It’s trendy to be Tidying Up right now.  I was onboard a couple years ago when  I read Marie Kondo’s book and got inspired to have less.  I didn’t necessarily go full in and thank all the clothes I was giving away, or purge to the point where I had almost nothing.  I did, however, get rid of a lot.
Forward to now and she’s got a show on Netflix and she’s this adorable, peppy lady who helps people with their messes and I somehow have a lot of things again and she’s inspired me once more to purge.
This weekend I decide to take the time (again) and go through my closet and drawers.
I’m not by any stretch of the imagination a fashionista.  I honestly have 8 of the same shirt in different colors that I usually wear.   It was a bit shocking to me to have EVERYTHING out on the bed and have it be an overwhelming amount of stuff.  I have lost some weight in the last year, so I had 3 sizes of things to purge but overall it was more just me accumulating without thinking.
Her method works.  You pull it all out, you hold each piece and decide if it “sparks joy” for you.  If it does, it stays but if it doesn’t it’s gone.  For me, it’s not as much as sparking joy and more about if I feel good wearing it.  I had SO many clothes that I put on that I hated how I looked in them yet I kept them for no real reason.  Why??
Here’s what I got rid of:
15 paris of shoes (even some cool Converse I love but make my giant size 11s look like clown feet so I never wear them)
46 pairs of socks
34 pairs of panties
9 grocery bags full of shirts and pants

I only post this because it feels SO good to have so much less.  I encourage you to give it a try.  It’s seriously embarrassing to have so much extra stuff, but feels good to streamline it.  This morning I didn’t have to dig through the drawer to find the pair of socks I like, they are all just right there.  They all fit.  Life made simpler.
The kids did it, too.  That may have been a bit tougher for me as some of the things they purged were clearly more of an attachment for me then them.  That new Sounders jersey!?  Yup, doesn’t fit right…gone.
Give it a try!  You will feel great!

   I’ve been told my last post was sad – sorry about that.  It was not my intention to bring everyone down.  My blogging is much more my way of thinking through things rather than getting those feelings out to whoever reads it.  Life can be overwhelming and hard sometimes, but it is GOOD.
   Moving on.  Today is the first day back into a partially normal routine.  Three out of seven are back in school and the morning had some form of normalcy to it.  I do love routine, but I also truly miss the presence of my people being home.  
   We had a 3 day respite from the little ones, and it was eye opening.  As they do add chaos and having 7 kids, three being under 4 years old, is a LOT to handle and stretching my organizational skills to their max.   With them being gone, though, I realized that there were some underlying issues that needed to be talked about/dealt with within our core family in order for it to run more smoothly.  It’s not just about the babies.  I think with them it adds enough extra that I wasn’t seeing we needed some work as core family.
    My revelations on this started when my mom pointed out to me that there is always a lot of conversation about everything with our people.  Not only does everyone here feel that their opinion matters, they feel the need to pipe in on every conversation.  This is a good news/bad news thing for me.  I honestly do value everyone’s opinion.  I’m glad they feel confident and safe to voice opinions but the bottom line is that some things aren’t up for discussion.  It is not a democracy.  I expect that when I say “stop” it means stop immediately then we can move on from there.  Practice makes perfect and we are starting to make changes.  Of course, same as any family, we have certain kids who’s relationship is much easier, some who butt heads constantly and they all know how to push each other’s buttons expertly.  Bottom line is, we all do love each other and there is an underlying level of respect.