Happy New Years! Its "Do Over time!!!"

So I have been thinking alot about all this resolution stuff I hear going around, and I for one have never really made any solid commitments one way or another on New Years day for doing or not doing anything in particular.. Did you catch that? I hope you did because I think I just confused myself! Basically what this means is I am to chicken to say or commit to something I may regret or break later, so I decided to commit to not making any resolutions I don't think I can keep. Does this mean I will make any resolutions? No, I will not, because as sure as I am that the sun will rise I am sure that as soon as I say I will or wont do something I'm gonna do or not do it. You may be lost by now, if so go back and read it again. I had to read it twice just to make sure I am making some sort of sense. If you are not lost, good for you please take a moment an explain it to us.
In lue of making "resolutions" per say, I have decided that I am going to call this my "Do Over List". Please feel free to use this term as your own. Here are some things I would like to "Do Over" this year:

Decluttering My House:
This is a very big one for me as I am a consummate collector of all things, which results in massive amounts of clutter. I tried some "decluttering" techniques last year and some of it went well, and some of it wasnt so great, therefore decluttering will be on my "Do Over List". I have huge amounts of "stuff" to go through and will depend on the Lord to help me be brutal with clutter.

Organizing my desk area:
This is a constant battle and no matter how many times I say Im going to clean it up it never gets done very well. I suppose I could blame it on the kids and the husband, but that wont fix the problem. Being totally un-organized is a sure sign of insanity, and insanity defined is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. With this in mind I will attempt a new organizational plan..not sure what it is yet, but will give whatever it happens to be a shot.

Husband Attention Time:
This is something I have had alot of trouble with recently, like say for the past couple years. It seems as though I always have time for everything BUT my husband, which should not be. Since I am homeschooling, a good part of the day consists of dealing with the inevitable " Mom, what do I do here?" questions, which is probably the bulk of the time I spend going from child to child. The other thing that tends to take my time and sap my energy is cleaning the house, or coercing the kids to do it, whatever the case may be. My husband needs to have my undivided, non-resentful attention occasionally so this is something I will be "doing Over" during the day. Pray for me.

Servant Hearted:
I really need to work on this, as I am learning I am not as Servant Hearted as I had originally thought I was. Oh I have no problem giving things, but try and volunteer me for something, watch it, your going to get hurt. This year I would like to try to serve my family and friends a bit better than I have, and not be so...so...mean, for lack of a better word, when my husband or a friend "accidentally" volunteers me for something I don't really want to do. Please pray for me..again.

I am sure if I sat and thought about it I could come up with some more things to "Do Over" this year, but I wouldn't want to overwhelm myself, or you with all the prayer requests I would be needing. By the way, I started up my Craft Business again, which without the help and prodding of my daughter,  would not have gotten done, so if you don't mind, you can pray about that also:)

Happy New Years!

Tis the Season....

So..its that time of year again, Christmas Carols and Christmas Programs, tinsel, lights, cards and of course piles of ornaments ready to go on that ever elusive "perfect" full bodied, evergreen tree. Typically, our family tradition has been to wait until the day before Christmas to set up and trim the tree and hurriedly get it decorated without staying up until 2 in the morning. This year, I dug in my heals and said No! I want a tree earlier than normal, not at the last minute.

My pile of Christmas ornaments

My husband , being the wonderful husband he is, ventured out to the wilderness for a total of about 4 hours over the course of 2 days seeking *THE* tree. We all seem to have differing requirements for said tree, but we can all agree on at least one thing, it has to be fuller than lasts years. Since I happened to pick last years tree, I was rather devastated that no one appreciated my previous effort, although I would be the first one to admit that I was only willing to venture out about 20 feet from the house, hence the scrawny tree. My friends all know me as someone who instantly turns into a homebody by just adding a little cold weather and snow, so just the fact that I was even willing to walk outside last year and get a tree was a major milestone in my usual Winter routine.



So now that we are in this holding pattern waiting for a tree,  I have decided I really need to get my Christmas Cards done or in the very least get them started, as Im sure everyone would enjoy getting them before Christmas at least once in a blue moon. To help me along in my endeavor are my 2 sweet daughters and this awesome 80 card, Make It Yourself set,  complete with everything needed, just  provide the adhesive.

