In my previous post, I said I was starting the "Ten Days to a Simpler, More Organized Home" section of the book Organized Simplicity. Today was day 8, but I am really on day 4. Oops...

Last week a blizzard came through the Chicagoland area, so we took a couple of days off our normal routine. Then this weekend, we went to a leadership meeting at our church and of course the Superbowl, which we didn't even watch much of. It was just a great excuse to have some friends over for dinner and sit and talk for a while. So, I am a little behind, but I don't mind. I'm not a stickler when it comes to a lot of rules and routines.

I have accomplished a lot though. My living/dining room look great! I just need to tackle the magazine shelf and computer desk. My kitchen is all organized except that pesky junk drawer. But I still need to clean the windows, oven and radiator. And tonight, I tackled the breakfast nook, which we've repurposed into a homeschool/office area. I brought an unused bookshelf up from the basement and rearranged a bit. It looks so much nicer. I can actually see all the stuff I have...no more buying duplicates because I couldn't find something! Eventually we want to build two cute corner shelving units and a small butcher-block topped table and get rid of the desk and bookshelf. But until then, what I did tonight will work!

Tomorrow I need to hit the upstairs bathroom. Robert painted it this weekend, which means the "clearing out the clutter" part has already been done. Yay! It used to be a shade of country blue...not our style at all. So we decided to paint it our signature color...green. Yes, I know that my kitchen is green and that my living room furniture is green and that my bedroom comforter is green. What can I say but that I love green! We can't seem to get away from it. Maybe it's our way of bringing a spring/summer feel into our home. We do have pretty dull and dreary winters up here!

I'm really excited to have accomplished so much. And just in time too! We are having around 25 neighbors over tomorrow night for soup. A friend of ours, who lives one street away, began a neighborhood soup night 7 years ago. There are 8 host families. Every Tuesday night in January and February one of the 8 families opens up their home and provides soup for the neighbors. Everyone brings a side dish, and we just have a really great time! This is our third year attending, and we decided to host a night in our home this year. I am going to make my grannie's gumbo. Yum! The only problem I've come across is finding enough seating for 20+ people in our humble abode. It will be a tight squeeze, but it will work out just fine.

We also should be getting a print of our family mission statement in the mail tomorrow. We have a frame to fit it, so now we just need to get it up on our wall. I will post a picture when we get it done.

Now I'm off to bed for tomorrow will be a busy day of cleaning, cooking, and spending quality time with my neighbors!