You may have noticed in my “Not” Back to School Blog Hop: School Room post I discussed some of our home school “classroom” issues that we work with in our home. I posted some photos in that post of some of the work being done to help gear up for a smooth sailing organized school year.
On top of my preparations for schooling our children this school year, I am organizing most other parts of our home to ensure things are running like a tight ship! Over the past month I purged laundry that either no longer fit, was completely worn out, was not appealing enough to wear, and that was no longer useful; such as old comforters, towels with holes, and baby clothes that I had prepared to sell and didn’t quite get to it.
Getting rid of excess has been a huge priority throughout our home, and it started with the kitchen. There were a couple of small kitchen appliances that I used so rarely, or that I truly did not like to clean, that it was easier to rid of them and make space for things that could use a home. I also purged pitted and stained plastic containers leaving very few as I prefer glass containers for food storage anyways. We also ate down some of the excess food staples that we had collected, which we rarely do, in order to clean out our deep freeze that was overly frosted, as well as making sure we had all of our food items within a healthy date for eating.
Soon our room reaped the benefits of our excess purge. Conan and I both decided that the time stamp on some of our collections outdated our love for them by several years. We rid of excess clothing, jackets, blankets, my nerdy hardware and wire collections, some of his sound system collection, we re-organized some of the hobbies that we are currently keeping, and we found many dust bunnies that joined their family members in our over-priced vacuum cleaner.
We reorganized some of our technology hardware and gave them a new less noticeable home. Our living room was gifted a book shelf that was also rid of our room. The living room absorbed the book shelf much better and it was put to better use than collecting dust. With that being said my book collection was gone through, and although I kept most of it, I did come across many misplaced items along with a few books that I had no desire to ever (and I mean EVER) read again.
Sweet Pea and Who-Rae’s room was also gone through, we purged of clothing and a few broken items. We were also able to remove some organizing tools that became junk collectors rather than being used for their intended purpose. This opened up a good deal of space in their personal area. Although we have a ways to go to purge of toys they no longer love, anyone with little children will tell you that process can be done slowly. I ask the kids at least once a week to find something that is either broken or that they no longer care for to throw out or to give away, and we seem to be making leaps and bounds with that useful tool. It does become stressful for the kids on occasion to find something they want to part with, but with encouragement they do eventually come out victorious.
I am in the process of letting go of a couple of responsibilities that I have had over the last nine years, as Conan is now taking them over for me. Although I feel a bit anxious over the idea, I know things will be better off with his expertise over the matters. This has decluttered my brain a bit in the process and although the transitions are not quite complete, part of me is already relieved.
Prioritizing responsibilities has also been at the top of the agenda this month. I found myself going in so many directions trying to figure out what it was that I wanted for myself that it is time to pull it all back together and get rid of the excess. It may sound overly dramatic, but it is what it is, and now I have a pretty intense focus again, which of course is AWESOME!
At this point you may be asking yourself “why on earth does this lady have such a mess” or even “what the heck is the point of this article” or possibly “why am I still reading this?” Well to let a long story eventually come to a slow and painful ending here we go… the Grand Finale.
I am going back to school, again. I have desired for a long time to finish the education I started years ago. I also wanted to finish the thing that drove me to higher education in the first place. I ended up chasing careers in college to find out that what I was chasing never really suited me well. Then of course we started a family and I found a purpose in my life with our children.
However, part of me still desires the stimulation of my own education, I wish to be able to contribute to my husbands hard work once our children have grown, and I want to pursue my dreams in hopes of teaching my children to follow theirs. I hope to teach them that even when you stumble and fall you can pick up the pieces and move forward, now; I would by no means call my current situation a stumble. I love being a mom, I enjoy being a wife, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity our patriarch affords us by allowing me to stay home. My stumble was in not sticking to my guns earlier in life when I really should have. I should have fought harder for what I wanted, I should have fought back instead of shying away from challenge.
The kids here in town officially start school on the 28th but our children will have a warm up week before that, I will be posting about that soon! I will continue to rid of excess, dust away bunnies, prioritize, and minimize until things are running smoothly enough to handle the upcoming changes. Ironically we have discussed what our schedule will look like with our children and Pumpkin seems excited about it all, even my going back to school. I am sure the majority of his excitement is coming from knowing he will have a schedule again, this summer has been hard on him as I have allowed a lot of flexibility and our schedule is gone quite to shambles.
Many people live busy lives with crazy schedules, and survive. I am sure we will, and I am very excited to move into this new time in our lives. I am working to clear up our desk so that it will accommodate the extra load and stay a bit better organized between visits. I am working on helping everyone to have positive attitudes and I know that motivation and strong family bonds will help us to get through together. I am also moving forward into the next challenge with appreciation for Conan who works so hard to deal with my craziness, keep clothes and food for the kids, and to give us the comfortable lives we have.
In conclusion: I AM SO EXCITED!!