Merry Christmas / Happy New Year!

Yeah, I know, I am a bit late with those greetings.  

Can I fall back on my old excuse that things have been busy here?

In all honesty, things have been busy.  I am so glad I have had the last 2 weeks off of school, because I have been needed.  Husband's folks have both been having health issues lately.  Since I have been off work, I have been able to help some with laundry, dishes, cooking, appointments, shopping, un-decorating,  and other necessary tasks.  My first week off was the busiest.  Things have settled down a bit now, and for the last few days, I have been able to focus on some much needed tasks at home.  

I must say that my boys are wonderful!  

There is no way I could accomplish so many things without them. 

 Each has been a huge help.  

Youngest has helped with the following since Tuesday:

• Took down the tree and all the trimmings
  
• Re-arranged 3 rooms of furniture.  They look so nice now.  Remember when I bought the used furniture for our spare bedroom?  Well, it was too nice to never be seen, so it is now in my sun-room. (Picture at end of post). 
• Helped with a massive amount of paperwork that needed sorted and  filed, and then  burnt the paperwork that was discarded (we do not have a shredder, but we do have a wood-burner in the garage)
• Completely emptied 3 big shelves in my hall built-in cabinets that desperately needed sorted, and organized.  He then helped to put what we kept back inside. 
• Emptied my buffet storage, helped to pitch, sort, and organize the contents. 
• Put together a small storage unit that now houses all of my coupon files and supplies.  (I will take a picture of that soon.  It is in our spare bedroom along with our old love seat from the sun-room, and my treadmill.) 
• Helped hang 11 new mini blinds! (Ours are getting brittle, they are 10 years old, so I replaced all 8 in the sun-room, and replaced 3 in the living room.  More to come)  

Oldest helped in these ways:

• Came home on New Year's Eve so he could help out
• New Year's Day he went through a lot of his old belongings in the basement and pitched out about 3 boxes of  unwanted items.
• Did a few loads of my laundry
• Completely emptied my stand alone pantry cabinet,  washed it out, and helped me pitch a few things, and organize the rest
• Emptied my lazy susan cabinet, washed it down, and helped me replace what was kept
• Made pancakes for breakfast today!
• Did my grocery shopping!

Am I spoiled or what?   I tell you, they are good boys! 

 I accomplished a few things on my own as well this week:

• Organized my vanity area, and re-purposed a cabinet that I had to use beside the vanity to hold extra nail polish, and other girly items
• Organized my pots and pans cabinet
• Organized my coupon filing system
• Walked on my treadmill and have read my Bible two days in a row! 

I will not quite go as far as to say I am ready for school on Monday, but with all of these things done, I am much closer to being ready than I was!

My cat is so funny.  She loves the radiators so much, that she cannot even lay completely on her bed, she sort of slides to the end so she is directly on the radiator. 

My sun-room is decorated very frugally.  The furniture was all purchased second hand from a friend of our sons, and the TV and cabinet were purchased second hand from my sister!   Works for me.