A Change In My Life and Blogging Style

Until now, I usually write my blogs by writing what comes to my mind when I have my blog entry page pulled up. As a result, most of my blogs are random and stray quite a bit from the topic I originally held in my head when I started writing that entry. I've been surprised by how many readers I've gathered over the past year, and I hope the numbers continue to climb as I write from my heart. You need to know the true life this crazy girl lives... even if it's crazy in my own way!

When the new year started a few months ago, I wrote about how I was ready to have a new start. I wanted to make changes to how I was living, taking care of myself, taking care of my family, my job as a wife, and just my outlook on life in general. I was ready to have my old self back and regain some form of dependability again. Fortunately, I can say that I have almost done a complete 180 and I have really stuck to my goal to change. As a result, I'm learning new ways to adapt to MS and I'm also regaining control over my life. After pretty much living in a deep and devastating depression for almost one whole year, I'm thankful to say that I'm climbing out of that hole now. And it is so relieving!

Well, now Spring has almost Sprung, it's time for the famous "Spring Cleaning!" This year, I want to continue my "New Start" plan and incorporate this outlook into my Spring Cleaning. I guess you could call it Personal Cleaning instead of physical cleaning, although I do plan on actually putting a mega cleaning spree on my house as well.

The first goal for my personal spring cleaning is to continue to work toward more organization in my life. I've worked my butt off to get my house more organized as we moved, and I've tried to keep everything mostly in place everyday. This may seem like a tiny step, but when you let everything go for almost an entire year, it is really difficult to try to regain control and set new standards. Now I want to gain a better control over my Make Up and Mud Boutique shop.

Better control as in more organized records, inventory, faster shipping, consistent schedule, etc. I want to set goals for my shop and make myself stick to them. I know that I can work even harder to build a better client list, and I can accurately track my progress. As with any start for any goal or project, the beginning is hard because you don't see immediate progress. But if I have everything in line for 6 months, it would be much easier to track inventory and plan for holidays like the Christmas rush. So, being more organized with Make Up and Mud Boutique is on my list as well.

Last goal: more structured blogging. You know those bloggers that consistently post on their blogs, and you can count on their posts to be there by following their blog schedule. Yeah, I want to be one of those bloggers. I'm still trying to make my blog schedule, and I want my writing style to have a certain flexibility, so it's taking me a while to get it all straight. I don't want to have a blog schedule for a month, because I want to have posts about things that happen in the here and now, not the there and then. One thing... my life will be more structured, therefore my blog will be more structured.

I have a new blog notebook to help me keep up with my blog planning, and I'm excited to start that new journey. I always have the craziest thoughts and ideas, and I'll think, "That would be awesome to blog about!" and then I completely forget what I was even thinking about. Well, that's happened to me one too many times, and I now have a little notebook for jotting down ideas and notes. Then of course, they will go straight to you.

Beware... my random thoughts are crazy. They are unpredictable. But... they are honest. And I guess I'm at a point in my life where honestly is the most freeing quality in my life, even if it is on the web for all to see. There is something relieving about getting things off your chest, even if you do have anxiety right when you click the Publish button. In the end, it's worth it. So, stay tuned. Mrs. Organized is working her way toward productivity and as time passes, you'll see a change as well! Maybe someone will learn from my mistakes!

So I Keep On Unpacking...

As I saw on a fellow facebook friend's status, "I think I can, I think I can." Unpack our gazillion boxes, that is. I wrote yesterday morning about how many boxes there are and how it looked like a hoarders house right now with so many boxes, and it was really like that. (See, I said "was".) Well, now it looks like half a hoarders house... because I cleared quite a few boxes of junk out yesterday. That means my method of decluttering before we moved was only half successful. Let's just say that FEMA isn't considering moving in anymore, but we may could still qualify for OCD hoarders if they were desperate for participants.

