiled stuff. Why prep vegetables if someone just tosses them? Might as well just order pizza. 

No matter how hard I try, it feels like it's never enough. Well. I guess I'll just give it another try again tomorrow. I just have to make sure I have enough chocolate.

CHECKMATE

Nothing like putting in all this work, just to realize you forgot to put the sugar in the dark dough. 11 more days and I can have my fresh start. I know, you can start whenever, but a new year always brings new hope. At the moment I feel that I fail at whatever I start, no matter how hard I work.  Lets hope I will not only work hard, but also get some things accomplished next year!

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

I know, I know. This is for lunatics. But I can't help it. I have been thinking about this for so long I will do it. I simply will. I don't care about your objections. I will do the 12 days of Christmas as a room clean up. Each day I will go through one room. Day 1- room 1- Day 2- room 1+2, Day 3 - room 1+2+3. You get the idea. Crazy? Most definitely. I know you are thinking about my Easter challenge way back when and you are getting worried. I accomplished so much back then. I thought I failed, but looking back I realize I didn't. This works for me. So I will do it again. Call me crazy. This should be fun!

THE BURNING HOUSE

So here is that dream I mentioned in my last post.

A few weeks ago I dreamt that the house was on fire. I am not sure if it was my house or not, clearly did NOT look at all like my house I am in right now, plus it was on a different continent. My stuff was in the house. That's for sure. It's been a few weeks so some of the details are foggy. Here is what I clearly remember.

The house was built on a hill. So the basement was going out level to the ground on one side of the house. We were in the basement. Some teenagers where upstairs and a fire started in a bedroom on the ground floor. We were in the process of packing stuff into boxes when we heard about  the fire. If I remember correctly we where about to move. So we ran out and I was thinking:"All my stuff will burn. Oh no!" My next thought was:"Maybe it is for the better. Let the ballast burn and start over."
When we got outside the fire department was there. As it was just a tiny fire, they decided to wait and see if it would go out by itself. We then decided that as long as there is just a tiny fire we could just as well go back in and get our stuff. We almost had it all out when I thought:"Too bad. Now I am stuck with it all." 
The fire department was right and the fire went out by itself. I was "stuck with my stuff" and when I woke I wasn't sure what to make of that dream. If I had any active readers I would open this for discussion, but I guess I'll have to interpret it on my own!  

THE VORTEX

I have a dresser in the hall with 2 small and 2 big drawers. One of the big drawers has the qualities of a vortex. What ever comes too close, gets drawn in, sucked to the bottom and never resurfaces. During my last emergency clean up I obviously pushed too much into the way of the vortex and it kind of spilled over and something had to be done. 

I now know why I couldn't find any hats during the summer. I also learned that useless paper takes up lots of room. Marie was delighted when she found out those little ponies were hers. I wish I could claim ruthlessness, but I think it was more randomness. 

I am not ready to do this properly yet. In the mean time I will just pick out the easy stuff and deal with the rest later. Or never. I dreamt my house burnt down. But that's another story. 

ISOLATED

My internet provider decided it would be cool to cut me off from the world for 3.5 days. No internet, no phone. You are probalby thinking I got a lot done as I wasn't distracted by the www, but guess what. I spent way too much time trying to get it to work again.

No internet was less of a problem than no phone it turned out. Not a single conversation with an adult unless James was home. Have you ever tried to notify the school that your child is sick if you don't have a phone or access to the internet?

Well it is back up. The last 10 days have been hard for me. I am seeing first signs of depression and I am terrified. I do NOT want to fall into that hole again.

Christmas is 2 weeks away but we already have flood of things coming in. Like the almost 80 used comic books we got dirt cheap and that will keep the kids happy for a long time.

The question is: Will I try to get as much or more out than in BEFORE or AFTER Christmas?

STRUGGLING

I am struggling big time. I am highly irritated with everyone and everything and a lot of my energy goes into not lashing out at anyone who dares to breath within 5 feet of me. I am not sure what the cause is. Hormones? Lack of sleep? Needy child? I'll blame November. The grey, the rain, the cold. And the full schedule. At the moment I have one child out of 6 that does not fill my mind with worries. At least if I ignore how skinny he is these days and that he hasn't gained any weight in a long time.

Today I will be nice to myself and give myself a pat on the back for every tiny little thing. I am not sure how to find my inner balance but it is very necessarry.

My task list is hard, even the revised one. I got laundry down, and I am doing okay on blogging. Everything else? Well, needs improvement. I'll do piano today, to soothe my confused brain. Piano helps me blend out all my worries, Because If I don't I can't hit the right keys. So, attend to the baby, then play the piano and then hope the baby won't be needy again already. Sometimes I wonder what I have gotten myself in to.

So the day is over. Piano never happened. But hey. I am still alive and I think I did well. That's all that matters....

"DO AS YOU PLEASE" DAY

I declared today "do as you please day". Who cares what needs to be done. Stuff ALWAYS has to be done. And as you know by now, "do as you please" with me doesn't necessarily mean I am not working on things. It just means I am not sticking with the plan. Today for example I decided to cut back the bushes in front of the house. The weather is sunny and warm, I will just take the baby outside with me and enjoy the last few rays of sunshine. Who knows if I will see the sun again until March. Those bushes are so far down on the to do list, that if I stick with my list they will never get done. Their priority listing just isn't high enough to ever make it to the top. Something is always more pressing. As they stay on the list none the less they still weigh down on me. So getting them off might be better than to stick with the list.

BEING REALISITC

Lets face it. Dreaming big is one thing. Feeling like you failed on a daily basis is another. I know myself well enought to know that this is what it will boil down to. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not even by the end of the week. Although very likely before the year is up.

So lets be nice to myself and reduce that daily list. At least for the next couple week. Oh wait. Lets make this months, there is a tiny person in the house who needs loads of attention.

So here is the revised list.

• 2 loads of laundry (not negotiable as that is simply what needs to be done around here)
• 10 min in 1 bedroom
• kitchen at night while James gets to send the kids to bed. 
• go for a walk, work out or play the piano
• 10 min in a bathroom
• work on a blog (not necessarily posting, working on something is enough)
• cook 3 x a week and make sure portions are big enough to last 2 days

Trust me, that is plenty ambitious. 

MAKE HAY

...while the sun shines. Even if the sun "shines" at 5:30 am. Before 8 am I had the dishwasher and the washer running, dirty laundry sorted, and 3/4 of the fridge cleaned out and trust me. That was a lot of work. The additional sick child home did not slow me down.

At the end of the day I exceeded the 2 loads of laundry. I cooked lunch for all and dinner for James and myself. I got the dishwasher started again in the evening. It doesn't sound like I did all that much summing it up, but I sure felt very succesful today. 

BRAINDEAD

3 nights ago I filled up the washer only 2/3s so I decided to wait for next morning to turn it on in the hopes of filling it up. Next day I washed and dried it but never retrieved it from the basement. Just too much going on and as it was dry I figured it is safe to leave it.

So imagine my surprise when I got downstairs and saw stuff in the washer. "I thought I washed this," I said to myself. And then the memory came back. I had indeed washed it. When I was about to put it in the dryer I only took 2 thirds out as the load was heavy.I picked out the stuff that didn't go in the dryer and started it. And totally forgot about the rest of it in the washer. Seriously, if my attention span is too short to put laundy in the dryer there isn't much hope for a focused approach, is there...

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK

I ate my weight in chocolate. Well. Maybe not quite but close enough. 

I managed to do 2 loads, the walk, the blogging, but not in one day. Who cares. I am surviving day to day an am getting more than done the last couple of weeks, even if to be honest, that isn't that hard. It's hard to be happy when you constantly feel like failing. Maybe being happy should be my top priority.

DREAMING BIG

Here is the list of things I want to add one by one to do daily. 

• 2 loads of laundry 30 min each (or 10 laundry tasks)
• 2 bathrooms 10 min each
• 4 bedrooms 10 min each
• kitchen 3x 10 min
• 10 min each in living room, front room  and hall
• 15 min of piano practise
• 15 min work out
• go on walk with little kids in the morning
• blog here and on the family blog
• cook every day

A girl can dream. Right? I put them together in blocks, so the list wouldn't be quite as intimidating, but besides the laundry the 10 min segments are each considered an individual task. So is each blog. If we do the math, we will see that that will add up to at least 5 hours. That is without taking care of the needs of 2 kids under 3.  

Today I managed the laundry, 10 min in the hall, cooking and blogging. On both blogs. Oh, and lets not forget the 10 min in my bedroom and my making the boys clean up their rooms. To achieve great things one has to dream big!

