Solitary

My children are now inhabiting their own rooms!

We finished (ish...as in finished enough to move them in but not finished enough that we can now just sit on our tuckuses) their rooms and moved them in last night. It was quite a feat dismantling the beds and taking them down two sets of stairs and out to the addition. But we got it down.

Of course, that left huge messes in their rooms. Which brings me to my next point: My children are slobs.

No, they aren't just messy, unorganized or scatterbrained. They are slobs. Complete and utter - slobs. And the saddest thing is they come by it honestly.

I don't like being a slob. I want to be organized and neat. In fact, my brain works better when things are in order. When they aren't, I can't concentrate and I find it very frustrating. But it doesn't help me change. I remain, at heart, a slob. I war against it constantly moving from one organizing scheme to another and hoping it will stick. I chalk it up my intensely creative mind - because the alternative (just being a slob) is really hard to take.

My children are learning very bad habits from me. Not because my home is messy - but because I tend to get so frustrated by their rooms that I just turn a blind eye. Sometimes, its easier that way.

But today I dove into their rooms. Babysteps (this is Flylady talking...I used to be faithful and truthfully there were some habits that formed that remain and I still love her, I just love her at a distance now) and before I knew it I'd gone through the huge pile of clothes and toys in M's room. Then I moved on to formerly J and A's room now becoming E's room and went through all their toys and clothes and garbage. I sorted, I packed, I hauled, I sorted more, I wiped down windowsills and walls, I moved furniture.

I am now - exhausted. The rooms aren't perfect but they are much, much better. And everything is in the appropriate room. Hurray - hurray - hurray!

In a day or two, I can start cleaning my room up since that seems to be where all the excess has ended up. Just in time for Christmas decorating which creates yet another giant mess.