First Things First

I intended for my next project to be the filing of paperwork that is necessary in the dining room.  As I entered the room to plan my strategy, I realized that there was no place to work.  My granddaughter had completely converted the dining room table into her own personal art studio.  Of course she felt that every piece of art was a masterpiece and MUST be saved. (NOTE TO SELF: Clean when people are NOT home.)  I will have to come up with a system for saving the artwork neatly later.  Right now my focus was “finding” my table.

She and I “filed” her artwork in a neat pile into her closet for now.  The portfolio will have to wait until I hit up her room.  I had purchased five small plastic cases which were still on the table and my grandson had an Elmo hat out of place, so this mess clearly belonged to one person only.  Now that the table is clear, I follow my little artist around with the ever-ready threat of “If you don’t put that away, I will have to throw it away.”  So far it is working.

Clearing a table does not sound like it should take that long.  Actually, it didn’t.  It just led to A LOT of necessary cleaning.  Apparently my dining room table also served as my artist’s drop cloth.  The dining room floor was not safe either, as its purpose was to “save” any excess Elmer’s glue.  (I am so relieved that most of her supplies are still water soluble!) 

My table underneath my future Picasso's work space

Ironically, despite my clutter, I can't stand working in a messy or dirty space.  So before I could even think about starting to file the original target for the day (paperwork), I had to scrub the newly found space.  

I LOVE the smell of Simple Green!
 It works great and it does not smell like chemicals.

After quite a bit of scrubbing, I finally was satisfied that the table looked beautiful once again.  However, the cleanliness of the table did not lead to the warm cozy feeling of satisfaction from a job well done.  It did however highlight the need to clean the chairs.  

Clean me! Clean me!
screamed the chairs.

Isn't she lovely?  Isn't she wonderful?

Funny how one thing leads to another, huh?











So I heard my desperate chairs screaming for some attention, and I answered their cries.  All five of these supportive little friends got the attention they truly deserved. (Five, you ask...well THAT is another story!)

We feel much better now!

And then my glue-laden floor screamed, "It's my turn lady. Break out the mop...pleeeassse!"  And so I did. 

Looking gooooood!

Well, the plan for the day changed...but progress was made and I am pleased.  As for the children, they were very happy to see that there was once again space to do their "arting".  I am going to have to be the magic marker police if I want my table to remain clean enough to eat off of.