mismatched socks, surgery, and letting go.

I didn’t blog yesterday.

It was intentional.

1- I’ve been thinking more and more about taking Sunday off from writing. I’m not sure yet, but I do know that for me, yesterday, I needed to step back and get my plans figured out for the weeks to come.  And that involved not opening the computer for more than the fifteen minutes I gave myself.

2- I knew that I needed to set aside my day for work and things around our home. Yesterday morning, I sat on the couch thinking about our day and recognized the deep need for me to get our home in order prior to my shoulder surgery. I called it pre-op nesting. So I worked very hard cleaning, and organizing, and preparing for the upcoming weeks.

3- That shoulder surgery is one week from today. It would be a normal week except that Hannah is having ankle surgery on Wednesday. Her surgery was a surprise — less than two weeks ago we walked into the Orthopedic Urgent Care and now we’ve got a date on the schedule. She needs to have an extra bone on the back of her ankle removed that creates severe impingement issues. {Yes, really, that’s what she’s having done – you may go back to drinking your coffee now.} We’re hoping and praying for a full recovery within 4-6 weeks.

4- Since there are two surgeries on the docket I determined it was time to really deep clean the home. I know I wrote about how I need to run from perfectionism and having the perfect house —  here’s the secret —  having a day like this actually helps me throughout the weeks. Since I know that I’ll have a deep cleaning day  every 4-6 weeks it makes it easier to not stress about the home the rest of the time {see this post – running from perfectionism}.

5- Deep cleaning led me to my laundry room. Where I finally, totally, and completely caught up on my laundry. And, just so you know, I do not like laundry at all. I have friends who love laundry — but not me — it’s kind of the thorn in my housekeeping side. But, I am totally caught up. And that includes all the mismatched socks.

6- Speaking of mismatched socks why on earth do I have an entire laundry bag full of lone socks? What is that about? Where oh where did those socks end up? So now I’m stuck — do I keep the blue large bag of socks or do I <<gasp>> throw them out?

7- Those socks remind me of how often we hang on to things in our minds — like when things don’t work as well as we want, or hurts, or when we’ve failed. I know that in my own life I tend to remember where things didn’t work — the morning where my temper was short, or when we were late for a class, or when I don’t have the laundry done, or well, you know — and then I let those memories taint the day. So just like that bag of socks that’s sitting in my laundry room, I just need to let them go. No need to carry a bag around of mismatched pieces. There’s freedom in throwing out those socks and starting new each morning.

8- And now it’s today. Monday morning. I’ve got my pre-op physical, and Chloe has ballet, and there’s homeschooling, but you know what? — there’s no laundry on my plate. And that’s a great thing. Wait. That’s an awesome thing. I am just going to enjoy today, I’m going to let go of those things that I’ve been carrying around that hold me back, and I’m going to live grateful. For today.

linking up with my dear friend carissa.