Fabulous Friday

After 9 glorious hours of bark-free sleep, everything looks more fabulous!

The girls and I filled one large city trash bag full of give away stuff yesterday AND my dad volunteered to come get it and haul it up to the church garage sale for me! One whole tall bag of stuff collected and gone in one day. This is a family record.

I'm not sure you can tell any difference.

Therefore I must keep decluttering.

Husband and I are attending an adult dinner party this weekend. I am bringing a side dish, but all my go-to side dishes are not diabetic friendly. Hmmm. Anyone have an easy side dish idea for me?

I'm in the mood to start putting away summer dresses and clothes but who am I kidding? We still have 2 good months of wearing them around here. That whole "no white after Labor day" cannot seriously apply when it is still in the 90s, can it? "Fall" in Texas is a strange season. Soon it will be "chilly" (60s-70s) in the mornings but hot in the afternoons so it's hard to know what to wear. It just doesn't seem right putting sandals on the girls' feet to wear to church in September and October. However, by the time church lets out the sandals are perfect. Maybe I'll wait until October and then put away all the really obviously summery things. Short sleeves stay out year round.

I'm torn this morning between getting school done and working on chores. Both need to happen. Perhaps we'll employ an A-B pattern today of school chore school chore. The good news is...only one more week of school until we get a week off on our new Sabbath schedule! I am really looking forward to it. A whole week to just work on the house or sew or plan for school or all of the above.

That will be even more fabulous than today!

Have a great weekend everyone.

This Was Going to Be My Productive Day

I haven't felt all that productive lately. Busy, yes. But not productive. There is a difference. Then last night at 2:30am (OK I guess technically that's this morning) the neighbor's yippy dog started barking. It was a high, shrill, rhythmic, repetitive bark. For well over 2 1/2 hours. Between us both, we went outside 3 times and banged on the fence which made all the dogs (3 or 4 of them) go ballistic. I'm guessing the neighbors were not home. If they were I will have ugly thoughts.

It was really just the most frustrating thing. At one point I asked S, "If we were not Christians, what would we do about this?" I was just wondering is all. He quickly and without hesitation fired off about 5 ideas that were anything but non-violent and most of which would end up with him in jail. Kind of frightened me. I had only been dreaming of wrapping a zip tie around the little bugger's mouth. Hey, this was 2 hours in so I'm not blaming anyone. We were both feeling a little violent at that point.

But we are Christians so we did not do any of those things.

Our girls are outside playing right by that neighbor's fence right now and I am not telling them to be quiet because it is early. Passive much? Have fun girls!!!

What I was GOING to tell you was I am getting rid of stuff today. Or I was going to back when I had intentions of sleeping through the night. Nester had a post about stuff the other day and I got interested and followed every single link and oh my word:

1. I want to stop shopping for anything right this very second.
2. I want to get rid of 1/2 of our belongings.
3. There just happens to be a garage sale at our church this weekend.

Sounds perfect if not a little drastic. I probably won't get rid of as much as I need to, but I was thinking about decluttering while I wasn't sleeping last night. (Along with zip ties)

I think of the stuff in our house like this:

Our book club is going to read Gulliver's Travels next month. WHY did they have to make a children's movie with objectionable content? Clean it up Hollywood!! (Can't find the review Carrie sent me...Carrie? Link?)

OK I may not be physically tied down with stuff (although that is a phrase we use, interesting) but I feel that way. I don't feel free to just run out the door and do something fun because all this stuff needs to be moved, cleaned, put away, organized, or attended to in some way.

Look, I'm not quite ready to live in a Tumbleweed House, but it's looking pretty free right about now, OK?

Hey! Maybe my sleep-deprived state will actually assist me in throwing stuff out without a second thought?

Hello. This is me with 2 hours of sleep. I am going to make drastic decisions about our belongings today!

A Report on the Great Room Clean-Up

Thank you all for your suggestion of sewing bells on the hem of my clothes yesterday. You are too helpful.