Christmas Card Set

I dont have alot of time this year, so I thought this would be a good way to get it all done and still have a homemade touch. After 2 hours of cleaning off the table, and finding all my assorted scissors, markers, glue and etc. I was ready to go to work. Needless to say, I did not get one single card done. Turns out there were several other things that needed my immediate attention, add to that a run to the post office and store and by the time I got home I was worn out. Being a homebody during the Winter does have its draw backs, since my days consist of sitting by the warm fire in my pajamas,  homeschooling the kids,  I do believe that my muscles are becoming useless.  I am hoping to get some cards done by Saturday, in the mail and on the way to their final destinations in a timely manner.


This year has been pretty much the same as previous years, too much to do, and what seems like not enough time to do it. It is so easy to get overwhelmed and feel like nothing is getting done, or getting done the *right* way. Occasionally I seem to forget the reason I celebrate personally and our family collectively. If I'm truthful with myself though, its not about when I get a tree, when I get the cards done or what I get or what I give, its all about what God gave us, a perfect gift, the gift of his only Son. So while I panic over trees, cards and finances, I will push it aside and remember what My God did for me and for the world on that first Christmas morning, and I will pray that others will also remember, the perfect gift given on that day so long ago.
God Bless you always and Merry Christmas!

A Change Of Pace....

The week before last, the children started resisting our typical homeschool day, with groans and feet dragging. This year has been going so well, that it took me slightly by surprise that they would suddenly begin to debate the usefulness of Fractions and Vocabulary and Bible Study. By the end of that particular week, I was frustrated and so were they, so I , in my infinite wisdom, decided without any forewarning, to "do something different". I thought about it all weekend, talked about it with several people and came up with a plan to make the little twirps "grateful" for all those worksheets and spelling tests. Little did I know,  by the end of this school week,  "I" would be even more grateful then they were.

The week started out typical enough, with our usual Bible study time, and after that,  there was little resemblance to worksheets or your normal school type of work. Monday we did "Property Management and Design" this is a fancy  name for splitting wood and stacking it. Talk about hard work! I must be really out of shape because by the time we were done I was ready to take a nap...I suddenly had a little bit more compassion for my kids who have to stack wood and my husband who has to split it. I'm typically wandering around talking about how much I do, however its not near as physically draining as carrying and stacking wood. Good thing I have teenage boys to help out. 

On Tuesday we learned about " Wild Game Processing and packaging" that stands for cutting up the elk and putting it in the fridge. It can also be Home Economics, but for my purposes I wanted a more professional term. We only process wild game once a year, unless I can talk my husband into taking it to the Banderobs, and usually it is a deer, so its really hard to remember how to cut them up. After many many hours of cutting, wrapping, hand cramps, back aches, and tears we FINALLY finished. That was the LONGEST school day ever, and not one I would like to repeat anytime soon. 

The rest of the week was a little more mellow, we learned "organizational skills"(that means we cleaned the house), they learned the art of "Laving" ( that means laundry), and then on test day, which is usually a Friday , we continued practicing what we had learned that week.

The whole week I was hoping I would make the kids more grateful for our typical homeschool day and I don't know if I accomplished that, but  I DO know that I am more grateful for it and will do alot less whining about it in the future, hopefully they will to. By the end of the week I was totally exhausted and absolutely thrilled to have just gotten through it. Im not so sure we will do that again for a while, even though I know it was very good for us to be able to accomplish what we did. For now though, if you know of any big extravagant terms for things you would call chores, let me know, Im always on the lookout for suggestions

The Awesome Lumix

This year  has been a study in life. Almost anything that could happen , did at some point or another take place. As our year draws to a close, I am reminded that even though things that are not so great happen, there are plenty of things that are fantastic that do. Through all the vehicle issues, the shed issues, the work issues, people issues, kid issues, friend issues and everything else that goes along with it, I can still find a couple high-lights to look back on in 2010. Two of my favorites are the birth of a friends baby girl and my best friends pregnancy. I am sure if I tried hard enough, I could find dozens of instances where God has blessed my family in one way or another.
Most recently would be the acquisition of a new digital camera thanks to my daughter and son-n-law in Australia. My cannon camera has been gong on the fritz for a while now, and my constant complaints of blur and battery replacement must have surely influenced their decision to impart to us such a cool gift .

