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For those of you who might be interested:

From my post from last year:

In other news, I’m really considering and getting excited about participating in The Dress Project. It’s a month of ‘fasting’ from our clothes and choosing to wear 1 single dress all month. The website mentions this helpful note:

My dress provided a type of canvas. It reminded me that I do not need half of the things I desire, and if I focus on something for a while, I can get to know its character as a “thing” in creation. There is a wealth of hidden possibilities in every part of life that most of us are too lazy to uncover. Rather than pursue mere novelty, I had the opportunity to bring out the possibilities inherent in the dress, molding them into something slightly different every day.

SO….all 2 of you out there who both read this blog and may be interested — start thinking about a dress you have in your closet for next month or make a run to your local charity shop to see if there’s a dress you can use or refashion for October.

First let me wave to all my friends out there! Hi! We’ve been gone ALL SUMMER LONG. It’s nuts. It’s crazy. We touched both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans this summer in efforts to do some fundraising for RUF. And I don’t think we recouped our costs yet — but that’s another story.

What I want to actually blog about — yes, blog you say? I know, you’re staring in disbelief given I haven’t posted in 4 months! — is Ministry of Reality Mondays. Some of my lovely online friends over at Mothering by Grace, a parenting forum I belong to, are starting a weekly blog round-up where the focus is:

“is being able to be REAL about life. Homes are not always (not *usually* even!) spotless, children are not always dressed adorably, children do not always “behave,” marriage is hard, and there aren’t simple answers to hard questions. Being honest about all of this makes it easier (in my opinion) to live life… because we can ASK for help about problems we aren’t covering up. We can be encouraged by others’ stories of surviving similar seasons and trials.”

Being real, being vulnerable. . . in that we can ask for help from others, be approachable when others need our help. In the Ministry of Reality we can acknowledge just how dependent we are on God’s grace daily, and (hopefully, prayerfully, fallenly) show what that dependence looks like.

I’m excited to start and since the kids are waking up from their naptime, it’s likely to be Ministry of Reality Tuesday — because tonight is Reality *show* (hubby and I watch HGTV’s Design Star the night after on Hulu, so shhhh no spoilers!!) night. So I’ll be back tomorrow, complete with links to other bloggers.

So the boys are still sick and overtired lately. Ezra is going through a very “2″ phase and potty training is regressing. Some dear friends of ours are grieving. I’m having RUF girls over tonight. Life continues and spring cleaning isn’t nearly what I’d like it to be given all the emotions and chaos that happens in life. I’m committed and I’m excited to purge, so in baby steps, we’ll keep on keeping on.

We’ve had some lovely little moments lately. Our baby tree in the front has some lovely white blossoms on it and I saw a bird land there for a minute and it made me happy. We’ve purchased some soil and herb seeds and hope to begin sprouting some seeds. It’ll be a great messy project for the boys once I get around to pre-soaking the seeds. The sun has been out and I’ve worn flip-flops. The wind is still chilly but the blue skies and things growing have done my soul good. I’ve been pretty worn out with the emotional fortitude needed to withstand daily life around here. But small glimpses of beauty help rectify that.

Now if I can have my home participate in some of that beauty, that too, will refresh me.

Firstly I apologize for the slightly out-of-focus images; I believe it was caused by little finger smudges from a certain toddler who shall remain nameless.

These photos were all taken right before naptime, i.e., right before Mama did clean-up #133 of the day, so you can see our house in all its toddler glory (i.e., mess)! (Pictures of the boys’ room to come. It was naptime after all).

Mudroom:

Kitchen:

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I’m really loving SimpleMom’s explanation of why we hold onto things instead of giving them away. She really gives you freedom that you needn’t associate some cheesy trinket with a memory (chuck it!) and that you needn’t keep things around “just in case”, that it actually adds stress to your life. Check out her short blog post, it’ll help you purge, I promise.

The reason I’m doing this spring cleaning is 1) I hate that it takes me inordinate amounts of time to find something I need, 2) I’m never going to get around to unpacking the boxes that have sat at the top of our stairs since October unless I have a plan like this, 3) having a clutter-free room/house really helps me actually relax and enjoy the people who are in our house, 4) it will make my husband able to relax and enjoy being at home.

