A "Feet" Unto Itself

Bending over and tying your shoes is probably many of you have taken for granted. Or bending over to tie your shoes WITHOUT making horrible grunting noises.

It has been another silent goal of mine to accomplish the bend-over-without-grunting task and to add shoe tying to all of that, well let's just say, that would be icing (non-fat, sugarfree of course) on the (same) cake.

Last week, amongst all the happy angst in our family, I found myself bending over and tying or strapping on shoes without a sound! At first, I took it for granted until I wondered to myself if I had been doing this all along! I realized I haven't grunted to get up or move (with the exception of this last week of recuperation)!

This may sound like child's play, but for an owner of a chubby tummy, accomplishing such a thing is a feat unto itself. I may not look like how I think I should, but with this revelation and goal checked off the to-do list, I'd say I am well on my way! YAY ME! :)

Aging Gracefully

Is it weird that I'm liking this aging thing? I see myself in the mirror and I don't mind what I see! I could look a bit thinner, but I'm working on that. But aging, the stuff I really have no control over, has been working for me. I'm actually excited to turn 40 (happening in about four years). I only have hang-ups on age because I want to have more children and doctors and hospitals tend to freak out over 35ers having babies. But other than that I truly excited for the future. Is that weird or are there more people out there like me?

Feelings: some advice given that I should take

I know I just wrote something but I have some extremely treasured correspondence with a friend who wrote me today and I had to look back at what I said to her that made her grateful to have me as her friend! (I love that by the way) I'm not going to divulge any details, all I am going to comment on is what I said and how I have learned to finally take my own advice...even if it's little by little.

This is what I said (the "He" of course is Heavenly Father):

".i just feel your pain so much! i understand much of the frustration you must be going through, much of the anger at the one Being that can take this all away or at least to a point where it's manageable. you think "how can this be good for you, your husband, your kids?" and if it's not good then take it away! but He won't...he won't make it easier on you or your family, He won't answer your prayer, your begging, your tears...and it makes you madder than you have felt...and you take it out on everyone, even yourself because then you think "what have i done to deserve this?" and you feel so bad you don't even want to think about it...you shut yourself away so the only person you hurt is yourself (or so you think)...but the problem is still there...waiting for you to open the door so it can rush right in and take over what life you have left...BUT even if you don't realize it, right now things are getting better! you opened the door and let people in again and they are ready and willing to help you out, i promise! not everyone but the ones that truly care and love you. your children want nothing more than to make you happy (even when they scream and yell so much you just want to give them away to charity!) they do silly things to make you smile every day. Heavenly Father sends those things to you every day. He wants to nothing more than to give you everlasting joy...yes He does! you will find a way around this once you start knowing the rules and boundaries. please, please, please read your scriptures, Ensign, whatever...please fast even if you do it from something other than food (i have to do that)...please pray...it's hard to talk to someone you are so angry with but He wants to hear it. He wants to help you. I promise..."

Good advice if I say so myself'!

I'm doing OK!

I just wanted to let all of you know that I am doing OK and getting better slowly but surely! You all know I have had some rough times, and I know those rough times are coming to a close but new ones will emerge. But for right now, right at this moment, I'm doing better than I have been in many years. Nothing is perfect or easy, and I think I'm ready to let that ideal go. I am starting to recover from perfectionism and beginning to find myself.

Clearing away the clutter and organizing my home is helping to organize and clear away my soul. I still have things to work through and I probably always will, and that's OK because that is who I am.

The BIG Clean Up

I don't know if I have told you all about my clean house idea: to clean four times a year versus just one. I was thinking that if I could clean every equinox and solstice, I would have a much cleaner house all year-round and be much happier for it. Spring would be the big junk drop with a HUGE yard sale (more info on that to come).

So...we are starting to BIG clean during the stereotypical Springtime (been doing a lot of things that way this year, why stop now?)

We are going from room to room and eliminating things we don't need or use. We plan to do our town's community yard sale and come home with NOTHING! (except for a couple of larger items if they don't sell). We are going to take that money to make and keep our home more organized with new closet set-ups, kitchen drawer pull-outs, and the like. We are also going to spruce up our home with paint to reward ourselves a job well done!

Our inspiration is coming from the Clean House show we recently got hooked on. It has given us the motivation we needed to get started and continue on! We don't think we're as bad as some of the folks on that show, but we definitely have the tendencies. With the Pack Raticus (Pack Rat in layman's terms) genome running rampant in our souls, we need a good push more often then I would like to admit.

So, tell me. What do you think? Good idea or bad idea?