The First Week

We greeted Monday and "normal" routine with grunts and groans around here, but made it through. School? Check. Chores? Check. Attitudes? Eh.

Tuesday was not so kind. In addition to it being Day #2 of Post-Holiday Syndrome (enough said), Tuesday also commenced a fresh phase of work in the unfinished bedrooms upstairs. In case you didn't know, dry wall is messy business (hats off to those guys who work with it day in and day out all year long!). School time was laced with bad attitudes, malfunctioning math programs, disorganized shelves that made finding certain supplies impossible, and my less-than-pleasant response to it all. By evening, I kind of wanted to cry along with Aubrey and Claire when Daniel left for Evening #2 out of the house. I confess, it was one of those, "Don't leave me here alone with the kids!" kinds of self-pity.

Wednesday was worse. Claire had been awake until 3am the night before, so I was running on very little sleep considering my rather pregnant state. My children received a hearty lecture on why the most important part of their education is that they learn to work hard at and to be thorough with whatever task they are given-- it was the right idea, but the deliverer wasn't exactly feeling gentle or gracious and I'm sure the recipients heard that louder and clearer than anything else.

I was glad to end the day and look forward to a new morning.

Thursday the work upstairs continued and the progress being made certainly far outweighed the dust accumulating in the rest of the house. (At that point I gave up on putting the vacuum away and, instead, just started leaving it out where I could easily grab it to clean up the dust on the stairs before Claire coated herself in it several times a day, which has worked much better than trying to keep her off the stairs.) We skipped the books again for the more urgent task of de-decking the halls and doing a deep cleaning of the entire first floor of our house. Attitudes were great, enthusiasm was high, we were accomplishing lots!

And I got a little carried away with reorganization, but had a blast doing it.

Today, more dry wall is going up (yay!). A new couch arrived, which completes the furniture arrangement I've had in mind for the sitting room (triple yay, since this is a couch I've had in the back of my mind for well over a year, only to recently see that it was on Final Sale and marked down to half the price!). We finished school and chores by 10am, a record for us that was significantly aided by my 4:30am wake-up this morning (don't ask).

Yes, Aubrey is sick with a fever. Claire is in what we call a "funk", testing every instruction and generally getting into mischief whenever we're not looking. The delivery men tracked mud all over the room I thoroughly cleaned yesterday. The dust continues (and continues... and continues).

But, boy, has this week proven to be a useful one in so many ways!

Three prayer meetings at the beginning of the week, all missed by yours truly but attended by Daniel and a few kids each night, were amazing and good even for me here at home. Fasting of various kinds for each of us was a rude and necessary reminder to our over-indulged flesh that of our deepest need of all is to belong wholly and completely to Him. New mornings proved even to this melancholic soul that would have liked to give up on the start of the year before we even got one full week into it that He is a God of second chances.

It's been a week.

A good, normal, crazy, ups-and-downs week.

Here's to 51 more!

 

Dry wall really does make it all feel so much closer to being DONE!

Two bedrooms, ready for mudding and taping, which starts Monday.
Thanks for awesome cheerful work, Lafaver crew! 

 

Yes, this cupboard was here for years (!) before I moved it to the sitting room a few months ago. Yes, I emptied it out, moved it back, and resettled its contents after a thorough purging yesterday. It allows for our new [to us] bedroom door to actually open all the way and it's more functional for homeschooling anyway (since it houses pretty much all our supplies). 

 

The black shelves are back where they used to be.
Musical furniture, which Daniel just graciously rolls his eyes at me about.

 

The new couch (in the middle) is just right!