Refresh

My three first graders started school last week, I finished up my launch month festivities for Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, and my husband cycled across the Iowa. The Halversons have been busy. This weekend, we stepped back from the urgent Now and just puttered around the house. It’s been a glorious weekend of mental restoration, reorientation, cleansing… I don’t exactly know what to call it. But it’s been wonderful. While my sons spent yesterday listening to “The Moffats” on cd over and over and blissfully pushing cars and pirate ships around the floor, I put to bed tasks that have lingered for YEARS.

Like the full-length frame I built for a mirror before my sons were born and then shoved under my bed until I got around to finding that one last tack needed to hold the mirror in place. Yesterday, I pulled it out, vacuumed off the dust bunnies, and popped the tack into place. It took five minutes. Sheesh.

Like the full set of pots & pans I’d shoved under the same bed as a holding pen till I could get around to listing them for sale on Craigslist. That was four years ago. I pulled them all out yesterday, washed them, took photos, and am about to list them. That took less than half an hour. As if I couldn’t find a half hour for that in four years?

I worked through my house in that manner all day. I cleaned out my filing cabinet, filed a stack of documents taller than the neighbor’s dog, shredded documents, organized library shelves, put the boys’ drawings in their binders, tucked away souvenirs from our year in England two years ago…. By evening I had dust bunnies in my hair, grim on my skin, and a smile on my face. It was so satisfying.

And this morning, as the boys build homemade boats in the garage, I strategized my work and writing calendar for the next six months. Man, I feel refreshed, refocused, and energized. And I feel ready for the final chore of the weekend: a dunk at the pool. The boys are changing into their swimsuits this very moment. August, I’m ready for you!