Still here....

Hello...Hello...testing... yep!  The blog still works- ;)

So yes, I took the month of June off from blogging; not creating; just blogging.  I'll be sharing some of what I've been working on in the next few days.

So what have I been busy with?  Well, I honestly don't know how I held together from February to May.  Between track meets, and lacrosse, between my daughter graduating, decided where she wanted to go to college, and all the social functions.  I maybe held it together by being consistent in the things that were important to me:

*my morning daily devotionals; getting up early and reading my scriptures, praying and pondering

*daily exercise

*weekly adult religion class called Institute.

*weekly attending the Gilbert Temple.

*taking pictures with my phone to later journal about in my Project Life.

*I also found time (a minute or two here and there) to create.  To make cards and layouts.

Those things helped me keep my sanity and enjoy the crazy, busy journey of the last few months. Now that I have had time to sort of catch my breath I've been inspired to change a few things to help with my organizing.  I am still doing these things I mentioned above minus the Institute class (we have a summer break).

1. The one thing that has been MAJOR for me is meal planning.  I know it's not something new or anything, but it was new to me.  I was trying to figure out how I could make fixing dinner less of a drudgery.  I won't go into full detail here just yet, but I will be sharing what I've found.  I'm actually pretty excited about it.

2. I've been majorly cleaning stuff out.  Seriously, why is it when you intend to put something away, stuff gets piled on it and then that something becomes part of a permanent fixture?  Exhibit A:

(two broken dressers, an old warn out bed, 3 full bags of too small clothes & extra top sheets, a worn out comforter, and a bed frame.)

Some was thrown away but the majority was donated to the Goodwill.  Felt good to CLEAN OUT and CLEAN UP places that have been needing to be done for ages, I just haven't had the time or the desire to do so!  Thankfully it's summer and my kids were home to not only help me but take ownership of the cleaning-helping them to understand.  It's sort of a pain to clean up, so let's put stuff away!  They are normal kids, they still stack stuff but when I ask them to pick their stuff up--to me there seems to be less complaining...

3. Giving myself TIME.  Huh?  I decided to challenge myself, how much can I get done in 10 minutes?  I've set the timer on my phone and have been surprised at what I can get done!  Examples include: practicing the piano (I'm not that good, so don't be too impressed), unloading and partially loading the dishwasher, reading/listening to a book, organized underneath my bathroom sink: surfed instagram/twitter, sat and was still... It's crazy how much you can accomplish if you want too!  Side note: once my time is up I get up and walk away from what I was doing and do something else.  It's important to let yourself be okay with that!

4. Take time to enjoy the now.  How does that affect my organizing?!  Being okay with what gets done and doesn't get done.  Some moments you can't relive again, some moments if not enjoyed will make you fill regret (who likes how that feels? I DO NOT.)  Let me give you and example:

The tooth I named Billy Bob.  My baby boy (who is 5'8"-160 lbs.) had this last baby tooth just hanging on.  The orthodontist said the adult tooth would push the baby tooth out so not to worry. And then he put the braces on.  He said not to worry so I didn't.  Incidentally my son had been working on this tooth for a month BEFORE they put the braces on.  So almost a month later the tooth is there, I decided to give it a name, Billy Bob.  It was exhausting having to daily remind him to work on the tooth.  So instead of are you wiggling that tooth?  I would ask, "How is Billy Bob?"  He didn't want me saying that in public so he would get to work on it pushing.  Until last week, he heard a pop.  He went into the bathroom, the wire had broken and the tooth was now not only still attached but between two wires.  We went to the dentist the next day and after about 10 minutes they were able to pull the tooth which had a NARLY long root on it so it wouldn't come out!  My son and I laughed about it and he said, "I'm SO glad I don't have to worry about it anymore."  When I told the dentist and the hygienist that I named it they sort of laughed and made sure that we got a little treasure box for Billy Bob.

Alright I'm going to wrap this up now, thanks for your patience if you sat and read all of this!  Like I said I'll be posting more of my creative items in the next few days as well as some of my organizing tips in more detail.