The Domino Effect...

... the consequence of one event setting off a chain of similar events...

This has been happening at my house lately.

It all began when I decided to move an armoir upstairs into the playroom to hold the Wii, DVD player and computer. My husband and a friend tackled the treacherous and death-defying stunt of carrying the armoir up the stairs in our 2-story foyer... They wrenched their backs with every step, and I swooned in fear at every pivot. According to my calculations and knowledge of angles and physics, I was certain, on 6 separate occasions, that it would topple over the railing and crash to it's demise. After what seemed like forever, and nothing short of miracle, the armoir found a cozy little corner of the playroom for its home, hopefully for a long time, since I know Mike will never want to move it again!


In the meantime, we inherited a free red couch from a friend. After much debate, we decided to put the couch in the playroom for comfy seating. But after unhinging the door and entertaining the thought of cutting off the legs, the couch would not fit through the door. So back down it went. Shoved into a corner, it sat there unbalanced in the room. At first, it seemed like there was no way to make 2 semi-large couches fit into this small room. But, I made a 911-call to another friend to help remedy the "dilemma of 2 couches" in the living room. We brainstormed... we shifted and moved... we imagined and visualized for almost 2 hours. This is testimony that ANYTHING is possible when 2 moms put their heads together to rearrange a room. It may be breaking a few rules, and it's far from perfect... but it will get me by for now.


All of this triggered a series of unavoidable events... "bring the desk upstairs downstairs and put it behind the couch, take apart that playhouse and move it outside, move the bookcase in the hallway into the playroom, move these pictures there, and put those pictures over there, bring that table out of the garage and put it up there, move that end table over here, move the piano over there"... and all of this moving around calls for "uh-oh, vacuum over there... sweep up over here..." It also invoked some serious motivation to "frame this picture and put it there... and hang up that mirror there... and scour the attic for something to fill up that wall there... and spend all afternoon painting some artwork for that room". Then there's the endless task of "clean out that basket so I can put it here... and dump out that one because I think it will look cuter over there... and now what do I do with all these piles HERE?"

It's an endless process, and I'm not even close to being done. But it's been an adventure and it keeps me busy, my husband guessing and the kids tripping over everything in sight! Despite how it sounds, this has not been a series of unfortunate events... but rather a chain-reaction of little jobs that will hopefully help things to run smoother around here. And in the end, maybe I'll be able to enjoy it before the cycle starts all over again!