Tonight I am sitting in  my relatively clean home.  Now, to some of you, this may not be a novelty, but to me...

It has been over a year since I have been able to feel like this.  The living room is actually a living room again.  The kids are sleeping in their rooms.  They may be unfinished, but they are all sleeping in their own spaces.  All the main lving areas are "together."  I can not describe how good that feels, and I can only imagine how it will feel when the house is actually done! 

I have made it my goal to really try and teach the kids to respect the space that is ours.  We have allowed them to carry on in their disastrous little ways, and I have had to attempt to keep it all somewhat coordinated.  I move the messes from place to place anytime someone may step into the house, and we just deal.  I can't do that! I crave a neater environment, but I can't do it alone.  I have been pacing myself, and not trying to heap too much on them at once. They are children!  I just feel that they CAN and WILL learn that messes can't clean themselves.

I have been struggling with this house since we have moved.  I still have a disastrous garage and basement, and I have to conquer that mountain this summer, so we can begin the school year completely together!  I have a laundry room downstairs that looks like a tornadowent through it.  We are planning a garage sale, but I don't know when.  I have been warning the kids that a major purging is going to take place.  We do NOT need so much stuff!  Why do we need all this stuff?  We are just addicted to STUFF!  We have to clean house!

School is coming sooner than we would like to admit, and summer is fleeting.  My dear 7 year old was explaining to her little sister that this was the last full month of summer vacation.  AWWWWW!!!!  I am not ready to think about that yet!

Tonight as we were running around putting out the little fires that would become huge messes in just a few days, my kids kept asking things like 'who is coming over?"  and "Are we having company?"

No... we are doing it for our family to enjoy.