Getting there...

I was just looking over my posts and I was surprised to see that I've been writing here for almost 3 years.  Where did the time go?  I feel like I'm starting to get my stuff together.  You'd think that 3 years was more than enough time to get fit, organized, and healthy, but it's been a journey for me.  Baby steps here and there, and some steps backwards a few times too.  The important thing is that I am moving forward bit by bit.

I think I've come a long way in 3 years.  I've reclaimed my basement from the stuff that was piled there, gotten rid of a lot of stuff by donating it or just throwing it out (or recycling when appropriate).  I've been following a mostly vegan diet for a little over 2 years and I've been antidepressant free for about 8 months now.  Without the medications, I actually don't feel as depressed as I used to.  Funny how that works, isn't it?

I still have a long way to go, but I'll get there!  Overall, I feel a lot better than I did 3 years ago.  I think I'm more fun to be around too.  People don't tend to enjoy spending a lot of time with people who are negative, and I know I was very negative before.  I'm working on reducing stress and being more positive.  It's a process, but I find that it's helping.

I find this quote to be true:

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.  ~Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints, 1966

I would add that the same applies to husbands, especially if they are nerds and tend to accumulate a lot of computer stuff.

So, that's me for now.  Moving forward, step by step.  And now it seems appropriate to add this video:

Getting a Little More Organized

I haven't posted for awhile.  Before, if you hadn't heard from me for some time, it was likely related to my health or depression.  The truth is that lately, I've been busy doing stuff and that's why I haven't written!

My health continues to improve now that I am not taking anti-depressants.  It's been a slow process, but a good one.  I feel better able to cope with things now than I did a year ago.  Seven months medication free :)

I'm trying to do more now. It's all baby steps, but even a small step forward is movement in the right direction! Things have crept up on me around the house and I'm trying to take care of things slowly but surely. With the kids back in school, it's a little easier for all of us to have a routine. So far, we're a week into the school year and we are making the kids' lunches after supper. The kids have to help to pack their lunches and help decide what they'll eat. I find that if they have input into what goes in their lunch bags, they are more likely to eat the food. It helps when they can't say, "I didn't like it."

My youngest started off the first week by picking out her clothes the night before as well, but this hasn't happened for the last couple of nights. I'll have to remember to remind her tomorrow night. It makes for a calmer morning when there's no decision making pressure.

I'm also trying to involve the kids more in keeping the house tidy and preparing meals. I ask them to do age-appropriate chores, but my little one is good at disappearing when asked to do something. Today, she flat-out refused to empty the cutlery from the dishwasher, so we had a chat about how everyone needs to do their part to take care of the house. It can be a bit of a battle. I think we'll do more choices in the future. You can empty the cutlery from the dishwasher, or you can pick up the recycling. Something to help her feel like she has some power.

My next goal is to do some menu planning. I'm not sure the best way to go about it, but I've been looking for some ideas. Someone was telling me about once-a-month cooking and it sounded interesting. I'm not ready to jump in with both feet, but I'll do some more research. I think if I knew what was for dinner every night, it would reduce some of my stress too. So, that's me right now. Feeling better, smiling more, and getting a little more organized. One day, I may actually have my stuff together.

Side Effects of Getting Healthier

I figured it was time for an update.  I've discovered that there are some side effects to getting healthier.  I've been anti-depressant free for about 4 months now and overall it's been great.  I find that I feel better and now that I feel better, I want to do more.  It took some time, but we got our house mostly organized.  Of course, with 2 kids and a nerd in the house, there is always a sense of chaos, but we're getting there.

I started gardening again.  Before, I didn't have the energy to even think about how to tackle our over-grown garden and allergies kept me from doing much outdoors.  I cleared a big patch out and we planted watermelons, carrots, cucumbers and zucchini  (all seeds we had purchased before with good intentions).   Well, the carrots and the cucumbers decided not to make an appearance, but the watermelons and zucchinis are growing.  Whether we actually get any fruits is another question entirely.

In the garden, I tackled a giant rosebush this week.  This bush was here before we moved in 8 years ago and it has never flowered since we've been here.  There was a lot of dead undergrowth, so I cut it right back and hope that it will spring to life again.  It was a bit of a monster and I have the scratches to prove it.  Next step will be to cut back the lilac bushes that have been growing without being pruned.  Who knew that you needed to prune them?  Did I mention I don't really have much of a green thumb?

One thing that I have been learning is that I tend to forget that I have depression/anxiety.  I went through a really stressful time last month and it made me physically sick.  I was wondering why I couldn't handle the stress and I pretty much had to stop and think about it.  I had been feeling so good that it kind of slipped my mind.  Once I remembered and I cut myself some slack, I started to feel much better.  If it hadn't gotten better at that point, I was just about ready to visit my doctor and have a conversation again.  I'm glad that I didn't need to this time, and I'll be sure to monitor my stress levels a little more going forward.

One day, I want something like this in my garden!

Overall, I'm feeling good and I feel like I'm getting somewhere now.  I'm not sure where exactly I'm going, but that is half the fun!

Feeling Better, Getting Organized

I'm amazed by how much better I've been feeling lately.  A lot of it stems back to seeing the chiropractor.  I hadn't thought that it was possible to stop taking anti-depressants before I saw him.  In fact, I was asked to write a testimonial for him and I was surprised by what I had to say.

