This is my day today...

The big boys are at their grandparents' house for the week and the girls were at my mom's. Life should have been pretty good...except for that thing called lack of sleep caused by a lack of furniture which was removed from the house yesterday afternoon thanks to our insurance company wrapping up the whole relocation bit of our settlement. Unfortunately, with renovations being done on the house, we are still about 2 months from being able to move back in...so away went the rental furniture. We bought new mattresses but they don't arrive until tomorrow sometime which is the same time I'm supposed to be in an appliance showroom an hour away from here to finally choose the appliances - which has been a whole complicated mess of its own. The clincher is that the inside work can't go forward until we have our appliances chosen since the next step is plumbing and electric. I'm beginning to realize why marriages suddenly dissolve when couples decide to take on major home renovation projects. These deadlines, decisions and ultimatums from the contractor are enough to drive the sanest person to the brink of madness. That and lack of sleep in my case. I have to admit I've been a terrible bear today. The closeness of space, the decisions that need to be made, the morning sickness...and afternoon sickness...and evening sickness, the regular bickering and bantering and , oh yeah, did I mention lack of sleep, have all started to creep into my brain and make me a good candidate for the nearest nut house. We just keep looking at each other and saying, "Why is life so *hard*?" Is it too much to ask to just be able to walk into Sears, pick out some appliances and then have our contractor work around it? Apparently so.

So, anyway, I decided to declutter some things. And I decided to use my favorite venue - Freecycle. If you've never freecycled then please stop reading now, go to yahoogroups and look up a freecycle group for your local county. I have decluttered, gained valuable items which someone else mistook for clutter in their homes and made some terrific friends along the way. These were my posts for the past two days:


OFFER: Lite Brite Cube - Brand New

This was a gift and I have no desire to even open it and let a single one ofthose little colored pegs come tumbling out of that box...lol..


OFFER: Itty Bitty dollhouse
This was also a Christmas gift for the two children voted most likely to lose any tiny loose piece of anything given to them. It is adorable. It is a little dollhouse w/furniture and two itty bitty dolls. The dollhouse is about 4 inches high and 6-8 inches long. It opens up with the little furniture and dolls inside. I prefer pickup before the owners come home from their grandmother's house tomorrow.


OFFER: Itty Bitty dollhouse - OFFER RESCINDED
I'm sorry to say I can no longer offer this item. The 18 month old and the 21/2 yo have taken all the itty bitty peices and stuffed them into the tape deck of a boom box here. I cannot get them out and what remains of this item has been thrown in the trash in frustration.


OFFER: "Boombox" CD/Cassette player
I have up for grabs a boombox type CD player/tape player /radio. There are two cassette decks. One of them has been stepped on when the 2 yo shoved the 18month old off of it and the door has come off, the other has pieces of an ittybitty dollhouse set stuffed into it which I cannot get out. I think the CD player works ok and I know the radio works but I can't really make any guarantees since we haven't used this thing in a while. I am considering adding a 2 yo and an 18 month old - two adorable boys - in with this offer.

It amused the freecycle community and gave me a little therapeutic release anyway...Oh yeah, did I mention I also bought a balance beam today? Yep, a bonified gymnastics balance beam for 10 bucks - now how many cool mom points do you think *that* will win me?! I'm going to need them....it's been a rough day.