“If you’re struggling with motivation to tackle organizing/decorating projects in your home, simply plan a party or invite a friend for a visit in 4 weeks.”
-Organizing Tip No. 28 according to
Stephmodo.
It makes sense, right? As soon as I ever start thinking about someone else in my home, I start composing a mental to-do list longer than the Autobiography of Mark Twain. So I’ve taken this quote to heart as we tackle this yard renovation, which poised here at the beginning feels quite large and daunting, and I scheduled Julia’s 3rd birthday party for the end of May.
Her birthday is on the 28th, and she is birthday crazy. “I’ll be 3 on my May birthday,” she tells strangers in line at the grocery store holding up three splayed fingers. We sing Happy Birthday almost every day; sometimes it gets to be my birthday, sometimes it’s hers. In her imagination, everything becomes a present, “Close your eyes, Mommy.” And when I do, she yells, “Surprise!” and hands me something she imagines to be treasure: her blankie, a baby doll bottle, sidewalk chalk. So I want her birthday party to be special, memorable, and to live up to her expectations (this just might be the hardest challenge of all).
I’m planning an ice cream social with all our wonderful friends and Julia’s buddies from school. And because and ice cream social just doesn’t work inside, the party will be in our lovely, renovated back yard. Because it will be lovely and renovated by then. It will.
