What Secret Room?

The brilliant decision has been made.  We need a secret room added to the house… secretly of course… for my hidden library.  Well, the only reason it will be called a library is because it will contain books.  Truthfully, it will be the room in which to set books.  All kinds of books, but mostly the books we use for homeschooling.  Right now there are piles in my bedroom…. American History (which needs to be put in a secret room…. right!?)…. National Parks…. The Story (the book our church is reading… and we bought a bag full… for children… for teens …. for adults)… Homeschool Readiness (this is my planner, binder, calendar, and various other books that need to be consolidated before we start school in two weeks) and Health Coaching books (my OTHER life… of helping people lose weight and live at optimal health) …. Other (which is just that…. dictionaries, daily devotionals, Bibles, books chewed by the wiener dog, journals, Nature books, fiction, etc.)

If my faded memory serves me correctly, it was the Fly Lady who first told me that clutter should not be in my bedroom.  It doesn’t promote rest.  It clouds my brain with confusion.  If I had a secret library, the books wouldn’t be in here.  My other clean-house-theory (term used loosely!) is to keep downstairs tidy as to promote the illusion of the tidiness of the people who live here to anyone who crosses the threshold of this house. Most of the time it works… as long as they don’t come up the stairs.  This leads me to be persuaded to add the secret library downstairs.  Downstairs is more tidy than upstairs.  But it would be a secret… not like anyone would see how tidy it actually would be.

I simply need to figure out where to put the bookcase/secret door that leads to the secret room addition to the house.  Yep, just the location, then I can go on Pinterest and find great pictures of secret libraries and their secret bookshelf doors……. so much to do, so much clutter in my mind because of the books piled everywhere….

I’m a Visual Learner

Pinterest led me to this fabulous idea for watching the pounds disappear!  Of course, the one posted was in beautiful glass vases with pink, pearlized white and clear glass gems and glittery hot pink stickers for “Pounds Lost” and “Pounds to Go!”  Mine is the hillbilly-what-do-we-have-lying-around-the-house version.  My eight-year-old wanted to know where her marbles are… that she has never played with …. EVER.  Figures.  “They are being utilized in a highly efficient manner to keep your mother focused on the goal!”

Adjustments.  That is what I made this week…. adjustments to my overall weight loss goal.  When I began this journey, one-hundred pounds seemed enormous…. well, because it was.  It is.  I can’t even lift 100 lbs.  But I was carrying it around every weary-three-pieces-of-pizza-and-the-whole-chocolate-bar-loving day.  So, as I began to study the BMI chart (which I don’t exactly take as gospel truth because it says my stocky-barrel-chested husband should weigh 160 lbs.  He was skinny at 185 when I met him 27 years ago, thankyouverymuch.) I decided to aim for losing 104 pounds.  Down four little pounds from the original goal.  It’s all good.  And I’m okay with it.  My big-boned self-image may make another adjustment in a few months when I get there.  A flashback to high school and my hip bones sticking out made me realize another adjustment may be required as the time approaches.

In the mean time, I’m slowly moving the marbles to the LOST jar!  33 to go!  Whooo Hoooooo!