Spring Cleaning

My Pepper Jack South of the Border Egg Breakfast and Tropical Mango Smoothie with Roasted Vegetables for dinner, and you can sure bet I ate that WHOLE plate and drank that WHOLE drink!

Enjoy the last bit of National Nutrition Month, but be health conscious all year :)

Tomorrow I get to go to the State Capital to learn about Nutrition in Public Policy. Can I get a woop woop?

....Yeah, I wouldn't woop woop either.

National Spring Cleaning Week is coming up - March 30th through April 5th. http://springcleaningweek.com/

I'm not advertising for you to give a hardcore cleaning to your beloved home [although, hey, if you're up for the challenge go for it]. I'll be doing some housekeeping of my own, mostly with papers I've accumulated and the cans I've been neglecting to take to the recycling center. That's probably why my pantry smells a bit less than fresh. I digress. What I'm really getting at is the mental clutter and this four letter word that starts with an 's' and ends with a 't'. Everything accumulates. I recently saw the movie Up In The Air with George Clooney. He fires people for a living but he also does motivational speaking [while his messages are, ehem, wrong, they do offer a fresh look at things]. He talks about the weight of stuff and how if our house caught on fire we could do without everything that's burning down inside of it. Interesting how he mentions the photos are worthless but his character had no human contact of any real kind. So, that doesn't say much.

Things are that, just things. They weigh us down and hold us back. When I came out to Oklahoma I had a truck full of stuff, now to live properly I really do need dishes and towels and toothpaste, but all the extra things - the things that you can't seem to part with but have no desire to keep around are cluttering up our minds. I left a room full of things at home that are just like that. When I go home December 19th I'll be doing a deep cleaning.

Broken jewelry, birthday cards upon birthday cards that didn't stand out, unloved books on shelves, or my absolute favorite "I can't remember what this is but I'm sure I'll need it after I throw it away so I'll tuck it where I can't find it until someone asks Why did Dad keep this?" Dad, you are notorious for keeping things we don't remember what they're for. Now, books and tins are probably the one things I will not get rid of unless I detest them, mostly because when I'm old I'll probably become a librarian [I love the smell of the library, the solitude, the atmosphere, the organizational system, and on and on] and because tins are beautiful. Period.

Not only that, but as Lent is nearly complete we've been walking around with the weight of our sins on our shoulders. Having gone to confession yesterday I've begun my mental spring cleaning. I've started fresh. I'm cleaning out the emotional and mental gunk. Besides the trees are starting to bud, the weather is turning warmer, and people are emerging from their pent up homes. There really is no better time to clean out the cobwebs from our hearts and homes then when everything is starting over. Start moving around, exercising in the sunshine and sweeping out the corners. Open the windows and let the Vitamin D start working.

I read a book at the library, and I'm hoping it's Apartment Therapy Something Something [or I'll be sorry I forgot because that book's worth a second look]. It discussed making your home something you love to come home to, something you want to look at and feel serene, something that when you look at the shelves you don't wonder where all that crap came from. It goes with wanting only what you have and needing less. That makes me think about living for the future generations, saving the environment, and being a better person.

Speaking of being a better person, St. Lea [my confirmation saint] had her feast day Monday March 22nd. She came from a home of wealth but after her husband passed away she gave it all up and became a religious, living a simple life with few possessions and praising God. Most [not all] times I make a purchase I think about whether I'm living simply or not. I'm still working on it, it is a constant battle.

If and when you do your spring cleaning this year, I encourage you, as I am doing myself, to reevaluate what is important to you. Clean out the physical clutter, mental clutter, and emotional clutter. And I encourage you to really dust because if you're going to dust really well, make it on a day you'll probably be sneezing anyway.

P.S. I'm homesick. And as any less than stellar day can go, wondering where my life is taking me, praying fervently for clarity and patience, and knowing full well that my life is never taking me back to age 8 when spelling tests were all that mattered and splinters were the worst things in the world, well, besides getting sick the day before you leave for Disney World. I want to be 5 again because I trusted wholeheartedly that Mom and Dad would take care of everything and I wouldn't have to worry. Not about bills or loans, boys or sitting up straight, looking professional or the future...

MYLYB.