Getting Ready

The listening center by the window with the ladybug chairs in my favorite, although I love how the library turned out too.

Preplanning officially starts this Thursday, but I've been unofficially on the clock for the last two weeks. New school means new curriculum to get trained on, new room to unpack and figure out, just lots of new that I wouldn't ordinarily be encountering my seventh year in this business. So as much as it pained me to head into the building early, I know it's a special case that won't have to be repeated every year.

I've been dropping by the building for the last two weeks now. At first I would take Annie on my way home from dropping Violet off at camp, and we would only stay an hour, long enough for me to move furniture or unpack my desk, little things. Last week, I took the girls to Camp Mimi and Camp Grandma and I worked all day every day. It stinks to not get paid for all the work I've put in, but the payoff is that the room is done and I'll be ready to focus on the new school year (open house paperwork, daily schedule, all those other things) once preplanning starts.

By far the most complex Ikea undertaking so far.

It was also great to have a week without the distraction of the girls. After their Ikea dresser got recalled, we decided to take the opportunity of a full refund to go ahead and upgrade them to something they could both share. They seem fairly committed to sharing the same room, so it's probably time to migrate Annie's clothes in there as well. Even though our house is pretty much 80 percent Ikea, it was still daunting when all the pieces spilled out. We had to take a break halfway through to nourish ourselves (we decided to only eat at places we would never want to take the girls) with some excellent sushi. But all's well that ends well. We also went to the movies, a nice Italian restaurant, shopped at Avalon, met a friend for drinks... you know, all those adult-y things we never do anymore. It was nice to have the one-on-one time with Matt to reconnect, since once school starts we won't see much of each other. Seriously, with a 7 a.m. start time, I'll be lucky if I see 9 p.m. anymore.

I made all the drawers.