NOTE: I love my sister-in-laws idea about giving your children nicknames so that those who know us, know exactly who I am talking about but still don’t have to use their real names. I will do that from now on. From oldest to youngest. SE, RD, BJ, MJ, AJ (I am not very creative am I.)
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Does anyone else have to deal with clutter spots daily? I have been trying to get our clutter spots in our home under control lately, and I think that this is impossible. There is one especially in our house that doesn’t stay clean for more than a few hours, no matter how much I breath out threats to anyone sticking papers on that counter!!! After several weeks of trying to focus on these clutter spots, it seemed the first ones I had cleared were back to where they were before. And there are still PLENTY left to do. The thought came to me of the story in Alma, in the war chapters. The Nephites had to send reinforcements those cities they had taken back or they would loose them again. I somehow need to figure out how to reinforce these places that I am taking back!!!
Counters are one thing, but closets, that’s a whole other story. I spent several days with MJ, who absolutely loves to build things, and together we created a nice coat rack so that the kids can hang up there coats and backpacks by themselves when they first come home from school and not leave our front room so stacked high you can’t even walk through it. I explained to the kids how this is going to work and what I expect them to do. It has been a week now since we made it and I realize, it is going to take a lot of practice before they finally get it!!!
Today I was cleaning out another spot that I hadn’t cleaned out in years, - one spot in my closet!!! I would clean around it every time I cleaned the closet, but today, I hit it head long, and it was well worth my time. I keep all my stationary, old cards or letters, journals, papers, and whatever else I just don’t know what to do with but can’t get rid of, there. It took me several hours. But what once took up the whole shelf now fits in less than half of it. Wow. But what is absolutely the most amazing, crazy, totally unpredicted part about it is, I actually got paid!!! I was going through some cards that were sent to me. Usually when I came upon a card, I threw them in the card pile, but this one that I came across was a birthday card from my mom and looked a lot different from other cards. You didn’t open it like a normal card, you slid out the card in this cool way. I was playing with it for a minute enjoying the way the colors changed as I slid the card back and forth. (Now you know what I do in my spare time.) But as I looked closer at it, I realized the underneath colors looked a lot like the color of money. I squeezed the two sides of the card together to pop it open and low and behold, a 20 dollar bill was in there. I don’t know if I never saw it there, if I had forgotten about it, or if I had only gotten part of the money not realizing there was more. I just can’t remember that far back in time. But I tell you, my jaw was dropped for at least five minutes as I just sat there looking at the money. (I am sooooooooo glad I kept that card.) And now mom, THANK YOU!!! (A very late thank you.)
Moral of the story . . . keep cleaning those clutter spots. It will pay off!!!
