The Constant Is Change

This has been a week filled with firsts. I've packed up the old office. Moved into the new office. Had more to do with construction than I would have ever desired to- with the promise of much more to come. Vacuumed more square footage than should be legal. Dug through 2 large coffee cans of keys - and actually found some that worked. Hosted an open house. Had two city inspections and finally began to move people in.

Phew! I'm tired.

I've had lots of negativity sprinkled on top of my days. People telling me this program will never last. People telling me how this won't work, that will fail, and the other things are stupid or not thought out. Some are full of questions - which is helpful and makes you consider various possible situations - but also is exhausting when you feel like you are justifying every answer and being questioned at every stop.

I am very thankful that none of this "stuff" is coming from my boss. She continues to tell me how glad she is that I am there, how brave I am for taking on this project. And she continues to feed my ego with cheers of "you can do it". (And in all fairness, I've heard this from others as well - but it usually is at the end of the grilling questions / comments.)

I'm also overwhelmed with community support - so many people want to help - but I never realized how much work it is to coordinate people's efforts to help. I'm feeling pulled in multiple directions and find that my new mantra is "Just keep swimming!"

At some point this week - I thought, "okay, I'm starting to feel comfortable - this is okay" and of course, I had to remind myself that nothing about my work world today will be the truth of my work world tomorrow - nor in a month or in a year. I've signed up for on-going change.

Keep your fingers crossed that it comes in slow and steady paces. And maybe even that I can catch my breath from time to time and have a moment of comfort and reassurance.

Use What You've Got

In my quest to downsize my possessions - I have to deal with my apparent obsession with body products.

I have a LOT. Imagine an amount in your mind - multiply that by 3 and that might be close. It's crazy. I knew it was bad - but I still had no clue how bad it was. I blame the "buy more" techniques - spend $$ and get free shipping. Or the buy 3 to get a good price deals.

There are lotions for breast firming, self tanning, moisture, some smell good (various flavors), some scrub, some lighten veins, smelly sprays, anti-aging, some for specific body parts, facial creams, eye creams, hair products, full size bottles, sample sizes and so it goes ....

So this year one of my resolutions has been:

1. Stop buying these things. 2. Get better about using them.

It's exhausting! If I used all these things on a daily basis - I would lose hours of my life. Half way through the year - I've done very good about not buying more products. But I feel like I've hardly made a dent in using it all up. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see that I'm reaching the bottom of the bottle.

Do you keep your beauty supply inventory under control? Or do you find it piling up? Do you purge regularly? And do you use what you buy on a regular basis?