Easter, church, toilet paper birthday cakes and such.

With everyone being sick this year ...again, we won't be going to church for Easter Sunday services. It bums me out. As a Christian, I want to be able to go to church and fellowship, but the last few years has not been really conducive to us attending. I'm hoping that as the dehoarding progresses, our daughter's anxiety issues and our overall health improves that we'll be able to find a church we like and go on a regular basis.

Tomorrow, we will read the Easter Story to the girls and have time together as a family. We won't be having a traditional Easter dinner like usual. Instead, we'll be having Chinese takeout. We'll be celebrating our oldest daughter's birthday as well as Easter, and Chinese is her favorite food. So we'll be celebrating a little unconventionally this year.

The girls will still get their baskets. They like the candy. They know that we put the candy in their baskets and that the Easter Bunny isn't real. In fact we don't even mention EB We just fill their baskets (or whatever they would know was theirs-this year we used a purse and a jewelry box) with candy. We made the decision to let them know the truth about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus when they were fairly small. We didn't want them to one day think that because the Easter Bunny and Santa weren't real, that Jesus must not be real either.

Just a quick note here...we in no way judge anyone who wants to celebrate their holidays with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. It's a very personal decision. We made ours knowing that our daughters will never be over a certain point developmentally, and we felt that we needed make a decision that was best for our family, and our family alone. A typical child can come to the realization that the EB and SC are wonderfully fun traditions, but we just wanted things less confusing for our children who might not get the difference between the two. So they'll get their candy, and we'll celebrate the sacrifice that Christ made on the Cross for mankind. :)

We'll also be giving our oldest her gifts and her birthday cake. Her toilet paper birthday cake. We've never done this before, but I'd seen it on Cake Wrecks the other day and realized I just had to do it. And while mine doesn't look as fancy as the one on CW, it at least does look like a mom-made German Chocolate Cake. She'll still get a GCC, but it will stay in the pan, frosted in the oven until she discovers her toilet paper cake is actually toilet paper. And I'll try to post pictures in the next few days.

We are really looking forward to spending the day together tomorrow as a family.

I hope each of you is able to be with your loved ones tomorrow as well.

Wishing a very Blessed Easter to each and every one of you!

Flip side of the same coin?

When I was a little girl, I was apparently a clean freak. Everything had to be in it's place. It had to be perfect. So it has been very frustrating to me that I can't seem to get away from this hoarding thing.

Still. It got me to thinking. Are they possibly opposite sides of the same coin?

My mother in law is a neat freak. It is fairly extreme, and it can be hard to feel comfortable when you're there. Like you're somehow infringing on a museum space. If you've been drinking a soda or a glass of water and get up to use the restroom, the glass is gone when you get back. It's either been washed and put away, or it's been rinsed and put in the dishwasher. No matter how many times it happens, you're never quite expecting it, and it always feels like you're not quite welcome.

And I know for a fact that the inlaws are not comfortable at our house. There's too much clutter for their taste, even when the house is clean. I understand that. I'm uncomfortable in my house sometimes, too. Certain times are worse than others, but I'm okay when I'm making headway in the dehoarding progress, or if there are rooms that are relatively clean but just a little messy. You know. Lived in.

I just can't help wondering, if they're the same disorder manifested in opposite ways.

It sure would explain how I now appear to be the polar opposite of a younger me.

And so it begins...again.

Our youngest missed school today, because she was up and down all night with a stomach bug. I've got it now. It appears as though the middle daughter is getting it, too. As a result..not a lot happened around here today.

I called my friend and canceled on getting to meet her newborn twins until we're past this. I was so frustrated about having to cancel but knowing I must, that I actually dreamed about it last night. In my dream, she said she wasn't worried about it and to please come in and see the babes. Yeah. That didn't really happen. Instead, I got a "Right before Easter? Yeah. No thanks. Please keep it there. And thanks for letting me know." I appreciate a bit of sarcasm from time to time, so all was well. :)

When the time is right, I'll get to hold her little bundles of joy and breathe them in.

I did get rid of all of the old dishes and glasses today. That was nice. It's amazing how much space I freed up in the cupboards. I also went through the mugs again and got rid of 3 more. One had my name on it along with it's definition, but it also had a chip, so I chucked it. One had my husband's name and it's definition, but there's really no sense in keeping one without the other, so it went into the donation box. The last one I liked, because it had one of my favorite Bible verses on it, but I realized it (the mug, not the Bible verse) no longer made me happy, and I only want to keep things that make me happy. So it's gone, too.

I still have some arranging to do in the cupboards, but it's a start.

Not sure how much of anything I'll get done over the next few days. It will depend upon how I feel.

I won't go into detail.

Promise.