plink plink plink

As I sit here and type I'm enjoying the plinking of the piano keys.

Paris and Pumpkin have both starting taking piano lessons. They have different teachers. Paris' teacher  has played in the Grand Ol' Oprey and the other is getting her Masters in Music from BYU. 

Since the girls are working with the same music I've just put it all in a backpack and included a notebook for instructions.

Paris sat down to play last week and noticed that Pumpkin (her little sister who is 6.5 years younger than her) is only 2 pages behind her.

She F.R.E.A.K.E.D!!! Panicked and screamed. She grabbed Pumpkin by the arm and demanded that she play those songs, name the notes and count the measures as she plays.

My response was a bit more composed........slightly. I laughed out loud.

I've had to poke, prod, demand, scream and yell to get the older one to practice. So I felt my response was justified.

Fast forward a few days later. Paris practiced a song that her teacher didn't assign. She passed it off. She was ecstatic. (but still only two songs ahead of her sister)

So since her last lesson she has been putting in no less that an hour a day in practice WITHOUT being asked.

So again, here I am enjoying the blissful sounds of plinking keys of the piano.

What I can't wait for, is us getting a house and having a baby grand piano for them to play on.

I've always loved loved loved to organize, reorganize, sub categorize stuff my whole life. I L.O.V.E. order and I love knowing where everything I own is.

I also love to hoard things. As a kid and being the 5th kid at that I felt like I often went without. To those of my older siblings who might read this, I did. YOU cannot deny that. To the younger one's, you were too spoiled rotten to see past your own wants.

So, hording and organizing. Since being married to my true love I've packed so much stuff into our 1500 sq ft. condo in Phx. Every square inch was stuffed (nice, neatly and organized).

Couponing didn't help that addiction any. I got SOOOOOO many good deals, SOOOOO many free things that I had to find a way to store them all.

Then we came to Ut. rented a 3600 sq. ft. place. 900 of it was for storage which I lovingly sorted, organized and reorganized into matching bins with beautiful labels.

Then to another temp house with only 2200 sq. ft. to fill and this I have done in a short 5 months. So here I've been trying to reorganize everything to fit snugly but organized into this place. Rubbermaid bins, baskets, buckets....you name it, I've got it and have it stuffed (but neatly).

I've been racking my brain on organization idea's to make it all work. Then passing by a blog orgjunkie.com   She had posted asking everyone to share their ideas of how they keep things organized and tidy. I of course wanted to share my wealth of knowledge. I clicked on comments and got ready to type when the comment above caught my eye.

"I'm done with organizing. I'm on a mission to de-clutter. It doesn't make sense to organize stuff that I don't need."

Holy cow. I couldn't believe my eyes. Did someone really write that? REALLY? After all this time I never thought about DE-CLUTTERING. I didn't feel like I'd ever had clutter. Everything has a cute box, bin, bucket or basket as a home so there is no clutter.  What I never realized until this point that stuff that I'm keep even if well organized, if it can't be used......it's clutter.

After reading this, I knew.  Here's the conversation that transpired with myself

I have clutter I told my self. I have stuff that I can't eat that I'm storing. I have pretty bins that will only be opened next year when I think I need to rewash all the items in there. I have baby items and ...........no baby.

Holy cow.

 I don't have a baby anymore.

All this longing for a baby and hanging onto all this baby stuff ISN'T going to bring me a baby.

 BUT Kevin Cosner was told, "If you build it, they will come." Wasn't it true about a baby? If I hold on to ALL the baby stuff, one will come........ right?

WRONG. So here I am. I'm on a mission to de-clutter. Not just the garage, kids rooms and craft stuff. I'm on a mission to de-clutter my life.

The clothes purging of 2010 was liberating. I don't know why I stopped there.

So here's the gist of it.

Merrell De-cluttering 2011

 IRA's 2010

Update emergency backpacks with pre-packed food supplies (so they are lighter and don't need to be rotated for 5 years)

Emergency Binder (just need to update)

Emergency water barrels

Year Supply in Daily Bread  (I love how easy and convenient you are. I won't have to think about you again for 25 years)

kick debt to the curb

 IRA's 2011

Get that house


See no room for crap in my life!

Days of the week

I just peeked in on Pumpkin to see how her morning routine is progressing. Same as usual but one thing I noticed is she's wearing her days of the week socks.

I remember buying them last week. She was ecstatic when we bought them since she would now have days of the weeks socks with fun colors, she would become a better speller for it and she would always know what day it is.

The funny thing about socks is, she's matching her outfits TO the socks NOT the socks to the outfits.

One would THINK it's easier to match a pair of socks to an ensemble but no. She painstakingly lined up the socks on her bed, pulled out shirts and matched the colors. She then put the rest of her outfit together.

She's certainly a fun kid. Now I'll never have to ask her to change her socks because they don't match. I'll have to ask her to change her shirt.

One must NEVER wear the wrong day of week sock, it's mess up the karma of the universe.