Happy New Year!

It's Day 4 of the Clean Sweep of our house. I stayed up till 2:00 last night, then got woke up at 3:00 and couldn't go back to sleep for at least an hour. Needless to say, I was exhausted this morning at 6:00 when I woke up. Why is it that you can't sleep late on your off day? I was grumpy cause I was so tired. Around 8:00, I layed my head down on the couch and fell asleep. But Vinnie wanted to play, so that only lasted about 10 minutes. I finally got up and went to bed. I thought I was just going to fall asleep on my feet if I didn't get into bed. Went to bed and lay there wide awake. My cell phone rang about 8:30 and I got up to answer it. It was Mama complaining that Penny didn't come over when she said she would and look at some papers. I had already looked at them and was totally unsure what the lawyer was trying to say. I'm just not good at legal stuff. Then she said Margurete was down in her back and she didn't know if she could take her to the doctor on the 5th. That's 5 days from now. Who knows what's going to happen in 5 days. I told her I'd take her if Margurete couldn't, but I was so tired I just didn't want to deal with it today.

Since I was up, I decided to start taking down the Christmas tree. Was only about a 1/4 of the way through, when Tabitha and Trent came over. I stopped and we tackled the dining/craft room. First thing we did was take the treadmill outside and sit it beside the road. About two hours later, my neighbor called and asked if it worked. I told her the read-out doesn't work, but the treadmill part does. Her son just moved out and they are turning his room into an exercise room. She wanted to know if they could have the treadmill. I told her to take it with my blessings. Thank You, Lord! Tabitha would not stop until we got that room in order. There's a lot of boxes of pictures that I am going to have to go through once we have all the rooms put back together, but that's something that can wait. The room looks so much better. Trent was so patient with us. I know he was bored, but he was very well-behaved. They left right after Vance got home.

Vance left earlier and went to Home Depot to get ceiling tiles, but ended up getting them at Lowe's. He came back and started dismantling the shelves in Vance's old room. Of course, I had to go in that room and start moving stuff out so Vance could work. It just never ends! He kept trying to get me to sit down and rest and eat some lunch, but I just couldn't. It's like I'm driven to do this and won't stop until I get it done. I'm afraid if I ever stop, it will never get finished and I'll just fall back into my old ways. I can't let that happen. This is a life-changing experience; a liberating experience. I can't believe all the stuff I have let go of - things I've been holding onto for years and years. And there's more to get rid of.

I never did get the Christmas tree dismantled. After Tabitha left, I tried to eat something, but wasn't hungry. I ended up throwing my sandwich into a garbage bag where Vinnie immediately jumped into and ate it. I spent the rest of the night organizing the pantry and the wrapping paper. I found all kinds of wrapping paper. Like Tabitha said, I'll never have to buy wrapping paper for a very long time. Now that I've got it organized, I should be able to find things. I went through a box of shoes and gave over half of them to Goodwill. Still got more to go through.

Talked to Michelle. She called to see how we were doing. She was excited to hear that Tabitha was helping with the craft room. I'm so glad Tabitha came. I would still be working in there, cause I have to go through each box and check everything out. She just handed me things that needed going through now and said we'd go through the pictures together and get them organized. When you have well over 100,000 unorganized photos in boxes and albums, it's going to take a little while to sift our way through.

Around 5:30, I was sitting in the chair in the craft room going through a box and fell asleep in the chair. I woke up about 20 minutes later with my hand and arm asleep. I guess I just needed a little power nap. It worked; I got busy again.

I stopped around 7:00 to go to Zaxby's and get a salad. They were closed! I had really been craving their grilled chicken salad. So, I started home and ended up stopping at Taco Bell and gettting nachos and a taco. Not what I wanted at all, but it was food.

I guess I'll tackle the tree again in the morning. Hope to get it down so I can start on my computer room. I need to get it cleaned out so I can put two pieces of furniture that's in Vance's old room in it. That would get the furniture out of Vance's room. I can see tomorrow is going to be another busy day. I haven't decided yet if I'm going back to work Wednesday or not. I may stay out another day or two until I get the house finished. Like I said, I'm a driven woman right now. Can't stop while I've got the momentum going. And sleep seems a waste of time, but I know I've got to get some sleep or I'll make myself sick. And, it's after midnight, so I guess I better get to bed and at least try to sleep a little. I should be at church, but I didn't want to take the time to stop and shower and put on makeup. Say a prayer that I will be able to finish soon and not slip back into my old ways. Our house is looking so good. I want it to stay that way.

Goodnight and God bless...................Thanks again to my wonderful crew - Michelle, Tabitha and Kim; Vance for taking care of Fox while we worked; Chad for helping Michelle move things. I love you guys.