TODAY'S SUCCESS

I used to have routines in place that worked well for me. But things went south over the last year and I found myself doing nothing but holding a baby the last few weeks. When I do have my hands free Is eem to be lost and don't know where to start. It is once again so mcuh, that it looks like an impossible task. So I came up with the following solution.

I made a list of things I want/need to do every day. I decided to try to do just one every day, everything else would be bonus.  Then when Imanage to do that I would add a second thing. Guess what. I failed. Every. Single. DAY! For a week. Today I found out why. My tiny starter task is do 2 complete laundry cycles each day. But guess what. This is what one load looks like: take to the basement and sort - wash - dry - fold - put away. I have done this long enough to know that whenyou add this up you are looking at an average of 30 min per load. So my tiny starter task takes a whole hour of my day. Maybe not the smartest thing to start with. 

Once again we are back to the well known fact that if you want to plan right, you need to know how much time you need to get accomplished what you set out to do.  I felt better about myself once I realized that my first step is a huge one. Splitting it up into 10 tasks (2 times 5 tasks see above) already helps. I also decided that it shoudl count if I just do 10 laundry tasks. like 1 full cycle plus putting 5 baskets away. (Yes, that seems to be the hardest task). 

While thinking about all of this I managed to complete my 10 laundry tasks. 2 full circles. And I cleaned a toilet and scrubbed a sink in one of the bathrooms. HA! Take that. I can function in the middle of crazy. I hope I can do it again tomorrow. 

SLEEP

I need more sleep. How ironic that I should be writing this in the middle of the night. I get grumpy when I am sleep deprived. It also affects my decision making. And my ability to focus. And my stamina. Plus I eat more candy when I am tired. I think I need to go to bed at 10 pm again. If I do that it will be 11 anyway by the time the light is finally off. It being dark so early should help with going to bed earlier. Unfortunately I need more sleep during the winter, too. Okay. I will stop rambling and go to bed. Everybody else in this household is asleep, I should be snoozing, too!

EVIL DESTROYER

A certain little person took it upon himself to empty out all the little drawers that I had worked so hard on filling. We ended up with a 1 h power struggle. He sobbed the whole time, but I made him clean it up. As he is too small to do it properly, having it in the right drawer was enough. Which meant I redid it once he was done. 

The mental damage was worse then the actual damage. It just once again felt so useless. Why bother? Why spend hours sorting and putting away if someone can destroy my hard work in less than a minute? I also kept asking myself if living in a constantly messy house makes my 2 year old believe this is how things are supposed to look like? Does he really think the proper way to store his clothes and toys is to put it all in a heap in the middle of his room? He has left the drawers alone for the rest of the week. I am not sure if that is because he understood that the stuff iss supposed to be in there or because he has enough toys spread all over the floor to be happy again.  I did tear me down more than I care to admit. I think I am over it at last. New week. Here I come.

RECLAIMING MY HOUSE

Last week I had 2 good days. That's twice as many than the 5 weeks before that. Too bad 2 days weren't enough to catch up. I worked hard thsoe 2 days. James went and got new dressers to replace the ones we gave away on Monday. While he pit them together I sorted through the clothes that where in the bigger dresser. Got rid of one big stack, sortet out what didn't fit and the rest is neatly organized  and in the dresser. I even got started on the toys that where spread all over the room and in that second dresser. I won't be bored the next couple of days. Or better weeks as I have a few more rooms to go!

300

Now wouldn't it be grand if I had some great announcement for blog post #300? Like:"my attic is cleared," "the garage is empty", " the basement is organized"? Yup, that would be grand. Unfortuantely we will have to stick with:"I am alive and kicking!"

The grand announcement will have to wait until #500.

SHORT NOTICE

I had 2 dressers I wanted to get rid of. They were in use, but I was dying to have them out of the house. They looked like the ones Jack and Jill got. Today I got a call. Somebody actually wanted them. Within 3 hours they were out of the house. Unfortunately the stuff that was in them is now in boxes and baskets. And I don't have a replacement for them yet. 3 hours is rather short notice to happily rearrange things in 2 rooms. At least for me. I can already see the spiral to desaster. 

Ok. Breath in, breath out. Maybe this is the push I need to finally reorganize those 2 corners that have been a mess the whole time anyway.  This just has to work out, I really don't need more chaos. 

THE 4 SEASONS

They say there is a reason for every season. I understand, I really do. I am still not looking forward to the one that is lurking in the shadows. Depression season is upon us. Some call it winter. I would, too, if it actually was winter. But winter means snow. Sunlight making the place sparkle so bright you have to squint your eyes shut or go blind. Winter menas icicles hanging from the roof and snow forts in the backyard. Not here. Here winter means cold and gray, wet and dreary. For about 4-6 months. Looks like we are looking at 6 months this year.

And wouldn't you know. As I was sitting here composing this post I went to check out FB and a friend of mine, who lives about an hour away posted this winter season's first picture of fallen snow. Usually my friends from Denver do that, but this year we beat them.

It's officially depression season. Put on a bright smile and brace yourself for it!

STILL SICK

I am still sick. Maybe I am sick again. Who knows, It doesn't matter. Fact is that I have not been functioning properly the last 2,5 months. The only reason we haven't gone under yet is that James was home half of the time, hired help, a handful of true friends who have cooked meals and have shuttled kids across town and a few fool proof routines like my laundry system.

I long to be back to normal. I am supposed to be resting but that stupid antibiotic is making me feel a lot better than I am and it is hard to resist the urge to get cracking. I can't believe that I lived to say I want to be able to do household chores. That just feels wrong.

OPERATION FRONT DOOR

There are many good places to start a thorough clean up and declutter. One of them is the front door. Why? Because it is such a relief when you can open your door wide and not worry about what people will think, or worse, not even be able to open it all the way because stuff is blocking it. 

I still feel the sting of failure from my 14 week challenge. So this time I am a little smarter and the challenge is "a little" smaller. It feels like the kind of project that I can actually get done. To make myself belief it is a true challenge I keep telling myself that I will start at the front door and continue through the whole house. We'll see about that soon enough, but for the moment I think I will let myself believe that. 

CALL ME PHOENIX

September has burnt me to a crisp. It brought a new (very neddy) baby, 2 nasty infections, one with a revolting round of antibiotics, barely escaped being admitted to the hospital, back to school and sleep deprivation. Fortunately James was home basically the whole month or I would not have survived.

I missed sweet Marie's first day of school and it broke my heart. She didn't mind much it seemed. I still want to cry thinking about it. I worked so hard towards it to have every thing ready and picture perfect. It was. Only I was missing in the picture.

James has cooked, cleaned, attend all the start of school meetings with teachers that I usually go to, made sure the kids got good slots for piano lessons and even tough he was home for a month it seemed I rarely saw him. He was out runnikg kids to and from appointments and made sure to shield me from the daily challenges of normal life, He took me to the doctor, and was available 24/7 when I was sick.

The last 4 weeks have been rough. Harder on me physically and mentally than I expected. And I expected things to be bad. Now exactly one month after my last post I would be lying if I said I was back to normal. I am not even back to functional. But at least I feel like I can one day be normal again.

I will rise like Phoenix from the ashes. Watch me.

THIS I CAN DO

I have quit the lofty goals for now. I do what ever I feel capable of doing and nothing else. At the moment it isn't a lot. It is hard to believe that under these circumstances the house is looking better than it has in a while. Here is why. My little helpers. I keep asinging mini jobs during the day. Like:"Clean up 10 things in the living room" or "put all the dirty laundry from your room in the hamper". Incredible how much these kids can get done when given proper instructions. 

For weeks my nemesis corner (nightstand and area in front of my bed) has been bugging me. Today I decided I can do it. And I have. Best part about it? I still have enough energy to continue with other parts of the room. Seeing results definitely is motivating!

LASTING RESULTS

My 14 week challenge did NOT go as planned. But guess what. One room has since been clean and orgnanized. Sure. We have the occasional spill of dirty clothes on the floor. Or a pile of toys. But nothing permanent. When I tell the boys to clean up their room, it is done fast. I barely get any whining either. Becasue it is easy and fast. All their things have a place to go. It still needs a few improvements but I have a clear plan of how to  fix it the little glitches. 

It took me weeks to acknowledge it, but obviously the 14 week challenge has brought positive results. I do feel better about it now. Even if it was just 1 room. 

CHEATING

James was gone, I was sick. I keep telling people getting outside help is not cheating. So I did. My friend's daughter came and helped me fro 3 days. She fed the kids, helped clean up, vacuumed, scrubbed bathrooms, floors and the kitchen and took the little one to the play ground. If it hadn't been for her I might not have stayed sane. I paid her train fare and she got compensation for her time. She insited it was too much, but I do't think so. Plus I want her to come back. Don't I.

