The Best-Laid Plans

 Rea has been asking and asking for us to do Organized Simplicity, and we finally decided that this would be a good week. Our school stuff ended last week, so we decided to just do reading and math in the morning and then let the kids play outside while Alison took everything out of a room. Then after Mike got off work we could move everything back.

Monday we did the master bedroom, and it looked amazing! Alison got rid of Montessori stuff ruthlessly, and we ended up with extra space.

Tuesday was Alison's birthday, but she woke up with the sore throat that usually heralds a cold for her. She decided not to do any Organized Simplicity and just relax for her birthday. It was lots of fun. We had a barbecue for dinner and the kids made her a throne to sit on while she opened her presents. It was a lovely birthday.

Wednesday, Alison woke up with a full-blown cold. She has learned recently that if she stays in bed for two days straight, she doesn't have to be miserably sick for two weeks, so she went back to bed. The kids took care of themselves while Mike was at work, and Alison slept all day. Thursday she made herself a bed downstairs so that she could keep an eye on the kids and slept most of the day again.

Friday Alison was somewhat better, so she took the kids to Wildflower. Unfortunately, she forgot that most of our friend group had gone camping at the Palisades this week, so no one was there. Alison took a nap in the sun while the kids played, and we got home in time to get ready for Sal and Caitlin's family to come visit.

We had a fun evening hanging out with their family and talking. We've missed that kind of thing since Covid, and it's good to start rebuilding the habits of socializing again. We want to schedule a game day soon, too.

Saturday everyone was feeling well, so we pulled everything out of the library and rearranged it. Mike decided that he doesn't need walls around his work area, so we put his desk up against a wall and put bookcases along every other wall. We used some of the newly-freed-up space in the master bedroom to put a bookcase up there and put all the textbooks on it. We got rid of lots of books and managed to get all our other books onto four bookshelves. The room looks very nice now that it's so open.

Sunday the sickness spread. Gideon and Mike both got the cold, and Rea got a headache and was throwing up. Alison and the other kids went to church, and now everyone is resting (and reading - cleaning out a room makes everything left in it so interesting). The non-book stuff from the library is still all over the front room, so hopefully tomorrow enough people feel well that we can get it cleaned up. This Organized Simplicity is going to drag on for a while at this rate. Hopefully we get it all done and don't just give up with only half the rooms done.