Things I've Been Doing

1) Weeding through the kids' toys.

Again.
I did this a few months back, and thought I'd done a decent job.
Well. Now that we have an assignment and know that houses tend to come a wee bit tinier in our future locations, I felt the need to do more.
I've got a bunch set aside to either sell in a garage sale or donate, and I've even Craigslisted a few things.

(Did you see how I just turned Craigslist into a verb? I am a woman of many talents.)

So far we've parted with a kiddie climber/slide and a double stroller. Plus we have another box ready to head north to my nephew, provided my father in law is able to come through town and transport it for us.

Oh, and I took great pleasure in getting rid of this particular toy:

Ye Olde Fishy Game.
These fishies are always everywhere around my house, except for where they belong.
I am sick of the fish.

I remember when Alex was 3, I walked into her room and found her peeling all the eyeball stickers off of the fish.
I'm not gonna lie. It was a little disconcerting.
I started to wonder if I need to watch out for other signs of animal cruelty.

Turns out the only real problem was that I was going to have eyeball stickers stuck to my socks for the next several months.
Those things multiplied and scattered.

Oh, and when Derek was three, they decapitated all of the fish and stuck the heads on different colored bodies.

We totally need to get rid of this game.
It makes my children weird.

Let's say we get back to my list of things I've been doing, no?

2) Listening to my husband make fun of my attempts to downsize.

I'd told him about all the clothes I'd gone through to get rid of and his response was something like this--

"Gee Erin. I'm sure you're working hard, but I was thinking we needed to be getting rid of bigger things. You know, like furniture. Not a couple of shirts."

Well isn't he the voice of encouragement?

3) Refraining from telling my husband that I've actually acquired more furniture in recent days. 

Now you know, honey!
You see, I once came across a blog of a woman who takes old furniture and paints it all purty and what not. So then I fancied myself a furniture restorer and started hitting second hand stores for things to purty up.

Like this:

I wish I'd taken a "before" picture, because it was 10 different shades of ugly. It's only about 8 shades of ugly now, but it was my first attempt.
Maybe I'll sell it and try to recoup my $11 investment.

I also once saw a blog on the internets and fancied myself a blogger.
You see where this has taken me.
(It ends with "where" and starts with "no")

I bet Josh is hoping that I come across a cooking blog one of these days.

4) Painting.

This was one of those aforementioned secondhand store purchases from many months ago. He and his partner have been collecting dust in the garage until I decided what color to paint them.
I love this green.

I envision using them at a kids table or desk, but that would require a kids table or desk.

Also, a piece of furniture from PtB's house might have come home with me.
Maybe. Can't rightly say.

5) Homeschooling
I pretty much just throw that in to let you all know that I haven't forgotten that I'm responsible for edjimicating my daughter.

We're back to enjoying our college sessions while Derek's on the bus (if that doesn't make any sense to you, click here) and things are going fine. 
We have thirteen weeks left until we complete the 36-week curriculum, and then I plan to do a science unit with her in the summer.
We've added Spanish into our daily work, and it's been fun to hear her start to speak just a tiny bit of the language.

6) Other Schtuff

Like reuniting with Taco Tuesday.
Reunited and it feels so good...

Slowly working my way through Rosetta Stone.
Now I can say I ate the apple as well as I'm eating the apple.
People in Spain are going to love me.

And that's about all.
Goodbye.