I've really had to learn how to throw things out and now feel that nagging guilty feeling.  You know the one where you find things that you KNOW other people would like, and you PROMISE that if you keep it you will get it to them, but you also KNOW that it will just sit in your floor for the next two years until you finally throw it away when you should have done that in the first place. And I would rather donate "things" and "clothes" to an actual shelter than to goodwill, because at the shelter those people don't have to pay for them. And Goodwill has some steep prices for other people's stuff sometimes, which I find repulsive, because it was GIVEN to them in the first place. And aren't they supposed to be helping people? They have shirts for $4.99...  A LOT of people are shopping there, because they can't affort to pay $4.99 a shirt. G-O-O-D-W-I-L-L... hence the name.

There's a homeless shelter around Prattville, and they meet once a month to distribute clothing and items to those in need. My mom and brother, Micah, decided to go work there one Saturday, and they have been collecting clothing to carry back since! They said there wasn't nearly enough clothing to go around to keep people warm, and these were real families like we all have! Imagine if your child was freezing cold and someone handed you a jacket their own child had just grown out of... what a blessing that would be! So, please remember the homeless families who have been struck hard by the devastation of our economy and misfortune, and when you do your spring cleaning on your closet and the closets of your family members, remember to bring those clothes that you don't wear to those who will. For more information, please contact me through my facebook page by clicking on the link below.

www.facebook.com/makeupandmudboutique



Just Breaks My Heart!

On to my next subject:

Today I have a BIG goal, and I'm almost hesitant to write it, because what if it's like a birthday wish? Like if I actually say it out loud or in this case, write it to the world (or my 5 blog followers in this situation), then what if it doesn't come true, because I "told someone?" Oh well, here goes:

Today I want to unpack enough boxes, organize enough junk, throw out enough old stuff, and rearrange neatly enough so we can spend tomorrow night in our new place.

Notice how I wrote the black words on top of BRIGHT yellow? Well, Yellow is supposed to be a "stimulating" color, instilling optimism and energy and it has been said to "carry the promise of a positive future."  Now that may just be a lot of junk, but I'll take what I can get... anything to "stimulate" me to get ahold of my BIG load of junk in our house.

Have you ever downsized? Magazines and specialists say that if people effectively downsize and rid themselved of things that do not bring joy to their life, they can live much more happily than the person in a 3000 square foot house with plenty of room to hold those meaningless items. I do believe that I do better if I have less choices. Like when half of my craft supplies were packed, I made a LOT more progress actually, because my choices were limited and I had only a few things to work with, therefore the time I would have spend pondering over what to make was practically eliminated. I have either A or B, not ABCDEFGHIJKL to choose from.

In this new place, I want to be organized and I want it to look CHEERFUL, COMFORTABLE, and WELCOMING. I want people to walk in and feel like they're right at home and not have to step over boxes or see my latest paint creation drying on the coffee table.

On a good note, Scott's mother, Dianne, has so gratiously allowed me to use half of her outside shed as my "workstation" to sand and paint, create and embellish, and I can't wait! I'm excited about getting my shelves in there and organizing my craft glass to paint and sanding on my jewelry boxes to make them beautiful.

I'm going to adjust, but it will take a while. 

Moving Mayhem & Clutter Chaos

As I've written in past posts, we are moving about an hour and a half to two hours away from where we live now. We will be out of our current house by January 31, so we're steadily packing boxes, driving furniture to the new place, unpacking and organizing there, and starting back over at our current house. And each time we come back to our house we're currently living in, I would be willing to swear that somehow our stuff still to pack somehow grew while we were gone. And by stuff, yes, I mean junk. Clutter. Stuff I should-a thrown out a few years ago.

I'm a good packer. I'm an efficient packer, careful to wrap breakable items and label the boxes according to items inside and rooms it should go in. I'm organized with that.

What I'm not organized with is all of the junk I have managed to accumulate over the past few years since I moved out of my parents house. I even found a box that I never unpacked from when we moved to where I live now! I had just stuck it in the top of a spare closet. When I found it, there I went, distracted down memory lane of old Wal-Mart Receipts and half full Sticky Note tablets. If I haven't needed anything out of that box in all of this time, don't you think the obvious thing to do would be to chunk it right away without going through the contents? Yes. Was I able to do that? No.

