Ahhhhh . . .

I am pleased to report that I started out this weekend more relaxed than I've been in . . . well, a really long time. My massage was WONDERFUL! Sooooo worth it. I told the lady that my main problem areas were my shoulders/upper back, and that is what she worked on for probably 45 minutes. It was heavenly. I could just feel the knots work themselves out as she did deep-tissue massage on the affected areas. As soon as she started working, she said, "I can see why you are having shoulder problems!", as the knots were that obvious! I laid with my shoulders flat, but hips turned a little to one side, and a pillow under my belly/one leg. It was very comfortable, and it enabled her to work on both shoulders. I floated home, and in fact, I still feel a bit like I am floating! I slept better last night than I have since I started having these numbness problems with my arms--6 uninterrupted hours!

Feeling more relaxed also allowed me to be a lot more productive yesterday. I systematically went through the bookshelves in the study, which is where I keep all our homeschooling stuff. I have been in desperate need of time to rearrange and organize in there, because I am running out of room on my shelves. Yesterday I took out a ton of material that we simply are never going to use. I can admit it! I think we've been homeschooling now for going on 9 years, if you start with Nathan's kindergarten year, and I pretty much know what works for us for the elementary years. And I have no energy to do anything extra or just try new things for the fun of it! So one big box of stuff is sitting in the middle of the study floor, and my shelves are so much more organized. Hopefully we'll have a used curriculum sale at the end of our co-op this year, like we did last year. If not, it's still going somewhere else!

Unfortunately, all this cleaning did not turn up 2 things that are missing. One is an answer key to the Henle I book we just started. It is mildly annoying that I can't find that book, especially since I know I have seen it around, but no big deal--I have to put in a Rainbow Resource order, so I'm just going to order another one for $5.50. The other big thing we are missing is a library book on apes and gorillas (and lemurs, which is the reason we had it out in the first place). Luke has to do a research paper on an animal, and he picked the lemur. He needed 3 sources by Jan. 4, so right before we left for Ohio, we went to the library and got out 3 books. When we got back home from Ohio, and co-op was starting up again, we couldn't find any of the 3 books! After much frantic searching, we discovered 2 of the books shelved on our bookshelves, along with all our books. Whew! But . . . where could the third book be? We thoroughly searched each shelf on the bookshelves, as well as the usual places--under the couch, coffee table, and beds, behind the couch, in the playroom, etc. Luke and I have both spent quite a good deal of time searching for this book, and it is not in any of the obvious places, nor in quite a few very unobvious places! It's a big, green, hardcover book--you would think it would not have been so easy to lose in such a thorough way! Grrr . . . there is not much that bothers me more than having something missing. Although I will say that it has bothered me less after my massage, that's for sure, LOL. Still, I was disappointed that all this cleaning and decluttering did not turn up at least one of the missing items!

I am hoping to continue using the weekends to declutter. We just have so much extra stuff around, it seems. It's hard to keep things clean, and it's hard to keep track of things we really do need! And hopefully I will continue to have more restful nights, because I am sure I will be more able to actually do things like declutter if I have a tiny bit more energy.

***Update*** Well, what do you know?! I walked into the family room, and I noticed that Grace had gotten some books out of the bookshelf, which were scattered on the floor. On top of the pile was . . . 100 Things You Should Know About Monkeys and Apes. What in the world?! Luke and I BOTH looked through all the books on those shelves! My jaw about hit the floor! Okay . . . well, that gives me hope that other missing things might mysteriously turn up out of the clear blue sky, LOL. And in the meantime, we are all praising the Lord for this little miracle!

Nesting in a Black Hole

I'm starting to feel the nesting thing kick in--I want to be organized. Saturday Bob took the boys to Nathan's basketball game, Anna napped, and I cleaned all the detritus from the play room. I also worked on the paper morass in the kitchen, making some headway there too. It was a good feeling. That good feeling was all but overwhelmed by the realization that things keep going . . . missing. Little things. Not terribly important things. But things that niggle at the edge of my brain all the time, taking an inordinate amount of brainpower as I try to imagine where they could be. Things like . . . the atlas that used to live on the bookshelves in the study. This was one of your standard huge road atlases that you might keep in your car. In fact this one used to live in our car until we got a newer one, and this one moved inside. I use it actually quite a lot when on the phone or looking stuff up. I love maps. And it has disappeared! Where could a huge book like that disappear to? Makes you wonder, doesn't it.

Another missing item is a ring and nipple for Anna's bottle. I have exactly 9 rings and 10 nipples, and now I have 8 rings and 9 nipples. Again, this might not seem like a crisis, but . . . where in the world could it have gone to?! It's driving me nuts! It's a red ring, by the way, in case it shows up at your house, LOL.

Another inconsequential thing is a folder Nathan made during the Greek unit at our co-op. This is really unimportant, except to an irrational pregnant woman who was filing papers away in notebooks and realized Nathan didn't have anything representing all the great Greek stuff I taught him during that unit. I won't tell you how much time I spent looking for that Saturday night. It wasn't pretty.

So you can clearly see from these examples that there is some sort of plot going on here, something subtle enough as to not raise a big alarm, but just annoying enough to make me really go crazy. It's just hard to nest when you can't find all the little twigs you need. Sigh.

So here I sit, eating ice cream and blogging. Christine called a few hours ago to see if I could teach tomorrow at co-op for her. She's teaching the character part to the K-4 and K-5, and I am supposed to teach that next week, so we just switched. That all sounds fine except that I am having a very difficult time coming up with anything to do on the spur of the moment. The unit is on architecture, and so I thought something about how our words can build up or tear down would be appropriate. And maybe if I had a little more notice, I would be able to come up with something great! As it is, I hunted around for one of my character story books so I could find a good story on kindness or something and . . . you guessed it . . I can't find the book. Now I'm at a standstill. Maybe more ice cream will help.

*Update* Now I am NOT teaching tomorrow--whew! Christine called back to say that Joel really isn't sick--he is having an allergic reaction. While that's not a good thing per se, it does mean that he can go in the nursery tomorrow, and she can teach. So I dodged that bullet. Of course, by this time I did find an appropriate Maxi and Mini Muffin story, and even a coloring page, so I am set for next week. Unless, of course, I lose my folder . . .