a mad woman

alright...i'm not sure what has come over me in the past few days or so, but i have been cleaning/rearranging/organizing/decluttering like a MAD WOMAN! i'm not sure if i decided one day to FINALLY put away something when i saw it, instead of just looking at it, but it has set off an organization bomb in my house! check out the things i've accomplished in the past 3 days:
~went through all my recipes and threw out ones i didn't like/use, and orgainzed the ones i had into categories.
~organized ALL my pictures into photo albums (yes...i've had a gigantic tub of pictures just sitting around for YEARS...i mean it, years! i kept holding on to them because i thought i'd one day i'd get bitten by the creative bug and would want to do some scrapbooking, but who am i kidding?!) i've had seriously like 6 -8 empty photo albums just sitting around waiting to have pictures in them, so i finally did it! i'm shocked! it only took me a whole day! haha. actually, it was a fun trip down memory lane.
~went through ALL of cale's old baby clothes and organized them in tubs labeled with the sizes and the seasons that he wore them. there are now like 8 tubs full. okay, i had MOST of the clothes thrown in tubs already, but they were not organized, and they certaintly were not orderly. now they are, and i'm very excited to have another boy. looking at some of those clothes i'd NEVER believe cale fit into them if i hadn't previously seen pictures...haha!
~de-cluttered our table, counters and bookshelves which was a GIGANTIC feat, let me tell you. you wouldn't think that it would be hard to just do it, but i was having such a hard time getting started. i took the leap though, and it's sooo much more stress-free! (alas, it's an every day battle, but at least now i'm winning!)
~dishes...i do them when they are there. honest! there hasn't been a load backed up in days!
~i painted a little mural of 2 elephants in our baby's room. yes. i've decided to get it ready. there's no point in "waiting" until the perfect time, because i NEED to see some evidence that the room will be filled someday with my chocolate man. i've also taken out cale's old curtains, washed, ironed and hung them up. (that room still needs LOTS of help. it's definitely the room everything gets thrown into.) when we get our referral, the room will be ready!
~FINALLY bought curtains that actually fit the windows in our room, and moved the "too-small" curtains downstairs where they look LOVELY! yes. this is a project i started 1 year ago. it's truely embarressing to look and see the way we've been living. ;)
~bought shower drain hair catchers. yes...another small thing that i've wanted to do for so long! and lets be honest, it's not like they're expensive! less than $2 a peice. saves me SO much time in the shower, because i know my hair will be caught, and saves us $$$ because we shouldn't have to buy drano anymore!!
~made cookies. and TONS of them. now, i haven't necessarily been waiting for any specific time to do this, but because i was inspired by going through old recipes i hadn't seen in awhile, i just got going. i started with a double batch of banana bread, and then went on to the cookies, and i'm having a hard time stopping. i've made chocolate sugar cookies, ginger cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and today, peanut butter cookies. it's INSANE! it's like a cookie world here!! thank goodness for a big freezer.
~re-arranged cale's room to make things fit better. again, something that just came to me as i was planning out where things will go when we get him out of a crib (our goal is by Labor Day - which should be okay because last night he slept in his "big boy bed" until 5am)...motivated by finally organizing the baby's room.
~organized our downstairs closet. that was a hot mess! things were just thrown in there. i can't imagine how i remembered where anything was on a given basis. now it is much better. NOT the best. i would certaintly love some extra cash flow to get some better organization, but for now, it's workable.

how? why? where did you get the time?
well, i'm going to be COMPLETELY honest and tell you why i THINK this all has transpired. i've truly been inspired after going to LIFT camp with Tim (and the teens) this summer. The speakers are always so so wonderful. This year they had a guy who just flat-out, told us how to grow in your spiritual walk with the Lord. I've ALWAYS ALWAYS heard to do it, and i very much wanted to...but i lacked the proper instruction. i think i was spending too much time making myself feel bad for the certain amount of time spent, or passages read, etc. This guy, who i'll now always remember just said that he chose a time during the day, locked himself in his room and spent time with the Lord for at least 1/2 hour. his time was at 9pm. he said to do 5 things in this order:
PRAY, READ, THINK, WRITE, DO.
that's totally do-able, and it made so much sense. it didn't have to be a chapter here, or a book there, but that we were praying to be taught something that day. it could be one verse even!
my time is 2pm, this gives me adequate time to put cale down and "relax" while he falls asleep. at 2, he is usually asleep and it still gives me plenty of time afterwards to do things.
i have to say, i haven't done it every day. if i miss my 2pm appointment, i often times do a 10 or 11pm (same sort of reason).
with that, i've felt like God is really showing me things, when i let him.
it's really sad to say, but i've been WASTING so much time on my email, waiting/hoping for news, and trying to pass the time with stupid things like games on the Xbox or watching shows i had recorded...things that alot of times, i've already seen.
i feel so much more accomplished and encouraged these days! i hope it continues. i know there won't be a lack of things to do. i have an every-day growing list of things i'd love to see done. many of these things need to wait because of finances, but i can do the others until that time.
so...i write this as inspiration. get busy doing something. you'll feel great!