It's that time of year again.

So as I'm climbing up out of this latest dumb stupid flare, I've spent several days resting. Inside the house. Looking around at the dust and the summer decorations which, if I were functioning a little bit better, would all be packed away in cartons clearly marked "Summer"; and all of my fall and Halloween junk delightful home accessories would be tossed onto windowsills and mantels carefully arranged in a tasteful autumnal manner. But this year, I'm seriously behind schedule. So even though doing anything more than dressing and sliding a panful of raw chicken into the oven makes me break out in a sweat, I've asked John to haul down the fall boxes from the attic. And he did. What a guy.

When he had them all stacked in front of the fireplace, I sat on the couch and wondered what the heck I could be thinking. All of that STUFF? And for what? So I decided that I'd go through the boxes and choose my very favorite things and the rest could just go right back up to the attic. I was proud of myself for making such a logical decision.

Then.

I opened the cartons and began digging through tablecloths, and spiderweb twinkle lights, and door mats, and leaf garlands, and my collection of black kitty cats, and...... oh, no. I heard a voice inside my head that I haven't for awhile.

I'm just going to use everything! Because they're ALL my favorites. And if I want to use them all, I will!

Drat. I realized that my Bratty Inner Child Julia had just re-surfaced from the depths of my subconscious. And I could hear her clearly say,

Nanner. Nanner nanner nanner! I'm going to do what I want to do and you can't stop me. So there. /sticks out tongue/.

I put my head in my hands and realized that BICJ was back and in rare form. Guess it's time to grab the dust cloth and start garland-ing and pumpkin-ing every surface in sight.

I know when to wave the white flag. BICJ wins this round.