Addition and Subtraction

The whole "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" thing apparently applies to my theory on cleaning. We had to bring many things INTO the house after the holidays, so I have spent two weekends furiously purging us of other things to make room. It's not a bad way to run things, actually.

The biggest addition was a bunkbed for Jack. It's mine from high school (yes, I had a bunk bed in high school). We brought it back from StL and set it up today. Here's my tiny boy in his new big boy bed.


His room is SO cluttered around it, but in time we'll be able to move some of his stuff to Ryker's room. Jack swears Ryk is moving in with him after he's done with his crib ("when he's weddy"), so maybe we'll end up with an open room. And he's ecstatic about it. They both are, actually. The addition of the bunkbed also brought with it the addition of 18 new gray hairs on my head as I cycle through images of children toppling off the top bunk. (Knock on wood.)

We had a ton of toys come into our possession as well. And THAT is why I started purging. My accomplice last weekend (my mom) took the kids to lunch and out shopping (for groceries, not more stuff) and I sprinted around the house throwing broken toys away. I will donate the good ones that just aren't used anymore. And here's the best part - the ones we're keeping are now in the basement! God Bless basements! The kids' rec room is shaping up nicely, and now has a Wii with Mario Kart, which happens to be a BLAST to play with Jack. I also cleaned the entire fridge - every shelf came out, got Cloroxed, and went back in. That was all last weekend.

This weekend was no less tidy. I removed all of the Christmas decorations, cleaned the entire kitchen and entryway, reorganized our entry closet, and cleaned the work station upstairs. That last one about killed Chuck and me last night. Took me two glasses of wine and Chuck about three beers to keep motivated. Stacks and stacks of paper. I found the new insurance cards though, so that's a plus.

Anyway, I'm exhausted. But as I tended to the stacks of paper and piles of hats, two mountains of laundry sprang from the armchair. Time to get moving again.