A little organization project...

The school year (read: my job) ended on the 18th, so I am just beginning to experience three full months of no work duties.

Side Note: This is a little unsettling to me.  I tried to trace back to the last time I had an entire summer off - no school, no job - and I think it comes down to the summer between 5th and 6th grade.  Right after sixth grade I started baby-sitting approximately 24 hours per week during the summer, so it's been 16 years!

Anyways, with this blessing of time, I have no excuse for a messy house :)  I finally tackled our hallway "closet" (it's really just a built-in cabinet and drawers) today.  This built-in stores mailing supplies, board games, and gift wrap supplies.

 Clearly, the gift bags and tissue paper are the problem here.  I pulled everything out and laid it on our guest bed as I sorted, folded, and tossed.  Then I put everything back in an orderly fashion.

Here is the end result:

The games stayed untouched on the bottom.  The next shelf up became mailing supplies and spare small boxes that can re re-used.  The third shelf has a gift bag containing non-Christmas gift bags, and a paper bag with folded tissue paper that has been organized in rainbow order :).  The top shelf holds Christmas gift bags, a grocery bag of bows and ribbons, and Christmas cards that we bought on clearance in January.  The empty product boxes that were on the top shelf (things that I want to toss, but my husband feels we should keep) were moved to the very top cabinet.

It's a big improvement, right?  I'm proud of my work!

Encouragement

I needed some encouragement regarding our infertility today, and thought I should share these links with you all.  I have these bookmarked and refer to them often when the enormity of our infertility seems like too much.

Tears and Hope: The Infertility Awareness Project Beautiful video designed to raise awareness about infertility. I haven't done the whole testing/diagnostics aspect, but I can relate to the rest of what the video mentions.  The music is so beautiful.

Seasons of Life My favorite.  I found this on an adoption blog for waiting families over a year ago.  I couldn't sleep because our inability to conceive was weighing on me, and I was just plain hurting.  This was what I needed to hear.

I may forget, but luckily He never does Resolving infertility comes at a cost. This article is great and putting it all in perspective.

Blessings.  You are not alone.

Mother's Day for the Infertile

My heart goes out to any other ladies struggling with infertility on this day. 

It stings a little, but I am thanking and praising God for the strength He is giving me.  I am doing so much better on Mother’s Day today than I was just two or three years ago.  In fact, it was three years ago that I told my husband I wasn’t going to church on Mother’s Day until I was a mom, because it just hurt too much to see all the moms get recognized while I bit my lip and struggled not to burst into tears.  By His grace and strength, I went to church today, and it didn’t really bother me when mothers were acknowledged at the end of the service.

I'd like to close with what a good friend of mine had as her Facebook status this day last year.  She and her husband struggled with infertility as well, adopted, and now have two grown-up daughters:

“Happy mother's day to all the moms, grandmothers, and to all those who long to be a mother.”


This post is linked to Modest Mondays