Medicine cabinets and turning 40

Decluttering continues

One area crossed off the declutter list (DL) last weekend was our medicine cabinet.  This is one of THE smallest cabinets in our house and it had it's own spot on our DL.  Our medicine cabinet was pretty ugly!  It's a small cabinet in our kitchen (next to the stove).  It had morphed and grown into taking space in the cabinet above the stove as well.  Now with 6 kids I could easily argue that we should have lots of items in this cabinet.  But truly, we are just a Tylenol and Advil family (well, maybe mom likes something a little stronger now and then--more on that below in the 'I'm 40, now what?' section).  The winner of the oldest item that was thrown away was a container of Vicks Vaporub that expired in June 1998!  That means that little bottle has moved with us EVERY time we have moved!  Ridiculous!  We had 2 grocery bags full of trash from this small cabinet clean out.

This is the done pic.  I forgot to take a before pic.  But seriously, how much crap could we shove in this small cabinet?  A lot!

40?

Okay, so I turned 40 last week.  Bleh.

I had some wonderful lunches, suppers and Girl's Nights Out too!  I am so blessed to have these people in my life!   

I got some awesome gifts from my family and friends.  

I know these two pics are sideways (I cannot for the life of me get them to flip--ARGH!), but I wanted to show you part of the AWESOME scrapbook my mom and Brynna did for me.  The top pic shows me as a baby and the bottom pic is a funny page they called 'name that baby'.  It's my kids (Brian's too) and you have to figure out which baby is which. I struggled with it!  I guess our kids all look a little bit alike!

You are probably wondering why I would think a ceiling fan was a good gift for my 40th birthday.  Well, we have had said ceiling fan for over 2 years and it was finally installed on my 40th birthday!  I was thrilled! (seriously, I was!)

And this tree picture (I actually got 2) is now hanging in our rec room!  I had told Brian I wanted these a while back at Kohl's (I love trees) and he remembered and got them for me!  I thought he was getting me a blender! (I would have liked that too!)

But I have entered a new decade. Now what?  Well, I already know that aches and pains are more prevalent.  I have been battling a bum shoulder for almost 2 years.  I suppose lugging babies around for the last 17 years will take a toll on a gal's body.  :)   This is where the medicine cabinet comes in!  Mom is allowed to take something a little stronger on bad shoulder days!  Gray hair has been my friend for about 8 years.  I don't think I am ready to let it grow out and have a totally gray head yet.  So for now, Nice N' Easy will remain my friend.  And I wish I had the body of me at 20 back.  I'm not really a vain person, but I would love for my boobs to be back where they started!

I wish I could say 40 years has brought me some great words of wisdom.  Mostly I can just say that laughter is a must.  Tears still happen. Life can be hard. But perspective is most important.  You can determine how your days will be spent.  Will you choose to see the blessings?  I try to each day.  I have a wonderful husband who supports my decision to be at home with our babies.  I have an awesome mom that adores her grandchildren and is intentional about spending quality time with them.  I am able to school my kids at home and choose the religion I want.  I have wonderful friends (old and new).  

What are your blessings?  

Life is short.  

Take the time to count them.