The blogosphere is so quiet these days. Most mornings I wake up and there are only three or four posts in my reader, and one or two of those are how-to´s on living a minimalist life. And while I´m still pursuing simplicity, I don´t crave a bunch of posts with bolder headings and short, concise, helpful paragraphs these days.
I want to read about people and their lives. I want to hear from all of you.
I know it´s hard to write about our lives right now, when it feels like we are living them under a shadow of doom and despair. But I think it´s important that we keep coming to our spaces and saying what we need to say. Even when we´re not sure what we need to say, or how to say it.
That has been my biggest problem lately. At the end of the night I feel so overwhelmed and inundated, it´s hard to carve a path back to who I am. I am struggling, but even that struggle is hard to put into words.
But if I´m going to ask other people to write in their spaces, I should be writing in my own.
Here goes…
My kids are getting big. Physically, they are big kids. Tall. They grow through size so fast. A couples of weeks ago some family friends dropped off a bunch of clothes at my parents´ house — hand-me-downs for my son. They´ve been living in my trunk for weeks. Yesterday I finally took them all out and sorted them. I´m getting better at only storing the clothes I actually think we´ll use, and immediately giving the rest away.
With the khaki pants I´ve been stock piling (my son has to wear khaki pants to school), I don´t think I´ll need to buy him anything in 4T. For this I´m grateful.
My daughter is growing like a weed. She is 6.5 years old but I´ve been buying her 7-8 clothes since the start of the school year. I wonder sometimes if I expect more or her because of her size. I catch myself almost saying she´s seven when someone asks her age. It´s hard to remember she´s six when she´s as tall as some third graders.
My son is the same way. People are astonished that he just turned 3-years-old. I think sometimes even I forget.
It feels good to have purged most of the 3T clothing and folded and put away the 4T stuff. I find great satisfaction in getting tasks like that done, perhaps because I can see the progress made and know when I am finished. So much in my life feels ongoing right now; it´s valuable to have a completed task I can point to and say, yes, I did that, it´s done.
What have you completed recently?
We recently moved and we purged all of the toys, baby girl clothes (we have two daughter and then a son). I have set myself up to consign a large amount of items this weekend and then all of the clothes under 12 month clothes will be out of my house. We also purged their toys like crazy. We downsized when we sold our house from 3000 sq ft to 1800 sq ft and could not hold all the things. My daughters were so good about donating things to other children. I also removed all of my clothing and got rid over 1.2 of my husbands things. It feels so nice to be organized and only keep those things we need and use.
Taxes all prepped and ready to go. That is always a win.
Keeping clothes sizes under control with growing children is a constant battle. And having shoes that fit … well, magic would help.
Downsizing is an ongoing continuous process. Cheers to all who participate. And, may I add that while it sounds counterintuitive it really is easier to keep a smaller space tidy than a larger one. Because it takes less to clutter it, so there is less to touch when picking up. Not sure I worded that right but the idea is there.
Cheers, joy, and thank you all for being in my world.
I keep thinking I want to go write something, and then I get all caught up inside the tangle of words in my head. I feel like if I open up enough to write something coherent, all the rage about the world will just come spilling out instead. Some days are better, some days are worse, but I really don’t feel in control enough of my own emotions to even crack that door yet. And it sucks.
I have a couple of large bags of stuff in our garage – – kind of the buffer zone – – before goes to Goodwill. Just gives me a chance to change my mind or wait to see if the kids really miss the few toys in there.
Are you and your husband really tall? My husband and I are probably on the tall side of average (5’7/6’0) but our oldest is and always has been in a very low percentile (IUGR). So at age 6 she barely fits in size 5 – – sometimes the pants hang off her (despite the huge amount of food this kid puts away )– –kind of the opposite of your daughter!
I am going to take this to heart and blog this weekend. It’s been so hard when all I think about is politics and intolerance.
I’ve been working on starting a new homeschooling blog (it should be up and running later this month). I also have a new blog post in the works about our house-buying experience. What have I completed recently? Hmmmm, I recently read Neil Gaiman’s new book “Norse Mythology” and LOVED IT! Totally great read.
I feel I haven’t achieved much at all lately, as I have a lot of sorting of clothes to do. But when I think about it, I have done pretty much all the planning and booking for a five week trip later this year, and that has required a lot of research and decision-making. So that feels good.