Just You & Me: Blogs

Once you sell a house you realize just how much clutter and junk you have. I spent most of today trying to clean and organize. I’m not to the packing phase yet but figure I might as well organize before I pack. The last thing I need to do is take a bunch of tupperware lids that don’t have any bottoms. I’m going to go into this new house with my life in order!

My big job today was photos. I went to Aaron Brothers and bought a bunch of beautiful picture boxes. I’ve never actually stored my photos in these boxes before but since I had 15 years of photos crammed into three built-in cabinets, I figured I had no choice. So, I sorted. I kept it relatively simple - pre-1992 (before I met my husband), 1992-1999 (coupledom but pre-children), 1999-2002 (first son) and 2002- (anything after the birth of my second son).

I know it isn’t surprising to tell you that I had the biggest selection of 1999-2002 photos. I’m not sure if we ever put the camera down. I think we documented everything my oldest son ever did! It isn’t like we don’t have pictures of the growth of our second but its like 3 boxes to 1.5 boxes. So, we basically took double the amount of pictures with the first. I kept telling myself that it was because we didn’t have a digital camera but I think we all know that isn’t just it…

My mother always says, “you should recycle the first.” Now, not being the first child in my family I never really felt too bad about that saying (maybe my older brother does) but I always felt mildly offended for first children. Then I married my husband (first child) and I thought my mother was ridiculous. Well, now having two children I kinda get what she means. We spend so much time and energy obssessing over our first child it is a wonder they all aren’t complete messes… or maybe they are. Whatever, I’m a middle child and people always react interestingly to that one too. Like, “Oh, that’s interesting” or “wow, I would have never thought you were a middle child”… like, what’s that supposed to mean?

Anyhow, back to the photos. So, the most interesting and alarming thing in the photos was not my undying obsession and love for my first son but the way I looked in a bikini when I was 19. What up with that? How come I work out 4-6 days a week now and look like I do? Ok, so my red wine intake may have increased (along with my fishies, graham crackers and string cheese intake) but how interesting is it that when we are 19 and look amazing, we still criticize our bodies and self-loath. Will we ever be satisfied. I’m not sure.

One thing I think we can do, though, is to live in the moment. That means, actually try to absord where we are instead of where we want to be or have been. I mean, how quickly did 19 to 32 go by? So, maybe its a good thing I took all those pictures of my first born. Maybe it means I need to take more of my second or before we know it he’ll be 15 and smelly. Yuck. Where’s the camera…