Almost Even

When I first decided to do this, I was excited. I was "on fire" if you will. But all fires eventually burn down. Without fuel, it goes out. So, I knew my challenge would be having the fuel to keep the fire going. While I will admit, I haven't been fueling the fire as I should, I can say I have done a better job than expected.

I also said that the initial phase of my reformation would be the easiest. It was to get me to a good baseline to maintain. Once I reached an even level I was comfortable with, the hard part would begin. So without further ado, let me show you what I've done in about 3 weeks, and briefly touch on what is to come.

A Clean House:

This was the best area, other than health/fitness, to show where I was and where I am now. First, let me say that the changes I have made could NOT have been possible without Katherine's help. Especially in the last few days she has been a FORCE.

Once we got the basement cleaner, we were able to store all the things that were filling up closets upstairs. We have blankets and other keepsakes that we don't have to get rid of, but they didn't need to be in the kid's closets. Next, we were able to drastically reduce our toy inventory. While we appreciate every gift that has been given to us (we didn't buy most of what the kids had) we finally reached a point where we had to set a limit. New toys come in, older less popular toys will go out. It seems simple, but any of you with children know how the first thing to go suddenly becomes "my favorite." We also were able to sort through clothes and eliminate that which does not fit. Again, sounds simple, but can really be a chore. We now have a large amount of clothes and toys to donate, and that is pretty cool.

So, as is a theme of the day, I CAN give you photographic proof. But, my force of nature Wife got started on a couple rooms before I could get the "before" picture, so you only get to see the results. Just look at the one pre-cleaning photo and imagine the rest of the house that way or worse.

SO...... Austin's room

Became...

Audrey's room became...

And our living room became...

All that was done in roughly 3 days... So it's time to relax...

So there's the visual changes I've made so far. The changes you can't see are just as boring, so I'll wrap this up I will say that I am doing the fitness club thing tomorrow (Wednesday) and will have a personal trainer within a week, am 2 weeks into a website development class, and have dedicated myself in much deeper ways too. I feel good, and I look forward to maintaining this momentum as I move into the more difficult part of my transformation. I will probably not post as often (as if I've posted often before) but I will keep updating as I feel I need to. Thanks for reading.

P.S. The pic at the top is my stab at patriotism, there could not be a better voice for the USA in entertainment than Hacksaw, but I've had a few mixed emotions in the past couple of days. I am proud to be an American, and am proud of our military AND their commander-in-chief, but I am curtailing my celebrations, as I am afraid of falling into the same category of hate as the enemy that we killed.

I apologize if this could be taken out of context from the rest of the chapter, but Ezekiel 33:11 says, "Say unto them, as I live, sayeth the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.'"

God Bless the USA... And God Bless those who hate the USA.