New Year, New Attitude

Wow!
This year has flown by already and I am amazed at the things which have happened (or not!). The children have all grown so much since January 1st and I seem to be stuck in a strange holding pattern with my teaching certification, weight loss, and simplifying of my home. Yes, I am trying to get it all done, but strangely I have been overtaken by a new obsession,(OCD is rearing it's ugly head). The obsession of clean and uncluttered flat surfaces! I know, this probably dosen't mean much to you, Dear Reader of the already uncluttered, clean house and flat surface type, but this is SIGNIFICANT to me!
I'm used to a fairly decently messy house where toys, stuffed animals, newspaper, and bodies are on the floor. The occasional couch pillow, blanket,another body, car keys, shopping cart and plastic container of cotton balls didn't bother me either, but now it distracts me and I HAVE to do something about it. There is NO tunnel vision to me, (unlike my other family members who seem to ignore and step over things, while stopping briefly to place an empty soda can on the counter when the recycle bin is only 6 feet away, my SON!) and I can't overlook it anymore. Right now, I am sitting at the dining room table and to my left, there is an empty small pizza container, basket of napkins(it belongs here), three books and a clipboard(my textbooks),ziplock bag of 2 day old cupcakes, little peoples smock, glass of water & cup of tea (both are mine), some V-day artwork, some stickers and my sons hat. This is so-ooo distracting to me and if I look up to the kitchen counter then I feel the tension mounting as I see more little things that could possibly push me to the brink of insanity!
I honestly don't know what or why this happened all of a sudden, but wait! I think I do know! As I have been doing my Montessori coursework, I have had this constant problem of losing whatever book that I am studying from. This has happened more times that I can count and it has annoyed Mr. so much that he requested that I buy a Kindle version so that I can't lose it and can read it on my pc or Kindle (yes, I succumbed to Kindle and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!), and he can stop having to hunt for it with me. (Sadly, neither of the books are electronic- boo hoo.) Now back to where I was....... Ummm. Okay. I lost my train of thought since looking at the counter- good grief! See, now you understand what I am saying? All this stuff is wearing me down and I can't seem to get rid of enough of it!
Oh, now I know where I was. I was talking about my teaching certification. So I am at the part of how environment effect learning and I am living proof of it and so is my family! Wowwee- we are all suffering from OJCS (Overstuffed Junk Clutter Syndrome). Distraction, stress, constipation (I just threw that one in there to see if you were actually paying attention-HA!), all of those symptoms that point to us as overwhatevered! So about 2 weeks ago I started 40 Bags in 40 Days again.http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/2011/03/one-week-from-now-40-bags-40-days.html I really enjoyed it and got rid of a lot of stuff. This time I am hell bent (is that a curse word?), on getting it done by March 5th. We have friends coming to stay with us for a week and I don't want to open a closet and be attacked by 40 rolls of toilet paper falling out of it! (And by the way, the toilet paper WAS on sale!) Besides the benefit of looking clean and tidy, my home should be peaceful to me and my family also.

Where did it all go wrong? By all means, I can't exactly pinpoint any one thing, but can point out at least 10.
-Baby dear came via c-section which spiraled me into a depressive like state of being since I wasn't capable of delivering her myself.
-I had 2 major thyroid surgeries in 15 days, leaving me unable to care for the 6 month old as well as lift anything heavy for nearly 2 months.
-Oldest child had a failed surgery to plug a hole in her heart.
-Husband had the same surgery- it worked and they fixed it.
-Oldest child graduated from high school. (I am now feeling old!)
-Financial problems with my family back in the states.
-My babies both started nursery school.
-Only son started high school and began his career as a slacker.
-I gained an enormous amount of weight since my thyroid meds have been unstable.
-My father's dementia worsened in a matter of weeks. He passed away right before Christmas.
-We went back to the states and realized how much we have become European.

There were lots of little things interspersed in there, but those on the list were the major issues. So I can say that I have had some pretty good excuses, don't you?
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So now that I have laid that on you- the blog that I wrote on Feb 1st, and currently it is March 4th, would you like to know how far I got on the 40 bag challenge?
33 bags of all shapes and sizes have left my home!! Books, clothes, recyclables, you name it- it is gone!
Is my house a little cleaner? Why yes it is and I am not done yet.
I have one more day to get there and by golly, I will!