Auto-Pilot

Do you ever let your life slip into auto-pilot and just continue to go and go and go and........

I'm really good at going, and going, a lot like the energizer bunny, but I'm not very good at stopping. Past experience has taught me that it takes something big to stop me, but when it does, I am stopped dead in my tracks and forced to slow down, regroup, rest, re-evaluate, etc.
I told myself, "Self, I am going to take better care of you".
I have praised God for the way he has revealed himself to me lately and for the opportunity to grow closer to him. But boy, I am a work in progress!!


SO I started with a scratchy throat Friday night, Saturday night felt awful, Sunday ok, but by Tuesday I was MISERABLE. Turns out I had tonsillitis, sinusitis, and strep throatitis!! (i know it doesn't have itis on it, but doesn't it make it funnier!) I got a shot Wednesday afternoon, got antibiotics, the saline nose wash thing(watch for a post about this), and several other things to promote comfort. I came home, got in the shower, and as I was thinking over my little moment of self-pity on the way home where I was driving and blubbering tears, I could hear God saying-

"Attention Dawn, this is your pilot speaking, the pilot of your life, and I have shutdown your controls because you keep trying to do this thing called life by yourself and you can't!!"

It amazes me how easily we can try to take control, when we are in such better hands when GOD is our pilot.

The Decluttering Lion and The Linen Closet

My mom is "shocked and slightly embarassed at the sight of" my clutter and disarray being displayed for the world to see. I, on the other hand, think that you're like me and need to see that no matter how hard we try, we're not perfect and don't have to time for everything. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a clean and organized home comes from constant work and upkeep. My current process has been to methodically room by room, closet by closet, purge and declutter. If you are a packrat, just skip on to the pictures, close your ears and your eyes because you are not going to like what I am going to say.

Are all the packrats gone??

For YEARS, I mean since I was in high school, I have saved things. Special things, not special things, things I thought could be repurposed, broken things, ridiculous things, things for art projects, useful or not it got saved. I thought I "couldn't part with it". I linked memories, money, happiness, and lots of other things to all this STUFF.

THE RESULT-

A mess that I could not keep up with. When we bought our house, we bought a fixer-upper, because it had more character, and more square footage. That was 6 years ago. I couldn't believe all the closets, cabinets, and space, after living in my apartment and then dorm room before that. Then one day I woke up and the house was full. The attic, the closets, the basements, drawers, cabinets, every space full of STUFF!! For a long time I and those who loved me couldn't understand why I couldn't keep my house clean, why I couldn't just pick up as I went, why I let it get so bad, and why it didn't bother me unless company was coming.

I read books about it, I read blogs about it, searched for tips, tried little things like baskets for my medicine, it helped a little, but was not the cure.

They say necessity is the mother of all invention, and that's what happened with me. I got tired of not being comfortable in my home, of not being able to find what I needed, and not having a place to put things. (Being hospitalized for the 2nd year in a row helped this just a little)

I am by NO means finished. This is going to be a process, a long one. But I've accomplished a lot and gotten rid of a lot!! I think my current count is 6 bags of trash and about 8 bags/boxes of things for Goodwill, thrift, etc.

You saw my bedroom earlier in the week, but I forgot to tell you that I also tackled my linen closet-the dark abyss of forgotten linens. It is amazing what we accumulate, way to much of stuff that is used WAY to little. I got rid of icky sheets and towels, scratchy ones, and just kept the good stuff. I, in fact, did a little research about stocking a linen closet and how much of what you needed. This helped guide me a little in how much of what to keep. So check out the stuff I pulled out and the end result.