I am a packrat, not a hoarder, but a keeper of tiny things that cost me more money and time to keep them unorganized than it would be to throw them out and buy it again if I needed it. What kind of items am I talking about?

Hm... here's one: Bobby Pins. I'm going through a box, and there's a lone bobby pin in the bottom of the box.

Now there are 48 brand new ones under the bathroom counter, but instead of tossing it in the trash, I'm the person who wastes 5 minutes to pick up the bobby pin and carry it to the bathroom, find the others that I already have, put the found one in with them, and then I'm SUPPOSED to go back to going through the original box right?

Well, there's my other problem....

As I'm placing the lonely found bobby pin in with the others, because I just couldn't throw out a $0.01 BOBBY PIN ( Gasp!), I notice an ink pen in the bottom of the hair bin. Which I just HAVE to take to put in the box with all of the other pens. And there I notice one single sock. And it goes on and on and on.  Now remember that ALL of this time, I have neither packed one single box nor have I finished cleaning out the original box I was going through.

By this time, I have a half empty box I didn't finish going through, the hair supply box pulled out from underneath the bathroom cabinet (still sitting in the floor), and the box of ink pens and pencils out on the table. Let me do this for a few days, and you can imagine how far I'm getting with this packing ordeal. And it ALL could be avoided if I would just think long and hard enough to THROW THE BOBBY PIN AWAY IN THE FIRST PLACE!

What items are my main issues?

Panties... I don't want to get rid of any, even though I probably couldn't even fit my butt in them anymore... they're cute! But, I reluctantly have purged the stash...

Markers, Pens, Pencils, Crayons... Art supplies, you name it! We have SO many pens and pencils, I don't know what to do with them all!

Junk... Just JUNK (PERFECT picture I found in the internet)... a marker, a screwdriver, a million rubber bands, old gift cards, tiny paper to open... just random junk. I have a LOT.

I'm a note-taker, a list maker, a writer-downer of just whatever comes to mind.  And there you have it.  And now what I have is a million sheets of paper with random things on them that I've written since I've been home from work, and I've had time to actually find and jot down whatever I find that I may want to remember in the future.

And you know what my main "Inhibitor of Packing" is? BOREDOM. I can't watch T.V. because I have to focus on what I'm doing, so tv and the internet are out of the question if I'm actually going to be productive. The radio gets annoying after an hour or so, and I can't talk on the phone, hold it to my ear, and pack boxes... It's just a boring process that wasn't meant to be fun. And it's not. Fun. 

Craft Inspiration and New Home Dreams!

I always save ideas on my computer, but I rarely ever complete the projects... Here are a few things and people and ideas that have been on my mind lately!

I LOVE this Birdhouse... I think I may paint one!

I LOVE this Gray color... I want to paint our kitchen table this color for when we move! What do you think?

This is my gynecologist... the one who does my surgeries for Interstitial Cystitis. Just thought I'd give him a shout out, because he is an amazing doctor and he saves me from a lot of pain!

I bought an organizer like this from TJ MAXX for $12... and I stored my paint in it just like this. And it was perfect!

Whenever I feel out of place or like I don't quite fit in, I think of Mrs. Dolly... she hasn't fit in from day one, she ignores the criticism, and she's awesome!

I made oval boxes that looked similar to these at Christmas this year!

I want to make one of these with my new sewing machine!

This is what I look like when I wake up in the morning... every morning. It's inevitable.

I have the little mirror with the wood border, I have the empty frame, and I can make the canvas,,, I just might make something similar to this for our new room, but a little brighter!

I have THREE windows that I'm waiting to either paint or create something like this... I can't decide! Anyone want to buy one?

I've actually thought about selling something similar to these  once I master sewing little bags... what do you think?

When you paint a LOT, your clothes look like this almost every day. Mine do. Acrylic paint does not come out of fabric (FYI). I love it!

