On to the Purple Party!

MC's Pink Party was a great success. I think all the girls (and J) had a wonderful time. Now, however, MC is looking foward to her next birthday party, which she has announced will be a Purple Party. She has absolutely no concept of a year, however. She asked me if we would go to a store to buy purple things for her party. I said we certainly would. She then said something like (in a pouty voice), "We need to get more purple things because if we don't, I'll just have to have a party that's a little bit decorated." (Then added a classic pout and put her head down.)

Happy Birthday, MC!

Today is MC's 3rd birthday. This photo was taken before Christmas - you can see the tree in the background. She was very proud of this outfit she had picked out. I was especially fond of the tights-over-pants look, not to mention the way her stripes are so brightly coordinated.

I told her today was her birthday when I went into her room this morning. She gave me her biggest smile and did a little excited-dance. After about 2 bites of breakfast, she declared, "I need to get dressed now because I want to be all ready when the people get here." She was referring to the people invited to her Pink Party. This event is scheduled for Saturday morning, however - 2 days away. So I tried to explain it to her, but her concept of time is so not there. (Ironically this is similar to how my grandmother with Alzheimer's Disease reacts to events.)

I just hope this doesn't turn out like J's 4th birthday, when after all the celebrations were said and done, he claimed he was 7 (turning a year older at each event)! Now that he's really 7, he laughs when we tell him this story.

I suppose I should have learned my lesson from that experience, but no. I want to include special people in MC's life, and not all of them can come at the same time, so we have several birthday celebrations lined up. I am torn about having so many different celebrations spread out over several days, and beyond, because having numerous celebrations gets to be very confusing for a young child. What's a mom who loves birthdays to do?

Next year her birthday will be on a Saturday, I think, which should simplify things greatly.

Progress

Today I emptied 5 boxes and went through their contents. I have 4 empty boxes for recycling, and one that contains everything I wanted to save. These things now need to be put in their homes, or I need to make a home for them. I also found 2 boxes of old speech-language pathology notebooks, textbooks, and professional papers. I will seal and label these 2 boxes and get them out of our guest room and into an appropriate spot in the basement. My other great accomplishment in the guest room today (4 of the 5 boxes I cleaned out were in the guest room; the other from my bedroom) is taking a plastic milk crate full of papers to be recycled to the curb and watching the recycling truck come and take them all away. I now have a crate I can use as a sorting bin! You need to know how great an accomplishment this is - I think that crate full of recyclable papers had been sitting idle for over a year.

I feel good about what I've done today. I think James might even notice some of the results. Even if he doesn't, it still feels good. I did this!

Clean House

As I start my day this morning, I look around and have one of my two usual reactions to the clutter in my house: feeling inspired to change, or feeling too overwhelmed to act. When I have the latter reaction, I want to crawl into a ball and hide from it. I feel ashamed. It is no fun.
Today, however, I guess I slept fairly well, because I am inspired to have a clean house, just like it looks when they finish cleaning and organizing a house on the Style network show, "Clean House". (For those of you familiar with that show, I do need to clarify that my house is NOT in need of the Clean House crew at this time. But, that being said, it is calling for some attention.)

Now as you all know by now, I am a perfectionist. This is why I am a procrastinator too. That combination leads to a cluttered house. See, when I feel inspired like today, I am imagining my entire house looking great and never getting cluttered again. But I am not capable of cleaning my whole house today. So I will have to pick one area to work on. I told James to look for the area I clean up today when he gets home. The possibilities are endless!

I am finding myself getting caught up in the "best way" to declutter. I imagine the perfect sorting bins, complete with labels for give away, trash, recycle, put away, ask James, ask the kids. Then I start to get overwhelmed with where I will get such bins, and where I will store the stuff I choose to keep. Being a perfectionist can come in handy in a few situations, but it can really get in the way too.

Lest I lose all traces of inspiration by procrastinating via this blog, I am going to sign off and pick somewhere to make a difference today. I'll keep you posted.

Epiphany

Today is Epiphany, and I am happy to report a had one of my own today. I guess I've had this one before in various versions, but apparently I needed to see it again. I get so easily excited about trying something new. I live in the future so much. I am a planner, and a contingency planner, a list-maker, a procrastinator, and as I've said before, a perfectionist.

I was offered a fill-in position on a very part-time basis at the gym where I work out. I was so flattered and so excited about the possibility of earning some of "my own" money I could hardly contain myself. I was asked to let them know by tomorrow if possible. Thanks be to God I figured this out so quickly.

The answer is no. While I do want to go back to work in the relatively near future, I don't need to right now. I have two kids that need me and that I so easily take for granted. They are growing so fast. MC will be three in a matter of days. J is seven. If I don't take this sacred opportunity to savor being with them now, I will no doubt regret it later. I am young and I need to be patient. My time will come and I will know when it is right. If I take this or any other job merely to satisfy my desire to have more money it will take my focus in the wrong direction.

I am blessed, and lucky, to be in this position. I was offered a job. I can choose to say no. I have my health. I have two beautiful, healthy children and a loving husband. I will do everything I can to not take any of this for granted.