Unpacking Update

I'm really doing SO MUCH better!

I've been looking forward instead of back and we're making headway with our morning routine.

Each morning we tidy...I keep adding an area, until we get to the point where everything is getting a tidy once a day. Today...the bar, the dining room floor and table and the tv room.

I have several projects that have been hanging over my head...I think I'm going to put them here to help me remember. It also gives me a place to celebrate the victory of finishing them!

-sew remaining napkins for friend
-crochet afghan 1, afghan 2, bed scarf
-put up hooks 1, hooks 2
-taxes 1, taxes 2, taxes 3
-put up heart frame on wall
-apply magnetic paint, edit & put up photos for photo wall
-Sarah's room00
-room measurements map for landlords
-sofa cleaning
-quilted table runner for friend
-sew kids' unfinished pillowcases
-put up wall decorations

These photos are from Sunday. Gramma came over for Mother's Day (I'm entertaining!) and brought the most awesome bubbles!

Industrial Strength Bubbles:
6C water
1C corn syrup
2C regular Joy dishsoap
Disclaimer: I noticed a big yellow dead patch of grass near where the bucket was when we did bubbles!

Revelation!

I've been really having a difficult time "getting back to our lives" since the move March 1st.

I feel like we've lived here forever, it so feels like HOME. And in the past, my HOME has been UNtidy! Here, we've been doing SO MUCH BETTER!

I have unpacked ALL my boxes. The remaining boxes are my husband's book/dvd/music collection. I have several areas which need some attention, but it is just fine tuning. Very exciting, but still much to do (pantry isn't quite right, need to hang coat hooks, need to move a table outside).

The Lord spoke to me (thank You Lord for this)...that I am not to be trying to "get back to my life or routine" because that life is "over". It is time to establish a new life/routine, instead of looking back to the old one. This now positions me to be listening, rather than trying to figure it all out (because I had it "figured out" before we moved). I've just switched tracks...

HOW FREEING!

This is just such a relief for some reason. I feel released to move FORWARD instead of looking BACKWARD. Life is NOT the same, our rhythms are much different and it is just a different lifestyle, but with a lot of the same things we need to do.

This weekend, we cleaned for our Mothers to come for the day to celebrate Mother's Day. I didn't realize how messy the house had gotten over the past few weeks!

We've been busy getting the garden prepared, tasks take so much longer than I really think they will.

Tomorrow...FORWARD!

The Past Ten Days

The past ten days I've just fallen apart and slept a lot. I think I crashed from the intensity of packing so fast and moving. I've been unmotivated toward the last of the stuff...kinda like in the packing process, that last of the packing seems to last forever.

My husband has been unpacking his book and dvd collection, which brought many boxes back out into the playroom area. This has been discouraging for my unpacking process (since the playroom was really getting quite tidy!)

So...

today I want to do ONE GOOD THING towards unpacking. Just one thing today on top of keeping life moving forward.

I've also been putting a lot of focus towards the outside. This weekend we're planting blueberries and raspberries, what fun it will be this summer to have fruit to pick. The raspberries we're getting from a local garden, so they will fruit and the gallon size blueberries I bought last weekend seem at least three years old, but we'll see this summer if they produce berries!

UPDATE Friday night: I got our bedroom really cleaned up! There's only two small boxes that aren't unpacked yet! Hooray!

Unpacking Process

 

 

Several shelves in the pantry are super tidy! I LOVE all the space in the pantry!

We no longer have a linen closet, so it has been "fun" to try to find places to tuck the sheets, towels and blankets.

Yesterday we worked on getting "the studio" unpacked of my husband's books and dvds. We removed about a quarter of the boxes so he could actually get IN the room and to work he went emptying boxes! Now he has some books on the shelves and we SEE THE FLOOR! But, alas,  the playroom area is now full of boxes again!  But these are the LAST of the boxes! I think he has more books than space...hmmmm.

I'm really pleased with my desk and love all the open floor in the tiled area.

TV Room and Desk

The TV room has looked this tidy for about two weeks. Since it is the only room truly all set up, we do our pick-up every morning. We are just getting used to picking up now, it isn't really a struggle anymore AT ALL. We never let things get out of hand like we did before and since we have less stuff (in general), it is way easier. I LOVE living like this, so light and free!

I thought today would be a good day to deal with my desk, but now it seems like I've made more of a mess! I did decide to move my desk from the front window to the backside of the laundry room and I love it here! I am getting rid of many things that I used to keep on my desk and it is soooo TIDY! I'm just putting stuff in the giveaway box that I don't really want-freedom! There's a lot of open FLOOR SPACE in this area which we call the "flop room" because we thought at first we'd put a big rug and the kids could "flop around", but it hasn't worked out that way. I now call it "the room between rooms"!

I am so surprised at how nicely the TV room has come together. We don't use it very often, except when we have friends and family over (a couple times so far!) and for weekend movie nights. It works great as a pass-through room instead of being wasted as a whole big room we never go into (like previously).

Unpacking is nearly done (I've been saying that for awhile). I keep moving things around trying to find the right fit. Today was a huge step forward.

New Playroom Rug

Shopping just takes a long time. Yesterday, we found a rare 8'x10' gray rug at IKEA and brought it home. On the drive home, we stopped to look at Home Depot and found a lovely beige one and brought it home as well. We put both down and decided the beige one was much higher quality (for the same price) and I didn't like the way the dark gray looked like indoor/outdoor carpet and made the room feel like the rug was a big hole. The kids wanted to keep both, but we took the gray one back today.

We need to get the white tables put away and I do have a couple boxes left to empty. The kids are going to love this open area with a nice big rug to play in on days like today...it POURED rain all day long!

Release Just Around the Corner

I'm tired of dealing with the move. I've spent EVERYDAY during the entire month of February intensely getting ready to move. We moved two weeks ago and I've had a great degree of success getting things we use everyday into the right spot. What I'm left with now is a heap of boxes of stuff that ranks low on the usefulness list...stuff perhaps that can be disposed of(?) but I'm just tired.

How to move forward?

In crying out to the Lord and being honest about where I'm at, He impressed upon me "15 Days". That would mean if I applied myself diligently until April 1st, I'd truly be DONE going through my stuff and would be out of the other end of the tunnel...and truly FREE.

I want this and I will do it, Lord. By April 1st, I'll be released, and freed into new purpose.

UPDATE: Though it is April 5th, I am really close to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There's not too much left to unpack or sort. Things are really coming together, though I keep moving things around which makes the settled become UNsettled!

Unpacking and New Rooms to Tidy

OK, so it has been SO EXCITING to actually MOVE...to pack and clean out the previous house, wow! That house is really tidy now because it is empty!

And thus begins a new chapter...a new house to tidy! And this new house doesn't have a garage! We've tucked a few things in the attic, like suitcases, the card table and chairs and the Christmas decorations. We'll continue with our daily pick-up once we're unpacked and out of all the boxes and I think that just might mean I'm ready for a NEW BLOG, because there won't be much to talk about anymore as I've grown SO MUCH since I started this blog!

Here's a few photos of the new house and the mess I need to tidy up! When the unpacking is done, I should be living in a TIDY HOUSE once and for all because of all the purging we've done!