Getting ourselves sorted

My beloved in-laws arrived on Friday, which was the day I came down with the worst cold I've had this year. Sore throat, chills, hot flashes, headache, all the fun stuff. I was able to stay in bed from naptime through until morning, thanks to my parents taking the girls out, and a hardworking Hubby who cleaned up the house and got the basement all ready.

Five days on, I've still got this horrible sore throat, but my energy and appetite are slowly returning. Yesterday, I was able to hang up and later fold laundry, and get D ready for school. It took a tiny bit longer than last year, between labelling clothes and shoes, and cramming everything (bottle of hand sanitizer, box of tissues, ziplock bags) into her backpack, leaving enough room for her lunch bag. Her lunch was nothing notable; no cute bento boxes or cheese cut into artisanal shapes. Just crackers, cheese, a peach, some cucumber slices, a pickle, and a yogurt tube. Water bottle on the side. Like a nerd/affectionate parent, I did include a small note saying "I love you, have a great day!"

After our trip to the bus stop this morning, my in-laws took M on an outing, leaving now-sick Hubby and me at home. I had been wanting to sort through our bins of girl clothes ever since G was born, so this was my chance! (When did I become remotely fond of cleaning?) The girls' room was reasonably tidy, so I decluttered and reorganized their toy bins (tucking a few things away out of sight), and did a small toy cull. For the clothes, I decided to keep a few of the girls' baby things, just the ones I was sentimental about. And all knits, of course. I managed to pare three full bins down to one, and it still has some room for more clothes. I have two more bins to go, which are the things M is outgrowing and growing into, respectively. They can wait til tomorrow. The whole endeavour took about two hours (thank you, G, for sleeping! We'll say no more about the 4 am thing), and I am quite exhausted.

I'm looking forward to the return of my schoolgirl in a couple of hours, and hearing all about her day. No doubt one of the things she'll be most excited about is that now she can start planning her birthday, as it's about a month away. We had to put a limit on her talking about it, as it was becoming fairly constant by the end of the school year. Sorry, but you're not going to decide who's coming to an October party in June. I can't wait to find out who's in her class, and who her English teacher is (French is the same as last year, and is it weird that the school didn't tell me her other teacher's name?), and what they got up to today. And how she liked her lunch.