Crap

I am sitting in the playroom, looking at, and sitting amongst, STUFF. Lots of stuff. Barbies. Stuffed animals. Books. Dress-up clothes. Art supplies. Rain boots. Toy cash registers. Dolls. Getting a visual?

Behind me is MY stuff. Paper, fabric, rubber stamps, scissors, pieces of wood, files, buttons, baubles, ribbon, containers, a die-cut machine, stickers, magazine clippings, paper cutter... I could go on.

I am fortunate to have this little nook in our house where I can keep my supplies, be creative and have (my idea of) fun.

Well, it's not fun anymore.

All of my artsy stuff, the wonderful little bits of *happy* that I've collected over the years, are actually getting in the way of my fun. Not all of it mind you...oh no, I couldn't function without some of these supplies. Making nifty things makes me happy...it is truly a part of who I am. I pray that I will always physically and mentally possess the facilities I need to create things that bring me (and sometimes others) joy.

BUT for right now, I just need to get rid of some of this crap.

It's starting to feel heavy, almost like a burden. It ties my head in a knot, putting out any creative spark dancing around in the right side of my brain. It makes me frustrated, angry, and sad.

Sad.

I can't believe that something that makes me so incredibly happy, something that makes me feel so much like ME...is making me sad.

Well kids, something's got to be done. I'm tired of it. I need to get rid of this childhood mantra that runs through my head, 'You can still use that. Don't get rid of that. You might need that later. That is being wasteful.' That mantra is responsible for half of the things we don't need/use IN THIS HOUSE. It's hard...SO HARD to break free from that way of thinking and get real about things. But I have to. It's starting to smother me. It's starting to affect ALL of us. Now, please don't picture my house looking like a scene from one of those hoarding shows. Not at all. I just need to *get it together*...in order to do that, I need fewer things in my house. Period.

A prayer comes to mind.

This is one I learned in high school from my freshman religion teacher.

I still say this one daily:

The Serenity Prayer~
God grant me the serenity to

accept the things I cannot change

the courage to change the things that I can

and the wisdom to know the difference

My updated version:

The Sense Prayer~

God grant me enough sense to

keep the crap I'll use

get rid of the crap I won't

and willpower, so I can see a difference

AMEN!

And because a blog post without a photo is against the law (in my own head anyway)...

Here's a photo of Delaney and I before our very special date night a couple of months back. (...because there is NO way in heck I'm posting photos of our crap ; )