Purging

If you count my move home from school, I moved six times in my first three years after graduating from college. I have natural pack rat tendencies, and you would think I would've cleaned out as I moved, but nope! I just suckered various people into helping me schlep my boxes and boxes of crap around.

That sixth move landed Jeff and me in the house on Athens where we spent four and a half years.

(Okay, so I couldn't find a picture of the house. But look at the cute baby sitting by the daisies in front on the house! And for you folks with Athens knowledge, yes, that is a scenic shot of Huddle Tire in the background. We had a house with a view!)

While we were there with got Pru, we got married, we got Max, and, yes, Ree was born. When it finally came time to leave that house and move to North Carolina, I let go of all my previous hording tendencies. I PURGED. We still had a great deal of college-y furniture, and it was gone since it was cheaper to replace Wilmington than to move it. My boxes and boxes of books went until I was down to a single small bookshelf work of reading material. I cleaned out my clothes, some of which I had personally worn in the 80s. It was time to let them go. We had a yard sale. We made two massive trips to a dumpster. We donated and donated and donated. I put stuff on freecycle. I even took an entire carload of broken appliances to a charity that accepted them. (No, I have no idea how I ended up with an entire carload's worth of broken appliances. But, hey! I found a place that would take them! My inner hippie was so excited!) About the only things we moved were wedding presents, dog gear, and baby gear.

I vowed not to let that much clutter build up again.

And I mostly have. Since we've lived here, we've had a couple of yard sales, and the kids' clothes and toys are routinely given to friends and co-workers or sold at the local Mother of Twins Club sales. But apparently I have not been good at purging the non-kid oriented areas of the house. Last fall I made it a goal to get rid of the equivalent of two diaper boxes (Yes, I measure in diaper boxes. For all you sane people, think paper box.) of stuff each week. And I did from Halloween until almost Christmas. Sadly, though, it quickly occurred to me that my efforts weren't really showing. I did a final purge over Christmas break and got rid of about 6 brown paper bags of clothes, shoes, and purses from my closet, but I had a feeling there was still a lot to be done.

I didn't even think about cleaning out for months, but I randomly started purging again last week. I decided to just work 15 minutes a night on the days I go to work. The part of me that likes to tackle big things was very disappointed by this - progress is slow at 15 minutes a day. On the other hand, the part of me that really didn't feel like doing it by Wednesday and Thursday evenings was grateful that I only had to do it for 15 minutes (and I always ended up working longer than I had planned so I could finish what I started). I ended up liking it so much, I kept it up on Friday and Saturday too. So far I've cleaned out the drawers and cabinets in my bathroom, the top of my dresser, and the extra dresses from Ree's closet.

Some of the "treasures" I found include:

• Cards from Leon and Mike's 3rd birthday. I felt bad...until I found the cards from their 2nd birthday.
• Magazines from 2009. 
• Crest Whitening Strips that expired November 26, 2008. Given the expiration date, I am assuming I actually purchased them at Athens Walmart and have now dragged them to 3 different houses. 
• One bathroom cabinet contained: 1) an entire bag of trash, 2) a bag of Christmas lights, and 3) a bag of decorations for a Christmas wreath. I have no idea why any of this was living under my bathroom sink. (Or, to quote my wonderful and lovely husband, "How does this happen?????")

I suppose the best treasure I have found is space. At least a little of it. And I can find my makeup in the mornings in the bathroom. That is quite helpful. Now if only I can keep up the cleaning frenzy.

Does anyone else get crazy cleaning urges? Does anyone else even let their house get this out of control?

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

We just got done with our week of vacation at home.

The vacation fantasy: It would be a wonderful, restful time where I would be able to enjoy both relaxing and getting caught up on things so that when I returned to work I would be rejuvenated and ready to take on the world. The house would be clean. I would somehow find a way to finally potty train Natalia. The children would finally relax with me home, and would start sleeping in and enjoying their summer vacation. And we would have wonderful memories of fun family adventures. And I would emerge from it all, a beautiful butterfly!

