Raising our pod full of peas: November Was Rough

I'm sorry I stopped writing a bit. I just didn't feel led to write. November was a month where my body went back into shock seeing all the videos and pictures of Finnley flooding into my facebook memories and Timehop app. It has no been almost 30 days of this and I have grown a bit more used to seeing them and am having a bit easier time coping with seeing them. I know in less than one month they will all disappear until next November.

Life has been sort of status quo, but not really. We are up to more big changes that I can't say yet. I will post more about those after Christmas. It is really exciting stuff for our family though. We will be ringing in 2019 with a lot of new plans!

Projects around the house are continuing at a pace slower than I wish they were, but honestly Nate is kind of a one man island with these improvements as I am not really skilled in areas of painting, laying flooring and building new kitchens haha. He is working tirelessly and has been for months now on the remodeling. The pics show progress and change, but we are still a ways from done. The main goal is before Fynnick's arrival.

As he has been working through remodeling, I have been working through an intensive minimalizing/decluttering plan in our home. I purchased a label maker and became obsessed with labeling every cabinet, drawer, pantry, closet, kid's rooms, etc. I love to feel the belongings we do have are organized and controlled. I cannot handle stuff controlling us and it has been intensely freeing to purge. I would say I started 6 weeks or so ago and I have dropped several market van's full worth of stuff to goodwill. I have thrown as many huge, black garbage bags out as I have donated. I am not even done. The more I declutter, the more addicted I become and the more stuff I realize we do not need. It is so nice not to be searching amongst "stuff" for what you actually need. I tossed one of the big barbie houses along with a LOT of toys from Madelynn and BryleeAnne's room. I did it during school and apologized when I picked them up. I was worried, but I knew I couldn't do it with them home or we would have kept everything. I was so proud of their reaction and honestly relieved........Madelynn shouted, "Oh thank God, less messes in my room." It was amazing to see that even a 9 year old could feel freed from the chains of "stuff" by tossing and donating it. There were no complaints or sadness when they got home and checked out their now very minimalistic room.