It was fast and it was brutal – and at moments, it was tough. I headed into my bedroom with a 39-gallon bag, poised and ready to tackle the armoire, closet, chest of drawers…as well as a few stacks laying bedside. It was amazing…I did it as quick as I could, not wanting to linger too long where I’d be left wavering in decision. Even so, there were moments, as I was tossing items into the bag, where my brain would say, “Are you sure? You might want to wear that some day!” I did my best to ignore the internal conversation as I continued to toss. But I must admit…there were a couple that I gave into and decided to keep until my next run through – but only a couple.

I’m happy to report that I actually filled TWO 39-gallon-sized hefty bags with clothing that will be heading for the thrift store this weekend.

My focus was specifically on clothing, but my mind began to wander to other things around the room, like my shoes – as that is another area that I can do some clean up. I was tempted to take some before pictures and then decided against it. I mean, some things just need to be kept off the world-wide-web. I’d be pretty embarrassed if my “before” pictures went viral.

But there I was, moving along at a fast pace, that even amazed me. The house began to feel stuffy in my excited frenzy, so I decided to open some windows and turn on the whole house fan (a wonderful device). I was practically speed walking as I turned into the living room to open a window, when all of a sudden…CRACK! I smacked my pinky toe on the wooden leg of our IKEA Poang ottoman.

O…M…GEEEEEE….that hurt! You know how it is when you crack a toe – especially a baby toe – on the leg of anything? The reaction is immediate as you hold back the cry of pain. But then…it seemed weird…a different sort of hurt. Let’s just say, I was pretty shocked when I looked down at my foot to assess the damage and found that my pinky toe was FACING WEST! It was like an out-of-body experiencing, me hovering over my left foot and saying to myself, “Is that really MY foot?!?!”

And then I can’t help but laugh, because in that moment the next thought that rang out was, “Dang it! I don’t have time for this! I’ve got cleaning to do! I’ve got a schedule and people keeping me accountable.”

So what did I do? I turned to my friends. I seriously love Facebook. I grabbed a bowl, tossed in two trays of ice, hobbled to my desk chair, took a picture of my foot before shoving it into the bowl of ice, and posted the picture with a caption that read, “I think I just broke my toe. What do I do?” Almost immediately, the little red notification bubbles popped up with advice for my “dislocated” toe. I received sympathy, directions, even a video showing me what to do. Awesome friends. *insert smile here*

I sent a picture to HB, who was in a meeting and asked him if he could come home and help me. Remember when I told you yesterday how he probably feels anxiety about being away next week? *giggle* He could probably have his own blog about a day in the life of living with me. But this was a new thing…we’ve had a lot of injuries in our home (I mean, I have all boys) but never anything dislocated.

I was not in the mood for a 3-hour tour to the ER, so it was going to be up to him to pop it back into place. A friend of mine called and told me how she had a similar experience and that her husband knew how to put it back into place, so we made a party out of it and I invited them over. They all showed up at the house around the same time and we all circled around my toe while my friends husband assessed the damage. Yep…it was definitely out-of-place. I sat back, put a pillow over my face, and grabbed HB’s hand while our friend grabbed my little toe and the one next to it and rolled it back into place. Am I tough or what?!

I was a little bit frustrated because mentally I was still ready to get some stuff done, but decided to call it a night, put my foot up and continue to ice it. This morning my toe actually feels pretty good and it’s not as swollen and colorful as I thought it would be. I believe my own fast action (photo opportunity on Facebook) and the quick help from my friends played a big part.

I guess I’m going to have to take it easy for the next couple of days and keep my toe iced and elevated so it will continue to heal properly. I suppose I could find something to do while I sit…maybe go through more paperwork…or not.

~CindyLu