Friday, November 18, 2011

To Organize or not?


I started reading the Happiness Project and straight away I wanted to organize everything in my house!

Her first month on her happiness project is about organizing her house, her work, her mind to help make room to be happy!

This is not a new concept for me, I go through my closet at least twice a year and pack it all up into garbage bags and leave it for the Diabetic Associations.  Sometimes if I have particular items in my closet that I have to get rid of because I just don't wear them, either too big or too small.  I cry a little tear and then share them with my friends.  I love clothes and shoes.  Rarely are my shoes shared because I was blessed to have a size 10 foot!  My only two friends who have the same size feet as me live away.  So if the shoe doesn't fit, it goes in the garbage bag bound for charity!

I have a need to organize but usually am bothered by the lack of storage containers available to me.  I really want a store dedicated to storage solutions.  Oh, they exist in the big cities but not here or anywhere near me!  I dream of their perfect little box to hold my makeup on the shelf or the papers on top of my fridge.  I am forced to make due with baskets, which I believe haunt my husband when I am not home.  He hates them!  If only we had a store, he would be happier too!

The next chapter was about marriage, mine has definitely gone through a rough spot.  We continue to work through it everyday.  I however found her solutions useful but surprised she didn't figure them out before.  She spent a lot of time searching through books and magazines and anything else she could find in order to come up with a plan for her happiness project.  Some of the solutions she came up with it seems she should have been able to see them before.

However, I am only finished February and might have a different opinion once it's complete.  I will keep you posted and be forever dreaming of the perfect storage solution!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Enjoying the little things

Well look at that, it's next week and here I am.

This past week has had some really lows.  My world is covered in a film of stress and I am hoping that next week it will even out a bit.  However, compared to others my stress is so minimal to some that it makes me feel silly.  But it's still my stress!

My children are both healthy (cold's don't count!), my self and my husband are doing just fine.  We have a house to go home to and food to eat.  To many just having that is like winning the lottory.  I forget that!  Like I believe many people do.  The same old story goes, there are children starving in Africa so eat your vegetables.  We use the line but sometimes we forget that it's true.

And obviously not just Africa, there are children going hungry in your backyard.  I don't know if it's the holiday season that spurs on these thoughts but they are out in full force!  They definately have been getting more pronounced after having children.  I think that it comes with the selflessness that children bring.  Their needs are greater than your own.  It makes you think outside your little bubble and realize you are pretty damn lucky!

That being said, my children's school are doing a shoe box fund raiser for children in poor cultures.  I love this idea and plan to have my children help me choose items to donate.  They are allowed to send toys, some candies, fun accessories for little girls, soap, t-shirts and hopefully a few notes!  I hope to show my children that we are very fortunate and some people aren't as fortunate!  It's hard for children to understand but it's beautiful to watch them naturally show no discrimination towards others.  I hope that they can keep this trait throughout their years!