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1

At first it looks like your average normal digital camera..don't let that fool you! It is a truly awesome bit of technology. First of all, everyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I drink lots of coffee. As a result I suffer from shaky hand syndrome. This syndrome does not help my  picture taking  in the least. Thanks to the Auto-Stabilization feature on my new camera and I can drink as much coffee as I want and still take pictures! This has me totally psyched as my syndrome was slowly dwindling away my ability to be able to take a picture that was not blurry thereby ruining those "once in a lifetime moments". Here is one such example:

Yes..this is Joshua flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

 Yes, I know you are saying to yourself right now, that's awesome! I was a bit to far away, so was a tad bit blurry unfortunately,  but it is one of those "one time only deals" because as you can tell he was jumping on my couch, and that isn't gonna happen again any time soon. Here is another one of Joshua.

Joshua..again

The only thing in this picture that is blurry is him. This picture was taken before I discovered the next cool feature of my new camera, Intelligent Auto Mode! No more do I have to try and figure out what setting will give me the best picture for that situation, my camera does it for me! Although I am not totally technologically challenged, IA mode is now my new favorite setting and as easy as a push of a button.

Picture taken, in the dark, of my tree in IA Mode.

 As you can see, even with "hand shake" the Lumix takes great closeup pictures in the dark even! Here is another one of the tree in IA Mode with the Flash Turned off manually.

This looked so cool to me..look mom no blur!!!

 Another wonderful feature  my new camera has are ..RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES !!! You got it, no more running around looking for double A batteries because the kids used them all for yippy little toys, and now we have to steal from one toy to make another one work! Just plug the battery into the provided recharging unit, wait till it charges and you are good to go! I can not tell you how many times I had to change out batteries in my old camera because the kids wanted to "take pictures" of "EVERYTHING". I did manage to almost kill the battery the first time around as I was busily playing with my new toy, but I still have some battery time left, so I will be taking more pictures as the day goes on. Thank you Ashley and Aaron for the awesomely cool camera, now I can accessorize!

Coals in my wood stove.

*Disclaimer: Panasonic had nothing to do with this blog post..and this is not an advertisement for Panasonic, however if you decide to go get a Lumix after reading this I'm sure they will be happy, and Im pretty sure you will be to.
May God Bless you and yours this coming year with every good thing from above!

It's Time to Rumbleeee! Wrestling 2010

So wrestling season has started (last month actually) in the Upriver area and this will be the second year that Joshua has participated in this most strenuous of sports. I began the year with high hopes of being able to go to most of the matches, as last year I was only able to attend one tournament and some of the practices. Don't get me wrong, I totally had a great time visiting my daughter in Australia (the first time I had EVER been out of the country), but I was looking forward to being able to cheer on Joshua for this years tournament season.

Having missed the first match of the season, we had already decided to go to the St Maries match the next week. I had determined there was no way anyone was getting me out of bed at 3:00 o'clock in the morning to drive 3 hours to get to Bonners Ferry by 7:30 am for weigh-ins. With St Maries only 20 or so miles away,  I didn't have to get out of my cozy warm bed until like 6:00 which suited me just fine. So I loaded up the kids and off we went. It was only Alyssa, Joshua, and I with Alyssa having signed up to help in the kitchen.

Any way, we got there in one piece, Alyssa rambled on into the kitchen, and I proceeded to try and get Joshua all signed in to wrestle. Last year my husband had done all this because I was gone to visit my daughter, so I wasnt entirely sure what to do. I had no idea what class he was in, so with Joshua in tow, I went from table to table several times trying to find out where he was supposed to sign in at. After a trip around the mats we finally tracked down the table for his class. Now I don't really know alot about wrestling so this is all pretty new to me. We did manage to get it all taken care of and off to the weight room we went.

