What I've been reading.

In my quest to simplify my life and do more things I enjoy, I picked up a couple of books the other week.

Like I said before...less phone/computer time, more reading!  My problem though is once I pick up a book I have a tendency to just sit and keep reading all day and throwing everything else to the wind.  So I'm working on giving myself a time limit...it's a work in progress.

Rory and I hit up the library for her to grab a few books and also I wanted to pick up "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up".  Unfortunately, they didn't have any on the shelf and I didn't want to deal with the waiting list for it.  So I quickly browsed the shelves for something that sparked my interest and found this:

"The Girl's Guide to Homelessness" by Brianna Karp.

It's about a young woman who loses her job during the recession in 2007 or so.  She tells her experience living in a 30 ft. trailer in the Walmart parking lot and the struggles she went through along the way.  Not too bad...it definitely held my interest.

And then back to my mission finding the book I originally went to the library for, I ended up finding it at Target:

Thank you Cheynna for the recommendation!

This is so up my alley!  I'm excited to put all these ideas in motion...unfortunately, it may have to wait until my knee recovers first...but it's going to be good, I can feel it.

I think I'll try to swing by the library again tomorrow to pick up a couple more books, because you know, I'll be sitting around a bit more for the next few weeks...

Any other recommendations?

Knee update.

I finally got an MRI for my knee...and unfortunately the news wasn't very good.

 The doctors were pretty certain that my meniscus was torn but the ACL tear came as a shock.  After analyzing the images, they're not clear on how bad it's torn though...complete tear (doubtful) or a partial tear bad enough for a complete ACL reconstruction, or (best case scenario) a partial tear, but still intact enough to be competent and no reconstruction would be needed.  So, bottom line...my meniscus needs to be fixed for sure...so, while doing that the doctor will scope my ACL and decide what to do from there.  

I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing.

And if you know me, you would know that hospitals, blood, surgeries, all of it, completely freak me out!  I'm scared beyond words to be put to sleep and have someone poke around my knee and possibly DRILL into my BONES to reconstruct my ACL.  I feel faint already.

And the recovery process...oh heaven help me...my life is over.

And call me vain, but I love my legs.  I wasn't blessed with big boobs, but my legs are pretty decent.  

The doctors assure me the scarring will be minimal, I hope they're right.

My surgery is scheduled for next week...when I think about it, I get all panicky inside.

So, with that, let me write about other things...

 My doctors cleared me to ride weeks ago, so I took advantage of the upper 50's we had one day in early February and rode outside with Ryan.  It was beautiful and it felt so good!!

Interestingly enough, I feel no pain with my knee when I ride...pretty weird.  This is what gives me hope that my ACL isn't completely f#*ked.

Oh right, we're not talking about that.

 Ryan has been able to take the girls out riding a couple of times this month too!

 Last weekend, my Haley girl was having a crummy day (friend trouble).  Middle school can be hard to bear sometimes!  So I took her and Morgan out to the movies.  Haley has been wanting to see "The Space Between Us" (because the Asa Butterfield is soooooooooo cute...Haley's words) so we saw that.  And other than having to sit in the very front row and getting a kink in my neck I had a ball with these two.  I need to go out with just the two of them more often!

And lastly, we celebrated our Valentines' Day with lovely dinner.

However, this year (now having vegetarians in the house) I had to switch from steak to fettuccine alfredo.  We kept the dessert the same (molten lava cake).  We also gifted each of the girls some jewelry...earrings for the older girls and a necklace for the younger two.  They were thrilled!

Happy Weekend ya'll!

Care taker of stuff.

A few weeks ago my cousin did an Instagram post quoting "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."  I'm not sure who originally said it, but I've thought about this quote daily sine I read it.  She went on saying how she does not want to be the "care taker of stuff", but rather the "care taker of her people" (she has 7 kids).  I love that!  

The past week or so I've been reanalyzing my life and what's important to me.  As you know, I've been on the depressed side lately with my knee situation (still no news to report).  It's interesting how when we're depressed we have the most self reflection...at least for me anyway.  

I want to simplify my life more...get rid of all the "stuff" so I have more time to do things that bring me joy.  I need to remember to surround myself with positive people (you would not believe how many people I have stopped following of Instagram!)  Simplify!!  Get rid of the excess "stuff"...starting with my phone.  Do I really need to see the latest vacation a famous YouTuber has gone on?  Do I really want to read about the reasons I need to order some special energy drink and the benefits from joining their Pyramid scheme?  Do I really need to follow people I don't even know?  Is it necessary to be scrolling through my phone while my kids are talking to me?  How can I be an example to my kids when I'm doing all the things I'm telling them not to do!  A phone is useful, but I don't need all the extra "stuff" on it that steals my time.

I want to start doing more of the things I enjoy...more reading, baking, journaling, being with my kids, laughing more, date nights, and exercising...and the process to simplifying my home.  I want to be the care taker of my family, not stuff.

Anyway, it's all baby steps.  

I won't have everything complete on this journey to simplification overnight, but I'm trying.

So enough of my rambling.

Here's a few pictures of the past week or so.

 Morgan had her first Science Fair project.

 We celebrated Jeffy's birthday!!

 Piper celebrated the 100th day of school by dressing up like a 100 year old.

She was so thrilled to put baby powder in her hair to make it white.

Our garbage disposal crapped out last week and I replaced it...ME!!  I did it all by myself!

And I only swore a few times doing it.

And you can see, that when I replaced it the pipe no longer matched up to the other side (in the above picture).  

So I found this pipe that you can bend...problem solved!

And so far everything is working with no leaks.  Fingers crossed.

Happy Hump Day.