Reorganizing Reflections

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers; the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. - 'The Wonder Years', Television Series.

So this past weekend I took extended time off from work (Thursday & Friday) and decided to get a few things accomplished around my much neglected little house.  I had decided it was necessary to take our little Lukas to his normal sitter both Thursday and Friday so I could stay focused on the task at hand and get busy.

To say my house has been depressed and neglected as of late would be an understatement.  Oh don't worry, it's not like I have our kids living in horrible conditions that social services needs to be called or anything, but our basement had turned into a dumping grounds basically for "stuff".  If we were cleaning the upstairs area and weren't sure where something went, yep, it went down into the basement and ended up either on our air hockey table, our ping pong table, or in the playroom.  Broken down boxes were strewn all over the place and there was just no organization whatsoever.

I'll admit I'm not the neatest person in the world to begin with and and definitely not a perfectionist when it comes to the cleanliness of my home.  I always figure there are more important things in life to stress over and nobody ever visits our home anyway so what's the point.  But even the disarray was starting to get to me and these days off of work to clean and reorganize were a definite requirement from where I was coming from.

I couldn't have asked for better days.  The fall weather was gorgeous!  The sun was shining both days and the air was warm, felt kind of like summer really.  I had all the windows and doors open, Partylite candles burning in two rooms, Lucy (our dog) was home with me all day keeping me company but not getting in the way and it was great!  It is amazing to me how much one can get done when there isn't anybody around to interupt you.  I also LOVE the fact that I can toss out so much more stuff when nobody is around.  Seriously, I think my kids would keep everything possible if they saw it while I was going through things.  I still have three huge garbage bags in our basement full of stuffed animals they refuse to let me toss out, not sure how we even accumulated that many in the first place?!

I felt great when Friday came around and I could make a trip to the West Bend Goodwill store with a truck load of numerous items that some other family could use.  Kids puzzles, games, old cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CDs, clothes, shoes, etc.  And what a feeling to have so much less clutter in my house.  I am definitely not a pack rat!  If I haven't used it for a while and it's obviously just taking up space it is outta here, unless it has some sort of sentimental value to me.

For example, while cleaning the basement, part of my reorganizing was to go through all of my totes and relabel and consolidate them if I could so I would have less crap in the one room.  While doing this I came across a tote full of little girl dresses.  Awww!!!!  This tote is full of some of the sweetest and beautiful dresses my now 13 year old daughter wore when she was small and still appreciated her Mommy.

The dress she wore to her Auntie Cheryl's wedding.

The dress she wore for her Easter pictures one year.

Just an adorable dress I bought for her "because I felt like it!"

For all of you wondering, no I am not having anymore children and these will never be worn again by any of my own, but I have been saving them downstairs in case my nephew Derek and his wife ever have a little girl in the future, they will then have ownership of all of them.  It was important to me, being that they do hold a special meaning to me, that somebody who is near and dear to my heart receives them to use.  They hold so many memories for me, every single one of them, of first time motherhood, being able to dress the first and only granddaughter in my family, and places we went, Samantha sitting in front of me on the floor so I could do her hair.  So many special moments I'll never get back, ever again.

Amongst the disarray in our house were also totes full of the kid's various school projects and drawings over the years.  Oh I know, these are just pieces of paper to some person but to me they remind me of a time when there was still an innocence to my older two children.  A time when they were changing every single day and soaking in every single experience they could and learning from it.  When they could still be "kids" and there wasn't quite so much pressure put on them regarding homework and getting good grades and all that stuff.  When the love they had for me wasn't questioned and you just "knew" they counted on you and needed you, like Luke does now.

A picture Zach drew.

The front cover of a book Sam made.

A self portrait Zach made.  This actually reminds of my Dad a little.

Another picture Sam made.  Note how she spelled Zachary and that I am much larger than everybody else?!

I have been struggling here and there on occasion with how fast life is going.  More so with Samantha than anybody and before I know it she will be gone and off to college and I'll be hoping and praying every single day that she is wise enough and strong enough as a person to make the right decisions and to not have her heart broken too many times.  That she continues to treat people with respect, but at the same time respects herself enough to not get into a bad situation.  Oh man, I think over the next few years I am going to have to dye my hair A LOT to hide all the grey ones poking through.  I don't look forward to the next few years with her at all.

So, part of my cleaning spree this past week was packing away Sam's dolls, they now have two totes of their own that she plans to take with her in the future.  The porcelain dolls she collected, all of her Polly Pockets, her Barbies and her Bratz dolls.  All in such good condition and ready to hopefully be used for her own children someday.  Bittersweet to say the least but understandable.  Lord knows she has "moved on" as she would say.