It's Here, It's Here! (No, not the new phone book)

It came today.  The delivery of K12 goodies I've been waiting for has finally arrived. And there is excitement at our house, let me tell you.

Okay, so it's me who's excited more than anyone else. But, come on. There was new school stuff! Curriculum and supplies! Manipulatives! Organization to be created from the mass of chaos, people. I was in my home turf and feeling giddy as a...well...as a school girl, I guess.

I have an extreme love for organizing things. I do. It's like I purposely seek out closeted, cluttered messes just so I can have the sheer joy of making it all neat and tidy. And it has to be my work, mind you, not someone else's work. No thank you. So even though their first grade Art kits came in nice boxes with everything lined up just so, I still had to Manda-ize it by putting all the tempera paints in Rainbow order (is there any OTHER way to do it, I ask you? Who doesn't love them a little Roy G Biv? This gal is his biggest number one fan).

OCD, much?
Maybe.
But slap whatever label you want on it, I still love it.

There were boxes and boxes to be unpacked and put away. Somewhere. Everything had to have a space in a place that seemingly had no space for all many 'everythings' involved. Cupboards and drawers were opened, scrutinized, and cleared out. With nary a glint in my sentimental eye, stuff that had been horded or just stashed because I didn't know what else to do with was trashed.

Space was needed and acquired. Success.

Looking around this evening, I am happy with the results. A place for everything: student & teacher books lined up on the work shelves; manipulatives put away; anything extra stored away; the boxes, once full of the awaiting chaos that every organizing-addict so loves, broken down and ready to be stored.

I'm in heaven, remembering the days of getting my own classroom pulled together and ready for another year. Those twilight days of the summer when I had one foot in the school year already, anticipating the year (and its struggles), and the other foot planted firmly in those last lingering days of freedom. Ready, yet waiting.

And truth be told, the thrill of this new adventure is a very welcome companion.