Wednesday, October 1, 2014

10/1/2014--day 39 -- mean mom and minimal living.

Last night we had a freeze.  So it was cold this morning.  What did I make my girls do?  Walk to school. Yep, I am a mean mom.

Before you call child services on me--we live literally two blocks from school.  I told my kids if it wasn't raining they could ride their bikes.  Everyday for 2 weeks they begged me to ride bikes, so finally I let them and now they don't want to ride them cause it is to cold in the morning.  By the afternoon it is perfect bike riding weather.

I will say that I have to find their winter coats today cause it is getting colder.  I remember walking to school lots.  I remember mom picking us up and that was always a pleasant surprise, but not expected.  I walked way further than two blocks to elementary, and twice as far to middle school, and if I missed the bus, or didn't have a ride even further to high school (maybe a whole mile or two!)


Also since I finished the bulk of canning yesterday (I did pick some squash and a few peppers that i need to take care of), I have been dreading cleaning my kitchen.  Before cleaning my kitchen easily took 2-3 hours to get it livable, but since I have stopped living in excess I can now get my kitchen 80% done in about an hour--if even that long.  I can get my house picked up in about half an hour--I am LOVING not having all that STUFF in my house.  BUT the problem is that it is still all in my garage!  You don't even want to see the garage.

My husband asked if we could please try to park at least one car in the three car garage this winter.  I am not sure if that is going to happen.  (actually we have one truck parked in there, but we don't use it, so we do have ONE truck in there--does that count?).  One of the other parking spaces is taken by our lawn equipment--Lawn Mower (one riding, one pushing), a lawn sweeper, and stuff like that.  So really the boxes and junk only take up one parking space :)  How is that for justifying?

While I did get ride of 1/3 of our stuff in the first yard sale (which I thought it was more)--I feel lighter and cleaner and not so weighed down.  It is amazing how our junk can weigh us down.  Mentally, physically, and emotionally it really does take a toll.

If you don't believe me think of something you don't want, but can't get rid of, how do you feel about it? Does it seem to take mental focus away from what you want to really be thinking about?  Maybe something your grandma gave you before she passed, or something a friend thought was perfect for you, but you don't really like.  Every time you see it -- it brings you down.  If you were to just give it away (or throw it away) your life would be lighter--you would feel bad for a week maybe two and it maybe uncomfortable when your friend asks where her gift went (you can always say you put it in a safer place, or tell the truth *Gasp*--that while you value her friendship the item wasn't something you loved so you gave it someone who would love it.)--BUT in the long run letting go of things weighing you down will make YOUR life so much better.

OK--I can write a book on clutter, organization, and stuff like that, so I will just end it here!

No comments:

Post a Comment