Ready for 2011

The past few months, I have felt overwhelmed by the chaos that is life. We have lived with some uncertainty for months, as we were planning on moving and having my folks move with us in their own little house on the property. Once that situation changed (they bought a mobile home) I felt a huge sense of relief. Not that the prospect of moving wasn't exciting, it just would have brought a lot of changes to our lives, not too mention the actual physical task of moving all 9 of us. The uncertainty was making me crazy. I had been praying that God would give me peace regardless of how the moving situation worked out and of course, God gave me peace and worked it out all at the same time.

Since we aren't moving, and now have tons of Christmas fun that need homes, I felt the need to organize. I have worked very hard these last few weeks to get organized. I mean REALLY organized! Chaos is something we are used to around here, but there is only so long I can take it! I felt like there was mess everywhere, piles of this or that and lots of things that needed to be gone through, unfinished projects loomed everywhere. We finally had all our drywall work finished and just before Christmas we got new carpet and hardwood floors in our upstairs, so that meant having to move our entire classroom, which turned into switching rooms and redecorating. :)

Being organized makes me feel good! I am happy when things have their place and especially happy when my kids decide to put them there :) Anyway, the organizing bug bit me! I organized our closet, cleaned out my desk drawers, re-organized the little boys closet & toys, organized Zach's barn, cleaned out the playroom, (bye bye puzzles and games with missing pieces) transitioned and purged the school stuff and labeled up a storm. I even bought bins to organize the van since we pretty much live in it during the week. I sewed new curtains for the classroom, organized my sewing stuff, clean out the upstairs hall closet, the downstairs hall closet...well, you get the idea. I purged WAY more than our trash can will hold and made so many trips to the thrift store that they kindly asked me to find another place to give to. (hehe!) I've found an unnamed local place :) that has a few dumpsters and have started taking loads of trash there and my Papa has taken a few truck loads of junk to the dumpsters at their new house too! We've been collecting junk on the side of the house for some time now and once I tackle the garage, I'll be calling a guy to come and haul it all away!

I'm not sure where this organizing bug came from, if it is the coming of the new year and the fresh start it promises, or what. But, it has been consuming me! I was reading my Bible and doing a little devotional and my ind kept straying and returning to idea of organizing and what I could do next! I thought a little deeper at how I don't need a "new" year to get organized, God promises His mercies are new every morning! In Him, I have all I need, organized or not! So, while it feels good to be organized and have everything cleaned out, in Christ he lets me start "new" every day regardless of how good or bad my day or week before has gone! I guess I needed that reminder!

Happy New Year, Happy New day!!! :)