It's a Wonder I Get Anything Done

I've been busy lately. For real.

Usually I am busy in a way that leaves me time to blog about all of the things I should be doing while I accomplish nothing other than writing a blog to six or perhaps seven people who have in all likelihood, stopped checking my blog because of the rarity of my posts.

This time however, I've (get ready...) ACTUALLY BEEN DOING THINGS!

Like laundry!

Like "organizing"!

Like eating a whole bunch of zucchini muffins!

Anyway, I've been wanting to blog about why I'm not blogging, which is really a roundabout way of telling you what I have been doing. I know, A+ for cleverness.

This is where I feel led to tell you about my "organizing." I have no choice but to put it in quotes because if there is one word in the English language that in no way describes me, it would be "organized." ("Organized" is tied for first with "delicate" and "reserved" but that is neither here nor there.)

My favorite part of any "organizational" project is shopping for and purchasing the supplies. You know, notebooks, labels, label makers, markers, pencils, bins, baskets, etc. Spending hours daydreaming about being "organized" in Office Max is right up my alley.

Spending hours actually organizing followed by a lifetime of staying organized makes me want to just throw everything away.

The reason for the recent project is that a very special piece of furniture in our house is no longer with us. Brad and I graciously offered to babysit our friends' armoire while they were in transition between apartment and house.

Here is the object of my sorrow:
Not this exact one, but you get the idea. It was in our bedroom, housing the TV and most of my desk "files" and "folders." Well, these precious friends moved and demanded it right back.

Not wanting to set the TV on the floor, thus obscuring our nightly viewing of "Jon and Kate+8," Brad gave generously of his time and sizable woodworking talents to create a suitable replacement made out of two by fours and a folding table.

He has also been taking decorating tips from me because he threw in a splash of color to hide the unsightly table legs.

That's klassy with a "k," for sure.

I love how he chose a delightful autumn tablecloth that puddles ever so slightly on the left side. The asymmetrical look of the 80's is not reserved only for clothing. Vern Yip would be proud.

In case you were wondering, that's a custom TV stand crafted out of the finest pieces of wood money can find in our basement.

I've always wanted a piece of "furniture" that simultaneously reminds me of an abandoned dorm room and a free electronics giveaway. One minute I am blogging about filling each tiny space of our house with beautiful things and the next I am a set of blocks and rusty sedan away from becoming the Clampetts. Pride apparently comes before the fall .

The real problem is not just that this bedroom storage "solution" is unsightly...it's that a folding table and see-thru TV stand provide no real storage for the 1,000 papers that remind me about things like birthday parties and teacher conferences that I've missed.

So then, we set up my desk as combined Entertainment/Home Office space:

I'm sure Ballard Designs will be featuring us and our creative, yet cute ideas in their next catalog.

Here is the thing: even though I am an "organizational" nightmare, I can't work amidst mess. I can't sleep with the computer humming or with papers scattered all over the place.

Which is why things got really hairy when we created the Entertainment/Home Office/Exercise Arena and Open Storage Areas:

That way I can mix in a few lunges and crunches with some Bible verse memory and paper "filing."

It took several days to find drawers with vacancy grand enough in which to stuff a year's worth of papers from preschool and kindergarten. Surprisingly, my paper overflow decreased substantially when I weeded out the book order forms from September and grocery receipts from 2006.

We are still mourning the beloved armoire that we knew and loved as our own for several months, but I have begun a mighty prayer campaign that it might be replaced before next fall when I need that table cloth and have to replace it with my Christmas table runners.