Misplacing Control: March 2013

I have two beautiful children. My most important task in this lifetime is to raise them to be happy, productive members of society.
My hope is that they will find the happiness and love that I have found with their father. I wish for them to feel loved and to love unconditionally. I wish for them to experience parenthood if that is their choice. I wish for them to be able to choose who they love and who they commit to, regardless of that person's gender.
I strive to remain ambiguous in regards to our conversations about marriage and the kids' future relationships - I do not want my kids to ever think for a minute that I expect anything from them in terms of who they choose to be with.
I have a responsibility to support the progression of same-sex marriage. I want my kids to grow up oblivious to the idea that this country once tried to limit the happiness of any subset of the population. I want them to be just as surprised and horrified as I was when I heard of slavery.
To love and be loved - that is my wish for my children.

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We have lived in our house for a little over a year. Well, a little over a little over a year at this point! Our moving experience was a bit frantic, to say the least. We moved from our house to our apartment when I was 24 weeks pregnant and then from the apartment to our house when Ellen was 5 months or so. Needless to say, unpacking took a backseat.

Now that the kids are a bit older, I am working hard to finally get this place organized! We have plenty of space and one of my main motivations for moving was to have an organized living space - a place for everything, and everything in its place. Operation Organization is in full swing!

I have been working my way through the house. I redid the playroom and moved all of the obsolete toys into the basement. I went through the kids' closets and moved all their outgrown clothes into the basement. I went through the china cabinet and moved all of the unused items into the basement. I went through the butler pantry cabinets to make space for those things I don't want the kids to have easy access to (art supplies, things with small pieces, projects, etc) and moved the extra stuff to the basement. I went through the cabinets and cleaned out the sippy cups, dishes, and "junk" cabinet and moved all of the stuff to the basement. See a theme?

Now that all of the major organizing projects are done throughout the first two floors of the house, it is time to move onto the big one - the basement. I began on President's Day - I had the day off and I sent the kids to daycare anyways. It was a LONG day of moving things, going through things, and cleaning. But finally I began to see the floor. I made it through the corner, the freezer area, and the shelves before going to get the kiddos.

Over this past weekend, I made it through most of our tubs, reducing our "sentimental" items down to 3 tubs. I found office supplies that were packed before we moved into our first house! Eek!

Today I took another day off and finished (mostly) the project. We now have a storage space, a tools/equipment space, and a consignment space (I sell a lot of the kids' old stuff at the Just Between Friends consignment sale). Above all else, I know where things are! Want Easter decorations? I can do that for you without spending a day or injuring myself getting to them. :)