In keeping with tradition

I had a good day off yesterday.  I worked around the house most of the day, which was my plan, and it felt good to be productive.  Ellen did end up watching more TV than usual but she also took a nap (victory!) so I was able to get quite a bit done while she slept.

I...

• Put away the Halloween decorations
• Looked through and organized a few bags of hand-me-downs we were recently given (the reason Ellen ended up wearing a sleeveless dress and sandals all day)
• Organized Ellen's clothes and shoes (packed up what no longer fits her)
• Removed 3 large storage containers filled with baby stuff from the top of Ellen's closet and incorporated their contents into the nursery as best I could.  Ellen's room is now officially baby free.
• Cleaned a small white cart that we had in the laundry room and put it in the nursery for storage.  It fits perfectly between the crib and the wall, which was previously wasted space.
• Laundry - washed, folded and put away several loads of clothes
• Organized Ellen's Christmas presents.  I shopped for her in advance to spread out the spending and hid everything in the closet in the nursery... which has been used strictly for storage for the past few years and is filled to capacity.  Cleaning out that closet is my next big project and I figured I would start with the presents.
• Organized/cleaned out a few junk drawers and random storage bins... made almost 2 bags of trash from my findings
• Signed 64 Christmas cards (and put address labels and stamps on some as well).  I probably shouldn't be admitting that but while cleaning yesterday I came across 4 boxes of cards I bought last year to use this year and thought I might as well get started (I think I have a few more boxes in with the Christmas decorations).  We probably only mail about 20 cards but we give out a lot at church and it takes quite a bit of time to get them all ready.  I am all about doing anything I can now to make things easier on me later... there's no time like the present!

I think that is about it.  I was worn out by the time Phillip got home!  We gave Ellen an early bath and went to church for the meal.  It was nice to sit down after being on my feet most of the day.

Besides trying to get the house in order, not much else is happening in our neck of the woods.  Ellen has pajama day tomorrow (in celebration of hibernation) and her school pictures are next week (Christmas themed) along with her Thanksgiving luncheon.  Phillip is doing well... he is wearing my favorite shirt today so he better watch out!

November is shaping up to be a great month so far.