Losing 236 Pounds

I checked a book out at the library by Don Aslett called Lose 200 Pounds This Weekend. It is a book about decluttering your life. He talks about how “stuff” can take away our freedom, waste our time, make us feel hopeless and depressed, make us fight all the time and make us inefficient. It is making me want to GET RID OF MOUNDS OF STUFF! I started the dejunking, decluttering process just before Christmas and gave myself a goal to lose 200 pounds by Valentine's Day. My total pounds lost was 236! I started with my children's bedrooms, one bedroom at a time. The owner of the bedroom got to help with this task because my goal was to declutter AND teach each one of my children how to get rid of the things they don't need or use. They each got to keep 7 shirts and 7 pants (not including summer clothes because those are packed away) and give the rest to charity or to someone who needs the clothes more than we do. We are so blessed and they now get to feel the joy they receive by sharing the wealth. They also got rid of any toys that are broken or that they don't play with. This was by far the hardest part for ME, not them. When they would say, "I don't want that toy anymore," I would say, "Are you sure?" It killed me because I knew when they had gotten each toy and how much it had cost. A few toys weren't even a year old! It was a powerful reminder that overindulgence runs the risk of less playing and a desire for even MORE stuff! Here is Abby's pile laid on her bed. Imagine how packed her closet was with all this stuff. This is nothing though. Bastian and Weston's closet was the worst. Here is the pile she decided to get rid of. She could barely hold that basket there while on the scale because it was so heavy!

Here is her closet after we were finished. Doesn't that just make you FEEL better? It does me!

Here is Bastian and Weston's room. Their closet was FILLED with stuff!

Weston had a hard time holding the "give away pile" as you can see by the pained expression on his face.

This is Bastian and Weston's closet after the cleanse.

Hayden's turn brought out the treasures that I posted in a previous entry.

We found the game Battle Tops in the top of his closet that was forgotten about. The kids played it during a short break from the organizing.

Hayden's closet afterward looked the most bare out of all our closets. That's what happens when you're the oldest and you don't have any second hand clothes trickling down from your siblings.

The last project was the basement playroom. We made three piles labeled: keep, give away, and throw away. Weston was the only one that had a hard time parting with toys. He wanted to keep the broken ones, and the ones he NEVER plays with just because, "these are our toys."

Working together was so enjoyable. The kids would say and do the funniest things. Each one has a GREAT sense of humor. Rob and I often comment to one another, "We have really GREAT kids." It was a excellent feeling to be rid of our unneeded excess. I can't tell you how much easier it is to keep the house clean, or for the kids to put things away by themselves because the task doesn't seem so intimidating.

Our Garden

Our garden did really well this year. We ate raspberries, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, beets, peppers, and onions. We did get to eat a few zucchini before Turk mutilated the plant. Two of our grape plants are yellow because Turk pulled them out and laid on them. We reburied them, but I'm pretty sure they aren't going to make it.
Our tomato plants got huge, and produced many tomatoes.

Our garden wouldn't look so good if it wasn't for our gardener. Here he is trimming the grass around our square foot garden boxes. He sure is cute....I'm in love.

My First 5K

I ran my first 5K this month. It was the Art City Days fun run/walk. It was raining the whole race and my coat was soaked by the end of the race. I ran it with my friend Emily Gunderson. She was so nice to run with me the whole way even though she could've left me in the dust....or the mud. My hair looks curly from all the rain. I ran it in 33 minutes and 28 seconds. There was a six year old that finished the race right behind me. He told his Mom that it was a easy to medium run...but mostly easy. To me it wasn't THAT easy. Three miles feels like a long way to me! That's probably why I am so pleased with myself. We stayed for the prize drawing after the race, but Emily and I didn't win any of the big prizes....and there were MANY. We did catch a couple of frizbees thrown into the crowd and I caught a little blue football as well. I went home happy because I had reached my goal of running a 5K this summer.