The vacation reality: Our vacation wasn't terrible, but it was, well, wonky. We never found a groove. The kids didn't sleep. At all. I tried scheduled, I tried unscheduled. It was all a disaster. The first day of vacation they got up at 6:15, the second day at 5:45, the third day at 5:15...I was seriously afraid that by the end of vacation they would be getting up for the day before Jeff and I even made it to bed at night. We made the mistake of letting each kid pick out a fun activity which sounds great, but with four kids that pretty much filled the week. And because we were so busy, when we were home the kids couldn't switch into independent play time. (Although frustrating, I can't get too mad at them for this. I'm pretty bad about this myself. When I've been super busy and things calm down I find myself wandering around confused rather than finally tackling the things that have been piling up or GASP! actually enjoying the down time.)

I won't say we will never take a week off to just stay put again, because it was nice in many ways. I found time to read a book and watch a few movies. I have no idea how I would've gotten ready for a vacation right now, and we do live in a great place to vacation. (On multiple trips to visit the grandparents I've talked to families at rest stops (when you have four young children, people often feel compelled to talk to you!) who are on their way back home to the Midwest after spending a week at the beach, and they looked at me like I had two heads when I told them we were heading away from the beach and to Ohio for vacation.) And I even managed to get a project done! Bunk beds are assembled. At least mostly. We are still lacking a ladder and rails for the top bunk. And the kids did have a good time. I'll just chalk it up to a lesson learned and next time plan better and with fewer activities (if that makes any sense).

As so often happens, the best moments of the week were the ones that were unplanned. The kids turned the girls' new bunk beds into their clubhouse and spent hours sitting on the bottom bunk playing. Natalia noted that it was "hurricane-ing" all day on Thursday, and in the evening, we let the kids play on the front porch in the storm. I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket, and I took the four kids on a solo trip to Olive Garden. They, amazingly, sat there for an hour and a half quietly playing and making polite conversation. (I think bodily fluids only came up once!)

Some other great moments of the week:

The Butterfly Whisperer at the Aquarium.

Ree saved up her money for a Play-Doh ice cream shop and spent the week making "treats" for her siblings. There was surprisingly little jealousy, although in the process Mike did talk us into finally giving him (and his siblings) a weekly allowance.

Sparklers before bedtime on the Fourth of July.

The hurricane dance.

Mom's Summer Vacation

My kids always ask me when my summer vacation will be. They figure if they get long stretches of time off in the summer, I should too. I love the way they think. I could definitely go for some time off when the weather gets warm. Maybe even enough time...to be bored? Okay, so that's just a dream in a house full of four kids and two dogs, but it is a nice dream to have.

I am happy to say that my summer vacation started at lunchtime yesterday, and for the first time since we've had kids, I am using my time off to stay home. I suppose this could be defined as a "staycation," but that term always makes me think of people who have compromised, people who would love to be in the mountains or at the lake or at the beach, but finances just won't let them. I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone talk about their staycation with a true smile on their face. This was instead a very deliberate choice to just stay put.

As we zoomed through May and June and all of the activities surrounding the end of the school year, I realized all I wanted was a break, and we don't do a fraction of the things "normal" families seem to do. I suppose I am fairly isolated, typically just talking to co-workers and my best friends, but I ended up socializing with a much larger network of families as we attended this myriad of activities. I quickly came to realize that Ree was apparently one of very few children her age who didn't attend at least three activities per week. While that may work for others, I just can't do it. I'm not sure my children can either.

So this week, I hope, will be quite the opposite. We are planning on doing things and heading places, but we will be spending a lot of time at home too. Last night I got to make a big dinner, and one of my highlights of vacation already was heading out on the porch last night with all four kids to shuck corn before dinner. It is one of their favorite cooking activities, and one we hadn't made time for yet this year. I'm glad we got the chance.

So maybe I don't get weeks off like my kids, or months off like kids in traditional schools, but at least when my kids have asked lately when my summer vacation will be, I can tell them the exact dates.

Camp Jewel

We are finally done with school for the year. Hurray! For the most part, our whole family loves year round school, but it was time for a break.

Ree was so fried at the end of the year that when I asked her if she wanted to sign up for dance and art camp, she promptly said no. I asked on several occasions, and the reply was always the same. No thank you. She would prefer to spend the summer at home, reading books. She is so my kid. Love her!

