I swore in December of last year that this new year would be better!
Last year sucked royally in so many different ways and I was pretty done with it.
I ended the year laying in bed with the worst flu while my girlies got to ski with GP and I didn't even get to see it :(
BUT since I got sick in 2013 I had decided it didn't count for 2014.
And, knock on wood, so far this year has surprised us with many good things.
Somebody recently asked me "Where are you going from here? What is your goal?" and it took me a long time to answer the question.
I am still not sure if I know the full answer myself but when I closed my eyes I saw this picture of calmness, time, the girls smiling and happy, white and clean space and me sitting in a quiet space crocheting and watching the girls dance while Pat was reading a book.
That doesn't sound like describing a goal or a direction to many but to me that vision is heaven!
No rushing off to school, classes or activities, homework to be done, worries about grades and reading levels, measuring up to the system and class mates, fitting in, eating wholesome, organic foods that are fair traded and humanely raised, home made, clean clothes washed with organic, biodegradable detergent, a chemical free cleaned house, clutter free and always presentable.
Happy dogs that get at least one walk a day, happy cats that get...food, that about sums up what makes my cats happy, happy, egg laying chickens with an impeccable coop, a nice vegetable garden, pesticide free of course, no dog poop on the lawn and flowers blooming everywhere.
The older I get the more I yearn for time to stand still.
Time to sit and relax.
I mean being able to sit down and pick up a book or some wool without having 100 things on my to-do-list that keep me from doing that.
When we go to the cabin or Yosemite I enjoy the art of doing nothing.
It stresses me out if Pat asked me what I want to do in the afternoon.
I just so love the fact that we can do anything without having to do 100 other things first.
It's ok to sit and watch the river, read, just take the dogs for a nice long walk, go hike.
Usually we get a unit with a kitchen so we can feed the girls at all hours of the day. These units have a small amount of dishes, just enough for 4 guests. I love it! There are no dishes piling up. You want a drink you better clean a cup to pour your juice.
We bring one bag of clothing for all four of us. 2 or 3 outfits for each. If it gets dirty we wash it, one load will clean it all.
The girls bring each one bag of toys plus their art materials.
No toys laying around, they play with what they have or better yet, they go outside and find leaves and sticks and play with those.
The easier life is, the less stressful it is.
Its easy to sit down and feel ok doing nothing, reading, writing, when you don't have 100 chores to be done, piles of clothes to wash, dishes to wash, meal cooking, house cleaning...
I rather hide in my bedroom and close my eyes so I don't see all the work and chores that need to be done. When I sleep I don't feel guilty about taking a break but if I sit consciously on the couch I feel like I have a stop watch in front of me, counting down the minutes I am wasting doing nothing.
A few weeks ago we all went to look at some brand new apartments across from Pat's work. The thought of downsizing to a smaller place (actually the place is 1500 square feet) with no yard, no messy garage, maintenance and a year around heated pool was very inviting, to say the least.
They even have a garbage shoot.
We then looked at some brand new town homes.
All these model homes were so spacious and CLEAN! White walls, clean floors (of course, they are model homes).
The price for these places is way, way beyond what we can or even more so want to spent on rent or mortgage but I still wanted to live in a place like that.
After some number crunching we decided it would be absolute insanity to spend so much money on living in a place, any place.
But I still wanted to live like this. So what to do?
So went back to work ... at it again.
Everybody looks at us like we are completely crazy (and maybe we are).
For us its sort of a no-brainer. We want to live in a nice place but can't afford to, so we turn the (for the area reasonably priced) house we rent into a place we love and feel less temporary.
Feel warm, feel at home.
We invest $1000 or a little more and that still is less (combined with our rent) than what we'd spend on the "dream places" we had looked at PER month.
The idea of having a clutter free, clean, white walls, nice floors house with less stuff and more room and time to relax is wonderful.
I want it so badly!
I started right after New Years.
I stacked away the Ls toys. They just have one box out right now (due to their room being reconstructed). They are so happy with this box. They have completely forgotten bout the other 100 toys they have...for the time being at least.
I cleared the closets and "down sized" the quantity of clothes for all of us (we still have too much but it's much better now).
I emptied my kitchen cupboards, took out all mismatched plates (which was all we had), all cups and glasses and donated or trashed it ALL. ALL OF IT!
I spent $40 on a 6 settings dish set. White and simple.
We have six smaller glasses and 6 tall ones, 6 cutlery settings and nothing else.
Ever since I downsized the kitchen it takes me all of 10 minutes to clean up. The dishes are either in the dishwasher or cupboard, there is not enough to stand around anymore.
Now we are on step 2 of the "Improvement Process".
We bought nice wood pergo that was still cheaper than carpet (which we would have had to put in when we leave this place since we ripped out the old, dirty carpet). Re-loving the existing hardwood floor would take A LOT of time, money and patience, none of which I have much left.
This new floor looks very nice and will help with insulation.
The room the Ls slept in (we call it the dungeon since its so dark) will turn into the family closet.
We'll just get wall-to-wall wardrobes and this will needly hide all clothes, jackets and whatever else needs a home.
We'll get some sort of portable guest bed to accommodate guests but it'll be out of the room if nobody is visiting.
The "sunroom", that add-on room that was built with no insulation and is a constant eye sore, even with the new floors we put in, will be turned into the mudroom.
A place to keep our coats, school bags, shoes, ext. The cats have their cat tree in there and the dogs have their food in here. Thats it. No tables or horizontal areas that can get cluttered up.
It'll keep the house free of coats on chairs, keys getting lost in the piles and give this room finally a purpose.
So far we eliminated 3 beds (replaced it with a new trundle bed for the Ls), 2 book shelves, 2 desks, a huge ottoman and I am NOT DONE yet!
I am on my way to the clutter free and (hopefully sometimes) clean dream house.
The walls got new paint (white) and every brushstroke brings me more sense of accomplishment.
I feel like I want to paint myself white :)
Disclaimer, the bed underneath rolls out for sleeping :)
So call us crazy or insane (we are probably both) but it works for us and will make us happy (and help our landlord sell this old shack for a much better price ;)
We just settled on spending a few more years here (as long as our landlord doesn't kick us out or sells the place) so we better make the best out of it.
Pat loves being so close to his work and I love the fact that he can be home in matter of minutes, even if he has to go back later.
We can walk to school and have made quite a number of wonderful friends here in town.
I am happy to announce that I now work at the girls school as a paid art teacher 5 days a week for 3 hours a day, I run an extracurricular art class at another school AND I opened my own little business offering private art classes to elementary kids.
It's all falling into place now.
It took so many years to find my place but right now I feel like I won the lottery with all of these art classes, some extra money that I EARN (I haven't done that in a LONG time) and I still get to be a stay at home mom when the Ls get off school.
All I need is that clean and clutter free house and we'll work very hard on getting this completed ASAP.
And with this new cleaner, clutter free house I hope we'll have more time to sit and do nothing, play, dance, craft :) or just hold our loved ones ...
My girl Ginormica!
She doesn't lay eggs BUT she sure likes it when I hold her an stroke her near <3
So welcome 2014!
Show me all the good things you have in store for us!
I can't wait for it !!!
