helllooooooooooooooo!

Yes, I'm still alive and yes I'm still writing on my blog! I started a long term subbing position on Tuesday this week, and it has been crazy trying to get into the swing of going to school everyday. It takes some getting use too! I haven't really been working on my 40 Days, 40 Bags challenge as much as I would like to this week, because of trying to figure out what is going on... and the fact that I have been exhausted by the time that I actually got home. After supper tonight I'm going to work on my bedroom project a little bit more. I don't stay up very late these days, because I can't, I will fall asleep in a chair or at the kitchen table.

The Unexpected

There is a lot of unexpected things that happen in this life, these things can be both good and bad... and I'm finding out that this true also with my 40 Days, 40 Bags challenge that I'm participating in. As I keep decluttering I have come across strong attachments to things, that I didn't even know that I had. I also have come across feelings of frustration and anger in the fact that we have so much stuff. I am trying to keep in mind that the reason I joined this challenge is to remove the stuff in our life so that we have time to enjoy each other's company and have the ability to entertain friends, and next year have the ability to put up our Christmas tree, because the response there are boxes of stuff everywhere won't be a legit reason anymore. I break down projects into smaller chunks, I think about whether or not I have used an item in the last 5 years and if I will actually use it if I had it out... and amazingly enough the answer is getting easier to be honest with myself and say no. For me that is a great improvement. I will need to keep working on the bedroom, but I'm getting closer to being done. I dusted off our night stands and rearranged them... they look so nice. It will be a fantastic feeling when I am completely done. For now though I just need to keep working on it, and if I need to take a break every once in awhile so be it! I hope everyone is having a great day!

Hey Hey! Ho Ho, Stuff You Just Got to Go!

So, I was going through all of the stuff in our bedroom, and I have made some progress... but I have realized two things about myself today. Self-Realization #1: I have total project ADHD! My husband was commenting on it earlier in the week, saying that I am working on stuff and making progress and then I change midstream and work on a different project that will help me complete my overall goal. I am trying to not do that so much now that I know that it is a problem, but at the same time if I am seeing progress and I am able to cross some stuff off my list I'm okay with because quite honestly I have a really short attention span. Self-Realization #2: The most expensive items in our home are... our diplomas! Doesn't that just want to make you break into our home and take 4 pieces of paper that nobody else would find useful. I have a bachelors of arts in linguistics and The Doc has 3 diplomas. He has a bachelors of science, a masters of science, and a doctorate of veterinary medicine! There was a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and swearing that went into achieving proficiency in our chosen fields. Even if someone was crazy enough to break into our house and take our diplomas, they wouldn't be able to steal our sense of accomplishment, our sense of pride in our, work or any of the memories that were made during that process. This realization has made it a lot easier to get rid of stuff today! Happy Saturday everyone! I should probably get back to work The Doc needed my assistance with repairing the plumbing, and I needed a nap because I was exhausted.

Project No. 2

I have decided that organizing our bedroom will be the best use of time. Since other than our closet it will easy to show a lot of improvement in the bedroom. It has been busy here with car troubles, work, and unpredictable weather. :)

Project 1: Pictures

The room still needs to be decorated, but that will happen after I get the rest of my furniture and continue to declutter. Our wall art is in a box somwhere. In box that wee need to find, so that will happen at a later date and there will be more photos.

Day 6 = Project 1 In the Bags

Annie and I are basking in the glory of the first completed room. If you don't know who Annie is, she is our rescue pup, not a real person as she is sometimes mistaken for. When I am home she spends a good portion of her day with us since she it is so bloomin' cold outside today. She did however get to run around outside for about 15 minutes just now to chase the pheasants that were brave/ stupid enough to come up close to our house. Project 1 of 40 Bags, 40 Days is in the history book. Project 1 was to declutter our living room and create a welcoming layout using our furniture! That has been accomplished; and let me tell you it creates its own housekeeping high. I don't think I would ever type that phrase, but then again I didn't think that I would ever get my living room done. I chose the lving room because it one of the rooms that we spend the majority of our time in. We sit in here to talk, we watch movies, and surf the internet in here. It is also our biggest room in our house besides our bedroom. Each project has two parts. The first part is to get the room decluttered, unpacked, and organized in a pleasing/ efficent manner. The second part is to decorate that room with our personal effects and all of the lovely wedding presents we got from family and friends! I am waiting to do the decorating part until the decluttering is done, because you never know what you are going to find in a box in this place (both good and bad). I will need to pick another room for tomorrow, but for now I am just basking in the glory of not having to hop over anything, being able to play with the pup in the middle of our living room and know that I can relax in this room. I am going to go buy curtians for this room. I found some curtains with colors that have the colors in them that are morphing into this room's color pallette. They are on sale at Menards for the weekend! Woohoo! Tomorrow I am going to post pictures of what my room looks like tomorrow. One of my pictures came out very dark and I would like to retake it so that all of the pictures can be together. I'm off to fold laundry and make supper! Have a great night!

Furniture

I have come to the point in my living room decluttering project where the layout just isn't jiving anymore, and so it is time to start moving furniture around. I am doing some research (i.e trolling pinterest for ideas) and will then start moving furniture around and moving some of the boxes to their more permanent homes. Pictures will be coming eventually. It is just taking me awhile to get there. I am unsure of what my next project will be... I'm trying to decide between the bathroom, the front porch, and my kitchen. All of these spaces are on my list for 40 Days, 40 Bags so it really doesn't matter which one we do first. Though, I am a little more anxious to start on my front porch. It is small enough and really just needs some decluttering and moving of the furniture around. It might also get some hooks for The Docs winter work gear. Coveralls, take up ridiculous amounts of space. Yesterday's progress was minimal and there wasn't really anything to report other than I wish that all of the decluttering was done. I did however get underneath the kitchen sink decluttered and have some ideas for organizing it this summer after I can sand and paint it with windows open. :) I should probably get started on my decluttering tasks for today... I am ready to be able to move onto a new project.

