Enough for a week?

This is going to have to be fast because it's late and the Wizard and I are leaving in the morning for a week away from home without children. And neither of us has to work. I am not sure that we have ever done this before. Who do you leave four children with, after all?

Anyway, as I said this has to be quick. I have gotten lots of things accomplished, but you'll have to take my word for it because I didn't always take pictures when I could. By the time things are out of the house, it's a little late to photograph them.

First, though, things came into the house. When the Drama Queen moved to her new apartment, some things just didn't fit. I've filed a few things away, pending a decision on whether they get sold, Freecycled, or whatever. But there are still some extraneous chairs in the dining room. At least they get some use:

While the Drama Queen was around, we tooled over to the storage locker. And this time I remembered the camera so that I could preserve it in its almost-full state:

That's the Sports Nut, not the Drama Queen, obviously. And the locker was actually much fuller at one point. We had a young couple and a baby living with us for a while and they stored some stuff in the locker, too.

What's notable about this locker is that most of the boxes to the right of the picture (the ones that the Sports Nut is dragging down) are full of books. Sports Nut thinks he will sort through the books and decide which ones we should keep.

As the Drama Queen went through her many boxes of STUFF that had been filed in the storage locker, she kept coming across things that she did not want to keep:

I perceive a cat theme at work.

And while she was about her task, I looked for things that we would never use again. For example, I found this bin:

Twin-size bedding. We don't even own a twin-size bed and haven't for years -- not since before we moved here to Dodge. Is that what is really in that bin?

Yes, as a matter of fact. Fortunately, yet another charitable organization had announced a run through the neighborhood to pick up donations.

Other things in the storage locker were obvious candidates for de-crapification. Like this box of Hanukka decorations:

Then I removed the top layer:

It's another box of softballs! Do you suppose they multiply like coat hangers and Sharpies? For those who have lost count, this is the fifth box of softballs I have uncovered.

After an hour or so of such fun and games, the Drama Queen loaded her stuff into the car:

The Sports Nut and I also loaded things into the car:

And then we took it all back to the house and piled it around the place in strategic spots, like in the family room:

And the living room:

Thanks to the Drama Queen and the various articles of bedding that we no longer need, I had a good start on the next set of donated goods:

On top of all this, I wanted to bake cookies for Purim baskets, or mishloach manot:

In the background are pairs of Lucia's cookies, waiting for a filling. Here's a better look at the hamantaschen, filled with home-made mohn (poppyseed filling):

I also made gingersnaps, just as I promised myself after the dogs ate my last packages of Wild Oats gingersnaps. Here's the before baking view:

And after baking:

I emptied boxes through all this. If it weren't so late, I'd run upstairs and take a picture of all the empty boxes. But it is, so I won't.

And early this morning, I had an impressive pile of bags to donate to whichever organization came around today. Lots of the Drama Queen's clothes that she said to donate because she "hadn't missed them", plus lots of pristine bedding that we have no use for:

All in all, I think I'm on track to take a week off. I'm leaving the Sports Nut behind with a couple of boxes of papers and a lot of boxes of books to sort through.

Let's just hope I don't find something on the road that I want to bring home. There's already too much STUFF here!