Things, they are achangin'

Last week was a tough week at work, nothing felt like it went right. There was more frustration than joy and that is unusual for this position.  I think part is that our boss and boss' boss and boss' boss' boss have all changed and they're all working out how our Post runs and with that comes a certain amount of uncertainty that we didn't have the past year.  Uncertainty leads to a lack of guidance and a level of confusion that I haven't experienced before.

I'm a little off and that's OK.  Goodness knows the world doesn't revolve around my comfort zone.  If it did, we'd all stay at home wrapped in a fuzzy blanket reading a non fiction novel while sipping a pumpkin-spiced-something coffee in silence.

If I could then make it rain or softly snow, and if I only had a fireplace.... oh you get the idea.  At my core I'm a hermit.

So to make a hermit's life more comfortable we've been cleaning out and rearranging.  The biggest problem with interior designing (if I can be so bold to use that term with gov't issued anything) is having too much stuff and right at the top is too much furniture.  We've had too much furniture in this house for the past 2 years.  It's not just our daughter's move to college and the reorganization of her room, but the overall need to see the two years ahead of us and know that we needed to change things up.  Five high back formal chairs, a room rug, 2 headboards, 2 night stands, 2 bedroom lamps all make their way back to the warehouse.

Our living room is now much more open.  Our little walk-through room (really, there's no way to make that room useful) is open.  And the room formerly known as "Katherine's Room" has been dubbed "The Lair."  Bunk beds are moved in to clear floor space yet still give Katherine a place to sleep when she visits, a computer desk takes up a corner (IKEA wasn't a totally shopping loss), and a TV cabinet with TV is along the wall.  Our challenge now is finding reasonable, movable floor seating for kids.  We searched high and low at IKEA and came up dry.  The current thought is Bedouin tent seating.  That sounds reasonable, right?  Oddly enough, finding it may be even a greater challenge.  We have two years.

We're also taking this opportunity to clean out.  A large stack of shoes went out the door which allowed us to move the shoe racks to a more secluded spot.  Becca got a rug from IKEA and she's full force into cleaning her room. More items are heading out.  Books will be re-homed to the CLO library. Dusting, vacuuming, and scrubbing are a go.  Two sets of patio furniture made it to the upper deck so once I have some lighting we can sit out there in the evening and our patio isn't jammed with chairs.

Less stuff equals more room to breathe and an easier time to clean.

And a better feeling about sitting in my jammies with a cat on my lap and a coffee in my hand.