An organization idea I plan to take advantage of once we move!

I plan on making a few of these with my frame collection!

I would like to paint this on a canvas. I think I like it so much, because I actually remember the periodic table!

I am a Scrabble fanatic. Scott has never beat me. And I fully plan on having one of these built into my back porch one day!

I have the shirts, the pants, the shoes, the belt... but it just doesn't look like this on me no matter what!

I've been collecting random frames of all shapes and sizes... I have about 30... Can't wait to be creative in my own house with them!

I definitely plan on making one of these for our bedroom.... I love anything that looks vintage and has to do with postage and letters!

 I use the following shower hook method for organizing my necklaces. Wal-Mart Clearance: Got the hooks for $2.50 for a dozen. I have 24 and they are full of necklaces! This was an awesome idea!

My husband things this is me... First of all, I don't walk or jog. Second of all, my chihuahua would DIE before she let me do this with her! haha!

Story of my Life... every day all day!

So, is there anyone out there as random as me? Please join and follow my blog if you are! 

A Brand NEW Approach to Cleaning

Good Morning Everyone! (By the way, I'm totally faking this *CHEERY* attitude, because this chilly weather makes me want to go crawl right back in the bed... just to let you know.)  Now that we have that out in the open, I'll continue.

This post is about my path to a new MUCH more organized life.  Thinking about having an "Organized Life" really reminds me about how we think about our senses. While we often remember to give Sight and Smell a slot in our senses category area, a good majority of people forget that people actually have and use FIVE senses: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Touch, Smell.

Similarly, when the term "organized" comes into play, what is the first thing you think of? Do you only think of how un-clean and "dis-organized" your house is right now? What I'm learning is that I can "pick up" the clutter in my home all I want, but I also have to remember that there is Mental Clutter, Financial Clutter, Guilty Clutter, Mourning Clutter, Sentimental Clutter,  Sad Clutter, Potentially Useful Clutter, Memory Clutter, "I Might Need It One Day" Clutter, Relationship Clutter, Time Clutter... and the list goes on and on and on. I'm just a clutterbug I guess!

Have you ever really thought deep down about what kind clutter you may be carrying around? I know I hadn't until recently.  I found myself beginning to feel overwhelmed, but I couldn't quite put my finger on the cause of this sudden stress.  Sound familiar?  For more information on types of clutter and how to take control of your clutter, click on the links below. (Don't forget to come back to the good stuff!)

{FYI: I'm about to tell you why these approaches do NOT work for me, but they may work for you.}

6 Types of Clutter
Oprah's Clutter Control Remedies
How Clutter Control Affects You

I have never really thought of myself as an organized person. In the past, I was never stressed out enough to feel the need seek out a cause to blame it on. That sure has changed! In the past 6 months, I've struggled with so many new changes in my life, and I've looked near and far for the main cause of the changes. The only answer I can come up with is that my changes were just in God's plan for me. That's fine with me, because I would rather be a part of God's plan and not understand why he dealt me these cards than be in a rough situation that I was responsible for on my own. I think that's why the clutter in my life is so frustrating: I did it to myself.

BACK to the point: (See, the same thing happens when I try to clean: I get DISTRACTED!)

If you open any "Lady" magazine, you can almost bet that somewhere inside there will be at least one article about household organization. I'm waiting for the day when all of the "Women's" magazines realize that they just rotate advice around from one article to the next... and it doesn't work half of the time.

Common advice doesn't always work for everyone, and it amazes me that magazine editors still haven't created a few more reasonable or unique approaches to housework. Below, I have listed a few "Common Clutter-Clearing Tips" that I see ALL the time. So, underneath each useless tip is a little tidbit of what I think about it and why it doesn't work for me.

The Common Advice 

• Walk into a room and pick up everything you see that doesn't belong there.

                            - I don't like this tip, because I feel like the writer is trying to make me feel like an idiot. Obviously, IF I could go into a room and pick up everything out of place and it was really that easy, there's a pretty good chance that I wouldn't need to read the article in the first place. I would have already picked everything up and put it away. Strike One... NEXT.

