Summer: Sat. 6/27

Rainy and gloomy today, but that was okay--we were all busy. I tackled a huge part of the whole-house cleanout by going through my entire closet and dresser, trying on every piece of clothing and making hard and not so hard choices of whether to keep or donate. I found an entire Rural King bag of stuff to give away (a Rural King trash bag is an enormous-size trash bag, FYI, non-PA people). There were dresses in my closet that I bought in 1999. Time to go.

Our cleanout work late last night involved files from the attic--a big pile of files that included house reno stuff, old bills, and much much more. We whittled it all down. We might be able to eliminate the two filing cabinets we have in the attic and transfer the files to file boxes for easier storage. We'll see. (A cliffhanger, I know.)

While I cleaned, Andrew fell down a rabbit hole of ancestral research, and the kids played with Legos in the basement. When I say they played nonstop for six hours, I'm not exaggerating. They forgot to have snacks, forgot to have lunch; and I was too wrapped up in purging clothes to remember to offer them lunch. Winning at parenting, for sure, but DOMINATING the cleanout. By the time they emerged at 5:30, they were famished. They had so much fun. These little Lego Friends figures have captured their imaginations beyond all comprehension.

It was muggy and damp tonight, so Andrew put in the three window ACs in the bedrooms--his very favorite task of the year. He told me the only thing that rivals the irritation and unpleasantness of installing the ACs is hanging the outdoor Christmas lights. Just as I launched a major basement renovation a few years ago after seeing one (GIANT, MONSTROUS, RIVALLING ANYTHING I EVER SAW IN NYC) cockroach by the washer (I mean, thinking back now, it was big enough to be a small, very flat black mouse *shudder*), Andrew is tonight insisting that we renovate the entire third floor so we can finally get AC on the second floor. The takeaway here is that we as a couple generally prefer dramatic solutions to smallish problems.


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