Weeks 5 & 6 Included Deep Cleaning and Sorrows

It was crickets from me last week and I am so sorry!  We had a funeral and a very bad autism week and before I knew it the week had ended. 

I was emotionally spent last week.  Saying good-bye to a dear family friend was hard.  And then we've been dealing with some really, really matters of the heart with Cal.  Things keep creeping up in which I have no idea where they are coming from or why.  I'm trying to hang on for dear life as a parent but my, oh, my that boy sure knows how to stretch his Momma! 

I'm not going to lie, when I am having these hard times I do not want to cook or eat cleanly or only shop for my needs.  Everything in me wants to go to Culvers and buy everything and then double size it. 

But I didn't and I consider that a victory and at least some-what of a step in the right direction. 

Anyway...

I mentioned in my last post that I had found myself spending money due to my house not being clean so I was unable (or unwilling!) to entertain friends. 

So last week I moved some things around in our schedule and cancelled school for the week. 

By the way, I love the flexibility of homeschooling that I can take time off when I need to rather than having to fit into a rigid schedule. 

This week we have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  But more than cleaning we have been purging our home of necessary items. 

It will easier to keep things tidy with less things to tidy, right?

It has been a very freeing feeling. 

For example, I took all of the dresses out of Emmas closet.  She had 37 by the way.  We weeded through what she plain just didn't like, what didn't fit, what was too big, etc. And while she still has a boat-load of dresses we at least now only have 28 dresses. Okay we stink at getting rid of things but we did get rid of some.  The "use it up" part of me wants to keep what we have already been given or purchased because we have it....the minimalist emerging in me wants her to have 4 dresses.  They argue a lot in my head as to what the correct method should be, lol.

I know everyone loves Spring Cleaning but I personally love Winter cleaning...there's nothing to do outdoors anyway, cleaning gets your heart pumping and gets you moving, and when Spring finally does come you can be outside and have the satisfaction that your home is already clean! See?  What's not to love?

We not only cleaned our house but we also kept telling that each room that was clean was now "sealed". 

When the whole house was cleaned I sat the kids down and told them our entire house is clean so our entire house and our lives are now "sealed". 

But what does sealed mean?

It means that we are keeping it clean of clutter, dirt, and most of all, bad attitudes and past habits. 

We had gotten into such a rut of viewing our home as dingy and bleh, and when you do that it is so easy to not have motivation for keeping it clean. 

But when things are clean everything looks as if in a new light.  We should take care of our things.  We should honor them and feel blessed to be so blessed. 

So we are sealed off from complaining.  We will no longer be inconsiderate of others by making sure we now pick up our items and leaving a room how we found it (I'm not sure why but this one has seemed to really stick with Cal which I am loving!). 

A week has gone by since we "sealed" our house and I can tell you it is working! 

This weekend things got really out of sorts but when I asked the kids to help tidy up they were more than happy to get things back to how they were...it was amazing!  Usually it would be a lot of fussing and complaining but they had noticed the clutter too and they were unhappy about it too! 

And you know what else is nice?  Cleaning!  I know that sounds weird but it is so lovely to vacuum without having to move a bunch of stuff to do it.  Novel, right? 

I hope your weeks have been great.  I miss you all and I miss writing and you guys keeping me accountable in this journey! 

I hope you have a fantastic week...love you all!