Small Successes-August 5th

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

I've had a busy week with organizing things around the house.

1. Last Thursday and Friday I spent a considerable amount of time reorganizing the kitchen pantry.  While most people store food in their kitchen pantry, our pantry is half-filled with games and learning aids for the kids.  It used to like a little educational store threw up in there.  Now that I've organized, it looks much better and we can store more food (a good thing since we now eat at home more than we eat out).

2. The Shrek swamp pool is once again crystal clear.  We had phosphates in the water (it took two pool places to determine this) that made the the pool icky and green.  It's amazing what a couple hundred dollars (Ugh!) and a ton of chemicals can do for ugly green water.

3. The laundry is under control.  The master bathroom has been cleaned (this time I even cleaned the sinks and the huge garden tub that no one uses) for a second time in two weeks.  I also journeyed to the kids' bathroom and cleaned their tub, too.  And the huge piles of junk and outgrown kids' clothing that were accumulating in my bedroom?  Oh, they've been organized and relocated to better homes.  I even reorganized my hand me down closet so I could fit more things in the totes.  Still not satisfied with what I had accomplished, I decided to go out back and weed one of the vegetable gardens.

4. I finally accepted that Ellie needs a bigger back pack for school.  I took her to L.L.Bean a few nights ago and let her pick a book bag and lunch box.  And if I'm seen crying on September 8th when I take my baby to school, it won't be because I can't believe she's already old enough for kindergarten, it will be because the bright color of the bag she chose is burning a hole in my retinas.  The sales clerk at L.L.Bean kindly informed me that I can return the bag at anytime for any reason when I asked Ellie if she was sure she wanted the retina burning pink book bag.  Choosing the lovely powder blue would have been too easy.