#FAIL

I am 8/16 on the Christmas challenge. When I fail, I fail big. Tomorrow. I'll try again tomorrow.

LOSING CONTROL

Nothing like seeing the efforts of your hard works melt away before your very eyes. I am not sure what went wrong. I think it was a mixture of overwhelm which usually results in my doing nothing and just way too much going on. Thanksgiving and everyone catching a stomach bug and someone sick non stop for 10 days, at one time 4 kids at once did not help the situation. Now Christmas is around the corner and I look around with a sinking feeling in my stomach and I am just not sure how to get a grip on things. I am working on getting the 10 magic minutes back in place. It is a great system that really helps me to get a lot done. The only drawback is the feeling of not ever getting finished unless you have at least 1 clean room. Which I don't at the moment. I have 3 almost clean rooms. I will focus on getting them done today. This way I should have 3 rooms that take less than 10 min which should give me time to work on #4. The almost clean rooms are the bathroom downstairs, the entry hall and the living room. I know, the living room is hard to believe but we have been working hard on keeping it since Thanksgiving. The bathroom upstairs will be room #4. These rooms are also least likely to be cluttered.

I wish I cared enough about a clean house to keep working on it every day. I feel I simply don't. It is such a redundant, boring job and I really don't see much sense in it, especially knowing the rate at which the little ones can destroy all my efforts. Yes. I am feeling down again. Probably not sleeping enough again. At least today the sun is shining. That might help a little.

SURPRISE DRAWER

I made the boys put away their clothes. They told me they couldn't put a few items away cause their pyjama drawer was full. Before I knew it I was sorting out summer jammies, others that were too short, one that I hate (and yes I had permission plus they started to fall apart). 2 min later I was done and their drawer was only half full after I finished. I showed they boys and Alex said:"How did you do that Mommy? That's like magic!" Hahaha. I told them that I do magic every day when they are gone and that they come home and destroy it. Oh well. Maybe not the nicest thing to say, but that is really how I felt. In reality it was just math. Take 50 % out. Have room for more. Now, if I could only just give it away and not tell myself it is worth it to keep the stuff for the little ones. I even have a taker. ButI don't know when I would see her again. Oh well. Tomorrow. I'll bag it tomorrow.

MY CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

Because December is only the busiest month of the year, I decided to make it even harder. I picked my very own personal Christmas challenge. Declutter on shelf/box/basket/pile/whatever Mo-Sa until Christmas. It is DAY 1 and I am regretting it already. Why? Cause it is almost midnight and I haven't done. Failing on DAY 1 is not an option. I am wondering which Drawer/shelf surface is easiest. I am going for the sideboard in the living room. We cleared it off for Thanksgiving, but it already has 3 random items on top of it, that all need to be put away. Yes.  Feels like cheating, but it is better than not doing it I think. Off I go!

Yes. That was Dec. 1st. I did get my surface done right before midnight. I was smart enough to pick an easy one. I went all out and even put some Christmas deco on the sideboard in the living room. Friday I made the mistake of picking a surface that was too easy and ended up doing a drawer too, in the process. Saturday I suffered. I did a basket of laundry. Do I hear disagreeing voices? Oh I do. Let me explain. Not only has this basket been MIA for weeks it was also on the bottom of a pile of hoard. I emptied it, put the basket back into the laundry rotation and...AND IRONED the stuff that was in it. I WIN!