Our Week with No Kids

Last Sunday evening, my wonderful sister-in-law, Missy, came by the house and took all four children back to Barnwell with her and her two daughters.  Jamie and I were childless for the first time in 10 1/2 years.  What were we to do?  

I walked into the kids rooms and knew what I would do each day...

I would clean their rooms and throw a lot of stuff away!!  The girls had been warned over and over about putting away their precious things, but the pictures above show how they left their room--with games and stuff everywhere.  Eli had tried to "straighten" his room, but the bottom picture is what I found inside of his closet.  Argh!!!

I decided to start with the girls room first since it really needed the most help immediately.  I worked for a while Sunday night, a good bit Monday afternoon and evening, a little more on Tuesday afternoon and evening, and I finished on Wednesday afternoon.

I went into Eli's room on Wednesday evening and starting under the bed, cleaning out his dresser drawers, and straightening his desk.  I vacuumed a good bit and stirred up his guinea pig dander and I started to sneeze.  I sneezed and sneezed and sneezed until my nose was sore from rubbing it.  I quit for the night after I pulled everything out of the closet.

My eyes were swollen and watering on Thursday morning as I went to work and I knew I wouldn't be able to finish in his room before we picked them up from Barnwell.  Thursday evening I finally ventured into the room long enough to sort through all of the books and I even wore a mask.  I broke the news to him that he would have to help me finish when he came home from Barnwell.  So, I guess that is our task this week.  I'll sit in the hall and try to help him organize the best we can.

Here is the girls room after I cleaned:

Let's just say I filled our garbage can plus half of mama's and I had about 8 bags of donations for Good Will.

I told them that next summer they would not get this "Royal Treatment."

I did enjoy some pool time during the week too.  I swam and exercised in the pool a couple of afternoons.  Jamie and I were able to visit someone from church that had surgery.  We worked in the garden and picked lots of blueberries.  We made cobblers to give out and I even decorated a birthday cake for someone.  Buster was very lonely!  He was so excited when we got to Barnwell Friday night and he saw the kids.  We missed them, but it was nice to be able to get a little accomplished around the house.