The Week in Review

It's been a week of getting back into the swing of things. Fall does that, doesn't it? Summer is about relaxing, vacationing, enjoying time off. Fall is about running back to our routines. I don't mind, though. I'm a schedule lovin' girl.

Monday was the first day of school. I met my son's homeroom teacher, and had the feeling she's Brazilian. I was right! My son likes her very much, which is great. The first day is always exciting and a bit nerve-wracking, but he got through with flying colors. My daughter had her first day on Monday too, though a few of her classes are online. I see that as the future, quite frankly. Mark my words, within the next 15-20 years we'll have less people in school and more doing schoolwork online from home. In 50 years we'll be hermits!

My other project has been home decluttering, redecorating, pretty much overhauling. I take advantage of the fact that I'm alone most of the day and I get to some intense cleaning, purging, and fixing up, till my house looks like something out of House Beautiful magazine. Monday was the master bedroom, which I shared on this post. I've managed to keep it up, too, I'm happy to say.

Tuesday were bathrooms. Of course, we remodeled the bathrooms back in February, so they look new for the most part, but I did give both a major cleaning. One thing I did add to the guest bathroom was this plaque:



I found it at Kohl's for only $4.99! It matches the tile perfectly, and it's a quote from 1 Corinthians 13. Such a great find!

Wednesday and Thursday was the boy's room. Yes, a 12X11 room that took 2 days to organize. This is the best time to do it, though, when E is in school. He has too much of an attachment to stuff. Toys that are never touch suddenly become his "favorite" the minute I say we need to get rid of it. He'll play with it for a day, and put it back in the toy box to be forgotten till the next time I tell him it's time to say goodbye. When he's at school, there's no longer a problem. What E doesn't know won't hurt him.



This is the boy's closet as I was getting started. We had the closet organizer put in a few years ago, but like everything else, if you put too much into it there's no organization. I'd emptied out the shelf with all of E's stuffed animals when I realized I hadn't taken a picture, which is why that one section is empty. The picture doesn't even begin to show the mess: there were toys and stuff all over, falling onto the floor constantly because there was no space for it. I began taking everything out, putting it in piles (keep, donate, trash), cleaning each shelf, and putting things back in order. This is the final result:



Neatness and order! It took me all morning on Wednesday to get this done. I even got lunch late because I was so focused on the task at hand I didn't realize what time it was. I stopped after that, though, because I needed to dye my hair. I color my hair for a very simple reason: I don't like the "white highlights" that began taking over after I turned 40. My natural hair color is black, but I find it too harsh for my fair skin. I like going light auburn, but then my roots show too quickly. So this time I went for dark auburn. I like the look, just have to see in a couple weeks if the roots are taking over. My hair grows like a weed, so I have to color frequently. Wednesday night was the Awana launch. Pizza party! My son was jumping off the walls he was so happy. I love it because he's fellowshipping with other kids, learning bible lessons and Scripture, and meanwhile I go to adult Bible study. There's gonna be several different classes going on this fall. I'm taking a leader's class in September. Can't wait!

Thursday I finished the boy's room. Cleaned up drawers and the shelves above the drawers and desk, dusted, organized, until the room now looks bigger and brighter. Oh, it looks so nice I never want to leave! But I will; there's still more work to be done.

Today was, as usual, grocery shopping day. That's the other nice thing about fall: the stores are emptier. I got done so quickly! Even though our local Walmart is remodeling the store and I can't find half the things I need, I was still able to get in and out of the store in about 35 minutes. That's less than what I usually spend at the check-out line! Unfortunately I couldn't find a bunch of E's school supplies, so I'll be picking him up from school and going directly to Target. After that, we'll come home and watch Tim Hawkins with a bowl of popcorn and laugh till we cry. Ahh. I love my life.