Before:

After:

Swagbucks

Have you heard? Have you tried it??? I've gotten 20 swagbucks, just by doing my normal searches, how fun is that!!! Swagbucks are the greenbax stamps of our time. Just for doing what we normally do, searching, online shopping etc., we can win swagbucks and spend them in the swag store!!! If you get people to join you earn bucks too-so click here and come join the fun SWAG

Tackle it Tuesday

TACKLE IT TUESDAY
It was pretty convenient to be off for tackle it Tuesday-I was able to tackle several things that I've left unfinished :)

Our Master Bedroom Before:

And 3 black garbage bags full of stuff for the thrift store and 1 black garbage bag full of garbage later-

I especially love the unfinished dry wall-where my hubby remodeled the closet 2 years ago-we have had high hopes of doing the bathroom too, so never painted, needless to say neither is done now :) But, the new shelf and the propping of the picture mask most of the unpainted wall-it makes me feel better any way!

Snow Day- What????

It seems that our town is the town Snow forgot!!! I think maybe that would be the perfect children's book, I'll have to add it to my ever growing list of ideas. But, all kidding aside, it seems that the other end of our county is covered and here we are at home with clear ground. Isaac is watching anxiously, encouraging the few sad flakes that are floating to the ground and hoping for enough to at least go out and try to catch some.
Normally, I would be tickled for a snow day, but this was going to be our second 4 day week in a row, and our next break would be a teacher work day in Feb. Now, we will have to work that day and therfore, won't have another day off until at least March-yick. But, because of our trip to Charleston and crazy schedule I am a little behind with a few of my chores, so while Isaac enjoys some PBS specials, I am going to catch up on some chores, so that maybe later I can light a few candles and catch up on some reading :) And who knows, maybe today will be the day that I upload some pictures for your veiwing pleasure-stay tuned-you never know what a full day home might bring :)

Coupons

I have never been good at using coupons-I cut them out and lose them. So in an effort to be more organized at this too-I bought an accordion organizer that fits in my purse and has slots for my coupons. I also bought a small notebook with 3 tabbed sections where I keep a running inventory/grocery list, keep track of what I want to get where, and my current to-d0's. Yesterday I took the paper mom passed on to us and sat down cutting out and sorting the coupons. Then I took the CVS and Ingles ad to figure out the best deals and what coupons I needed to use. I tried to combine sale things, good deals, etc. So heres what I did:

CVSing today-and it was super exciting. I had my bonus bucks, as well as just my ECB's from my last purchase-and I had perused the add carefully. I got 4 2-liters, 4 12-packs, 2 bags of tostitoes, 3 V-day cards, 8 cans of soup, 6 pack of hershey's bars and nose spray. I completed 2 transactions and ended up with about $3.75 in OOP expense-wooooooohooooo!!! Russell said he was glad that I had the patience to figure it out, because he would not fool with it, but it was fun to get a deal, I am always up for a deal :)

This evening I ran to Ingles to try some triple-couponing. They are tripling coupons all week :) I used about 6-to see if it ended up being worth it and it did. I had several coupons that ended up meaning I got $1.5o off of an item. I ended up saving $10.00 on the 6 things I used coupons for and that would have translated to only spending about $10-if I hadn't needed the required bread, milk, and peanutbutter-which unfortunately totaled $10.00
I will probably end up going back and trying a few more before the week is out :)

THIS JUST RELEASED

I've been released!

My surgeon said "Have a nice life" and I said-OOOOOOH I most certainly will-Praise the Lord :)

My scars looked great, the biggest still red and a little sore, but otherwise fine. Everything else was great, great, great. Nothing to worry about, nothing to fret over-

ISN'T GOD AMAZING!!

