Organize Organize Organize

Well my kitchen hasn’t made much progress. I have done a few cupboards and managed to get all my plastic sacks, which I use has trash bags, all in one spot and off my floor. My floor seems to need a bit more organizing and I have figured out that I need a much larger trash bin in my kitchen. My cute little one just isn’t doing the job.  On a good note my attic is almost done now! The girls are loving it too! They are having a blast going up there to play and most of our day is spent up there. At first it was pretty funny because I would sweep and all the dust would go around and I would have to leave cause it was making it hard to breath. Then I would go back up after it would all seattle and would have to sweep again. I did this a few times. We just haven’t used the space much at all and it just has so much dust!  Today will be spent taking my youngest for a check up and picking up around my already organized areas. My living room looks like 4 little tornados went though it last night.

I am trying to get use to my husband working nights now. It hasn’t been too bad, but I miss him at night. It has been pretty lonely and it feels at if he isn’t around to help as much. He has to sleep during the day and then up eat with us and help put the kids to bed and then only about an hour or so to spend just us and it is off to work. So if kids are up at night or fussy he’s not around to help like he usually is. 😦 But I have to say our house is less stressed now that he has changed jobs. Before he was so emotionally drained from working with troubled teenage girls. I tried not to complain much because it was a job and he was providing for us. It seemed like the job really just made all of us emotionally drained. It was just hard on all of us. So when this new job came around I was thrilled that there was something else…I wasn’t thrilled about him working nights, but emotionally I would have more of my husband back. This job is physically draining, but that is easier to deal with. Really it feels like a huge relief!

Book Review: The Vertical Self

The Vertical Self
By Mark Sayers

My newest book from Thomas Nelson is The Vertical Self by Mark Sayers. I thought this book was a very challenging book and took longer for me to get through than most. Not because it was bored or I didn’t like it but because I wanted to make sure I heard everything he had to say. He goes through talking about the difference between a vertical self and a horizontal self. That when we look at our world to find out who we are we keep changing to keep up with friends, family, work or fads. That the only way to truly know who we are is to find our identity in the one who made us. I loved hearing about how even as Christians who have a personal relationship with Him we still have a hard time finding our identity in God or having a vertical self. It was very eye opening and has made me really think a lot about how I see myself and why I decide to do certain things.

The only thing I found a little hard while reading the book was how often the words "vertical self" and "horizontal self" were used. At one point my mind was having a bit of a tongue twister going on fumbling over the words. But it was simple enough to get over it and truly enjoy the book! Well done Mark for giving us a wonderful challange!

Facebook Free

So here I am! Going facebook free for a week. And for those of you who are reading this on facebook…I am not cheating my blogs are automatically uploaded to facebook! 🙂 Just thought I would clear that up. I imagine that I am going to be spending my time wisely and doing lots of cleaning and organizing. I feel like I have fallen behind on my updates of organizing. To be honest with you all I have gotten a lot of organizing done the last few days. My days have been spent giving two girls meds in the morning, one girl eye drops 4 times a day, one neb treatments 4 times a day, and two girls meds at night. Then my husband had to go a get pink eye too…so now I have to give him eye drops. Although he has started doing them himself now. Haven’t been feeling as sorry for him as I usually do when he is not feeling well. I have too many people not feeling well. How Jadelyn and I aren’t getting sick I have no clue! according to the dr none of them at contegious…but still we must be some lucky women not be get sick!

I have been working on pictures for a family that we had a photo shoot for. Me and PS are not getting along right now. I am not even happy with lightroom! I am just not getting very far on this and it’s frustrating. I love taking pictures but sometimes the editing can get me so frustrated. Then it feels like it take way too long for me to get them done and to the people.

Well my new organizing project is going to be my kitchen. It’s in desperate need of help! I think I have one drawer that could be considered organized. Other than that it is an utter mess! Say a prayer for me and lets hope that it goes well!

Grieving

Yesterday it seemed to hit me that I really haven’t processed my grieving. I am not very good at death. I never know what to say to people and I try to not show too much emotion. I guess in away I don’t really want people to worry about how I feel…there are people hurting worse than I am. There were two deaths in the same week…and I wasn’t ready for either of them. They hit me in away by surprise. And in ways I feel like I am still processing my uncle’s death and my grandpa’s death…so how do I start to process even more deaths?