• Everything in your house needs to have a "place" where it belongs.

                             -  REALLY? Everything needs to have a place? Uh yea, obviously. And if I KNEW how to make a place for everything, again, I wouldn't be reading the article. I want to know HOW to find a place for everything. A "REASONABLE" how-to... Not one of those, "Save 20 cereal boxes and cover them with wall paper and have your husband use his circular saw to cut eleven of the thirteen 2x4's you had to buy from 'Herald's Home Place' specifically for this project" and hotglue them together and so forth.  That is NOT the norm...

                             - First of all, I said "Herald's Home Place," because there is a 50/50 chance that you will have never heard of the hardware store recommended in the magazine, the one with "the lowest price around." Around what? Sometimes I think writers google all over to find the store with the cheapest lumber prices, even if the only one in the entire United States is in Idaho. Second of all, I can almost promise you that IF you indeed routinely volunteer your husband and his circular saw for every cereal box DIY craft that you run just happen to across, there's a good chance you will need to read to the "Why Does My Husband Avoid ME" printed a few pages over. Long point short: Give us some eco-friendly, easy, CHEAP ways to organize. Strike Two... NEXT.

• Only save the "Really Special Artwork" that your child has made, and take digital pictures of the rest. You can print the pictures and look at them forever without the clutter of all of the coloring pages.

                            -  Ok, let me be clear for those who do not know me personally: I am not a mother to a biological child.  I do, however, have two creative little stepchildren who constantly draw and design oodles of pictures and items for their Daddy and me. I even have a box in the top of our closet with special little keepsakes they have created. While they are only at our house every other weekend, they still draw like 10 pictures at a time... each. I wish I knew how many "books" with silly little stories they have created and stapled together for us, but I lost count a while ago. And I've kept every single one.

                            - My point is: I don't want to take a picture of their artwork. And it's probably not for the reason that you may think. I don't want to take a picture and toss out the art work, because I just don't agree with the reasoning. You're swapping out an original for a duplicate. Printed pictures are also going to take up space, right? So, you might say, "I'll burn the pictures of their artwork on a c.d. to save space."  Really? You're going to take the time to round up the artwork, take an individual photo of each page (usually double sided as well), so around two pictures of EACH page, and upload or scan them into your computer, name each picture describing what it is, who drew it, and what year it was made. Then, you're going to either upload the files to Rite Aid and drive there to pick up your child's artwork pictures? Or if you opt for the Image C.D. route, are you going to put the images in a folder and burn a million C.D.s and then label each C.D. and create a way to organize them?

                          -Either way, you're going to be in a bad mood, because you just threw our your kid's precious artwork! Just take twenty minutes and stack each paper individually, neatly, with one on top of the other and put it in a clear $4 bin from Wal-Mart and slide it under the bed or put it up in the top of the closet. Do you really think you're going to have that day where you say, "You know what? I don't have anything to do today. I think I'm going to go find the disc with Tommy's artwork from 2nd grade and look at all of those pretty scribbles on the computer this afternoon?" Please just stop kidding yourself.

                        -In reality, you are going to want to pull out that old dusty box of "Scribbles" after your "baby boy" moves off to college and cry as you have your midlife crisis, wishing that he was five years old again. You actually DESERVE to keep the originals as proof that you actually kept another tiny teacup human alive AND they were somewhat creative. SCORE! (ha... that makes me crack up to hear someone say that, and I've been looking for a place to throw that in!)

Back to the point: You'll be in even more distress if you regret throwing the originals away. Most of our world is digital and made up of replicas, so I think there's something special about original items to bring you back in time. So if someome tells you to take a picture of your kids artwork and "bid it farewell," then I suggest that you tell them to go take a picture of their grandmother's 100 year old china cabinet and sell it for $10 at a yard sale... Strike three... THE MAGAZINE ADVICE COLUMNS LOSE.

                       -(I HAVE to add this last tidbit just because it annoys me to read it over and over... so here's one more piece of useless advice.)

