Good evening!
I've been MIA this week because---school started! I leave at 7:45 each morning and get home about 4 pm Monday through Thursday, then 2 pm on Fridays. I have always been a morning person so I've been getting up at 6 am and using that hour and 45 minutes to get a few things done around the house as well as getting myself ready. That does not leave time for posting!
I guess I'll report in at the end of the day instead of posting in the morning now.
School went well. Although the kids are all Deaf, there are quite a few with additional needs so I do a lot of one-on-one. I jump between kindergarten, resource and third grade. I like that--I like the changes through the day.
I'm figuring out my new normal with homemaking. For sure I'll do a load of laundry each day instead of one big laundry day a week. More of the kitchen work will be delegated to the other family members, and I will INSIST that the kitchen be cleaned to completion. Too many times whoever was supposed to "clean up" just put away the food and cleared the dishes, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. The table was not wiped off and chairs pushed in; trash was not thrown away; recyclables were not put in the recycling bin; the hand washables were not done. So I would do all of that. No more. I'll be making a checklist that whoever is in charge of the kitchen will be expected to follow. I don't want to spend my mornings cleaning up last night's mess. I will also have the day's activities end at 8 pm. That should work on Sunday-Thursday. Tuesday Alex has Cub Scouts but the meeting is over at 8, so he should be home by 8:15 at the latest. We'll pick up the house, choose clothes for tomorrow, finish any homework that needs finishing, prepare backpacks and lunches and get ready for bed at 9.
We had our new basement lights put in last week and they are fabulous. We also bought a new TV stand (the Hemnes from Ikea). Our old entertainment center was the old fashioned kind with the big box in the middle for the square TV and a cabinet on the side and a smaller one below. We've been putting the TV on top of the whole thing and using the TV space for photo album storage. We decided to "upgrade" and bought the Hemnes. We like it much better--the TV is more at eye level. Anyway, all this created quite a mess in the basement with clearing stuff out for the lights work, then moving things around to accommodate the new TV stand. So this weekend's project is to get the basement back in order. I'm going to use the old entertainment center for storage in the office.
Christie moved out on Sunday for college. She started an orientation class for incoming freshmen this week and school for all students starts on Monday. She's quite excited. Jordan's quite excited because he gets to move into her room. That's another project for this weekend--get the old furniture moved out (it's fairly feminine and I haven't got any more girls, so out it goes). The bed will stay but the dresser, desk and nightstand will be given away or sold. We need to paint but Jordan really wants to get in there so I told him he could sleep in there starting tomorrow night but to wait until we got the room painted before moving any other furniture in.
Tonight is Jordan's football game. Either Steven or I will go. We decided we'd alternate going since the two younger boys aren't really interested in the game and Christie's not here to stay with them anymore. (That's proving to be quite an adjustment--having one less babysitter.
) Tomorrow will be getting the bedroom furniture moved out to the garage and getting the house cleaned up. Lots of bins and boxes to go through.
Have a great weekend!
Merilee
