Hi guys! How's it going?
You may not have noticed, but I took last month off, blogging-wise. I'd hit a point where I felt compelled to capture, document, remember, tip-ify every moment I encountered, and honestly, it took a little of the spontaneous joy out of being a newlywed.
So, I decided to let it go for a month. To focus instead on just being with my husband, learning our new city, making new friends. It was actually really nice.
Now, that's not to say that I didn't still take tons of pictures and make all sorts of fantastic memories. In way of a brief recap, we:
Not bad for the shortest month in the year, right?
And then, in the blink of an eye, it's March (the weather doesn't know it, but it is). We're gearing up for a productive month around here, starting with this: 40 Bags in 40 Days.
It's a forty day period (coinciding with the 40 days of Lent) where you focus on cleaning one area per day (junk drawers, file cabinets, closets...the garage piled to the celing with moving boxes). In this one area you challenge yourself to declutter, simplify, decrapify, and get rid of things you don’t need. The goal is one bag a day but you can have more or less.
Most of us can understand the soul-crushing guilt that comes with having to move and realizing just how much crap you're carrying around. I look at all the stuff in my life and feel burdened, heavy, slow, and cluttered. It's not happy. It's not what I want. So why do I have it?
Honestly? Because it's somehow easier to just keep it shoved away under a bed or in a box than to get rid of it.
Why is that? I know there's some apathy and lethargy to blame, but a lot of it is that I honestly don't know where to start. I get overwhelmed every time I try. So I've almost given up.
But then, my friend Nicky posted a link to Ann Marie's blog, and I thought: "Hey, I can do THAT." So, I'm going to try it.
One day at a time. One spot at a time. One bag at a time. 40 days, 40 bags. 40 small steps to a home that feels clean, light, and free.
We start tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
You may not have noticed, but I took last month off, blogging-wise. I'd hit a point where I felt compelled to capture, document, remember, tip-ify every moment I encountered, and honestly, it took a little of the spontaneous joy out of being a newlywed.
So, I decided to let it go for a month. To focus instead on just being with my husband, learning our new city, making new friends. It was actually really nice.
Now, that's not to say that I didn't still take tons of pictures and make all sorts of fantastic memories. In way of a brief recap, we:
- got lots of snow
- puppy-sat for some friends
- found a new church
- saw lots of movies
- tried out new restaurants
- took like a thousand "What [anything you can think of] are you?" quizzes
- had our first married Valentine's Day
- drove to Memphis for a weekend to see Wicked and spend time with the family
- spent a week apart while I did my once/month stint in NWA with work
- moved all of my stuff (...again), this time to a storage unit down the street
- ate Girl Scout cookies
- celebrated National Margarita Day
- fell in love with all sorts of houses
- re-resolved ourselves to be content with where we are right now
Not bad for the shortest month in the year, right?
And then, in the blink of an eye, it's March (the weather doesn't know it, but it is). We're gearing up for a productive month around here, starting with this: 40 Bags in 40 Days.
It's a forty day period (coinciding with the 40 days of Lent) where you focus on cleaning one area per day (junk drawers, file cabinets, closets...the garage piled to the celing with moving boxes). In this one area you challenge yourself to declutter, simplify, decrapify, and get rid of things you don’t need. The goal is one bag a day but you can have more or less.
Most of us can understand the soul-crushing guilt that comes with having to move and realizing just how much crap you're carrying around. I look at all the stuff in my life and feel burdened, heavy, slow, and cluttered. It's not happy. It's not what I want. So why do I have it?
Honestly? Because it's somehow easier to just keep it shoved away under a bed or in a box than to get rid of it.
Why is that? I know there's some apathy and lethargy to blame, but a lot of it is that I honestly don't know where to start. I get overwhelmed every time I try. So I've almost given up.
But then, my friend Nicky posted a link to Ann Marie's blog, and I thought: "Hey, I can do THAT." So, I'm going to try it.
One day at a time. One spot at a time. One bag at a time. 40 days, 40 bags. 40 small steps to a home that feels clean, light, and free.
We start tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
Excellent plan!
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