• Ask yourself, "Do I REALLY need this?" If the answer is "No," then toss it out.

                       - What kind of dilusional world do these overpaid organizers live in? Don't they think that IF indeed you are reading an article on how to get organized, then you have probably already asked yourself IF you need a specific item like a million times already, and the answer is, "Yes. Yes I do need to keep the busted float from the beach trip in 1999, because it CAN be fixed. And what if there's a time in life where we don't have the money to buy another $2 float? When everyone else needs a float and they can't afford to buy one, I won't have to worry about anything, because I kept AND fixed mine!"

                       - Now we're just going to ignore the fact that IF you did happen to keep a ripped $2 float for 12 years, waiting to need to fix it during a economical depression, then you are probably not JUST a "tad bit unorganized." You're probably well on your way to arriving at your next "Hoarders Anonymous" meeting. The main point I'm trying to make is, people who keep pure crap and wierd junk are horrible at organizing, but they have a freakishly awesome ability to rationalize anything. They will indeed ask theirselves IF they actually need something, and the ALWAYS "yes". I ask myself all the time if I REALLY need something, and I'm so distracted and unorganized that sometimes I even forget to answer! :)

The REAL Bottom Line:  Don't these Martha Stewart clones think that if everyone could/would "spend twenty minutes a day" putting away items that we wouldn't have an issue with clutter?

BACK TO MY OWN MESSY HOUSE:

I think I may have FINALLY found the solution to my clutter... FLYLADY!!!

You have GOT to check out this site! FLYLADY takes a whole new approach to cleaning, and I believe she specifically works well for people with "Attention Issues," much like myself. She teaches you how to use new approaches to my three main demons: PROCRASTINATION, GETTING SIDETRACKED and BOREDOM! I LOVE this site!

One of the HUGE things I find motivating about this new sight is that the FLYLADY herself, Marla Cilley, is not one of those "Organizing Fanatics" that was practically born obsessively color coordinating and organizing her crayons when she was like 3. She didn't spend her childhood making her parents beam with pride at how clean she kept her room. No, Ms. Cilley was once a dysfunctional personal herself, so she really knows what she's talking about. Regular methods didn't work for her, either. LOVE IT!

I have found that I work much better if I set my own goals rather than follow another person's schedule. All of our lives are going in different directions, right? All I know is, when I found this site, I just about peed in my pants with excitement, because I finally found someone who just seemed to "get" me and my organizational issues. I now have a new title to add to my chaos: I am a... "FLY Baby."

Here are a few links to get you on the right track!

Getting Started with FLYLADY
Start with BABYSTEPS
What to Expect from FLYLADY

So, if you want to try to make an attempt at become more organized and efficient and the regular methods just aren't helping you become successful, I recommend that you check out FLYLADY.  I really don't see how it could hurt!

Here are a few of the motivational pictures and quotes that I use to "BOOST" my cleaning genes...

Now, in the words of the FLYLADY herself.... "Go Shine Your Sink!"

Cleaning House: A Godly Twist

Hello again.. I know, I know.. last night's post was a little rough. Well, last night WAS another rough night. The only thing that sets it apart from other nights is the fact that I finally told you about them. My low nights are few and far between, but they still are there, and they still hit me like a ton of bricks.

As usual, the morning comes and I get yet another new start. I think this morning makes like my 200th new start morning, but one of these days, it will stick! After Mrs. Bonnie's funeral, I didn't drive anywhere for almost 2 whole weeks. I didn't realize that I was hovering around the house, but I did. I've tried to slowly venture out of the house again, and I catch myself finding reasons not to leave the house, even after I get ready. I actually cut my hair, because I knew that couldn't be a reason for me to not get ready. Instead of my hair taking an hour, it takes about 15 minutes, and I LOVE it!  The smallest things like that make the day a little better.

