A Little Catch-Up

I am definitely going to be hit or miss over the next two weeks. I may feel inspired in the midst of the moving but if this past week is any indicator I will be fairly tired from all the cleaning, decluttering, packing and well you get the idea. I have been working very hard this week to remove everything that are not absolute musts so we can get the house on the market. I must say that I fell as though God has been very gracious and has sustained me as I have been working. I had been feeling pretty tired the past two weeks but this week have felt a renewed energy. The fatigue could have been due to a urinary tract infection (never had one in my life until now) but all is well again. The kids have been very cooperative and playing extremely well this week. It has been quite a stretch of time since they have entertained themselves this well without massive amounts of intervention on my part. Another reason why I feel God has been very involved in our lives this week. Not that He isn't everyday but there are times when I feel maybe more grace or maybe am just more aware of His presence.

The other thing that has been rather shocking to me is how much stuff we have removed from our house already. I don't think our kids have enormous amounts of toys or that we have lots of stuff. But...that is all relative. I am somewhat dismayed at how much we have that we don't need. We have had so much of our things packed away for weeks now, moved into the garage at the new house and we haven't missed any of it. I have already done quite a bit of purging but I can assure you I am purging even more after we are there and settling in. Do you know how much time is spent in a day just maintaining order in my house simply because of things? Too much time. I have been loving less clutter and enjoying my kids more. I think it is safe to say we can do without way more than we think we can. I guess our society, commercials, advertising and sale papers do a great job of convincing us we need everything they have to offer. And I kind of pride myself on not being a spender and I really am not. I hardly ever shop and am generally very content with what I have. Priding myself on not being a spender has come back and bitten me in the butt. When you have to spend money to try and organize your things and spend more money to buy storage solutions it kind of tells on you. Anyway, I have been challenged to try and downsize our things so that I can enjoy my family and my life a whole lot more instead of feeling stressed by the clutter and disorganization. Here is some Saturday morning sweetness for you. Mark had some weird hours again last week due to some little bits of snow. Normally he doesn't have to go out and do anything unless we have 2 inches or more. But since it wasn't getting above freezing his contracts wanted him to come clear things and put ice melt down. All that to say when Saturday morning rolled around I told the kids to let him sleep in a bit. I held them off until 8:30 and then this is what I found. Too cute for words.

And here is Eden in her classic silliness.

Anytime she finds a hat of any kind she comes running and wants to wear it. I love her little personality! She is now sitting next to me in the office sobbing with tears running down her cheeks because I won't let her touch the keyboard. So....I better run.