What to say about life since I've been back? I've been hibernating a bit (more on why later) so I have been using the time alone to declutter. Yesterday, it was the bathroom shelves; the day before that, I tackled the "miscellaneous" boxes in the storage room. After having purged so much just a year before, you would think there wouldn't be that much to declutter! Sadly, both you and I would be wrong. I know, I know, scintillating stuff, right? Life as an expat is so freaking exciting!!
The storage room is a funny space, actually. (see how I am just moving on there? go with it) We use the closet to corral our luggage, one corner to hold large items like golf clubs and giant inflated sharks (the husband bought them in a fit of something while we were in Germany for the boys to use in the pool, which they have, a few times, but they are too much of a pain to deflate between uses), another corner for holiday decorations (mainly Christmas and Halloween--I rely on my vast collection of window clings for most other holidays), and then still another corner holds shelves on which we put bins containing everything from future gifts for the boys to first aid supplies to sleeping bags to office/school supplies. It's a pretty organized space, overall, and I stick to the regions consistently, but it is also the dumping ground for anything else we don't have a place for or the time to organize. By the time I sat down to tackle those things, there were 5 boxes/bins of stuff waiting for me. Admittedly, most of this was drawings/school work/art projects from the boys, but even that needed to be sorted and collected in one place. A few podcasts later, I had a box full of stuff to donate, a box brimming with trash, and a clear floor once again. While I was in there, I mentally went through everything we are storing to decide what I would need to bring back with me when I move back and was pleased to note that most of what I thought I would want would all fit in the luggage with room to spare, so we're still doing okay about not accumulating too many things while we are here.
The bathroom shelves were much more difficult to organize, in the end, largely because we have to bring so many products from home (dye and perfume free soaps are either not available here or so cost prohibitive it makes me want to cry and don't even get me started on the cost of makeup) and in such quantities that it's hard to know where to put it all. Granted, we do use up every single drop, but, in the meantime, we have to find places to store it, so that was my task the next day. It took me longer than I thought and it was the boys' short day at school, so I was still at it after they got home but I opened up the window in the master bath and was delighted to find I could hear them on their bikes all the way down the block (every once in a while living in an incredibly echoing compound has its advantages!). They thought it was fun to yell up at me from the front yard, so they didn't roam very far anyway. Luckily, our single neighbor is on vacation and most other folks weren't back from work yet, so we weren't disturbing too many people!
I'll wrap up with just a few random recent pictures of the boys for no reason, besides the fact that they are cute! I brought back a new camera for the husband, and he is experimenting every day trying to learn its ins and outs before we head out on our next family vacation:
The storage room is a funny space, actually. (see how I am just moving on there? go with it) We use the closet to corral our luggage, one corner to hold large items like golf clubs and giant inflated sharks (the husband bought them in a fit of something while we were in Germany for the boys to use in the pool, which they have, a few times, but they are too much of a pain to deflate between uses), another corner for holiday decorations (mainly Christmas and Halloween--I rely on my vast collection of window clings for most other holidays), and then still another corner holds shelves on which we put bins containing everything from future gifts for the boys to first aid supplies to sleeping bags to office/school supplies. It's a pretty organized space, overall, and I stick to the regions consistently, but it is also the dumping ground for anything else we don't have a place for or the time to organize. By the time I sat down to tackle those things, there were 5 boxes/bins of stuff waiting for me. Admittedly, most of this was drawings/school work/art projects from the boys, but even that needed to be sorted and collected in one place. A few podcasts later, I had a box full of stuff to donate, a box brimming with trash, and a clear floor once again. While I was in there, I mentally went through everything we are storing to decide what I would need to bring back with me when I move back and was pleased to note that most of what I thought I would want would all fit in the luggage with room to spare, so we're still doing okay about not accumulating too many things while we are here.
The bathroom shelves were much more difficult to organize, in the end, largely because we have to bring so many products from home (dye and perfume free soaps are either not available here or so cost prohibitive it makes me want to cry and don't even get me started on the cost of makeup) and in such quantities that it's hard to know where to put it all. Granted, we do use up every single drop, but, in the meantime, we have to find places to store it, so that was my task the next day. It took me longer than I thought and it was the boys' short day at school, so I was still at it after they got home but I opened up the window in the master bath and was delighted to find I could hear them on their bikes all the way down the block (every once in a while living in an incredibly echoing compound has its advantages!). They thought it was fun to yell up at me from the front yard, so they didn't roam very far anyway. Luckily, our single neighbor is on vacation and most other folks weren't back from work yet, so we weren't disturbing too many people!
I'll wrap up with just a few random recent pictures of the boys for no reason, besides the fact that they are cute! I brought back a new camera for the husband, and he is experimenting every day trying to learn its ins and outs before we head out on our next family vacation:
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