What A Day!

Well, the week is halfway over, and today has been a little wild and crazy. It was just one of those days where I felt like I never really sat down, and somehow the whole day disappeared.

I started out this morning handling a situation at Norah Harper’s school. Not long after that, I had a big Walmart delivery show up at our neighborhood gate. The driver called because he couldn’t get in, and I thought the gate code wasn’t working. I called Gary to see if he could open it remotely, we went back and forth trying to figure it out, and eventually the poor guy finally made it inside. Turns out I was putting in the wrong code. So there’s that.

Shortly after that, I started helping Gary get his lunch packed and everything together for work, and then right in the middle of the day the electricity went out. No rain, no storm, nothing dramatic happening outside whatsoever. Just goodbye electricity. Thankfully, it came back on, but it threw everything off for a little while and I had to rethink what I was doing for his lunch.

Then after I finally got him out the door, he texted me and said, “By the way, I don’t think the internet is working.” He was right. No internet, no TVs, no Wi-Fi, and these days apparently our entire existence is somehow connected to Wi-Fi. It turned out to be some kind of service-area issue, and we didn’t get it back until around 6:45 or 7 tonight.

Normally that would not have been a huge deal, except we had gone and picked up Norah Harper’s new VR earlier today. Her old one recently quit working, and since her birthday is coming up, we decided to go ahead and replace it. I had the new one sitting out with a big bow on it, and she was SO excited to get it set up. Except she couldn’t, because we had no internet. Good times.

Then I helped Gage with a project, and somewhere in the middle of all of this, Norah Harper came into my room and told me her throat was burning. The funny part is that maybe one or two minutes earlier, I had swallowed and thought, “Well, my throat hurts.” Then she walked in and said, “Mom, my throat hurts.” So I’m thinking we may be getting sick. It happens.

Apparently that still wasn’t enough excitement for one day because she also informed me that there were tiny ants all over her room. I went investigating and eventually found what looked like an old lollipop or something sugary in the bottom of her trash can. It has been raining like crazy lately, I open the back door sometimes, and apparently the sugar ants decided Norah Harper’s bedroom was the newest hot spot in town.

So then I had to pull the bed out, strip the sheets, move the mattress around, clean everything, spray around the edges of the room, and keep her out of there for a while. Honestly, writing all of this out makes me understand why I’m tired.

I feel like lately I am in full purge mode. Purge the closets, purge the drawers, purge the kids’ stuff, purge Gary’s stuff, purge all of it. I’m trying to get to the point where we keep the things we actually love and use and stop hanging onto so much stuff just because it has been sitting there forever.

I told Gary the other day that he has got to start letting go of some of his old clothes. That man will hang onto a shirt or a pair of jeans until they practically disintegrate. He has one pair of jeans that I have patched twice, once in the crotch and once right under his butt. Sir. Enough.

The funny part is that he has plenty of perfectly good jeans, but he will still reach for the same worn-out pair every single time. I guess we all have those things we keep because they are comfortable and familiar, even when common sense says it is probably time to let them go.

I’ve also decided some of the cargo shorts need to go. I know. This is probably going to hurt somebody’s feelings. I just don’t love them. He has a couple of pairs of straight chino-style shorts that look so much better on him. They are a little shorter than what he normally wears, and at first he didn’t love that because you could see his farmer’s tan. But his swimsuit was cut a little shorter this summer, so now he actually has tan legs and he’s getting used to the shorter shorts. And they’re cute on his butt. There. I said it.

As for my own closet, I absolutely do not need more clothes. I have plenty. What I do need to do is get rid of the things I have been hanging onto for absolutely no reason. There are some things, though, that I will never get rid of.

I still have several of my mother’s beautiful blazers and suits, including a couple of gorgeous Calvin Klein suits. I believe two of them are a size 6. Do I currently have somewhere to wear a Calvin Klein pantsuit? Absolutely not. But if I ever get down into that size and Gary’s company has some fancy dinner or event, you better believe I am pulling one of those suits out.

I also have boxes in the attic filled with my mother’s shoes, boots, hats, scarves, sun hats, cowboy hats, and all kinds of things. The problem is that right now I really don’t have easy access to any of it. That is one thing I’m really looking forward to whenever we eventually get into our next house. I want everything organized where I can actually SEE what I own and use the beautiful things I already have instead of forgetting they exist while I continue adding more stuff.

Organization feels never-ending, though. You finish one room and move to the next, and by the time you finally make your way around the whole house, somehow the first room needs organizing again. It is apparently the circle of life.

Tonight, I think I’m just going to get in bed, chill out, and watch some TV. I don’t even really feel like painting tonight, and honestly, I think part of me is just waiting for some new watercolor supplies to get here tomorrow. I’ve been wanting a little more pigmentation out of what I’m using, so I’m excited to play around and see if the new paints and brushes feel any different. New art supplies will get me every time.

So that’s about where we are tonight. I’m crossing my fingers that Norah Harper and I wake up feeling better tomorrow, although I have a sneaking suspicion we may wake up feeling worse. We’ll play it by ear.

Either way, I have a lot to be thankful for. God is good all the time. I’m thankful for my family, thankful we have food on the table, running water, a roof over our heads, and a soft bed to sleep in tonight. Even on the chaotic days, those things matter.

I hope you guys have a good evening. I’ll blog soon.

xoxo- Jenny