Rob meant so much to me and in so many ways I feel like I failed to ever tell him that. The last few years I never really had much contact with him. I know he was deployed a lot of that time, but is that really an excuse? I will never forget when he married Jill and became apart of the family…it was like he had always been around. He was so much fun and always made me feel like I mattered and wasn’t just an awkward kid. He often would start the fun like when he started a wrapping paper fight or our very famous swing jumping contest. I remember the 4th of July when our families made a float for the parade and he was so proud to show off pictures and videos of his time in Afghanistan. I couldn’t have been prouder to know him and he was a part of my family!

I will never forget the day my dad told me that Rob had a stroke and that he possibly had cancer. My mind was so confused and all I could think about was how unfair it was. He had just gotten home days before. I was thinking about how happy his kids were to have him home and then this had to happen. They had moved him back close to home and I was excited to see him and the rest of his family. But at the same time I didn’t know how I could handle it. I didn’t know what I could say. There were a few times we tried to make it out there and the weather got in our way.

Only a few weeks after we had heard about his diagnosis I got the call that I prayed would never come. They didn’t think he would make it through the day. I had to get up there to see him. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t. Darrel took most of the day off to take me. And the whole time going there I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. Memories of the last time I saw my uncle came to my mind. I knew it was going to be a hard day.

When I got there I saw Maddie and
Jacob and my heart just broke. No kid should have to go through this and once again the unfairness of life was tormenting me. I went in to see Rob knowing I had waited too long to come see him. I sat there unsure of what to day or what to do. Shared a few memories with my aunt and parents who were in the room with me. On Sunday my parents came to let me know that he was now with Jesus.

My heart was so heavy on Sunday. Friday we had lost a great friend and on Sunday I had lost one of my favorite relatives. Words could not describe what I was feeling. To be honest I was angry with God. I didn’t understand why. I know that they are both in a better place, but I was being selfish and wanted them back.

Now I can only think about all the things I wanted to say to him. Wanted to thank him for everything he had done for me. I am thankful that one day I will see him again. I am sure he knows how proud I was of him and how thankful I was that he was in my life. I only wish I would have been brave enough to speak those words.

With all my heart I want to fight cancer. It’s such a terrible disease that has taken so many people that I love.

Taking Some Time…

Tonight I am taking some time away from my organizing blogs to talk about something that happen to night. It was the sweetest thing. The girls took there plates out to the kitchen and didn’t come back. We heard Liliana saying she needed the stool so Darrel went to see what they were up to. I walked to the door way and saw the cutest sight ever. My two little girls were standing at the sink washing dishes. "We want to help Mommy, so we are washing out dishes!" It really made my heart so happy and made my day! They may have made a mess and the dishes weren’t really all that clean, but does that really even matter? Their hearts were in the right place and oh my goodness it made me cry! I really needed this tonight.

Thank you Lord for my wonderful girls!

Allergic to Organizing my Life?

So am I allergic to organizing and cleaning? This morning I woke up not feeling the greatest. My hands felt swollen and a bit itchy. I didn’t really notice anything right away because I was so busy getting the girls all ready for the day. I had to drop Liliana and Jadelyn off at school and then take the van to figure out what is going on with the check engine light.

So anyway…I pull the sleeves of my sweatshirt up an my palms and wrists are completely broken out! I have had this many times before and the palms is one of the worst places to have hives! The bottom of your feet is the only other place that is worse!

I don’t really think that I am allergic to organizing and cleaning, but I am trying to figure out what it is. Perhaps it was the new cleaning product or the gloves I wore. I don’t know! But whatever it is I can’t let it slow me down! I wonder how much organizing I will get done today….

Organizing Life….What Day am I on?

So I have lost track of my days, but I haven’t lost track of what I am doing. I still know what I am doing and what needs to be done! I now have my living room and bathroom done, although my kids left their nightgowns in the living room and my husband didn’t put his work clothes away so they are in the bathroom. But no worries Super Mom will take care of that. Don’t think I am actually going to do it myself though…Each one will get a nice little reminder!

So the entry way is taking me longer than I expected. I do have a pretty large entryway, but I wanted to be done in one day and here I am taking three. Although I am not sure that Sunday counts since that was my day off! 🙂

Darrel started his normal night sift hours last night. So far it’s not too bad. He is working better hours than the last time he worked nights. I am so thankful that I have a husband who is will to take a job to make things better for us! What a blessing!

Also in the news today is that Jadelyn lost her first tooth! How exciting! When I asked her what the tooth fairy looked like she said "She looks like you, only smaller and she wears a dress!" I want to make sure you all realize that we don’t go around telling our kids that the tooth fairy isn’t real. It’s all similar to how we deal with Santa and other things like that. If they ask we tell them. Jadelyn just seems to know the tooth fairy isn’t real even though I have never told her. And for now Liliana likes to argue that the tooth fairy is real. So Jadelyn got a 50 cent piece in her little tooth box! She was so excited since she had never seen one of those before! Sunday we also sat and drew pictures of what we thought the tooth fairy looked like. WOW! We had some scary looking tooth fairies! Ones that I wouldn’t want at my house! Sharp teeth and teeth for shoes!

