wildwoodhomestead

SMLXL

Hi friends!

Progress is being made daily. We are basically living out of a stack of boxes in our garage – which are slowly (oh so slowly) being unpacked. The fact that we downsized so much over the past year, yet STILL HAVE THIS MUCH STUFF is honestly quite overwhelming for me. As a friend reminded me the other day, we are a family of 5. It could be much worse. At any rate, I’m trying to trash, thrift, repurpose & RE-home as I go. I pride myself on being capable of letting go when necessary. I’ve worked hard at being able to pick an item up, examine it & decide whether or not it brings me (or our family) joy.  If I find that I don’t particularly have a peaceful, happy, purposeful attachment to it, then it doesn’t belong in my space. I take great satisfaction in looking around & seeing only things that bring joy or positive emotions into my realm. Somehow, someway (not sure how or why) I still have a long way to go in mastering this craft. I thought I was really – no, let me rephrase this – I thought I was EXCEPTIONALLY good at this. Turns out I’m just “okay” at this task. That’s a disappointing realization. I will work harder. At any rate, the girls rooms are coming together & we should have most all of their material lives put into place before school starts this week. I still have so much painting happening in my world at present. I’m looking around at furniture, walls, kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, art room table, dining table, shelves, baseboards, crown molding (& the list goes on) only to realize that there’s no real reason to stress about any of this. It will all come together. We live here now. We can take it slow & steady. No more rush to get as much done as possible before the move. The hard part is over, so we must embrace the work that lies before us & relish in the satisfaction that everything we do from this point forward is because we can. We need to let our accomplishments bring us pleasure & let our “to do” list ebb & flow over the coming weeks, months & years. Having said that, unless I’m putting a brush to canvas, it’s possible I will never paint again when this massive project is over. I’ve been working on Jasper’s bedroom lately & although I know he won’t sleep in there anytime soon, I’m just loving every second of creating a space just for him. He has never had a room, only a little closet for all of his clothes & toys. This is really a fun experience for me as a Mother. My cell phone booster came in the mail yesterday. Finally I will have access to the outside world again. I’d be completely lying if I said that I’ve not enjoyed the peace & quiet & lack of distraction that comes along with being ‘cell phone free’. I never thought of myself as being a slave to technology. But when you go for a week without being able to text, surf the web or even call anyone from your phone, I guess reality speaks. I’ve really embraced this week, connecting with the girls. We’ve been pretty footloose & fancy free, which is exactly how I’d hoped their Spring break would play out. They needed it & I needed it to be this way. Of course we’ve had lots of responsibilities around here, but we’ve managed to enjoy the time off, explore our new ‘hood’ a bit & also work on projects together as well. I’m prayerfully looking forward to the week that lies ahead. New school, new experiences, new chapter for everyone.