Squalor, Mail and Junk Miracles...

I cleaned my house all day long. Every room. Every corner. Every bit of horror.

You know what part of the problem is? I have no closets. After spending a week at my dads house where there is at least one closet in every room and in most rooms, two closets, I cannot but help but feel horribly deprived at my lack of any real closets. For example, I have no place to store four extra boxes of tissues. I have to creatively find places for things and when space is this oddly allocated, disaster is bound to strike.

My other household problem is not exactly a problem, per se, more of a conundrum. My children, Rebecca particularly, do not have a lot of toys. The thing which they do have and which is completely out of hand, is books.

They are everywhere. Rebecca has eight shelves of books. Warrior Kitty, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, The Lightning Thief- the list goes on and on. Many of these she has purchased with her own money, others we pick up on the cheap at junk stores and still others are gifts.

Lily's room is the same- endless shelves of books, all read again and again and dearly loved.

It's clear that I need a proper library. All of the books in the house could live in this room. It would have a fireplace and many squashy armchairs. Just think of all of the space it would free up in the kids rooms!

Sadly, this is not to be. I will continue to battle the book clutter until some sad day when my children move out. And then I will cry and wail and beg them to come back.

Would you like some good news after that bit of maudlin self-pity?

I found a place to hang the scale! It was worrying me a bit actually and so I knew I needed to find a useful place for it right away before it became a junk albatross hung round my neck, a shameful reminder of junking gone wrong.

Look! It has an actual function! A junk miracle! Speaking of junk miracles, I also found a use for my turquoise vegetable bin. It is housing art supplies. Take that junk naysayers!

Since I had the camera out I thought I'd also do a little show and tell. About four years ago, maybe even longer, I found a Tracy Porter quilt at Linens n' Things for $16. I loved it even though, strictly speaking it was not in my color scheme. For $16 bucks I picked it up anyway. Then a few weeks later I found a matching sham for $5 and grabbed that too. Then I put them in my attic where they mostly stayed. I'd pull out the quilt for picnics, but mostly I just admired it from afar and lamented that it didn't really work in my room.

Then, I painted my room blue and suddenly I had the perfect room for the quilt. It has two sides, but I prefer the back of it. At the end of the bed is an awesome red floral comforter that came from the junk store.

I have to share the absolute highlight of my day. I got mail! I love mail, but surprise mail in the form of presents from Julie is my favorite kind of mail of all!

Look at what that crazy girl sent me.

Hand made Mad City Chicks Soap and a washcloth! This soap looks amazing and smells even better. I cannot wait to not share it with my children tonight. Thanks babe, you are my favorite Mad Chick for sure!

So now, my house is clean and I secretly had ice cream for dinner. The day is done. All that awaits is my bath, my bed and Vincent D'Onfrio. What more could a housewife ask for? Besides closets of course!