Everything Under the Son

So I am back posting about the sign again....remember, the sign I want to have made to hang next to Carson's picture. It will read:

Have I mentioned here that we are moving? Yeah, we are moving. For the first four years of our marriage, Nathaniel and I moved every year. It was work, but NOTHING like this time around. Let's just say that having been in one place for several years, and adding two children's things to the mix makes for some serious JUNK!!

I am cleaning out as I go. My new motto may just be, "Moving every few years is cleansing for the home". I know that as I am touching EVERY.SINGLE.ITEM in our home, I am considering whether or not it is worth keeping. Folks, I have too much JUNK!! I am accumulating quite the stack of trash, and it feels so good. Crazy, I know, but it does...it feels so good to be purging stuff we don't need anymore. You should really try it sometime! By the way, yes, this move is really feeding my love of all things organized. The joy I will get from giving everything a 'home' in our new home is going to be pure bliss...sigh :)

On that note, if I am absent from this little corner of the blogosphere for a bit, now you know why. I have locked myself in the new house and am having the time of my life cleaning and unpacking and putting everything in it's proper place! Hooray for moving!

First...Happy Father's Day to my two favorite dad's...my Dad, and the father of my children. You guys are the best!

Second...it has been a super long week, and this one promises to be just as long. Please know that by long I do not necessarily mean bad...just long and busy. We have been cleaning out, packing and trying to keep some semblance of order in our home. We have also had swimming lessons each day, as well as the typical errands to run and chores to complete!

Natalie is loving every single moment of swimming lessons, and is getting better each day. Personally, I never really had swimming lessons, so I still hold my nose with my hand while my face is in the water. Stop it! Stop laughing! I can't be the only thirty-something mom you know who still holds her nose when she swims...can I?

Levi is loving the summer. He is very much an outdoorsman...he enjoys playing outside in the dirt and mud. His blonde hair just keeps getting lighter as his soft skin continues to get more and more tan. What a cutie pie!

I will update again soon. I have some great pictures to post, and I will be enlisting your help for a caption!

Happy Monday everyone!

I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I want the sign to look like. I go back and forth between a wooden sign, and something a little more 'homemade' looking like a canvas or something. I just don't know...the possibilities are endless.

What I do know is that I am definitely getting the sign. Somehow, some way, I will have a sign in my home that reads:

I was reading a blog today and the author was talking about death, specifically the death of a child. He was quoting a plaque he had seen, and had modified it to fit his particular situation. I loved it...and I am modifying it to fit my sweet boy:

I am in the middle of a HUGE project. Some might call it spring cleaning, some might call it crazy, but I call it hard working fun! I am going through everything...and I do mean EvErYtHiNg!! I am cleaning out every cabinet-drawer-closet-stuff holder in my house. There is something cleansing about this kind of cleaning out. I love the feeling I get when things are freshly sorted, and all of the junk has been disposed of. Knowing I am not working-cleaning-living around things that I don't want-love-need is especially wonderful. Not to say that I still don't have my fair share of pack-rat-stuff...I definitely do. I am trying really hard to keep it under control though :)

I know you are asking yourself what is so profound about this. Well you see, here is the profound part. "When cleaning out/organizing, quality trash bags are key!"

Folks, don't be led astray. It is SO WORTH the extra money to buy good trash bags, especially when cleaning out and throwing large quantities of stuff away. Knowing I will make it all the way to the dumpster with my 'bag-o-trash' brings me a smile, and knowing that I won't be re-packing a new trash bag with everything that has fallen out of the first ripped up/torn up/blown out the bottom one makes me smile even bigger!

Profound - I Know!



**Edit**

Five minutes is all it takes for a child to find something they aren't supposed to touch, and touch it! Actually, five seconds is more like it, but here is a snapshot of the last five minutes here at the House of Jones:

I walked into the bathroom to find Natalie with her face covered on shaving cream, and she was shaving "just like Daddy does". I repeat, she was shaving her FACE!!

She runs out after I talk to her about it, and I hear her scream. I follow the sound of the screams to find that Levi has opted to 'help' me clean the toilet in the other bathroom. He neglected to notice that Natalie had forgotten to flush (and I don't mean #1 here people)! So yes, it was everywhere...and the smell was terrible!

Not five seconds later, I hear another scream, and find that Levi wanted to wipe his nose after crying when I got onto him for playing in the toilet with the toilet brush. Did you know that when you are two, you need HALF A ROLL of toilet paper to wipe your TINY little nose?

I get it all cleaned up to walk into the breakfast area where Levi has spilled and entire box of paper clips, and he is sweeping them under the rug so as to hide the evidence.

Ahhh...the joys of motherhood. You can laugh or you can cry...I am choosing to laugh. It prevents wrinkles you know :)

Well, this morning I had one well child - Natalie - and one sick child - Levi. This afternoon, it's two sick kiddos. Fever, chills, tummy troubles, all around crankies. Hopefully, with a little help from our friends, otherwise know as over-the-counter-pain-reliever, we will be in the mend soon.

Lots of stuff going on. Big-life decisions to make, hearts to mend, chubby Natalie and Levi cheeks to kiss, laundry to wash, books to read, blessings to be thankful for, smiles to smile and laughs to laugh, hands to hold...like I said, lots of stuff going on.