March Madness

Prep house - done
Sell house - done
Mark like crazy - working on it
Report Cards - due at the end of the month (I've never done e-school report cards before...eeek!)
Prep kids' clothes for clothing sale - 6 tubs done/6 more to go (crazy how much work this is)
Sell clothes at sale - end of the month
Paint kids' rooms and closets at the Someday House - get a good chunk of it done tomorrow and maybe go back next weekend


Yikes - I feel like this month came in like a lion. By the looks of things, it's going to keep me going hard. Good thing I'm feeling better!

A Matter of Space

We have the kind of basement that would cause nightmares for small children. There are spider webs, a noisy furnace, and light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. As an adult, I think it's pretty handy. It's a clean, somewhat organized storage area. That's close to 1100 square feet of storage. My Dad made these nifty storage shelves that are awesome and hold a lot of totes. I've been storing A LOT of stuff. There's the stuff that we got for our wedding that I'm still not so sure about but, couldn't regift and couldn't figure out where to return it. There's the regular stuff that a person stores. There's a collection of childhood stuff that both Trevor and I have. There's our seasonal clothes and my fancy dresses. There are at least 11 totes of kids' clothes/shoes/jackets/Halloween costumes. I don't even want to talk about the entire section of our basement dedicated to the plethora of paper, books and precious binders that is my teaching stuff. Lastly, there is this pile of baby gear.
With our upcoming move, I've decided we need to downsize. I don't need to invest time or money hauling unused stuff from one basement to another.
I'm selling the baby gear.
Gulp.
No more babies?
Maybe two is just right for us.
I'm also throwing out the boxes marked "internship". I haven't opened them since my first year of teaching and that was 10 years ago.
I'm also taking some large trips to our local Salvation Army.
I refuse to move some of this stuff. I need to see it go. I have 5 replies already to my ads on the local used stuff website.
It's a matter of space.

2012 - Goals

After some reflection on last year's goals, I have decided that it was a worthy activity for me. No lofty resolutions. No pressure to totally change. Just a few simple things to work towards.

1. Pack, purge, re-organize. The "Big Move" will help with this. It's maintenance I'm looking for!

2. Continue cloth diapering the babies and potty train the Schmoo. It's Battle of the Wills time. (If I'm really lucky, Claire will just follow suit!)

3. Crock pot cook more. It's so sweet to come home to a yummy supper!

4. Be more social. Sigh - I'm such a homebody. I need to go out with my staff at least once before June. I need to see my girlfriends without any of our kids. I need to choose to leave the comfort of my couch in the evening.

5. Get out with just Trevor more. I'm hoping that with slightly older kids, we may feel more comfortable leaving them with teenage baby-sitters. Aiming for some cool concerts!

6. Find as many free (or nearly free) local "adventures" to do with the kids.

7. Continue sewing little projects. I have an advent project in mind for next Christmas. It's my goal to get it done.

8. Resist the urge to buy more and more and more. (One thing I worry about with our new home is that we'll want to buy new everything when, we really don't need to. I'd like to wait a little while before we add to our new space.)

9. Pre-school for Simon. The area we're moving to has a fabulous pre-school that I'm super excited about. I also want to supplement that with some of my own teaching.

10. Be purposeful in inviting people to my home. I often panic about a messy house, not the right snacks or unruly kids. I need to stop being Martha and be more of a Mary!

I'm curious to see how 2012 will shape our lives.
What are your goals?