Today was to be Paint the Bookcase Day. Whatever else happened, the top priority was to paint the bookcases, rather 3 bookcases, all part of the same project.
I did not paint the bookcases today.
By now, my squirrel method of productivity may be familiar. If not, today was a classic example.
After church and a leftovers lunch, I dove into washing the dishes. Dove is a funny word in relation to a sink full of soapy water.
Kara and Kal had a friend come over, so I was free to do anything I set my mind to while they all occupied each other. I was going to paint bookcases once I had set the house in order, which, of course, would hardly take any time at all.
Part of that order was mopping the floor. Mopping can only be done immediately after sweeping, so that's really a two-part job. And that floor was looking pretty speckled with dried slop marks of whatever slopped. So the floor was important.
In being up and down and all around, I straightened up the family room, pulled out the vacuum for the kids to use on that floor, rearranged some games, my steamer and gravity-fed iron, and the dress form. Oh, goodness, here's a cup and spoon down here where it doesn't belong. Back upstairs.
Put the cup and spoon in the sink. Move over to the dining table which morphs into my home office during the week. It's just the place in the house I like to be if I have paper/computer work to do. It's also a dump station for the papers, pens, and whatevers that build up during the day.
In putting away some pens, I decided the keeper on the desk was too bulky and not quite what I want for that spot. Hmm... declutter the pens, toss out the irrelevant papers, stack and pack the rest. Oh, this desk drawer could use some tossing. Why did I keep this notebook with only two sheets of paper left? Sort things into piles for putting away, whatever I didn't toss, that is.
Might as well clean out all the desk drawers.
Part of my cleaning had me running downstairs in the laundry room to put whatevers away. Oh, look, I still have pumpkins from last Fall down here waiting to be roasted. I should do that now.
Lug those upstairs. Cut them in pieces. Dig out the seeds. Place them in the oven which is still preheating. Can't get both of them in, so I leave one pumpkin on the counter ready to go in when the first is done.
Hmm... Back downstairs to take care of more somethings in the laundry room. Oh, there are those boxes of china. Beautiful china. I have nowhere to keep them, though I would enjoy using them. What to do? Quick text and picture to see if J & S want them. Yes, J & S want them.
Great! I lug those boxes upstairs to the front door ready to go away. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, back to papers. I found a bag of papers to sort from one of the runs upstairs. Just about all of it was irrelevant. Chuck. Well, that was quick.
"Mom, can we have some French fries and tater tots?" "Why do you need French fries and tater tots." "Because we're hungry from watching this guy on YouTube eat French fries." Sigh. Okay. Pop those in the oven underneath the pumpkin.
Just remembered I need to make a few phone calls. Call 1: I sweep all the caked-on mud from off the deck during that call. Did mud fall from the sky? It sure looks like it. Maybe it's just life with an active boy.
Call 2: I start being less productive during this call, but we did talk about all the bullet points that needed to be addressed.
Hey, I wonder if J&S want a cabinet to put their new china set in? Quick text and picture to J & S. Yes, J & S would love to have a cabinet. I never really wanted it in the first place, though it was serviceable for storing what pretty dishes made the cut when we moved to this house.
I don't know what I'm going to do with all the dishes, I just know I've had enough of the visual space this cabinet is taking. So, unload, unload, unload.
Thanks to some serious stack-and-pack skills, I'm able to maneuver a few sets of stemware I want to keep, plus a pitcher. Hmm... I don't really use these dishes over here. Would J & S want them? I make a pile for J & S to look at.
Meanwhile, Mr. L has come over to pick up the kids' friend that was here today. He and Kris end up chatting for an hour, which is fine and very predictable. I sit and chat for a bit in between all my running around.
Oh, the floor! I haven't mopped it yet. I did sweep earlier, sometime after putting pumpkins in the oven. So, a quick mop with my Norwex mop. (Thank you, M! It's gotten lots of good use.)
There, the floor is clean again. Maybe it'll stay that way for more than 10 minutes this time.
Out to the car to arrange the back to carry the china cabinet. I've gotten some pretty big pieces of furniture in a Tahoe. A 6-foot-tall china cabinet is no big deal. It pops in like nothing when the seats are down.
J arrives to look at the dishes I set aside. Takes a few. Kris and J load the cabinet.
Kris starts cooking dinner. (Yay! I love food I don't have to cook.) And I head into town to help J with the china cabinet. Once that is safely inside, and all the dishes unloaded and in it, tons of beautiful china, I admire some of the updating he's done to the house then head home.
Yum, Kris made steak and vegetables with some sort of shrimp & lobster bake from the freezer section. The shrimp & lobster bake wasn't so yummy, but it was a wonderful dinner time around the table with my lovely family.
Time for baths and brushing teeth, packing school bags and getting the last drink of water. I read aloud to cap the day and send Kal and Kara to bed with happy thoughts.
Now I'm writing at my computer.
And I still haven't painted those bookcases.
Maybe tomorrow.
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