In Need of A Good "Thinning"

As New Years resolutions go...I've never been one to truly make them. I may say, "oh, I'd like to be more organized", or "I'd like to be healthier", or something like that, but those are things I tend to say anyways...new year or not. Well this year, I've really been thinking about it, and have decided that it IS a New Year, and therefor a perfect opportunity to change a thing or two. For me, things need to be "thinned" out in almost all aspects of my life. You know...like a good forest thinning. Not quite a clear-cut, but simply cleaning out some of the old, so the new can fill in! Okay, so the clearing begins...

First, our stuff: A few weeks ago it hit me that we were being over run by our stuff. I had boxes of clothes in the bottom of my closet that I put away while I was pregnant...still sitting in those same boxes (obviously I wasn't missing them). The Christmas boxes were a chore to get down and back up in the attic because of all the other miscellaneous boxes of stuff we had in the way. The door to the den/sewing/scrapbook room, has remained closed for the last month or so because it's such a mess that it looks like a hurricane made it's way through that room. etc., etc. I'm really good at finding drawers, cupboards or closets to stash things in, so the house as a whole remains uncluttered...but my secret stashing places are all filling up, and filling up with silly material things that we don't really need or use! I tend to have the "it's too nice to give away or get rid of, and some day I may use it", attitude.

Next our schedule: I looked over the calendar for the last month or so, and realized there have been very few days that we've actually stayed home an entire day. We're always on the go...whether it's to the grocery store, to grandma's house, to MOPS, or just out running errands. Poor Kallen has woken up the past few weeks with the first words out of his mouth every morning being "I stay hooooome" (with a long drawn out enunciated "home"). Okay kiddo...I get it.

Then the weight: Of course when we're talking about "thinning" out my life, I've got to address the weight issue. Now...I'm back at my pre-Kynlee weight, and have been since she was a month or so old, Yeah me...but that doesn't mean I didn't have a little extra to begin with! More than that however is the fact that I...we...need to eat healthier. Not just healthier foods, but an all around healthier habits. I rarely sit down and eat a decent breakfast (normally a few handfuls of cereal while I'm pouring Kallen his), or the left over half of english muffin that Kallen never touched while I'm clearing his plate. Lunch normally doesn't happen in any organized sense of the word either because Kallen doesn't really eat much and I'm so busy tending to him, Kynlee and the house, that I don't make the time to make something for my self. In turn I end up snaking on junk throughout the day. Dinner, we're good...we always have a sit down dinner as a family, which tends to be the only decent meal I get throughout the day...so unhealthy I know!

Anyways...These are just a few of the major areas that need thinned in my life...not to mention the amount of TV I have on the DVR that I am always trying to catch up on, or the stack of projects that lay half started in my craft room. It just seems that we've got so much going on around us, that we're not really taking the time to enjoy life as it is. I'm looking ahead at what needs to be done next, what project needs worked on, which cupboard can I sort through, who can I email, etc., etc. My goal is to simplify everything, and if I haven't needed, seen or used something in the last 6 months or so...it's out!

What a project this has become, though I already feel like I've accomplished so much. I can't wait for the entire weight to be lifted, and I'm tellin' you...it will be some garage sale come spring time!

Blessings,