Our New Pet

I never ever ever ever ever wanted to say this, but yes...we have a new pet in the Stone household. Thankfully, it is not of the four-legged hairy barking kind (we have quite enough of those thank you very much), but of the four-legged scaly kind. Yep,...a lizard. Now lizards are generally NOT my favorite animals. In fact, I have been known to jump in fear upon seeing them. But while on a service call today, Daryl found this little guy curled up in a meter base. At first, he wasn't even sure that he was alive, but then saw that he was and knew Hannah would just love him. And he was right. She was smitten.

She named this little guy Lizzy and then has carried him(her?) around all day. She and Daryl are headed to the pet store tomorrow for a bigger cage and all the lizard fixin's. Not sure what kind it is. When he first brought him home, he was black and lethargic. We put him in front of the fire and he pepped up and turned green. Then as Hannah carried him around the house, he was brown. Leave it to a pet of ours to have identity problems!

And that, quite honestly, was the highlight of our day. Both Josh and Hannah stayed in their PJ's all day and I tackled our bedroom and the laundry. The bedroom, I started yesterday, as it was quite an undertaking. It had become the dumping ground for everything that needed a place, everyone's wardrobe, various toys, books, a mattress for Hannah to sleep on when she wanders to our room in the middle of the night, and an awful lot of stuff. These containers hold all of Hannah's outgrown clothes from the last two years. These have been housed in our bedroom for at least...well...two years.
Embarrassingly, this is all of the trash and clothes that we never wear any more that were taken from our bedroom and laundry room.

And this is something I haven't seen in at least siave x months...our laundry room floor. It usually has clothes all over it, or someone dumps a blanket or sleeping bag on it (because you see, if you are cleaning your room and there is nowhere to put something, say it is dirty and put it in the laundry room). And although it isn't spotless (note the sticker on the floor...a staple in nearly every room in the Stone household thanks to Hannah and Maddy), it feels sooooooo good to actually walk into the laundry room and feel the floor beneath my feet.

Proverbs 31:27 says that the virtuous woman " looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." Which means that she is a good manager of her home. And of all the things that I am, I am definitely NOT a good manager of my home. I won't lie, it has never been a strength of mine. But the last year? It's been all about survival. Getting through, day by day. Doing laundry when we run out of clothes. Cleaning the house when someone was coming over. Cooking whatever is easiest, buying whatever was quickest and easiest, rushing through life and putting the household chores to the side to pacify, entertain, make time for the kids, sleep. Doing two or three different things, all at the same time, and none of them well. So one of my goals for the upcoming year is to get out of survival mode. No more just surviving, but thriving.

How will I do this? How do I make more time in my day, more bang in my buck, more pep in my step, quality instead of quantity? That I don't know. Because let me tell you this. I have spent the last two days working my tail off on these two rooms, and I have hated it. Because that was all I did. Hannah had to play by herself most of the day or follow me around, and Charlotte got far fewer snuggles. But I do have to admit, I love the way it feels afterwards, when everything is clean and shiny. But is it worth the time lost? Will it get easier? Is there a happy medium?

And perhaps the most important and intriguing question of the day--How long will the trash bags remain in the hallway???