The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and a Blankie

Moving twice in under two years is a pretty excellent way to help you want to live a possessionless life. About a year and a half ago I had a friend blog about diving into minimalism. I was busy unpacking our crap so of course I was intrigued. The only area I can really say I've ever struggled with wanting "stuff" all the time is clothes. When I was young I liked being cool, nowadays I'm on the mommy body changing roller coaster which makes keeping things that don't fit a battle of time. How long should I keep this? Will it still be popular when I fit it again? Did I really like it that much when it did fit? And last but not least is it worth lugging around for 2 years when I could easily replace it??

Along with that I got rid of allllll kinds of "things" and "stuff" I talked a little bit about it previously, but that was a rough year so I didn't have a lot of time or motivation to blog about it. Well recently I started reading Marie Kondo's book that's been so popular, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

 Not necessarily because I don't know how to tidy up, organize or purge, but in hopes of continuing to get more ideas and fine tuning my abilities. Also it's aways good, at least for me to keep my excitement up when it comes to cleaning. In the book, which I had already heard about, she talks about only keeping things that bring us joy. For the most part I found that advice kind of silly. In my mind my "things" either had value because of their daily/consistent use, I need them or they are sentimental (within reason). Then there's stuff like all my chubby mom clothes. They most certainly don't bring me joy but I refuse to buy new stuff just because I don't fit my regular stuff. That's not to say I don't have some clothes that I can wear but I don't want to have several full wardrobes for all my different weights $$$

Fast forward to about a week ago. I was Facebook surfing my friends' profiles when I found myself looking at a friend's super cute baby boy.

I looked closer and realized the blankie he was holding reminded me of one my brother used to have.

So I asked my friend where she got the blankie, assuming it had been hers or one of her siblings. It turned out that the blankie WAS actually my brother's/Davie's blankie and we had accidentally left it at her house on one of the many occasions she had watched my baby Davie (for free I might add). I wasn't upset or anything like that and she immediately offered to send it to me, which was super nice. I told her she should use the blankie for her little boy and then maybe send it back after he was done with it. The blankie is a little boyish and I just had Violet so I wasn't in any rush, but I did kind of want it back.

I've had a lot of time to think about that little blanket. What I left out, because I did not want her to feel bad, was that little blankie is what I brought Colin home in. 

I didn't buy anything when I had Colin. I basically had no money and I didn't want to have things that reminded me of him afterwards. So I took my brother's blanket to the hospital.

 I'm still not even sure how I ended up with it, I must have used it for my dolls and randomly kept it, which is surprising because my dolls were some of my first younger childhood toys to go.

After I placed Colin I actually carried the blanket around with me for a time. Not in a weird way, just around the house a little for the first week or so and I slept with it. For a while it actually still smelled like him and it was extra comforting.

After I had Davie I used the blankie again. Davie spit up a LOT. So it was tricky finding pictures with this blankie. We had a lot of laundry his first year. Note that he is naked in the picture below. He had drenched his clothes.

 It made me feel thrifty for reusing something and it was nice that it had been used by my brother and Colin (even though it was only a couple of days).

As I thought about these things I decided that the blanket did not bring me joy. Marie Kondo talks about that. As you go through your things you need to ask yourself if an item sparks joy in your heart. Even though I love my brother and Colin I realized that the blankie itself made me kind of sad and I also realized that I did not want it back.

 If anything it gave me 100% more joy knowing someone else that I love was using it. This is a long story about a silly blanket, but I was surprised to find myself (a fairly unattached and logical person when it comes to "things") getting so emotional over a blanket that I hadn't ever really used and was not something of any real value. My mom said she had bought it at a second hand store in Washington state before she had my brother Jordan. It wasn't homemade and it wasn't even a gift. Yet here I was trying to decide if I wanted it. I was glad I had the experience though, it helped me work through some of my feelings and emotions I didn't know I still had. It actually ended up being pretty cathartic. I realized that, as Marie Kondo says in her book, the blanket has served its purpose in my life and was now happy in its new home.

