I'm having a few moments of rest; it's been a long day, and I haven't yet started on any of the projects that I had for myself today! The girls didn't have school today, but Susan had to go to work for professional development workshops, so I stayed home with the kids. We started the day by sorting through the collection of Valentine's candy from their classmates, and then we noticed in the living room the piles of things that needed to be put away, and then we got to work on the stacks of clean laundry to put back into dressers and closets, which led me to discover . . . Hillary's bedroom.
The child had a disaster going on in there. In every corner, under the furniture, in the closet, under the bed, and on every horizontal surface, things were piled, stuffed, crammed, jammed, shoved, hidden, buried, tossed, flung, and generally out of order. This was not met with approval by Dad. She and I embarked on what turned out to be a day-long excavation. We filled and hauled out two 13-gallon garbage bags of detritus and flotsam. In the process, we rearranged her furniture to allow for better organization of, and access to, her belongings, and we got out the vacuum and cleaned her carpets and floorboards while we were at it. We enlisted the help of her sisters to go through her dresser drawers, sort shirts and socks, move some clothes to the closet shelf, and refold and tidy the remainders while I continued vacuuming the carpet in the other rooms upstairs.
We recovered many items from Hillary's bedroom that actually belong in other rooms: scissors and other supplies for the office, hair accessories and lotions and body sprays for the bathroom, makeup for the girls' "dress up" collection in the downstairs bathroom, some of her sisters' toys, clothes for the laundry basket, Christmas decorations for the storage room . . . sheesh! Suzanna and Abigail wisely made themselves scarce during the first part of my rampage through Hillary's bedroom, sequestering themselves in their own rooms and straightening up lest I should next make my way downstairs to examine their own abodes!
So Susan will come home from work to find things put away and clean, but she'll find me pulling my hair out over my undone "to do" list for work. Aargh! But onto a more pleasant topic:
We had a very nice Valentine's Day yesterday. We exchanged cards and gifts in the morning and then went off to Sunday school (I attended Abigail's pre-confirmation class with her to learn about the sacrament of communion) and church. We had a gift certificate to use at Taco John's, so that's where we went for dinner at noon. Following an afternoon of chores and homework, we went out for supper at Sanford's Grub and Pub, where we sat in the section of one of my former students, who just recently started working there and for whom Hillary worked diligently throughout the meal coloring a "You're awesome!" note for him on a hat/coloring sheet that children receive at that restaurant. (He told me that, once he got home after work, he put in up on his bulletin board. "I appreciate the hell outta it.")
The child had a disaster going on in there. In every corner, under the furniture, in the closet, under the bed, and on every horizontal surface, things were piled, stuffed, crammed, jammed, shoved, hidden, buried, tossed, flung, and generally out of order. This was not met with approval by Dad. She and I embarked on what turned out to be a day-long excavation. We filled and hauled out two 13-gallon garbage bags of detritus and flotsam. In the process, we rearranged her furniture to allow for better organization of, and access to, her belongings, and we got out the vacuum and cleaned her carpets and floorboards while we were at it. We enlisted the help of her sisters to go through her dresser drawers, sort shirts and socks, move some clothes to the closet shelf, and refold and tidy the remainders while I continued vacuuming the carpet in the other rooms upstairs.
We recovered many items from Hillary's bedroom that actually belong in other rooms: scissors and other supplies for the office, hair accessories and lotions and body sprays for the bathroom, makeup for the girls' "dress up" collection in the downstairs bathroom, some of her sisters' toys, clothes for the laundry basket, Christmas decorations for the storage room . . . sheesh! Suzanna and Abigail wisely made themselves scarce during the first part of my rampage through Hillary's bedroom, sequestering themselves in their own rooms and straightening up lest I should next make my way downstairs to examine their own abodes!
So Susan will come home from work to find things put away and clean, but she'll find me pulling my hair out over my undone "to do" list for work. Aargh! But onto a more pleasant topic:
We had a very nice Valentine's Day yesterday. We exchanged cards and gifts in the morning and then went off to Sunday school (I attended Abigail's pre-confirmation class with her to learn about the sacrament of communion) and church. We had a gift certificate to use at Taco John's, so that's where we went for dinner at noon. Following an afternoon of chores and homework, we went out for supper at Sanford's Grub and Pub, where we sat in the section of one of my former students, who just recently started working there and for whom Hillary worked diligently throughout the meal coloring a "You're awesome!" note for him on a hat/coloring sheet that children receive at that restaurant. (He told me that, once he got home after work, he put in up on his bulletin board. "I appreciate the hell outta it.")
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While we waited in the lobby of Sanford's (for a table to become available), I had the lovely blonds pose for Valentine's Day photos. Here is Susan with our daughters.
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Susan with our oldest daughter, Suzanna.
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Susan with our "middlest" (Abigail's word) daughter, Abigail.
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Susan and our youngest daughter, Hillary.
Susan and I. (By the way, we had our first date 19 years ago yesterday.)
Isn't it funny how you just happen to run across things that need to be done? I.E. Hillary's bedroom? I do that occasionally. I can be in the middle of one thing and end up doing something else because I just can't stand how it looks, or whatever the case may be. I just get in the right mode to take care of it instead of leaving it until later. Been there, done that.
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