Worth the swerve

As a pre-crastinator (my friend Jamie gave me the label), this prepping our house has been sort of causing me anxiety.  I never want to put off until tomorrow what I can do today.  Never. 

But here's the thing.  If I do it all too early, then we are living in a house of disarray before we need to and that causes chaos and anxiety.  Also, with everyone at work, I can't move a lot of the stuff alone anyway.

But here's the thing.  If I don't get everything packed up and moved in time, the workers will show up and there I am scrambling....

Friday I recognized that I had done everything I could reasonably do and I'd better just stop.  Also, as I've been packing and moving, I've realized that since I'm an actual grown up maybe it's time for some upgrades.  I was moving a dresser that was crumbling before my eyes.  I got it on the side of the road when I was pregnant with Emma.  Someone had abandoned it then and I've moved it to six different houses since then so it's no wonder it's giving up the ghost.  I decided maybe I should buy an actual grown up dresser instead of a side of the road dresser.  

Then I was moving my jewelry and I have the jewelry box I got when I was about ten years old and it's not really...adequate...for my jewelry because I like big earrings and bracelets and necklaces.  I had all my bracelets tangled in a dusty basket and I decided it was time for a grown up jewelry box too.

Suddenly I had a mission and a direction for all my energy.  I headed to the store.  

Braeden called to see if he could come to our house and use our garage to fix his rock chip in his windshield.  

I said, "You can do that for free with your insurance."

He said, "Not our insurance.  We have really cheap insurance."

He said Loki was having a spa day because he was also getting a tire repaired.  

(Can I just say I love having a son who describes a day of car maintenance as a "spa day" for his car?)

He was leaving the car at Costco so he rode the bus to where I was like the self sufficient kid that he is.  I was going to take him to our house to wait out the tire repair.  I was telling him about my unsuccessful jewelry box quest and he said, "You should try Tuesday Morning.  They have all kinds of random stuff there."

So we did.  And I found something that would fit the bill.  It wasn't exactly what I wanted but I am inherently impatient.  I told Braeden I was just going to get it anyway.  He said, "You're my mother."

In lots of ways he is my child most like me.  When I explained the tension of get it done vs. wait, he understood.

After I bought the jewelry box, he said, "I feel like I deserve a treat now." (He always feels like he deserves a treat.)  

I said, "OK, what do you want?"

He said, "I haven't had lunch...."

So I bought him lunch.  He told me he'd move furniture later so I felt like I owed him.

We finally got home and he worked on his repair job and I got things ready for him to move some big pieces of furniture. 

I said I was going to leave the (full) file cabinet in my office and let the carpet layers slide it out of the room when they come (they said that was fine) and Braeden said, "What?  I can move that!" He scooped it up and took it downstairs.  He picked up another dresser I had removed the drawers from and said, "This is light!  I can't believe how light this is!"  

I said, "Maybe we can move the cedar chest together?  It's heavy."

He said, "OK," and then picked it up and said, "I thought it was going to be heavy."

I told him no one likes a show off.

He said, "No really, I thought it would be."

I said, "Be quiet." Because it takes my effort to shove it a few inches.

He also moved a book shelf out of Emma's room and then I said, "Can I just talk the basement through with you?"  We went downstairs and I told him my plan to move some stuff outside, under the deck.  He said, "We can do that right now!"  

(That's my boy.)

We took some furniture outside and he would have done more but I figured I wouldn't be able to face the rest of the family if we moved everything out of the basement when they're going to paint the basement last.

My day didn't go as planned and I'm glad.  I didn't know when I woke up that I'd get to spend the day with Braeden.  Not only is that kid sunshine personified, but he's also strong.  Such a winning combination in a son.

I'll get him a treat any day.