Thursday, July 15, 2010

Like, Love, Obsess!!

With some summer time off, I am fortunate to be getting some things in order around my house in my life. I have taken these first few weeks to clean out the house, have a garage sale, and really concentrate on getting things in order. Please do not get me wrong, if you were to stop over unexpectadly, you would not always find my home to clean and spotless (a dream of mine that will probably never come true). However, we are getting better and giving everything a place.

Yes, I am one of those people who LOVES organization and order. I do organize my closet by color and by long sleeves, short sleeves, pants, etc. Nothing makes me happier than a room with everything in it's place and no clutter. That is what I am working toward.

In doing this, I am finding that I really am happy to get rid of "stuff". I have written before about how I really would love to live with as little "stuff" and clutter as possible. Recently, I read a GREAT article that dealt this this topic. The author of the article said that when you are going through your things and trying to decide what to keep and what to ditch, think of everything that you have as something that takes up some of your time. That time may be putting it away or taking care of it. Therefore, the less you have, the more free time you will have. It also made me think that I should only hang on to those things that I really love and want to take care of. I have gotten to a point in my life that a little free time is worth more to me than "things". This new philosophy has helped me to really think about something before I purchase it and to let go of some of those "things" that I was hanging on to for no apparent reason.

While I was cleaning and organizing today, I decided that I would add a new element to my blogs. Since I am trying to live with only things that I LOVE and that bring joy to my life, I will share these things and experiences through my blogs by catergorizing things as either things I like, I love, or I am obsessed with! Again, I am not sure if anyone will even care about what I have to say, but it is worth a shot. I am also going to incorporate this into the blogs that I write for our website www.WNYKids.com. So stay tuned for some reviews of great things. I do not get paid to do this or get anything free for what I write. It will simply be my honest to goodness review of things that I find to bring joy and inspiration in my life.

Today, I am grateful time to reflect and grow! Summertime is great for so many reasons and I am thankful to have this time to organize (or at least attempt to) my life!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Playing in The Rain


One of my goals this summer is to really spend quality time with my kids and make sure that we make lots of memories together. I have really been hit with the realization that they are growing up WAY too fast. I also have realized that with everything else that I need to do in a day, I sometimes forget to really stop and live in the moment of what we are doing together.

Today, my friend and I decided to start a summer tradition of "field trip fridays". We are doing this for two reasons...1. we both want to do fun things with our kids this summer and 2.We are trying to encourage others to do it as well as part of our website WNYKids.com. So, we headed downtown to a great event on the waterfront. The kids were able to make things with clay and play in water tables and sand boxes. They also got to see the waterfront that they love to visit. Of course, up until today, it has been sunny and hotter than hot here in WNY. However, today the rains came down...in buckets! The timing could not have been better...it started pouring as we were making the trek back to our cars. Yes, there we were...2 adults and a total of 6 kids (and only 3 umbrellas!!). Needless to say, we got soaked.

The greatest part of this was that we did not care at all! We actually walked a little bit slower to our cars laughing the entire way. By the time we got to the cars, we could have rung out our clothes and yet all we did was laugh and continue to stay in the rain. On the way home, the kids told me that this was "the best day ever!!" I asked them why and they said, "because playing in the rain is AWESOME!"

Now, I am not that uptight that I have never played in the rain before. However, I can say that I have not taken the time to do that lately and truthfully, probably was worried (for some crazy reason) that I did not have time to get wet nor did I have the patience to deal with wet kids in my car. But today, we did it..we survived...and we loved every second of it!!!

So, today I am thankful for rainy days and the time to enjoy them! I am so glad that I "let my hair down" and played and danced in the rain. I know, it sounds terrible that this is such a big deal for me, but it really was. I am also thankful for fun with great friends and a GREAT new camera! I am finally able to really get back to photography and making memories of these great days!!!