Back to...

Mom and Dad went back to Florida. Dave went back to work. Nathanael went back to school. Asher and I are getting back to our routine. I love Christmas break but the highs and lows, the loss of routine take a bit out of a person.

I miss having Nathanael and Dave around but, this is the first time in two weeks that I've been "alone". (Asher is just taking his nap.) There is a lot that I wait to do until I am "alone" (like write this blog) so I'm glad to get this bit of time back.

And, now that the holidays and breaks are over, it's time to... CLEAN THIS HOUSE! I decided that as I remove Christmas decorations, room by room, I am going to give that particular room a very thorough cleaning. Cleaning, organizing, weeding. I'll reward myself with some furniture moving and Valentine's Day decorating. I also decided to make a "to-do" list for each room. I found that I kept thinking of things that I wanted to do, issues to address, furniture to move, etc. So I've made a list for each room which comes with the added reward of crossing things off.

I was going to wait until today to get started but I decided to tackle the upstairs bathroom yesterday. Dave had given me lovely new towels for Christmas and I was dying to get them moved in. I finished up the bathroom this morning and I am very happy with it and can check it off of my list! Next- the master bedroom. Eek!

Throughout the mass cleansing, I also am going to work on the laundry room. It is in our basement and there is no way that I can make it look magazine feature-worthy but I'm going to do my best with it. I want a bonafide laundry room (sparked by my beautiful, new washer) so I'm clearing out all of the non-laundry room- what's the word for it- crap! I'm going to make it an actual laundry room. I am determined! I'll even post some pics when I'm done.

All the while, I am also trying to pack up my decorations better. I tend to be so over Christmas by New Years day that I toss everything in bins and hide them in the attic just so I don't have to look at them. Then, when I pull them out of the attic to do my decorating, I spend the whole time berating myself for the awful packing job. It may take me a bit longer to remove Christmas from our midst but, again, I am determined!

Hopefully, all of the above won't take more than two weeks. I then want to spend the rest of January planning my garden. I'll post more about that as I get to it. I also want to get my Romeo and Juliet completed, along with a new Marie Antoinette (I sold the original). Juliet is already done but I haven't listed her yet. I think I want to release and list Romeo and Juliet at the same time. My sketch of Romeo is done and I'm happy with the way it looks. Today I'll be picking out fabrics and maybe I'll start to the pieces I'll need.

That's enough for now! Off to the next project!!