Some great close friends of ours, Lee and Gena Anderson drove all the way to Tallassee to take Scott and I out to dinner not too long ago. It was my first time out of the house, and they will never know how much that night meant to me. They actually drove all the way here, just to see us. Lee and Gena have been here from the very beginning, and I love them so much. Lee just "gets" me, maybe because I'm so much like him, even though I think he would beg to differ. He's extremely set in his ways and his manner is often abrasive... but I found his heart hidden inside him. And he has a HUGE giving heart, and he's not the kind of friend you have to talk to everyday to know he still cares. He's always there, and he would absolutely DIE for Scott or me, and especially Izzy and Evan. And his wife Gena, well she's my long lost grandmother I think! She's a tough little lady, but she's had her own health struggles, and she understands what I am going through. We used to go to their house quite often, but with men ot driving and Scott doing my wifey duties and his husbandly role, we don't get to go often. But, when we do go, I feel comfortable and welcome. That's rare for me. When I was in the hospital in February, Lee didn't just visit me everyday, he visited several times a day, everyday. We were actually eating dinner at their house when I started to have my attack, so I'm questioning whether I should eat his shrimp again... (Just kidding Lee).

My oldest best friend Kristin, she also drives all the way to my house to see me too! She will come stay all day long, and I don't have to "coddle" her when she's here. If she wants a drink, she fixes it. If she wants to take a nap, she sleeps. We don't have to talk the whole time, and she just knows that I want her presence there. We make a game out of picking the movies to watch, because I always try to find one that she will love but hasn't seen... and she's seen everything! We're at the point now where when I call out a movie name, she says, "Chel, I watched that last time with YOU!" haha... She just graduated with her Masters from the University of Alabama (My little girl is growing up.. sniffle...) and we all thought she would go straight from the diploma to a new fancy job. Thank you recession for being such a pain in the butt with that. No, really, God hasn't found her perfect job yet, but maybe he knew I would need her right now, so he's made her available all the time... There's a reason for everything and when the time comes, God will give her the best job in the world. She deserves it!

Dawna, Mrs. Bonnie's daughter-in-law, is my newest best friend, and she is my other sweetheart. She is also in pain over Mrs. Bonnie, and we hurt together. Dawna had to call me and tell me about Mrs. Bonnie passing away, and that was a HUGE burden for her to bear. Dawna had shared Mrs. Bonnie with me for the past year, when she could have just held on to her for her own. After all, Dawna is in fact the daughter-in-law... but my heart melted when Dawna told me she thought one of the reasons she met Grant (Mrs. Bonnie's son), was so I could meet Mrs. Bonnie and be helped by her. I'm thankful for Dawna being so selfless and letting me have a closeness with Mrs. Bonnie when she could have been jealous... I'm thankful that we can cry together on the phone, and she has been here from day one as well.

I have other close friends, and I will write about them later when I'm not so groggy. I just wanted to give a special "shout out" to those friends that make a HUGE difference each and every day, especially when I need it the most. I need all of you, Kris, Lee, Dawna, and Gena.. I need you  more than you know right now. I just need to know you're there, so just keep doing what you're doing already, because I thrive off of you. And Daddy, thank you for coming to spend the days with me, just taking me wherever we go, even if it is Hobby Lobby... I love that store, and I will teach you how to find the deals.... haha.

And Mama, she's at the beach this week. I hope she's relaxing and having a great time, because she needs it! I'm ready for her to come home though! I'm ready to see her and throw my arms around her neck and smell her familiar smell. It's been too long! I miss her more than she knows!

On to today: I am going to clean my house a little bit today. I want to clean a lot, but let's not be too optimistic. I can only tackle so much before I get distracted by the oreos in the cabinet.. ha.

The whole point of this was to tell you about my latest venture out of the house. I decided that I would start trying to get out a little bit every week, even if for an hour to give me some interaction someone other than the people who work at the gas station a mile down the road. They probably wonder why I only buy Laffy Taffy... They have no clue that I'm just finding a cheap reason to get out of the house and they are my interaction for the day... I've learned quite a bit listening to conversations from the old men who sell potatoes in there...

