There Is Almost a New Desk in My House. And Also? A Snake.

There is a snake in my house. 

Today I, along with Christian and Eliana, spent a portion of the afternoon putting together the drawer units that will be the legs of our new school table. 

I had to remind Christian a couple of times that Eliana wanted to help just as much as he did, and she was able to, and he asked why. I said for the same reasons he wanted to! He told me,"I like to build!" Well, my dear, so does she. In general, she likes to have her hands in whatever any of the rest of us are doing (unless it's cleaning her room...then, oddly enough, she's not so interested). 

The two of them helped for quite a while, and then they sought out the iPad for a different kind of building (Do you know of the game Eden? I don't get it, but the kids love it.) I kept working on my drawers. 

The two of them popped in and out (the kids, not the drawers) while I continued to put the units together; they helped a little and then headed back into the other room. The whole process was fairly painless (unless you count the moment when Eliana managed to make Christian hit the inside of his own forearm with the claw side of the hammer head; then there was some pain, along with tears, some wailing, and a bag of ice), and I was pleased with the finished products. 

Those two will hold the desk top across; it's very wide and I'm excited about the whole thing! When the whiteboard is hung, along with the map, over this set-up, the area will look sleek and organized.

Look being the operative word...

I hope that we'll live into it. Dream it, do it, right? 

There is a snake in my house. 

(That doesn't have to do with this post. Except I'm extremely agitated, and I have no idea how I'm going to sleep tonight. No one else here is having the same issue as I am...)

The Silvery Light of the Moon

Everything's soft in the light of the moon,
In the silvery light of the moon.
The shadowy shimmery light of the moon
Softly streams across the room.

Everything glows in the light of the moon,
In the glimmery light of the moon.
The gleaming glancing light of the moon
Gracefully glides across the room.

Everything's calm in the light of the moon,
In the cozy light of the moon.
The quietly constant light of the moon
Carefully carries across the room.

Everything's still in the light of the moon,
In the steadfast light of the moon.
The serenely silent light of the moon
Sweetly summons across the room. 

I watch your face by the light of the moon,
Asleep, asleep in the light of the moon,
Adrift in the dreamy drape of the moon,
Which delicately dances across the room. 

Starting Over, Again

Today I spent some more time getting the floor in front of our long wall in the back of the house cleared so that we can put a new school table together and set it up there. I'm excited about the changes, the chance for a fresh start. The table top will be supported by two drawer units that act as legs (with one supporting leg in the center of the table). We'll have more table space length-wise, and the drawers will give us some good-looking handy storage. 

This was quite an accomplishment. It was pretty messy (just ask my mom...she saw a before picture). I hope that we can all work together to keep it from getting so messy all the time. Hopefully, by Monday evening we'll have the "desk" up and the whiteboard hung, as well as a world map that needs to go on that wall as well. 

I was able to get a lot done today without stressing about what we were going to do tonight for dinner; we had been invited to our friends' around the corner for a cookout and some pool time. We took advantage of the warm afternoon just long enough for the kids to have a great time before a thunderstorm rolled in. 

After dinner and dessert, we came home and not too long after that all the kids were in bed. 

I have one more thing to add. At dinner I was sitting at the head of the table in the dining room. Their dining area has a wall that is entirely a mirror. Being able to see a side view of yourself while eating (one word: lumpy) is extremely motivating to start exercising again. Also? To STOP DRINKING THE SODA. I could also stand to lay off the sweet stuff. (Confession: She had homemade vanilla ice cream. I started the laying off of sweet stuff once we got home. Ha.) So this evening I did the 30-Day Shred, and I'm starting the 30 days today. The other day doesn't count in my book since I took several days off. I am not sure but it seemed like I was getting sick just after that, and I had a headache for almost two days, so I took a break. (Actually, I thought something along the lines of,"I can't stand Jillian Michaels. I'm never looking at or touching that video ever again. Probably.")