It was actually kind of dramatic. Right before I started, the electricity went out. It remained out for over 4 hours. So....I cleaned in the heat and darkness. I really couldn't see in the closet, but I managed to drag all the books out of there and arrange them neatly on the girls' bookshelves. Then I cleaned up under Little Bit's loft because it's by the window and I could see.

But I couldn't stop there. I had to clean up under Sweetheart's loft and now they are both lovely. But I got hot and tired and stopped. So there are 2 or 4 major piles to go through and now that we have lights I could finish the closet.

Tomorrow.

They actually did not own as much stuff as I would have thought. They each have one shelf in the closet for their special toys that are too precious to throw in the general population of the play room. You know, their favorites.

And I'm happy to report that the window no longer sports a sheet for a curtain. (I had to take it off so I could see) It now has......nothing. I need your help. I know we've talked about this before but I'm still undecided.

It's a long, high window and Little Bit's dresser sits right under it. So no long flow-y curtains. There isn't a privacy issue but I'd like at least a sheer something over the window. What to do???? Something sheer and something swagg-y over the top? What? ACK!!

And I found this fabric but there isn't much of it and I don't care if I use it or not. It would have to be an accent fabric with something else. What???? ACK!

Help please. Thank you.

I'm Goin' In....

...and I may not make it out alive.

You know this big "room re-do" for the girls? Yeah. Well. They still have a sheet on the window and mismatched covers on their beds. But they have really enjoyed their lofts. I thought I'd share a few pictures of how they looked a couple of weeks ago.

Under Little Bit's Loft on a good day.

Under Sweetheart's loft on a REALLY good day.

I really don't care how they decorate under their lofts as long as they ask permission before driving nails, you know? Sweetheart has changed her mind many times already. She's had several themes going on and keeps  changing her mind. Currently it's decorated in "shove it under the loft and forget it."

Most of the time I keep sheets hanging over their lofts like curtains. It gives them some privacy and also allows me to not instantly see the mess when I walk in. Win-Win.

I'm standing at the door of their room. This is the sheet over Sweetheart's loft, their crates of shoes, their mirrors, and Little Bit's dresser. And the sheet-curtain.

Now I'm standing by those crates of shoes and you can see Little Bit's loft covered by the sheet, the front door (that's the homeschool room there) and Sweetheart's dresser.

Then school started and all my friends with public school children were posting things on Facebook like, "Whew! Finally got that playroom clean!" or "There! Now the children's rooms are clean. Let's see how long they stay that way." And it hit me: I need to get rid of the children!

Honestly, if they were at school I would go in their room and clean it. Of course I would. What happens in reality is that I go in their room, shriek for them to get their behinds in there and make them do things they should have done in the first place. But I think every now and then it just needs to be mom's turn, you know?

So tomorrow afternoon, my parents are going to rescue the children keep the girls while I clean. The girls are excited about having a clean room. I know it just gets overwhelming for them. They just have too much stuff in there.

No more.

Should I tie a rope to my ankle you think?

On My Mind

Just now we were getting out of the car and Little Bit said, "I'm going to play ______ when we get in the house."

I said, "I thought you were going to play __________." (I don't really remember what we said she was going to play.)

"Oh! she said." "I just have 400 things on my mind today!"

Ah, the stress of being 6 years old.

But mama, at 39 years old, really does have a lot on her mind. Decidedly NOT 400, but still. Shall I unload on you?

• I've got some financial paperwork to get notarized today. Must meet S at 6:00 to do that.
• I need to make a phone call. (the kind where you have to push buttons and wait and finally talk to a person)
• I want to start hitting the thrift stores for Sweetheart's fall/winter wardrobe.
• I'm thinking about Christmas presents because I want to do handmade gifts again. Much searching online.
• I need to continue to work on the girls' quilts.
• I need to prepare for sewing class on Saturday.
• The car for Little Bit's dollhouse is almost finished and then we have to continue painting the house to make it rich.
• Need a grocery list.
• Need to go grocery shopping.
• Need to call a friend but she's at work.
• Need to write a check for piano lessons.

MOST of that needs to happen today but not all of it will. See all those "needs" up there? Ug. That's too many needs for one person.

Maybe I should just go play?