In the weight room, my composure started to crumble, not that I was all that composed to begin with, just what little I had went out the door in a hurry. For the previous week I had Joshua on a "diet" of sorts to make sure he would come in below 65 pounds. For some reason I had it in my mind that he would be in the same class he was in last year. Needless to say this did not happen. We stripped him down and put him on the scales and he came to 64.2 pounds, I was like good job, he is under 65 yippee! Unfortunatly, this year, he was put in the Schoolboy class and the lowest weight class on the paper was 70 pounds, at least that was my impression. Knowing nothing about wrestling, and only looking at the paper, I assumed he would be wrestling kids from 70 to 75 pounds, thats like 4 pounds up to 10 pounds more than he was, I was not happy. I was like are you sure he is in this class, there isnt anyone under 70 pounds for him to wrestle? Then I made the huge mistake of saying outloud, to the weigh-in coach, with my son standing there, "he is gonna get clobbered". This is not a very good confidence buidling comment for young men, and was only the first mistake I made for the day. I immediatly marched over to where our coach was and proceeded to complain outloud to him about the unfairness of the situation, that was mistake number 2. Our coach just happens to be the pastor at my church and now knows that I do not handle sports well.
Yes, for years now I have harbored the terrible secret that all though I am not a sports fanatic, I do tend to get a little, intense, for lack of a better word. Well the secret is now out,  I am a maniac when it comes to my kids and sports. Maybe this is why I have a tendancy to "Just Say No" when the kids ask me if they can play some sport all thier friends are participating in. It has been easier this way. I remember a couple times during baseball season with Caleb, when Im sure they would have asked me to leave if I hadnt calmed down a little. I do not do sports well, this is why my husband wont let me watch football, which is the only sport I really like. I spent the rest of the day in a bit of a tizzy, Im glad our coach was working the mats and the kitchen so he couldnt see my attitude most of the day. It didnt stop there though, not only did I get upset about things with my kid, I got upset about things for our other team kids also. I have a tendancy to be somewhat protective of the kids who are on the team, I did that during baseball also. You would think after my baseball years I would know better then get involved in sports again.
Well, we sat there most of the day, as Joshuas class is almost the last class to wrestle, so I had the whole day to sit and stew and be perturbed. I am truly surprised Brian didnt tell me to go home at some point, I would have if I were him. Finally they call Joshuas weight class, I have no idea how I understood what they were saying as the person speaking in the microphone seemed to have it half way in his mouth everytime he spoke. Reminded me a bit of Charlie browns teacher. They had thier little meeting and out they came, and I missed it all. I missed his first match because I couldnt find him in the crowd (see picture above). When I did find him it was all over and he had lost, then I thought he had wrestled without a coach and was upset again. I stomped my way around the mats and found Brian of course, once again proving that I do not handle sports well.  My attitude had deteriated to the point where I think I actually wanted to smack someone. This is not a good place for me to be. Not that I would actually do that or anything, but the feelings were there for all to see.

Anyway, everyone knew I was upset now, not that I was trying to do that or anything. I was not gracious or kind or sweet or any of the things God would have me be, so I determined right then I would be better next time. Joshua was immediatly affected by my poor sportmanship and I was not feeling to good about myself either at that point. We waited for his next round of wrestling, I followed him to the room, then watched for him to come out so that I would know where he was, then followed him to the mats. I made sure he had a coach, and proceeded to explain to him that he needed to kill the other guy. Not literally, mind you, just no Mr. Nice guy, this isnt practice, this is not play time. I dont know what came over me, John was very patient with me and I moved out of the way, which is very hard for a maniac sports mom to do. Joshua didnt win that match but at least he didnt get pinned that time. I was very proud of him.

By this time my husband had shown up to help with moving the mats after the tournament and I was able to get a little balance, not much, but a little. He can be a stablizing force for me when no one else can. He kept me calm for the most part the rest of the time I was there. I only had maybe 2 more episodes after that, both of which my husband pointed out to me, where not good for Joshuas moral or confidence. He walked into his last match already feeling defeated because of my attitude. I tried to change it but the damage was already done. I determined that I would not do the same thing at the next match in Kellogg, and for the most part I was ok. I did have a minor melt down when we went in to weigh him and they made us get out of line to clip his nails, which I thought were fine. That took another 20 minutes to get done, so I walked out with a bit of an attitude, again. I don't know why I cant just be mellow about this stuff. My husband calmed me down mostly and I dont think I had any other melt downs that day, I was rather intense though and worried about everyone elses kids getting to the mats ect. but for the most part I handled the Kellogg match much better than the St Maries match which is a very good thing.
Our next match is in Sandpoint, one of those get up at 3am to get there by 7am  matches so we will have to see how well I handle that. Hopefully I will just sleep through the whole thing and not have to worry about being a bad sport or getting upset. My husband handles these things way better than me, and Joshua will benefit from his calming influence. My prayer will be that I will be more supportive and less uptight and that I would be able to encourage my son to do the best he can and have fun. I think I should probably pray before I leave the house next time, and not wait till I have a fit. I hope my son will forgive me one day and be able to walk away from this experience with alot better attitude then I have had so far.

Family Camp 2010 Day 1

For the past several years a few intrepid explorers have set out for a long weekend of fun and frolic that we fondly refer to as Family Camp. Getting to Family Camp usually begins with several days of organizing, grocery shopping, and finding everything from the previous year. This year was no different although there were a couple added bonuses along the way.

