In this fam, we eat pocket ham!

Tonight I watched two episodes of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix. I came up to get ready for bed, and instead dumped a bunch of clothes and toys into a donate pile, and some in the trash. This, of course, doesn’t follow the KonMari method at all. But sometimes you just need to start. You just need to feel like you are chipping away at the iceberg. My house has far too much clutter in it. As a foster parent, I’ve been able to justify pruning back toys, because you never know what age or interest of child you’ll end up with. Well, when my 10 year old moved in, she had a TON of stuff. And no interest in Qapla’s stuff. But... is she the last? Is this our family? Can I really get rid of all the toys and clothes that are too little for Qapla? Or should I keep them... just in case? Of course, that doesn’t explain why I threw out probably 3 dozen socks I don’t wear or don’t like. And it doesn’t explain why I was keeping work out tops that don’t fit anymore. But... it does feel like a...

No, not the moderately entertaining series of novels that my daughter enjoys, and no, not 2018 as a whole. Although OK, yes, I did survive 2018. I survived a week with my two kids without my husband. Jim had to work the last few days of the year, and I had a two week break from work, so we decided it would be a good idea to go to Oregon and spend some time with my mom (Yaya), her boyfriend (Papa Mike), and his family. I thought that it would be better to be with Yaya and Papa Mike, because then I'd have a good adult to child ratio (3:2), rather than if I stayed home with the kids by myself while Jim worked. And it's a really good theory, except, both my kids wanted to be physically connected to my body the whole time, with me giving them my undivided attention. They wanted little to do with Yaya and Papa Mike, and every time I'd pay attention to one kid, the whining and comparison would start - "But I want to play with you...", "But you played with her mor...