Today, I spent most of the day organizing and cleaning Adam and Luke's bedroom.  I made the mistake on Saturday of telling them to unpack the boxes in their room and put stuff away. 

Somebody please tell me what I was thinking. 

When they were "done", their room was a way bigger pigsty than it was before they started.  They just put clothes willy-nilly into drawers, not caring about sorting or organizing at all.  Half of Luke's drawers were full of Pepper's clothes that were in a box put in the wrong room.  The closet was full of books and toys, and the entire top of their dresser was covered with a million Legos that had been found in a box and offered a welcome distraction when the boys were supposed to be organizing their room.  The suitcase which had housed their clothes from this summer was still sitting completely full in the center of the floor and there were a couple of boxes the boys didn't even touch, protesting that "there is no more room, Mom."

My mental health would not allow me to live in the same house with this mess for one more minute, so this morning I pushed up my sleeves and got to work.  And, now it looks like this:

The plan is to get bunk-beds in here for the two boys, but for now they are sharing this bed.

Is there anything more satisfying than an organized closet?  No, no there is not.

Now this room has become my oasis.  When I get fed up with the chaos that is the rest of the house, I go in here and take a few deep breaths.  This space gives me hope that someday I will live in an orderly home again.

The cherry-on-top of my very productive day was that Brad's brother Zach came to visit us tonight.

Zach is in Dallas for business, and he drove over to see us tonight after dinner.  It was fantastic to see him - Zach is a master storyteller, and he was cracking us up with stories about his kids.  Plus, having extended family in our house went a long way towards making it feel more like Home.