Levels and Travels and Bursitis, oh my!

It's been a whirlwind of a fall and winter so far. When we turned the calendar to October, we were looking forward to pretty average fall and winter. The biggest "stuff" on our radar was all the "lasts" of life with Jacob still living under our roof full time. But shortly thereafter, things got crazy.

We took on this major addition/remodel/house project. It will be so, so wonderful once it is finished, but it most certainly throws a wrench into regular family life!

Then a couple weeks later the two older girls and I were offered the opportunity to spend Christmas in Cebu at CSC. We gave it only a few minutes of thought before we were in. So there were passports to get. And tickets. And plans to be made. And packing to do.

Then in November I was diagnosed with bursitis in both my hips. It was good to have a diagnosis and to know what was going on to cause all my hip pain. So that started a journey of PT to work on healing and diminished pain.

What was looking like a calm season took a turn. A crazy turn, but a turn that would lead to lots of fabulous destinations. Life is nothing if not a crazy ride!

In case there wasn't already enough going on

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind the past month or so. Lots of things (very good things!) coming at us that weren't exactly in the immediate plan, but nonetheless we have found ourself in the middle of them. Major life things. Time consuming things. Thought consuming things. Good things, but things that demand a lot out of you!

We are on the brink of a MAJOR house project around here. An addition and remodel. Big stuff! We have lived in our 1920's house for nearly 20 years now and we LOVE it, but there are lots of things that could stand to have a bit of money thrown at them (and that's an understatement), if you know what I mean. So, we are diving in! All the years we've lived here, we have dreamed of a bigger kitchen. Our kitchen is small and the space is also the main entry into our house. And since 8 people live here (five of whom are full-sized people), the space is pretty tight, to say the least. And when you add in the fact that all the shoes/coats/sweatshirts/backpacks/etc for 8 people get tossed on the floor in the kitchen, it's nearly enough to make you lose your everloving mind! So, our yard will soon be sporting a big hole and life will get messy for a while . . . well, life is always messy, but it's about to get a lot more messy, in the literal sense, for the foreseeable future.

Also, I will be going on a MAJOR, life-changing trip with our two older girls in just over a month. Passports have been applied for. Plane tickets have been purchased. Planning is well underway! My mom, my dearest girlfriend since childhood (my "sister"), my two older girls and my brother's wife will all be traveling to Cebu, Philippines to work at a shelter for orphaned and abandoned children. We will have the opportunity to serve them by helping the staff there prepare for Christmas. How fun is that? Shopping, wrapping, baking, planning, prepping . . . doing what we can to help make Christmas special for the 80+ kids who call CSC home.

I'm quite sure there will be plenty to share on both of these fronts in the near future, so stay tuned.

Life is quite a ride these days. (And always!) I'm hanging on tight.

The Great Purge of 2015

It was a rough summer around here. I never quite felt like we got in a good groove. People were grumpy and "bored" and we "never did anything fun". The rough summer turned in to a rough fall. Some of it was the kids, some of it was how busy we were and how many different directions we were always running (not shocking, considering there are 8 of us who all have things going on) and some of it was just me.

The past couple months I've felt really overwhelmed. Like I was barely keeping my head above water and if I stopped to rest for even a second, I'd go under. It was pervasive and noticeable in every different area of my life.

A few weeks ago I told my mom that I was overwhelmed by life and, specifically, by all the "stuff" in our house. I commented that if I came home one day and somehow half of our possessions were gone out of our house I'd be relieved, rather than upset. That's when she decided we were going to get to work on making that happen! (just the motivation -- and help -- I needed!) We have been working our butts off for the better part of two weeks now. She has come over almost every day and we've tackled a different room/area/category of stuff.

While I don't think we've gotten rid of half the possessions in our house, we have purged an impressive amount of stuff in a pretty short period of time. Lots of bags of garbage. TONS of recycling (why was it that I kept boxes from so many things I've purchased long, long ago? . . . and SO. MANY. papers!). About 40 pairs of shoes. Bags and bags of clothing. Wall art. Bedding. Furniture. Picture frames. Books. Home decor type stuff. Kitchen gadgets. Jewelry. Toys. We still have work to do. And we still have more possessions than I am comfortable with! But we are WAY closer to what I am comfortable with than we were two weeks ago. We have been able to pass things along to others who need them or will, at least, make good use of them. That makes me happy. We have donated some items to charities that we trust. We have gotten rid of some of the excess that we have in life and have simplified. All 8 of us are on board and are enjoying the end result of all the hard work -- clean, less cluttered spaces all over our house, drawers, shelves and storage bins that are completely empty and a more peaceful place to live!

We've even found a few things that I forgot we owned. It is a sorry state of affairs that this type of problem is so common and pervasive. It's not just me, I know. But I can only start with myself, so that's what I'm doing. Making a difference a little bit at a time in my own life. And in my own home. It feels good.

