Purging

I made the decision early on in the moving process that I would carefully purge everything that we were moving.
I further vowed that not only would I purge as I packed, but also I would purge as I unpacked.

I've now been in my home for two weeks (hallelujah!), and there are still a myriad of boxes to be unpacked.
Yesterday, as I was moving the boxes in my bedroom for the 3rd time (once to organize them after the movers, once for painting, and again to the outer walls so we could walk easily into the room), I had the thought, "Why don't I rip all of these boxes open, dump everything into a pile and just be done "unpacking"?"
The thought was tempting.
It would be a great feeling to have every box unpacked.
However, I know that I would shuffle portions of that huge pile off into recessed corners, closet tops and hidden areas of my home, and I don't want to live in disorder again.

I have without hesitating, thrown away (or marked for give-away) 2 trash bags (and sometimes more) from each room that I have unpacked.
It feels so good to keep only what I love and what is special to me and my family.
It has already been a positive enough experience, that despite the fleeting thoughts, I am still committed to unpacking in a way that is orderly and measured, in a way that will result in the end result that I truly desire.

When I am finished, I want to be able to say, "I have 'organized myself; prepared every needful thing; and established a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God' (reference to D&C 88:119)"
It is a grand goal, and much of that goal will not be apparent today or tomorrow, or even in months to come.
However, without the goal, there will be no striving to better myself, and truly, I need to be bettered (as do we all).

Here's to unpacking...and here's to purging!

Hiking and Painting

On MLK day (Civil Rights Day), we all went on a hike into the San Tan Mountains near our new home in Queen Creek.
It was a beautiful for January, and even though the kids complained a good part of the way up, they were all glad we hiked on the way down.I snapped this picture as we were walking back to the car.
I thought it was beautiful.

Last Saturday, we spent the day painting 4 of the 7 rooms we want to get painted.

We had LOTS of help from my sister's friends (Thanks to ALL of you who came), and a sister from our ward came and helped out too.

I was VERY touched that so many people were willing to come and help out people they have just met.

What a blessing to get so much done.

This picture captures how I spent a lot of my day (multi-tasking). And...what happened when I sat down in a soft chair upstairs late that afternoon.