Hi All!!

I know it has been for-ev-er since I have posted. It’s funny the way life can bury you sometimes, isn’t it? But I am back and have a bunch of stuff to share in the near future. This week, I have GIGANTIC news. Simple Mom is running a series Project Simplify 2013 and it could not be better timing for me, this house, and my family.

Want to know why?

We are moving.

*gulp*

That’s right. We’re moving. Not to another house in town. Moving, moving. To Northern New York. Where we are taking on the endeavor of starting a family farm.

*gulp*

In just 8 short weeks, we are leaving sunny Florida, and every time I look around my house I wonder how the heck I am going to pack this place up. The clutter is out. of. control.

Want to see?

&nbs

p;

Crazy, right?!

I have a rock in my junk drawer.

Clutter on every open shelf and in every drawer.

So, week one of Project Simply at Simple Mom is just for me. Time to brutally eliminate everything that I wouldn’t dare move 1800 miles away. I will share my progress on drawers and shelves at the end of the week.

And in the meantime, I have a review – fantastic!! A guest post here – also fantastic!! And my contributor post at Simple Mom – which is so-so. See you Friday with my progress on Project Simplify. And with a lot more about this leap of faith wild, fly by the seat of our pants move that my family and I are making in just 8 weeks!!

I have missed you all so much. Hope some of you are still here reading.

xo
Emily

The summer that I was 11 years old, I went to summer camp with a friend from school. My parents drove me to Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada and dropped me off on the adventure of a lifetime. 4 weeks at camp where I would end up meeting some of the best friends of my life, and having some of the most valuable learning experiences that come only with roughing it in the woods. There was no running water or electricity. We bathed in the lake, at mediocre meals, slept in canvas tents on wood platforms, and went on canoe trips lasting anywhere from one night to 14 days.

The very first canoe trip I went on from camp was a 4 day trip. We arrived at our start location and got paddling, then portaging, then paddling some more. Halfway into our first day, our counselor realized she’d forgotten the dish pack, the bread, the toilet paper, and…the tent. If you are unfamiliar with the world of canoe tripping, this meant that we couldn’t cook, eat peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, wipe our butts or sleep inside anything at night. It rained the whole 4 days. In that 4 days, we were creative out of necessity, snuggling in under our canoes to keep as dry as possible, sleeping on picnic tables under a pavilion, and wiping our butts with leaves. I am not sure what we ate.

Instead of having this experience and swearing off of canoe tripping, camp and life in the wilderness forever, I was hooked. I wanted to go on trip after trip and begged to go back to camp again the next year and the next. I went for 7 years until after a year of being a counselor. I met my husband there, too!

I have a special place in my heart for camp, the people, the experiences. My daughter is now 8 and nearing the age that she can start going. So, this past spring when I found out that there was a reunion for those of us who had attended during the 90s, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to go, relive some of the best times of my life, and introduce this magical place to my girl.

We flew into Ottawa Thursday night and rode up to camp with friends the next day. 22 years after that first day at camp, one of my best friends in the world is the girl that I shared a tent with that first summer. We rode up to camp, reminiscing, preparing my daughter, getting our nervous jitters out, and laughing as we sort of sang old camp songs.

While there, I caught up with old friends and learned that apparently – thankfully – 15 or so years can go by and people are the same. Wonderful, comforting, familiar same. It was like picking up right where we left off – singing around the campfire, playing silly games, hiking, swimming, laughing, laughing, and more laughing.

While I was experiencing these things with my old friends, my sweet 8 year old girl was making memories and friends of her own. She ran around with new friends like they’ve known each other forever – doing arts & crafts, making up plays, swimming, eating smores, exploring, hiking, singing, laughing, laughing and more laughing. It was amazing to see and showed me that some things in life do come full circle. I was thrilled that she loved it so much she wants to start going to camp next summer. *gulp* Bittersweet.

It was a magical couple of days that went far too fast. I couldn’t believe it was already time to go come Sunday morning. A wild, long trip to make for 3 days, but so worth it. Sometimes in life you have to let go and realize that there are some experiences in life that are worth the tired, hungry, expensive, and crazy. A weekend at one of the most beautiful places on earth to me with my girl was one of those experiences.

I know I have said this before about the power of 10 minutes, but it bears repeating. There are so many *little* things that I put off and put off until I am insane and then when I finally get around to doing it, I think of how ridiculous it was that I had something nagging at me for sooooo loooong when all it took to get it done was 10 minutes.

(Wouldn’t it be nice if to go along with this post, I had a picture of my actually clean bathroom? I would never be so organized. This is not actually my currently clean bathroom, this is the only photo of my bathroom I could find from last year or two years ago or who knows how long now. Cluttered. But this photo will have to do since I don’t have my camera at the moment. Imagine a lot less clutter and a little sparlkier.)

My bathroom has been so in need of a deep clean. You know how it can be with boys in the house. And toothpaste. Messy. Dirty. Gross. And every time I went in there, I’d think “I need to *clean* this room”, then I would promptly leave the room, shut the door and pretend it didn’t exist. Until the next time and the next time.

Finally, yesterday I went in there to take a bath and instead of starting the bath and going and putzing around on the computer until it was ready, I thought “I bet I could have this room clean before the bath is ready! What a treat a bubble bath will be after I am done scrubbing this room.”

I got my gloves, my spray, my rags and my vacuum and I had the room spotless clean before the bubbles were overflowing.

And I really enjoyed the bath afterwards.