Crap!

So pumped!!  I am excited to try to do this in our house in 2014!  We have decided that for Lent this year, we are going to focus on simplifying and decluttering our life to focus on the important and the necessary.  We have decided on 40 areas of our home that we will focus on.  Check out White House Black Shutters for more info.  She has some free printables and helps you to organize your thoughts in order to do this!  I am such a "saver" when it comes to the crap we have in this house.  This will be difficult to do, but I am excited to take care of the crap we have around!  My goal is to tackle the 40 spaces below.  I tried to break them up into manageable areas that small enough that they can be done easily each day after the kids are in bed or right when we get home from school.

1. Entertainment/Bookshelves
2. Pantry
3. Tall kitchen cabinets
4. Kitchen drawers
5. Upper kitchen cabinets
6. Lower kitchen cabinets
7. Sewing/hairbow supplies
8. Laundry room cabinets
9. Front hall closet
10. Half bath storage
11. Front door shoe storage
12. Playroom cubbies
13. Kid's bathroom cupboards
14. Linen closet
15. Toy area in loft
16. Loft bookshelf
17. Penny's closet cubbies
18. Penny's closet clothes
19. Penny's drawers and baskets
20. Penny's hair accessories
21. Gus' closet clothes
22. Gus' closet shelves
23. Gus' dresser
24. Gus' bookshelf
25. Joel's dresser
26. Beth's dresser
27. Nightstands
28. Master bedroom bookshelf
29. Armoire
30. Beth's closet clothes
31. Joel's closet clothes
32. Beth & Joel's shoes
33. Closet shelves
34. Master bath storage
35. Thirty-One kit
36. Thirty-One team stuff
37. Thirty-One inventory
38. Office cubbies
39. Office closet
40. Office desk

I know that there is a lot more that I can and need to do.  Didn't even touch the garage or the basement on this list.  I think I will save those for this summer!!

I have already scheduled Purple Heart to come and pick up my donation bags every other week.  (Check out donatestuff.com to see if there is a someone that is nearby that will take your donations.)  That will force me to get rid of stuff now that I know someone is coming to get our stuff to donate.  

Stay tuned as I try to accomplish this lofty task and if you are lucky, I may show you pictures of just how bad it is and just how good it is about to get!!

FIVE!!

Five years!!  Can you believe it has been five years since we let the world know about the journey we were taking to become family?  Five years ago we started this blog as a way to share with friends and family about our adoption process and hopefully to share more about our life as a family of three.  I had no idea when I started this blog that we would be matched by the end of the month.

It seems like an eternity ago that we were at the beginning of our journey where your heart jumps every time the phone rings.  Every day was filled with prayers for our future child and his/her birth mom.  Every day was just another lesson in patience. (For the record, I am STILL learning how to be patient.) Every day we would waiver between hope and despair.

If someone had told me five years ago when I started this blog that I would be the proud momma of TWO  and that we would end up taking a twenty something year old under our wing, I would have never believed it!  Five years ago I was in a pretty dark place.  Desperately clinging to any glimmer of hope I could find.

When others found out that we were struggling on our path to parenthood, they shared their stories and struggles with us.  Many of which were going through this at the same time as we were.  Since then, every single one of them has become a parent. (And sometimes more than once!) Pretty awesome when you think about it.

When we started writing, we intended to utilize this blog to share with friends and family.  It has become so much more.  We have met people that we would have NEVER encountered otherwise.  I am so glad that we have a platform to share our journey and to share our family.  Thanks for joining our journey!

Before him

Before him I didn't know how much I could love someone.  I didn't know that my heart would jump with joy and break in half and that I would be able to feel both all the way down to my toes!  I didn't know that I could love someone so much that I would think about them constantly and worry about their every move and every breath.

Even as an infant, he would put his hand on mine like this.  LOVE!!

Before him I didn't know that I would agonize over decisions that affect his little world like preschool, daycare, kindergarden....oh my!  That sends me into panic mode just thinking about it!

Before him I didn't know how much fun it would be to play with cars or trucks or anything "boy".  I didn't know that I would laugh at gross boy words like "poop" simply because his laugh was infectious.  (It is not ladylike to talk about bodily functions...but for him I will make an exception.)

Before him I liked to have my space.  Now I will take every hug, snuggle and cuddle that I can get!  Even if these means that he climbs in my bed every night or at some unknown early morning hour and I end up with his feet on me!

Before him I didn't realize how important every tradition was and how I would want to start a bajillion new traditions for our family and how I would want to make every new experience special.

Before him I had no idea what the world of little boys was like.  In a house of girls, everything was pretty and pink when I was growing up.  My world was full of blue when he came around.

Before him I had no idea how much I would love having my little man with me!  I had no idea how much fun little boys were.  I had no idea that he truly would be a dream come true!