Women's Retreat and Declutterification

By the looks of this post title, I've been reading a bit too much Dr. Seuss.


Anywho...


After a great weekend away with women from our church, I'm still adjusting to "normal" life: making my own breakfast and coffee and eating it in-between getting two kiddos dressed and out the door by 8:00am, and not getting a second cup of coffee, and no one to sit at a table and chat with for an hour; washing the dishes and doing chores every day; going back to work; and, finally, juggling everyone's schedule with my own. It's l.o.v.e.l.y. to have a weekend to do what you want, whenever you want, not clean up puke or toys. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my family...but I think if you had the fun weekend that I had, you would be struggling with reality adjustment, too. Our group of 80 or so ladies spent the weekend eat and drinking, (water, juice, and coffee, people! Did you think I meant...? Get your head out of the gutter! ;o), talking A LOT, laughing EVEN MORE, catching up with one another, and gleaning wisdom from a great speaker. Ahhh, yes...the Keystone Women's Retreat. How I SO look forward to you again in two years! Maybe then I will take the camera AND remember to take pictures with it!



Speaking of the great speaker...her topic was simple and much-needed for many: decluttering, simplifying, and organizing every area of your life...a topic that has been near and dear to my heart over the last several months. I've just felt this need to rid our house and our lives of the extras. We have SO much compared to other people (for example, JAPAN!), and it's part of our U.S. culture to think we need more, more, more when in reality we need to cut back, spend less, and enjoy what we have. This speaker really kicked it into high-gear for me! Here's the link to her blog if you are interested in reading her ideas - Mom by Example.


We started Monday night with the playroom...oh, boy. I told some of the ladies at the retreat that I thought burning it down would be the best solution to solve the clutter problem once and for all. After thinking it through and realizing our homeowner's insurance would probably argue otherwise, ;o) Hubby and I (with some kiddo involvement as well) went through the entire room and put probably 70% of the toys in boxes for 1) a big ol' yard sale this summer and 2) donation. It's so nice that we can walk into that room and not step on toys anymore and also clean up any messes in 5 minutes or less! And the kids still love and play with the toys that stayed in the room!


Next up: Danae's room. My little princess likes to collect/keep the little things: stickers, cool stones from outside, little broken toys that somehow made it to the trash can without her knowledge. ;o) Things like that. On the flip-side, though, Danae also seems to understand when it's time to get rid of things that she doesn't use or need anymore...and she has joined me in the declutterification! Hopefully she won't change her tune when I go through her room after lunch today. ;o)


And as the weeks continue, we plan on going through specific areas of the house and improving. I'll try to take pics and post!