After 2 years of hit and miss on the packing end of this,  I finally came up with some sort of "plan", and I use that term very loosely, as I am probably the most un-organized, un-prepared person I know. Since camp begins on Thursday, my plan consisted of getting the clothes washed on Tuesday, getting everything out of the attic, into the living room and sorted on Wednesday, and packing it all in the car and getting out of the driveway without forgetting to many things on Thursday. That was my plan and I was sticking to it
Along comes added bonus #1.  I received all these beautiful peaches and pears on Sunday, 4 days before we were scheduled to depart, which of course, needed something to be done with them, namely canned. Fortunately for me, the pears were not ready to can yet, so I relegated them to a dark, quiet corner in my laundry closet to complete the process of ripening. Soo guess what I did all day Monday? You got it! I was canning peaches! I had them all in the jars, sitting in the big pot and wouldn't you know the water wouldn't start boiling, I'm like why isn't it boiling? So I called my handy dandy BFF and she said, "Debra, put the lid on the pot and it will start boiling", I was like "DUH", and within a couple minutes it was boiling and the timer ready to be set. I should've known this but my mind was on the large amount of clothing I needed to wash and the camping gear that still needed to be collected from the dark recesses of the attic.

Canned Peaches

Moving along now, by the time Thursday rolled around I was exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. This is okay though, it means I actually did the things I was planning on doing. Much to my husband dismay though, I found it almost impossible to maintain a good attitude while looking at the pile of things that needed to go in the back area of my vehicle, whilst trying to remember if there was anything I might have forgotten to find. My husband reminded me that we had a boat to load things into also, which was a darn good thing because I know it wasn't all gonna fit into the back of the suburban! We proceeded to load the suburban to the roof and the boat to the gills. Everything had a place and everything was in its place, we managed to squeeze 4 kids in the back and off we went. First stop, Grandmas house. I truly don't remember why we stopped there, but I do know we managed to be able to unload about 50lbs of firewood we didnt need, and obtain an extra cooler that came in handy.

Grandmas House

While we were there, some of the other explorers stopped to see what we were doing and offered to drive down with us. That would have been nice but we still had several stops to make and did not want to hold up the parade.

intrepid explorers

We had a fairly calm drive down to the camping area and the kids were so tired they all fell asleep in the back of the vehicle until we reached Deary.

 And now we have added bonus #2, the Tube. With the absence of a compressor to blow up said tube, we needed to stop somewhere and get that done before continuing on the journey, as there would be no place for that to be done once we got there. The Tube was a last minute surprise so that even the little kids could have a great time on the lake. We already had skis and boy if you want to have a good laugh just ride on a boat with people who are learning to ski, but we did not have skis for little kids so the Tube was a great investment. This is were added bonus #3 comes in. We had a boat! Thank goodness for that boat, for there would have been numerous things that would have been left behind if not for the glorious boat and the extra space it provided for our large amount of camping paraphernalia. So we aired up the Tube, and headed on our way to, what I will refer to as "The Hill Of Doom". This is the road you have to go down to get to the Dworshak Reservoir, which is where we would be camping this year. This is a long, winding, downhill, have to have your brake on most of the time type of road. I took pictures all the way down, otherwise I probably would have been hanging onto the arm rest with my eyes closed, and praying that nothing was coming up from the bottom. The armrest probably still has fingernail marks in it from me hanging on. Here are a couple pictures of the "Hill Of Doom".

The top of the Hill Of Doom

Single Lane corner

The Final Corner

The "Hill Of Doom" is approximately 2 miles of corners all down hill, unless of course your leaving then its all uphill, but thats another story. If you notice in the pictures there are dings and dents in the guardrail ALL the way down the road. I actually breathed a sign of relief when we reached the bottom. I have more pictures, but these will at least give you an idea of my harrowing encounter going down a large hill fully loaded with boat in tow. I almost kissed the ground at the bottom, I was grateful we finally made it.

