Coming Down from the Chaos

Freddy passed out among the chaos

What a lovely holiday.  It really was.  Christmas Eve was warm, happy, and bittersweet.  We ate great food, enjoyed each other, opened gifts, laughed, and missed my dad.  The kids had a great time, and scored some good loot.  Freddy was a rock star, of course.

Christmas Day was very fun.  The kids were thrilled with their stuff from Santa, and we had a ton of fun over at hubby's cousin's house for Christmas dinner.  Food, drinks, fruit ninja on the Xbox, and some Rock Band.

It really was a good one, and the best part was that I got to have my hubby with me the whole time.  Almost every Christmas I don't have him either Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, or Christmas Day.  His work schedule is completely bizarre, and I am almost used to being hubby-less at family events.  It sucks, but oh well.  This time I got him the whole time!!!  It felt complete.

But now it is back to life.  Now I have a bit of a holiday hangover, and I'm eager to recover my home and my schedule.  Funny how we clean the most carefully right before our homes are going to be completely trashed.  Ha!  So as lovely as the holiday was, it took a toll on me and my house, and I'm determined to recover quickly.  The kids have this week off, And we do have to have one day dedicated to the annual Lord of the Rings Trilogy viewing, but I think we'll get some progress made.  Yesterday was completely a day for rest.  We just dorked around the whole day.  It was pretty great.  We took the kids to Target and they spent some of their Christmas money, but that was about the most exciting part of our day.  Ahhhh.

So today I need some inspiration.  It's the annual New Year's resolution season, and I have the same feelings as I do every year.  Less of a resolution, more of an inspiration.  The impending start of a fresh new year makes me feel like I want a fresh start.  And I have the two most common ones:  I need to get my house more organized, and I need to take better care of myself, and get my butt off the couch.  It starts with the house.  The kids' rooms will be the first hurdle.

Big hurdle.  Big big.  They're very scary, actually.  Especially A.  He is a boy with constant projects, art projects, strange little inventions, building projects.  And he is chaotic.  His room is a disaster zone of tiny pieces of paper, tape, paper clips, Legos, Nerf darts, clothing, sports junk, pens and pencils, gadgets and boxes.  Nightmare.  His bed is always sort of askew on his frame and box spring.  That's it--I think I'm going to go take a picture so you all get that I'm not exaggerating.  Hold on--

 Okay so keep in mind this is right after Christmas.  They have hauled all their loot up to their rooms (so it wouldn't be spread all over the living room), and they were relatively picked up before Christmas.  Still, they need a total overhaul.  

These first to shots are A's room.  His is the bigger project, because it needs to be rearranged as well.  But he's literally like the Tasmanian Devil.

J's room is not as terrifying, but still needs some help.  It's cluttered right now with his Christmas goodies, but he simply doesn't have the crazy amount of STUFF that his brother has.  He has an impressive rock collection, however, that's been a challenge.  We went out yesterday and got him some containers that might help with that.

So now I'll be excited to post some pictures of the progress and the end result.  Because this is sheer craziness.  Obviously the scariest rooms in the house, so I suppose they'll be first.  Lately I've been trying to let go and let the kids clean their rooms and not be all OCD about it, but this has gone too far.  So I need to get in there alone and take control so they have a fresh start again.  Maybe I should see if the hubby wants to take them somewhere for a while today so they don't see all the garbage bags leaving their rooms . . .

Well, I better get to it.  You can see I have my hands full.