This weekend rocked. It was frenetic, but productive. Even with me being in recovery mode. And, I don’t remember if I mentioned it before, but during all of the craziness, Stephen was diagnosed with celiac disease. He is feeling a million times better now that he is eating gluten free and his energy is returning with gusto.

On that note, buckle up. This post is gonna be kinda crazy. Like, all over the place. Today I have the attention span of a gnat. See that bright shiny object over there? Let’s go.

The Donation Debacle

Saturday morning, the kids and I were hanging out on the sofa in the new small TV room (the room formerly known as my office). I was drinking my morning cup of coffee, chillaxin,’ when Eddie went berserk. Now, this is normal behavior from a dog that is convinced every stray leaf falling from a tree is attempting to invade his home.

Me, Laying Down, Back to the Window: “Girl, what is he barking at?”

Girl, Looks Out Window: “Charitable clothing pick-up?” She shrugs.

I bolted out of that sofa screaming “Wait, wait, waaaaaiiiiiittttt,” until I got the front door open. The driver of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society donation truck was getting ready to drive away when he heard my cries.

Me: “I am so sorry! I forgot to lay them out this morning! Please give me just a quick second.”

I came back into the house, leaving a bewildered dude walking toward my front door and confused kids in my wake.

Me: “Honey, please bring me my phone.”

Girl, Now Super Confused: “Why?”

Me: “I need a picture for the blog!”

I whipped that photo together in two seconds flat. When I went back to look at it I was afraid of what I might find, but the evidence had been procured. So, you know. Success?

Shoes and Clothes

Food Waste

A few hours later, we had “lunch” out by the pool. I use the term “lunch” very, very loosely. More like what-can-we-put-on-a-plate-and-consume-so-I-don’t-have-to-throw-it-away hodgepodge. As a general rule, we throw away too much food. I’m trying to watch that, too.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the randomness that was:

• Nachos with cheese and salsa for the kids.
• A pitiful cheese quesadilla for Stephen. It was baked in the oven since we don’t have a cooktop yet. It was forlorn little quesadilla.
• Half-wilted, but not yet slimy, lettuce with a day away from wrinkles grape tomatoes and vinaigrette for me, Stephen and the Girl. (The Boy refuses to eat any vegetable other than corn.)
• One spare chicken thigh cut up into strips for me on my salad.
• The last of the little cutie tangerines.

It was sad, really, but I surveyed the food and thought: Protein? Fruit? Vegetables? Meh. Not going to worry too much about it.

Yet Another Basket

We have a basket problem in this house. Millions of baskets. Everywhere. I hate these baskets. Stephen hates the baskets. I’m honestly not sure how they got into my house. Here’s the one I tackled this weekend:

The stereo to the right of the basket was in Stephen’s Pit and that is headed for either sale, donate or freecycle. The two little outfits on the top were purchased by The Girl’s grandparents in Italy and New Zealand, so they went to the small bin that has baby clothes I’m saving for both kids. Now, I know I need to go through them again, but I have limited myself to one bin for now.

This is what remained. Everything else got donated or sent to recycle. There was a lot of old paper hiding in there.

The Boy Was 3 in This Portrait

And, we also found this:

Which, if you will recall, is what prompted this post about how being disorganized and having too much stuff costs you money. In this case, $20 for a lost library book. I wonder if we can return the book to the school library and get our $20 back.

Home Base for Our Crap

I mentioned on the Simple Year Facebook Page that I would post pictures of the two rooms that are currently storing all of our stuff. As in, crap we need to go through. I’m guessing that the majority of this stuff will not come back into the house, but instead will be sold, donated, recycled or freecycled. It’s going to take a lot of work, but right now I’m riding on a high. I can see the finish line of the renovations and I’m starting to feel free. I can’t imagine how I’m going to feel when these two rooms are nearly empty:

Garage Before on Top, Current on Bottom

All of the stuff waiting to be addressed

Um, yeah. It’s pretty horrifying to see it all jammed into these two rooms, but at least it isn’t in the house. Not to say that our bedrooms are in the clear yet – they aren’t. But, considering where we were when our Simple Year started? They’re better.

Whew! It’s The End

If you’re still with me and you now have whiplash, please accept my apologies.