Parentheticals

 We Organized Simplicity'd the kitchen this week. It was really nice to move everything around to places that make more sense, now that we've been here for over a year and know better how we use the kitchen. It was a big job - it took two days. And we keep opening the wrong cupboard for certain things. But it's very nice to have it done. Next up we'll have to do the front room. Alison is excited to rearrange and is considering painting it. She would have to pick a color, though. Mike has also been working on adding drip lines to our sprinkler system to water his berry bushes. It's getting hot, so it will be good to have it done. Mike finally went back to the dentist, and they filed down the filling, figuring that the pain was because the filling was too tall and was putting pressure on his jaw. It is feeling somewhat better, but not all the way, so he might have to go back in again. We watched another episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The kids whined a lot, so ...

 Getting better from all the sickness last week took most of this week. Alison kept getting mostly better, and then doing too much and getting sick again. The kids are slowly stopping coughing, so hopefully it's about over. Mike's mouth is still hurting from the dentist over a week ago. Alison's mouth hurt for a day or so after and her jaw is still stiff, but Mike has been needing painkillers for at least ten days now. He keeps forgetting to call the dentist and see if there's anything he could do about it. We have been slowly making progress on Organized Simplicity. We did the kids' rooms on Saturday. We gave Timmy and Gideon bigger shelves for their stuff, so hopefully that helps them keep it cleaner. Really, most of the mess in their room is not their own stuff but stuff from other places in the house they've brought it, so it probably won't matter much. But the girls' room got a really good cleaning and organizing and Rea is very hopeful that it will...