The Power of Cleaning

The summer holiday season has commenced. 

Now that I'm done school, I'm doing things for me.

I'll have to get the after photos so I can post them up for you all to see.  I spent Friday night of the long weekend at Jillian Michael's Maximize My Life tour in London.  It was inspiring, motivating and exactly the thing I needed at this point in my year. 

Form there, I spent Saturday transforming my apartment from "College Kid Study Mode" to "Professional Adults Live Here".  And let me tell you how much stale energy I was able to move out of the place and how great I feel by doing this!

I have a few projects left to complete, on this transformation.  These are the better hidden ones though.  I have a clean bedroom with new sheets, and freshly laundered linens.  I have a glistening bathroom and we got rid of the yucky spot of a rug in there.  The hall is free of hairballs.  The kitchen was scrubbed.  The dining room table have been reclaimed, a new table runner laid and we have been enjoying meals at the table since!  My living room was righted, vacuumed and dusted.  The balconey is home to a floral paradise and I'm waiting for my new chair covers is brilliant colours to arrive so we can use it for reading and sitting and evening dining, entertaining and drinks in the garden.  I only need to find a little bistro table to use when we feel like having a meal.  I have a small foldup table for drinks and what not but it's knee height, not dining height.

The transformation has lead to a calm, relaxed feeling when I come home from activities and work now.  And I love it!  The clean kitchen spawned a day of baking - 6 dozen cookies, 3 dozen muffins.  It inspired a couple of dinners as well - new things I haven't tried before.

I was able to enjoy a bath in a clean bathroom and finished a book this weekend.

Sunday we went to a movie - and it only cost us the snacks we wanted to eat...because we didn't pay attention to the time so we paid movie theater prices and kicked ourselves a little.  I ended up being treated by le man on these! 

Monday we got out our bikes and took an 8km ride around an area in town known for it's gardens.  They were so fragrant and beautiful!   Then we went to my favourite place - the Butterfly Conservatory and enjoyed an afternoon of complete relaxation. 

My long weekend was a great body, mind and soul balance.  I would have liked one more day, to enjoy my clean house, a book, and maybe tackle another smaller project.  Alas, I'll have to wait for Friday night this week to get started on that though. 

We had such a wonderful reconnecting weekend, le man and I.  I love that I can spend time doing things I love without the nagging feeling in the back of my head that the time should be spent on school work.  I love that I am now able to just do whatever comes to my mind as it happens.  I love that my home is put to rights again and that the act of doing that allowed me to slough off the stale energies, the weight of my degree, and let go of the old excuses for why I wasn't happy or doing what I wanted and loved to do. 

Now that I'm done school, yet have no holiday time left, I will cherish every evening and weekend I have. 

My place is getting ever more organized.  I'm realizing I need to start inviting possessions into my home rather than blindly accepting them.  And there are some more that need to find new people to love them. 

5 Very Sweet Words!

Some ladies wait for four words from their partner.  Some men wait for the same ones.  There are others that can be sweet as well...

For me, at this very moment in my life, the following words solidify the information I've been given in an unofficial capacity until today.

They are small.  They aren't something that everyone gets to see.

To me, today, they represent the culmination of 6 years of hard word and sacrifice.  Today, these are the sweetest words I've read in a long time.

5 words.  Today, after reading them I raised my arms above my head, screamed out in joy and started crying.  My journey finally being done.

6 long years of sacrifice, hard work, determination, perserverence, travel, drive, passion, examinations, trials, stress, anxiety, anger, frustration, loss, and joy.  Today, for the first time I allowed myself to finally, completely and totally relax.

Today, I know that on June 12th, 2013 I will be hooded and accepted into the halls of higher learning as a graduate.  My journey has ended.  I have reflected on my journey.  I have slept.  I have sat.

I am a graduate and nothing, nothing can take that away from me.

*Aside: how fitting that this is also my 600th post on this blog!