Our Weekend

I just pluggin' away in our living room. It is getting closer to being done which is will be great. I am starting to layout my living room furniture in my head, which I kind of like. The current arrangement isn't permanent and it isn't really working for me right now... The current layout is utter craziness and is creating a bit of a traffic flow issue. The Doc and I did however drive to Grand Forks, ND for the George Strait/ Martina McBride concert. It was a fantastic weekend with fun and relaxation, which was very much so needed. We danced, sang, and just hung out. It was lovely and being able to relax isn't something that happens very often.

My Stuff, My Journey

As I get more into this project during the Lenten season it is going to get harder, because I am a natural hoarder. Not like TV show hoarder, but enough that my stuff makes it difficult to be organized and feel comfortable in our home. Much of this stuff I have had for 22+ years and so there is some real emotional attachment to it. It should be "just stuff" but there are a lot of wonderful memories attached to my stuff and so it makes it that much harder to get rid of. I keep reminding myself of the William Morris quote:

"Have nothing in your house that ou don't know to be useful. Or believe to be beautiful."

If it is useful or beautiful or even both, then we will have no problem finding a place for it in our home. It will be interesting to see how both my husband's and my different styles come into play as we are able to finally start decorating our home as we get everything put away. The challenge came at the right time as I was starting to feel overwhelmed by stuff and wanted to be able to get things organized and start feeling settled. Not because people were telling me that I had too, but rather because I want to be able to have a less chaotic home and I wanted to be able to open our doors to others. What good is having a home if you cannot demonstrate hospitality to others. So during the processing/ planning phase I came across these questions from Home Your Way. It is definitely worth the time it takes to read it! Happy Saturday!

Day 3: A Weird Mishmash

So yesterday I did a weird mishmash of things, because i was kind of spazzy for some reason. I took out "The Docs" farm collection just so that I could visusally see what was there and which peices were the biggest because I needed to measure them. We will be buildeing a custom build a shelf around those pieces because we want everything to fit. After everything was on the floor I realized what time it was and had to run to town to do some errands. while in town at my parents house I cleaned an entire trash bag out of my car, and that was just the front seat and what I could grab from the back. I need to still clean out the back seat of my car and take the rug out of my trunk, but my office isn't until a little later in the 40 Days, 40 Bags so it will just hang out there for awhile. When I got home all of the groceries went in their cupboard and the farm collection got put back in its box for now and the other mish mash of stuff is going into their designated boxes until I get to that room. Happy Saturday everone!

Five for Friday

Here are a list of 5 things I love: 1. Rootbeer 2. Our dog Annie 3. Watching movies with The Doc 4. Teaching 5. Spending time with people. There are more things that I love, but I just wanted to share 5 of them with you!

Organizing Day 2

So, I have come across an interesting problem as I starte decluttering my living room this morning, that there really isn't anyplace to put things that I have sorted and wanted to keep as of yet, because the rest of our rooms are just as crazy and cluttery... so my solution so far is I have 3 Cashwise boxes one is for kitchen stuff, one is for my office belongings and one is for misc. tools etc. I dont think that we can do this forever, but as the house is sorted the boxes will also get put away too, so it might be that our living room is going to end up being the last room put together even though it is the first room to be decluttered. What I did today was:1) unpack one box, (threw away anything that I didn't want, need or couldn't use and put things in the appropriate box until we can start putting more and more stuff away. I think that I might have to also do some designing as well to have an idea about what I need during this process/ transition. 2) washed two loads of towels, and folded some laundry that were washed the other day. As soon as the dryer is done I will start folding laundry. 3) picked up all of the strings from our dogs toy... she likes to shred her toys and they were all over the place and were making us batty. The overall goal of 40 days, 40 bags in our home is so that it is organized, finally decorated, and we are able to have friends and family come over without having to move a whole bunch of stuff around all of the time or sit on the floor. It is like the William Morris projects out there... if it isn't beautiful, useful, and you don't love it... then there really is no place for it in your home. I am feeling pretty good about what I have accomplished so far today.It wouldn't look like much to the casual observer but I know that we are a little garbage bag closer to being able to have all of our furniture in our house and all of the things we love around us... It will be worth it even if the decluttering process isn't that much fun. There is still more to do, but that is okay Eventually ecerything will get done.

Hello 2013!

I changed the background, text,and some of the colors on my blog because it was time! I wanted something cute, fun, and a little less bright. The other new thing is that yesterday was the first day of Lent and instead of "giving something up" I decided to become better organized. The Doc (ie my husband) and I haven't fully unpacked since our big move in October... truthfully boxes have been shoved into our closet to the point where I have no idea where any of our stuff is. I was surfing Pinterest a few days ago and found this challenge 40 Days 40 Bags 2013 Declutter Challenge from (www.whitehouseblackshutters.com ) If you want to join me! Yesterday, I started by putting all of my clean laundry and laundry baskets away! It is ins't anything truly impressive, but it is at least a start. I think that today I am going to sit down and just look at the calendar and create a plan! I think that I am going to start with my living room, since it causes the most stress in our house... and just work my way out and up from there. I haven't decided if I am going to include pictures or not, we shall see. If you are reading this do you want to see pictures of my crazy looking house? Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope You feel the love of Jesus, family, and friends today! XOXO