Dworshak State Campground

Having finally made it to our destination, we started unloading the suburban and boat of our assorted camping items and proceeded to load them into the cabin for Dale and I, and the various assigned tents for the kids. Yes you heard me, Cabin! Given the option of cabin camping or tent camping I will always always choose the cabin. It has a heater and electric and beds and a couch and a table and a floor, its AWESOME! One thing I tell everyone I know, I wont camp in a tent until I absolutely have to, which wont be for a while, hopefully the Lord will come back before then!
We had a wonderful camp dinner with great friends and a lot of fun sitting around chatting. I was so tired the first 3 days I was there, all I wanted to do was sit in my green fold up chair next to the fire and chill-ax (I got that word from my teenage son). Everything went according to plan, everything got done and everyone got to bed at a fairly reasonable hour. And that was pretty much the end of day one. This post turned out to be way longer than I had anticipated so will write about the other days in another post.
Hope I didn't forget anything :)

Calgon..Take me away! (trademarked of course )

Have you ever just had one of those weeks, where that line was so appropriate? In my case the mantra was "Jesus,Take me home!" Usually I start out with such good intentions, like with our homeschooling, or laundry, or "insert your project here". No matter what I try to accomplish, there is some point where I want God to just take me home and get it over with. Everywhere I turn, it seems that everyone else is having this great time and I just don't get it. For me it has been truly hard to maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity.
Take our homeschooling experience so far. It has only been 3 days and I have already been tempted to throw in the towel, so to speak. They fuss, they fight, they argue, where is the peaceful, calm, homeschooling experience I keep hearing about? I can tell you it is definitely not at my house. Where are the kids who want to cooperate and have a great time with each other while doing school work? What about the peaceful walks in the woods looking at birds and squirrels and talking about Gods creation? Not here. As a matter of fact the last time I took my kids out to the woods for this nature walk thingy, I almost left them there. No worries though, they would have eventually found their way home as we only got a couple hundred yards away before they were pitching fits.
Every family is different, for instance, my kids have learned that I will cave at the slightest hint of noncooperation, because I want to have a whole day where there isn't any yelling or bickering. Another thing they have learned is the harder time they give me, the shorter school time will be. I have trained them well. They know exactly what buttons to push and how to push them to get their ultimate goal, which is to go do what they want. Just for the record, I have great kids, even with all the fussing, they are better than most.
Fortunately for them and me, I have a Savior who loves me. Left to my own devices, with no relationship with the Lord, I would have given up long ago. I can not let them win this battle of the wills, as in the end they will actually end up losing. I don't know what that looks like right now, but I'm working on it.
Yesterday I was watching a Voddie Baucham DVD from a homeschooling conference I went to a couple years ago and he was talking about parents being a blessing to their children, and I asked myself, am I being a blessing to my kids? Honestly, I would have to give myself an F in that category. I just don't know how to do that on my own, but I know that Jesus can help me with that. I want to be a blessing to my husband also, and that seems even harder than being one for my kids.
So now that my rant is done, I am reminded of a verse that seems to fit my circumstances at this moment, which is
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also ^(A)lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us ^(B)run with ^(C)endurance the race that is set before us.

To me this means, there are people watching, set a Godly example, put aside your worldly struggles and sin that can trip you and keep going until you reach the goal, that being telling people the Gospel and going home to be with Jesus. What a great encouragement for those of us who seem to have more problems then others.
Funny how that works. I can always find a scripture verse to fit my struggle or to give me encouragement. I don't know how anyone can make it in this world without Gods Word. After the week, or maybe month,  I have had,  it seems impossible to even conceive of living without it.

Paul Bunyan Days 2010 .......Totally Worth It !

Yesterday was the annual Paul Bunyan Days Fireworks Show. I will typically spend the whole year, after the last one, trying to figure out a way to get out of going the next time. The excuses come more rapid fire when there are about 2 weeks left to go before the great and glorious event.  I will usually pray for rain or sickness, which I know sounds silly, but the thought of trying to get through a crowd of about 12,000 to watch fireworks does nothing for me except make me cringe, not to mention trying to get out of the parking lot afterward. This year, it rained. I was ecstatic! I thought for sure I would get out of it! Not! It stopped raining at some point and the sun actually made an appearance as if to mock me saying Ha...HA HA!  When I found out my BFF was sick I was like, honey, I can stay with her and keep her company, I'm sure she will be lonely! He was like, Not! Foiled again! Not even sympathy for my friend would sway my husband this year.  The excuses I used ranged from I will be to cold,  to my friend is not going, why do I have to.

Now we are getting somewhere.

