Cinderella's Cleaning!

Ok, finally back on my home planet!  It takes a couple days to decompress (or is it to compress again?), and to get family back on track.
We made it in late Thursday, helped the kids with homework due on Friday, and then to bed.  Friday morning was all catch-up.  Mom had done laundry, but it was all over the house, so I had to track it all down, find hangers, sort the clothes, and put them away.  Then we cleaned, and Ches really helped!  We vacuumed (actually, I don't think I ever touched it..), and mopped the kitchen floor-and even Ethan helped! : )  He was down on his hands and knees with a rag rubbing spots!  I think it helped that I wasn't the only one working.
Ethan realllly wanted "Dump-a-lings" as he calls them, so I agreed.  We started making the broth, and didn't have enough bouillion cubes, so we improvised and used seasonings, celery, etc. until it was just right.  I measured the flour and got ready to make the dumplings (rolled-out, cut, dumplings), and we had no eggs!  I had to tell him I had tried my hardest.  He settled for Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup (almost two whole cans!), and then I was tired.  We laid down for nap, and the phone started ringing.  He got a nice nap, and I got to catch up.
My sweet friend, Angie, came a little after three, and we got to catch up all evening!  She brought me her maternity clothes, and we looked through all of the tubs-mine too.  I'm finally at a big-enough-tummy-size that I need bigger pants, and she confirmed it.  When it's you growing, you aren't sure if you are just bigger-bloated, or bigger-baby.  Then it seems you grow everyday, so you can't remember how you looked last week!  I know I've grown, but I was bigger than she expected, so now I think I've really grown, and not just in my head!
She brought her daughter, Andalynn, and all the kids partied hard!  We ordered pizza, and they watched part of Fox and the Hound (Ethan's pick), then the girls watched a Barbie movie-sounds quiet, but they really played a lot!  Then since Mary Claire got to have a "sleepover", Ethan and Clay wanted one too!  So Clay put his sleeping bag in Ethan's floor, Ethan tried to sleep in a tub (sans maternity clothes!), and I had to put my foot down.  I moved him to the bed, where there was more room, and they all were asleep by ten.  The next morning, Clay was in Ethan's bed, and Ethan was on the floor!  I just think I can be in charge.
Angie dusted over all my kitchen cabinets (no, I didn't ask her or make her as Mom thought I did!), but I was complaining how dusty they were when we were looking down from upstairs, and she said she'd clean them!  I said no, but the next time I came in the kitchen, she was up there dusting!  She's so sweet.  I mean, who dusts your nasty spots?  And who'd let her see them?  Gross.  She worked on it for a long time!  It is so nice and clean, I almost didn't want to put any of the stuff back up there!  Just worlds different.
Then we got ourselves together and went out to shop-except we didn't have long since *S-N-O-W* was coming!!  Can you imagine, in March?  I was so sad we didn't get to spend the whole day out shopping.  Stupid snow.  When we got back, and she got ready to leave, it was sleeting!
Now we are covered in 11 inches of white snow.  It has weighted down a lot of our trees, and some pine trees are touching the ground.  Totally not what I expected as we begin spring break!
We started cleaning the attic last night-and oh my gosh, do we have a lot of stuff! (or maybe it's me?)  I have bazillions of tubs of teaching stuff (soon to go!), and about five or six boxes of files.  I have gone through one, and what work.  It's mostly trash.  I'm keeping my hanging file folders, but all insides are trash!  I've got boxes of books (more, if you can imagine)-we don't have enough room for the ones we have-a library!-so where will these go?  And the manipulatives.  Ahh, lots of money went into all that stuff, and now, no one is using them.  I had the kids put a few things in their backpacks to take to their teachers, but I have so much more-probably 15-20 tubs of stuff that has to go.  I, especially now, don't see myself teaching in the future.  I'd thought that maybe one day... but now, not really feasible.
Are you a teacher? Is there something you are needing?  We either have to put the stuff on eBay or Craig's List, give it away, or Ches wants to donate it to the church school.  I'll have to find takers.  He says it's easier to just give it away.  I guess he's right.  I really want to move it on to a new home, even though I have all these memories attached to everything.  I promise to let it go, to make room for new stuff, but I have this attachment (I know, to yucky 10-year-old stuff!).  It's the end of an era (ok, little sentimental..).
However, my daughter is finding great joy in my loss-she's now the proud owner of tons of teacher things (dry erase boards, chalk, and hall passes even!), and now she's wearing my sophomore prom dress all over the house!  I would have trashed it, but she's quite happy in that tulle and taffeta concoction!
I hope the people who get all the teacher supplies/books/manipulatives are as happy!