Coming clean

"...and the children love the rain! Splashing in the puddles, splashy, splashy wet. Splashing in the puddles, how wet can we get? All the earth does love the rain..."

Oh yesterday was a glorious day! For the second time in the past six months that we have been in Idaho - it rained! And while everyone else around us ran indoors, my family and I ran outside to enjoy every moment of it. It was a good thing too, for it lasted only fifteen minutes. We were all happily drenched by the time the clouds cleared. With big smiles and raised spirits we went inside to change into dry clothes and drink some hot tea.
-----------------------------------
Today I walked into my girls' room to find it utterly destroyed for about the sixth time in the last two weeks. They have been making big messes at night and then taking days to clean them up (like the three days it took them to clean it up before Little L's big boy celebration.) Seeing their room this way after they cleaned it up, yet again, yesterday was the last straw. In a haze, I stepped out of their room and next thing I knew, I was walking through the girls' room with a garbage bag. I muttered something about "too much stuff" and left the room with the bag filled to the top.

Then I sat there wondering what just happened. Obviously I mentally lost it, but we have been doing simplicity parenting (and living simply) since before Kim John Payne wrote a book about it! I have written post after post on how less is more, but somehow or other clutter snuck into our home and  my mind, keeping me from seeing the truth. I thought about it and I realized that the guilt I carry for taking my children away from our beloved school led me into a downward spiral of allowing too many unnecessary things to slip in. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it took me months and an endlessly messy room to finally see it. The funny thing is that when I went back to apologize for my wrongdoing and talk to my girls about it all, K mentioned that C said she was glad to not have all of that stuff in their room anymore. I could see the relief in their eyes. Glancing around their now clutterless room, I felt it too. I get overwhelmed and allow myself to become defeated before I even begin so very easily, and my children are the same way. Again, I should have seen that. When I have more than I can deal with I tend to make piles to get to later, but then I never get to them. I end up just moving the piles from one spot to another. It drives Kevin crazy, and honestly it drives me crazy, too! It all comes back to clutter.

Tomorrow I plan to make things right. I will start by going through that garbage bag with my girls and have high hopes that we can donate most of it to children who need it more than we do.

Coming clean