Accomplishment

I shared my to do list a few blog entries ago, and I'm proud to say it's partially finished. I feel empowered!

On Wednesday, Lillian and I cleared the ledge. We left a few things in place, because there is a huge neighborhood yard sale on May 10th, and there were some things on the ledge that need to go in the sale, or in the trash can outside, or to the dump.



And then we cleaned out and organized the bottom tall cabinet (to be 100% honest, Lillian enjoyed some Goldfish and an apple juice box and verbally encouraged me while I worked, saying things like, "Wow, Mommy! You are a good cleaner girl!")

Now that cabinet holds paper towels (previously stored under the kitchen desk) and the kids' lunchbox stuff.



When my husband came home, he was inspired by my enthusiasm, and he finished emptying the upper tall cabinet.

Well, I'll say that he was more inspired by me saying, "That upper cabinet is your stuff, so you need to grab a box and clean it out," but he actually took the suggestion to heart, so I'll give him credit. He saved a few of his Nutri System entrees, because he likes them (shiver). Ick.



The Nutri System boxes are now sitting in the floor of my scrapbook room, waiting to be photographed and listed on eBay. Hopefully I'll get around to that this weekend, but I also have to help the boys clean out their closet (again) and rotate the summer clothes to the bottom racks of the kids' closets.... and then there's the laundry. Always the laundry. So if I just get the Nutri System photographed and organized, that will be a big hurdle cleared.



And, it wasn't on my original list, but I did get the countertop cleaned off this morning. It was cluttered with junk, and now it looks like this:



In other news, here's what Quinn and I worked on last night while Daddy took Camryn and Aiden to Math & Science night at their school:



I'm so very proud of him, because just 2 weeks ago he was stumbling over naming the letters. I had a conference with his 4K teacher and we talked about some things we could do to enrich his letter learning. They've worked, because now he's calling out letters he sees on signs when we're in the car, and he is copying words I write. I'm amazed at his progress, and he is so very proud of himself!

A couple of other tidbits...

Camryn's room has remained clean the entire month. She has needed some reminders, so I think we'll give her a small reward at the end of the month and encourage her to keep cleaning without reminders. Then she will get the loft bed. (The original agreement was that we would consider the bed at the end of April... there was never a guarantee...)

Aiden never ceases to amaze me with his intellect and powers of reasoning. A few days ago I was sitting with him watching something about space. Maybe Nova or Discovery channel or something (the kid DVRs everything that has anything to do with science!) The topic was way over my head (galaxies and black holes and whatnot... yawn...) but Aiden was thoroughly engrossed. I was half listening, so I got the gist of what they were saying: in billions of years our galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy. Gotcha.

At one point Aiden looked at me, and I could see the gears turning. He said, "Hmmm... I bet when that happens, we'll have a lot more planets in our solar system."

You go, baby Carl Sagan. You rock that space stuff, son. I'll just sit here and pretend to know what you're talking about. (The kid got his scientific curiousity from his Daddy...that's for darn sure!)

So that's what's happening here this week. It's been a pretty good one, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da. Life goes on.