For Today

Doing this little exercise a day early this week as tomorrow is packed, plus - it's really quiet around here right now :-)

Outside my window: It's COLD and the sky is a beautiful bright blue. I read in the paper earlier that it's not supposed to get above freezing this week. BRRRR.

I Am Thinking: About how much I enjoy the Christmas season, the reason for the season, all the decorations, the fun in buying presents for Brian and the kiddos and the overall just happy time of the year. It's probably rather of odd of me to then add that after it's all over though, I'm ready to get everything down and put away. Which is what we did over the long weekend. While I was at it, I went ahead and went through the Christmas storage boxes and threw away broken/chipped ornaments that weren't of any sentimental value and then also cleaned out a lot of other little things I've picked up over the years but never really used. That's been needing to be done for quite a while!

I Am Thankful For: A sweet hubby who was with me every step of the way of putting up and organizing the decorations and then cleaning up the rooms. What a blessing to have a hubby who is more than happy to help me with these kinds of things.

From The Kitchen: Chicken and Dumplings tonight ... simple food always tastes so good after the holidays.

I Am Wearing: Gray pajama pants ... I changed into comfy right after church because I am NOT planning on getting back out tonight.

I Am Creating: Not really creating this week, but I am organizing. I've never really been one for New Year's resolutions but I've just had it with our house. I think I've mentioned before that we really didn't start out on an organized foot here, things just pretty much stayed wherever the movers put them when we moved here. Then add 2 more children, 2 deaths in the family and 8 1/2 years of accumulating new things and well, our house just seems to be busting at the seams. A booked called "Go Organize" caught my eye at Lowe's a few weeks ago and I picked it up. Instead of just finding ways to organize your things, it really talks about purging and not living with the guilt of feeling like you have to keep things. Brian laughed when he saw me reading it but I tell you, we used the approach from the book on just our hall closet and I'm a believer. I've drank the kool-aid. Just from one regular size coat closet we were able to take two big black trash bags of coats, good coats at that as well as some matching hat/glove sets and various other things that I've held on to for years. It wasn't easy parting with a a nice 35mm camera that Brian bought me after we were first married but it hasn't been used since we went to China in 2005. We can now see the floor of the closet, we can easily hang up our coats and the gloves and hats are in labled bins on the top shelf. Not bad for a few hours of work. But it does make me wonder ... if I can haul off two big bags from ONE closet, oh dear - how much am I going to get rid of from the rest of the house?! GO - ORGANIZE!

I Am Going: To start working on the dining room next. It has somehow turned in my "office" for lack of a better word with stacks of things to do, paperwork to go through, bills to pay, pictures to frame, coupons to cut ... the list goes on and on.

I Am Reading: Finished the tear jerker that Santa brought me, "Where the River Ends". If anyone would like to read it, I'd happily mail it to you. Now catching up on some magazines that have come in over the last couple of weeks: Bon Appetite & my favorite Southern Living. Finishing up "Go Organize" too.

I Am Hoping: That I do not grow weary in this organizing/purging process.

I Am Praying For: The same young lady and her family that I mentioned last week as well as a friend of ours who is dealing with some health issues while her husband is serving our country overseas.

I Am Hearing: Silence for now, Ryan is at a friends, the girls are asleep and thankfully the TV is off. Oh, and the dryer just buzzed so I probably should start wrapping this up.

Around The House: Enjoying the downstairs being cleaned after getting the trees and decorations put away. Bills to pay. Laundry to finish since I didn't get it done last week. Back packs and sleep bags to pack for daycare and school starting back up tomorrow.

One Of My Favorite Things: An hour of silence. Any less than that really doesn't make a difference and more than that, well - that's just too much silence.

A Few Plans For The Rest of The Week: Ryan has basketball practice on Monday night and I guess I'm on duty since Brian has a deacon meeting. Gymnastics on Thursday night. Looks like a pretty easy week so far, goodness - at this point I think even next weekend is open. That doesn't happen often with us!

We're also trying something new this week, a financial fast. It starts tomorrow and runs through next Monday. The idea comes from another blogger buddy of mine, who also happens to be one of the volunteers who worked in the Starfish Home and is the one who named Rebecca. Basically, we're going to set aside a certain amount of money - this time we're trying $50, and this money has to last us all week for both groceries and eating out. The latter of which is by far where we spend way more money that we should. With that said, the freezer is full so we're probably allocating too much money this time around but this is just a trial run. We'll see how it goes but this will mean that there will not be any trips to Target or Wal-Mart just to get out and about which also always means buying things we really do not need. No lunches out with girlfriends this week. No running to the mall at noon and picking up just a shirt or pair of jeans for the girls, none of that! Hopefully I'll have good things to share about this test next week! The idea I'm copying from is modified drastically, their family went on a 30 Day Financial Fast. But I think we'll be doing good to make it a week. After going back and re-reading her post about it I'm feeling somewhat of a slacker in the fast department, but - we're still going to do this and have already talked to the kiddos about it too.

Have a great week everyone!