DAY 36

Whenever a kid says to me "I'm bored" I tell them "only boring people get bored. You are not a boring person, so find something to do." I am working really hard at not being a boring person. It is the weekend (I think) so we are not doing schoolwork. This leaves many hours to fill.

I certainly have enough around this house to keep me busy. At first I thought that everything would be really clean and organized when we are finally set free. The reality is that we are all here. All the time. Messing things up. Miss Nine has stuff everywhere. Normally I would make her keep our common areas cleaned up, but nobody is coming over and I have relaxed that rule quite a bit. The dining room has become the school room, with all of the materials that are required, and then some. We are dirtying more dishes. I run the dishwasher every single day.

I have a very large room full of all manner of craft supplies. Fabric, yarn, beads, weaving looms, rug hooking supplies, scrapbook paper and doodads, etc. etc. etc. In the last month I have made a hundred face masks, a pair of baby pajamas, and I am now working on two blankets for my littlest littles. I have already mentioned my jigsaw puzzle supply. There is no excuse for boredom here, but I feel it creeping in.

Today I gave our dog a bath. She seriously needs to see the groomer, but they are closed. I attempted to groom her myself a few times last year in an effort to save money. The first time wasn't bad. The second time was a little iffy. By the third grooming she looked like she had been run over by a lawn mower. After her bath today I trimmed around her face a little. Her bangs were getting in her eyes. Hopefully we will be able to get a proper grooming soon.

I spent some time cleaning my basement the other day. I made a pile of stuff to put in a garage sale. I organized my paint and all of my canning supplies. I rearranged all of the holiday decorations. I had half of the basement done in about two hours. One day next week I will tackle the other side of the basement. Months ago I bought some bright orange paint for the basement stairs. They are grey and so is the basement floor. It is not easy to see where one step ends and the next one begins when you are carrying things down. Once I missed the last step because I thought I was at the bottom. I was carrying an armload of canning jars. I'm lucky I did not impale myself on broken shards of glass. Today I put a stripe of paint on the edge of each step. It felt like a huge accomplishment.

Maybe tomorrow I will organize my underwear drawer. Am I boring you yet?