Feelin' Fallish

It's that time of year when the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and the apples on the trees are turning nice and red. Summer isn't exactly over as we can easily get a few nice days in the early part of September, but those long hot days and endless opportunities for lazy afternoons at the park are drawing to a close.

Part of me is always sad to see the summer end, especially knowing how long and cold the winters here are. There's another part of me that really loves fall, though. During 19 of my 30 years September has ushered in a fresh new school year and it's hard not to feel like the month brings me a fresh slate with so many exciting opportunities.

I bought a binder and notebook today to use for our FlyLady-inspired control journal (a place to keep written routines and other things related to running the house). I'm going to get us set into a regular morning routine and I'll set out our major household tasks around our weekly classes and outings.

As part of my Game On challenge, I'll be making up a dosage bottle of flower essences for myself and I'm looking forward to adding in some blackberry for a kick of inspiration as well as some walnut to help make the transition into new fall routines.

For now, I'm off to bed to see how it feels to get the minimum of 7 hours of sleep I need to score my Game On points rather than the 5 or 6 hours I've been working on most days. G'night!

Playful Playroom

Shortly after moving into our house, we converted what is meant to be the master bedroom off the kitchen into a playroom for the kids. It suited us better to have everyone sleeping upstairs and a play area in the main living area for the kids.

As anyone who has been to our house knows, the playroom typically looks like...well, a typical playroom. It gets played in, stuff gets dumped into it, and the mess grows quickly.

Last night, the kids headed to my parents' house for the night and Olivia and I started decluttering the playroom. I ended up working on it for an hour or so last night and then most of today. In the end, I had 11 garbage bags of stuff pulled out of it and I finished just in before the kids got home.

It was the most satisfying cleaning I've done in ages, both because of how much I got accomplished and because I had in my mind that I was creating a beautiful space for my family. The typical resentment, frustration, and overwhelm when I tackle that room disappeared when I set family happiness as my goal. It made it super easy to toss stuff into bags too. I didn't worry about how much items has cost or who had given them to us. If they didn't fit into the context of a happy space, out they went!

When the kids came home they totally flipped out over the room. It hasn't looked anything like this since early in my pregnancy with Olivia. Lily screamed and then fell over. Nick kept jumping and yelling and acting like a total goof. It made a Mama happy and totally validated my work.

Here's what the room looks like now. Liam, by the way, is not beating Lily up even though it looks like he is. They're reading a book. Promise.

See? There's the book. Dollhouse and random toys on the far wall.

Craft table:

Games and some toys in the closet:

Bookshelves! I culled quite a few, if you can believe it.

Reading area next to the bookshelves. There was another chair here earlier but someone peed in it. I'll let you guess who.

Someone made a mess...