Despite not wanting to go to camp, we are not without camp activities. Ree took it up herself to set up a day camp for her siblings. Several weeks ago she started planning her camp, careful to ensure the hours correlated with when she was free. I found this sign hanging in our main hallway.

It was no surprise that the kids spent that entire morning playing camp. What I hadn't expected was what happened the following Saturday. We'd had breakfast and cleaned up and I was attempting to workout in the living room with the usual chaos. Suddenly I heard an exasperated Ree yell something like, "Hey guys! It's after 9:00. Camp already started!" Amazingly, they all took off running. And stayed in her room. When I got done working out, I found the three stooges all busily doing activities while she supervised.

They were all pretty content to do what was instructed. For Jeff's sake, I hope she does keep to the posted hours, and camp kicks in full-time this Tuesday.

Three Day Weekends

For several years, our weekends were all organized in exactly the same manner. I had the luxury of only having to go to the office four days a week, so I essentially had a three day weekend each week. On the weekends, I spent one day running errands, one day cleaning the house, and one day actually doing something fun with the family. This worked well for us and helped us juggle life with three, and then four, kids.

Only that schedule has been shot to hell for the past 18ish months. Work got hectic. Ree started taking dance on Saturdays. Work got really hectic, and suddenly I was down two day weekends every week like a mere mortal. I still spent a day running errands, partly because it needed to get done and partly because I enjoyed it, and I still spent a day with my family because that's incredibly important to me. But that left no time for cleaning.

This weekend, however, I got a three day weekend, and the old formula was right back in action! Saturday was errand day. The kids "slept in" until 5:15 (which was much more pleasant than Friday morning's 4:40 wake up call. It wasn't even light yet!). I managed to work out, shower, make chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries (soooo good!), and I still had all four kids out the door by 8:05 to run errands. We went to Trader Joe's and Target and only had one major meltdown. At Target Natalia spotted a purple carton of soymilk and decided she needed it. Only no one in our family drinks soy milk. So she then spent three aisles wailing about her purple milk. Despite that little kink, all went well with our plans, and we were home by 10:15. Thankfully, after the hectic start, the day was quite calm and relaxing. I took Ree to dance and killed time reading outside by a Starbucks and shopping while she was in class. It was lovely. Made lunch. The kids refused to nap, so we got to spend a good chunk of the afternoon outside. We were out long enough that Max got to play two rounds of fetch. Made dinner. Watched a movie with Jeff. It was good.

Sunday was the family day. We headed out to the beach bright and early, and we were grateful for our motivation, since the lot where we usually park was almost full when we arrived at 8:30. We met up with the family of a friend from work as well as a family from preschool. We also saw two other families we know. (Hence the very full parking lot!) We had a great time, and, most importantly, wore all the kids out. We grabbed Wendy's on the way home, and by 1:00pm, Ree was the only person left awake in our house. Jeff, the kids, the dogs, and I were all passed out. It was great. But the fun didn't stop there - Sunday night we headed out to the house of another family from preschool. We went swimming and ate dinner and had a good ol' time.

So that meant today was cleaning today. And I was ready! Given that the house is a complete and utter disaster, I went into cleaning time with no agenda. That would only be setting myself up for failure when I accomplished less than 10 percent of whatever insane list of cleaning projects I conjured. Jeff took the kids outside, so I actually got to clean without "helpers." I cranked up Led Zeppelin I to motivate me and hopefully rattle some dirt off the windows, and I headed toward the area currently known as "the sleep room." This is where Leon, Mike, and Natalia currently keep their beds, and the sheets on said beds really, really, really needed to be changed.

It quickly turned into a runaway project that went far beyond stripping the beds. Led Zep I complete, I moved on to Led Zep II, and I still had a long way to go. (And, yes, I was listening to albums. In their entirety. I am pretty sure there are laws against such madness these days, and I don't mind breaking them on occasion.) I should also add the kids don't keep any toys in this room. It's just their beds, their stuffed animals, and some books. Yet is somehow took me an hour and a half to get the place cleaned up. When I was done the sheets were clean, the blankets were straightened, a mountain of dog fur and dirt was removed from the floors, and the room looked essentially exactly the same as when I started. I hate it when that happens.