So if you are considering outside help. Just do it. You might have to swallow your pride, like I had to, but it is well worth it!

CONFESSION TIME

I'm pregnant. Yup. I am. I know. Totally crazy. I know what you are thinking. She is hoarding kids! I guess I am. Trust me, this one was defintiely still missing from my collection. To be honest with you, I won't be pregnant much longer. That's how far along I am. Why did I not tell you sooner? Because it always felt like I'd be making excuses. I failed the 14 week challenge because I am pregnant. I am not blogging because I am pregnant and too tired. I can't deal with my emotions during decluttering because I am pregnant. 

At the moment I look and feel like a beached whale and I am past excuses. I am looking for baby clothes and can't find them. They weren't in the 0-3 months box. so much for having the kid's clothes neatly organized. So instead of  making one big mess, ripping everything out, I simply got myself a plastic bag and took out all the things that I obviosuly didn't want anymore. Like all the bed linen I have labeled "to go". The stuff is actually going. I might still not have found the baby clothes, but I found clothes that fit the other kids and some things to go.

The attic seems so full. It is suffocating me. I really want to start that 14 week challenge over. 14 weeks in the attic. ARGH! And then the rest of the house. Well. It won't happen in the near future. I do feel that I have a steady trickle of things going out, so that is comforting. 

Come January I should be back to normal with a semi obtainable schedule. And don't we all love January? Perfect for new goals and brand new starts. Well. Let's get through August first!

JAMES IS BACK

Yes, I know. That went fast. No, he did not read my blog and catch a flight back. He was gone for the whole miserable 10.5 days. And  I was sick the whole time. Survival was on the very top of my list. But being a hoarder I couldn't just throw out a perfectly good post, just because I forgot to post it. I had to use it. So there. Live with it.  I can not tell you how happy I am to have him back, but I am planning on telling you about the things I learned while he was gone! 

JAMES IS GONE

He left this morning. Things went well until I realized that my "allergies" are more likely just a mean old head cold. I really don't know how single moms cope. I do have one day down, so I only have 9,5 to go. Somehow I will survive. 

Marie's comment on dinner?"I think I will NEVER EVER eat frozen pizza again. It was GROSS!" I'll just take it as a compliment, that my pizza is better. It's just a shame that I already had to resort to frozen pizza the first night. I should have listened to Louisa's advise and planned ahead. 

Alex stayed home from school, he has some random infection on the sole of one of his feet.
Doctor said he should stay off it. I decided that means he should stay home. As that was the easiest for me today, that's what we did.

I feel a little overwhelmed at the moment. It is a good thing James doesn't read this blog. Knowing him, he might get on a flight back. I can do this. I have done it before I can do it again. Really. I can.

WHY YOU WANT TO DECLUTTER

I know that quite a few times we tend to ask:"why I should I do this?" Well here is why. You remember one of my favorite clutter spots? That space of floor between my bed and the window? It attracks clutter like a pile of s*** attracts flies. It usually starts with a ppiece of clothing thatI took off right before going to bed. Then you never now, a quick emeergency clean up somewhere else a baskedt of stuff to be there "just for the afternoon" and before you know it. Voila. Mt Clutter. I'Ve watched it grow over thelast few days, maybe more like 2 weeks and foudn excuses every day why it can wait one more day. I finally decluttered it. okay. Shifted some, but cleared the whole areay, got rid of quite a bit, dusted vacuumed and was quite proud of myself. Wouldn't you know it 36 hours later with Ella sleeping in my bed, THIS happenend.

5:30 am she needed to go to the bath room. Swings her feet out of MY bed (poor me ran off to the couch in one of the kid's rooms. IT is quite comfy I must admit) somehow, even thought the sunis up already and she should be able to see, swings right into my tall reading lamp. Of course the reading lamp falls over. James's is mostly metal, mine has a nice milky glass lamp shade. OR should I say had? Well,it falls, hits the marble window sill and explodes into 1 million little fragments. I think I was standing upright onthe couch from that crash. Sank back decided I am too tored and wanteed to sleep. Fortunately my subcvoncious managed to get through to my concious brain and told it that the soudn came from my room, that it was GLASS, that there ar kids sleepingin there and that I had to ACT NOW! Miss Sleepy Head just stared at me. Glass on the floor, the window sill, the bed. EVERYWHERE! VEry fun to clean that up at 5:30 am, but if this had happend just 2 days early I would have had glass shards all over clothes and 2 baskets full of hoard with the promise of cutting my fingers any time I touched any of that. 

So keep in mind, things will happen. You'll break something. Spill something. And curseyourself for getting it all over your hoard. I think it took less than 5 min to clean it all up. And admist feeling sorry for losing that lamp and for myself for not being in bed anymore I was just happy the area was cleared and things were simple. 

Do ask me next week if I got rid of the lamp...

KILLER HEAT WAVE

The heat is REALLY getting to me. If at 10 pm you are sitting on your couch, watching TV and you have beads of sweat on your forehead it is too hot. I gave up on decluttering and deep cleaning once more for the rest of the heat wave. Just feeding the kids and keeping on top of every day stuff feels like enough of a challenge. 

I am getting rid of the occasional odd item, so not all is lost. I must admit I struggle with the situation. With feeling of failure and of not doing enough. But hey. Something I need to learn to deal with. The next few days should be a  little cooler. MAybe I will be able to get a few things done. 

PERMISSION TO RELAX

A heat wave hit us and I gave myself permission to relax yesterday. We filled up the kiddie pool and I read a book in the backyard. With the deck only half finished accessing the backyard is not as easy as it used to be, but we managed. Unfortunately the heat will stay for a while and I need to find a way to deal with it. One way to deal with it wouldd be to get up early and work during the cooler morning hours, but that has NOT happenend lately. The other way is to just find things to do in the basement. It is so much cooler down there. I can hear the guest room calling my name.

SURRENDER? ME? NEVER!

Nothing like a comparatively relaxed weekend to regain the courage to go on. Not like I did much. But I kept going. I made tiny progress in the guestroom. So it was almost nothing, but it is still more than nothing. Giving up is not going to get me anywhere. So I might as well keep going. Focus is on maintenance, You and I know that 10 min a day CAN and WILL make a difference. So I will stick with my daily survival routines and add 10 min in one room to improve things. Ther is no way I will be done before the summer as I had planned to, but plans change and goals can be adjusted. So bear with me. I can do it...

I OFFICIALLY SURRENDER

A few days ago Alex had me sign a text he had to copy about "forgetfullness".  He also added that he had to do detention again for not bringing his textbooks to class. He got all defensive about it. It wasn't his fault. They were in his locker and the key was lost. Well. DUH! Guess where the key was. In his backpack. Instead of telling me and investing 5 min into finding it, he invested 2 hours in extra homework and detention. Things got worse. Detention was canceld the day it was supposed to take place and James took a trip for nothing to get him to his music class on time (which he ended up being late for as detention and music class overlapped).
I was steaming. It didn't help that it once again concerned my "favorite" teacher. I never sent out the mean email, as we had an info night with her and another teacher 3 days later. I was way too nice and explained to her that the only one she punishes this way is me and that Alex won't care. I also told her that it is VERY important for me to find out about those things or I can't do anytthing about it. I don't understand why they send notes home to be signed by the parents if they never checked if the note got signed. Well. Guess what. Next day I had a note from teacher #2 that Alex was without a notebook for the last couple of weeks and that he expected the updated material by next Monday. To top things off Alex mentioned he got detention for another subject for not having his homework 10 times.

I can't do this. I don't care if this place is cluttered. There are obviously more urgent things to worry about. In additon to this, James finally booked a flight to attend the family reunion. He will be gone for 11 days. I am gald he is going, but want to cry just thinking about it.

I am done. The project is canceled. Ask me about it again when James is back.

WE DID IT!

The room is clean, the windows washed. I don't think that much was thrown away, but as I said, there wasn't that much to begin with. It was definitely the easiest ob so far. The only thing I did was  wash the window and move the couch. Such a good feeling to have one more room of the list!

SELF CLEANING ROOM

I love self cleaning rooms. Seriously! the boys are doing so well with their little project. I helped by haven't moved a finger in there and we are a lot further than I expected to be. If we play his right, we could be done tomorrow.

I DECLARE THE PATIO DONE

I am done with the patio I decided. The few things that are left from it have disappeared into the basement. I am not even sure where they went. They will resurface, so who cares. I really need to bump a few rooms off the "started but unfinished" list. 7 weeks in, having 2 rooms off the list isn't as big of an achievement as I wish, but it is still 2 rooms off. So make this 3, especially as you keep inmind that I more or less had 2 days off in between. Wish me luck...

