A mish-mash of jabber!

Ahhh... A fresh new year before us. The first three days have been spent trying to make our home reflect the "fresh" part. I feel like a scrooge saying it, but I truly love putting the Christmas decorations away! Maybe we just have too many decorations for our space, but oh, things feel more simple with the tree down and lighted houses stored away (onto new shelves built by dear Jake... All with scrap lumber from the shed! He speaks straight to my heart when he combines free with organization!)

Today I tackled the basement. Our basement doubles as a family room and toy area. (It once doubled as the home for 12 mattresses and 42 large cans of pinto beans, but that's another owner and another blog...) My dear sweet husband renovated it the summer before we started homeschooling our eldest and the space has been more than a blessing. He built a nine foot closet for toys that has doors (the most important part) and I proceeded to organize and containerize my childrens' toys, label maker in hand. I even drew (sad) pictures of what was to go into each bin for our non-readers. It works, but once a year I head down, usually mid-Christmas break, and start sorting bins. You know the bottom of each one, where you find one thing from each of the other bins that needs to be put back. It's an anal task... But I really don't mind it, being a bit on the AR side myself. I got done with all but two bins... And tomorrow is cleaning day down there. Look out all you cricket corpses... I'm gonna get ya!

Tonight the coach brought his two biggest fans (Doodle and Noah) scouting while Bella and I stayed home to watch Cinderella and scrap. I got two pages done (I'm working on posting them, but really wish I had a scanner as the photos of the pages are not all that good.). I counted tonight and I'm up to 29 pages since I started in mid-December on a fairly regular basis, and up to 48 pages for 2005. I've done through late March/early April thus far. I'm trying a chronological approach this year. Usually I jump around to whatever suits my fancy.
Oh, please don't get me wrong... I wish I were "caught up" but I'm far from it! I started scrapbooking with our wedding. An event that seemed "do-able." One day. (OH- someday I would love to go back and redo that album! I've learned so much and cringe when I look at it now!!!) So I did that, then half of 1998. Then I pick up again with about 5 pages for 2001, maybe 20 for 2002. I got serious in 2003 and only have about 12 pages to finish for that year (111 done!). 2004 I am mostly done with... just a couple months to finish. This fall I started fresh with 2005 not wanting to let the memories fade. I think I've said before- I'd love to finish 03, 04 and 05 and then stay current... with just those few years to sneak in at some point, but it's an outlet and hobby... not a huge goal or deadline.

Man, I've jabbered forever tonight... my apologies! I've got to get to bed...

Praying for a snow day,
Molly