Moms

Today was Mother's Day.  I spoke to my grandma and mom by phone, my mother-in-law came over for dinner, and we had lunch as a family to celebrate Lori.  We gave her the present that Rachel, Lori's mom and I (and a little bit Ben) had worked on - a picture frame with a bunch of construction paper artwork so she can switch them in and out as the mood hits her, and that the kids can add additional ones to as they feel.  Like it's customizable.  :)  Sure to get lots of pins when we take a picture and put it on Pinterest.  Ben was a wild man tonight but I think it was a lot of entertainment for Lori's mom even if he made us a bit crazy.

It was also a quiet day around the house.  I resisted the urge to do some of the chores that just repeat day after day and I tackled the bedroom.  We've started growing more vegetables and the only place to start the seedlings is in our bedroom.  So part of the dresser that had our stereo and photos got taken over by that.  So there was a lot of upheaval - speaker just sitting on top of the stereo, picture frames laying flat, stacked.

And I had a bookcase on which nothing was supposed to live.  It was supposed to be where I could set things only for a moment, a transitory place.  Of course, I set stuff on it and there it stayed.

And we had an old chest full of blankets and sheets.  And then a bunch more sheets got piled on top of it.

And I had a chair by my bed that I wanted to be able to sit on from time to time.  It, too, had become piled high with clean clothes that hadn't gotten put away.

So I did some rearranging.  Adjusted some furniture, did some cleaning.  Moved out that box of magazines (all of the magazines are now consolidated to two places, within two feet of each other, I'll get them the rest of the way, soon).  The stereo is now more usable than it ever has been before, the counters are more organized, all the clean clothes are put away.   All the excess blankets are in a better, though still temporary, home.  There is still some secret hidden clutter, but the room is in better shape.   There's still some stuff to do, but in terms of trying to live more "Simplicity." every day, I made a small step in that direction today.

And still managed to also wash all the laundry and fold all of Lori's and Ben's and mine and put all of mine away.  All that remains is Rachel's.  And none to even do tomorrow so the machines get a rest.

I love being able to bring about some order from chaos.  It makes me feel like I have a bit of control or power over my life, if even only for a moment.  Oh... and I almost got my daily diet updates caught up.  Now only a few days (instead of a few weeks) behind.

Of course, tomorrow the hecticness of work returns, not to mention having to take my car into Midas and then get a rental car.  Do not want to think about what that's going to cost.

Plenty of more things in our crazy life that are not yet where I want them, but I feel like (with maybe the exception of work) that I'm moving forward.