Pollen and Getting Organized = HEADACHE

Yesterday it felt a little like a vise had a tight hold on my head all.day.long. I blame it on a combination of pollen-induced allergies and the fact that I have been in a trying-to-get-my-sh*t-organized kind of hell for the past week and a half. I started with my closet and decided about halfway through my best attempt at color-coordinating my clothes that I desperately needed for all my hangers to be the same and so I got online and ordered half a gazillion no-slip hangers and several clear shoeboxes from The Container Store and then gave myself the green light to go ahead and take a breather for a few days until they came in.

They came in Thursday though I didn't rip into them until Friday night. (My 20 year old self would have been mortified to know I'd one day be spending my Friday nights doing things like changing out all my hangers...Woot!) About halfway in, as I was knee deep in the old plastic hangers, I began to seriously question my sanity and judgment but finally finished about 9:30 that night and then decided to give myself another break on tackling the floor and shelves that now looked worse than when I started which Dracen was quick to point out to me each time he popped back there to check on my progress. 

I couldn't pick it back up Saturday because I'd made an appointment with the Terminix guy for our quarterly pest control for the first of this week and I really, really wanted him to be able to spray in the garage this time because holy heck, nothing freaks me out more than those giant spiders that like to take up residence in there and plus I'm pretty sure I've said, "we need to do something about the state of this garage" at least fifteen thousand times in the past two years because it was seriously depressing me to park my car in that mess that was dangerously beginning to resemble an episode of Hoarders, a show that frightens me almost as much as hairy spiders.

So after Dracen's baseball game Saturday morning we went to Lowe's where we bought us a brand new ginormous shop vac and a box of clean-up bags and spent the entire rest of the day cleaning out the garage. I was worn so slap out by the end of the day that we didn't even get up and go to church on Sunday but it is such a relief  to know that I no longer have to park my car in the middle of Hoarderville.

I finally got up the motivation to get back to work on my closet yesterday morning and that's when the invisible vise got ahold of my head. Organizing things is not one of my unique God-given abilities and nothing is more physically and mentally draining than working on something we weren't necessarily wired for. 

The problem is, the disorganization gives me just about as much of a headache as the act of organizing it. It's a vicious cycle that I've been living for 41 years (well, 42 tomorrow...WHAT?!). But the closet is complete...neat, organized and semi-color coordinated.

And my headache?  

Miraculously gone...

At least until I get started on the linen closet...or inhale another big puff of pollen.

Post inspired by Writer's Workshop prompt: Something that gave you a headache.

Friday Favorites

Is it just me or has this week been extra long?  The week after a break always seems to drag on to me but the warmer weather has done wonders for my spirit. I was beginning to feel a little mopey. I'm just hoping a certain fourth grader who lives in my house is in a better mood when I pick him up from school today because it was one of those sweet-Lord-in-heaven-please-give-me-an-extra-dose-of-patience-right-this-very-minute kind of mornings. 

But at least it is finally Friday which means it's time to share a few things that made me happy this week...

Never leave home without it

I could not find an original source for this so

your guess is as good as mine but it reminded

me of my childhood bff and her duck, Lily.

via Pinterest

Jennifer and Lily,

Charmagne and Me (rockin the perm),

and my little brother, Danny

(circa 1980something)

Party vs. Meeting

I could not agree more...

via Pinterest

Let's do lunch (in Italy)

This looks like the perfect place.

Care to join me?

via Pinterest

(original source not found) 

Or perhaps you'd prefer Bora Bora...

Source

Catch me!

Now this is my kind of funny.

source

Fishtail braided belt

I don't wear belts that often

but this turquoise one from

Lands End Canvas is

calling my name for some reason.

It comes in a light tan color too.

Inspiration
This is seriously making me want
to paint my sunroom furniture
duck egg blue.
But then I'd have to get new cushions
and paint the walls...

source

Boy's Room
And this makes me want to redecorate
Dracen's room but I'll need a shovel
and backhoe to clear it out first. I told him 
the other day it's beginning to look
a lot like an episode of Hoarders in there.
(notice the Dachsie on the wall?)

source

One day at a time

I adopted this motto years ago

and am still reminded of it often.

source

Sexy Tractor

Charlie recently bought a tractor

for the company. It came home last

weekend so he could use it to pull up some old

scraggly bushes. Dracen had just got back

from ball practice when I realized he was missing.

I looked out the window to see him driving the

tractor so I grabbed my sexy zoom lens

and snapped a few photos...

And the song, of course...

Happy Weekend, 

At Last...

I was beginning to wonder if spring was ever going to show up and stick around this year. Just last week, during Spring Break, we were lucky to reach 60 on most days and didn't break out of the rainy 40's on Thursday. But this week? Boom! Spring has finally sprung with temps in the 70's and 80's and the bookoo of tulip bulbs I planted in the fall and all the flowering trees are having themselves quite the party so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite quotes about spring along with a few photos I've taken around the yard so far...

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.  ~Rainer Maria Rilke

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.  

~Bern Williams

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"  ~Robin Williams

Spring has returned.  The earth is like a child that knows poems.  ~Rainer Maria Rilke

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.  ~William Shakespeare

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.  ~Hal Borland

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.  ~Nadine Stair

My spring has come along,

 

*Inspired by Writer's Workshop prompt 1) List six of your favorite quotes.