After having a couple rough days with no motivation, I got back into the swing of things yesterday by finishing up my closet, clothes and room for the most part. I still have my containers stacked everywhere, because I cant really put them in the attic as its not clean yet. I was up there the other day and for some reason it seemed worse then before. I think when you are un-motivated everything looks worse than it is. Unfortunately it is still to hot up there during the day to do any real work so I spent the rest of the day yesterday trying to get a walking path in my living room and finally succeeded and was able to get dinner done, the kitchen clean and my bathroom clean. Thank goodness for grilled cheese sandwiches, Im not sure I had energy left for anything else!
I can now get to my pile of yard sale items and get them over to my storage shed, and I have enough stuff to have a sizable yard sale this next Friday and Saturday also. I have to make sure that when I am done I am willing to take whatever is left to the thrift store and resist the urge to put it back in the storage and have another one.(BTW I have gobs and gobs of childrens books so I am willing to let my friends get first chance at picking some up before the yard sale)
So I have the girls pink and red totes stacked by their bedroom door and the boys blue totes against the wall in their room for easy sorting. Everyone now has a memorabilia box for things they do not have hanging on their walls, but want to keep. I think that was the funnest part of this, getting to see things Ive kept for sentimental reasons, but its still mostly birthday cards.

The overly stuffed hall closet.

My next project for today is working on my hall closets. They are so stuffed, sometimes I cant even get the doors shut! I have no idea whats even in there. When I open the door it all usually falls into a pile on the ground and I have to push it all back in. That can not be good for the door hinges I'm sure. And that's only the small closet. I want to bring my new dryer home so the laundry closet needs some work to. It has everything in it but laundry stuff.  I have actually worked on it a couple times, but it one of those things that I had to many projects going at once and it didn't get all the way done. Some advice I received recently was to pick one thing at a time and finish it before you start something else, but like my husband says, women are like spaghetti, they are all over the place :)

The laundry room closet

 Now that I have my projects picked, I need to finish my coffee, get dressed, get the kids up, and make a decision that this is what Im going to finish today. The fact that I really really want my dryer over here should help me with getting the laundry closet done sometime today, but if I don't get it all done, that will be okay to, I cant expect to be completely organized in just one week when it took years to get this way. But like my life with Jesus, I am a work in progress, not completed until he takes me home. I hope it doesn't take that long to finish my house.

Let the games begin.....

As with any project you need a place to begin, soooo I decided that my room would be the start point as it didn't really seem fair to be harassing the kids about cleaning their rooms if mine was a wreck. I got out my handy dandy 18 gallon tote containers and went to work. Starting with my dresser, I proceeded to start sorting clothing that I hadn't seen in a while and found some things I didn't realize I had. I was in awe. I had been looking for shorts in my drawers (which are usually crammed to the top and overflowing so that I can't get them shut) and I found like 5 pairs! To bad summer is almost over, those would have been nice to have when the weather was warmer. The other thing I found was that I couldn't fit in most of it anymore. This is due to me not being able to find them for so long I'm sure. Being the clothing fanatic that I am, I decided if it didn't fit me then it might fit my girls next year, thus allowing me to not have to get rid of it! I promptly labeled another container "Girls Summer Clothes 2011", and began filling it. I did manage to let go of some things but only after determining that the girls wouldn't wear it and I couldn't ever fit in it again.

clothes that don't fit anymore that were to cute to get rid of.

I think my friend would be proud of the sacrifices I am making. This is rough stuff,  I dont know how I will get through it, as I can hardly bare to give things up. But alas I will survive ! I have been assured that I will feel much lighter when I am done. I know this is true because when I finished my dresser I could actually shut the drawers! After my dresser, which was hard enough, I started on my closet. I wish I would've remembered to get before and after pictures. The closet was even harder than the drawers. I couldn't believe all the things I couldnt fit in anymore. There were so many clothes in it, like my dresser, I found things I hadn't seen in a long long time. Im only supposed to be packing and sorting winter type clothing, but 3/4 of my hanging clothes didn't fit me anymore so I figured I would pack them to. Again, I looked for anything the girls might like for summer next year, and then I packed all the clothes they might like to have 10 years from now in a separate container that I have yet to label! I didn't have to get rid of but 1 or 2 things that time! By the way, color coordinating by season went out the window, its now blue and orange for boys and pink and red for girls, unfortunately the green ones were out of stock.

