Woo! It's Friday again. Ok, I don't know why I'm excited because Friday is really a lot like any other day to me, but I guess I'll be excited for the rest of you. This is going to be just a quick post because I have a busy day ahead of me.

I'm finishing something important today. I'm headed out to Hastings to get a front end alignment and oil change done on the van. This will finish up the latest round of van repairs. I would love to say it's going to end them, but I know better and I wouldn't lie to all of you.

Once I'm done at the mechanic there, I'm going to drive into Ionia. Yep, I know they're nowhere near each other, but sadly the Walmart in Hastings doesn't have the bookshelves I want to pick up. I found some decent ones for a good price and I'm excited to be getting these. I'm going to be putting one in "The Wall" and one (or two) upstairs on the landing. If all goes well, I'll finally be able to get all my books plus some other items put away. Yay!

So, that's what I'm finishing today. If all goes well, I'll be home early enough to write up a couple of posts that are churning around in my head.

It's early on Thursday and I'm happy that I'm on top of remembering to get this posted. As always, I have a list of things I'd like to get done today. I have two "big" ones. I want to email the Dell customer advocate and continue that saga. I'm waiting for the final conclusion before I write up this drama, but I will write it up. Hopefully for Dell and for me, it has a happy ending.

The other thing is my bathroom. It has this horrid plastic bathtub. I swear I don't know why anyone would install one of these in their homes. Then again, the same people also installed carpet in the bathroom and the kitchen. Anyway, this horrible plastic bathtub was stained and dirty looking when we moved in back in June. It's still stained and dirty looking. I'm going to try another cleaner on it today and see where that gets me.

Of course, there is also the time I'm going to take for myself. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do. I've considered doing some crafting because I still have projects to make for Crop Chocolate. Of course, there's also my Wreck This Journal. I've been twitching to play more with that now that I have the numbers all in. Ok, I think it's pretty clear that you'll find me in "The Wall" (the kids voted we keep calling it that) this afternoon for some fun time for me!

How about all of you? What will you be doing? I can't wait to see!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of wellnessdaily.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

I keep telling myself that I need to start eating better and taking better care of myself. I think I've probably used every excuse as to why I haven't done it. It's no fun cooking healthy just for myself. It's so much easier to eat and prepare the junk. I'll start doing my yoga dvd once I have this room clean or that room clean. I have this great new water bottle and I'm still not drinking enough water. I think what I really need is an accountability partner in this. My other big problem is that sometimes there is so much confusing information out there.

Enter www.wellnessdaily.com. It is this great site with tons of information on it. I've barely started to explore it and I'm planning on registering and checking further into it. Just by glancing at their front page, I saw articles on: eating right, losing weight, staying fit and finding life balance. They also have healthy recipes and videos.

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Ahh...midweek. Isn't it amazing how fast time seems to fly by these days? Isn't it amazing how cats will find the one thing you want them to stay out of and get into it? Ok, I'm mostly just talking about my cats right now and actually they're not being bad. I have a huge stack of boxes in the kitchen and they keep knocking it over. I can't take it out to the barn until the snow melts because the door slides open and the ground is swollen with the cold and it's nearly impossible to get that door open. So, I stack them, the cats knock them over and I stack them again. It will be an ongoing cycle until the big thaw happens here.

So, did everyone have a good Tuesday? I had a pretty good one after I nearly killed myself with that trash can. It was frozen to the ground! Then, I had to haul it through a foot of snow. No, Jim, I did not shovel it. There was nowhere to shovel it to. Ahh well, it's done now and my trash can is now happily empty waiting for me to refill it.

I also found my Wreck This Journal (warning, the site kinda sucks but the book itself is great!) yesterday and spent some time going through and numbering all the pages. I had started this last Spring with some chipboard numbers. Well, some of them had fallen out so I fixed that problem. Then, I used some buttons to replace some missing 0's and 8's. Then, I dug out all my number stickers and got to work on the remaining pages. Did I mention that you end up numbering something like 185 pages? Do you know how many 1's that is? Well, I ran out. Not a big surprise, huh? So then, I vastly amused Justin by cutting 1's out of the packaging the stickers were in. I discovered that most barcodes have them in them, which was handy. It was fun and mindless...too mindless. Just as I was down to the last 20 or so pages, I discovered I had missed 2 pages back between 92 and 93. Ugh! Those of you who know me know just how much that messes with my ocdness. I ended up going back and numbering them 92b and 92c..lol!

Now, I ought to get on with today, huh? Today's post is a two picture post. The theme over at Sunday Shutterbugs is Earth. That's such a great one for E. Of course, both girls have incredible photos. I'm so envious of their photos every week! I actually took both of these shots today, so here we go:


This is the neighbor's driveway. Instead of shoveling or anything, they just power their way out with their truck and these muddy ruts are the results. Every time I see it, I think about how so many people abuse the Earth instead of nurturing it and the more they abuse it, the more it's going to bite back. For example, the more they abuse this driveway, the harder it's going to be for them to just power their way out of it.

