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Jul. 2nd, 2009 12:40 amYesterday I made steel cut strawberry oatmeal for breakfast, everyone foraged for lunch and we had tacos for dinner. Today they had granola for breakfast, I made whole wheat blueberry pancakes for lunch, and then roast chicken, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes and salad for dinner. Tomorrow is a wild card.
My house is getting clean. It is bizarre. First I cleaned out our massively, horrifically messy bedroom - hung all the clean clothes sitting around in baskets, got all the dirty laundry out, all the toys back in the kids' rooms and books back in the library, picked all our shoes up out of their piles on our closet floors and put them up on the closet shelves. Got the odd socks and old mail off our dresser and even dusted it. I managed through some feat of who knows what to go back in two days later and do maintenance cleaning to keep it that way, and then I went into the library and tv room and while they weren't NEARLY so backed up (they are much closer to the front door, and part of the main public house and so they never get ignored for so long) it was still overdue to really clean them right, like down to vaccuming.
I realized today that I've put away clean laundry as it comes out of the laundry room three times in a row now before it piles into a 10 load mountain....and that the dishes haven't piled up for days.
I was actually able to devote energy today not only to sweeping before it became a Situation, but also to getting Jake and Isaac's room cleaned, and toilet scrubbing, both of which are always low level priorities around here. All with our bedroom, library and tv room maintained as clean spaces!
There is only one thing I can think of that has facilitated all of this - well, technically it is two very related things. Elise has potty trained, and Jake now wipes himself up after using the toilet.
I thought while I was cutting up potatoes and broccoli and tearing romaine leaves about how that could possibly translate into a sudden ability to keep the entire house so much cleaner at once. It seemed nutty to even consider. Then I started calculating.
Time spent actually changing diapers - let's say a cumulative hour per day, including finding all supplies as a chronically disorganized person and baby wrangling and such
diaper laundry - including putting them away, hanging covers and Fuzzi Bunz shells to dry, handwashing wool covers - an hour or more per week of active duty plus about 4 hours of double cycles in the machines every 3 or 4 days when nothing else can be washed
being prepared while we're out - an extra couple of minutes before we go anywhere
cleaning up naked baby accidents - I'd say 20 minutes per day on average when you include major carpet scrubbing once a week and the occasional Serious Situation every couple of days that involves cleaning off soiled items or...trails.
Jake calling me to come clean him up - 1-3 times per day, just interrupting whatever else I was doing
So, yeah. I am some kind of free wheeling woman now, apparently. All of that was squeezed in and around other things in such a way that it didn't FEEL as though it took up a significant chunk of time, but damn if I don't have a lot more time now! And solid time...because all of those things but the laundry were immediate things I had to tend to just as they suddenly happened regardless of what else was going on. And diapers had to take precedence over all other laundry regardless of what else I had to wash.
This is sort of wild. I had two in diapers for so long that just having "only one" wearing them felt like it was easy, and nothing really. Ha!
It has also contributed hugely to this feeling of overhauling our living that Grant has tackled tons of backed up yardwork and cleaned out and vaccumed the gross van very thoroughly this week. I am loving it.
Today was day 4 of me not eating any refined flour or sugar, or dairy. The first day was easy. Days 2 and 3 featured increased moodiness and major exhaustion (Grant's been off, and I fell asleep on the couch with Elise and stayed there for 2 hours, one day, and took an afternoon nap the other - neither of which are exactly typical). Today was a little easier overall but this evening, man. I don't know if it's just my internal sense of balance kicking in to compensate or if I'm beginning to feel better but WOW I am happy and content! I was reading to the four older kids in the tv room tonight (classic Pooh and The Mysterious Benedict Society), after Grant and Elise had gone to bed, and just feeling so incredibly blessed and fulfilled. Then, as I shoo'd them off to bed, I found myself feeling so EXCITED about these very mundane things that will happen tomorrow - like I just can't wait! Watching Aaron make progress on his unicycle, getting more areas of the house cleaned out and looking good, Annie's book reports and Isaac drinking more water. Doing Elise's hair and the blanket I'm making.
We've been having the best conversations, about immunity and vaccinations and chicken pox parties, and why so many children could be being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, and risks and dangers of counterfeiting money - all kinds of stuff.
Ananda will probably be going to creative arts camp next week at ArtSouth - we found out that her twin friends from the bookstore family (10) and her twin cousins (11) are all going, and it is very reasonably priced and has a fun-looking Facebook photo album of pics full of familiar faces. *I* am kind of freaked about leaving her anywhere from 9am to 4pm (!!) but she is 9 and will have people she knows and be right here in town...or so I tell myself.
My Nana has been transferred back from the rehab center to the hospital for chest pains, but once there they saw that she has fluid built up in her brain. Except then it was maybe just swelling and not fluid, and anyway they couldn't drain the fluid because her blood thinners make the SKULL DRILLING that drains it too risky. And so today they did a spinal tap to measure pressure that didn't seem to indicate excess fluid. Even though her otherwise inexplicable symptoms perfectly match those of hydrocephalus.
