The question that I have gotten many times over the past few months: How is it going from two to three? Well, there is a short answer and a long answer.
I would said that it was kind of easy and smooth - with some bumps. Although it really kind of snuck up on me. So maybe "smooth" like ripping off a bandaid. Bam! It's done. But now, settling into life with three can be described as unpredictable and scattered. I don't have a hand for every child. And when there are kids in need, there has to be a line. Scattered is just something that my life really has never been. I'm not one to lose my keys or not know the plan for the day. And I find myself doing just that more and more these days. And really, I'm ok with that. I find that it's almost refreshing to kind of change the way I think about things. Sometimes. I still am me, though. I love a plan. And when I have lost my key, it's just in the "safe place" that I put it last.
To really answer the question, how is going from two to three, it really is about how we went from zero to three. Two to three was a surprise - and as unpredictable as everything is now, it feels complete.
Going from one to two was probably the hardest transition, but we did it a rather hard way. There was travel and a foreign land. And then uncharted stages of grief and bonding and pain that we went through. All of us. So the transition to a complete family of four took a while.
And going from zero to one - that was just kind of scary. One day, I got a call that there was a baby waiting for me and FOUR days later, we brought her home. It felt weird putting a baby in our car. Um, we just, like, take her home? Then what? There were many unknowns. Ok, seriously, EVERYTHING was unknown. I hadn't been reading lots of books, because I didn't think that our time for a child was going to be so soon. And my heart couldn't open that much to do the research - that I very much like to do before something major. So every day was a new adventure - scary and exciting.
I think maybe every day still is an adventure. And it seems that my adventure is getting louder and louder every day!
My journey - zero to three - in just over 2 years - kind of crazy. Full of blessings. Never expected. Is this what I thought it would look like? Not in a million years. Is this exactly what God's plan was? Most definitely. And I am so thankful that His plan was WAY better than any of my plans could have ever been.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
The great purge of 2013
The great purge of 2013
I want to start fresh - a new beginning. So I am getting rid of stuff. I am aiming at minimalism. Not that I'm going to hit that target completely. Or that I really want to. It not really about being a complete minimalist for me. But I want the stuff that is in our home, in our lives, to be stuff that we enjoy, that makes day to day stuff easier and more enjoyable. And stuff that we use. ONLY stuff that we use. Later is a bad word to me. I fall into that saving "just in case" or "I might need it later." So my goal is to have stuff in the house that we only need NOW. No more later.
It's an interesting undertaking with three kids 4 and under. They bring a lot of stuff with them into our lives. And there is stuff that you have to have for upcoming stages. (So I will be calling that "needing it sooner" instead of "needing it later")
So I want to do the Purge. The way I see the house - the way that I function daily - the way that I am - is completely different than it was just a little over 2 years ago. So much has changed. Me included. So it's time that the stuff - and the way I see stuff changes too. I do like to clean and organize, so this is kind of fun and exciting for me.
The Purge of 2013 started in the kitchen - and in the closets (clothes). To me it's where the stuff that has to go is the most obvious. In the kitchen... Do I use it, does it work well. And for a box full, the answer was no. So off it goes...
Then to the closet. It's going to be a little harder. It's a work in progress - that sometimes seems to be going backwards. I did the first "run through" last weekend and got the obvious stuff out. The "why on earth do I still have this" purge. And the "I feel horrible in this" purge. But getting it down to where I really want it is going to hurt a little. But just for a bit, because the outcome is going to be....
LESS STRESS. Yes. That is what I'm aiming for. My version of minimalism. So I don't have to lean over stuff, dig through stuff that I'm not using anyway. Or trying to find something in that "safe place that I put it so that I could find it next time" Ooooh. I hate the "safe place" - I never had any idea where it is!
And I have my husband as a helper. Really it's pretty much all my stuff. And it is actually very well organized. Ok maybe not as organized as I think. Well, the stuff in the "living spaces" is. But he is on board. He was the first to grab the big black trash bags! And he cleaned the kitchen last weekend too. Like...everything! So I have a mostly purged organized cleaned kitchen. A great place to start!
So what is coming up? My schedule/to do list - shortening it and adding stuff for me each day. I have tried it this week and it's working well! The closets...all the closets. Books, DVDs. And the random room in our basement that is the "later" storage. It's bugging me. It's just sitting there, not being functional. So it will be... soon!
I want to start fresh - a new beginning. So I am getting rid of stuff. I am aiming at minimalism. Not that I'm going to hit that target completely. Or that I really want to. It not really about being a complete minimalist for me. But I want the stuff that is in our home, in our lives, to be stuff that we enjoy, that makes day to day stuff easier and more enjoyable. And stuff that we use. ONLY stuff that we use. Later is a bad word to me. I fall into that saving "just in case" or "I might need it later." So my goal is to have stuff in the house that we only need NOW. No more later.
It's an interesting undertaking with three kids 4 and under. They bring a lot of stuff with them into our lives. And there is stuff that you have to have for upcoming stages. (So I will be calling that "needing it sooner" instead of "needing it later")
So I want to do the Purge. The way I see the house - the way that I function daily - the way that I am - is completely different than it was just a little over 2 years ago. So much has changed. Me included. So it's time that the stuff - and the way I see stuff changes too. I do like to clean and organize, so this is kind of fun and exciting for me.
The Purge of 2013 started in the kitchen - and in the closets (clothes). To me it's where the stuff that has to go is the most obvious. In the kitchen... Do I use it, does it work well. And for a box full, the answer was no. So off it goes...
Then to the closet. It's going to be a little harder. It's a work in progress - that sometimes seems to be going backwards. I did the first "run through" last weekend and got the obvious stuff out. The "why on earth do I still have this" purge. And the "I feel horrible in this" purge. But getting it down to where I really want it is going to hurt a little. But just for a bit, because the outcome is going to be....
LESS STRESS. Yes. That is what I'm aiming for. My version of minimalism. So I don't have to lean over stuff, dig through stuff that I'm not using anyway. Or trying to find something in that "safe place that I put it so that I could find it next time" Ooooh. I hate the "safe place" - I never had any idea where it is!
And I have my husband as a helper. Really it's pretty much all my stuff. And it is actually very well organized. Ok maybe not as organized as I think. Well, the stuff in the "living spaces" is. But he is on board. He was the first to grab the big black trash bags! And he cleaned the kitchen last weekend too. Like...everything! So I have a mostly purged organized cleaned kitchen. A great place to start!
So what is coming up? My schedule/to do list - shortening it and adding stuff for me each day. I have tried it this week and it's working well! The closets...all the closets. Books, DVDs. And the random room in our basement that is the "later" storage. It's bugging me. It's just sitting there, not being functional. So it will be... soon!
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