Seeking To Simplify {Don't Give Up!}

  As we go through clutter in our homes - some days in can be lots of fun and we make great progress and other days can be discouraging.

  There are days that come up where we think we are going to have time to work on a big project so we pull everything out of the closet and get started working and then interruptions happen. Perhaps your kids need more help with their school work than you thought they would, a friend stops by, somebody calls and alerts you to something else that needs done right now, you get a headache, etc. So there the pile sits and its looks worse than it did before you started cleaning. I understand. That has happened to me many times. Also sometimes I just think I can do a lot more than I can in a day. I expect everything to go super smoothly when in reality things went a little roughly instead.

  There are also days that are just super busy and you struggle to just maintain the order you have. Or days that you get sick or the kids get sick and need a lot of attention. Things happen.

   When we have hit a rough patch when it comes to our goal of getting organized and getting rid of clutter (or even losing weight, eating healthy foods, memorizing scripture, whatever your goal may be) we may be tempted to just give up on it all together. I am writing today to encourage you not to give up!

  In January I spent several days of being sick. I didn't get a lot done on those days to help with decluttering and it was a little bit discouraging to feel like I might be losing momentum and getting off track. But as long as we don't give up we will still make progress but if we just give it up WE WON'T. This seems pretty obvious but when we are discouraged sometimes we miss the obvious.

  So today I just wanted to encourage all of you to keep pressing on. Even if there are setbacks on the goals you have set - don't give up! (Unless you have decided that God is leading you to realize that wasn't a good or necessary goal to make).

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  This past week went pretty well for my simplifying goals. I didn't manage to clean out my e-mail every single day as I had a very busy Friday with a wedding to prepare for and we left to go out of town for a robotics tournament that evening and Saturday. So not all went perfectly but I am back to having it cleaned out now. I did get the picture files gone through that I wanted too. I am making good progress at getting that organized on my computer and that is exciting.

   I did also manage to go through an area every day Mon-Friday (on days I am going to be extra busy I will do an extra area on an earlier day for that day). I managed to get rid of 61 items. Yeah! I still did not get around to selling anything. That goal isn't going so well.

   As I work at wearing all my clothes I am really thinking about how something feels and how I feel in it when I wear it. For instance I got rid of a shirt yesterday because after wearing it I realized that I don't like tugging on it all the time to try to get it to tuck in better or be long enough. I have a long torso and that is not going to change - nor do I think that shirt is going to get longer. I supposed it is possible that I might start wearing bottoms that are higher waisted at some point but that is not happening right away so out went that shirt.

   I am having fun working at reading through all of our books. I have learned a lot in the book I am reading about Reagan and Communism. I had fun laughing and crying through "The Family Nobody Wanted". Just now I have been having fun reading "No Greater Joy" Volume 3. I love the reminder to live more joyfully especially in relationship with my children and to really work at deepening the bonds that tie us together. To really have fun with them.

  How are your goals going?  Do you need to get started again and not give up?