Miscellaneous Weird Thought for the Day

Okay, so I just came upstairs from the basement where I was helping Hubby sort the mountain of boxes in our basement...putting them into rows by category, which quickly became just putting them into rows where the "categories" are now dissipated.  Then had to carry up a small mountain of stuff that never should've been in the basement to begin with, stuff for Goodwill, and stuff for Christmas.  Now a large portion of the mess has been added to our living space which was already so cluttered as to make me depressed.

No, I'm not writing to rant about that - I just wanted to make official a thought that occurred to me.  Taking off my sweaty overshirt and gloves (needed for spider protection), I felt like I should now be able to fit into the clothes in all those "thin" bins down in the basement.  Isn't that odd?  One hour of exertion makes me feel as though I somehow melted off x number of pounds.  Anyone else have that feeling after some minor physical exertion?  Weird.

Then it came to me how similar that line of thought is to when you bump your toe really hard or have some other non-bloody injury and you remove a piece of clothing to look at it and feel actual disappointment that you're NOT bleeding.  Like, I deserve the outward sign of blood to indicate how badly that hurt!  Dang!  Now no one will believe I wasn't just pretending while writhing in pain.

Just wanted to share that with you :)

A new look...followed by laundry and sin ;)

Well, I finally did it!  I took the time to figure out how to change my background and the overall look of my blog.  I'm still not completely happy with it as there are things I want to add and customize, but at least I think it's more readable now...and I love the purple!!!!  Yup, I'm a purple girl...as is our daughter. 

So what else is new?  Well, the other day I was pondering on how housework can be like an examination of conscience.  Am I weird that I think of this stuff?  I guess that's why I love listening to Archbishop Fulton Sheen - he was sooooo good at making spiritual analogies from temporal things.

After showing you pictures of our dresser covered in clothes that I never get around to putting away, I did what I usually do when I get fed up with myself over something...I looked for WHY this is happening.  Why do I not put away the clothes?  Because the drawers are too full and I can't jam anything in there anymore (speaking of the kids' drawers, not ours).  Solution?  Clear out all the stuff that's too small or the wrong season.  Pretty easy, but for some reason it takes weeks of building to get to that moment.  Duh.  It's all fixed now - except for the overflowing basket of kids' clothing on top of Patrick's dresser :)  I'll have to get Hubby to go into the basement and check the bin I want for spiders and bring it up so I can jam it all in, label it and take it back down.  Problem solved; laundry pile is gone.  Whew!

How is that like an examination of conscience?  Well, in the convent (and all Christians should do this - it's a good habit to get into), we were taught to stop looking for the splinter in someone else's eye and deal with the log in our own, basically.  So you literally do this by examining your conscience...how have I sinned today?

The way I recall being taught was to start with looking at your feelings/emotions during the day - which is like me looking at the heap of laundry on the dresser.  From your emotions, you start to assess why you felt that way.  Were you upset?  Why?  Because your pride was hurt?  There's your sin - pride.  Jesus, I'm sorry for my sins of pride; please help me to avoid this sin, etc....okay, I might not word it exactly that way to Him, but you get the idea. 

Deal with overflowing drawers and create more order in the home...and by examining your conscience, your soul....and if you ever read St. Faustina's Diary, you would read of how she worked on one particular sin for a duration of time, counting both victories and falls with regard to that sin.  Isn't that like housework (or perhaps other work as well)?  You find an area where you're having issues and start pecking away at it with baby steps.  If you've ever visited the Flylady, this is just like what she does when she helps you establish a new habit, like shining your sink every night.  It takes practice and patience.  Don't compare yourself to others...just deal with your own spiritual and temporal issues and stop looking to see what everyone else is doing, unless it's something genuinely helpful.  For me, it takes practice just to do that, but I find a lot more peace when I do.

Do I examine my conscience every day?  Nope....but I should.  It really is a good habit to get into.  High five on that?  Yeah....

Oh, the embarrassment of it all....

Okay, so I was reading an article by one of my favorite bloggers (http://crunchycatholicmomma.blogspot.com/) and she has a post about keepin' it real...which I greatly appreciated because I suffer from the same presumptions as her friend...that other moms/bloggers "have it all together."  So I'm responding to her request to share the reality of how my home looks when no one is coming over... 

Now I have to preface this with a few things...  First of all, our home has extreme variances in cleanliness that usually have nothing to do company coming over - it's more of my energy level and mood that affects how the house looks.  You know I'm kinda feelin' down if the house is a disaster.  Second, I'm ONLY showing you the messy parts of the house and the picture of the living room turned out just awful so it's not posted, but for the record, there are toys EVERYWHERE.  Scattered to the four winds, I'm tellin' ya.  Third, these are areas of the house that I struggle with CONSTANTLY.  I swear, if there's a flat surface to be had, it will never be cleared of junk.

...and my biggest confession?  I'm what my mom called "a stasher."  Rather than actually put something where it belongs, I have a serious tendency to stash it in a drawer to get it out of the way so I can clean the surface.  There should be a "stashers anonymous" group for people like me. 

 I have lots of books and sites bookmarked, etc, to try to help me with all of this, but it all boils down to self-discipline, which I lack.  I know what needs to be done, but life gets overwhelming sometimes and I fall off the track.  At this point, I've learned that this is how I am and rather than be constantly obsessing over my faults in this regard, I'm just going to do my best to overcome and keep priorities in order...that's all God cares about.  Him First (that's hard enough, isn't it?), Husband second, children third, other stuff, and myself last...as long as those things are in line, I'm willing to let some of the other stuff slide.

Dining room table after breakfast and a small craft...and mom having some Teddy Grahams with Patrick (can't help it, I love those things!)

Been meaning to get this cleaned up for about 3 weeks now and it just keeps accumulating stuff from other parts of the house...Patrick helps a lot with that part - the toothbrush holder thing came out of the bathroom, courtesy of him ;)

My desk has extreme variances in cleanliness because the stuff just piles up so fast if I don't deal with it IMMEDIATELY!

Miriam's room is a perpetual mess and most of it is usually on her bed or under it.  I rearranged her furniture a bit yesterday and need to tweak it more, but we found all kinds of stuff and Patrick helped with removing all of her clothing from her drawers.  This is totally normal and adds to my resistance in putting clothes away in drawers.  If we had the space I'd do the "big family" thing and just keep it all in the laundry room.  I love that idea...work in progress.

The piles of laundry are now a mess from being gone through.  This was once sorted on our bed and it got so late that we just moved it to my dresser.  This is another constant source of irritation and humiliation for me.  Oh well, maybe it'll make someone else not feel so bad about what they think is messy :)

Finishing off with my most favorite picture in our home.  It depicts so well how Tracy and I feel about each other and is very "Theology of the Body."  I think of this when I'm kissing my husband goodbye in the morning as he heads off to work and I stay here in the safety of "the castle" to tend the home and our children.  He comes home and I hope he feels some welcome relief from "doing battle" out in the world all day :)  I love my husband!!!!