master bedroom makeover

As I mentioned in the previous post, we are getting our ceilings retextured.  When we updated our kitchen, the ceilings had to be redone due to the electrical work, so we elected to have the popcorn scraped and have the ceilings retextured.  Now we are starting the process of having the rest of our house done.  The next few weeks are going to be chaotic with moving furniture around and not having access to large sections of our house! 

We are starting with the master bedroom/bath because I want to paint the walls.  Before we moved into this house, we intended to paint the three upper bedrooms.  We got the kids' bedrooms done and ran out of patience before we got to the master.  Actually, Reggie ran out of patience.  We were going back and forth between the old house and new house with our 1, 2, and 3 year olds, and they didn't understand what was going on.  A couple weeks into the process, we pulled into our old garage, and with large crocodile tears, Reggie cried "I want big big house! I want big big house!"  So, we moved our beds in, and the master bedroom is the only room in the house that we have never painted!

Here are a few -almost-before pictures.  Bryan was already taking stuff down before I took pictures!

 

Cleaning everything out of our bedroom moved me closer to my goal:

 

20 - Bryan cleaned out his closet

5- single socks and a slipper of Lydia's

2- a messenger bag and duffle bag to good will.

16- I had a box of toys "to get rid of" in the corner of our room.

7 - magazines to donate to a project I'm doing with some kids at school.

16 - items I threw away when I cleaned the cabinet in the master bedroom.



Here is our temporary bedroom!

I also cleaned out Lydia's clothes to pass on to a friend.  Oh my goodness, she had enough socks to go at least a month without doing laundry, and I wash clothes twice a week!  We kept 10 pair.  Getting rid of 59 clothing items.

We're getting rid of 109 more items, bringing my total to 567! Yes!

2000 things in 2016

Part of my job is teaching guidance lessons in the middle school once a month.  In January, I taught a lesson about setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) and we talked about the importance of writing goals down and also sharing goals with other people to help us be accountable.

I should probably take my own advice, so here is my goal:

I will get rid of (sell, donate, recycle, throw away, use up) 2000 things in 2016.

My rules are (1) Consumable items don't count unless it is something I don't intend to replace (2) A 24 piece puzzle counts as one item, etc. (3) I'm not going to count papers that constantly get recycled, such as kids' school papers, newspapers and junk mail.

Is this realistic?  I don't know, but I think I'm off to a pretty good start. 

Since January 1st -

20 broken toys and mostly used coloring books
70 children's book (I know this seems like a lot, but our babysitter works at a library and is always giving us books that have been removed from the library inventory) - sold at Half Price Books
12 DVD's - Sold at Half Price Books
10 children's books - thrown away
10 empty boxes I held onto for Christmas and didn't use - recycle.

This week we had the unfortunately circumstance that the outside pipe from our sump pump froze up and as a result it was spraying water into our laundry room.  The silver lining was cleaning out the laundry room has been on my to-do list for a long time!

I threw away 40 items.

This weekend I am getting ready for our master bedroom ceilings to be professionally painted.  A good push to clean out our closets!

70 clothing items to thrift store
60 items trash/recycle
I found a bag of 14 left over cloth diapering items and gave away using craigslist.
I found a bag of 20 left over loot bag items from a kids' birthday, I will donate to my treat boxes at my schools!

I am also going to be seeing the friend Reggie's hand-me-downs go to next weekend, so I went through his clothes and set aside a bag of 40 items for her boys.

I posted many things for sale on craigslist, but will not count them until they actually leave my house.

Total so far: 458 items!  WOW! 2000 items seems like a huge number, but I'm already 23% there!

2015 year in review

Here are a few of the highlights from 2015:

• The tooth fairy came to visit 6 times; Reggie tops the pack with 3 lost teeth this year.
• Kids activities included swimming (Lydia and Brett), gymnastics (Reggie and Lydia), t-ball (Reggie and Lydia), baseball (Brett), and sports club (Brett).
• We transitioned from preschool to all kids in elementary school.
• I completed my continuing education to renew my school counseling licensed in the spring and doubled my contract in the fall (to 2 days a week).
• Bryan went on at least 8 business trips.  That's how many made the calendar.  It seems like more than that! A couple years ago his position at his company changed from "east coast" to "west coast", so now he always travels to California.
• Bryan has served on the MICAH Fund (adoption grants) committee for 7(?) years. The MICAH fund committee recently decided to end it's ministry.
• Bryan returned to an old hobby: ice fishing. In addition, he continued to enjoy golfing, concerts,and his Packer's season tickets.
• I joined a ladies Bible study group - from a different church!  After volunteering in our children's ministry as a "special needs buddy" for the last few years, I agreed to fill a leadership position with the Kindergarten class, and started in December. 
• The kids and I still prepare and serve a meal once a month at the children's after-school program in St. Paul. 
• Lydia loves to read!  It is only appropriate that she has won tickets through the library summer reading program for 3 years in a row! (twice Twin's tickets, this year, state fair tickets)
• Brett loves to create!  He writes a letter to his teacher almost every day.
• Reggie is in the 99.9th percentile for height and has passed Brett up at the same age.
• Bryan and I went to a game at Wrigley Field to celebrate our 12th anniversary.
• We had zero ER visits or hospital stays, but had our share of medical expenses from two pairs of glasses for Brett to ringworm to scary-looking bug bites, a cyst and scar tissue removal, and physical therapy.  All that aside, we are in good health!
• I gardened 11 out of 12 months in 2015!