Anyway, I ventured out yesterday and guess what I did? I got me a LIBRARY CARD! Yay! The Tallassee Library is about three miles from the house, and I promised myself that I would go this week and get a Library card... FREE BOOKS.  I think that's a YES! I checked out the max amount yesterday, which is 5 books. I checked out:

The House That Cleans Itself        by Mindy Starnes Clark
http://www.mindystarnsclark.com/house.php


Drawing for Dummies
http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Dummies-Brenda-Hoddinott/dp/076455476X


Inc. Your Dreams:  For Any Woman Who Is Thinking About Her Own Business     by Rebecca Maddox
http://www.amazon.com/Inc-Your-Dreams-Thinking-Business/dp/014023537X


Write It Down, Make It Happen:  Knowing What You Want and Getting It      by Henriette Anne Klauser
http://www.henrietteklauser.com/_books/_writeitdown/index.htm


The Business of Bliss:  How To Profit From Doing What You Love        by Janet
Allon
http://www.amazon.com/Business-Bliss-Profit-Doing-What/dp/0688160840


I'm going to start with the cleaning book today. Wish me luck! I rather enjoyed the whole library experience. It's wierd though, because it feels like people can look at me and tell that I haven't been out of the house much. I know that's in my head, but it feels so strange. You know, when I do get out, God always sends me people randomly that start conversations out of no where. It's almost like He says, "See Chel, you are alive and people do want to talk to you." I love those conversations, because those people have no clue that I am sick. If there is one thing you should take from this entry: You never know when the conversation you strike up at the grocery store with the random lady may be her only conversation that day. So take the time to make your words count. YOU can make a difference without even realizing. NEVER forget that.

I'm off to clean!

Decorating Daydreams.... Sigh...

I am absolutely so fed up with the clutter and chaos in our house. I moved to college, back home to my parent's house for three weeks, then moved to Deatsville for almost 4 years, then moved to an apartment in Montgomery for a year, and now we live in Tallassee. And this whole time, I have accumulated more junk than you can imagine.

Lately, I have been working to reduce the clutter in my house,because I read that the clutter in your house causes clutter in your life. So, I joined Clutterer's Anonymous. That's right, I'm addicted to clutter. Actually, I have that whole mentality, "I'm may be able to use this one day." or the famous, "I'm saving that, because I'm going to use it on a project one day." I hate to get rid of things, and I thought the clutter book was a joke when Scott brought it to me in the store. And while I indeed took offense to his less than subtle hint, I have to admit that almost everything it said was true.

So, I've been googling (while I procrastinated cleaning, of course) little ways to spruce up your home and reduce clutter. At first it was like two steps forward, three steps back. I have cleaning ADD. I get distracted by the smallest things, and I will truly get lost in my own world for hours and hours. I have no idea where my time goes sometimes. Well, as I've been slowly clearing out and cleaning up, I've found myself changing my outlook about the house. I shrieked, "SSScccccOOOOTTTT!!!!! Come here PLEASE!!!" the other day when I found his jogging shorts on the bathroom floor. And all I could do is point to them and say, "No! I don't think so!" He looked at me like I had lost my mind, and he was like, "Man, someone is changing their mind a little huh?" (The day before you probably couldn't see the floor because of all of my crap.) And it's not like the rest of the house was clean, because it was still a wreck. But, I had cleaned the bathroom, and I wanted to see my progress. And slowly but surely, progress is what I am making!

I decided that I couldn't pick up the house unless I clean out the house. With the new wedding gifts and his stuff moving in and mingling with my junk, we have a lot of things that need to be organized! But, I also realized that our decorations are... nonexistent. So, I've also been redoing different items to give us a new look with a frugal approach. A nonexistent money approach actually. I'll post some pictures soon! Before and after...

For now, I'm going to pretend that our house is spotless, and I'm going to take you on a virtual tour of our imaginary home. My dream home. My motivation. Oh, and of course I threw in a few pictures of my dream cars... OLD HEARSES. I have wanted one since I was little... Here we go.....