My girly-q's came home Friday. They had a pretty quick trip, and the home coming was rather anti-climatic. They landed, we hugged, we got their bag, we got in a cab, we all 3 got car sick, we got home. beloved came home, made us all tacos, and popped a DVD in the player for a fun (typical) Friday Movie Night. So pretty damned quick, we were back at our routines.

Saturday, my parents were due to come with a new couch. It's not new. It's something that ended up with nowhere to go between my brother, his new wife, and her parents during his move into his new house, and her parents' move to Hawaii. My parents were given the task of "discarding" the piece of furniture, and I proclaimed myself the most appropriate dumping grounds.

My dad likes to tease me. He once teased me b/c while he was here, we had to move my couch, and underneath it was a LOT of stuff. coins, pens, pencils, hair elastics, crayons, dust, hair, cat fur, game cards. Stuff like that. he laughed and laughed, and picked on me mercilessly.

Bringing a new couch into the home means moving the present couch, and chairs, and rugs. And I refused to be teased yet again.

So my Saturday was spent sweeping, vacuuming, scrubbing, reorganizing, throwing away, re-arranging, and other cleaning-related activities. My parents didn't arrive until almost 8 p.m. I woke at 9:30 a.m. In the 10.5 hours in between, more cleaning happened inside these walls than perhaps has happened since we moved in.

The best part - my Things. They were so helpful!! I was remembering the days when my mother would declare spring cleaning, and the absolute misery that my siblings and I had to endure as a result. I didn't want to have that kind of day with One and Two, and I worked hard to make it seem fun, and to stay in good enough spirits that they weren't miserable. I think I succeeded, and of that, I am more proud than the gleaming floors, the organized shelves, and the absolute glisten that exists in most of my home. Thing One was a little more surly (she is closer to being a teenager, after all), but I was able to assign her jobs that she enjoyed (i.e., alphabetizing CD's, selecting appropriate books to be brought from her room to the living room), and cracking enough jokes to make hte less pleasant jobs more tolerable (vacuuming the couches and all of their cushions, for example). Thing Two couldn't get enough to do. She dusted and scrubbed and cleaned and organized for quite some time.

I knew, however, that they needed some time to get outside and run around and play when they started hiding and cowering in corners .....

So they went to the park (in our backyard) and practiced some batting and throwing in preparation for their opening day of Softball.

I continued to work, and my parents arrived, and the new couch was put in its appointed place, and I am still reveling in the beauty that is our apartment right now.

I really needed this. I've been discontented in this house. The girls are getting older, and the two of them sharing a room is getting even older than they are. We have a LOT of stuff, and no one really has anything that they want to part with. I've been wistfully perusing Craigslist on a thrice-weekly basis to dream and drool over 4 and 5 bedroom apartments. But yesterday's purging and cleansing made me appreciate where we are. We have a fun open floor plan, we are settling in more every day, practically, and improving the space we have. We're increasingly smarter with how we use our limited square footage, and our lives seem the richer for it. Being close to my family all the time is NOT a bad thing. It's a good thing.

The one downside of all of this: I've put so much time and energy into our common areas in the past week or so that it's downright depressing to then walk into my bedroom and all the clutter and mess that results from needing a place to just stash the extra stuff that I can't figure out what to do with. I'm sure, however, that I will be happy to have an outlet for next weekend's study procrastination.

posted by Zuska @ 10:43 PM

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