A list of details from today, Monday, May 6, 2019, for my Week in the Life project:

• Kendell took Kaleb to school this morning and I finished cleaning the kitchen from last night.
• After Jake left for work and I cleaned up a few things I needed to do on my computer, I fixed myself a little breakfast beverage and then settled in for the project I wanted to dedicate most of my day to, a project that deserves its very own bullet.
• Last week, I started my deep decluttering of my house by empting out the closet under the stairs, with the goal of finally getting my fabric in order. I had fabric stashed everywhere, in that closet, in boxes in the storage room, in the linen closet, in my scrapbook room, in the coat closet…everywhere. I gathered every bit I could find and sorted it all out: keep, donate, share with friends, toss. I found an entire Halloween quilt I forgot I made, one of my very first quilting projects ever. (I don’t love it but I decided to just get it quilted and bind it and use it.) I revisited many different quilting projects from the past 15 years. I might’ve even cried a little. But I made a big bag of donations for my mom’s friend who makes receiving blankets for babies in developing countries and one for Days for Girls. I threw away a bunch of meaningless little pieces or stuff that was just too ugly to use. I organized by color and type and got everything straightened and folded and put away neatly. Except for an enormous pile of scraps. Which, really, this requires two
• So, I gathered all the scraps into my scrappy space. And, today, my project was cutting them all. 8.5” squares, 6” squares. Strips for my box of strips out of the smaller pieces. Books for my book shelf quilt. I thought “how long can it take? A few hours. Then I’ll go running.” So I cut, and I listened to an audio book (In the Midst of Winter by Isabelle Allende), and made mental notes for my route. Then my phone ran and it was 2:30 and Kaleb wanted a ride home from school. Ummmmm…not a few hours. I really wish I had thought to take a picture before I started because the scrap pile was pretty impressive.
• I went and picked Kaleb up from school, and then said yes when he begged me to take him to Burger King because they had frozen pink lemonade for a buck. So we drove around and talked and he drank his slushy drink.
• Once we got home, I went back to cutting, but my heart wasn’t really into it, and my knees were killing me (too much standing? Lingering swelling from yesterday’s pole-less hike?), and then Kaleb asked me if I’d take him to the rec, so I decided to wrap up my project and scrap my run and do errands instead.
• First I made him pick up the catalpa pods in the back yard. He made me laugh. We just bought him some new basketball shoes and he was like, “MOM! I can’t do that, I have my basketball shoes on and I want to keep them clean!” So he took them off to pick up the pods. (Please note that this photo is not an optical illusion. This kid has enormous feet. He's 13 and wears a size 14!)
• I dropped Kaleb off at the rec, filled the car with gas, went to Target, and stopped by the…fabric store, bless my [stupid] heart. Because, yeah, I didn’t have enough fabric yet! But: when I decluttered I found three largish-scraps of black fabric that I really wanted to use in my (seemingly-never-to-be-finished) black and pink quilt, and yeah, I have other pinks, but what if there was something new and fabulous and pink? (There was.) (WTH is wrong with me?)
• While I ran errands Kendell mowed the lawn.
• After errands, I did a bit of gardening since I decided not to run. Bind weed is making its comeback and I only have one little bunch of daffodils left. Only a few purple tulips left, and all the hyacinths are gone. Spring flowers are so fleeting! BUT! The very first iris started barely blooming today, so the flower cycle keeps going. I love my yard.
• Stuff I paid attention to on TV today: the new royal baby, but only a little bit. The royal British family isn’t a huge draw for me, but I’m glad her baby arrived safely and Harry’s response was sweet. An NPR segment about heartbeat laws which infuriated me. Hostile planet, even though I always feel like slitting my wrists in despair over our planet. The Muller+Barr fiasco.
• Lastly: leftovers for dinner. Game of Thrones and some ice on my knees. Brownies for dessert because Kendell wanted something to eat with ice cream.

I realized that this little week-in-the-life project at least for today made me think about taking more pictures. I’ve kind of given up on many photos of my kids, since Jake is triggered when I ask him for pictures, and Kaleb complains, and Kendell rolls his eyes. But I did get a few today…I’m thinking of them as surveillance photos. I’m not going to post them but I’m glad to have them. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to convince Jake to get in one. Crossing fingers!