I am getting back on track. I do worry about my appearance, which I know isn't the best reason for exercising, but I know I need to take care of myself better. I am not healthy right now. I also need to be teaching my kids better habits. So. Here we go. 

One Girl, Many Faces

See this sweet face? 

Sometimes it gets a little weird. 

On purpose, mind you. 

Her latest hobby is making faces at me so that I can take her picture. 

She also informed me that I could just call her The Queen of the World. 

That is some hat. And apparently it's royal. 

I'll take a picture of all of her crazy faces, and love each one of them, however, I maintain that the following is one of the sweetest of her faces...

Order in the Court! In the House! Please...Order, Somewhere!

I do not even have a clue how to start this post. This week has worn me out. Slap. Out.

And yet, here at 11:15pm on Thursday evening, I have a strange kind of energy. I need to get some things done, folks. 

Do you know what I did this week? I went to Ikea. Twice.

And I almost went a third time, just to be wild and crazy. No, not really (yes on the almost went a third time, no, not just to be wild and crazy...there was a reason). We got a new loft bed for Christian, but his mattress was too tall to use with it. I headed to Ikea to get a flatter, but just as comfy, mattress for his bed. Michaela and Eliana went with me, and they were great helpers. On the way in, I was trying to determine which door to go in, and I said out loud,"I wonder where we should go in." Michaela, being the helpful girl she is, pointed to the main doors and said,"How about the entrance?" 

She is a turkey. A smart-allecky turkey. 

If you have not been to Ikea, I'll tell you how it works: you go through the main part of the store, find a model of what you want to buy (if it is large furniture type stuff), mark an aisle and a bin number on a paper, go to the warehouse below, find your item (often in boxes or tight-wrapped in plastic), put it on your flatbed cart, and then check out. So, the last thing we did was find the mattress according to our aisle/bin calculations, haul it from the shelf, and wedge it onto our cart. We checked out and headed home. 

Once home, the mattress was opened and we realized it was the wrong thing. It wasn't even a mattress! Now. I will admit, it takes a special skill set to purchase an item that you think is a mattress only to find out it is a fold-up foam chair. How does one confuse such things? I'll never tell; these are my secrets. At any rate, I still needed to get the mattress, and figure out how to get the foam not-mattress back into its bag, which was torn all up the side. 

I accomplished this feat, but not without adding a bit of carpet fuzz and maybe a few strands of hair along the way. Even though it is not actually a used item, it looks well-used. Obviously, this is not going to fly as far as reselling the thing. We are working on Plan B. 

The day after I made the wrong purchase (To my credit, that is the only thing I messed up...all other purchases were correct!), I headed back to Ikea. A tornado watch was in effect so driving up the highway was an adventure. No funnels were sighted. I can't say I wasn't nervous. 

We accomplished our goal and loaded up the van with our purchases. 

I put Michaela to work. 

Eliana very much wanted to help. She tried carrying the bright yellow Ikea bag, but it was too heavy. Until it was empty, and then it was quite manageable. 

After loading up, we got back on the highway so that I could get home, unpack, and then go get Christian. On my way home, I got a phone call from the woman at the school desk saying they had let school out early and they couldn't get a hold of Mike; I needed to go get Christian. I made a minor adjustment regarding my route, but I could not have been much farther than I was and still be in town when it came to picking him up early! I made my way as quickly as I could, and I was grateful that the traffic was not bad at all. It still seemed to take entirely too long. Just after I got in the church building and picked up Christian from the office, the pouring rain came. 

It was torrential, but that heavy rain didn't last. We made our way, through the church, to Mike's office and hung out for about two hours. The possible tornado never developed, but I'm glad we were in a safe place regardless. 

We are still in the process of getting Christian's bed together. We have a knack for stretching projects out. 

Along with these Ikea adventures, we have worked on Christian's final school at-home assignment. That might deserve a separate post. We are also trying to reign in the chaos that is our back room/school room. Order might breed a bit more productivity.

And as you might well guess, order doesn't come naturally in my world...unless it involves a Chick-Fil-A and a drive-through window.