A Week of this, a week of that...

By: Melanie

I don't have a car. As inconvenient as that may be during our Costco adventures and when I've put off laundry for a week and a half, there have been far more times over the past year and a half that I've been grateful for not having to deal with a car in the city. No paying for parking, no fighting for parking spaces, no moving the car for street cleaning, no (more) gray hairs from battling traffic, no exorbitant insurance...the list goes on.

And this week I have another reason to be thankful. It's just one less thing to have to organize! But don't be too disappointed in me, I didn't just rest on my laurels, as tempting as that was. Without really meaning to, I decided to take the week to take care of a few random things around the house that have been driving me crazy.

I took all of the toiletries that were overflowing the window ledge and the floor and the shelves in the bathroom and made order out of chaos. All the traveling that we've been doing lately means a wealth of travel-sized shampoos and soaps...and Elle insists on pulling out mom's make-up brushes and nail files on a daily basis but doesn't seem to get around to putting them back...and have I mentioned that our bathroom is impossibly small? Well, it's beautiful now! Okay, maybe not beautiful, but there is a neat row of glass canisters lining the window ledge, a neat stack of cosmetic bags on the floor by the door, and an uncluttered surface above the toilet to prevent little toddler's hands from sending those costly make up brushes plummeting into the "pool" for a swim. It feels good.

Also, the toys. Oh, the toys. Just when we had gotten a handle on the toys...Christmas. Our living room was overflowing. And in less than a month...Elle's birthday. I managed to find homes for most of the new arrivals, and spent an hour or so plundering her wardrobe, packing away all of the clothes that no longer fit. That's been hanging over my head for a while.

I think I did well this week. And today I made lemon curd and sticky buns. Not a bad finish!