THE BOYS WILL HATE ME

I already announced to the boys last week that there room is next and that I will NOT be the one doing it. At least not by myself. As they only recently moved into their room it should be fairly easy, but it will involve quite a bit of dusting. They also finally need a desk. Their lack of enthusiasm was palpable. I must said I am not overly excited myself to do this, but it needs to be done. I do consider it a fairly easy room, so maybe it will give us a chance to get a head start on which ever room is next.

NEW FOUND MOTIVATION

This week has not been going to my liking. Zero energy, zero motivation, zero hope. Yesterday I got an email from James about a family reunion he wants to attend. He has been bringing this up for months now and I have been telling him for months that he should go. The problem is that it is transatlantic, the kids will still be in school, and he doesn't want to leave me here by myself with the lot of them. So his first plan was to take as many as he could while I tried to convince him that it would all be some much easier and more fun for him if he did not have 3 jet lagged kids with him.

He really wants to go. His parents aren't getting any younger and I think deep down inside he fears it might be the last time he sees his father. It's not that I like being a single mom with 5 kids and I hate it when he is gone over night, but I love him too much to  have him miss out on this occasion because of his sense of duty. 

Today it hit me. The only way I can convince him to go is to prove to him that I am perfectly fine and that I can handle this. I know this can carry me through this phase. I'll do it for him. So he can go and enjoy some time with his family that he rarely ever sees. Of course I would prefer to go with him. It's just not possible this time. I have survived it before, I will survive it again. 

I love him enough to have cleaned the kitchen now. At 11 pm. With him sound asleep. On a day when I had to add #5 to the head lice count and shaved off another head of hair. On a day when I felt that I can't do this and it is all helpless. Yes. That's how much I love him!

TODAY IS TOMORROW

No. Today wasn't much better. I am still in head lice shock and can't focus. Rock bottom, here I come. I stuck with necessities. But hey. If you only do half of what it is necessary, even though you did things there will not be real progress. I need to reset my brain. The good news is that I am making serious progress on my Christmas Carol that I have been practicing on the piano. Ready for the bad news? Well I guess it is a funny story, but it did make me wonder about how thorough I was in the living room. Get comfortable, I need to start this story at the beginning.

So. Easter. remember Easter? No. Well, that's how long ago it was. The weather was lousy and we hid the eggs and candy in the living room. Because it is so much fun, we hid them multiple times. When we were finally done I counted them and announced that one egg was still missing. We had 18 instead of 19. Alex, the math genius told me how many eggs everyone started out with and patiently explained to me that the total was 18 and we had them all. I insisted we were one short. He explained 2 or 3 more times, with a little less patience each time. As I repeatedly tell him one can't always be right and sometimes you just have to suck it up and admit you are wrong I figured I should lead by example. So I said:"What you say makes sense. You must be right. We have them all." I had totally forgotten about that moment when James came upstairs tonight and said:"Look, I found an Easter Egg in the living room!"
I was right! I was RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT! HARHARHAR!!! Guess who was in the boys room gloating 30 sec later! Too bad it dawned on me a few minutes later that that also means my living room clean up was not as efficient as I thought. I could have sworn I dusted that surface!


Editors note: yes this week was bad enough that it took me 3 days to post this!

HEAD LICE. AGAIN!

Seriously. I don't need this. I spent my morning hunting for head lice. At least there is no school today.  Found them on 4 out of 7 heads. More or less shaved one of them. 4 mm of hair left. Brother thinks it looks cool and wants his head shaved, too. I shall oblige. When I was finally done checking and treating I was too worn out emotionally to continue.  I finally got my courage back up around 7 pm to start stripping beds. Turned the wash on at 8. House is falling apart. Clutter everywhere. Why oh why would I wish to go on with this? Nicole would say:"First world problems." So what. They still stress me out. Maybe, just maybe tomorrow will be better.

HALF TIME BREAK

Sports, concerts, even long movies all take half time breaks. I decided I will, too. I can't go on like this accumulating unfinished rooms. Especially as they are all so close to being finished. I think each of them can be done in under 2 hours. That sounds doable, don't you think?  Oh wait. The kitchen will take more time. Here is the plan:

Monday: kitchen + patio
Tuesday: kitchen + upstairs bathroom
Wednesday: kitchen + living room
Thursday: kitchen + guest room
Friday: kitchen

And then...new rooms, new adventures!

DISCOURAGED

I am not sure if the headline really gets across how I am feeling about this at the moment. I tried to get the kids to earn ice cream but they whined and lamented about 7 min blocks of cleanup being too long and that 5 would be all they can handle. I did what every evil mom would do. I got some work out of them and then decided that if any of them really want to go, they need to show some initiative. None of them did.

James is suffering severely from allergies and the week was just simply too much for both of us. We both crashed more than once and it feels like one of us was always napping. James made the kids work some more so they all have a little more than half an hour under their belt but no reward. Ella seemed to be the only one genuinely sad about it. I think I will support her in earning it a little more next week as she wasn't complaining.

I felt like crying tonight but gritted my teeth. Now that the day is up I will be honest. We got a lot more done then I thought at first. We even finally got my zucchini, tomato and  pepper plants planted. The cucumber doesn't look like it will make it, but we will see.

I have laundry to keep me busy for the rest of the night. It is such a struggle to keep going at the moment and it has been for weeks, but I refuse to give up. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Maybe I just need to take a step back and find out how to be more efficient. Maybe things just have to stop going wrong. Leaking dishwasher, emergency pick ups and stuff like that really doesn't help. Tomorrow is Sunday. I'll take it easy.

THE EARLY BIRD SLEPT IN

Mind you, I was up by 7:15 am but that is 1 h 15 after I want to be up and 45 min after I should be up at the latest. I also took a nap at lunch time and fell asleep at 6:30 pm right after dinner. I am not sure why I got up again, maybe because I thought it wasn't that late yet. I might have been completely out of energy, but I did get a few things done. Tiny steps but I feel good about it. I just need more sleep.

I DON'T CARE

I wish every day was "I don't care day" like yesterday but alas, it can't be. So I decided to swallow some worms, like them or not. It is kind of hard to keep picking worms when one child reappears at the doorstep crying the moment first period starts telling you he had trouble with the bike and then plan B to take the bus failed, as he didn't make it to the next stop in time. Never mind the torn backpack. When the next child tells you as they are about to leave the house they need the bike today at school you just sigh. You'd rather have your daughter keep drawing in the mean time but she isn't ready for school yet, oh and don't even mention that the other one is barely dressed. 

So once it is all sorted out, your husband, picked you up after he took the crying child to school (you drop him off at the office) and you barely made it to the doctor's office on time you think your only worry left for the day is piano lessons. So as you are wasting your life away in a waiting room, the receptionist looks at you and tells you, you have a phone call. It is your husband telling you that your son was smacked over the head by accident with a gym bag containing soccer cleats and he is at school right now and they recommend the child see a doctor and are you able to pick them up? Well. At least this gets you bumped to the front of the line. (silver lining!!!)

We skipped the doctor as he was starting to feel better at lunch time. Forgotten textbooks for homework were only a small nuisance and picking up James was a pleasure and I am oh so happy there is such a thing as frozen pizza. I even found a way to make progress in 2 rooms! So all in all I guess it is still all good. Now I'll kick into hero mode and finish the ironing!

I DON'T LIKE WORMS

At least I was more or less wide awake without an alarm by 5:40. As this week's Taxi Tuesday provided me with an additional appointment, 2 additional drop offs and one additional pick up I decided that anything besides taxi duties and feeding children was bonus.

Such a good feeling. For one you don't feel bad about sitting on the couch reading your emails, and you feel really good about yourself after you, sorted laundry, processed a load, went shopping, started cleaning out the car and ironed a pile of stuff. 

Yes. I am awesome. A bucket full of worms for me!

EATING WORMS

The early bird catches the worm they say. I have noticed that I get most of what I do get accomplished during the day done before 10 am. The only way to increase productivity is to get up earlier. Well.

My day was lousy. 107 little things messing up my day. There was slight progress on the project and I think I was able to pick a new room for this week. I am going for the guest room. Not much to declutter in there. Mostly clean and dust and then actually fill it up.

I refuse to surrender. I don't care how much there is to do. I don't care how hard it is. I will simply GET THIS DONE!

I AM BACK

I wish I could say 5 days away did me good. It was emotionally challenging and physically exhausting. My back is still hurting and I swear my parents must have some kind of parasites hiding in the beds. If I brought them home with me I will have a hard time forgiving that.

The car is still a mess, the rest of the trip has been cleared away. Tomorrow is Monday. New week, new room. 

Why am I doing this?

SUPER SATURDAY

Major progress today on 2 rooms. Dropped off a load of clothes for charity, finished the cake  I baked yesterday and went to see a friend who is struggling at the moment. Good day. Nothing else to say.

