Monday, June 04, 2007

GETTING MY LIFE ORGANIZED

I am by nature a perfectionist. (Alright - already - I can hear those who have known me in recent years yucking it up!!!!) I am a RECOVERING Perfectionist. I learned years ago that I was making my family CRAZY by my need to organize, plan, have every thing in its spot etc. I would chase around after them picking up dishes before they were through, moving newspapers when they got up to get a new glass of milk...that sort of nutso. I relaxed the standard. We no longer aim for perfection - excellence will do. We also loosely describe excellence in some seasons of our life. ::snort:: BUT I, personally, still feel better with lists, schedules, plans, CLEANLINESS......so I'm out to get my life back under control after the past few whirlwind months.
To manage as many circles of life as I do - I NEED TO BE ORGANIZED. I've been sick, not well, had major events, the miscarriage - frankly it was time to organize. So I spent the day working on getting my life back. Unfortunately that meant another day on the PHONE. I needed to organize co-op things, chapel things, school things, online things....and GRRRRRR Vacation things.

I had no idea what time it was until Mike arrived home and suggested we do THIS for dinner (two older boys were working):

Zander played a charming doorman

Then we came home. I set about to check more off the "to do" list. Mike and Jared went to get gas. I received a call and for the first time EVER Mike had locked his keys in the vehicle. We hopped in the Honda and went to the rescue.

Back home Mike and Jared helped me out of the "nothing to blog" dilema. Seems Cadet G of the Civil Air Patrol was told to lose the facial hair before Thursday.

Here's our traditional "it's time to shave" photo - Jared and Mike

Jared assures Mike he knows what to do with a razor!


And Stacia brings polish to Arielle for help with Chigger Relief, she had one on her tummy

A photo from Friday's Movie Night....note the polish on Arielle's neck. LOL Other daily tidbits: we cleaned, drained and moved the kiddy pool. A dove had dived into it and met its end. We got a bit of our "summer school" done. I found myself out buying Benadryl at 3:30 a.m. The ONLY time to shop at Walmart! ::snort::

Jared did another two lawns.

I'm looking for rental cars. Has anyone found a great spot for THAT - like maybe CRBO (Car Rentals by Owners)? ::snort:: I'm not sure if it's because we are trying to rent a car in Anchorage or because of the time of the year - but I KNOW we paid about 1/2 this cost when we were traveling two years ago. Anyway, if you have any tried and true site or such leave them in the comment section - ok? Or we may hitch hike while in Anchorage. LOL

Jamin and Josiah are home from work...time to bring this to an end.

12 comments:

Cynthia said...

Ah man.. .do they HAVE to keep growing up so fast??? Can't a few of them stay young?

Kelly said...

Ahhh! Zander looks like Mike in that picture by the door!

Love the shaving photo! Jordan would NOT let me blog his last year. Isaac said the same thing...no blogging of the shaving photo!

Isaac's decided to hold off on Civil Air Patrol for now. He is not ready to cut his hair. He told me he'd have to grow up soon enough lol. So......we wait, which is fine with me. I do not want to drive an hour + for something he isn't in love with doing.

Your girls are adorable!

Michelle said...

De'Etta, are we sisters? Omgosh, I, too, am a recovering perfectionist. When our 3 newest additions came home within a week of each other, I felt overwhelmed trying to keep up with the organizational end of things.

After we get back from vacation and Kaila's graduation and party are over, I plan to get back on track....the websites shared in the comments section will be a big help to me.

What do you do with ALL the clothing? Last year I bought bins to put clothes (off season & hand me downs for the next two boys) but I've not been able to keep up with it.

Cynthia said...

Debbie,
I don't have near the # of kids that DeEtta has, but I keep the clothes from our oldest dd that are in good enough shape to be worn again in plastic totes organized by size for storage until they're old enough for our next ds to wear. I keep the shoes and coats in a different tote because they seem to get missed in time to wear when I have them mixed in with the clothes.

Cynthia said...

DeEtta.
We've also been using our summer break to get the house reorganized and ready for the school year. I always go through one room a month and "detail" it... but the amount of time seems to be less and less as the school year wears on and the once a month eventually ends up being barely a touch the surface. So far we've been through 2 rooms since school ended! WHOO HOO! At this rate, I *might* make it through all of the rooms before school starts again.

Kristine said...

Okay, I was surprised that you are a perfectionist. But that's because I know how rigid perfectionists can be, and you are FLEXible!!

Isn't it sweet when the little boys begin to realize what they can do for others?!

You are blessed with Jared--wow, I can't imagine one of my kids saying, Okay, Mom, take pics of me shaving, lol!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Oh Jared has watched us document his two older brothers. This is a milestone around here...the next one is reaching 6 feet....which so far they all seem to do.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Oh YES Kristine...I'm very flexible now muhahahaha.....but that is because I HAD to be - I really WAS making my family crazy. I was driving my husband nuts and creating neurotic children. I had to learn to be flexible..set my expecations lower for the health of us all. LOL

Deja said...

MORE Benadryl?! What have I created?! I'm glad you're finding relief in that stuff...hope you bought 2 so you don't have to run out at 3:30 am again. But I bet it was nice and cool outside. ;-)

Romany said...

Hey, there are worse things to be than a Recovering Perfectionist.

I'm a Failed Perfectionist, in that I can't even do that properly.{g}

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Deja - I NEVER take meds (except my thyroid) and you know what? That benadryl worked wonders though only about 5 spots are itching today so I'm putting it up....it also made me SLEEP. Which is a good thing - I'm sort of high energy. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

LOL Dorothy.