Before I went there, feeling lousy had crept up on me until it felt like it was normal.  I had no energy and I was pretty much a spectator in my own life.  Now I have more energy and hardly any pain.  I went from having headaches and migraines frequently to hardly any at all.  I don't remember when I last had a migraine.  I have a better range of motion and can now turn my head to look over my shoulder.  I couldn't do that before.  I'm not going to try to sell you on chiropractic, but I will say that it's made a huge difference in my quality of life.  The doctor I visit is part of Maximized Living.  Check their site for more information. I'm learning a lot about my body and health.



Since I'm feeling better, I'm finding that I'm getting more done around the house.  My best friend is coming for a visit in a few weeks, so I have a deadline for clearing up the clutter. I know that she won't care if my house is a mess, but I care and that's something that I didn't feel before.  I'm working in small batches, trying to clean up one small area at a time.  So far, I've gotten our dining room table 1/3 cleared off.  I hope to have it fully cleared off this week so that we can actually sit down and eat at the table as a family.  Somehow it became a dumping ground for everything paper related.  It's like a paper avalanche hit when I wasn't looking.  I may just have a dinner party when it's done!

Slowly but surely, I'm getting rid of the clutter.  I cleared out our front hall closet one night this week.  There were so many shoes that we couldn't close the closet door and since this is the first thing you see when you come in our house, it was pretty awful.  I found several single shoes that didn't have mates as well as all of our winter boots (which are now stored in the basement) and some shoes that the kids had outgrown.  It was a relief to be able to toss some old shoes and donate some of the nicer ones that the kids are finished with.  Now I can close the closet door!  Someday I'll have to go through the coats that are hanging there and the stuff on the shelves, but I'll get there.

Getting Healthy & Organized

So, I've been antidepressant free for about 6 weeks now, give or take. Things are going well for the most part. I feel like I'm finally getting my act together. I'm finding that my emotions are still really close to the surface. I used to tear up over things like a sad story on television. Now I'm tearing up over happy stories, sad stories, you name it. Sometimes I can't finish a sentence because what I'm saying chokes me up. But hey, I've got emotions!

PMS drug free is a bit of a roller coaster ride. I guess that my emotions are still leveling out a bit. Still having a few brain zaps, but they are no where near as bad as they were. I'm still working out a more normal sleep schedule. I find that I'll sleep for a couple hours and then wake up. Going back to sleep takes a long time. I just keep trucking along, hoping that things will sort themselves out. I had thought of taking melatonin to help with sleep, but reading up on it, I found that it may exacerbate depression in some people, so I decided not to risk it.

I'm starting to get a little more organized. It's something I really have to work at, it just doesn't come naturally to me. I'm trying to get into more of a routine and it's helping a bit. If I notice something needs to be done, I try to do it quickly rather than let it sit there. Sometimes it takes less time to do the job than it does finding reasons why I can't do it now. I find the biggest thing to deal with is paper. I hate all the paper clutter that is kicking around my house! Between old fliers, bills, junk mail, school notices and the like, I'm drowning. One plus is that one of the kids' schools is now putting the newsletter online--thank you! Now if we can just get them to reduce the call blasts to once a week! Slowly but surely, things are getting better around here. I'm starting to feel more comfortable in my skin and that is helping a lot. So, I'm getting healthier and more organized...still need to work on getting fit. Baby steps!

Getting Organized: Decluttering

OK, so we know that I fell off the exercise train again, but I've been pretty good about staying with decluttering. I honestly don't know how we've ended up with so much "stuff" in our little house. Stuff seems to own us and it seems to multiply when we're not looking.

I've taken 2 garbage bags full of clothes out of the closet my husband and I share. He has clothes that he has owned since before we got married 13 years ago, so I'm not sure how long he's really had them, but I put them in the bag weeks ago and he hasn't gone looking for them. Time for the bags to make the trip down the street to the Sally Ann.

My oldest daughter and I have spent some time decluttering her closet as well. We are blessed to receive a lot of hand-me-downs. I used to love getting hand-me-downs as a child and my kids love them too, but there comes a point when it's too much. We currently have more jeans and long sleeved shirts than she can possibly wear, so we're reducing what she has and donating the rest so that another little girl can have the benefit of them. We've got a box of "too big" clothes that will go back into the closet, and some "too small" that have been boxed up for her sister and a box of clothes to donate. Next step is to get her some pants hangers so that her dresser can be used for shirts and other stuff and pants can be hung in the closet. Her room is such an odd shape that it's hard to fit furniture in without taking up all the space. We have to get creative when it comes to finding ways to fit everything in without making it too cramped.

I'm still working on clearing out the basement for my office as well. It's a work in progress right now. When the kids go back to school, I will be able to spend more time down there purging and organizing. I just hope I don't get the news that they're ready to come and install my computer and stuff before I get a chance to finish or it's going to get chaotic! I've been able to source a floor mat for my office chair through freecycle, so that's one more thing off my list. Just need to pick up an office chair from my parents' house and I'm pretty much set.

My niece is sure to get tired of me bringing her toys for and other accouterments for her little boy. We've taken her a couple of boxes of things that the girls don't play with any more. Goodness only knows why we still had some of the baby toys, since my "baby" is now 5.

And that is my life right now. Planning on sending hubby to the Salvation Army today with a few boxes and a couple of bags. Once they are out of the house, there will be more room to get around things.