slowly, slowly...

...progress is being made around here. My state of mind has definitely improved, even if the overwhelming amount of things to be done is...well, still overwhelming. I'm simply trying to change that dialogue in my head, those conversations I have with myself about how I'm failing at everything.

"I am doing the best I can. I am doing the best I can. I am doing the best I can. I am doing the best I can." New message. True message. And as long as I keep focusing on the fact that it's true, I seem to be doing better.

Yes, it's true that this place is still nowhere near cleaned up, it's true that I'm ridiculously behind on home school planning, it's true that there unpacked boxes stacked nearly ceiling high in places and that we have a small storage unit full that we haven't even moved over yet, it's true that my body is in such a painful state of rebellion that it literally takes me almost three minutes to climb a flight of stairs these past few days...but it is also true that I *am* doing the best I can. And remembering that makes a world of difference.

Rich and the munchkins left yesterday afternoon for a few days of camping. The peace and quiet has already been conducive for "brain" work--I finished Annie's and Gray's quarterly reports. :) I hope to further take advantage of the lack of interruptions by diving into planning/prep for our last quarter. But I also promised Rich that I would take one full day to just relax. To read, to crochet, to catch up on blogs. But yikes! When I opened google reader this morning and saw just how far behind I was, it turned into a stress thing instead of relaxing thing in my mind. So yep, "mark all as read"...again. :( So I've decided to make today home school day and tomorrow relax day because tomorrow there will be a manageable amount of blog posts to read. That said, can I ask a favor? If there's any posts I've missed in the past few weeks that you think I should read, or any posts you think I'd love to read, could you just mention them in the comments so I can check them out. Thank you!!!

I'm almost embarrassed to show these. "These" being before pics of the state of this house when we first walked in. I swear the previous owners not only never lifted a finger to clean anything after they got our offer on the house, but they must have gone out of their way to make things worse. Seriously, who the hell effing lives like this?!! :/

Pics of kitchen drawers and cupboards. And yes, that is mouse shit.

The floors everywhere were just left like this, with not only dust and dirt, but all kinds of crap they just didn't bother to pick up (golf tees, bobby pins, beads, plastic bags, bottle caps, etc. etc. etc.).

And then there were the places on the floor that were even worse. We've no idea *what* this was (spilled corn syrup? dog vomit? something even more disgusting?) but there were a couple places just like this.

The drawers and cabinets throughout the garage.

And a lovely pile of shit they left that we now have to deal with--you know what a pain it is to dispose of paint (either open them and let the paint all harden or wait for one of the rare days when they have a hazardous materials disposal, the paint isn't even usable so we donate it to a drama club for their sets or anything) and it's going to cost us about $70 to dispose of the old air conditioner they left. That cupboard in the left of the photo--also filled with paint cans.

But anyway. As I said, we're slowly, slowly making the house livable. Making the house home. As utterly exhausted as it's made me and as hard as it's been on my body, I do think that after we're finally settled in, I'll be taking a few months off before I begin the painting and other projects I have floating around in my brain. After all, we have gardens to get in soon, too! :)