Well, it’s another Monday morning, and we’re sitting in our new apartment.

We happen to be surrounded by boxes and JUNK. The amount we’ve had to purge in order to fit in the apartment is crazy. I promise we’re not hoarders, but it sure feels like it right now! But it’s all just stuff, right? STUFF. I’ve had to become quite ruthless in what we keep and quite creative in storing stuff. I’ve had to reach back in the recesses of my brain to my college days of how I used to store things in my tiny dorm room.

By the way – you can store A LOT of stuff under beds!

We have one box left that has not been touched, and other than that just lots of piles of little junk everywhere. Little piles that have to be gone through one piece at a time. I’ve had to “bin” several of those piles to get to later, unfortunately, but I didn’t want to get bogged down by papers and filing, etc. So once I get past all of this stuff, I’ll have to tackle one bin a week until it’s all gone.

THIS week, though, I am going to get this apartment to the point of living in it, versus just surviving. And then I’ve got to get back to homeschool – we’ve had way too long of a school break, and we’re dreadfully far behind. And I found several summer camp programs for the girls to participate in this summer (ballet and Spanish immersion, plus VBS) so that will put us “behind” as well. Which is fine, but it’s really time we get back to a real routine. And I need to get back to working as soon as possible.

One thing I implemented last week worked out amazingly well for us – morning bike break! As soon as we were dressed and had breakfast, I took the bikes downstairs and the girls played while I enjoyed my cup of coffee and a bit of relaxing. As soon as I find my Bible study stuff (which I assume is in a pile somewhere!) this will be a great time for me to get a little bit of devotional time in the mornings, and it also lets the girls blow off a bit of steam first thing, instead of storing it up all day long. They were much more willing to let me unpack for hours after taking thirty minutes outside each morning! So, new daily routine ready to go AND solves dilemma for me! I will really be able to put “first things first” AND wear out the girls a bit at the same time. God is good!