My Lenten Commitment: 40 bags in 40 days

One of the things that I have recently spent lots of time thinking about is how much I would love to simplify and clean out clutter from my life.  So, for lent this year I have decided to do "40 bags in 40 days".  This is an idea that I actually learned about from another blog, and I love it!  Basically, what you do is clean out 40 bags of "stuff" that you don't use or have not used in the last year and probably have no intention of using again. Be brutally honest with yourself here...one room at at time, one bag at a time.  I am currently working on bag number 10 and it is amazing how great this is starting to feel!  The trick here is to try to put your hands on every item in whatever room you are working on before you move on to the next room.  At first this seemed like a huge undertaking and I really thought it would take forever, but if you remember this is about tossing and not getting overly involved in reorganizing it actually goes quite quickly...the reorganizing comes after the 40 days!  Goodwill, Vietnam Vets, Salvation Army and local shelters are more than happy to accept your items, all for a good cause.   More on my first room tomorrow. 

Day One

Today is my first day of blogging.  There are several reasons why I want to blog, but the main reason is to mark the beginning of a new phase of my life...the empty nest.  I am not sure what I really want to say in this blog yet, but I am hoping to open my world to other Mom's that have entered this strange new world.  I live in Virginia with my wonderful husband of 27 years.  Our only child, our son Eric, started college this year in the same town, but feels like he is a world away....where has the last 19 years gone?  I know most of us feel this way when our last child leaves the nest, but as I sit here writing, I feel both terribly sad and terribly excited at the same time.  After all the years of wishing for more "me" time...here it is and a part of me aches for the days of packing lunches, running to school events, doing crafts, watching him play video games, listening to his music, go to the bookstore together and just spending time with my wonderful young man.