And on the First Day . . .

We spent the full hour trying to get her settled into the guest room. Not counting the time I spent before she came home rearranging the furniture nor the time I spent after our time together finishing her bed or putting up the robe hook on the door.

The makeup, jewelry, and hair supplies alone took up 15 minutes. I admit that I allowed us to get sidetracked detangling necklaces from the Jewelry Box of Doom. We spent the bulk of the time on clothes. I really wanted her to carefully think about how she set up the room. For example, she likes her clothes to hang, but she doesn't have time to hang them. I fold them fresh out of the dryer, so why not keep them in a drawer instead? For those that do hang, how much do you really need? How do you address crowding in the closet?

Then there are the shoes. Holy heavens, the shoes. I don't understand why anyone needs the vast cornucopia of shoes this child enjoys. She's no Imelda Marcos, but it's still kind of ridiculous. Four pairs of tennies? Three of them Converse-style fold-tops?

All the same, we worked our way through it, and Burgundy now is installed in the guest bedroom comfortably and with a view to routine. Unfortunately, between studying for a major test today, finishing homework, and her tuba lesson, she didn't get in bed until almost 10. On the upside, for the first time in ages, she was able to sleep almost immediately.

I got up with her this morning and walked through her routine with her. She seems to have a pretty solid routine, but she needs to work on efficiency. Hopefully later today I can post before pictures and an after panoramic of the guest room she's living in. I didn't re-hang the curtains, but they don't match the horrible pink walls anyway. I briefly considered repainting the room, but I reminded myself in safe time that it's Burgundy's room, not the guest room, that we're trying to perfect.