Tuesday, February 3rd, Day of Rest

Total Illness Count Since January:

Daisy: 2 colds, 1 strep throat, 1 ER visit for ovarian cyst
JTS: 2 colds
Lil' D: 2  colds, 2 ear infections, 1 possible pink eye

Needless to say my New Year's goals went kaput real fast. As usual, I probably aimed for too much too fast and once the current state of illness hit my house everything derailed. I am still reading Artist's Way but after trying to restart Week 4 four times, I realized things aren't necessarily going to go my way. My other goals included : writing weekly or monthly thank you notes to random people, writing on my blog more (ha!), finishing Lil' D's baby book, and finishing a quilt.

So there is that.

I started the New Year reading three books about changing your life. Artist's Way (see aforementioned stall), Loving Yourself to Great Health (stalled), and The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (finished clothes). Yeah, probably too much to tackle all at once.

I've always been pretty lazy and/or a procrastinator with high hopes but once Lil' D hit the scene I suddenly realized how quickly mess accumulates or meals devolve into boxed food or the money evaporates if you don't stay on top of things EVERY. DAY. So I've been running myself ragged meal planning and budgeting and cleaning (whilst working and taking care of Lil' D) so that things don't get out of hand.

But they always do.

Do you spiral into a depression circle when that happens? I do. I feel like a failure. So I think all this illness is the universe forcing me to take a breath and slow down some. It's hard to rest when you have a 21 month old and you are trying to save money. SO MUCH TO DO.

Anyway. Deep breath. I was reminded the other day to be thankful no matter what but it's been a big struggle to figure out the thanks in here.

I'm pretty sure my only accomplishment for the month of January was to declutter my clothes. If you haven't read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up I highly recommend it (and I talked about it here). I pulled out every item of clothing I own and touched it all to see if it "sparked joy" (per instruction) and then I got rid of most of everything. I had to hang on to some things that I wouldn't necessarily say spark joy just so I would have some clothes to wear! I don't know when I will rebuild my wardrobe but it's definitely going to be slow and involve a lot more heart. I even folded all my clothes "standing up" and organized my closet rising left to right. I have to say it's a lot more pleasing (and I realized I don't really like pants).

Here are some very dark pictures from my clothes decluttering journey:


Before (starting late at night):

After (One sample drawer - note the empty space where I used to own clothes):