Miracle

Last year when we lived in Massachusetts after I had a sudden desire to move closer to home Carl told me, "The only way we are going to move is if someone offers me a job." I thought that was silly and that he might actually have to make the effort and look for a job back West. Three days later Carl was offered a job, not where we would have looked for a job but it definitely was an offer out of the blue. I was so excited and thought it was our ticket closer to home. We thought then that we could choose to stay or choose to move and it wouldn't really matter. After all, Carl had a great job in Massachusetts, where he was loved and where there was lots of opportunity for growth in the company. The company was actually growing when we moved. So here's the miracle. We moved to another great company out West and after nearly a year we found out that the company in Massachusetts closed its doors letting everyone go except for like three people to finish up the current project. Its interesting how things turn out. Looking back at how quickly everything worked out, I can't help but think its all a miracle. We have definitely been watched over. Things aren't exactly perfect. We still own a home in MA that we will most likely lose a lot of money on but things are so much better than they would have been had we stayed and Carl lost his job.

Innovations in clothes organizing

Since its getting cold, we decided it was about time to swap out the summer clothes with the winter clothes. A few weeks ago I heard about this NEW way to organize drawers. So we tried it. I'm so happy how it turned out. You can actually see all the options at a glance and fit more clothes in each drawer too. VERTICAL ORGANIZATION is always the best way to go, they say. I guess I never thought that it could work with clothes too.

I B'lieve I Can Fly

So this is not a picture of SAM, its actually Katie. She was the only one we had a picture of on kite day.

There's nothing like flying kites with the cousins on a lightly windy day. Not exactly enough wind to pick up the kites, so we had to resort to running down hills to put the kites in flight. The highlight of the afternoon was when 6 year old Sam got his kite in the air and with his hand (holding the string) held high and eyes looking skyward he sang with emotion, "I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky-y-y." It was hilarious. He clearly didn't see me laughing or I'm pretty sure he would have been embarrassed to tears.

This is Sam, wearing a size 2T costume at age 5. What a silly guy!

Fasting and don't save your chocolate

Once a month is fast Sunday at church. We go without food and water for a couple of meals and pray for a specific purpose. Today the purpose was Jordan's idea-getting along with each other better. So today after we ended out fast with a prayer, we got ready for dinner. Katie asked what she could do to help. Jordan offered me the last of his flavored water even though he wanted the rest. At dinner Alex got cups and water for everyone when he noticed nobody had any. Everyone spoke kindly (except Grant, he's a little slow to catch on). When Jordan asked for more chips and there weren't any left, Katie and Alex both offered him some (their idea not mine)--amazing! This kind of thing is so rare for us. It was a fun and enjoyable dinner. I started telling the kids that fasting works. We also talked about how the house feels different and warm when we are nice to each other and looking for ways to help each other out. Without any prompting the kids started shouting out ways to be nice to each other. Alex is usual the most excited to talk about how to do better. He was coming up with all kinds of ideas like, "I know, when someone is mean to you, don't be mean back." So in the middle of this conversation Alex said all of the sudden, "I'm not going to save chocolate anymore because it melts." I love his 5 year old mind, always going in more than one direction. The moral of the story: fasting works and don't save your chocolate.

Day 5

before
after

This project actually took a lot of time since I had to make some pretty big decisions about which sheets to throw out. I put all my sheets in a container (shelf 2 from top) and folded them in a way that I can see each set. I also moved the kids papers, magnets, coloring books etc to a shelf they could see better. Now when they whine, "mom I have nothing to do" I can refer them to the closet. I had to add a few things I didn't want the kids to play with to another closet. Playdough was dried out and all playdough toys were consolidated. You know, the only problem with dejunking is that its quite messy--piles everywhere. So not only do you have to organize a closet you also have to clean an entire room afterward, its worth the peace of mind though.

DAY 4

all day field trip with Jordan (and Grant)
night out with Carl--5 hours--a little unusual but I'll take it
only time to fold the laudry I cleaned on Monday. Maybe tomorrow it will get all the way into drawers.

No time for dejunking today

Declutter Day 3

BEFORE

AFTER

Again, not a huge difference but I found some cookie cutters I've been missing, consolidated some Apple Cider Vinegar--mom I threw some out, I hope you're not mad. I also found out exactly how many bags of chocolate chips I really have. Tang, did I mention I found some of that?