I think when I get sick, everything I’m working on suffers.

I have lost track severely of the self care challenge due to taking a full break from everything.

Thanks to my husband getting worse, we found out it was the Parainfluenza Virus- so it wasn’t treatable by antibiotics. We kept our older daughter home from school the majority of a week and now the three of us (me, the three year old and the seven year old) are on the mend. My husband is feeling better as well. He ended up taking 3 days off work but has been back for several days now and I’m back to doing stuff.

I am officially 31 today, of course I don’t feel any different, just a bit more depressed about being that much closer to middle age and that much farther from my early 20s. Not sure if that will change, it maybe my OCD ruminating it in my mind over and over. I have the house to myself- so I guess Netflix and trying to straighten up the huge mess of toys here in the living room. We take them up to the girls’ bedrooms and they multiply as they come back. I look at pictures of peaceful and beautiful living rooms and it’s about the only time that makes me feel slightly jealous, I’m not a jealous person in the least, either.

I also have to watch out because I’ll start buying one item for storage and go overboard. I think random storage items are half my clutter. Funnily, I didn’t start decluttering after watching Marie Kondo- I started after hearing about her. I’ve been watching her show on Netflix and it’s helping a bit. I don’t thank my clothes but I can now fit them in my dresser. (ok, and my half of the closet… as long as some are in the dirty clothes basket… but I do wear everything now, for the most part.)

I go through my clothes on a regular basis so I only ended up with one bag to donate this time. The first time I really did, I ended up with three trash bags.

I fail to see how this is some kind of “middle class privilege” as I have read. If you live and have family, you can quickly build up things. I cleared 5 bags and 3 boxes out of my kitchen alone and need to finish the kids’ rooms. I got 2 bags of toys and 2 bags of clothing already.

We aren’t poor, but we’re not rich either. We just have ended up being given so much over the years, both of us came into the marriage with a bunch of stuff- stuff from when we went to college, stuff from my former apartment and a bunch of furniture and shelving that came with me from my mom and dad’s house. We use my old bed from when I was a teenager. We still use it (it’s pointless to buy a new bed, we had to break the box springs because of how narrow our stairs are so we are going to replace that when we move)

I’m currently working as much as I can on getting rid of as much clutter and trying to organize while I don’t have a day job, I could be unemployed for the rest of the month or could end up getting employed again next week. It all depends on what I can find. We’re in a kind of weird situation where I’m having to look for specific types of employment. Either way, this is my first birthday in years that I get to spend some time alone. The girls gave me my birthday gifts, my mom and dad came over with a flourless cake- it was a good, but rich, almond torte. Now, they are at grandma and grandpa’s house until tomorrow afternoon.