where to begin?

let’s start with family pictures- week 8. 

“everybody smile!”

“i said, ‘everybody smile!’”

“and i meant EVERYBODY smile!!!- except for me.  i’m going to notice that nolan is not smiling out of the corner of my eye just as the timer is going off”

dang it.  that was such a great pic of emma. 
let’s crop everybody else out:

“OK.  fine.  if everybody smiles at the same time,
we can do a goofy picture after.”

the finished product:
pretty much sums it up.

there couldn’t have been a worse weekend to rip that very needed hour out from underneath me.  i need that hour.  very badly.  i am still running around like a crazy lady trying to put my house back in order.  we have transformed our lives over the course of the weekend.  and we (meaning I) am not quite done with all the work yet. 

it does feel great to be getting so much done.  it’s like going back to the gym.  i feel great about myself.  i have been working hard in my home, and i am getting big results. 

but i’m not finished. 

q:  what’s better than having an hour stolen from my life this weekend?

a:  the school week is screwy, too.  two half-days followed by an early release on wednesday, normal day on thursday and no school friday.  so, basically, i’m not gonna get my hour back anytime soon. 

of all the things i’ve accomplished this weekend,
my proudest work is represented in this picture:

and i’m totally not even talking about my scrapbooks.

i’m talking about this shelf:

check out how brilliant i am in organizing all our games on their sides so that you don’t have to pull a stack of 6 games off the shelf to figure out how to get the one game you actually want.
  i’m pretty impressed with myself.  however, i will not be telling you how dumb this idea was when my kids pull the games off the shelf and let the sideways box dump out all over. 

better one game than six, though.

 

maybe tomorrow i’ll have finished what we started on friday.

maybe tomorrow i’ll tell you about our visit to children’s hospital.

maybe tomorrow i’ll ponder and record my feelings from the first visit back to calvin’s gravesite since we buried him

maybe tomorrow i’ll get “in the zone” and think about
and write my beautiful thirteen-year-old girl
her much-deserved birthday letter.

maybe tomorrow i’ll take out these 6 garbage bags-
full of toys and games and clothing that are ready to be donated- that are lining my hallway right now.

maybe tomorrow i’ll shower before bedtime.

maybe tomorrow i’ll let elli register for facebook.

maybe tomorrow i’ll be ready to take “after pictures” and explain what happened this weekend.

maybe tomorrow won’t hurt as much
to wake up as today did.

maybe tomorrow.