Friday Bullets

• I stayed up too late (2:00 am) doing my two different eighth grade projects. (Poetry and Simple Machines.) Middle school is difficult for all of us -- the school day runs 9:30 am to 4:15 pm. The kids don't get home until 4:30 at the earliest. Dinner is at 7:00 on the nights we are home, karate at 7:30 twice weekly, choir at 7:00, music lessons at 6:00. Then the homework! Next year Chaos will be at school from 7:30 to 2:15, Entropy will have the hours 9:30 to 4:15. So the stress will be a little better for Chaos, probably worse on the Mommy who has to make sure all things get done.
• We are all coming down with something -- upset tummies, sore throats, runny noses. They are home today, drinking tea, eating rice and candied ginger slices. I swear my eyes are not tracking together. So today is a day of rest and moving slowly. (Note: the staying up to 2:00 am was for naught -- the kid stayed home.)
• To tackle the decluttering today, I've decided to do a couple of drawers (one at a time.) Dump out the contents on the drawer on the table and dispose of all items -- keep, donate, throw away. I may even take pictures.... Decluttering, just like a diet or a budget, is a continual and ongoing process. It's not that you can't slack off for a couple of days, but it is a life decision and not a band-aid of some sort. It has to become habit and a way of thinking about the world.