Cleaning out

Wow, I have felt behind by about a week since we got Darin last summer. There are always about 5 things that I feel like I should have done, but I have NOT done.
Over the past 2 weeks, this list of things has finally been getting done.

1. The first was cleaning out my laundry room. In a tiny house such as mine (1000 s.f. + 5 people), every inch matters and a messy space = a messy mind. As things piled into the laundry room, I started to feel chaotic and slobbish. Last week, I finally had time to get that mess OUT!
2. Holden has been eying the hand-me-down Sunday School curriculum that my mom graciously brought us from Faith Community church. But, with all the other areas of Basilica to organize, I never seem to be ready for the kids on Sunday night. Finally, last week, I was able to get all the lessons sorted, make a plan for how to utilize what we were given to teach my little ones (1,3,5 yrs) and Charity (7 yrs). It was really exciting to count backwards from Christmas to do lessons that will lead right into the miraculous birth of our Savior! I told Holden all day Sunday that we would be learning about Joseph - he remembered and drug me out of the service to start his lesson. It is great to have a hungry mind to feed.
   
3. Then, yesterday, Joel and I spent the WHOLE day cleaning out our garage. That place had become the overflow capital of the world. It has 700 s.f., so it can be a huge asset. But it had become HORRIBLY dirty and full of waste. I did it "Clean Sweep" style, pulling everything out into the yard, then only reloading the garage with things that should be out there.
   

• Now my next step of progress with be to tackle the photo bag with all my memories of the past 3 years of Holden and Arabella, and last year of Darin. I am supposed to keep a "Lifebook" for Darin, so he has more in an album than Holden - a point of guilt for me. I don't want to give Holden any reason for "middle kid angst". So, hopefully, I will get organized and start working on a photo album for at least his first year or two.

It makes me feel kinda OCD to worry about all these details so much. But I don't want to end up with a box of memories that I can't look at, a house I am embarassed to entertain in, and a life to cluttered to be useful. Just who I am, I guess.