Survival Mode

Some days around here, we're just in survival mode.  We have so much fun, and it ends in a meltdown.  I know that basic housekeeping rules say to tidy up every night - I just can't get to that point.  Instead, I treasure every quiet moment I get.  I use it to take care of me, so that I can have the strength to take care of the rest of the family.

So here's what I do to survive.....

I start construction projects.  I don't always think them through.  I often get stuck.  Or bored.  Or busy.  They rarely are finished in a timely manner, but they do get finished eventually.  Here is my kitchen "before."  This is a space that once held a refrigerator.  The previous owners moved the fridge and added this counter. All it did was collect clutter.  So I put in a pantry!  It looks better now than it does in this photo, but you get the idea.  I need custom made doors & a shelf for that big open area.  There's a tambour door to hide the microwave.  Its all been painted so hopefully its not so noticeable that the doors don't match the rest of the cabinets.  I also need two small trim pieces to fit as fillers between the new & the existing.

 

Sometimes, I do domestic things - like canning.  This is apricot jelly & apricot syrup.  Six batches of it!  I'd like to be making pickles and canning a few more things but haven't gotten my stuff together yet.

This is what happens in every room, every day.  It won't always look quite like this, but its always something.  At first glance, its just a big mess.  Clothes & blankets on the floor...you're not allowed to pick it up.  Then you ask, WHY?  And I am told something brilliant.  This particular mess was Ava playing "Church Camp."  Em was ready to head off to camp, so Ava was pretending to go too.  Notice she packed only dresses & skirts - must be a fancy camp.  The family room was clean for approximately 15 minutes that night before she found it.

I like to take on big projects that I don't have time for.  If I'm busy with someone else's stuff, I forget how overwhelmed I am with my own life.  This is a bouquet of flowers for a bride's maid.  I recently arranged all the flowers.  As in ALL the flowers.  Bride, Groom, attendants, parents.....then I decided to help with the decorating the day before the wedding.  Yes, Ava had a meltdown.  But it was worth it.  For a few hours, I was a hero.  There's nothing I love more than to be appreciated and to fix things.

Every now & then, when I'm feeling really good - we have a Martha Stewart moment around here.  This is a butterfly made from pancakes & maple sausage links.  Sometimes its an over the top birthday cake.  We recently threw together a last minute birthday party when the girls made their own soft pretzels.  You really just never know what I might do!