When I moved back to my house, I began a project to organize and create a home office. We have a bedroom upstairs that has been called "the office" ever since we bought the house, but it hasn't been organized in years. No one can function in there.
We had renters in the house for a while when we lived in Galveston. They didn't treat the house kindly. When we discovered that they had moved out it was quite a shock. Electric box red tagged (we obviously weren't the only ones not getting paid) and weeds as high as four feet tall in the back garden. Stains all over the carpets. Black permanent marker on some walls. Red marker on others. Black ink pen on the walls in Celia's room. James was beyond himself.
He moved back in and started the long slow recovery process. Our back garden still doesn't have the grass as lush and thick as it once was. It's an ongoing battle against weeds. A different type of grass has invaded and chokes out the Augustine, but we keep trying.
We repainted Celia's room the same color, her favorite light blue. Later we repainted Mary Grace's room - one wall an apple green and the other two a tropical turquoise, with a black desk and dresser in two shades of purple. I matched the original paint in their bathroom and repainted it as well. Most of the rest of the house is the original builder's off-white, and does need repainting, but we don't have the funds for that big of a job quite yet.
James and I decided to rent a carpet cleaner in the coming months and try to clean up the carpets ourselves. We'll see how that goes!
But the office. ~sigh~ Packing up and moving out of the Galveston house was difficult. We were in a tough spot financially and emotionally. I think I must have let the office go while settling into my job there, and not filed much or even tried to organize things, leaving them in the moving boxes. And back they went in their moving boxes. Add to those the boxes from my office when I left the Galveston job, and the boxes from the apartment there. Add to those the papers from James' office when he left two jobs. Add to those all the (endless it seems) papers that arrive in our mail box - bills, mortgage information, insurance information, tax papers. I didn't make things any easier adding another filing cabinet from Boston and more boxes of personal papers.
So last June I found myself starting in on a project that turned into a massive project. Sorting and filing. Shredding and pitching.
Here I sit in January, still working on things. I've moved furniture around a few times, broken a bookshelf (note to self: take books out first next time) and made some progress. James and the girls have all helped at one point or another. But the project is Not Yet Done. I really REALLY want this project to be done soon. (is that a resolution?)
In clearing things out, I have found lots of old interesting stuff. One is a coaster with a pretty pink flower painted on it, with a bright green center. It is surrounded by screen names - a group of women who were my trusted confidantes some years ago. Witmoat - who I met for lunch in Houston one sunny afternoon. Zoey, Lisbet - who came to have dinner with me in Galveston. Holly, Sorcha. Em, Torchy, JL, Daednu, Bethany and Waterbaby. And Sapph, who made the coasters for us all. Reading their names made me realize how many friends I have had over the years... and that I have not always been a good friend. Thoughts of so many friends have been occupying a corner of my mind for a couple days now, which is a blog for another day.
New year, past reflections. Time to put hands to the work of sorting, filing, assessing, and making plans to move forward.
