Back to the Grind

Everybody at my house started back to school/work/activities today. My 5:30 alarm seemed to go off awfully early. But I got out of bed and started the day. There was the usual sluggishness and whining and rushing around to find backpacks and jackets discarded two weeks ago. This whack-o calendar our school district is on didn't let out till December 22nd, but we didn't have to go back till today. I don't like it. This long after the hustle and bustle of Christmas just makes me cranky. I don't need two weeks after Christmas to "recuperate". I need those weeks before Christmas to get things done. All I've done in what seems to me to be an unnecessarily long time off since Christmas is plan all kinds of projects I need to do around my house.

Take this weekend, for example.

Brad took Eli on an unexpected, spontaneous ski trip with some friends of ours. I opted to stay home with Phoebe, because more than I hate too much time after Christmas before going back to school, I hate rushing home from a trip to start school back the next day. There was so much I still needed to do...like take down my Christmas. Since I don't ski, a 14-hour car trip seemed like cruel and unusual punishment for someone with control issues like me.

Staying home was great. I got all my Christmas taken down and boxed up. It's currently all sitting in my living room because I'm so not dragging all those boxes back up to the attic. That's Brad's job. He does manual labor. I clean bathrooms. We all have our rolls in this marriage. Then I re-arranged my craft room. It's much more workable now. And in true IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE style, I decided I needed new bedding for the bed in there and a new way to organize my spools of thread which required a rummage through some vintage quilt tops and a plan on how to finish them and a frame repair. My craft closet needs an overhaul, but that's going to have to wait a week or so. Then I decided I needed to get to work on the un-finished handkerchief quilt my great-grandmother started eons ago. (I never knew her; she died when my mom was in middle school so you know that work-in-progress has been around awhile!) That little project took some serious brain power because her quilt was just a bunch of handkerchiefs sewn together willy-nilly. I'm sure she had a plan, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me! At this point, I think I've got a plan. The top should be finished in the next day or so and then on to the actual quilting which is a whole other bowl of beans! Then I cleaned my pantry. Mostly just some re-arranging and pitching old stuff, but it made my pantry feel light and fresh and new. Or maybe it just made me fell that way...I'm not sure my pantry actually cared. Oh yeah, I also made sure Phoebe was fed and entertained and even cleaned up some throw-up late Saturday night.

Whew! I need a vacation from my vacation! (How's that for an overused cliche?)

I also decided that we need to do something with Brad's office. We've lived here three years and the only thing on the wall is a Phillies liberty bell sticker. I know Brad wants this to be "his" space and I'm not supposed to touch it, but this is ridiculous. The attic needs a thorough purging and I've ordered fabric for two outfits for Phoebe and two more quilts for Eli's room (he wants to re-decorate it). I also came across THIS and decided I need to file all those manuals we have stuffed in a kitchen drawer (or two). Seriously, I should not be left alone.

When I get like this it frustrates me that I can't work faster or that there aren't enough hours in the day. As if I can fix any of that. My normal routine seems to put a kink in all my "nesting", but there's really no way to avoid this. All I want to do is get things done and ignore my children and dinner and laundry and all the other everyday stuff. But I have to remind myself (quite often) that these things are the reason I get up every morning. Not so I can accomplish the things I add to my own to-do list, but to love my family and serve them and bless those around me everyday. I need to take a deep breath and re-prioritize a few things. It'll all get done. Sometime.

In the meantime, we'll get back to school and preschool and ballet and Cub Scouts and everything else that fills up a life. I'll be able to find an hour here or there to accomplish something on my never ending to-do list.

Happy Monday!