There is a time in every remodeling project when it is perfectly appropriate to look around and decide that a can of gasoline and a match is the answer.  What is not appropriate is actually using the gasoline or the match.  Thus, I have hidden the boxes of strike anywhere matches that I keep for bonfires and candle lighting and I am certainly not going to waste perfectly good gasoline on a torch job so….rather than continue to live in chaos, the painting and cleaning continues.

The screaming desire to just burn the place to ground is brought to you by the fact that I am at the cds and dvds.  May the good Lord help me.  What to keep?  What to send to the booksale?  This is arduous.  And of course they aren’t all mine so the stuff I would gladly send to the book sale I can’t because they belong to the Spousal Unit.  He, were he participating in this, would get rid of my folk music and some of the classical pieces.  And then I would have to hit him with a frying pan.  Thus….it all goes in boxes until the joint is painted and arranged and then it all comes out of the boxes and goes back on the shelves.

I just keep reminding myself I am gong to love this when it is done.  Yes.  I am. 

In other news the big TV has gone into Thomas’ room and one of these days I will purchase a small flat screen for the living room that will hide gracefully in the corner and not be the center of anything.  I hate TVs being the focal point in a room.  Makes me nuts.

In other news….Summer reading begins on Monday.  I am excited.  The kids are excited.  The littlies are coming in already, looking expectantly in the Swuck, and looking disappointed when I smile and say “Not until Monday guys.”  It is good.  I still have a boatload to do before then but that’s all right.  It will be worth it.  I am excited and that will feed their energy.  How can you not love those shining faces?  They make me smile all day long.  Even the middlies who really only want a balloon so they can suck the helium out of it. 

And so it goes.

Summer reading looms, like a welcome rain storm.  Knowing full well that the summer will take its toll in energy and time, I still anticipate the adventures of the littlies and middlies.  One of the greatest challenges is finding activities and ideas that will engage the middle school kids.  Parents will bring the smallest of the children and the early elementary school children will finally be allowed to walk to the library on their own – always an exciting adventure.  It’s the middle school children who are allowed to go to the beach by themselves and are left to their own devices much of the summer that I hope against hope will find the library. Although they occasionally make me want to rip out my hair, I would rather have them in my line of sight than worry that they are off getting into trouble, intended or not.  We’ll see.

In the midst of that energy consuming work, I have decided it is time to paint and redecorate.  It dawned on me several weeks ago that I no longer have school children living at home.  The grandkids are settled in a dual parenting thing with their parents and are no longer under my care.  While this is sometimes worrisome, it is as it should be.  What it leaves is a house that no longer needs maps and math tables on the walls; that cherished children’s art needs to go in frames or files; that walls covered with handprints and tape require a fresh coat of paint.  It’s all consuming, really, but I have begun now and there is nothing for it but to continue.

One bedroom is done.  A lovely beeswax color with dark furniture.  Braided rugs will complete the décor at some point.  The hallway was yesterday’s project – taupe and too many doors!  What was I thinking when I said, “Of course you can tape posters to your doors, darlings.”  That was even worse than, “Yes, Daisy, by all means.  Handprints on your walls will be sooo cute.”  And they were until I had to paint over all of them.  The living room is next. And I have yet to decide on a color.  The people at Lowe’s are becoming my new best friends.  I am tired of the browns and yellows I have used in the bedroom and hall.  I thought for a moment that slate might be nice but the room is small and I am afraid it will look like a cave.  All of that notwithstanding, the biggest advantage is getting rid of detritus.  There is so much CRAP in this house.  Bags and bags go to the trash and the Salvation Army every week. How is it we accumulate so much stuff?

On a completely different note…when you have a moment, check out Julius Lester’s blog.  It’s brilliant.  http://acommonplacejbl.blogspot.com/

And so it goes.