to do list: the bench.

Though we thought we were coming to the end of whatever sickness the boys are fighting (two days ago everyone seemed better), yesterday was definitely round two. If the virus had a voice, I bet it would have whispered, "Oh, I'm just getting started" in our ears. Thankfully - all glory to God - I have been spared of anything other than occasionally feeling a little off (my main concern being the baby). While I should have spent the day resting whenever possible or disinfecting the house - I got as far as the door knobs - I was determined to cross at least one thing off my "other" to do list. Well, I'm proud to report that I crossed off two.

We recently moved a book case out of the front room to make space for the new media cabinet, so there were lots of books piled on top of the dining room table and I was starting to feel like a hoarder. It was great motivation to finally sort through them, as well as all our other books, putting aside those that we don't plan on reading again (or ever). I ended up with two bags and a box-full ready to be sold to Half Price Books. In an age of e-readers (of which I'm not a fan) I tend to treat books like liquid gold, so letting go of them was made easier by the promise of cold hard cash in my hot little hand. I went into the store with approximately fifty books to sell and walked back out with $33. Tim had predicted $10, so getting triple that was "better than a kick in the pants" as my dad likes to say.

The project I was really itching to get to though was the dining room bench. That's it above, if you hadn't guessed, complete with that infamous $20 pillow I splurged on. Formerly, the seat cushion was collecting dust at my mom's waiting to be re-covered and the bench top was always littered with papers and random things we didn't have a place for. However, the top was nothing compared to the mess that lurked below in the cabinet:

It's like one of those cliche joke cupboards where if you open the door or take one thing out, everything comes toppling down. I wanted the space to primarily serve as a place to store games so I started by sorting and condensing those. I took out the tea lights but kept the bigger candles, which we rotate on the mantlepiece, and made room for some dvds we needed a place for. I also found a spot for the placemats, which almost never get used except when my mom's here (she's the only one that bothers to get them out). I don't even want to know what she thought every time she'd go to get them out since they were always just shoved in a corner. Hopefully she'll be pleasantly surprised by their handy location and tidy appearance the next time she's in the mood for a placemat.

Not too shabby, considering it took me all of twenty minutes to organize.