If you turn around, this is the view on the edge of my driveway. We have a big old walnut (I think) tree sitting just at the edge of our driveway. The snow surrounding it is partially what was there and partially what I had to shovel out of my driveway. Our entire street is tree lined with different types of trees and I'm going to make it my goal this spring/summer to take care of this one. I really do believe that if we take care of the Earth, it will take care of us. I'm going to start with my little corner here, even if it's just on loan until I can find the money to buy it.

It's Tuesday but so feels like a Monday. I'm always a little bit thrown off when the boys are here for a four day weekend. Of course, I wouldn't trade those extra days with them for anything. I love having them here with me and I love the boys that they're turning out to be. I've worried sometimes if my absence while I finished my degree didn't harm them, but it seems that they're doing just fine. Granted, it's not as if they never, ever saw or heard from me for those two years.

Anyway, I want to keep this post kinda short because I want to go do my tackle before I "forget" and don't do it. What would be so dasterdly, you ask? Well, I need to haul our outside trash can to the curb. Yes, the snow is melting slowly and yes, I did shovel the driveway, but I didn't shovel up to where the trash can is which means I may have to haul it a few feet through a good foot of snow. Ick! But, it needs to be done. Tomorrow morning is trash pickup and our can is verrrry full. So full, in fact, that I can't put anything more in it. The excitement never ends, eh?

Once I have that done, I need/want/can't wait to work on a scrapbook page. I was selected as one of Crop Chocolate's chocolatiers and once we receive our kit, we have two weeks to create with it. The best part is that you can create anything you want using it. You just have to submit photos of it in progress and completed. I don't know if they're accepting anymore people to the "team" but the really nice part about this company is that it wasn't a competition. If you signed up, you got to be on the team. It's a really great company with really nice service.

As for my page, I'm keeping it really simple for now. I haven't done any serious scrapbooking in about 5 years (long story as to why) so I'm easing my way back into it and testing to see if my creativity is still there. Hopefully they are. I had some fun last night playing with chalks and inks and it felt good to just be creative without any pressures.

So now that I've babbled on and on, I need to post this and go tackle that trashcan..and hope I don't end up with a snowy bum for my efforts!

Wow, it's nearly 6pm and I'm just sitting down to write this post. I guess I can't say that I'm too surprised. Today was the boys' last day here for the next couple of weeks and I always spend as much time with them as I possibly can. I don't know why but it always amazes me how tired I am after they're gone. It's like I just deflate. I know that it's not really physical tiredness but more the fact that it's an emotional let down. I love having them here with me so much. I know I'm in no ways the perfect parent, then again, I don't know anyone who is. I also know that just like I'm changing my life and how I do things, I can also adjust how I do things with them.

Anyway, I had a nice chat with Peter when he was here. He's going out of town tomorrow for a couple of days. I'm a bit envious of his travel but I also know that with that travel goes a lot of hard work. Anyway, it was nice to be able to talk with him.

And now that I've used the word anyway twice in one paragraph to start a sentence, I think I ought to get down to this menu business.

Monday - Leftovers
Tuesday - Steak w/ broccoli
Wednesday - Cheeseburger w/ veggies
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Taco Chicken Packets
Saturday - Lemon Pepper Fish (or something with shrimp if I can't find fish)
Sunday - Shredded Chicken Tacos

There we go. One menu for this week. It sure doesn't look like much but I have a bunch of leftovers from this weekend that I need to get through!

I want to start out with a quick apology for those of you who have been following along all month with my turning The Wall into a room. I need to post one final very photo intensive post for the challenge. It's going to contain the before and after photos as well as answering some tough questions. If you don't want to read, I totally understand! For those of you who do, let's go!

Let's start with the Before photos. Just a quick reminder as to why my son is wearing shorts in February, in Michigan. He wasn't. My camera batteries died and the batteries were buried well...in there. Luckily (?) for me, the room hadn't changed at all since August when I took these photos. Well, except to get worse since we kept shoveling things in there and the cats kept coming in and knocking stuff over as they used it for their personal jungle gym. So, even though it's embarrassing to admit, these before photos make the room look better than it was.
This is "The Wall." It's called that because as you can see, it was nothing more than a wall of boxes. Boxes, boxes, everywhere...and a cute kid who tries so hard to help mom get rid of those boxes (mostly so he can have them to play with.).

This is "The Wall" from inside. I risked life and limb to climb in there to get this shot. There aren't any other angles simply because you couldn't move off the tiny path enough to get any other angles. But, aren't my suitcases fabulous? lol!

This seemingly random shot was included to show that the nice clean spot on the floor in the first picture was totally gone by the time February rolled around. You can see the disaster around and under this poor chair (which has since had a makeover!).

Now, for the after pictures. I have to say that I am incredibly proud of this makeover because all it took was hard work. I didn't put even $1 into doing this space.

