Happy New Year Tomorrow

In preparation for tomorrow and a fresh start on a tumultuous year, I have ordered and received the above book. After a few returns to momagenda.com, in search of the perfect organization system, I have concluded that the best system for me is the one I create all on my own. I have hooked up with a few blog/sites such as Simple Mom , The Organized Parent, and List Plan It, and hope to have my world in order by the end of January, if not sooner! Today (New Year's Eve) begins with unloading the play room and kids' rooms with a ruthless vengeance not seen around here for years (or the last time I got on a purge kick!) which will carry over to the sleeping hours when my innocent children are not around to tell me they can't live without the item they haven't touched in years.

My previous OCD kick with getting organized lasted for a few weeks, and although was great in concept, became over ruled by a combination of old habits, life events and lack of a total system (ie: having other partners in the house contributing to the system!) That being said, we're starting the new years with some new habits. And since DH is now home for minimum of 6 months to share the house with me, I'm on an even bigger mission to get things sorted out and him trained from the get go. We sent off the last of the Xmas visitors this morning, have the last load of laundry in the dryer and are about to tackle the "toys". Wish me luck while I attempt to clean out a LOT of stuff.

This afternoon, rather than my old way of wandering through the Container Store looking for a system to pop out at me, I'm going to spend the time to read through my book, spend this week making the purges then making a list of items I need to complete the task of TOTAL organization, and training the troops to help out. Rather than New Year's Resolutions, we are simply starting fresh - tomorrow - hopefully without a hangover :)

Time for a new perspective

We have been trying to find a book lately for Darien to get inspired about. Magic Tree House has come and gone, the Disney fairy series was last year, and Junie B Jones (thank goodness) was a one afternoon wonder. Even the American Girl series books kept her in the moment, but she wasn't so inspired to read them on her own. I finally convinced her to listen to me read her the first chapter of this one, a book I had bought at the book fair months ago - and alas - we have a hit.

I think the draw for Darien is that she swims like a fish herself, and often refers to herself as a mermaid. This tale starts out with a girl entering water for the first time and feeling her legs start to fuse together. D fills with anticipation with each few paragraphs and seems to have finally clicked with something - perhaps the hope that she is secretly a mermaid as well.

The reason I'm thinking about this so much right now, aside from her jumping in to my bed this morning to tell me that Emily had met another mermaid last night after I left, is that we are facing some big changes here as well. Similar to the character Emily in D's new book, the house hold/marriage is about to under go a metamorphosis. Unsure of what these new changes will mean for our family, I'm feeling a little like Emily: apprehensive and excited all at once. When my husband looked at me last night and commented that I "didn't look too sure" about things, I later tried to explain where the roots of my apprehension may be sprouting from, only to fall in to the familiar trap of defensiveness/fix it rather than acknowledgement. He was looking for me to be in the next chapter already, having embraced all the change himself, while I was, for the moment, feeling a little more unsure of what might be happening to my "legs" . . . . I'm going from being a land walker to a tail flapper having my workaholic husband join me full time and although very excited about the new things out there to discover about my husband and my relationship, still processing the transition phase before swimming off in to the deep blue sea. In the meantime, I'll enjoy hearing my sweet girls excitement as she get's lost in the imaginary world she is discovering in literature.

Norman Rockwell moment - or is it?

The traditional turkey dinner. Fancy table, fancy clothes, fancy food . . . it really was a wonderful day. I am so thankful for all the gifts of life bestowed upon me. I am blessed. And then this morning arrived. The kids argued. They fought. They ignored. Refusals. Hitting. Backtalk. How do things shift so quickly? A few days and blissful moment is transformed to lunatic mother (and no, I don't look that amazing when I'm pulling my hair out and screaming!). Maybe it is too much to ask given all my blessings, that my kids just do what I ask without reducing me to a bundle of tears hiding behind closed doors over something as simple as trying to get out the door to school in the morning. Maybe it is just hormones. It is a thankless job, sometimes, even when we are ultimately thankful for the honor!