Lemonade

  With the start of every new school year, I make a vow to get better organized. Every single year. At first, I gave myself a break because only one child was in school. It's impossible, for me anyway, to get much done with a toddler running around. Then they were both in school and I gave myself the first week back to relax and enjoy the quiet. Fast forward too many years, that went by waaaaay too quickly, one is in university and the other in grade 10 and I'm still making the vow and still not organized!

  I feel like I failed myself over the years. I had the opportunity to totally dismiss the chaos of clutter from our lives. An opportunity squandered. Now I sit here wondering why we kept a soother and unsure where the business taxes from last year are hiding! 

  Two of my favorite people on the planet are master organizers. They could teach a course on how to declutter and find a place for everything. One even has an entire system in place with labels and every receipt laminated. While I envy her skills I also want to mess the entire cabinet up. Jealousy is a horrible thing. Sorry Jen.

  In my head I know I can do it. Put things away as they come in. Print out my bank statements and bills. But knowing and doing are two very different things. I've even gone so far as to buy pretty things to put papers and files in...they sit empty on a bookcase. 

  I don't like clutter. Honest, I don't. I want to know that things are in their rightful places and everything has a rightful place. Even though I complain about it often I do absolutely nothing to fix it. Well unless you count buying those pretty organizers that are still empty and now covered in dust.  

  Maybe I need to be honest with myself and accept the fact that an organized life is not in the cards for me. Realize there is nothing wrong with writing important reminders on the backs of envelopes that go in the junk drawer. Understand that there is nothing to be ashamed of when I find a can of sunscreen that expired six years previous in my vanity. Or a Ziploc bag full of pens in the closet, none of which write. 

  And maybe, just maybe, I need to celebrate the fact that I can find the dog's medicine in under five minutes and discovering that yes indeed I do know where the spare car keys are. Not to mention that I remember where my phone charger is and where I hid the Christmas presents I bought in January.

  Lemonade my friends. Lemonade.

  Ang