All Things Are Possible

"It always seems impossible until it's done." ~Nelson Mandela.  This quote has just become my favorite of all time.

In September I gave birth to my second dear daughter, Ky-Ky.  While I was pregnant woman, I was nervous.  Would I be able to juggle life with a new baby and a 5 year old?  Would my homemaker duties suffer?  Would my oldest think I don't love her enough with a new baby stealing so much attention?  Would I be overwhelmed and curl into a fetal position and hide in the closet watching eagles?  (Name the movie! Video at the bottom if you give up!) 

I must admit, I think having two children has helped.  I feel more focused.  My days are spent with my dollies, my house is cleaner, we eat more dinners at home, heck we do preschool on a regular basis!  When I posted this on my mom's group on Facebook (Are you part of one of these? OMG They are my GIRLS man!  I love seeing their posts and there are days where everyone just needs to vent and these ladies get me!) some of the ladies asked for tips - so here you go.  

What's changed:

1) Humility.  I was on bedrest for almost 4 months.  During that time I had to humble myself and ask for help.  I'm not supermom, never have been, but asking for help allowed me to...

2) Balance.  My cousin-in-law whom I love dearly came over on a daily basis and whipped my house into shape.  Now I don't know if its because she's worked hospitality at some major hotels, or if she has a certain level of OCD (Love you sweetie!) or what, but I have never had my house be and stay as clean as that.  She was at our house for only a few hours a day, and most of that was spent with me and my first daughter, not cleaning-cuz it was done!  She'd done it!  I watched her balance and learned quite a bit.  And I realized that I have never been able to find that balance myself.  Now I love my mom and my MIL who have both helped me out, and I learned how to clean from my mom, but for some reason seeing Ari do it I learned it.  

3) Accountability.  I gave myself too much slack.  I used to always whine about how awful I was for not doing stuff...instead of doing it (makes sense right?)  Now if I catch myself thinking "wow I'm such a slacker." I make sure to stop slacking and set myself a mini goal.  I hold myself to an end goal and its made me happier.  

4) Happiness.  I didn't realize that I could be happy without a lot of down time.  This too came from my 4 months of bedrest.  There is a LOT of time for self-reflection when you can't do anything!  I always thought I was happiest when I was playing video games or watching TV or out shopping and going to festivals.  But I have realized that I can be just as happy by taking pride in what I own, by organizing the house and keeping it clean, by playing with my dollies and watching a Disney movie. 

5) Acceptance.  Allowing myself to say enough is enough.  I have always berated myself, I've never been "enough".  For some reason this aforementioned movie struck home and made it 100% clear to me, maybe it was because I felt so like Ally so much of the time.  This scene is incredible, whether you believe in God or not, and sums up much of what I have been trying to live by recently. 

6) Inspiration.  Dozens of things have inspired me, my two dollies do, absolutely.  My husband, my cousin, my parent's, my in-laws.  Media too: Mom's Night Out, a book called "The Gabriel Method" which oddly enough is about weight loss but has inspired me in hundreds of other ways, The 5 Love Languages...

In the end...well there is no end.  That's something I continually am trying to accept.  Every day is a journey.  Some days I'm awesome at following these changes in my life, and some days I find myself regressing.  But I'm changing.  I'm learning and accepting myself.  So if you're planning on making a long, or at least grueling, New Year's resolution, remember that "It always seems impossible until it's done."

~~~~~

The movie:  Mom's Night Out

Cute And Girlie Closet

When we bought our house I was certain we'd have PLENTY of storage space, we'd never even start using the 2 walk in closets, the 2 "storage" closets, the guest room closet, the garage.  Four years later and I've become frankly overwhelmed with the massive quantities of things we have in our house.

So I decided in my quest to "conquer clutter" that I would hit up She-she's closet, since hers was the worst of all of them, stacked with things that really didn't allow me to use them.

I started by ripping everything out - I gutted it, removed all clothing, pulled all shelves, all "extra's" (As an artist she'd gotten a lot of my "supplies") then I went about sorting and trashing and organizing.

First I followed "The Saved Quarter's Blog by Penny Saver" tips when she discussed picking up kids clothes for next to nothing.  I organized She-she's clothes out into what we had - though I need to go through it again as this was almost a year ago when I went through everything.

I wanted her to have ample room in her closet for her clothing, since it was the only place I wanted her clothing.  Then I chose a color scheme.

Since my daughter is a very girlie-girl, (And I had several of the "totes" already) I chose pink and black.

After putting away all of her clothing I sorted Arts and Crafts, DVD's (She has many little videos for "nap/quiet" time) And blankets.  I also needed a permanent place for my scrap-booking supplies.

By following the simple color scheme the closet ended up having a cohesive look despite the fact that there was still a lot of different types of things in there.  You'll likely note the car-seat base, and possibly the luggage in the back corner beside her dresser.  The pink totes I picked up at Target in their $1 section.  I then took an old diaper box and wrapped it with the black and silver paper I had left over from a wedding.  The other pink totes were given to me from my mom and MIL while I was in the hospital with She-she.

Simple and cheap we were able to have access to her clothing and toys and my craft supplies at any point.