it’s not like I’m having a baby.

So why am I NESTING? I’ve had this massive surge of momentum and have been clearing out and re-organizing for weeks. I’ve even been . . . decorating.

I don’t decorate so much.

Not in the traditional sense of the word. My method of decorating is seriously pragmatic and often involves shelving and containers (square, of course).

Merchandising a shelf? I don’t think so. I would have to later dust the “merchandise.”

Here’s a little sampling of what I’ve been up to:

Clearing Land. I can’t say weeding because I believe when the “weeds” completely obscure the ground and have grown higher than my waist, it constitutes land clearing. The word “weeding” just doesn’t cover it. I haven’t actually tackled these cornstalks yet. They grew from the droppings of my neighbor’s bird feeder, which was attached to our shared fence.

I wish I had taken pictures of this area before, but here’s a mid point:

This is a strip of . . . flowerbed? that runs along the back of our porch. I moved the grill and the smoker from the patio to this area because the basketball hoop is on the patio and the grill has been taking the brunt of all missed shots and rebounds for years. Notice the broken handle on the grill?

This flowerbed strip connects to a handmade paved area which, for years has been the home of a big red, crab sandbox. That picture above? This is the “before” shot.

We convinced PinkGirl to allow the pitiful, hole in the bottom, bent in half, faded sandbox to find a new home at the county dump – in exchange for a fire pit. FirstHusband found one he liked and it just so happened to be on clearance at Target for $55.00. He hasn’t put it together yet.

While I was clearing land, FirstHusband, FavoriteSon and PinkGirl built a “clubhouse” atop her swing set:

I’ve also begun purging the back porch of stuff and trash. This area was HORRIBLE. You know that tagline above? “I breathe, therefore I organize?” Yeh. Well, it appears I haven’t been breathing on the back porch for months. I didn’t take a picture of the before, but here’s the work in progress:

Pay no attention the pile of junk behind the dried out, $5, garage sale teak screen that I should oil up. Definitely do not step behind the screen, lest you perish in a freak junk avalanche.

I bought the furniture at a local thrift store about 10 years ago have have been through a number of foam pieces, covered with a bunch of different materials, including bedsheets. The foam just completely deteriorates in the Florida sun (even though it’s on a covered, screen porch). It’s never been all that comfortable either. And the cats have ruined a few pieces as well. For some reason, they prefer foam to cat litter.

The new cushions are a salvage. At the end of the Whale of a Sale this year, there were a few couches that didn’t sell and the charity pickup didn’t take. I stuffed my van with all the cushions before they were sacrificed to the dumpster gods. I took the denim covers off of the couch cushions to wash them and sliced off an extra curved, corner type piece from the foam cushion with an electric knife. I couldn’t figure what to do with the extra fabric on the cover, but in the end, I just tucked it around to the side. Now I have to figure out what to do about the chair cushions. I bought some slipcovers at Target a few years ago and I’m hoping to use the material to make covers for the chairs. I’m also hoping the cats don’t ruin the sofa cushions. I covered them with a tarp and found cat urine on the tarp the next day. The litter box had also been used, so maybe there’s hope. I’m going to be safe and either keep the cushions covered up or store them in a box when not in use.

There’s also a rocker, but my dad took it home to paint it. He’s going to paint all the pieces for me. I’ll post photos when the rocker comes home.

I’ve also been painting my bedroom. A few years ago (okay, four years ago), we had the ceilings repaired after Hurricaine Charlie. We supplemented the insurance money and switched from popcorn ceilings to an orange peel texture. That left the top of the walls white. I picked a paint color and started painting. Never finished.

Then, the next year, we had to get the house re-piped. Holes had to be cut, patched and re-textured. That left big white patches on the walls. I tried to color match the paint from the year before – THREE times. No luck. The manufacturer had changed the base color. So my room has been 5 different colors with a white “border” at the top for THREE years. A giant ladder has served as a towel rack in my master bedroom for three years. Not kidding. Last summer, I finally picked a new manufacturer (Behr – I LOVE Behr) and a new color. By December, I still hadn’t started painting.

One night after Christmas, around 7 p.m., I pulled a box out from under the bed and it got stuck. I took a look and discovered all the supports had collapsed. FirstHusband tried to straighted them, but in the end we had to take the bed apart. That’s when it turned into a scene from “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie.” I said, “You know, since we have the bed apart, we really should paint.” By 10:00 p.m., my room looked like this:

Even though FirstHusband tripped and fell carrying an open can of paint, we were able to put the bed back together by 1:00 a.m. He decided to sacrifice his body and not the carpet – and he did a pretty good job. He only spilled a little bit, but gashed his knee. PinkGirl was very brave and bandaged him up like a little nurse, while I kept painting. Then he did a great job cleaning the paint spatters off the carpet, followed by cleaning up the blood that soaked through the bandage while cleaning paint splatters.

The area below is where the wall was cut open and patched the most. A beautiful sweater chest is supposed to go here. This started as the “purge” waiting pile. Over the last year, I put everything from upstairs that is to be given to charity HERE. In my room. Then, I just started throwing other things on the pile, like luggage from a trip, boxes, towels.

The sweater chest? It was next to my bed, suffering the same fate.

Now, the sweater chest is back where it’s supposed to be and stuff is either put away or boxed up and lining the hallway for a trip downstairs.

I’m almost done. I doubt I’ll finish this weekend. Friday night our family is going to a Magic game, Saturday, FavoriteSon has two basketball games, Saturday evening, FirstHusband and I are going out with friends. Sunday, we hope to take down the Christmas tree.

Oh, and just before I started all this? I made an appointment with my doctor to have my blood tested because I was exhausted. Sure enough. Iron stores down again, back on a supplement. And if you’ll notice – in the post that link goes to – back in February, I wrote:

“I took my first iron pill yesterday. Why don’t I feel better yet? How long is this going to take? I need to finish painting the bedroom and the lawn needs mowed.”

paint the bedroom. lawn. February. see? WAY over due.

I’ve been up to much more – but if I wait to post this before I finish listing everything, it will be ANOTHER week.

So . . .Happy New Year!