Carpets, College and Snowflake Dancers

I cleaned the carpets.  They look cleaner.  The Warrior Poet says 85% cleaner.  There are still spots.  I think it is more like 80%, but we agree that this nine-year-old beige builder-grade carpet has moved up to a 'B' in terms of cleanliness.

It took 7.5 hours.  My fingers are still sore from pushing the little red button, pulling the machine and picking hair out of the scrippy-scrubby brush.  We have tons of long hair at our house and it all lands on the carpet.  Our vacuum cleaner hardly picks it up.  Today I will be down on my hands and knees brushing the dining room rug.  I'm happy to do it.  I've wanted to take care of it, lo, these many months.

So.  Clean carpet.  Brushed rug.  I may even mop the linoleum today.  Then all my floor will look good at the same time.  Give me one moment in time when I'm all that I thought I could be.  Hee hee.

After cleaning carpets, I always like to go to my parents' house and sing hymns.  So there you go.  Monday evening we visited my folks, ate pre-Thanksgiving dinner and sang at least two hours.

Sopapilla cheesecake.  Yum.

Yesterday I contacted college admissions offices.  Aravis is really doing this thing.  Eee!   Three schools are waiting on documents. Two schools have everything needed.  One school said Aravis would most likely hear something by mid-December.  We submitted almost everything electronically.  Wild.  I am mailing two official paper transcripts today for the schools that require them.  I included, "Official" in the transcript title, signed the bottom, sealed the envelopes, and signed across the seals.  The admissions counselors said we did not need to have them notarized or stamped with a school seal.  High school homeschooling moms live for such inside info.  I realized yesterday I'll be doing this for the next nine years, Lord willing.  By the end of it, I may know as much about getting into college as a high school guidance counselor.

Today I will brush the rug, make gnocchi and pecan pie, hang Aravis' senior pictures, crack the whip on Mariel's final few exam questions (she was sick during exam week), think about tweaking school assignments for the new term, and put the rest of the furniture back in order.  Today I do everything I was hoping to do the entire week, lol.

Tomorrow we feast at Grammy's house.

On Black Friday we will get out Christmas decorations.  We are poor shoppers at the best of times. We dare not venture out during the competitive shopping Olympics.  Scary.  Instead, we decorate.  I think these snowflake dancers would look fantastic hanging from our dining room chandelier.  Of course, the directions are in Russian.  I think.  Anyway, I cannot read them.  I hope one of my crafty children will figure out the elegant little things.  And if I can't have them in my home, at least they exist somewhere.

Thus begins the season of gratitude and peace.