Releasing

It felt good to close the month of September. It is always a month of such tremendous transition for everyone as we move into fall and release our children to their professional educators for another year of school. New routines, new people, and new excitement - and lot of new stress as we adjust to it all.

To make room for the changes, I've been focusing on physically and mentally clearing the clutter.

Remember how I was trying to reduce the contents of my house by 25 percent last winter? Well, I did pretty good. All of this went out the door at the garage sale in May...

(No, I'm not a creepy hoarder, that is a picture of my garage the night before the garage sale.)

But we never made it to our bedroom while we were doing the clean out, and really that should be the most clutter free area of the house. So, I've spent a chunk of the past few weekends sorting through clothes and memorabilia and making some small decor improvements to transform our bedroom into the relaxing sanctuary it should be. It's getting close!

I also made a point to create time for some family fun and mental refreshment, a much-needed exercise during a particularly trying period at work. We spent Labor Day weekend with friends at the lake where we had a blast with the kids (wow that feels like more than a month ago!). Then mid-month my husband and I took a long weekend in Massachusetts for a belated 10-year anniversary celebration. It was oh so nice to relax together and just, well, play. One of the highlights of our trip was the Life is Good festival, which was a joy-inspiring event. I love this picture...

And here we are back in the spot we were engaged 11 years ago in Marblehead.

While vacationing, I had the opportunity to evaluate everything filling my mind so I could release anything unnecessary (believe me, I tend to carry a lot of extra stuff in there). One of the things I decided to let go is my Family Goes Green blog. I have not maintained it and I am obsessive enough to allow a stagnant blog to be a source of stress. Its not that I don't still have passion for the topic, its that we are simply living the experience and I guess I just don't have a lot to say about it - as I'm sure you can feel if you've read it, my writing has felt forced and uninspired. I figure if I'm not benefiting from it and nobody else is benefiting from it, why keep it?! So farewell to my well-intentioned blog. I will keep your spirit alive on these pages.

Here's to a wonderful school year in which we can all find room for the joy amidst our busy routines.