Ok, so yeah, I’m feeling quite better now. Not stellar, but better. It’s after noon and I’m still in my pajamas (technically), but I’ve accomplished a lot today so far. And half the kids are fed (who knew my son liked chicken salad?), so I’m gonna call that winning.

Here’s what’s on my mind today: I get really frustrated when the house starts to become untidy, when I see things laying (lying?) around where they don’t belong (confession: that’s on my mind EVERY day). A lot of it is the kids’ stuff, but a lot of it too are areas I am intending to sort and organize. Kids bring home a lot of stuff from school. Some of it is not important, and can be pitched immediately, but then a lot of it I believe is worth hanging on to, at least for a little while. I will sometimes hang artwork on the fridge, take a picture of it for proper archiving, and then recycle it after a few weeks.

I’ve been doing pretty well at keeping up with the inflow, but those last few weeks of school were a whirlwind and I kind of gave up for a spell (yes, I said spell). So I have been wanting to get that last batch taken care of before we’re too far into the summer. And guess what? Today I did it! It’s all been archived and/or stored (some things are hard to photograph, so I keep them) and now I’m getting ready for next year!! I am abhorrently against clutter, so it may seem odd that I’m choosing to keep any of my children’s elementary school mementos, but I am sometimes a sucker for sentimental things. Also, I at one time enjoyed looking through the crap I made as a kid. I once created a watercolor painting of a giant can of Campbell’s Soup. Not exactly the kind of thing you would frame and hang in your kitchen (maybe), but even after all those years I still remembered how hard I worked on that painting, and how satisfying it was to complete. So, you know, memories. I expect my children may have some memories wrapped up in these things I’m keeping, and maybe one day they’ll want to revisit them. Or not, it will be their decision.

My only issue at this point is that the small boxes I’ve been using to keep these mementos are rather full. So I need to find the sort of boxes where I can keep these things in decent shape, but also sorted by year. Do such boxes exist? I’m sure they do. I’ll be scouring Amazon later, of course. Maybe Etsy or Pinterest will have some good ideas too. Do you have any ideas? I’ll take any suggestions you’ve got!

Today marks the first official day of summer break, since both my kids are out of school. Of course, it’s Monday so they are at daycare, which makes it strange, but nice. We decided to only send them to daycare on Mondays, which still gives them play time with their friends, and gives me a much needed, uninterrupted start to the week. A planning day, if you will. My to-do list is pretty much the same as usual; water flowers, sweep floors, clean kitchen, clean bathrooms. I added ‘purge emails’ to the list because I have over 1000 emails stored and I think it’s the reason my phone keeps telling me my memory is full. And when that happens, no texts come in or go out, and it’s frustrating. So I am widdling away at it.

I have emails as far back as 2007, so it will take some time. I don’t know why they are all still there, I think a good portion of them are emails I sent that are now in gmail folders I had set up for automated categorizing (seemed like a good idea at the time). But I don’t lead an FPU class anymore, and I’m not preparing tax returns, so all of that can go. Most of it is junk. Amazon purchase confirmations from free apps I downloaded for the kids on my Kindle, stuff like that. Some of it I’ve found so far has been interesting to read, however. Notes of encouragement I sent to friends, sending thank you messages to people who helped me in one way or another. Notes to friends just to say hi because it had been too long. It’s interesting to read these words I wrote so long ago, because my recollection is that I was a terrible, neglectful friend, who was too busy with my own life to reach out to others. But these emails scattered over the years tell me that those recollections are not all true.

It’s funny how our memories fail us, don’t you think? I think it’s good to look back sometimes. I have forgotten so much, but stuff like those emails serve to remind me of the good that I forgot. I have a great husband and great friends who do the same for me. They’ll remind me of something that happened, or a prayer that had been answered, and it feels so refreshing when the memory comes flooding back. I thank God for those moments, for those people.

Do you have a good memory that you’ve recently been reminded of?