Road Trip Check-in
Good evening, Road Trippers! I hope y’all are having a blessed week. I am taking a short break from my clutter clearing project and coming up for air!
First things first. I shared last month that I started a 16-week fat blasting rotation to get ready for the Road Trip. I completed the fourth week Saturday morning. Since my last check-in, I did High Step Challenge Thursday morning, Stretch Max Friday morning, and the hi-lo segment from Christi’s Cardio Collectibles DVD plus Better Burn Better Buns Saturday morning. I decided to take a break from my planned rotation this week and just enjoy a few fun workouts. I am up to my butt in clutter, and I need to focus on getting ready for my mother’s visit. I reworked a 12-week rotation that I am planning to start on Mother’s Day. That will get me through the Saturday before the Cathe Road Trip.
Along with binge eating, obesity, and debt, clutter has been a strangling stronghold in my life. I do not fully understand why I do the things I do, but I hate living like this. I have been trying to dig my way out of this pit for years. I got my vacuum cleaner out of the closet and decided that a bulldozer would be much more helpful and effective! Over the past few years, I have made several attempts to break free from this overwhelming mess and transform my home into a sanctuary for my soul. I have never had any lasting success. I have made some progress. It is very similar to my weight in that I seem to be stuck in the middle. I am not where I was, but I am not where I want to be or need to be either. I am halfway between the starting gate and the finish line. I need to keep running with perseverance and finish the race.
Michelle from the Road Trip check-in recommended a book by Peter Walsh called It’s All Too Much. He is the professional organizer on Clean Sweep (which I never get to watch because I do not have that channel). I have read everything I could get my hands on through the years. I did not like the FlyLady’s approach that everyone else seems to love. Her constant e-mails are more clutter than they are worth in my opinion. I do not need reminders to shine my sink. I need someone to inspire me, hold my hand, and coach me through the process of clearing the clutter out of my home. I went to the bookstore after work Thursday and read the introduction of this book. It clicked with me, and I knew that I had to have this book. I love his humor and his writing style. He also answers questions I have always had like exactly what documents and financial records to keep and for how long. According to the test in this book, I am a hardcore hoarder. Of course, I already knew this! Shelley would need intense therapy after a visit to my home! Oh, wait, she is coming to Texas next spring. I need to start getting ready now!
I am making progress. Rebecca came over yesterday morning and helped me haul out all the stuff I had waiting by the front door. We filled her husband’s truck and the trunk of my car! I took a box of books to Hastings and sold them for $72.00!
I treated Rebecca to breakfast at Cracker Barrel yesterday morning and finally got to enjoy one of their wild blueberry muffins that I have been craving for a month. The grits actually tasted better than the muffin! My taste buds prefer simplicity now.
I need to return to my book reading and clutter clearing. I skimmed through the section on shoes. Peter Walsh has the audacity to suggest that I reduce my shoe collection. Step away from my shoes, Mr. Clean Sweep, and nobody gets hurt! I will freely admit that I have way too many socks. I sucked a pair up in the vacuum cleaner Saturday night, and it stinketh! LOL! I think I killed my vacuum cleaner. Death by sweaty workout socks!
I hope to check-in again Thursday night before Mom and her husband arrive. I need to focus and start stuffing the rest of this clutter back into closets and drawers. There is not enough time to deal with all of it in one week. It is a journey, and this home transformation project is even more challenging for me than my body transformation journey. I am hoping to be back on track with daily check-ins next week!
Blessings,
Heather B.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).
