A Monumental Task

Now that all the new books have been ordered I'll need to do the gathering part - pulling books we already own off the shelves. But before I start taking out next year's books, I really need to clean up from last year.  The task cleaning up the school room this time is going to be monumental.  Why, you ask?
Let me give you a scenario to consider ...

Imagine you have a graduating senior and you plan to have a big open house for him.  You finish your school year a bit haphazardly because you become ultra focused on getting the yard ready for this openhHouse as soon as warm weather hits.  You are very stressed because at the particular school your son attended for highschool, open houses are a really big deal and it's customary to invite everybody.  Now, it's a small school - about 200 at the highschool - but since you are inviting more than just close friends and family, alot more, you become filled with anxiety about how your house looks.  So, Spring is spent relandscaping and making lists of everything you want to do inside once you are done with the outside.

Now, plan a trip to happen the weekend before the open house.  Really?  Did I really do that?  Yes.  Part of it was because we had two nieces graduating this year and we wanted to attend their open houses in another state.  Part of it was because my mother hasn't been feeling well and we wanted to go and pick her up so she could come back here to stay with us for a while, and, part of it was because I felt we would need a break from the stress. So we went to Ohio and spent a day at Cedar Point.  It was great!  I didn't think about our open house at all.  How could I with all those fantastic roller coasters?! The next day we had a lovely time at my niece's open house, then we headed for home.

So, back to that scenario...
Now, come home, get mom settled in her room, remember the older two kids will be helping all week at the VBS, remember you are driving your kids and a friend's kids to this VBS all week, look around the house and PANIC!  One week to go and while the yard is looking pretty good, the porches need swept, the windows need cleaned and the inside of the house is, (sigh), not at all ready.  Oh! Remember also that ALL. THAT. FOOD needs to be purchased and prepared.  Then realize, while typically the two older kids are really good at watching the younger kids so you can get stuff done, they wont be here - all week - because of the VBS. 

So what do you do?  You quickly start filling up the room in the basement that has a door you can close.  What room is that?  The school room.  It's okay, at first.  Most of the stuff you are putting down there is school stuff.  You decide things like easles in the sun room and baskets of books in the living room probably wont do for the open house so those get taken down to the school room.  Then, husband decides that chair he needs to fix might get sat on and broken more, so he takes that down to the school room.  Then, when the kids are supposed to be cleaning the other room in the basement, the one we call the play room, they decide to just shove all the toys into the school room.  It goes on like this all week.

Finally the big day comes and the open house is a huge success.  All those family members leave for their homes in Ohio and Grandma goes with them.  You relax for an entire day and then the next day you go down to the school room to get something ...
OH MY!

So, as you may have guessed, there will be no sitting around just waiting for the new books to come.  It's time to clean, again.  I better get started!