For Sale

There's a website called Captureyour365.com.  It's for photography.  There is a monthly list of prompts for those who want to play along and capture their 365 days of the year in photos.  I like the idea but have never been able to stick with it for long. So I've decided to make it my own.  To change it to suit me better.  I want to use words sometimes.  Most times really.  If you get a photo to help illustrate then all the better.  So starting today, or really yesterday, here's some of my 365.

The prompt for today is "For Sale"

I thought on it all day yesterday and it just seemed so... blah.  Until this morning.  I woke up, looked around my house and thought about the cost of life.  Of living.  Of taking care of things and ourselves.  These last few days I've put a lot of housework on the back burner.  And in the spirit of authenticity, I cannot say it was all for a good cause.  Sometimes I just couldn't do it and didn't feel a need to.  Other times I was overwhelmed by the seeming enormity of it all.  And then others I opted out because what I really wanted was to indulge in the last photo of today's series.  The book.  Oh how I love to read.  And on some days, any book will do.

This is the table in my downstairs living room.  The one that used to have a greater purpose aside from the holder of things that I don't want to deal with quite yet.  Weeks my friends, weeks.

I swear I never get things put in the proper place.  Books, fabric, chargers??  It all has a place but this one is so much more convenient.

AT least one of these things will get moved from the surface of my desk as early as tomorrow.  Why?  Because it's that striped green thing that holds James's diapers... I'll need it for church.  Everything else... anyone's guess.

Due to desk and table overflow... this is where I actually did my work.

This bag of opened rice has been on my counter since Tuesday.  TUESDAY!  It's dangerously close to becoming part of my kitchen decor.

Heaven above I love non-wrinkle clothes a little too much.  It would only take 5 seconds more to hang them up but at the end of the day... not happening.

I hate things on the top of my dresser.  HATE.  And yet... an old box, a humidifier that hasn't been turned on since March, clothes that are too small for Ben and only need to be put away into the holding for James pile... and just stuff.  I hates it I tell you, hates!  And yet there it sits.

All of the above sits because of this.  Any irony there??

The cleanliness and orderliness of my life was for sale... the price?  A really good read.

Happy Saturday my friends.  I hope you get some time to read too.

For Myself

A Message

Dear self,

You are doing okay.  You have a lot on your plate.  A lot that doesn't really look like that much when everything is listed singly.  But when it's put together, when the list has to be taken care of every single day, or even once or twice a week.... it's overwhelming. 

So often you don't feel like you have a choice.  Like the things on your plate, your to do list, are absolutes.  That if you don't get them done then there is something wrong with you.  Or your skills.  That everyone else could get it done, what's your problem?

Stop it.

Stop it now.

You are not everyone else.  Not everyone else is you.  You alone know what is in your heart and what holds priority.  What truly deserves to be at the top of the priority list.  What brings you joy in your soul.  What makes it possible for you to go to sleep at night feeling like you did your best.  No matter what that best looks like.

And please for the love of everything let your "best" be flexible.  If you rocked the to do list yesterday but can't seem to get yourself off the couch today, it's okay.  More than okay.  Your worth is not judged by what you can accomplish in any given time frame, your worth is what's in your heart.

You can choose.

You've always had a choice.

Take back your life.  Own your story.