New Year's Resolution 2015

I am easily discombobulated. I can be thrown off track with the flick of a notion. If I have too many things going on in my life, I feel scattered, disorganized. I've always been this way and even as a child endeavored to keep life simple. The calendar of events that exists in my imagination must be kept relatively clear. I don't like too many events, appointments, commitments, or I feel spread too thin.
The clutter in my house is a daily reminder that we have too much stuff. I've let my simple life get out of hand. The garage is full of knick knacks that my realtor husband uses for his work. All the bedrooms are chock full of clothes, books, reminders of life events. When I try to thin out our belongings my sentimental husband who grew up with very little steps in. He likes all the stuff. It reminds him of happy times and he's hesitant to let anything go. We still have the crib and our youngest is almost 13.
In talking to my sister on the phone yesterday she mentioned that her house is immaculate because she needs to keep it that way to feel organised, in control. So many things are beyond our control but a clean house is not. I've dropped the ball on this one. My house is not only cluttered but could use a team of house cleaners with mops, disinfectant, spot remover, and scads of garbage bags for the stuff we've accumulated. I recently posted a meme on Facebook that said I cleaned my house but then remembered we still live here.

We have two dogs, each 65-70 pounds who play and romp outside in our backyard. Trouble is that our backyard has very poor drainage and is now a field of muddy water in the Seattle winter rains. Although I built a bridge-like path across the backyard to higher dry ground, the dogs prefer to truck through the mud and then come inside with dirty paws. If the kids let them in, there are muddy prints everywhere. Such is life. What's that saying about the sign of a busy home is a messy house? Or is that a happy home? I worry that I'm paving the way for my children to be slobs. At least their future spouses will not be stressed to keep a tidy house. My son once commented on a friend's gorgeously immaculate house by saying it looked like no one lived there. Ha!


We live in our house. A little too much. As I type this the dogs are cavorting upstairs, barking and waking up the rest of the family with their damp feet pounding on the dirty carpet. The dishes lay waiting from yesterday, presents need to be put away from Christmas, laundry sits in three tubs at the top of the stairs and happy children sleep, unaware that their friends' homes are more organized and tidy because their mothers can keep their minds' thoughts categorized. I cannot. But the good news is that my family gave me a smart phone for Christmas and I now have a personal assistant to help me. Her name is Cortana.
And so, my New Year's Resolution for 2015 is to get rid of at least one third of our junk around the house, pare down, get lighter, sell things we don't use, give away the rest. I know that was last year's resolution and I did a bit but this is the year to get myself organized and in order to do that I need to be managing less stuff. Note to Cortana: Remind me in February, June and September to purge the house of unnecessary things. And remind me in March, July and October that I'm doing a great job.
Here's to ridding one mother of discombobulation! Welcome 2015 - the year of less stuff.

Gun Control

John Oliver is an interesting TV host, a spurn from the Daily Show with John Stuart, I believe.

As a parent, I fear for the safety of my children, even though the statistics tell me they'll probably be safe.
As a dual citizen of both Canada and the U.S., I wonder if it would be better to move to Canada seeing Baltimore Maryland has more murders in a week than all of Canada does in a year.
I believe you should always ask about the presence of a gun in a house before your child has a playdate at that house.
I'm horrified to see how easy it is for anyone to buy a gun in this country.
And I'm not afraid to say that when they drew up the right to bear arms, they lived in another day and age when personal protection was necessary in remote areas.

Why is it that other countries have strong opinions on what America should do to put a stop to all these school shootings but we vote to hold on to our right to bear arms, like it's every person for themselves here?

This is a troubling topic.

Kim