Editors note: traveling might mess up your posting schedule

FREAK OUT FIRDAY

Seriously. What a day. I had a break down before 10 am. I had just realized that after a week of being told to change the sheets on his bed, Alex had tricked me into believing he had, by taking the old sheets off. He just never got new sheets on. As he has a loft bed, above eye level, it is not something that would have caught my attention. Unfortunately for him, the blanket he got himself to not have to use his sheetless comforter was peeking out and caught my attention. I got quite annoyed. I gave him an additional 20 things to put away. He was upset about being "punished". (He obviously never really has been punished in his life!) He was all:"I didn't know that not doing it would get me extra work." Excuse me? My telling your 5 times is not enough motivation? You would do it if you knew you get in trouble for not doing it? Well. What really finished me off was bumping into just one more blasted thing standing around hurting my knee. I yelled and slammed a door. Obviously I had been loud enough to scare James into thinking that I got hurt badly. After sobbing hysterically for about 5 min, I was finally able to tell him, that the real problem is, that no matter what I do, it never seems to be enough. 

Once I had calmed down I reminded myself it was Miracle Week. The dishwasher being fixed helped. I cleaned up the kitchen, even mopped the floors. Did some laundry, emptied a basket that I had taken out of the bedroom into the hall. I dug through more stuff from the attic. I made pizza for dinner and a cake for a friend. I dropped one of the layers for the cake, and nearly dropped the one I had to bake to make up for it. James twisted his ankle badly in a heroic sacrifice to not run over Marie who had managed to fall with her bike right into his path. All in all I guess it wasn't the worst of days, even though I still feel that nothing that was done today will make a difference in the long run. Not even the 3 more pieces that I mended watching TV. As I stayed up way to long watching anyway I should have gotten my ironing board too. Well. Enough self accusation. Things got done. They are taken care of. More will get done today. Miracle week has 23 more work hours and I will make the most of them! But first. I will catch some sleep!

THURSDAY ALREADY!

James took 2 days off of work and already made some serious progress on patio prep work. I made really good progress on the room of the week, the bedroom. At least until I realized that I have only about 10 days left until I go to my parents house. So, just 10 days to raid the attic for all those items of clothing that are too small for my children and should fit my friend's kids. I have no time for this. I really don't. On the other hand, it will have to be done eventually, I might as well get it done while she needs the stuff. I did have a box off stuff to go up, so I just called it a trade. 1 up, 1 down. well lets face it. More like 3 down as I found clothes that fit the baby. Today, once more it feels like it is one endless job, that I will never be able to finish. But it is Miracle Week. I refuse to be defeated. So before ending this day I started on the pile of clothes to mend. I mended 4 and got rid of 3 "unmendables". Small steps, but steps none the less!

PIANO PRACTICE

As I have nothing good to say about today I shall simply change the subject.

I have decided to practice the  piano more often. I found a teacher who is not only cheap, but also available in the mornings. She wants no contract, it is pay per lesson and she is willing to give lessons at random intervals. Sounds perfect for me.

Why is practicing the piano important for me? I play well enough to make progress as long as I practice 10 min /day and poorly enough that I have to concentrate solely on the piano when practicing. The second I think of something else I hit the wrong keys. I have to tune out all the stress and worries or I am not going anywhere.

I finally came up with a system that works for me. I want to be able to play hymns at church. I used to make one list of hymns I want to learn after the other, losing them all sooner or later. Now I have a traffic light system. I have colored sticky tabs. Green means "mastered, play once or twice a month". Yellow means:"needs work, play once every day until mastered". I have a few yellow ones, the current one has an additional blue tab for quicker reference. Red means:"new, practice 10 min every day until well enough to turn yellow". As I have a whole lot of  red ones, the current red one has an additional pink tab for quick reference.

Within a week I have bumped up one yellow to green, a second yellow one will just need 1 or 2 more days and the current red one that I failed at 2 years ago is pretending to want to go yellow.

So. If one approach doesn't work for you, just try something else until you find what's right for you.

THANK YOU TUESDAY

Please read the following post with a sarcastic tone of voice. Thank you.

Thank you Taxi Tuesday for:

• coming up with the grand idea of being the hottest day of the year so far
• letting the baby take care of #2 in the bath tub
• having James drop the baby's full milk bottle in the living room (yes the top came off)
• providing me with a grand thunderstorm that blew rain horizontally more than 5 feet to hit my freshly washed windows
• making sure the speech assessment appointment would be on a Tuesday morning
• having my blood sugar levels sky high with no apparent reason
• making sure rush hour traffic was worse than usual, so I would be late for pick up
• convincing the dishwasher that today would be a good day to start leaking right as I needed to leave
• 
  

But you know what. It is miracle week. I am stronger than you Taxi Tuesday. I will process one more load of laundry, clean up the kitchen, (although I think I shall pass on turning on the dishwasher) and then I will go to bed!

MIRACLE WEEK

Last night I decided to make this week "catch up week". My resolve was to not pick a new room and to finally finish all the ones I have started. But there is something about waking up and being ready to face the day, no, the whole week before 6 am without an alarm. So forget "catch up week" and embrace "miracle week"!

It being miracle week I didn't want to miss out on starting on a new room. The bedroom it was!

By 6 am I was out of bed and ready to go.

By 7 am I had snacks for everyone, 1 child out of the house, the washer running,  4 loads of dirty laundry sorted and took last week's clean laundry off the drying rack. It was also folded and taken upstairs to be put away.

By 8 am I had changed sheets on one bed, had 4 more people out of the house, including Snow White with full stage make up. I had supervised piano practice, 10 min of reading and lunch was simmering on the stove.

By 10 am I felt like I wasn't getting as much done as I had hoped to.

By 3 pm I felt like I had wasted most of my day. 

By 4 pm I turned to comfort eating.

By 5 pm I dragged myself upstairs to keep working on my nightstand to proof to myself that I have the determination it takes to make "Miracle Week" happen. And then. Truly. A miracle. I found a "long forgotten" love letter from James. In it he not only told me how wonderful I am and how much he loves me, he also told me, that he knows that many of the things I do, go unseen. 

"Thank you for the many things you do, many of which seem to go unnoticed. I don't notice enough, but when I enter your world, I realize just how much you do."

My very personal miracle. The perfect words to keep me going. Written down more than 2.5 years ago. 

Miracle week indeed!

MY FEET HURT

I have been out and about, running around from 6:30 am until 11 pm. Now my feet hurt. As most of it was taxing and shopping nothing got done. My anxiety over this never ending week resulted in some comfort shopping. Water guns, a basketball, a soccer ball. Say what? Yes. Other women buy shoes, I noticed I start buying stuff for the kids when stressed. Good for them, eh? 

In other words, no progress on the project, but the new stuff at least is put where it belongs. The downstairs is clean and even though things didn't go as planned I stayed happy and relaxed. Now my feet are up and I can tell they are as tired as I am. Tomorrow promises to be just as much work, but as a lot of it is party prep it should be fun work at least!  

MORNING HIGH

This morning after I had them all out of the house I started a mental blog about how I successfully finished the upstairs bathroom. Several distractions and 3 hours later I realized it wouldn't happen.

At least not today.

How do I feel about it? Well. Of course not too great. Today was more or less the only day with enough time at home to simply get that done. I did make progress in all the 3 rooms that are still on the list, even the bathroom, but I once again denied myself the satisfactory feeling of crossing one of. 

I really think it is a form of self destructive behavior. Now the big question is:"How do I change it?"

COMFORT SHOPPING

I used to think that I am not a shopper, but I guess I am. I have been rather stressed lately. Nothing in particular, just the amount of things going on, and let's face it. This self imposed 14 week project. Obviously I still see it as one and not as 14 little projects. Most likely so I don't have to see myself fail on a weekly basis.

Back to shopping. I think the main reason I don't see myself as a shopper is because I don't buy stuff that is typical like shoes or clothes.What did I buy?

• cute wrapping paper (I am sure the kids are tired of our old paper)
• swim suits for the girls (I kept telling myself they need them)
• floating tubes for the kids (the kids will have so much fun with these at the lake)
• pens (Marie can now have her own set to color and won't have to steal and ruin mine)
• set of looms (so cheap, reduced, great potential birthday present)
• t-shirts for James (BTW he hates them)

I think that's it. I really don't want to know if I got more. Most of the stuff didn't even get put away. This way I can feel bad about it again tomorrow.

