Remember how I told you about my horrid tooth extraction? Well as a result of that my house is a total clutter pile right now. I am usually not super organized or clutter free by any means but things have just piled up.

So to be fair for a change I thought I would be really brave and show you my dining table. (YIKES)  It is seriously there even topped with a gorgeous table cloth.  All five chairs are even buried in clutter.

While my entire tooth episode lasted two full weeks I have to admit some of the items you see on the shelf above the radiator have been there a long time.  I mean a very long time.

My family lacks a plan for clutter control.  I can see my coupon inserts that someone pulled out of the Sunday paper so they could at least recycle one weeks worth of papers before bringing in the new ones to plop on the table.  Hey they are kind of close to the coupon box that is sitting on the table too right?

In all seriousness however this is an issue that bothers me deeply.  I am for the most part the family member that doesn’t routinely leave the house.  I often begin to feel trapped among the clutter.  Keep in mind that is just the dining table.  I have several of these hot spot areas throughout the house.

Right now it doesn’t feel like there is a clutter free room but I have a couple that are much closer than my dining room.  I have been working on going through items I no longer use and taking them to a consignment store in the next town.  While I am not making a fortune at this I am making a little bit and purging some of the things in my home.

I do find it overwhelming to sort items but I know in the long run it is so worth it.  Do you have any ideas on how to declutter when things feel overwhelming.  I often struggle with where to start because seriously it surrounds me.  Not everywhere but in every room.  Not one place drives me more nuts than the others.  I really just have no plan and am at somewhat of a loss of where to start.

Well off the computer and onto the clutter at least a little.  Please add some comments without being too harsh on me!

Two weeks ago I went to the dentist on an emergency basis with excruciating pain in one of my molars.  Fortunately that tooth had previously had a root canal and that minimized some of the pain but the worst was yet to come.  There was not enough time to deal with extracting my tooth that day so I was sent home with a poor excuse for pain medication to deal with the next two days.

Two days later I returned to have a routine molar extraction.  It took four shots just to sort of numb up my mouth and the horrors began.  {If you get queasy easily please stop reading}  [Read more...]

This post isn’t to burst anyone’s bubble but rather just to say what I am seeing around me a lot lately. As a blogging community there tends to be an honestly about things like post partum depression but I yet have to see a post about any holiday blues.

Most of us dig out the tree and the lights and bake cookies, turkeys or whatever the holiday entails. However with the economy still rough I watch families struggle to find the meaning in Christmas instead of just seeing what they feel like they cannot accomplish.

Personally, I didn’t grow up with a lot at Christmas as far as gifts and such but I was always reminded that there were families much worse off. I have tried to pass that onto my own children. This year is extremely hard for my family. We have lost both my grandmother and my mother-in-law in the past 5 months.

While Christmas is fast approaching, many in my family are feeling a gap where people were and memories remain. My tree is up but the lights are only half working and I can’t seem to get my family to help locate the burned out bulb. That one bulb sets off the rest of the lights on the tree and part of it doesn’t light up.

I watch my mother and my husband whom have just both lost their mothers and they feel a little like the bulb right after the one that burned out. They are still in working order but just don’t light up due to the one before them passing on. My heart breaks as I follow up on that string of loved ones and I wish I could fill in the gap and bring the light back.

I don’t have the answers only God does but somehow I want to just see a spark for Christmas that this too shall pass. I think I just might not fix the broken bulb this year and continue on decorating the tree. Right now it stands free of decorations kind of like the joy that is missing on faces. Maybe if I put up the decorations but leave the bulb alone I can remind myself that we can choose to have some joy in the midst of a difficult time.