Everyone’s getting back to their routine.  That being said, even though I’ve kept up with throwing out 5 items per day, I’m not making a dent in the major problem areas.  I suspect this is because the problems are so large and at the holidays we’ve had a lot of stuff enter the house.  So, I’m going to try to use this space to show my progress thereby encouraging me to stay on track.

• Did a major playroom cleanup, including taking down the VERY old artwork. Some was replaced with new drawings, but mostly we’ve got blank walls now waiting for new creations.
• Got the three older boys’ ski stuff ready for their trip at the end of the month. Our oldest has been once; the twins have never been.  So, this involved determining what we had, getting a helmet for free, and buying a few new items (especially for the younger two who were in need of new snowpants anyway).
• Grocery trips to Shaw’s, Stop & Shop, and BJs
• Entered two months of Pampers Gifts to Go codes (yes, I could do this every month and get prizes, but they’re not worth the time to log in that often)
• Replaced the shower curtain
• Baked blueberry muffins for a meeting
• Wrapped 7 gifts for upcoming birthday parties
• Repaired 5 books (unfortunately this is an insignificant portion of the pile)

I didn’t get much done between Christmas and having everyone off work/school for two weeks.  So, last week I felt like I got a lot done.

• Did a fair bit of Christmas cleanup:
  • Took down both trees and put out on the curb for pickup
  • Put away all ornaments, lights, and other tree stuff. Threw out a set of mini-lights that died after they got put on the tree (thankfully they were at the very bottom so we didn’t even notice).
  • Put wreath out in the trash
  • Cleaned out most of the Christmas packaging
  • Packed up most of the recycling for this week when it hopefully won’t be so windy
  • Returned one item that didn’t make the cut.
• Everyone made it to work/school on Monday on time, despite our being very lax with the schedule during the break
• Six errands during preschool on Monday so I only had to take the youngest with me
  • One was to move our prescriptions to a local pharmacy from a chain where the customer service was intolerable
• Two very well planned trips to the grocery store
• Seven nice, homemade dinners
• Put away all outgrown clothing, threw out worn clothing, and audited available clothing for the youngest
• Reconciled all accounts for December and did the budget update (Because so much of our life revolves around the school year our plan starts July 1. This was just the monthly update and halfway review.)  Set up/paid January bills.
• Signed the boys up for spring activities