cleaning, organizing, and reminiscing...

Once upon a time, ten months after we got married, we had a baby...this is baby Emily Anne, 7 months old. She was the best baby in the world.

18 months old..I made her the little jumper. Back in the eighties, hearts were all the rage.

When we had five kids, we thought we were busy, ha, and we were. Emily, Abigail, Benjamin, Mariel, and baby Joseph. This was when were building a house, still living in our mobile home.

New house, new baby, now Aaron Royce joined the festivities.

Then there were ten. Okay, there were pic taken in between, these are just some I found while sorting and organizing the room, okay? :). This was the day that Benjamin told the photographer that his name was George. Everytime she said something like, "Move a little to this side, George!", the kids would roar, but no one told her that his name wasn't George. The kids were Emily 14, Abigail 12, Benjamin 10, Mariel 8, Joseph 7, Aaron 6, Molly Rose 4, Samuel 3, Margaret 2, and Kathryn 5 months...something like that. The first three kids were "spaced" a bit, but not really. We lost a baby between Abigail and Benjamin :(.

And...14! Jonathan was the baby in this pic...our joy and treasure after losing baby Robert, another baby boy after those five girls in a row. Emily was holding Suzanne and Sonja, with Kathryn to the side of her. Benjamin in the back next to me, with Sam in front of me and Mariel and Molly Rose in front of Ben. Joseph next to Paul, with Aaron in front of Joe, and Margaret next to Sam, with Evelyn in front of her, next to Abigail, who is holding baby Jonathan Robert. I have to seriously get moving. I am actually sore from all the work I did yesterday. Our room contains only the bed, one big dresser, and the fan. There are things in the closet still, not sure if we are going to take everything out and properly put new flooring in there, or be lazy, leave the carpet in there...we probably shouldn't, Paul has such bad allergies, the carpet is killing him, so dusty.

The walls were painted around 6 years ago, but this is the original carpeting. Yes, back when we built our house, when I was 27, I thought this was a good idea. The walls were lavender. mmm hmmm. See what I'm doing here? I'm sitting here typing, when I should be gathering the painting supplies. I'm starting with the ceiling, then doing the walls, then the trim...I think. The trim has to be painted with primer first, even that is a long tiring job. Ceiling paining is the worst. My helpers have this annoying little thing called SCHOOL. Sonja has college classes, harrumph. Jonathan is still in Oregon, which is a good thing, because his bedroom, shh, has been filled with a boatload of crapola, everything from our room, ha. If we don't get done before he gets home, oh boy. Yesterday, I organized, sorted, and cleaned. I get so easily sidetracked, every penny I find, I check the date to see if it's really old and worth something. A barette, oh I remember Molly wearing that! Old store receipts, 2012, oh, what did I buy?! Old letters, don't mind if I do! So I spend all the live-long day, and beleive me, it's hard to get rid of things. I am not a hoarder, I actually really like minimalism, the empty look, but I like stuff, too. But then again, I hate stuff, and like getting rid of it. And shh, yes, I am procrastinating like crazy. Hopefully we get some good progress pics today. Wish me luck! So now I have to gather the supplies, and shh, I'm secretly hoping we need some really important things, and I have to go to Walmart, because PROCRASTINATION is my middle name!