Jan 2022 Be a part of the change - PLEASE!

 Hello - 

I'm back.  Sorry!  I got caught up in the craziness of life and then COVID turned our world upside down in March of 2020...and it still continues!  This life has been so crazy and unreal - that I decided this year I would come back here and write to my babies again and remind you both of the things that I tell you in person - but you conveniently tune out or roll your eyes at and close your ears to.  Maybe reading it will hit different.  Or maybe I just need you to have a place to come back and see it over and over again or maybe I'm just crazy...who cares....I'm back to bloggin! 

So here we are Jan 5.  I'm back to work, Makaila is back home (she went to Alaska for Christmas and New Years), Izzy is back to school, and we are working on setting the new norm for us this year.  The goal is to eat at home more. Do more exercise, declutter the mess in our home, and be more organized.  Let me rephrase that - these are my goals.  Everyone else is being dragged along!  Danny likes the results but makes no efforts.  The kids - hate the change and hate the work! LOL 

Right after Christmas my friend Misty came over with the intention of doing house "swaps" to help each other clean.  We would spend 2 hours at one house on one are of focused deep cleaning, break for lunch and then move to the other house for 2 hours.  Well we tried it and it was both a HUGE success and a fail.  It was a huge success because my house looks fabulous - we deep cleaned my hall closets, the laundry room and the kitchen...12 Goodwill bags and 6 trash bags later it was great.  The fail was that we never made it to her house - she got jipped! LOL  I got rid of so much clutter!!!  Craft that had been sitting there undone for years, clothes I hadn't worn in years, consolidated the stuff in the laundry room, prepared for new washer and dryers to come in, cleaned all the clutter off my kitchen counters...the place looks great...check it out!  I feel 20 pounds lighter! 

So Makaila and Issy here is where the message to you comes in.  When you get to be my age - with a house, a family, a job, goals, etc....having a  house feel like a clean home you are immensely proud of, means more than I can explain to you.  But I'll try.  You guys have lived a pretty privileged life.  You are in may ways very spoiled and I'm not mad about it.  Your dad and I worked hard to gave you guys that kind of life.  It didn't come easy and it sure as hell wasn't handed to us.  It took years of struggle, debt, sacrifice and grit.  There were times in our early marriage that we lived literally paycheck to paycheck.  Times where we have to figure out which bill to pay first in case something was cut off.  We had credit card debt that seemed unreal!  We worked and went to school and took care of you guys, and there were tears and lots of feeling defeated....but thank the good Lord, we overcame that.  

At the very young age of 49 and 41 we can say that we are immensely blessed in our health, our finance, our situations, and that we are DAMN proud of the life we have and the things we have.  We own our home! It's ours, and our hard work paid off.  We don't have a grand home, with multiple stories, or several bedrooms, and its not on an amazing lot, but its ours.  Our little 3 bedroom house in a neighborhood that you guys grew up in is ours.  Being in this house knowing that you were both raised here and that our sacrifices and hard work have something to show for it....well that makes me so proud.  Seeing our home radiate beauty and feel and smell clean - that is a feeling that brings me so much joy.  

On the contrary - I can also tell you that walking into a dirty house with clutter everywhere you turn, and laundry pilled up in your rooms, and the stench of rank old clothes is soo deflating,  It feels so disrespectful and hurtful.  Giving you guys everything you want and providing for you this lifestyle to see crap thrown all over, your rooms piled up with mess and things just thrown around, or the room so damn dirty I can barely walk into it...It feels like your shitting on the things that we worked so hard to give you.  Like a slap in the face.  

My prayer for each of you is that you let that resonate with you and treat our home with the respect it deserves.  That you clean up after yourself.  Stay on top of your laundry.  Keep your rooms clean.  Learn to live with less material stuff and invest more in making memories.  Love me with the actions of proactively cleaning and helping instead of making me nag!! 

I pray that you guys learn and grow from what you see and that you own your own beautiful homes one day that are clean and respected and bring you the kind of joy that our homes brings to me.  I pray your children will love and respect you and your home.  

HELP ME - BE A PART OF THE CHANGE FOR BETTER!!!