Artwork from Rocket, made for me. His inclusion of the Native Americans confirms my fear that I'm fighting a losing battle. The chaos is dead on.
When I run into people, they ask if our remodel is almost complete. This would be funny, if it weren't so sad because we're not even through the permitting process. I'm hesitant to say this, but we may be getting close to permitted. I probably just jinxed it and set the process back by three months.
We're frantically packing everything up, which means boxes everywhere. It's an obstacle course to walk from room to room, with hazards everywhere, including a scorpion, who appeared at the foot of my desk, very much alive, last Friday. There's been drama and tension, mostly because life doesn't stop while hurriedly packing up a house. There's work, birthday parties, camp, playdates, photo editing, more work, and meals that somehow need to be prepared. Tonight I served a salad out of a melamine camping bowl onto paper plates because the real stuff was either packed away, or, in the case of the picnic plates, the few we share were dirty.
There was something so sad about the plates and the bowl, even though I knew they were coming and had gotten myself excited about it because it would be like a picnic! Every night! For six months! But then it happens, and it's more sad than fun, actually it's all sad and not at all fun, especially because the remodel hasn't begun, which means the six month clock has yet to start.
The great purge is on as I repeat my mantra over and over, which is that it's time to make the hard decisions. This means looking at every piece of preschool art work or hand painted Italian plate, and asking myself if I'll really use it or care about it. We've donated so much to charities that the Salvation Army guy cut Kevin off yesterday, telling him he couldn't take any more. So it was onto Goodwill. We've got bags and bags of garbage, stuff that needs to be Freecycled, the garbage company has made two hazardous waste pick ups at our house for all of the leftover cleaning chemicals, and paint we'll never use. That's the stuff we're getting rid of, but it's the stuff we're keeping that's got me stressed. Where will it all go during the next few months? Somehow that question will be answered in the next week or two, and I'm scared to think about all we have to live through in the next month.
It will be a fresh start, if we can just get to the start. Hopefully this year July will be the month that goes in like a lion and out like a lamb. August better be the month of naps and pedicures because I need both.
