I can not believe it is nearly over. As usual, I set out with some major goals. Why, oh why, do I do this to myself? I think I’ll have a goal for next summer to not have any goals. Kind of like Chris giving up Lent for Lent. It totally makes sense. Live in the moment, right? I just can’t figure out how those minimalist live in the moment types ever get anything accomplished. I need to know exactly what counts as the moment. Can I plan my day? Anyway, here is a rundown of my intentions:

Visit England.
Visit our friends in Nebraska. Well, not visit Nebraska, but actually see the friends. It isn’t their fault they have to live in Nebraska.
Replace carpet.
Plan and complete summer learning lessons weekly. Hahahaaaahahaaaahhaaa! Killing myself over here.
Swim twice/week. Maybe we could have tried harder here. It’s hard when one of us gets a vag infection every time we go swimming. Especially when Chris gets one.
Repaint stairs.
Stick to a strict screen time schedule. The kidlets had so much screen time this summer I am embarrassed to even think about it. Have I told you that Em won’t exit the house until 7pm. It’s too freaking hot before that. This really limits our outings. Best quote of the summer (by Em) “I can’t go outside when the temperature is over 75 degrees. I get low blood pressure and can’t move my legs.” I totally get it.
Get private practice going! Okay, well, I do have the office. I have the day. I do not have anything scheduled. Next week, I promise.
Walk dogs daily, exercise for us both. Bwhahahahaaaa…again, laughing. It’s too freaking hot. Then it’s late. And the snakes. I watched a rattlesnake slither across the road in front of our house while driving home one night. I’m not even afraid of snakes, but rattlers give me nightmares. Literally.

So technically, we did live in the moment. Totally Zen. Here is what we did instead of all those boring things:

Bear Lake:

We started strong. The first weekend of summer break was spent with some friends at their cabin at Bear Lake. Totally fun. Totally sweet of them to host us. Funny, we didn’t get invited back.

It isn’t easy to see, but I did find a yummy-scrummy baby to hold…

Both kids decided kayaking is awesome!

And both dogs decided swimming is fun!!

Konmari

I joined the Konmari bandwagon. If you don’t know what that is, you must not have spoken to me this summer. Basically, you stop organizing your stuff and work on having less stuff to organize! It was amazing, really. I kept a journal as I went through it, and I could go through it again. So. Very. Cathartic. I started with clothes. You take each item and decide if it sparks joy. No? Then out it goes. I got rid of so much. My life was only improved, it has been easier to keep tidy, and I have done far less impulse shopping. Like none. I had a few emotional moments. I felt so much guilt for collecting so much. I realized that I collect this stuff as a little wall around myself. It was all of my icky emotions I let go. I only kept the good ones. Now, I did join a facebook group to discuss progress. Those people are koo-koo. Like KM’ing husbands and showing their saved pregnancy tests to total strangers. I KM’ed them.

my beginning clothes pile

My first throw-out. Funny…I was keeping this shirt because it used to belong to my dear friend in England. As it held it, I felt so much saddness as I thought about missing her. Then, I realized that she gave me this shirt because it was clingy and hung weird. I never wear it because it is clingy and hangs weird. It’s not like she hand stitched it with her love and tears. She was throwing it away and I grabbed it. Jesus. Out it went. (I still miss her.)In the end, I had loads of extra drawer space. I didn’t need any more containers! This was just the beginning.