I bought her e-book and I’m excited to get started today. I need a plan, otherwise I get overwhelmed and discouraged and don’t follow through. Today’s task is a “clean sweep”: to get rid of trash laying around the house and immediately put things into “give”, “sell”, and “maybe” boxes. It’s a quick task, though it covers the whole house. After the clean sweep, we’ll go room by room. I’ll try to take some pictures along the way.

I shall get around to a celebratory post of my cutest one-year-old, but for now I wanted to see if anyone else wanted to jump on Real Simple’s Spring Cleaning Week bandwagon with me?

Who else feels they have too much stuff and it’s prohibiting them from seeing home as a relaxing space? Wouldn’t it be nice to have less stuff? Let’s declutter, clean and organize!

My little baby is 1. ONE. Crazy. For now, here’s a picture so you can see how big and cute he’s become.

I’ve found that since cutting out caffeine, I’ve been taking more baths as a treat. (And because my back often hurts at the end of the day after carrying children all day long). And I’ve often brought in a book with me. It’s been nice to read for fun.

Here are my recent reads:
Recently Finished:
84, Charing Cross Road
The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective (Rohr)

Reading:
Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver (essays)
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Reading aloud with DH:
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

Reading for my PhD (the novels anyway):
Defoe’s Moll Flanders
Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson (first American bestseller)

What are you reading lately?

Apparently both Bryce and I have a caffeine addiction. Or had one at any rate. And for all of you sitting smugly over your half-caf skinny latte, let me tell you, that we only had 1-2 cups a day. Of brewed coffee. Not fancy schmancy super-duper highly caffeinated espresso drinks. The first day, I missed my coffee but tried to feel extra thankful for my hot water (in lieu of a warm caffeinated start to my day) and in my shower. The second through fourth days were pretty awful honestly. I was in a fog. We went to bed at 8 PM and then felt exhausted when we woke up (with infant interruptions of course) 11 hours later. Apparently, besides providing you with your morning jolt, coffee also supplies various hormones to the body . I guess a daily cup of joe over time means that coffee provides you with those hormones and your body stops producing them.

Most people just get a “caffeine headache” when they go off caffeine. My guess is that Bryce and I have been functioning on caffeine for a long time. We’ve been perpetually tired and used a morning cup to get us going in the morning instead of consistent exercise and lots of water. The last few days were so bad I thought that I couldn’t really give up my morning cup, it was too painful. The worst of it was that since caffeine revs up your immune system both of our immune systems were hit full force when we quit cold turkey. I was congested immediately, which didn’t help the head fog feeling and Bryce has since contracted strep throat!

Sunday we are taking as traditional Lenten feast days and so had a cup of decaf in the morning. Bryce also had a cup of white tea to aid his detox (which should’ve been a slower weaning than a cold turkey dropping of caffeine). And because he has strep, he’s having juice since that’s about all he can swallow. He’ll get back to just water soon.

But get this: I feel amazing now. I’m tired but not lethargic. Even when I wake up tired within 2 hours I’m fully awake. I have more energy to be with my kids and my head is more clear than the ‘coffee clarity’ I’ve been used to. Granted, there have also been some residual benefits — I think it’s also helping me not crave other bad foods (my sugar intake has really decreased too) and I find myself really enjoying and craving more water and lots of healthier foods, like spinach.

I’m also discovering how much I turn to beverages for comfort: coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, a glass of wine or a cocktail after a long, hard day. It’s helpful to purge myself of this, if only to see what I turn to for meaning instead of Christ.

Bryce and I are going to do 40 Days of Water to benefit Blood:Water Mission over Lent. We’ll just be drinking water — no morning coffee, no beer or wine, no juice or milk. Just water. At the end of the 40 days you donate what you would’ve spent on drinks to Blood:Water Mission. It’s a practice in sympathetic imagining — stepping into the shoes of the world’s poor who do not have a choice about what beverage to consume and who often have to make tremendous effort just to get water.

Anyone in with us?