It seems like a lot of circular confusion and no continuity of care and I am not always sure how much more MY mother can take, of watching and caring for her mother in this state. The phone calls every day, are a huge part of my day.
My house is getting clean. It is bizarre. First I cleaned out our massively, horrifically messy bedroom - hung all the clean clothes sitting around in baskets, got all the dirty laundry out, all the toys back in the kids' rooms and books back in the library, picked all our shoes up out of their piles on our closet floors and put them up on the closet shelves. Got the odd socks and old mail off our dresser and even dusted it. I managed through some feat of who knows what to go back in two days later and do maintenance cleaning to keep it that way, and then I went into the library and tv room and while they weren't NEARLY so backed up (they are much closer to the front door, and part of the main public house and so they never get ignored for so long) it was still overdue to really clean them right, like down to vaccuming.
I realized today that I've put away clean laundry as it comes out of the laundry room three times in a row now before it piles into a 10 load mountain....and that the dishes haven't piled up for days.
I was actually able to devote energy today not only to sweeping before it became a Situation, but also to getting Jake and Isaac's room cleaned, and toilet scrubbing, both of which are always low level priorities around here. All with our bedroom, library and tv room maintained as clean spaces!
There is only one thing I can think of that has facilitated all of this - well, technically it is two very related things. Elise has potty trained, and Jake now wipes himself up after using the toilet.
I thought while I was cutting up potatoes and broccoli and tearing romaine leaves about how that could possibly translate into a sudden ability to keep the entire house so much cleaner at once. It seemed nutty to even consider. Then I started calculating.
Time spent actually changing diapers - let's say a cumulative hour per day, including finding all supplies as a chronically disorganized person and baby wrangling and such
diaper laundry - including putting them away, hanging covers and Fuzzi Bunz shells to dry, handwashing wool covers - an hour or more per week of active duty plus about 4 hours of double cycles in the machines every 3 or 4 days when nothing else can be washed
being prepared while we're out - an extra couple of minutes before we go anywhere
cleaning up naked baby accidents - I'd say 20 minutes per day on average when you include major carpet scrubbing once a week and the occasional Serious Situation every couple of days that involves cleaning off soiled items or...trails.
Jake calling me to come clean him up - 1-3 times per day, just interrupting whatever else I was doing
So, yeah. I am some kind of free wheeling woman now, apparently. All of that was squeezed in and around other things in such a way that it didn't FEEL as though it took up a significant chunk of time, but damn if I don't have a lot more time now! And solid time...because all of those things but the laundry were immediate things I had to tend to just as they suddenly happened regardless of what else was going on. And diapers had to take precedence over all other laundry regardless of what else I had to wash.
This is sort of wild. I had two in diapers for so long that just having "only one" wearing them felt like it was easy, and nothing really. Ha!
It has also contributed hugely to this feeling of overhauling our living that Grant has tackled tons of backed up yardwork and cleaned out and vaccumed the gross van very thoroughly this week. I am loving it.
Today was day 4 of me not eating any refined flour or sugar, or dairy. The first day was easy. Days 2 and 3 featured increased moodiness and major exhaustion (Grant's been off, and I fell asleep on the couch with Elise and stayed there for 2 hours, one day, and took an afternoon nap the other - neither of which are exactly typical). Today was a little easier overall but this evening, man. I don't know if it's just my internal sense of balance kicking in to compensate or if I'm beginning to feel better but WOW I am happy and content! I was reading to the four older kids in the tv room tonight (classic Pooh and The Mysterious Benedict Society), after Grant and Elise had gone to bed, and just feeling so incredibly blessed and fulfilled. Then, as I shoo'd them off to bed, I found myself feeling so EXCITED about these very mundane things that will happen tomorrow - like I just can't wait! Watching Aaron make progress on his unicycle, getting more areas of the house cleaned out and looking good, Annie's book reports and Isaac drinking more water. Doing Elise's hair and the blanket I'm making.
We've been having the best conversations, about immunity and vaccinations and chicken pox parties, and why so many children could be being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, and risks and dangers of counterfeiting money - all kinds of stuff.
Ananda will probably be going to creative arts camp next week at ArtSouth - we found out that her twin friends from the bookstore family (10) and her twin cousins (11) are all going, and it is very reasonably priced and has a fun-looking Facebook photo album of pics full of familiar faces. *I* am kind of freaked about leaving her anywhere from 9am to 4pm (!!) but she is 9 and will have people she knows and be right here in town...or so I tell myself.
My Nana has been transferred back from the rehab center to the hospital for chest pains, but once there they saw that she has fluid built up in her brain. Except then it was maybe just swelling and not fluid, and anyway they couldn't drain the fluid because her blood thinners make the SKULL DRILLING that drains it too risky. And so today they did a spinal tap to measure pressure that didn't seem to indicate excess fluid. Even though her otherwise inexplicable symptoms perfectly match those of hydrocephalus.
It seems like a lot of circular confusion and no continuity of care and I am not always sure how much more MY mother can take, of watching and caring for her mother in this state. The phone calls every day, are a huge part of my day.
