Seriously neglecting

I haven't made much progress in the past 4 months. But then the Fall/Early Winter is always my most stressful/busiest time of year. Make Halloween costumes, Halloween, Teacher Conferences, Vacation, Thanksgiving, Craft Fair, get ready for Christmas, Christmas, New Year's, Orthodox Christmas, another Craft Fair. And about now is when I finally get to come up for some air. Right before the kids' birthdays.

This year they want a party with friends. (I didn't have a non-family party until I was 16. These kids don't know how lucky they are.) At least I was lucky enough to book the last Build-a-Bear party on Ali's actual birthday. (It was very important to her it be that day. E.J. just has to live with sharing it with her this year. Their birthdays are 4 days apart.) So soon it will be time for birthday cakes (which I bake and decorate) and treats for school (usually more baking). I end up eating more cake and butter cream frosting in about 10 days than I probably should.

But I made tiny progress the past three days. Sunday I took out all of my bead cases, and took all of the little bead boxes out of them. Resorted everything by color, put them back in the cases, and labeled the cases. Okay, Monday, I wasn't so motivated. But today, I cleaned my way to the corner cabinet, where I was storing the beading supplies. I managed to rearrange things enough to get the cases into the cabinet. Plus all of the jewelry gift boxes I bought. I still need to rearrange some more things in the cabinet, but for now it's fine. And removing the box that was holding the gift boxes has opened a bunch of space in the corner.

My biggest accomplishment this far, however, is the kitchen counter. Over Winter Break, I sent both kids to grandma's for the day. And I cleaned the kitchen counter from one end to the other. Cleaned the front/top of the stove and the front of the dishwasher. Scrubbed out the sink. But most importantly, cleared EVERYTHING off of the kitchen counters (except for DH's little space above the microwave cabinet). I have a wire rack sitting near the cabinets, which was suppose to be for shoes and backpacks. That idea never quite worked. Right now I have a car organizer sitting on the top shelf, and I throw my junk mail and coupons in there--keeping it off of the counter. It has been 1 MONTH, and the counter-top is still clutter free! I'm hoping to have similar results here in the bedroom, once I hit the dressers.

But it probably is time for me to scrub the sink again...