Weekend update

What a weekend…

On Saturday morning, I joined one of my co-workers to play 9 holes of golf. I have never played with this lady before, and I must say I had a very good time! She and I are very well suited to play the game together. (Meaning neither of us are scratch golfers!)
After the round, we went over to her house for a drink – I got to meet her husband and sons, and then as I was getting ready to head out, her parents dropped in, too.

When I got home, the boys were full of stories about their adventures in the fishing derby that day. The A-man was very pleased to tell me that he had caught a pike. Hubby told me that it was only a small one – about 5 pounds – but they kept it for a while since the A-man was so excited about catching it. S didn’t have much luck out in the boat, but he didn’t seem to mind at all. Sounds like they had a great time just connecting with nature. There was a family of swans on the far side of the lake, and they were able to get close enough to see the babies without upsetting the mamma. They saw a little turtle, and a few other critters, too. Hubby was very dissapointed that he hadn't taken the camera with him.

That night Hubby and I went out to a friend’s place for a small gathering.

Sunday was a ‘claiming back the house day’ for me. The A-man cut the grass; Hubby did some computer work and cleaning on the hunting/fishing area of the house. S helped me with whatever I needed help with.
I had decided that I couldn’t stand the disorganized clutter of the cutlery drawers, so I went out and bought a number of things to help keep things where they should be. I cleaned out all of the cupboards, and went through things –deciding if they were to be kept, tossed, or sold in a yard sale. Got the main four drawers that were driving me insane done, and then moved onward down the hall.
Next stop – linen closet. Reorganized that, and to tell the truth, I can’t believe how much room I have in there now! Of course, once working with the linens, you sort of have to start moving in to the bathrooms next to make sure they are organized.

I don’t think I have cleaned out either of the boy’s main drawers in the bathroom for quite a number of years. Yesterday, I purged, purged, purged. Now, both the A-man and S have nice neat compartments in their drawers – spots dedicated to toothbrushes and toothpaste, a spot for hair care, a spot of personal hygiene items… it’s amazing. Next, I tackled the under-the-sink vanity.
I didn’t toss all of bath toys because I know that sometimes S still likes to use some of those items, but I did scale down what was in the tub of items, and was able to put the lid back on it. Now we have all of the band-aids, calomine lotion, soaps, etc., etc., all nicely and neatly in place.

I have asked both boys what colour towels and facecloths they want, and will be picking up a couple pairs of hand towels and facecloths this afternoon. For the future, I am going to make sure that the A-man’s side of the vanity has all green items, and S will have either red (his choice...) or blue (his second choice) towels and face cloths. This way they will both be responsible for making sure their towels, etc. get put in the laundry when needed, and I will know who did (or didn’t) hang up their wet towels. When company comes, I will use the ‘normal’ towels I have nicely arranged in the linen closet. :o)

Next stop – our bathroom’s vanity. Sad to admit this, but our vanity is much smaller than that of the children’s, yet I was still able to fill a small white garbage bag. Now, in my defense, I did toss all of my bottles of nail polish, any half used lotions or bath oil bottles, etc. I had a lot of these. I even cleaned off the shelf that sits on the wall! I think our cleaning lady will have a heart attack when she sees that shelf cleaned off.

I was very, very pleased with the results of my efforts yesterday. The only bad part – the rest of the house still needs this attention!

The A-man had a hot tub with Hubby and I last night, and while we were in there, he told me that he thought he was going to clean his room today because the mess was starting to drive him crazy. I was so shocked I almost drown! (Well, not quite, but I don’t think I ever expected to hear those words come out of my son’s mouth.) Will be interesting to see if he actually does do any cleaning up today.

We have a bit tub that we are keeping “yard sale items” in – want to see it grow tremendously in the next few weeks.