THE KITCHEN IS NEXT

Thanks to Saturday I feel like this can actually be accomplished. I might have only reported on putting the kids to work, but I myself have worked like I haven't in weeks or even months. I just got started and kept going. I wish I could say until I was done, but I can at least say I worked until the day was up. Besides working alongside the kids (to make sure they kept working) I loaded the dishwasher 4 times, ran 5 or 6 loads through the washer and the dryer and got most of the stuff folded an put away. I even got started on that silly little bathroom. I must admit I only got started, but I believe that is better than nothing. Especially as I had already decided to do the kitchen the coming week. And yes, I already got started on the kitchen last Saturday. Sneaky me. I know.

Why the kitchen? Because the kitchen boils down to a simple cleaning job. The only shelf that needed decluttering was decluttered 2 weeks ago when I ran out of patience looking for something on it. As the kitchen is rather new, cleaning it is easy (I kept up well), none of the shelves are cramped. I must say the  kitchen is rather well organized and has plenty of half full shelves.

Now if I hadn't miscalculated the time still needed for the current translation I would have actually gotten started. As it was I spent all morning fishing it, then ran my errands and by that time I was out of stamina. No such thing as one wall in the bathroom and 3 cabinets in the kitchen. Well. The translation is done, money is earned and I'll pretend to not be aware of Friday and Saturday being more or less completely taken up. So yes. I am still planing to do the upstairs bathroom and the kitchen this week!

CHEAP LABOR

Last night I went to bed around 6:30 to "read a little". 2 pages later I was history. I did wake up 2 or 3 times but decided to not get up until morning. I actually made it. By 7 am I felt well rested and full of energy, and that was after rolling over 2 times. 

After 12 hours of sleep and ready to tackle this house I decided it was time to torture the kids a little bit. I have been way to laid back about daily chores lately. Clean up your own room has not been stressed much and they rarely had to put away their own clothes. The girls had an easy life especially. Marie can whine like no other and I just didn't have the nerve to listen to it. Ella will happily help 9 out of 10 times. Plus, I wanted their clothes to be put away nicely and the just won't happen if they do it. The boys did rather well the last 2 weeks with staying on top of their room, Alex gets assigned little things that he prefers to do "later" and Matt unloads the dishwasher first thing every morning without ever being told. So thanks to Ella and Matt, Alex and Marie were off the hook. That would change today.

I had my mind set on making them each work for 60 min today. I did not tell them, I just announced that it was "help Mommy day" today. Matt had 26 min under his belt before the other 3 even got up. He was done by 11 am. That was the moment I took to announce that any kid that worked for a total of 60 min before 5 pm would be taken to the ice cream parlor. They were all rather excited. Matt hat a smug smile across his face as he had earned it already. Ella wanted to work off her 40 min in one stretch, Alex was confident but didn't get off the couch for his additional 49 min and Marie broke down sobbing (fake!) that that was "way to hard!" During the day Alex decided we could go without him, he'd rather play computer games. Marie spent more time whining then working and Ella realized she still had homework left. 

I sneakily assigned Alex 2 min chores to fill up his account, so when we told him he only had 35 min left to work he reluctantly got going.  Once he was down to 15 min he was excited and found jobs until he was done (smack at 5 pm).

Ella got done easily, homework and all. Marie got an extension and finally finished her 60 min by getting all the groceries from the car. The hardest thing for her was that every time I told her:"do this still and you are done," (referring to yet another 10 or 5 min block) she thought she would be done all the way. So she was rather frustrated. I will have to communicate clearer next time.

We made it to the ice cream parlor after dinner. Once there, the kids happily agreed to making this a Saturday tradition. Work for 60 min and then go to have ice cream. To sweeten the deal we agreed that it would even include the playground if they got done earlier next time. 

I must say that getting 4 hours of labor for the prize of 10 scoops of ice cream was a great deal!

I AM A GENIUS!

I am not a great fan of soccer, but living where I do, I sometimes play along and at least pretend to be. It is very hard to escape it, so you might as well embrace it. Just make sure you are rooting for the opposing team to make things interesting.

I find soccer about as enticing as ironing. If soccer is on TV I usually do stuff on the computer, I have also been found reading, glancing at the screen every 10 min, while dear James is glued to it.

So the other night the Champion's League was on and we saw a few minutes but then James switched to a sitcom. Knowing I had curtains to iron to make progress for my project, I rather reluctantly gathered my stuff and got started. I hate ironing those curtains. You are supposed to iron them on the lowest setting, but unless you set your iron to at least wool, nothing, absolutely nothing will happen. Your arm may go numb, but that's it. So after cranking up the heat little by little all the way up to "cotton" I finally got to a point were I was seeing success. It still took for ever, but at least my efforts where making a difference. I was suffering, but at least the show was funny. Once it was over, James switched back to soccer. It was half time, but he kept watching none the less. Second half started and we were still watching. Forgive me if I sound bitter, but ironing is enough torture on it's own. I do not need a boring soccer game to go with it. Then it hit me. I said to James:"You know what. You keep watching and ironing my curtains and I'll go to bed." "Sure," he said without moving an inch. "I am serious," was my reply to which he said:"So am I." But he was still not moving. So I got off the couch. And wouldn't you know it. He took my place. The game had only about 20 min left, I went and brushed my teeth, finished the chapter of the book I am reading at the moment and fell asleep with the lights on. James came up, told me Barcelona scored 3 goals in rapid succession and I was gone again. The next morning I found 2 of my curtains back on the rod and a third neatly draped over the drying rack. I love the guy.  I have 2 more curtains to iron. I wonder when soccer will be on again?

THE KITCHEN IS CLEAN

Sometimes that is all you can ask for. And no, I did not mop that floor. Today that would be asking too much. I have a killer weekend ahead of me and I am still not sure on how to survive it. Project progress today was minimal. At least there was progress. I was able to keep my headache in check. The weather the last 3 days has been hard on me. 3 late nights in a row did not help. I am still sitting here with piles of laundry to be folded that I washed and dried today. All in all it was a good day. On time for appointments. 2 warm meals and happy children. Oh. AND a clean kitchen. It's all a matter of perspective!

2 DAYS OFF

James took Tuesday and Wednesday off. I know exactly what you are thinking. "Great, she finally tackled that tiny bathroom." Well. Guess what. She did not. She had errands to run for 6 hours on Monday and was glad to be alive when it as over. James took all morning for his errands and Tuesday afternoon of course was Taxi Tuesday, with a twist this time as activities were rotated for this week. Wednesday she spent another 7 + hours on errands multitasking as she was translating (=making money) while killing almost 3 hours with tests at a doctors office. In the afternoon she found herself helping James finish a project she wasn't even aware off. Maybe you can relate that she was not up to much more than providing food for the critters after a day like that. So with Thursday being the first day without being all over the place for half of the day or longer it was spent catching up with normal things like laundry and collecting a myriad of things that are lying around. (We definitely have to work on putting things back after using them.)

I would say:"Tomorrow is another day," but it really isn't as we'll be gone most of it and I honestly don't see myself getting anything done. But hey. Who cares. There is still Saturday to finish the blasted bathroom. Or at least start it. :(

WHAT A DAY

Nothing went right today it seemed. It is 8 pm and I am so tired. I simply wan to curl up in bed and cry. I took out another mirror of a parked car on main street. I almost ran over a 5 year old, I had a 10 year old pulling out right in front of  my car on a skate board and those are just the car related issues. 

Zero progress on the 14 week challenge. Oh well, I guess that is not true. I did clear one drawer, but half of it's contents are still lying around and it is in a room I will not get around to for a while. 

I did invest a lot of energy into cleaning up what seems insignificant and I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning at 8 am. They wanted me to show up at 7:30 but guess what. No way.  On the bright side, this will be the second to last additional appointment for the week. Everything else that is on the list is just a regular thing, As bad as the house looks, at least it seems to not get any worse. I also found a piano teacher right around the corner that is available in the mornings too. You only pay per lesson and she said she would be just fine to give me lessons at short notice and at random intervals. I think I will give that a try. 

WEEK #4

I have been experiencing "pick a room-anxiety" since Friday. Seeing the state of the living room and taking into account the fact that I only finished 1 room so far, makes me very reluctant about choosing a new room. I think I am setting myself up for failure. Getting started every week, but never finishing anything. I know myself well enough to know that not choosing a new room won't make me finish and old one.

One of today's problem was that I wasn't able to stick with my "no appointments on Mondays" rule. I was to visit 2 people this morning, one appointment fell through and I took the hour I won to run to the famous Swedish furniture store. Of course there was piano and I had sneakily made a dental appointment right after piano. Unfortunately the school changed the kids's time tables so I had to switch the kids's piano lessons around so the kid that was half way to the dentist at piano lessons wasn't the one who had the appointment. Add having to make a cake for today and you can see why I might have felt a little overwhelmed about this new room.

