Day 108

Something learned:

For me, keeping things neat and tidy is a learned skill. I'm pretty sure that judging from my childhood bedroom alone, my parents think that I'm just a messy person by nature. In the years that have passed since leaving home, however, I have learned a lot of things about being tidy that were never taught to me. Now knowing them, it's not difficult to make things tidy, if I can find the time. My over-busy-ness is a different story altogether.

I realized this too, when I asked the kid to clean up her room. In the beginning, she would just stare helplessly at the mess, and not know what to do. I demonstrated and showed her how to approach it. Find something on the floor (e.g. a book), put it away where it belongs. If need be, find a home for that item (make space on a shelf). Find another item like it on the floor, and put that away too. Continue until there are no more of that item. Find another item, find a home for it, put that away. Over the months, we've come to find homes for everything she owns. And now, when I send her into her room by herself to clean it up, she actually manages to do a remarkably good job, sometimes even making her bed!

I know it sounds so simple, but "A place for everything and everything in its place" really should be taken literally, and if it was taught to me properly early on, I might have fared a lot better in the "keeping my room clean" department.

Today I was thankful for:

1. Got the chance to do a quick Zumba session on the Xbox 360
2. Had enough coupons to get $10 off my $25 purchase at CVS
3. Made a parenting mistake that affected another kid and sounds like the other mom accepted my apology. Hopefully she won't hold a grudge.
4. My Whole Foods coupon finally working
5. Husband fixing the loose kitchen cabinet door that was driving me mad.

Looking forward to:

Kid going for her second TKD belt test next week!