Surveying the desk damage

It was worse than I thought, that mess on my desk. It required more of a detailed plan than the one I outlined in my previous post. Here's the revised action required.

Ditched:
* Two small bottles of fabric paint. I bought them with the intent of decorating a shirt for my child to wear to school but the personalizing never happened.
* Some kids' ponytail holders with those balls on them. They're cute but they pull my kids' hair and we don't even use them anymore. I've given most of them away but these apparently got past me.

Needed even more stacks for:
* Work folders and notebooks not actively in use. I put these in my file for things needed but not currently being used — a clear backpack with black piping discarded by my child when we found one with purple piping.
* Paid bills that need to be filed. Never know when you might need those.

Moved:
* Earrings and jar of chigger medicine to the bathroom; play money and bottle of school glue to my kids' desk, which incidentally, looks worse than mine.

Found:
* Lip balm. I never can put my hands on any when I really need it, although there must be at least five tubes in the house and in my purse.
* Mate to an earring. I know right where the other one is. Or at least I think I do.

Left:
* A card for our eighth anniversary my sister made. We've been married 9½ years now, but it's a tri-fold that stands up and it's so pretty.
* Tiny origami turtle and bird figures my kids got from the Chinese restaurant. I thought origami was Japanese, but I've been wrong before.
*A button I got for being a guest reader at my daughter's school. Maybe the next time I clean I'll move this to the refrigerator.
* A sticky note with my sisters' phone numbers, taped at my daughter's eye level so she can call her aunties when she wants to.

Work mementos admired:
* A tiny birdhouse made entirely from materials scooped up along the river that runs in front of the maker's house.
* A piece of paper I made while interviewing a woman who knows how to make paper the old Chinese way. She doesn't use this method, but she showed me her easier way and let me try it out. It feels like a paper towel, only thicker. Unbeknownst to me, my older daughter crayoned our family in stick figures on it. I saw what she was doing just as she was putting the finishing touches on her little sister. It's now framed, of course, and hides my funny-looking answering machine.

Need:
* Frames for my kids' newest school photos.
* A flat screen monitor and an Internet-ready laptop while we're making a wish list.

Whew! That's what I call a hard night's work. We'll see how long it lasts.

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