Friday, August 20, 2021

Friday, August 20, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. It was a weekend, and that day, we had many visitors. From Mattie's cousins from Boston, to Peter's colleagues from his former Arthur Andersen days. In the beginning Mattie liked visitors and it was a good distraction for him. For me, I was on overload and frankly did not want to have normal conversations when nothing was normal in my life. But because it was good for Mattie, I carried on. As Mattie's cancer journey went on, he did not want to see or hear from visitors. Which provided a host of challenges for me to balance his needs and the needs of his community.

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 37,610,223
• Number of people who died from the virus: 627,833

It was pouring today! I mean torrential. Peter left for the house early to meet the closet installers and while I was still in bed, I got a furry visitor. 

There is one thing I won't miss about our current living arrangement in DC.... laundry! The laundry room is three floors below me, on the same floor as the dumpsters for the building. I have managed this arrangement even carting a baby in tow for 26 years. But today, I was stressed out and had lots of laundry to do. For the passed year, FEW to no people have been down in the laundry room. Now that the university is opening up this fall, the students are back and apparently the memo was out... it was laundry day. The competition to get machines was intense and I frankly had no patience with people who did not remove their laundry from machines in a timely manner. I literally did laundry in two different building today, in order to get all the machines I needed. 

My back and legs are killing me because I am on feet over 12 hours each day. It was another day of cleaning, dusting, organizing and packing. All of Mattie's art work has now been removed from the walls. 

This is my Mattie wall! It has snap shots of him throughout the various phases of his life. I took my Mattie wall down today, and cleaned each frame. The wall looks so blank tonight. 

A close up of the photos!

The beauty of Mattie. 

By the way, that cute puppy dog jacket and hat you see Mattie in, I found them in my bureau drawer. I still remember buying him those items in Buy Buy Baby. Naturally they are coming with me to the house. 

Mattie's visit with Santa and the Easter Bunny. 

Baby Mattie. 

This wall has gifts we received on our wedding day. The top framed item is our wedding invitation. Friends of Peter's, artistically framed it and it still looks beautiful! Then the two architecture prints were also gifts from Peter's side of the family. They describe plans for two different Victorian homes. The little framed prints are wrought iron gates from Charleston, SC. 

Mattie's artwork! It took me a long time to get our current home looking the way it did. Now to try to visualize how our things will work in a new space, is hard for me. Because I liked the way they were. 

Today was closet day at the house. Peter assembled a mud room organizing cabinet that I ordered. Because the big and bulky items the previous owner had in there are all going. 

The closets in the house were awful! I mean awful. Not well thought out. Organizing systems are expensive, so we started with four spaces. This is now our coat closet on the first floor. 

Our linen closet on the second floor. 

Because we are giving my parents the master bedroom, Peter and I, will be in a room that is meant for a child. The closets are absurd and without reorganizing the space, I would have things everywhere. Within our bedroom is this nook area. Which to me is a wasted space. So I have turned it into a closet. On one wall is hanging space and on the other.....

Shelves and bins. 

There is a walk in closet in the room, but it had no shelves or ways to organize things until today's installation. 

Peter will now have his own office within our home. In this room is a wonderful walk in closet, and thanks to the Container Store, it too is organized.