ROLLERCOASTER

This week is a real roller coaster. Monday I was low, Tuesday way better. Yesterday I was low again and today I am spinning like a dervish and seem to burst with energy. This morning by 9 am I had the trash out, my second load in the wash and dryer, 4 kids fed and out of the house with packed lunches. I had collected and sorted dirty laundry, folded and put away 4 loads and a few other things. 

I was on time for pick up and even got a few necessities at the grocery store, stopped at the shoe store for a pair of shoes for Alex (with 4 kids in tow), dropped Matt off at his friend's house and took 2 nice reading breaks. I rocked the music run AND gave a 45 min lecture at my church. And yes. Dinner was on the table before I left. Can you spell rockstar? Easy. K-A-T-J-A! And I was still smiling when the day was over. Oh, and in case I forgot to tell you, I even made progress in the bathroom. 

MY LONG JOURNEY

Sometimes I feel nothing but despair when I look at the mountain that is yet to climb. I might have covered quite the distance in the last 19 months but I still have such a long way to go. This week I have felt little pangs of despair more than once. Not as bad as last week.  But bad enough to make me cry every now and then. Just look at today. Morning spent on the phone getting nothing done because morals are low, all afternoon running all over the place with appointments and the evening home alone as James is out to dinner with his co-workers. 

If you have followed last year's 14 day power declutter you know that I had a little deal with myself. For every box I took up to hide in the attic, I had to deal with one from up there. I decided to offer myself the same deal this time. I am very reluctant to take it. The stuff I take up stairs will have to be dealt with eventually. Why not do it now? Plus, taking stuff into the attic involves actually getting up there. I am not in the mood for the depressing sight the attic is, plus it is such a hassle and I take forever to actually do it. I'll go up once a week I promised myself. Yeah. Right. NOT! It took me almost 3 weeks to finally go up. The main reason to get it over with  was not the pile of stuff blocking the upstairs landing, making it almost impassable, but the fact that I had stuffed myself with chocolate and sugar coated peanuts and I know that a nice little work out is the best way to deal with high blood sugar levels. So either I eat a whole package of sugar once a week or it won't ever get done. I took some books down in the hopes of being able to sell them. I have books that I "sold", but unless I reach a certain total I can't ship them off. Needless to say, the site I am selling to is not interested in buying any of the books I brought down. The only 3 that they would buy are some that I haven't read and figured I would read them first. I'll never get anywhere this way. Can you see why I start crying "out of nowhere"? Once again I feel trapped. Oh. And I accepted free stuff again. Just one item, but one that I won't need for another year. ARGH! Well. I am going to force a smile on my face now and pack the books that I brought down with the other "unsellables" and will try to dump them on some friends on the weekend.

ROUGH START INTO THE WEEK

Yesterday, I felt kind of down and the week had a rocky start. I am feeling a lot better today. James is out of town on a business trip. Or at least was supposed to be, but he came back last night with a coworker, as they couldn't get a hotel to stay. This just means they had to go back this morning. As it is a good 90 min commute that made for a long day for him yesterday. For me, too, as he was gone from 7:30 am- 8:30 pm and super tired by the time he came home. I have decided to worry about essentials only, with it being Taxi Tuesday you know what those are. Right? The best thing about last night is knowing that James can handle the mess. When he crashed on the couch at 9 pm, I said:"Can you tell that I surrendered around noon?" His reply:"It doesn't look that bad." hahaha I think he needs to clean his glasses! It did make me feel a lot better though!

WHY DO YOU HATE ME, MONDAY?

***spoiler alert*** this post contains plenty of TMI!!!!!  ***spolier alert***

As if it being Monday wasn't enough of a challenge, I had a certain little person climb into James's bed without a a diaper on and taking care of big business there. Needless to say I was thrilled to have do change the sheets again within 3 days and to have added 2 loads to my existing 5 loads of dirty laundry. The good thing is, that the mattress cover was in place, so at least the mattress stayed clean. As I had started the first load at 6:30 am (Yes, I am one busy mama!) the washer was done by the time I had the bed stripped. I have vowed to myself that I will not start the kitchen this week tempting as it maybe, unless I finish the other 3 rooms. I am not sure how I did 8 rooms in 2 weeks if I can't even get 1 done per week at the moment. I guess I skipped the deep cleaning back then and it was during spring break. This week has 5 additional maybe even 6 additional things to offer. 2 of them might be James problem but they leave me home alone for 2 nights this week. Needless to say I am not looking forward to it.

THANK YOU JAMES!

James does not know of my 14 week challenge, so of course he didn't know that the patio was on the list and that I had given myself a week to do it. As he didn't know, he simply went and cleared it in a day. I love the guy. I do have some shoes to sort through, but that should be a piece of cake. Thanks to James I am still on track. At least kind of. I have 1 week now to finish off the living room, patio and bathroom.