What's on my mind - Monday and a CHALLENGE

The end of a year always sends me into deep thinking. I go over everything that has happened in the current year and what I want to change for the coming year. I can usually come up with a TON of things that I want to change but somehow I always fall back in to the old ways. That is making me think even harder this year about what I want to change and exactly what am I going to do to make those changes happen and stick!! As of right now I have a million and two things that I can think of that I want to change and honestly it sort of saddens me that I can come up with so many things that aren't right to me. I know though that if I can make these changes happen  not only will I benefit from it but so will my family.

Our lives are so chaotic and unorganized that it is stressful at times. We have been through alot this year as a family and I don't think we all quite recovered from the very stressful situations that we were put in. I hope that this new year can bring some much needed peace for us. In alot of ways we have forgotten about each other and merely focused on what we as individuals needed or wanted. That DEFINITELY HAS TO STOP! So as the next week and a half comes to a close I will be thinking about how I can change things for us. Obviously it will take the work of our family as whole to keep it going but as the family manager I can get the ball rolling!!

Now on to something else...kind of...

We are a large family living in a very small house. Right now there is nothing we can do about that so we must make do with what we have and be happy about it! We have to maximize the space available for everything to work properly! We have 2 adults and 4 kids plus a baby on the way which equals alot of stuff crammed in this little space. I try to go through the house every once in a while and get rid of a few things but it never seems to amount to much. Now adding a baby to the mix means getting alot more stuff that we have to find room for. Not an easy task. Our house really has no storage space...anywhere. Everything just kind of sits where it falls because nothing really has place of its own. I plan to change that!

Most of my plans of "change" will begin with the new year...why start now huh? (HA!) But I think this challenge will begin today. What challenge you ask? The Housewife's Declutter Challenge. I plan to go through our house room by room every day and get rid of EVERYTHING UNNECESSARY! Then as I can I plan to "redo" each room adding more storage space and also doing a little more decorating along the way. Since the baby will be in our room that is where I am going to start. Get rid of a little to add a lot more to it...can't catch a break...haha. It will be a little less than Extreme Home Makeover...but will feel just as good when it is all done!

So now I'm going to the bedroom and find some stuff that I can get rid of!! YAY ME!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Ashley