Fortunately I have a friend, Louisa who decided to be my challenge partner. Her room this week is a small bathroom. I have decided to tag along. That upstairs bathroom has almost no storage room so there isn't much in there to begin with. I am telling myself I can do this in one day. I guess I really could if only I got started. I am just not happy about using another one of my "joker rooms" already just to keep this project going. But not all is lost, just yet. I have been picking at shelves and drawers in other rooms that I am not officially working on whenever the occasion arose, so I am making more progress than I think. At least I hope so! 

RANDOM TOSS-A-TON

It's not that I didn't get anything done today. It just felt like I didn't get enough done. James was out getting stuff for his patio project and by the time he was done I left for a baptsim that I had been invited to. I had made cake for it and did a few little things around the house, but nothing that made me feel like I accomplished anything.  So tonight I decided that even if I can't focus on anything really today I can still get something done. I just started to randomly open drawers fishing out stuff that could go. Like old recites and broken pens. I also found 1,5 pairs of shoes to get rid of and quite a few other things. Some things I came across were to keep but in the wrong place, so I got them back to their home. My efforts might not be noticeable, but I know that I got stuff done. As small as the things were that I did, every single one was necessary, there was not churning, just action. Well done, me.

FIRST ROOM OFF THE LIST

About time, too. Considering it is the third week and I only got the easiest room taken care off, this is quite pathetic. On the other hand, it's done. Finally. The living room seems to be getting worse every day and I have less desire to deal with it. I also came across a few things to do I totally forgot. Like the windowsill, or vacuuming behind furniture. The secret department in the couch. Washing the curtains. On the bright side, it IS Friday and I am making progress with the patio leftovers. I have also dealt with the few things I have brought down from the attic. So 15 items less when I will actually tackle that. My neighbor promised me the weather would turn bad around lunchtime, but it is still sunny and bright and I am thankful for that. The kids have been very cooperative all week and I think I shall pat myself on the back for surviving another one!

ROLLERCOASTER

This week is a real roller coaster. Monday I was low, Tuesday way better. Yesterday I was low again and today I am spinning like a dervish and seem to burst with energy. This morning by 9 am I had the trash out, my second load in the wash and dryer, 4 kids fed and out of the house with packed lunches. I had collected and sorted dirty laundry, folded and put away 4 loads and a few other things. 

I was on time for pick up and even got a few necessities at the grocery store, stopped at the shoe store for a pair of shoes for Alex (with 4 kids in tow), dropped Matt off at his friend's house and took 2 nice reading breaks. I rocked the music run AND gave a 45 min lecture at my church. And yes. Dinner was on the table before I left. Can you spell rockstar? Easy. K-A-T-J-A! And I was still smiling when the day was over. Oh, and in case I forgot to tell you, I even made progress in the bathroom. 

MY LONG JOURNEY

Sometimes I feel nothing but despair when I look at the mountain that is yet to climb. I might have covered quite the distance in the last 19 months but I still have such a long way to go. This week I have felt little pangs of despair more than once. Not as bad as last week.  But bad enough to make me cry every now and then. Just look at today. Morning spent on the phone getting nothing done because morals are low, all afternoon running all over the place with appointments and the evening home alone as James is out to dinner with his co-workers. 

If you have followed last year's 14 day power declutter you know that I had a little deal with myself. For every box I took up to hide in the attic, I had to deal with one from up there. I decided to offer myself the same deal this time. I am very reluctant to take it. The stuff I take up stairs will have to be dealt with eventually. Why not do it now? Plus, taking stuff into the attic involves actually getting up there. I am not in the mood for the depressing sight the attic is, plus it is such a hassle and I take forever to actually do it. I'll go up once a week I promised myself. Yeah. Right. NOT! It took me almost 3 weeks to finally go up. The main reason to get it over with  was not the pile of stuff blocking the upstairs landing, making it almost impassable, but the fact that I had stuffed myself with chocolate and sugar coated peanuts and I know that a nice little work out is the best way to deal with high blood sugar levels. So either I eat a whole package of sugar once a week or it won't ever get done. I took some books down in the hopes of being able to sell them. I have books that I "sold", but unless I reach a certain total I can't ship them off. Needless to say, the site I am selling to is not interested in buying any of the books I brought down. The only 3 that they would buy are some that I haven't read and figured I would read them first. I'll never get anywhere this way. Can you see why I start crying "out of nowhere"? Once again I feel trapped. Oh. And I accepted free stuff again. Just one item, but one that I won't need for another year. ARGH! Well. I am going to force a smile on my face now and pack the books that I brought down with the other "unsellables" and will try to dump them on some friends on the weekend.

ROUGH START INTO THE WEEK

Yesterday, I felt kind of down and the week had a rocky start. I am feeling a lot better today. James is out of town on a business trip. Or at least was supposed to be, but he came back last night with a coworker, as they couldn't get a hotel to stay. This just means they had to go back this morning. As it is a good 90 min commute that made for a long day for him yesterday. For me, too, as he was gone from 7:30 am- 8:30 pm and super tired by the time he came home. I have decided to worry about essentials only, with it being Taxi Tuesday you know what those are. Right? The best thing about last night is knowing that James can handle the mess. When he crashed on the couch at 9 pm, I said:"Can you tell that I surrendered around noon?" His reply:"It doesn't look that bad." hahaha I think he needs to clean his glasses! It did make me feel a lot better though!

WHY DO YOU HATE ME, MONDAY?

***spoiler alert*** this post contains plenty of TMI!!!!!  ***spolier alert***

As if it being Monday wasn't enough of a challenge, I had a certain little person climb into James's bed without a a diaper on and taking care of big business there. Needless to say I was thrilled to have do change the sheets again within 3 days and to have added 2 loads to my existing 5 loads of dirty laundry. The good thing is, that the mattress cover was in place, so at least the mattress stayed clean. As I had started the first load at 6:30 am (Yes, I am one busy mama!) the washer was done by the time I had the bed stripped. I have vowed to myself that I will not start the kitchen this week tempting as it maybe, unless I finish the other 3 rooms. I am not sure how I did 8 rooms in 2 weeks if I can't even get 1 done per week at the moment. I guess I skipped the deep cleaning back then and it was during spring break. This week has 5 additional maybe even 6 additional things to offer. 2 of them might be James problem but they leave me home alone for 2 nights this week. Needless to say I am not looking forward to it.

THANK YOU JAMES!

James does not know of my 14 week challenge, so of course he didn't know that the patio was on the list and that I had given myself a week to do it. As he didn't know, he simply went and cleared it in a day. I love the guy. I do have some shoes to sort through, but that should be a piece of cake. Thanks to James I am still on track. At least kind of. I have 1 week now to finish off the living room, patio and bathroom. 

WORST DAY SO FAR

Today was the worst day so far for me this week. By far the worst. I am not sure what it is this week but I feel absolutely overwhelmed. Just dealing with everyday stuff seems like all that I can handle. Lets not mention kids who pee their bed at night, spills all over the place and school time tables that have changed AGAIN and of course to my disadvantage. 

I think what really is getting to me is the suicide of a girl I knew. We weren't friends in the common sense. When we did get together we always had good and deep conversations and we did have a few things in common. We were almost the same age, both had a bunch of kids, close in age, the deep need to be perfect and struggle with depression. Obviously her struggle was a lot bigger than mine. I knew she had made an attempt to kill herself once, but that was 2 years ago, and everything seemed to have improved and it seemed she was doing so much better. She always had so much energy, she was excited about things, always willing to help. What a waste. What a waste of beautiful life. I sobbed through the whole hour of her memorial service. I have put her picture up on my mirror. As a reminder that things aren't always what they seem, that there is so much pain and heartache hidden under a beautiful surface. I had not seen her pain. I knew she had plenty of help, professional and from friends and family and still she saw no other way. That's what is getting to me. I am sure it will take a while to sort my feelings. Until then, I will just pour them out here. Quite therapeutic. 

ZERO PROGRESS

I know it is up to me to get things done. I am not sure what is keeping me, but it is rather frustrating at the moment. There is just always something else. And let's face it. Those tiles haven't been washed in years, they can wait another day. Dinner can't. Maybe I need a new rule. The "you-can't start-a-new-room-unless-you-are-done-with-the-last-one"-rule. but then I might be stuck on the living room until Christmas. Christmas of 2027. I think I'll just start on the kitchen next week. Partial progress is better than none. 

TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY

It is quite fascinating how littel you can do in one day. It'S not that I didn't do anything, I actually did quite a lot, I got rid of a pile of laundry, cooked, took kids all over town, had 2 additional runs (to the train station) but I did exactly NOTHING for my clean up and decluttering project. didn't help to have Taxi Tuesday and a totally worn out husband. I was really hoping for him to be home in time to do the last run. He was, but preferred putting 4 kids to bed to getting out of the house again. Tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. 

