Tackling the Basement

Corey has done some work on our basement situation over the past few months. I have not been much help up until this week. I have wanted a clean basement and have tried and cared many times over the years (2015, 2018, 2019, 2020). My efforts have not been met with much long term success, although it was briefly cleaned up in 2016, 2018 and 2019. It kinda feels similar to a weight loss struggle - I lose the weight/clean it up, but the weigh/mess comes back. The ability to make it stay clean has eluded me. Thus, as of several months ago, I had decided to give up, thinking it's a hopeless situation. Corey for some reason did not feel it was pointless. He also wanted to have all the ski stuff organized. So during Nov and December, he has bought some shelves and storage bins and he's been down there organizing for 15 minutes at a time. He was even separating the legos by color! And I was like "been there, done that... it's pointless!" and he has given up on that for the time being. But since I'm feeling on top of being a homemaker (the house has been clean for 5 weeks, a big miraculous improvement from where it was two years ago!), I felt I could maybe give it a go. I was motivated by two other factors as well. 1) Melodie is coming home in one week (😁😃!!!), and I thought it might be good if I knew where her boxes of possessions from her former life were. And 2) I also wanted to find some marbles. Peter's been playing with his marble works toy with only one marble, and I know I bought some last year and that we have more than that, so I also wanted to find those. I worked cleaning up yesterday and a good chunk of time today, and I'm pleased to report that Peter now has 9 marbles. 

He is a cute kid. 

We sure love him.

Aaaand one more picture of our little prince...

I have also located 3 bins for Melodie and one box that she shipped from Indiana. She might have more, I'm still organizing. I've found a few boxes of Ethan and Hyrum's things and one of Joseph's... I'm going to get those all gathered and organized too. I have a few more large bins of junk to sort, but I'm really proud of the progress I've made. I dare say there is a possibility that it will be organized within a week - 

This picture below was the item I found this week that made me shake my head the most. 

"A pile of dirt. You're welcome. PS There is a spider in it :)" Like, what?!? Were I not in such a stable mental state, finding something like this might make me throw my hands in the air and give up thinking "what kind of hope for order is there, when my kids are bringing in bags of dirt for no reason?!?!" Thankfully, I just found it funny, took a pic, then threw it in the garbage. I texted the kids to ask if anyone had an explanation. I thought it was something Ethan left behind, but Wesley confessed it was a birthday gift to him from friends as a joke. Ah, great, mystery solved. Goodbye bag of dirt. 

The kids have been playing with long lost toys down there as I've worked and they haven't trashed it yet. We've also been singing our hearts out to The Greatest Showman and Enchanted. I think music plays a magical role in helping us all be civil and productive. 

I also have a little bit of hope that maybe the kids are learning to appreciate order and cleanliness too! So, after I finish separating things all out, I plan to take a trip to drop off donations. I'm waiting for warmer weather, as we are in the thick of Second winter right now. The snow should melt next week  -the forecast shows that "Spring of Deception" (3rd pic) should be here next Tues through Thurs with highs in the 50s! After clearing out donations, I'm going to organize my desk down there and give it a purpose. So, yeah, things are good! I'm still reading my scriptures and I am enjoying having cleaning routines/habits. Laundry and dishes haven't backed up. I haven't blogged or practiced violin as much lately, but something has to give. I had done a decent job exercising up until this week - I just have no umph to even stretch in my closet the past few days. I'm blaming morning carpool (I took Wednesdays this month, 3 days in a roll is brutal, esp since we already drive Lily everyday too. But now I'm done and only have to take Wednesdays 4 more times (in April) before the baby is born! Sure, I have to take it every Monday and Tuesday until then, but yay, only 4 more Wednesdays!! I can count that on one hand! Taking Lily to jazz band every freaking morning makes me want to transfer her to a closer school... That has probably contributed to my taking too many naps this week. I only feel a little guilty about it. I'm giving telling myself it's my body gearing up for the last trimester. I think I look full term already, but I'll be 26 weeks on Sunday. Gonna keep on keeping on.