I feel soooo good. My friend Lana's husband commented a few nights ago that I seemed like a different person-"you're just so bubbly and happy" AND I AM-and IT FEELS GOOD. I feel better than I have felt since before I had menigitis in 2007-and it is not anything that a doctor can explain or that man can accomplish-I give GOD all the glory :)

Friday's Fave Five

1.A Clean House-I have been trying to FLY this week, and it has really made a difference. I need to tweak a few things in my lists and schedules, but I love coming home to an orderly house.
2.Less Clutter-I LOVE that I can look around and things look fresh and different and that I can open up drawers without them spilling over.
3. New Bath products-I have never been a big lotion fan, but a friend and my dh got me various bath and body products this year and they have been a big treat. I've gotten into the routine of using all the different products, and I love leaving the house smelling nice, much better than drowning in perfume :)
4.Teaching my wonderful class-I LOVE my students. And it has been so wonderful to be back, feel good, and begin to dig in and really work hard to help them meet their goals ;)
5.New Clothes-I did a little shopping once I started feeling better and it has been awesome to have some fun, inspiring, lovely choices in my closet this week. I found some great deals at BELK in Hendersonville and then later in Spartanburg. Lana helped find some cute stuff and I even got a pair of jeans :) I also love having somebody to shop with besides Russell and Isaac

When it rains it pours......

Right into the basement!

That's right-our basement-full of water, that's what we got to deal with today :) But we are still smiling and pushing forward. Russell worked all day packing up his stuff-the basement was/is his man cave! Since I got home at 4:00 my Mom and I have been plowing through our guest room/mount crumpet/junk hole. 3 boxes in the attic later, 2 bags of clothes sorted for new homes, several bags of trash, and piles of other stuff all over my house-we have restored some order. Russell was able to get all of the things from the basement clean and into rubbermaid tubs that were put in the closet in our guest room-one giant one in the floor. Now we have to deal with the furniture, carpet, etc. Most of the furniture is ruined, and unless we can be sure it doesn't have mold, we won't keep it, because I am allergic to mold and mildew-and we don't want anyone to breath it, allergic or not :) We don't know what the insurance will cover-but everything is ruined-carpet, furniture, paneling, etc. AND in order for it not to happen again, it's going to take about $3,o00 or more worth of work on the outside of the house, to dig trenches, build drains, etc.
I'm frustrated, but it could be so much worse and we are still so blessed. I am so thankful I had completed all the things I had done, otherwise I don't know if I would have ever been able to dig out of the mess that would have been made. Instead, I have some piles and stacks to deal with, but for the most part things are okay-and as a bonus we got our major clutter hole (the guest room) clean!! We even got part of the crazy pit of a hall closet clean, only because we had stuff that had to go on it!! Mom and dad just left, bless them, and Cher brought Isaac home from church for us-which helped tremendously. I'm going to shower and see if I can't at least try to contain things a little. It seems the biggest messes are in the hall and our bedroom-which I just almost finished cleaning.
This too shall pass! I continue to be thankful for my healing-I feel sooooooooo good-and can't imagine doing this, experiencing all this, still feeling bad-I praise the LORD for the healing he has brought and for what he continues to do in our lives.

Tackle it Tuesday

I have really tackled a lot in the last few days in the hope of being more organized this year. My latest accomplishment is pictureless-sorry the batteries died, but I promise after pictures tomorrow! I have cleaned and organized the computer desk-whew it was bad. But today, it was the blackhole cabinet in the kitchen. I have to tell you I found a few crazy things. I didn't even know we had a Tater Twister-it's brand new. My dh says we got it as a wedding present-I disagree-we moved once I really don't think I would have kept it-we don't fry at all. So if anyone wants a brand new Tater Twister-speak up or its off to the donation pile. I also found random slicer and dicer parts, an arcaic mixer, as well as my old broken mixer that my amazing mom replaced with my dream bright red shiny Kitchen Aid Mixer last year!!! And then there was the cruddy, gross, nasty toaster oven that my DH has had since he was a MARINE, I mean really!! So I promised him I would buy him a new one (won't that be a great Valentine's Day gift :)), and it too is in the donation pile. Way, way, way too many gadgets. 2 crockpots-I use and love-, the other is almost all expendable, except for the AWESOME bright shiny red mixer-Isaac and I couldn't make banana bread without it! So if my DH will take all the clutter to donate it tomorrow I will really be in business :)