LIVING ROOM - LAST DAY

Mind you, this is from last Saturday and just never got posted. 

Last day in the living room. I am not happy with myself. Why? Because I am doing everything I can do avoid that room. I even started cleaning out the bathroom to stay out of the living room. I keep telling myself, if I finish the bathroom today I will have bought myself a whole week of extra time for the living room. Never mind that I was planning to do the kitchen next. So here I am annoyed with not finishing the living room, even more annoyed for starting the bathroom and running away from that, too. Well. I still have half of the day. It should be more than possible to finish the bathroom. If I will, I will feel a whole lot better about myself!

Editor's note: No, the bathroom was never finished. But fortunately the mountain of ironing was or this week would have been a complete disaster! 

I'VE SAID IT BEFORE

and I'll say it again. Mondays are not made for decluttering. Neither are Tuesdays. If I take a closer look at Wednesdays... Well. Lets not go there. I did get a decent start in the living room. Monday was spent plotting (avoiding) the room. I attempted a declutter a few weeks ago and failed at the first shelf so I tried a different cabinet yesterday. It worked. I got rid of enough DvDs to end up with the empty shelf I needed to reorganize the cabinet on the other side of the TV. I washed the dirty porcelain and feel like I am  making good progress.  

14 WEEKS OF DECLUTTERING

1 year ago I challenged myself to a major 2 week declutter. The goal was to declutter 12 rooms in 2 weeks. Needless to say Inever made it through all of those room, but I managed to finish 7 of them. Nicole pointed out that it would be smarter to give myself a week per  room instead of  a day. Of course she was right, but I work best under pressure.

I have been considering this project for a while now. I have many reasons to want to do it, and quite a few that keep me from it. 

PRO: 

• 1 week is eough time to declutter and thoroughly clean a room 
• chances of success are a lot bigger than last time
• with the progress I made over the last year this should be easy

CONTRA:

• 14 weeks of declutter? SERIOUSLY?
• the attic isn't even included in this challenge.
• I know myself well enough to know I will give up in the middle.

So after pondering this for a week, this is the compromise I came up with. I will not make it 1 14 week project but rather turn it into 14 1 week projects. Big difference? In my mind. Yes. 

So here are the rooms I am planning to tackle

• 4 bedrooms
• 2 bathrooms
• kitchen
• living room
• laundry room
• guest room
• storage room
• hall
• garage
• patio

Technically the garage and the patio are outside, but as we are planning to put in a new patio in a few weeks they are a must. The bathrooms will take less of a week of course but the halls total to a scary amount (especially if you consider the landing in the basement). The storage room is even scarier. I will start with the living room on Monday. I have decided to go for that as it seems challenging yet easy enough to not scare me off right away. So stay tuned for my progress!

MISSED ME! DIDN'T YOU!

I talked to a friend today who unfortunately lives on the other side of the world. We rarely talk and NEVER get to see each other. She told me how inspiring it was to read about my journey. That was exactly the boost I needed to return to blogging about it.

Rest assured, you didn't miss much. I was so busy with just keeping up with my achievements and to stay afloat with the million things I had to do. But I did take the time to look back over my journey of 1,5 years. I am doing well. I really am. I still have that little hoarder in me, but the hoarder  and I have learned to to get along. My little hoarder has also learned that live runs smoother without all that excess stuff.

I do have a new project in mind so this is the perfect time to return to blogging!

PROCESSED!

Today, as I was taking out the trash, I found a bag of kid's clothes on my front porch. I think that it is kind of rude to not ask me if I want it, but on the other hand so far I always took it. Still, I would just think it polite to give me a choice. Maybe I have no time to deal with this at the moment? Or no need for clothes at all? Plus just by the size and the fact that it was clothes for boys I know who dumped them on my front porch. So, if you ever have stuff you want to pass on. Ask people if they want it, don't just dump it on their front porch.

Okay. Rant is over. I am happy to report that 6 items were of use to us, they have been dealt with and are put away. The rest is packed up in the bag again ready to go to a friend's house tomorrow. And yes, I asked if she could use it!

So instead of waiting for weeks to take a look at them and another few weeks to deal with them I took care of it in less than 2 hours. 

NOTHING TO REPORT

I wish I had a grand tale to tell about my decluttering process. Unfortunately school has picked up for all of my kids. It'S the time of year with the most tests and exams. Of course it's also cold season and as my pedatrician says, stomach bug are also in season. (Yup, there is a reason I mention that one!)

What I CAN report is that my mindset has changed. Decluttering is not a chore anymore it is a way of making myself feel better. I do not need a delcutter season at the moment to part with things. I can grab cheap plastic gimmicks and toss them in passing. I don't feel guilty anymore. I shrug my shoulders and think:"If they want it they should have put it away." I might not toss it the first time I come across it, but they go out faster and with a new feeling of confidence. 

Kids are on the floor, trampled over? Out it goes. I don't even check it. My little Picassos will have created 3 new ones by the time this one hits bottom of the recycling bin.

I am also a lot better at being happy with what I DID get accomplish instead of mopping over what still needs to be done. Being happy is not only a choice, it is also a skill and it can be practised!

I wish I could list the 7 of the day, but I can't. Why not? Because I don't even think about it when they fly out. I know I tossed a plastic ring and 2 socks wiht holes. But lets face it. Tossing socks with holes is NOT newsworthy! I have heard from other hoarders, that they started decluttering and eitther kept track of all they parted with or the amount of bags they threw out and that they reached a point where that wasn't important anymore and they simply stopped keeping track

I feel good about myself and I have hope that my home will one day be easy to maintain. Judging things by their bringing joy or not does help tremendously. Especially when you notice that it not only doesn't bring joy but even worse, makes you unhappy or brings you down! Thank you Marie Kondo! I didn't beleive it at first but this approach really is  helping me! And I didn't even buy the book! At least not yet.

THE ANCIENT FELT TIP PEN

Today as I threw something in the bath room trash I noticed a pink felt tip pen without a lid under the toilet. I seem to remember that it was part of a gift set in combination with  a little cute note pad. I think I got it about 25 years ago. As it was still working it never got thrown out. It probably was never used the first 10 years because it was "too cute" and after that it wasn't used because it wasn't all that useful. What would I need a pink felt tip pen for? But as long as it is working you can't throw it away. Right? Wrong. I saw it. Grabed it. Tossed it. Never paused. Not even tcheck if it was still working. Nor to take a picture of it. You'll just have to take my word for it. 

7 a day: felt tip pen, sweater, 2 toy plastic containers, I am afraid that is only 4

surface of the day. Surface what surface? I really need to focus on that again! I mean I did clean the kitchen counters, but if I count that as the surface of the day on a daily basis things won't ever change around here!

CHAIN REACTION

James and I worked hard today. And you can tell. Needless to day the day is up and their is still plenty left to do. As I was too tired for an organized effort I decided to allow myself to just start with the pile of single socks right in front of me and see where it would take me. I guess the place can't look that great if putting one thing away puts me right in front of the next job. I don't care. The place looks better then it did an hour ago and trust me, I would have never believed this morning that it could look that nice tonight. Encouraged by my success with the puzzle book I threw out a "Toy Story" memory. I spent way to much time trying to mathc back the pieces and sort out theonce that were single. Now the majority is out and gone but I am sure I will have pieces surface every now and then!

7 a day: Toy Story memory

surface of the day: kitchen

MK AND CLOTHES

I am almost done going through my clothes, but due to trouble with my internatl hard drive I am not sure where exactly all my pics are back uped to and I am way to start searching. I also was down with a nasty cold the last few things so everything is taking place in slow motion. The last few days I was impressed wiht how many areas of my house are actually well organized and uncluttered.  Serious clutter and chaos is only happening in play areas. Talking about play areas. I came acroos yet ANOTHER on of those puzzles pieces. Best decision ever to get rid of that puzzle book. I am off to kondoing my skirts. Wish me luck!

CHRISTMAS DELIGHT

Obviously Christmas is over. But still I need to share this with you. This is my stash of cookie tin boxes. I know. You are jealous. You wish they were yours! I hate having to admit that they come as a set of 3. So the ones still wrapped in plastic have 2 smaller ones inside them. I have used most of the smaller boxes,  but some of the big hide more boxes inside them. I am sure you understand how relieved I was when last year the patterns where not my style. Not just "not my style". I thought they were UGLY! So no need to buy more. Unfortunately I started digging through the stack and wouldn't you know it. I came across a few I liked. So, I added anohter 9 boxes to my collection. Well. One day you win. One day you lose! Going with Marie Kondo's philosphy I get to keep them as they "spark joy". They do spark a little guilt, too, I must admit. I wonder what MK has to say about that!