The tree is back in the Box

So often just writing a list can help you to get motivated to do things that you would otherwise just keep putting off. That is kind of what yesterday's rant(post) did for me. It served as my "to do" list.

After our school work was done and Mikey was off to work, Chelsea and I began taking the ornaments off of the tree. She put them in nice neat piles according to their type as I handed them to her.

Having a faux Christmas tree is kind of nice, in some ways, but is kind of depressing when you have removed half of its limbs and there it sits waiting for you to personally take it out of existence for another year. You take of each branch and squish it as flat as you can, knowing that next year when you open the box you will wish that you did not need to "fluff" every one of those little branches.

Finally, the tree was down and everything was in the little boxes then placed into the big bins and ready for their trek back into the cold garage attic. They are still ready!
In my kitchen!
But they will get up there today.

OK, here is where it got fun. I started rearranging the furniture. For as long as we have lived here I have wondered what it would be like to have the sofa back up to the stair railing. I have not done it out of fear of a young child climbing up onto the couch and falling over the rail. We just don't get that many very young children here anymore. Our kids are older and so are most of our neighbor kids and friends' children. So, I risked it. Moved it all around. I think I like it.

Chloe is a little put out. She can't get to the picture window now...which I see as a huge benefit to me. Less doggie nose smudges on the glass. lol

I will be getting my window treatments back up. I go back and forth between wanting something there....and not. In these pictures, the window looks bare without it. I just love the tatouage above the window, though. I took this picture before I was finished so the sweeper chord and some school books are visible if you click on it and make it big.

I did spend just about "forever" trying to make the picture of the new arrangement into a new header. I have some learning to do but I will learn and it will be fun. So, in the meantime that will be a work in progress.

I made serious headway into the projects for the Homeschool Event coming up. We are having a speaker come in who will talk about the changing relationships in a Homeschool house as the students become teenagers. How to maintain peace and unity as things change. I love this topic since so often when people talk about homeschool and high school it is all about the academics. They are important as well, but if the relationships aren't healthy teaching is a lot harder! So I am designing a postcard that will go out to our 800 families inviting them to this event. How I pray that those who need it most will see these cards as they come in the mail and set aside the time to come.

As it relates to the Homeschool Board responsibilities I also got the article written that will announce the Graduation Speaker for this year. Now, a lot of that was copy and paste from the bio he sent over...but still...I did have to organize, edit and add what we wanted the readers to know. Each month our organization, CHALC, publishes a 45 plus page newsletter. We have a superb editor who does a great job. I have very few responsibilities when it comes to that actual work of this but we do oversee it and are responsible for meeting the deadlines on our submissions.

There is still a lot left to be to accomplished...but I am feeling much better about it all than I was yesterday. I was venting...sometimes the pressure builds and you can just feel it inside. Most of the time I do it to myself...I will fill my schedule as full as I think I can manage..and then something unexpected comes up and I am overwhelmed. When I finally learn to count on the unexpected I will be old and gray....actually, I hope I get that before then. This would be an excellent year to act on that knowledge, wouldn't it?

Blessings to all reading this.
Hope you have a productive and peaceful day wherever you are and whatever you are doing.
I hope you are not "overbooked".