Sometime shortly after we moved home last November I started noticing that Hazel played with her toys more if they were organized. I couldn’t just keep everything jumbled in a couple of open bins – she would ignore them unless all the blocks were together, yada yada (surely this is surprising no one – she is my child in SOME ways.) I started scouring goodwill and other places for some low shelves that were deep enough to work well for toys and found nothing. I suppose I could have built something but I would have just gotten very angry in the process, which was not a good thing to do during Shining Time up on this mountain. So after christmas when things were way on sale, I bought a set of these shelves in white and some fabric bins for them on the cheap.

I don’t even know how long I stood in target looking at them and feeling disgusted with what I was about to do, both because I was buying something I knew I could probably EVENTUALLY find used or make with some effort, AND they were boring. But whatever – I bought them.

And then I bought some spraypaint. And scrapbooking paper. And these wee adorable frames from the dollar bins and Michael’s. And ribbon. And I spent way too long obsessing over all of it. And I went home joyful about my big box-store purchases.

A week later we had an astounding thaw, and so one night after dark I put the garage door up, assembled the shelves, and started spraypainting them right at the edge of the rain pouring from the sky. The light was pitiful down there, and I didn’t even think about it, I just went to town with my petrol blue destashed from Erin, and had another new can waiting on deck. After about ten minutes of bliss I realized that some of the paint was beading up. I almost lost my mind. I left the whole thing in the garage and didn’t touch it again until… two days ago.

In the meantime I picked up a can of plastic primer for the cheap plastic-ey veneer – totally ingenious – and sanded off all of the bad paint. (Dear mouse sander, I love you forever.) Second paint attempt went on like a dream, I wrapped some ribbon around the bins, drew some labels and covered them in contact paper, then popped the (painted-to-match) mini frames on top. After the spraypaint was dry I cut the scrapbooking paper to fit the four cube openings that had backs, and after Hazel went to bed… I organized. Organizing might be more fun than spray painting. I just don’t know.

Either way – Hazel’s boring target toy shelves are no longer boring. And I only had one fit of anger.

We’ve starting to seep in, a little bit, to this house that is not our house. It’s much more colorful. And it might almost be time to collect it all into boxes and go.

After topping off a bag of stuff for Goodwill yesterday, I went through our closet putting together outfits for the wedding festivities this weekend, and I ended up with another full bag to donate. I’m on a roll! Maybe I’ll be caught up the week after next, after we’ve gotten back from Toronto. The turnover rate of stuff entering and exiting our life, even since we unloaded the last uhaul, is astounding. Particularly because we DON’T SHOP. We know people who shop as a hobby and are constantly acquiring new and better things, and we’ve never done that in our entire adult lives. So why do I feel like we always get so much new (or newused) stuff between moves?

Week fourteen.

At this time tomorrow, we’ll be on our way to our beloved city. Friends, a wedding, music, playdates, chinatown beads (for a custom project and for my mom – I WILL control myself!), the dollarama, Tankhouse Ale… aahh! We’re coming back home next Wednesday. See you back here then :)

Listening: The Avett Brothers
(I am) Reading: just finished Jesus Land – brutal, and very good
(Hazel is) Reading: Gallop!

I’ve never been so happy to have legs!

I spent all evening yesterday putting together, mounting bulletin boards and kitchen organizing things on the wall, sorting things out and condensing and putting away. Looking at this photo, I realize that I need to move the child-Mikey photo to the left. This is going to annoy me greatly until I complete this task.

Important things. The paint chip is the color of Emm’s bedroom. She probably doesn’t even know that I took it. The fact that I keep things like this…. is it a disorder?

My mama made this.

Laughing.

Tonight I could potentially spend hours sewing, but I have a building orientation meeting that’s over an hour long… at 7pm, the perfect time to interrupt everything. It’s a fifty dollar fee if one of us doesn’t go, and Mikey has class until 6:30 so he might be able to weasle his way out of it. I HATE things like this. If I have a question, I will go to the management office and ask the Australian girl. If there is a fire, I will go out the door. That’s all I need to know how to do to successfully live somewhere.

I called the city recycling place to find out where to buy worms, because vermicomposting is covered in depth on their webpage and they offer to give worm-buying tips. So I called one of the numbers, and I got the answering machine of a family. One family raises enough worms that the city will recommend them. I could so do this, if I had a yard, which I DON’T or I would have a dog by now.

I sound really bitter. I’ve had a headache all day.

Dorothy is getting fat. We’ve put them both on a regular eating schedule – as opposed to always having at least a little bit of dry food in their bowl – even though she demands food at all hours of the day. Dietrich has always been a scrawn so I feel bad denying her food if she wants it. Her little meeps underneath Dorothy’s shrill yowling break my heart. How do I give bones as much food as she wants without pumba hating me? Help.

Listening: David Gray
Reading: charityvillage.com, workopolis.com, etc. etc.