Fresh Start

I really do feel like a new woman.  This has been a monumental month or so in my life for several reasons. 

I've cleaned out!  Three closets have been cleaned out and re-organized.  The boxes that have been sitting unpacked in the basement for 18 months have been sorted through and repacked as needed.  The train table with all its paraphanalia (which gets strewn all over the place) has gone downstairs for a while.  The bin of toys--mostly small pieces of random toys--stored under said table is downstairs now too. 

We had the carpets cleaned in this house.  It's probably the first time in 30 years that they've been cleaned, so the look of them isn't too different.  But I KNOW they're clean.  Also, when we cleaned out the rooms for them to be able to reach all the corners, we chose carefully what would return.  The house feels more open. 

We got a Wii for Christmas.  Gone is the basket of junk under the TV to make room for a smaller basket just for games and remotes.

All of my children sleep in their underwear all night long and wake up dry in the mornings.  Just gave my last pull-ups to my neighbor.  Woooooo-hooooooo!


Brian re-organized the bookshelves in our room, putting the current class's books more readily available, and FILING AWAY the notes and papers from previous semesters.  That also involved cleaning out the filing cabinet and pitching the bills from 2007 and before.  2008 till the present never got filed.  He asked me what happened in 2008 that we stopped being organized?  Baby #3, of course.

I've stopped participating in bootcamp.  I just lead it.  While it feels like more of a job now, it's not a time where a bunch of buddies get together and work out (an exaggeration, in hindsight).  Classes are much more strenuous, and comraderie among the group was so good this time that all 4 say they're coming back.  Now, if only I can find some other time to get in my workout.

There was good news on the school front today, although I still don't have anything definite to share.  Please keep praying though for details to work out for all my kids to be in school next year.  It will involve my working a paying job, which is part of those details needing to work out.

Also, we have been encouraged in the responses to our raising support.  It helps us not be so distracted from our work here, namely Brian's training in pastoring--and it saves me from feeling panicked to get a weekend OT job.  Every little bit makes a huge difference, and we are so grateful that people see our work here to be so valuable that they will give out of their own provisions. 

Lastly, over the last week and a half, I have been reading and praying more consistently than I have for longer than I will admit on my blog.  Thank you, accountability.  And texting, which makes accountability so simple. :)

Speaking of...I'm going to hole up for a bit before the evening's activities commence.  I don't want to miss the goods today!