Woo! Happy New Year!

At the end of 2008, my husband took two weeks off from work to spend time with us during the holidays and it was wonderful. It was life changing! Not only were we able to reconnect as a family but Sean and I really kicked some ass and got some projects done around the house. Do you know that our Master Bathroom was not functional for two years? Well, that has changed. Sean took care of it and now it feels like such a luxury not to have four people sharing a bathroom!! We also took a long hard look at our “stuff” and purged, purged, and purged some more until we had two carloads of things to donate to charity. Toys, kids clothes, adult clothes, shoes, Christmas decorations. It was CRAZY and it felt good to get rid of it all. We weren’t using it and they were in good condition so it felt good to pass it along to someone else.

In addition to the “stuff” exodus that took place over the holiday, we also cleaned the heck out of our house. It’s amazing how good it feels to go to bed when you don’t have to dig down through a pile of clothes to find it. Know what I’m saying? Sean and I have both said that we feel like we have a whole new house because we have rooms that were unusable before and are now a part of our daily life. It’s so nice and relaxing!! Now, the challenge is to keep it clean but so far so good. I think since the house is in a good place right now, I can maintain it with a little effort on my part and a little help from the family.

Last night, we had a perfect example of family help. I had been asking Ryan to tidy up his room for a couple of days and he kept putting it off. It wasn’t a terrible mess but it wasn’t far from that so I wanted to nip it in the bud. Well, last night, things came to a head. He put his foot down and he wasn’t going to do it at all. He wanted me to do it. Instead, we made a deal. I had some work of my own to do, mainly empty the dishwasher and fold the laundry. In my frustration with Ryan’s lack of cooperation I said, “ryan you know you can come empty the dishwasher and fold the laundry so I can clean your room.” I was not seriously expecting him to take me up on it but he did. So we switched. I cleaned his room and he emptied the dishwasher. I ended up folding the laundry but that was my choice. He was really proud of the job he did putting away the dishes, too. If he didn’t know where something went, he would come upstairs and ask me where it should go. I was really impressed with the seriousness with which he approached the task and in the end, his room was clean and the dishes were put away so it didn’t really matter who did what.

Now we’re slowly working our way into 2009. I’m focusing on my children and my business and even my home! The kids are reading on their own, Ryan has started putting together math principles on his own, and both are exploring new creative outlets daily. Our lives feel very rich and blessed and 2009 feels like it’s going to be a really good year!

Happy New Year, friends!