Stack of yard sale items

I am actually finished with the closet for the most part, I decided not to pack winter sweaters as I have them on a shelf out of the way, but will instead just sort them into things to give the girls for winter, and things to put in my yard sale stacks (which seems to be getting bigger and bigger as the days go by). I'm thinking that by the time I get through packing all the winter type clothing, ( I still have all the kids rooms and the attic to sort) it will almost be time to unpack it and start packing summer clothes. At least I will have a good start on next year and then I can move onto a different project. I think it will probably be the desk area next, as I cant seem to find anything anymore, and when I cant find it there is a definite problem. I think I might want to get a bulletin board of some type and some more of those little plastic containers for supplies, and maybe even another shelf unit, but I digress. I probably should do just one project at a time, because when I get overwhelmed everything comes to a screeching halt and nothing gets done.

My next project!

Organization 101 (Better known as Ask Tracy, she will know what to do)

I am a stacker. Just ask my husband he will tell you. So not only do I collect things I manage to stack them in piles precariously perched throughout the house. That being said I immediately stacked the 3 HUGE boxes of organizational tools I received this afternoon courtesy of our local FedEx Guy and Walmart. I had to move some things over, so I stacked those also. As I was looking around the living room I noticed that there were stacks everywhere! Clothes, videos, books, bags, you name it it was stacked somewhere in my living room. I finally managed a nice size spot for my new containers.

Stack of organizational tools (this is Alyssa, shes almost as bad a stacker as I am)

You cant see it from the front, but there is a huge stack of yard sale items right behind the huge stack of boxed containers. I have been collecting and sorting to have a yard sale also(for several years actually). As I have been sorting and organizing, I have been taking my friends advice to heart, If you haven't worn it in a year get rid of it, if you never plan on wearing, it get rid of it, and finally if it doesn't fit get rid of it ( I hope I got all those right). These are excellent principles to use when organizing. As a result I have a trailer full of things, a storage area semi full (not all of it is things Im getting rid of ) and an attic ( that I have yet to even look at for fear of panic setting in) all for a yard sale that I have been planning for a year or more. Now granted not everything is for a yard sale, after all I must stay true to my collector roots and preserve some clutter for myself. I would like to think that I may be blessing someone else with the things I'm not using anymore ( if I could actually find anything like that).


So this is the beginning of my organizational journey. I will be sharing my struggles and triumphs, and the things I will learn along the way over the coming weeks (mostly from my friend as I know none of this on my own!). Hopefully this will be as pain free as possible with minimal emotional or physical damage to myself or others ( my children in particular).

Help! Im not Organized!

This will be my first attempt at any type of Blogging.
It seemed that organization would be a good topic for my first post, as I am probably the most unorganized person I know, and this seems to be the problem I am dealing with at the moment.
Oh I have friends that are really good at it, but for some reason I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Coming from a long line of collectors has been a severe damper to any type of organizational skills I may have at one time been able to cultivate. My mother is a collector, my Grandmother was a collector, and her mother before her, and so on. With those type of odds, I would be surprised if  I ever accomplish any organization at all.
Fortunately for me, I have a close friend that LOVES to be organized. She is a source of inspiration to me (even though I tend to zone out whenever anyone says anything about getting rid of my considerable amount of STUFF.) I always manage to come back to earth and listen at some point, but I'm sure she can remember seeing a glazed look in my eye a time or two when talking about seasonal clothing or getting rid of stuff in my attic.

My Attic

She did come over once to help with my attic. It was brutal! I haven't been able to go up there since to organize, as I'm afraid I may find things that I know I should just get rid of.
With all that being said, I finally came to the realization the other day, that I cant take it with me, and after I'm gone no one will want it. It was very hard for me to think my things may not be important to anyone but myself. I asked my kids for 2 things each that they would want from my considerable amount of stuff (since I have 6 kids that adds up to at least 12 things I wouldn't have to get rid of, which helps the appease collector in me). Surprisingly, they all mentioned things that were actually practical. I was amazed that not one of my girls asked for my sewing things. One of them did ask for my clown collection.
Right now I am working on organizing Winter clothing. I ordered 24,  18 gallon containers in a variety of colors hoping for inspiration. I thought red and orange for summer and fall, pink and green for spring and blue for winter. I will be surprised if I manage to get it all the containers, let alone color coordinated to a specific season.

Pink Containers

Right now I only have the pink ones (the boys are not happy) and I'm trying to decide how to use my 24 containers to organize the large amount of clothing I have scattered throughout the house and I think I may try to use them for other things also, like my sons baseball memorabilia, or things I got them while I was in Australia, or years and years of accumulated birthday cards. The possibilities are endless! Actually, maybe I wont have to get rid of anything! I can organize it ALL In my new containers! Cool!