3 Bags Down

Over the last couple of days I tackled my entry way closet and utility room. Out of those two small spaces I have gotten rid of 3 bags so far.

1 Bag of Clothes/Coats
2 bags of Trash

Here are the before and afters:

Entry Closet before

After 

Before

 After

Before

After

A couple of the main things I'm noticing are

1. We have A LOT of trash

2. We have A LOT of stuff that isn't in its proper place. It's no wonder we can never find things! 

Heres to another week of cleaning out my house!!! Have a blessed week! 

Happy 24th Birthday Aaron

 24 years ago today my entire world was rocked. I had been the only child/grandchild for two years and within two months my cousin and brother were born. It was a hard blow for a two year old and apparently I did not take it very gracefully. I was flat out mean to my little brother. There were plenty of times I remember waiting until my mom was in the shower and then I would beat up on him and take his stuff so he would go crying to my mom. Going from having everyones undivided attention didn't settle well with this firstborn. 

Thankfully 24 years later I have a really good relationship with my brother. He is one of the most Godly, loving, protective, compassionate, people I know and I wouldn't trade him for the world.

 He is an amazing Uncle to my precious boys and I am so glad they have him to look up to!

 I know without a doubt he would do absolutely anything for me and I would do the same for him.

Happy Birthday little brother! I love you more than you know and I am so thankful my world was rocked 24 years ago. Life wouldn't be the same without you in it! 

40 Bags in 40 Days {Lent 2013}

For Lent this year I decided to do the 40 bags in 40 days Challenge. The goal of this challenge is to give away, get rid of, trash 40 bags of stuff in your house in 40 days. 

I have a list of 28 places in our house that I will be going through. During these 40 days I want to work on simplifying our lives. We have WAY too much stuff! Hudson has enough toys for 20 kids and our cabinets are over flowing with things we hardly ever use. Well not for long my friends! I'm cleaning it all out. 

To me, Lent is a time of prayer, self-reflection, sacrifice, self-control and renewal. A good home de-cluttering can go hand in hand with this season. I hope this helps me to stop and think "do we really need this?" or "is there room for this?" before I buy things. I have always had a tendency to think I NEED things when in all actuality I do not need it at all. 

I am going to post before and after pictures as I go through some of our closets and such. Today I tackled my desk area. Sheesh. I filled an entire trash bag from two drawers. 

 Before: This drawer would hardly close sometimes

 After: Look how much of the side of the drawer you can actually see! Why do we collect so much junk??

Before

After

What are you doing for Lent? If you decide to do the 40 bags in 40 days let me know and we can hold each other accountable! 

I'be got my list, and my trash bags.

Remember LESS IS MORE

Less of me and my stuff and more of Jesus!!! 

10 on the 10th

So this year I decided I wanted to do 10 on the 10th every month. That means 10 pictures taken on the 10th day of the month. It's all about finding joy and love in the simple, every day things in life! I missed January (great way to start the year I know!) but here is this months! 

 I could wake up the a view like this every morning! What a wonderful weekend at the lake with precious friends! 

 My two goofy boy dogs. Sure do love them.

 Passed the Worlds Largest McDonalds on the way home!

 I am so thankful my mom got us this book for Christmas! What a testament of faith these people have. Love getting to read a different story every day!

 This little munchkin has grown leaps and bounds since December!

 Worked on filling in my calendar. Spring is going to be busy.

 Stopped for a little Chocolate Chip shake on the way home from Mom and Dads house. 

 Pictures with my goofy boy

 I have read this book to him since he was about 3 months old and it is still his absolute favorite book. We have to read it every night! 

He was out before I finished reading the last of our five books.