Oh hey, look at that – it’s been a week since I posted. It wasn’t an intentional lapse in blogging, at least I don’t think it was. Leaving the blog for seven days on such a down note isn’t something I like to do, but it feels good to be back.
I’ve spent the last several days in a heavy state of busy. I worked two days, one of which included taking charge of my first labor patient. She delivered six minutes after my shift ended, but I stayed until the baby was born just so I could meet the stubborn little girl who refused to hold still all day. I’ve never had to adjust an electronic fetal monitoring belt so much in a single day. I guess she knew I needed the practice.
We also ran away for two days this weekend. We packed up the kids and went to a picnic with a large group of friends, followed by an overnight with friends in Oxford, OH. Cordy got to spend time with her best friend, Mira got filthy playing in the dirt, Aaron got to geek out with fellow geeks, and I got to lose myself shopping in Ikea on Sunday while chatting with one of my best friends. It was a good time.
Other days of the past week were spent in a deep purge within my house. You see, it’s been a busy few years, and during that time we’ve accumulated a lot of junk. A LOT of junk. Mira has yet to even have her own room – we simply carved out enough space in Aaron’s “den” to shove a crib and a dresser against the wall. She was a baby – what more did she need?
Being depressed has a few benefits. It makes you hate many things about your current life and can sometimes give you the motivation to change it. I realized much of the junk, knick-knacks, boxes of clothing and old baby toys were not only cluttering up the house, they were cluttering up my psyche, too. I want open spaces and if it means shrugging off some emotional connections to inanimate objects, I’m ready to shrug myself silly.
So we’ve been carving through the sea of junk, clearing off shelves, cleaning out boxes, trashing anything that can’t go to someone else or Goodwill, and rearranging our space. The bookcases have been moved from Mira’s room to our bedroom, Aaron’s computer no longer lurks in the corner, and all that is left in Mira’s room is her furniture and toys.
Cordy’s room is next, and we’ve decided it’s time for her to have a big girl room. She’ll be five years old in a week and she needs some new furniture. The toddler bed will go to Mira in favor of a twin bed for Cordy. Her dresser – with the changing table top – goes to the yard sale pile collecting in the garage, and she’ll have a proper set of drawers.
The guest room is after that. Eventually, I’d like to give a makeover to the living room and kitchen. And maybe someday we’ll paint or go crazy and hang something on the wall.
We filled our trash bin last week, and I hope to do the same this week. I like seeing the emptiness opening up from under the clutter. And the items I’m choosing to keep have so much more meaning to me now.
Thanks for the comments last week. I realize I am overwhelmed by so many changes over the past year. I’m working full time now, the girls are in school, Aaron is still looking for a job, the bills are being held at bay by the forces of good, but always threatening to scale the walls, and I’m adjusting to the realization that this is our life. Acceptance of this reality hasn’t fully come yet.
So for now I am trying to control what little I have control over. And at this moment, my focus is on my house. Maybe next I’ll tackle all 1,385 unanswered e-mails in my Inbox. Maybe.
After cleaning out the pre-marriage stuff in the basement of our old place, I felt like I had MORE stuff instead of less, because I could find things much more easily. I liked how it lightened the mental load I didn’t know I had too.
Well hi there, doesn’t that feel good to clear out? Just before DuckyBoy’s birthday I FINALLY got rid of like 8 bags of Salvation Army-bound stuff I’d been collecting for ages. Feels like I’ve got a whole new apartment, and I’m trying to keep it going!
There’s definitely change in the air this fall.
Whew! Busy girl. Goo dluck on all of your projects. I LOVE decluttering.
Good for you with getting rid of stuff. I find it pleasing too, I just wish it took less time. As you make Cordy’s big girl room, I have a cute idea I used for a wall bookshelf with a built in dollhouse to save space that came out waaaaay cute for my daughter. If you are interested let me know and I’ll share pictures.
That’s a big project on my list…’the purge’. I’m so sick of the clutter everywhere. Any tips on what worked for you? (ie. how’d you decide what to trash and what to keep, did you do a mass sweep or room by room?)
((hugs)) Glad that things are looking better. A good purge always helps my pschye as well.
Clutter does horrible things to me. I hate clutter. It’s one of the reasons that sometimes I don’t mind living in an apartment so small.. we just don’t accumulate much junk and I’m much quicker to come to that “we don’t need it” conclusion than I used to be. I don’t even like clutter ‘decor’. I can deal with things on the wall like pictures, art, etc. But counter/table clutter. Yeah, not so much. So I’m glad you got to do a bit of that recently.. it really does release loads of weight off your shoulders.