Finally!

Today, I took a garbage bag full of clothes and a shopping bag full of shoes that I don't wear anymore to the thrift store. They have been in my room for months just waiting to be put in the car. It felt good to finally get them out of here! I'm not really following FlyLady's system exactly, but she has definitely given me some good ideas and a little motivation! I'm trying to just focus on keeping the kitchen clean right now (starting small is one of FlyLady's suggestions). I've actually found that cleaning up in the kitchen motivates me to do other things as well. It's nice having clutter-free counter tops!

Inspiration

I've been following the story of a young woman named Katherine Wolf for a while now. I don't know her, but her story is so inspiring that I can't help but follow. About 9months ago, Katherine had an AVM rupture, which is sort of like a stroke, but different. Anyway, the doctors never expected her to recover at all and are amazed by the progress she has made. Despite her amazing recovery, Katherine still can not walk or eat. She can't even take care of her one year old son. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the task of caring for a toddler, or frustrated because I'm trying to cook dinner and Kaitlin wants to be held, or worthless because as a stay at home mom I don't contribute to society; I remember Katherine who can't even pick her son up when he cries. She posted an entry on her Caring Bridge sight the other day expressing excitement that she was able to put James' jacket on him all by herself. I'm so lucky that I'm able to take care of my child and play with her and read books to her and chase her around the house when she doesn't want to put on her coat or have her diaper changed! I'm trying to just enjoy all of it instead of taking her for granted and getting frustrated.

If you'd like to learn more about Katherine, you can visit her Caring Bridge sight at this link: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katherinewolf or visit her mom's blog, here: http://katherineawolf.blogspot.com/

Organization

Well, my resolution to get organized isn't exactly going as planned. I had hoped to have more done by now, but I really haven't accomplished anything. I did go through some kitchen cabinets the other day and get rid of some stuff, and the counters are clutter free for the moment, but that's about it. Well, we found out yesterday that my husband got tenure at Auburn, so I cleaned off the kitchen table and put up some decorations to celebrate. I was so motivated by the clean table this afternoon that I decided to visit the FlyLady web page and follow her day by day steps to get out of chaos. So, today I cleaned my sink! I did the shortcut version of FlyLady's instructions because I had on good clothes and didn't want to deal with bleach, but my sink is very clean and I'm hoping to keep it that way. Tomorrow I will try step 2!

So Simple

I was reading my daughter one of her favorite books the other day, Little One, God Made You, and it hit me that God's love really is simple. We seem to make it so complicated with all of our rules and worrying. Here are the words of the book:

"God made you to love you, little one.
There's no one like you, no, not one.
No one has your tiny nose or your wiggly, squiggly toes.
No one has your silly laugh when you splash in bubble baths.
When you're crawling or you're creeping, while you're skipping, while you're sleeping...
God made you to love you, little one."

God made us to love us and wants to be in relationship with us. That's it! It's so simple and yet so complicated at the same time. Why is it so hard to accept God's love and just live in it? We wouldn't have to worry, we wouldn't need to have rules. We really would be free!