I don't know if I have gotten teary eyed about Colin in a long time but I did during this blankie dilemma. It's weird how we as humans can forget painful things so easily. My whole experience with Colin has given me empathy for others that I never would have gained in any other way. If it hadn't of been for Colin I would never understand some of the pain and sadness that goes into losing a child or infertility. While I realize that all three of those situations are different the loss felt is very similar and I'm glad I can understand others just a little better.

Once again I can say that I know God loves me and that he watches over me. From time to time we may all think that we have learned all we can from certain trials or that we no longer have healing to do. It's amazing how our Heavenly Father can present himself in our lives and help us when we are not even aware that we need it. 

Violet's 2nd Month

Violet has completely woken up this last month. She smiled a couple of times during the last 2 weeks before her 2nd month birthday but not a lot and it was always kind of sneaky. The very last 2-3 days before she turned 2 months her smile became completely social and I could consistently get her to smile at me. This month had a lot of REALITY in it. No family, no trips and a lot of naps at the house. Her older sibs were going crazy, but this mom had to adjust. It is sooooo hard to deal with my other kiddos *cough, Macy, cough* when I have such a tiny sweet baby around!!

She sleeps at least 6 hours a night if not more, she is such an angel baby! 

Davie is obsessed with her. He's not UN-gentle but he isn't careful enough and tends to jostle her more that I like. 

When she gets chunkier it won't be so bad

Sometimes (ALL the time) I feel bad for her because ALL of us are all SO incredibly loud all the time. Between her brother and sister and me talking to her brother and sister there's not a lot of peace and quiet. Thankfully Violet doesn't seem to mind.

Squish, she tends to just kind of hang out where she is put and usually falls asleep anywhere during the day.

I look tired in this picture, but I promise life has been pretty darn great!

Violet is so easy going thus far that I have to remind myself that she has a personality but that personality is just different than her siblings. With Macy I didn't realize her demanding "food now!" attitude was a reflection of what life is going to be like as she got older. 

Wait... I changed my mind, I don't want to hold her anymore.

Davie was less demanding but it still was fairly easy for him to start crying when he was a baby. Violet takes a lot longer to get herself into a tizzy. I tease with David that she tends to baulk and grunt more than cry when she is unhappy or hungry. I can't say for sure just yet, my answer will come once Violet gets mobile. The age of mobility is when Davie and Macy made it crystal clear they were going not going to miss anything... EVER.

Our Hot pink burrito 

Violet is my second baby to refuse to take a binky (I was so sad about that). I don't know what it is about those sweet little binky faces, but I was so hoping she would take one! She is also my least dependent on swaddling. Davie was the most for almost 18 months, then Macy for about 9-12 months and Violet already sleeps un-swaddled.... for the whole night! I still swaddle her, but if she gets out I don't worry. She is still great at diaper changes. Seriously, this baby loves a fresh diaper! Which is incredibly foreign to me since both her siblings HATED that.

The first of MANY matching outfits.

We potty trained Macy this month so now Violet is the only bum I'm changing! Hurray! Turns out newborn/ little baby diapers aren't that bad. 

Snuggles

This was shortly after I moved her straps on her carseat up. Look at that hair! Everyone comments on it. Especially out in public and even more so when/if they see Davie and Macy's blonde little heads of hair. It's funny because she looks a lot like Davie did, only he lost his hair around 3/4 months. I think Violet has managed to keep hers thicker and darker for about a month longer already.

The only exception to her sweet easy going self seems to be in the evenings when she struggles with bubbles in her tummy. I'm not sure what it is about my girls but they both have struggled with that. I think Violet is possibly affected by my caffeine intake, which is not a lot to start with, so I've tried my best to just not drink any. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not dairy bugs her. If it is dairy I really think it's just ice cream. But based on all I have read and David's thoughts on the subject it's incredibly hard to prove that, so who knows.

She's pretty patient with me, but she does tend to be more fussy with David. He teases on a daily basis that Violet doesn't like him. Which is kind of true. 

Violet finally got too big for her newborn clothes this month and has been wearing mostly size 1 diapers. But she wore both about 2-3 weeks longer than Davie or Macy. Like I've said before she's just our delicate little flower. 

The End