I had requested The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up from the library a few months ago. But it's a popular book, so the list wasn't short. It finally came in for me near the beginning of the purge. I'm almost done with the book now and, while I don't agree with everything she says, there have been many ideas in the book that have been very helpful to me while going through this process. I haven't done things exactly according to her order and her advice (partly because I had already started and partly because some of her methods aren't really geared well for a family of 8 and a few I find just flat out silly -- or maybe just culturally irrelevant, as the author is from Japan and I am not). Overall, I think it is a great book and there have been some very freeing ideas and philosophies in there that I am thankful for. Perspective is always good and the author has a very different perspective than any I have previously encountered and I appreciated the new way to think about possessions.

Simplifying and paring down our possessions certainly hasn't solved all my problems, but it has helped. For that I am grateful! Major thanks to my mom and my family for all the help!

Thankful Thursday

It's been an exceptionally cold month (with a few short breaks where you can get outside for longer than it takes to run from the house to the car). I am so thankful for a warm home to live in (and not leave) on days when the temperature doesn't ever climb above zero.

I'm so thankful for our home and heat and warm clothes and a coat to wear . . . but I would still appreciate a warm up!

randomness

A few random things, in case you care::

• I got a haircut today. I was planning to grow my hair long enough to donate it, but it was driving me mad and since I value what little bit of sanity I've got, I got it cut. It's kind of a shaggy, long-ish bob.
• I was driving behind a Porsche going about 52mph in a 65 on 94 today. There was no traffic. Most people were doing 70. As I blew past this Porsche in my maxi van, I had the urge to say :: "Buddy, do you realize what you're driving? It's a PORSCHE! Pick up the pace, already!"
• I had a coupon for a free Frappe at Burger King, so I went through the drive-thru and picked one up. It wasn't really all that great and it gave me a brain freeze. TWICE! Those suckers hurt! Anna begged me for a drink of it, so I let her have the rest. I'm sure I'll pay for that later, but oh well!
• We have a HUGE dumpster in our driveway. It'll be there for months. It's not pretty, but it is exciting!
• We are about to start on the drain tile and radon mitigation part of our basement undertaking. Not at all a glamorous way to spend thousands of hard-earned dollars, but it'll be so good to have it done.
• I love where we live. About a 10-minute walk from home last night {walking at the pace of a 4-year-old} we spotted a white-tail about 30 feet off the road and stopped to watch a deer who had stopped to watch us. Also we walked by a swampy pond and enjoyed the sound of frogs. I love that we could get to either downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis in about 10 minutes by car and still be only blocks away from deep woods and wildlife! Perfect, if you ask me!
• The sunshine is glorious!
• Joe has an eye appointment tomorrow. We'll see if his patch on his glasses that he's been wearing for a few months has made any noticeable difference in his vision.
• I've had a {pretty nasty} cold for nearly 2 weeks. I'm about ready to be done with blowing my nose. Hopefully it will be gone soon . . . like yesterday!

thankful thursday :: my "mudroom"

We enter our house through the side door -- which leads directly into the kitchen. No closet. No mudroom. No nothin'. It didn't bug me too much when we first moved in. It was just the two of us then. Now that there's 8 of us . . . and long before we were that many, even . . . it started driving me mad! Shoes, backpacks, coats, boots, snow pants. They took over the entire kitchen. It made me crazy!

I didn't take good before pictures, but here are some pictures from about a year ago {not staged, mind you} of the area I'm talking about ::


And here's that same space now ::
It had bugged me for so long, but I had no idea how to remedy it. We tried a couple little changes without much positive impact, so I kind of gave up. Fast forward to about a month ago. Enter my friend, Nicole :: a organizing guru with her iPad and a latte for me in hand {bless her heart!}. She had spent the night before looking up and organizing ideas for me online and came armed and ready to go. We looked at the nasty space {or lack thereof}. Measured. Brainstormed. Studied the space a little more. Sipped our coffee -- I even spilled a bit of hers, klutz that I am. Looked at pretty online pictures {that I'm confident WERE all staged} and made some plans.

I then did a bit of online shopping {directly from Nicole's links!} and got to work. It's so very fabulous now, and so far {about a week in} is working out great for our family. I'm so thankful to have the space be better used and so, so much cuter too!

My parents came over for an entire day last week and helped me put on the finishing touches. I am so grateful!