So today I am finishing my entryway and making some home made pasta! YUM YUM!

What A Day!

Yesterday was full of the unexpected. I was emotionally drained by the end of the day and it was one of those days I just didn’t feel like myself at all! I had called the dr in the morning and needed to take Scarletta in. She had a terrible rash, a fever and had started a cough that morning. Really I thought I was just taking her in for her cough and that would be it. But as I have come to find out with four girls a trip to the dr can’t be that easy. So after taking blood and a chest X-ray it came back that my poor little one was pneumonia! WHAT?!?! I feel like I can never have a healthy child in this house. There is always someone who is sick and always someone who is sick. She is doing fine today just a bit on the fussy side. So I spent most of the morning at the drs office and luckily I had found someone who would watch the other 3 girls otherwise that would have been a very misserable trip to the drs!

Once we got home I started thinking about my plan for the day. My living room was just about finished, but then before I started doing anything I walked into the bathroom. Now I am sure this is probably something I shouldn’t have done. I went away from my list…well it turned out to be a good thing!  My bathroom is now completly organized(not that it took much since it is the smallest room)! But I am running into a problem. We don’t have a lot of closet space. Well actually we don’t really have any closest space. So I am trying to come up with places to put things. Like medication…we have so many things we keep out of reach of little hands that my space is running low. Do I trust the child proofing that they have done?

Well today is my day to start on our entry way! Wish me luck!

Not About to Lose Steam…

I am going full force! I have most of my living room now organized and clean looking. Darrel is wanting to move the love seat, but I told him he wasn’t allowed to until I was completly done. I have a huge box of books that I need to get to our attic, but I don’t seem to have the energy to do it and I feel bad for Darrel when he gets home cause he’s been standing on his feet and lifting heavy things all day. So today I think I might have to break down and take it on up to the attic (which will soon be known as our school/playroom!).

Today I was reading in Ecclesiastes and it’s funny how our minds work sometimes, because I had completly forgotten that the speaker last weekend had mentioned a passage in Ecclesiastes. Ec 3:6 “He sets the time for finding and the time for losing, the time for saving and the time for throwing away.” Well let me tell you something…I am taking this verse very seriously. I have been throwing away like a crazy person! I was also reading today about how we are the same as animals, in that our fate is the same. We all die. I have been reading this book keeping in mind that the writer didn’t have the same hope I have in Christ. He wasn’t alive to know the fullness of life in Christ. And yes we do die, just as animals do. But when I die I am thankful that I will go to be with Christ. I am thankful to know that this is not my home.

It’s been great lately. I have been getting up with Darrel between 5:30 and 6 every morning. I do need to be honest I didn’t get up with him this morning. We both stayed up late last night watching the hockey game that the Kings sadly lost! 😦 But getting up before the girls in the morning has been wonderful. It gives me sometime to read my Bible and just be able to think about what I am reading…no distractions of little cute girly voices.

So in my very all over the place blog today hopefully you will find something to inspire you! Maybe today you will walk through your house noticing that you need some organization and you will start your list. Or maybe you will realize you need a little bit of that time in your day just for you and God. Maybe you will realize that you need to be a LA Kings fan! Whatever it is I pray that you find peace in Christ today!

Organizing Life…Day 3

I feel as if I have climbed a huge mountain! I could say it might be because I took all four girls on a walk to take Jadelyn to school. But really my mountain was my computer desk. Once a mountain of papers from years of never throwing away…it is now a mountain of organization! I went through the 5 f plan and got rid of a lot of unneeded mess. Also I managed to organize my papers so I now know where things are. Now some of you may be thinking "You only got your desk done!?" And yes that is right…just my desk. But you also have to keep in mind that I have four of these running around!

So organizing is not the easiest thing in the world! And the little munchkin pictured above is constantly getting into my "Circle of Fire" (I can’t actually remember the name for this…but I wish is was a circle of fire to keep the little one away!) and my "Some place else" box. So mainly my times of getting things done are while she is sleeping. Now being a mom of four I like to take my quiet times for things other than organizing. I do not like cleaning and I feel like I should be able to have my own rest time too. But for now I am foregoing my rest time to get things done. I guess in the end it will really make my rest time more restful! Sigh…On to my bookshelf!