Organization versus chaos

Yikes. The spring cleaning bug has hit me early this year. I've always tried not to be a packrat, and between living in St. Thomas and moving a lot in college and young adulthood, I really like the process of decluttering. And oh, boy, am I on a roll! Today I loaded up what I've collected so far, since it was threatening to devour our dining room table. I brought three boxes of books, cds and movies to the library to donate for their annual sale, and the back of my van is stuffed with about nine more boxes and bags full of donatable stuff for Goodwill. Now the goal is not to replace it with more stuff we'll just want to get rid of next year!!

Reorganization of the pantry in progress:

(Note: since writing this about a week ago, I've loaded up the van a second time with donations, including a huge load of professional clothes that my skinnier-by-the-day hubby can no longer wear without attracting stares and giggles.)

And here are some of the forces of chaos trying to thwart me in my tidy, organized goals:

Miss G had her fifth birthday party on Saturday. Fifteen 3-6 year olds dressed as princesses and knights were on a royal quest to rob me of my sanity. I joke. Kind of. Lots of fun, but holy cow, I admire pre-school teachers and others who have an innate talent (which I lack) for wrangling large groups of children in this age bracket!

We made got dressed up, made royal crowns, went on a quest involving the following:
*sneaking down into the valley without waking the sleeping beasts (going down stairs past all of the stuffed animals)
*climbing up a mountain and sliding down the other side (fort/slide)
*stealing some magic potion from Merlin's magic laboratory (little packages of bubbles from a cauldron)
*stomping on dragon eggs (large swathes of bubble wrap left over from mail order Christmas gifts) and gathering dragon eggs (super bouncy balls with little dragons inside)
*climbing through a (tent) tunnel into a dragon's cave to fight the dragon (inflatable, about 4 ft. tall) and steal his treasure (toy rings and candy kisses)



We then had a royal feast and the presenting of royal gifts. And that description sounds very tidy and organized and doesn't begin to suggest the level of noise, movement and mess invovled! The party was Saturday (this is Monday) and the house is ALMOST recovered.

And now my sweet girl is five. Sigh. (Cue Zero Mostel singing "Sunrise, Sunset" in the background.)

Happy birthday, baby girl.