March 2018 - List Lemon

As we snuggled together for the last night she would ever be four years old, she asked for pancakes with strawberries and blueberries on top for her birthday breakfast, and even whipped cream.

“‘Cause whipped cream doesn’t scare me anymore,” she said.

Our little Pearl Girl, our raven-haired and blue-eyed beautiful middle child, is as sweet as she is quirky.

When we began to discuss what she might like for her birthday gift, Lucy listed items her siblings would enjoy. For Christmas, she wanted an upgraded pretend kitchen so she could play alongside her brother and sister.

She recently underwent a sleep study at the end of a long day in which she was already sleep deprived. We explained the procedure to her before she left home, and she smiled and skipped off to the car with her pillow and plushie in hand. She waited two hours as the professionals connected numerous cords to her body, even one up her nose, smiling all the while. Lucy charmed the nurses so much that they showered her with gifts when she woke and declared her to be the best patient they’d ever had.

While she is particularly brave for medical procedures, she is generally cautious, having eyed the slides at school for 7 months before finally deciding to test them out. This week, we were shocked when Lucy tested the water slide at our vacation spot. Unfortunately, none of us thought to mention she should hold her nose. She popped up out of the water looking shocked, but never said a word about her pain.

Gratefulness comes easily to Lucy. At a live music event, the musician found out it was her birthday and sang her request, “You Are My Sunshine.” She insisted on writing him a thank you note and delivering it to him before we left.

Lucy is kind and quiet. She looks after her brother, worships her sister, keeps the whole family laughing, and otherwise resides in her own little world. She doesn’t like sudden change, but could spend hours playing with her Shoppie dolls, Legos, Barbies, and plushies. She likes to eat pasta with her mama, the beach is her happy place, and yellow is her favorite color.

Last year brought many new challenges and adventures for her, such as starting school and learning to properly express emotions when classmates annoy her. She has battled through health struggles with grace and joy. Lucy is a ray of sunshine and a blessing to many. We can’t wait to see what our little five-year-old will accomplish!

A Few Of Lucy’s Favorites

I adore challenges designed to organize belongings.

I like to follow along with photos and posts as a before miraculously turns into an after, as a cluttered space turns into a zenful oasis.

But I’ve stopped participating, because I’m not ready to organize my home.

I first need to purge all the things I’m hanging on to that I know I don’t need, that never should see the back of a closet or the bottom of a drawer again.

I’ve learned the hard way that if I dive into an organizational project, I will become overwhelmed, give up, try again, give up again, and find I’ve made a bigger mess than the original one.

Enter my project for the next month: The Use It Up, Move It Out March Madness Challenge.

You can get your free decluttering checklist, full of small tasks for the month to kick off your spring cleaning, here.

Print it out, save it on your phone, whatever works best for you. Then join me! Each day, check off at least one item on the list. You can complete an item multiple times as well if that works for you.

And get creative! For example, when I’m going through makeup samples, my kids and I are going to play with colors together. We no longer drink hot cocoa but have several packets in the pantry, so we will use them for baking. We’ve successfully turned old t-shirts into rag wreaths before and will be looking for our next craft project from items that are otherwise not useful to us any longer.

When you’ve accomplished your task, take a photo and tag me (@listlemon on Instagram and Twitter, and my facebook page is also List Lemon). Make sure to use the hashtag #useitupmoveitout.

So how about it? Join me and let’s use it up and move it out!

Keep up with my progress on social media, too!

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