Here's the whole photographic tour of our entryway {also all unstaged -- this is how it looks most of the time now! Praise God! Well, except for the fact that 5 of the people who live here weren't home when I took the pictures, so there were coats and backpacks and some shoes missing that are also in this area when everyone is home -- but the coats and backpacks all have hooks to go on and the footware that was upon those -- possibly stinky -- feet when these pictures were taken fit right into those empty cubes you see there. Prett great, huh?}::


Inside of the door leading to the basement :: shoe organizer that holds winter gear {hats, mittens, scarves, etc.}. When winter is over -- not that it's even really been winter this year -- we'll rotate that stuff out and it can hold summer stuff {sunscreen, goggles, flip flops, hats}::

View from just inside the back door looking toward the dining room::
Our new recycling bin {IKEA has the best stuff!}::
Looking from the dining room toward the back door::
A wider-angle look from the dining room::
Boots and a bucket for music stands and the patrol flag {which isn't in there in the picture because the kids were at school} and umbrellas when that season is upon us::

So, what do you think? Isn't it great? Do you love it as much as I do?

flash{way}back friday

here the old pictures of our house that I became the proud owner of last week
{if you don't know that story, you can read it here}::

our backyard in the winter {neither of our neighboring houses were built yet}::

Our garage {although it's been moved closer to the house since this picture was taken -- same building, though} and the west side of the house::

Well, would you look at that, there used to be a little entryway on the north side of our house. It's not there anymore, though. that door there leads to the side door that goes into our kitchen -- I wonder if that coal shoot was still in use when this was taken. it's still there, but has been all sealed up!::

The front of the house and 3 of the little people who grew up here {anybody know what year this might be, based on the super cool car in the driveway?}::

The backyard and the southwest corner of the house -- the frame for that swingset is still sitting in our backyard {sans swings, teeter-totter and ladder}::

I also have a picture of 3 little kiddos {the same 3 from the front yard pictures} bathing in a beautiful clawfoot tub in our bathroom {the tub isn't here anymore, but the bathroom still is, thankfully!}. But I decided it was in bad taste to publish naked pictures of others on the internet -- dontcha think?

thankful thursday

Yesterday two women stopped by our house. Sisters. They had stopped by once before, probably 5 or 10 years ago already. I had almost forgotten about that visit. I wasn't home when they first got here yesterday. My mom was watching the kiddos while I was out for a bit. I called her on my way home and she told me about the visitors that were here waiting for me. When I arrived at home 5 minutes later, there they were. In my kitchen. In their kitchen. They did their growing up here. In this house. They were probably in their 60's. 70's maybe. They brought some copies of pictures of our house from the 40's and 50's. Some inside, some outside. Some including naked kids in a clawfoot bathtub. A fabulous old car in the driveway of one of the pictures. They said I could keep them. They brought them for me. Their family lived here from 1945 until sometime in the early-mid 70's.

The house was built in 1927. We moved in in 1998. I think that their family was the 2nd family to live here. I think we are the 5th. I know a teeny bit about the family that built the house (the Peterson's) and now I know quite a bit about the 2nd family. We bought it from my good friend, Carol's parents, so I know quite a bit about them too. I was at this house quite a few times over the years before I even had an idea that someday I would raise my family here (my junior high and high school years). It's so fun to know so much about the history of our home. It just makes me love it all the more.

I was thankful that, yesterday, the house was less than the complete disaster it often is in the middle of a week day. It was actually pretty clean! We looked at the pictures they brought and chatted for a bit. When they showed me a picture of some kids near a swingset, I told them that the frame from that exact swingset was still in our yard. We looked out the window and I pointed to it. It was here when we bought the house and we didn't have the first clue what to do with a huge, substantial, metal swingset frame, so there it sits along the fence in our backyard. Current day swingset makers should take note. That puppy is probably at least 60 years old and still as solid as can be. The younger sister said that she was often afraid to go upstairs to bed at night and wanted to stay downstairs until someone else went up there with her. Just. like. Lydia! It was so fun to hear their stories.

They saw a stack of (4 copies) the same book on the hutch and asked me about it. (Kirb said later that maybe they thought I was an author. Who else has multiple copies of the same book?) I said it was the book that had had the greatest impact in my life and I always keep a few copies on hand to give to people. Would they like one? I think they were surprised at my offer, but seemed genuinely excited and took a copy -- but only after offering to pay me for it. I said no, I would love them to have it. I gave them my usual warning that the book starts out really sad (I would have appreciated a heads up on that fact before I started reading it in a public place!), but if they could make it through the first chapter they could continue reading without a box of tissues right by their side (well, maybe keep one tissue available, just in case. It is cold season, you know).

As they were leaving, the younger sister asked me if I would pray for the older sister because she has cancer and isn't doing well. She wants to keep getting treatment, but her platelets are low and they have had to stop the treatments for a while until the platelet levels come back up. I told them that I would pray and that I was dealing with low platelets at this exact time last year. She said she could tell that we were believers, otherwise she never would have asked. I was touched deeply by that comment. What an unexpected blessing they were in my day. I'm praying that Ann's book blesses them as much as it has blessed me and many others!

We just got a new computer (our old -- and it was old -- one died with the ending of 2011) and it isn't hooked up to the scanner yet, far as I can tell. As soon as I get the fabulous pictures scanned in, and in digital form, I promise to share them with you. They're SO fun!