I Painted Two Trays Blue

Or, the alternate title for this post: "Chaos's Last Stand"

After nearly six weeks in our new house I have pretty much conquered all the mystery boxes, organized all the organizables, hung pictures, filled baskets, found missing parts to things - all that usually comes with the tail end of the moving process. The one last holdout has been the large upstairs closet... designated as home for craft and sewing goods, as well as storage for coats and luggage and other unexciting things like that. I had some good intentions up there, and even organized my fabric by color into a nice neat little hanging shoe rack... did that weeks ago. But then, as I "finished" every other room in the house, this closet became the dumping ground for the boxes and bags of random stuff that didn't belong anywhere else, and that I was too tired to deal with at the moment. Never a good strategy, because it results in this:

Unacceptable levels of UPC (Unidentified Piles of C***). Anyway, since we have our first visitors coming on Monday (yay!) I decided that by the end of the weekend, chaos must be totally vanquished. So this morning, with a little help from my friends Cat in the Hat and Superwhy, I pulled out all the boxes from the closet and got it back to the parts that were nicely organized. Looks a thousand times better.

I EVEN got so inspired to have a little space back that I busted out my paintbrush right then and there and did this:

Bought these little unfinished trays back in December as part of an idea I have for some new playthings/learning tools for the kids... but I'll save that for another post. I was just so thrilled with myself for actually doing a project, rather than either a) not, or b) letting it sit on a list for months before doing it.

And while I was painting I had a little pep talk with myself, which is part of a larger ongoing conversation with myself about just exactly who I am, what kind of mom I am, what I want to be doing with my time, etc. Deep stuff. To summarize, I so thoroughly enjoy the blogs of my "imaginary friends" (as I affectionately refer to them - women who I have never met but feel as though I have through their wonderful words and pictures). Anna, Amanda, Molly, and Sarah are some of my favorite ladies of the web. All of them have three or more children, two of them homeschool their children, two of them (maybe three?) also tend livestock on their small family farms, and all have a successful home-based business endeavor involving an artistic or creative pursuit. And I don't think any let their kids watch TV.

So, what in the world am I doing wrong?

I don't wish to change anything about my life right now - I know I am engaged in a noble pursuit, just being there for my little munchkins day in and day out. But since there are well documented examples out there of ladies who do all that and find just a little extra time in their days to make something beautiful... why can't I?

That is why I consider it a great personal victory that today, I Painted Two Trays Blue.

Now, if you'll excuse me... that mess I cleaned out of the closet? .... is now in my bedroom. Better get right to that, THEN there will be no stopping me.