This is approximately the same angle as Before Photo #2. As you can see, there are no boxes. They are totally gone. This is my "tech desk" and the left side of my craft table. I hung those shelves all by myself. I had the aching muscles to prove it for two days after! All of the jars and storage items were things that I found in "The Wall" and reused!

This is an angle that you couldn't see before. It's the inside wall of "The Wall". The card table is now the boys' craft and work area. There are 2 chairs (you can only see one in the photo) and each of the boxes is sorted into different categories and labeled. My 8.5x11 craft papers are in the paper sorter and the containers on top hold all of my 12x12 papers sorted by color. My unused albums are stored on top of the bookcase and the bookcase holds albums (finished and in progress) as well as crafting books, computer books and fantasy genre books. The box in the lower right corner is actually a Build A Bear house that our kitten has taken as her personal hideyhole. The basket next to it holds all of the cords I found while doing the room that still need to be matched up to electronics in boxes elsewhere in the house. Once they're matched up, all extras will be gotten rid of and the basket will be reused elsewhere or Freecycled.

This is our PC corner. What I love best is that I got this desk (in August) from Freecycle so I didn't pay anything for it. Now that I think of it, my blue craft chair and the red desk chair were also freecycle items. The white/clear drawers hold various crafting/scrapbooking supplies all sorted by type and are labeled. The totes/baskets to the left of the desk hold office supplies and some of the boys larger crafting items that need to be stored separate from the ones on their table because they're mom supervised crafts only.I wish I had moved the desk chair. This angle makes the desk look cluttered on the corner, but it's not at all. Neither is the top of those drawers. Bad camera angle strikes again!

This angle most closely matches Before Photo #1. This is from the doorway looking in. Again, you can see the "tech desk" and my craft table.

Whew! The final picture of my After photos. This shows the full craft desk/tech desk area. As you can see, I've stored my crafting/scrapbooking travel bags under one end of the table where they're out of sight but easily accessible if I need to pack one to go somewhere.

Now, onto Laura's questions:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

- The hardest part...Getting into the room? Quite literally. This room was full of boxes, some of them stacked higher than my head. It was almost impossible for me to get into the room and then the challenge became where to start and now letting the whole process overwhelm me.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

- Everything has a place now. If I want a pair of fancy scissors, I know where they are. If I want a computer game, I know where it is. There isn't anything in this room that doesn't belong in it. Plus, now that I have it looking this good, I have no desire to see it going back to looking like a junkyard. My kids are also thrilled with the change and instead of coming in here and dumping things, they're picking up after themselves. In fact, I heard my younger one chastising his brother earlier for not picking up fast enough!

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

- The Stuff. Yep, I think that deserves to look like a movie title. By the time I was done decluttering this room, I had freecycled over 250 pounds worth of stuff from this room. That doesn't count the approximately 5 trash bags of recycling that went out to my curb for my service to pick up. Anything else that didn't belong in the room was moved to the room it does belong to.

4. What creative storage solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundaries?

- Yay for storage solutions! Yay for me being an organizing junkie like Laura! I didn't have to go out and buy a single basket, drawer or shelf for this space because I already had them hiding in the room. I don't know how creative any of it was because to me organizing is like breathing. It's just something that I'm good at doing. I think though that two of my ideas were maybe a little bit creative. I took old fashioned canning jars and used them to sort buttons and ribbons into. Now, I can easily see what I have and pull out just that instead of everything. I also have a free standing cd/dvd rack in the room and after I finished purging software, I didn't have enough to fill it, so I took a few of my smaller books and filled one of the top shelves with those. As for the rest of the storage, it's mostly made up of boxes and baskets and drawers. It took forever but each one has a specific purpose and now I know right where everything is!

5. Why do you think you should win this challenge?

- Did you see this room before I tackled it? lol! Well, how about 5 points as to why I think I ought to win:

1. I single handedly kept my local Freecycle group going for the month of February. I actually got emails thanking me for my generosity from people who weren't sucking up to get my stuff!
2. I took a wall of boxes and turned it into a space that my entire family can use.
3. I recycled enough papers and cardboard boxes to save a dozen trees from the rainforest.
4. Because my kids said I did a good job and I should win.
5. Because I've taken the momentum from this room and have been using it all over my house. This hasn't just been a declutter challenge, it's been me finding myself hiding in that disaster and turning my home into my sanctuary. I'm finding the woman who let perfectionism and depression fill her house with stuff and loving her and taking care of her instead of berating her for letting things get to this point. I'm reminding her that she is a strong woman who is loved and who can do anything she wants to..she just has to take the steps. My awakening is the Freecycle world's gain!

Wow, that got pretty deep there at the end but you know, that's ok. If you managed to read all the way here to the end, thank you. If you didn't..well, if you didn't you're not reading now, are you? *grins* I don't know if I'll win, but it was worth going through this process anyway. I'm not done with my cleaning or purging and I'm sure there will be more posts about it in the future. Stick with me folks and we'll all get there, one room and babystep at a time!

My thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for hosting this challenge!