Our Sunshine Boys: Hoarder Disorder

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Hoarder Disorder

I am finally accepting of the fact that I have hoarder disorder. What is wrong with me? Why am I trying to hold on to a toy that I got for Christmas when I was 2? This shopping cart lasted 33 years. My boys found a way to break it. Imagine that! I just loved my shopping cart. Why do I attach sentiment to everything? A piece of paper that my 2 year old scribbles on...I gotta keep it. Is it nature or nurture to be a hoarder? Hmmmm....I wonder? Ryan is exhibiting symptoms of my disorder except he is extreme...he likes to hoard trash. I would like to think that my "treasures" are not trash. I've caught him several times collecting things out of the trash that I have thrown out. He hides them strategically around the house. I am overwhelmed of having all my children in school at the same time and trying to distinguish what things to keep and what things not to keep. Poor Evan, the third child..that was me too....has to share his nursery with a scrapbook area and a storage area...aka. junk room. I can not even believe that I am going to post a picture to the world of a room that I try to shut the door and keep closed when guests arrive. Lysa Terkeurst and Karen Ehman have motivated me to share with my readers my lack of organizational skills. Don't judge me because of my junk. Just remember that God is much more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the condition of our homes. Check their sites out. Lysa is the president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and Karen is the author of The Complete Guide of to Getting and Staying Organized. They are giving a way a few copies of the new book and will be offering organizational solutions on their blogs. I hope I am not too late in entering the Organization Swap and Hop. I risked waking up Evan to take the messy photos. Yes..he is there in the crib. He started to stir so I did not take the third photo which would've captured the rest of the mess.

PLease feel free to leave a comment so I know that I am not the only one who suffers from this disorder. :)

About the boys

As of 3/31/08

Ryan is 4 1/2 years old. He is in preschool and loves every minute of it. He loves to color and he loves Larry Boy, the superhero from Veggie Tales.

Jack is almost 3 and he is the aggressive one. He likes to pick on his older brother. Even though he picks on Ryan, he likes to do whatever his big brother does.

Evan is 4 months old but is the size of an average newborn. He was born 9 weeks early. He was only 1 lb 15 ounces and 12 1/2 inches long at birth.

All of the boys have had their medical issues.

Ryan was diagnosed at birth with hydrocephalus. He was shunted at 3 days old. That shunt failed at about a year old. That is when the docs performed a third ventriculostomy. That failed one month later and was redone. His last surgery was January 2009 when he was 5. He has MRI's annually to make sure the hydrocephalus is under control.

Jack was diagnosed at 3 months old with hydrocephalus. He was shunted immediately but that shunt failed at 7 months old. They performed a third ventriculostomy and he has not had another surgery since. He has MRI's once a year.

Evan was born Intrauterine Growth Restricted(IUGR). He was born at 31 weeks 3 days gestational age. He was only 1 lb 15 ounces and he spent almost 2 months in the NICU.