Have you ever had days when you just felt like crying because there was too much to do? That's what I'm facing today. I just want to crawl under the covers and go to sleep rather than dealing with the daunting to-do list on my desk. The to-do list that is somewhat buried under a pile of papers, books, bills, etc. that all need to be sorted through. Bottom line ... my office is a mess. Again.
So is the rest of the house, unfortunately. Bill and I decided to do some major rearranging this weekend. And when I say 'weekend,' I mean the entire weekend, minus our time at church yesterday. Thus, there was no "Sabbath rest" for me. It's rather interesting, I think, how overwhelmed I feel today. Is that because I didn't take the time to rest and recreate over the weekend? Most likely. But we really didn't have another option. Once we started on this project, there was no turning back and no slowing down.
We have a relatively small dining room. It is plenty big enough for us, but when you add our daughters and their families, it gets, well, a bit tight around the table. The folks seating along the wall are trapped there until the end of the meal, because the end chairs are literally against the china cabinet and opposite wall. Not fun. So for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we moved the dining room table into the living room, and half of the living room furniture into the dining room. It worked well for the holiday meals. But it was a pain to do, and we decided something permanent had to be done. Our next family gathering will take place in our new spacious dining room.
We moved the china cabinet -- oh my goodness -- the dirt and dust accumulated after many years of not going behind it was enough to spur on allergies in my husband and an asthma attack in me. We had enough fur back there to recreate some of the beloved pets that are no longer with us. I mean, seriously, who moves their china cabinet ever?? The last time we moved ours was in 2004 when the room was painted.
Moving a china cabinet is no easy task. First we had to empty it. Then, of course, I had to whip out my Norwex cloths and clean the glass shelves and doors, etc. I must say, it looks rather sparkly now. Which is a good thing, since it's now the focal point of what was once our living room!
That was the one good move. Then we came to some issues. Like what to do with a too-big couch, recliner and large swivel rocker with an ottoman. The furniture simply didn't fit in the "new" living room. Crap.
Yes, we knew that going into it. We're not total idiots. But we still thought things would work out a little better than they have.
Conclusion? Well, of course, this involves more work. We have another room in our downstairs that is used for one of those "catch-all" rooms. Those of you whose kids have moved away probably know what I'm talking about here. After going through many transitions, from bedroom to two different daughters to office to remnants of old office when I moved upstairs and didn't want to tote all my stuff along with me. Now what we have is a 'remnants of old office' mixed with coat room mixed with toy room (for storing, not playing) mixed with Christmas decoration packing up room. In other words, a nightmare. And we've decided that's where the couch is going!!
But before that can happen, a whole heck of a lot of work has to be done first. We have to finish taking down the Christmas decorations (which we only started doing on Saturday as we were moving furniture), pack everything up in the attic, and sort through the piles of papers, books and other office stuff that accumulated from 2002 until 2009, including 5 years of papers from meetings for the Pregnancy Care Centers of Pittsburgh, where I was on the Board of Directors. For the most part, the papers have to be shredded, as the info from board meetings was confidential. Once we have the room cleaned out, we have to rip up the nasty carpeting that bears then evidence of an old and dying dog that couldn't control his bladder.
Then, we can put down a new rug and move the couch into the room. There's already a TV and cable in there. So that will be our new "den" and playroom for the kids. But in order to get it ready, we need time, something we don't have a lot of of.
Thus, my morning tears. I feel overwhelmed. Especially when I open an email and discover I completely forgot to complete a project for a client and he's "wondering if I can complete it soon." I'm sure I wrote it down, but then, there's that mess on my desk.
To top all of that, last night before going to bed, I discovered the little brown pieces of evidence that a mouse was visiting my kitchen drawers!! Can somebody please explain to me why they don't put backs on kitchen cabinets before attaching them to the walls?!
Guess what I have to do this morning? You got it. I have to wash all my silverware, and other miscellaneous kitchenware that was once clean but now might have mouse pee on it. Then I have to sanitize the drawers. And we're talking a couple of hours of work I hadn't planned for the day.
So why the long blog post, if I'm so darned busy? Simply because I needed to rant!! And to explain why I'll be using some old posts over the next few days, as I need a break from writing the blog, but don't want you to take a break from reading it. Make sense?
And with that, I think I'll go downstairs and face the mouse poop. I hope you have a lovely day and that next Monday, I'll be able to write about resting on the Sabbath once again (although, I'm pretty much thinking that's a pipe dream at this point!).
Sharing my lack of a Sabbath with you,
Hana
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