September

It's fall. If the cool nights didn't tell me that, the morning I spent yesterday at our son's school, cleaning up after the construction, probably would have.

His school was originally a one-room school house. By the time he started, it was two rooms and a kitchen. Over the summer, a third room was built on. I was happy to see that it was made to match the original room: wooden floors, brick walls, matching wainscoting.

But being that it's such a small school, our "janitor" is one woman. The construction left the inside of the school covered with drywall dust (I'm sure Tatt3r, with her new windows, can relate!), snippets of electrical wire, and odd chunks of plaster. So Wednesday night I got a call, asking if I could come and help clean up and get the rooms in shape for the start of school next Tuesday.

I spent half of yesterday sweeping the floor, dusting computers, and checking out the new addition. Even the windows were made to match the old (1854) building.

We went home at lunchtime, and then spent the second half of the day looking for a bed for our son's new room. That was possibly more exhausting than cleaning his school! We drove all over, looking in every store that had furniture, trying to find a loft bed like his friend P. has. And we found that not only loft beds, but twin beds in general, are pretty thin on the ground in September.

We saw a couple of possibilities, but they were not cheap. And I am! Thrifty, frugal, penny-pinching, whatever you want to call it, I am rarely willing to spend hundreds of dollars on something that doesn't look worth it. I don't mind spending hundreds, or even thousands, on something that is going to last. But I get very itchy when the quality doesn't match the price.

So, after many hours walking through stores and saying, "Mm" about what I saw, our son got -- a haircut! And then we went home. I got online and found loft bed plans for $10. I'm pretty sure that between me, my brother, and my dad, we can get a bed made that will be worth every cent we spend on it.

Now I have to go eat some breakfast and go back to the school!