Saturday

     Today began very busy as every Saturday does.  We wake early to be at Mareea's soccer game by 7:45.  Afterwards we head to the ballet/art studio where Thea and Mareea take art and Evangeline has her ballet class.  Immediately following, Thea and Mareea have their ballet class and Evangeline and I have some fun Mama and me time.  Today we walked to pick up some food for a teacher and to the Subway for mama.  I would have gotten some fast food, but I'm trying to eat healthy.
     It's back to the My Fitness Pal ap.  My weight and eating had been getting pretty out of control.  I honestly did not care what I was eating or what it did to me, I just ate.  But then I started to feel really bad.  Like, I need to lie down twice a day because my soda just crashed on me bad.  Of course I cannot lie down during the day so I knew I needed to figure out something.  On a whim I got out of bed on tuesday and did the elliptical for 20 minutes.  It burns a lot of calories and I can watch a video or listen to music so it was "safe" enough for lazy me.  Now it is Saturday and I have worked out each day and recorded my food with My Fitness Pal.  I feel so much better.  I am thankful that God gave me the grace and help to get started and am praying He will help me to keep it up. 
     Thea and Mareea both did so well in their soccer games today.  Mareea actually scored 5 goals.  She is so aggressive on the field...toward the ball, not the other girls...and really gives it her all the entire time she is on the field.  Thea scored also and did some great passing and amazing footwork.  It's been fun to watch them play, but we have decided to take next season off.  We really are needing to spend some time together as a family and want to do more "Hawaii" things like surfing, the beach and hiking. 
     I have been reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.  It is very inspiring and I am very excited to finish it and get to tidying!  Tidying in this book is actually decluttering.  The focus moves from "what should I give away?" to "what should I keep".  The way she tells us to determine what to keep is to hold each item in your hand and see if it "sparks joy".  If it does not, thank it for a job well done and move on to the next thing.  There is a lot more to it like separating things into categories instead of going room by room, but that's sort of the gist of it.  I already can feel myself wanting to make exceptions, but I'm really going to try not to!  My heart has always wanted a very simple and uncluttered space and I really think this is the way to do it. 
     Recently I have been considering buying my favorite books (novels) that I own on kindle and buying them in paper back.  This seems counter productive to "tidying", but these are the books that I like to read and re-read and there are only about 10 of them.  Maybe after I have "tidied" all my books I will see how I feel about it then.  And that could take awhile!  We have so many!  I have to laugh a little thinking about if the kids' math teacher's guide will "spark joy" or not.  Ha!  Actually, their curriculum are all in pretty colored hardbound books and I love the way they all look together on the homeschool shelf so that teacher's guide might actually be safe! 
     There is a trip planned in October for me to go home with Thea and see Anne and my family.  While I look forward to seeing everyone, I am a bit terrified at the though of leaving my family.  These kids.  I really love them. 
     I am going to go try and get through some more of my tidying book.  Hopefully I can keep the blog updated on my progress as I get to tidying and bring joy into this house!