I had just commented on this to Jeff when Mike saw the sleep room. He came running back to where I was and said, "Mom! You made the room grow!" (Love him! Such great book smarts, so little common sense.) I had managed to rotate an area rug in the process of cleaning. Apparently that made all the difference in the world. Natalia was also awed by her "new" space.

Given the results of today's cleaning binge, I'm almost looking forward to future cleaning projects. First goal is to clean up my schedule and try to find some more three day weekends so they can happen.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pretty quiet at our house. If anything, we did even less than usual. I spent the weekend attempting to get caught up on work projects, and was mostly just a grouchy pants until I finished.

Anywho, so we didn't do a ton. I received a Panera gift card as part of an early Mother's Day present from my parents, and it was burning a hole in my pocket, so we picked up bagels for breakfast, and the kids and I gorged ourselves on bagels and fruit. Michael liked the breakfast so much he wanted to have it again for Father's Day. I had to kindly point out the one person not indulging in the carb and sugar fest was his father.

Natalia did not let the day go unnoticed, though. At one point she turned to Jeff and announced, "Happy Mother's Day, Dad!" She tries...

We did manage to go strawberry picking yesterday afternoon. There is a berry farm next to our neighborhood, and yes, we know we are spoiled. It was actually the first time out for the season, and the kids were really excited to go.

Despite the look on my little BFF's face, she really was happy to be there. I think her big sister has just convinced here that photos are not cool.

And, in case there was any doubt, we were picking STRAWBERRIES!

They also sell homemade ice cream, and, of course, we had to stop for some after we got done picking berries. After that, we headed to the green house where I got some plants for our little herb garden. Most years we have a nice collection of herbs growing on our front porch, but last year they never really took off. I think the problems were that I planted too late and I was trying to grow from seeds. (We will completely ignore the fact that I may have forgotten to water them or find the right light for each plant.) However, we do have a chive plant that has no idea it is supposed to be an annual, and it is about four years old. Ree and Natalia like to snack on chives, and Natalia often helps herself to a chive on the way to and from the car. They happened to have chives at the nursery, and as she walked by, Natalia picked one and began eating it. She had no idea that wasn't normal behavior when one saw chives. I actually felt kinda bad telling her that it wasn't actually a buffet.

We did not buy any more chive plants, but we did come home with a purple basil plant, cilantro, parsley, and (I think) spearmint. We never seem to eat mint, but the kids love to grow it, and it smells good. After berry picking, the kids were tired, and the three stooges all took naps. While they slept, I worked. I got done, consequently turned into a (semi) normal human being again, and I even had some time to read a chapter of Harry Potter to Ree before the usual chaos erupted again. We had a good dinner, and then everyone pigged out on strawberries before falling into bed. I guess sometimes regular ol' days make for great Mother's Days.

Back to School

Everyone headed back to school this week. Since Ree had been off for three weeks, it kinda felt like the first day of school all over again on Monday. We definitely all had to readjust to the early mornings. I think the trickiest part for me was getting back in the habit of making lunches. I'm not all that great at remembering to make lunches even when she goes to school every day. But I managed to feed her every day. Phew!

The best news, though, was that school was back to the regular schedule. During March the school day had been extended by 30 minutes a day to help make up for the six days we missed this year due to ice. That meant each day ended 15 minutes later. It also meant each day started 15 minutes earlier, and it turns out 15 minutes in the morning makes a big difference. It was nice to get our 15 minutes back.

Another thing that I really liked was the fact that Ree is back riding in the bus. Sometime in January (I think), I had started taking Ree to school due to the timing of her bus and the incredibly cold weather, and we just kept it up. On Monday, however, there was a monstrous line of people dropping off their kids, and it took an incredibly long time for me to get through the drop off line. Not so great when I am trying to get to work. Ree and I both quickly agreed that she would resume her bus riding.

The good part about bus riding is having a few minutes every morning to just, well, watch the morning. It helped that it was around 60 degrees and clear all but one morning this week, but even when it's not that nice, it's a relaxing way to start the day. We typically count the birds flying by, check for vapor trails for planes, and just chat. It's definitely a nice break in the chaos.