Almost summer!

Occasionally in life there are events or periods that cause you to doubt everything you know to be true, reevaluate your vision for your life, and begin to recreate many of the habits and routines you run as you move forward. These last few months have started one of those cycles in my life. Despite a challenging year at school and a few personal struggles that have spurred my chain of thoughts, I am grateful for the opportunity to refocus my life and become a better wife, mother, friend, and teacher to everyone close.

Learning that…

·      We need a weekly routine

·      We need a clearly defined budget and a way to track it

·    We need a 5-year and 10-year plan so that we know how to get from now til then

·      I need to take time for me

·      There are non-negotiables in life…I just need to figure out what they are

·      We need more active time

·      We need to spend more time with friends

·      Life is too short to try to be someone I’m not

  ·    Blogging is strangely therapeutic, even if no one reads it! :)

   I am SO looking forward to summer break. More than any other year I need to clean, sort, purge, and organize both at home and at school so that next fall I can feel that I'm stepping forward with a fresh start. There are SO many things I'm excited to begin, especially now that I've found Pinterest and many inspirational blogs. I may be crazy, but I'm going to clean out half our basement (I'd do the whole thing, but Jim's shop is on one side), finish organizing our office, spring clean every other room in our house one at a time, finish the last flower bed in the backyard, and move and "zone" everything in my classroom to another room while getting all these crazy good ideas I've found online ready to put to use. I'm praying that I can actually get through all that and maybe even throw in a few "pinteresty" projects, turn 2 years of pictures into Shutterfly books, learn how to take full advantage of everything my new laptop has to offer, read a few books, and spend all kinds of long-awaited summer bonding time with Josiah. Basically, I just need to spend my summer doing things that I enjoy (yes, I'm type A and all that organizing makes me happy) and regaining control of the things I've let go. Even though I already know I won't get to everything I'd like to, the next few months will still be amazing! Wish me luck!!!

Here's the first project I tackled:

Before (roses, rocks, a few dying tulips, and our little tree)...

Add these beautiful flowers from Baker (my favorite nursery in town)...

Haul my grandparents birdbath from the back yard to the front and you get...

A better balanced flower bed that will be much fuller after a few months of sun and TLC (minus the dog, who stepped in just in time to block my pots)!