Hidden Productivity

The past several weeks I've been exhausted.  It's the kind of exhaustion where I'm too tired even to read anything that has chapters.  And considering that I love to read and spend a fair chunk of my precious little free time with a book in hand, it's something that it hard for me to accept being unable to do.

My kitchen is a mess.  Should I take a few minutes to clear some of the mess away, I find when I go back into the kitchen that the small progress I have made was for naught as a bigger mess than the original one is now in its place.  I suspect that goes with the territory of homeschooling one of my children and having a husband home five days a week.  It's like shoveling a walkway in a blizzard.  Flat out pointless.

And the laundry, sigh.  I'm pretty sure Bryan is close to having no clean clothes that he can wear to the office.  Somehow Ellie manages to have clean clothes for school and I've been hacking together outfits for the baby.  I'm not sure what Madeline is wearing, but it doesn't matter since she's home, right?  Me, I just grab whatever seems to fit right.

Somehow we're managing to survive on the food we have around the house.  Just yesterday the dinner I planned to make was derailed at the last minute when we discovered that we had just enough angel hair pasta for one child instead of a family of five.  So Bryan, who we can call "my hero," saved the day by speedily dialing for a pizza.

Can I tell you just how amazingly grateful I am for God's marvelous culinary gift of the pizza?  Oh Pizza, if I had any ability to write poetry I'd slap together an ode to you!  While many other items in the pantry make me want to curl up in a dark corner of the house and hide for weeks, you are there for me.

Ah, a cool dark corner.  I would be so grateful to have some nice cool overcast days.  For some reason the sun seems to be beaming into the back of my house with an intensity that makes me feel like we're under a magnifying glass.  Ordinarily I like to let the sunlight pour into the back rooms but lately I've been trying unsuccessfully to keep it out.  It's odd, but I never realized just how hot the back of our hose gets from the sun.  I seriously feel like I'm living in a green house.

Despite my present dislike of the sun and the warmth it brings, my lack of energy to get the house in order, and our being forced to forage for food because I have not visited a grocery store in who knows how long, I am, in fact, being productive.  You just can't see it.  Much like my broken toe that is mending itself, I hope.

I have a tendency to always push, push, push myself even when I'm exhausted.  Rest, is something that I usually say I'll do when I die.  Of course, a couple months ago I thought about that and realized even then I probably wouldn't rest.  Should I find myself in the blessed company of the saints some day, I imagine that I'll busily spend my eternity interceding for others.  So I've decided that maybe it's smart to slow down once in a while and get some rest when it's clearly needed.  I have a toe that needs to heal and my present exhaustion is yet another sign that rest is what my body needs right now.  So I'm doing my best to catch naps when possible and to just rest when I can.  I keep telling myself that eventually normal order will be restored.

I Love Lucy Moments

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if we're all sort of a source of entertainment for God.  If we are, then I'm God's idea of a twisted comedy show.

All day I've wanted to write a blog about my weekend.  It was long and jam packed with lots of things that left me thoroughly exhausted.  More than forty eight hours after Mass on Saturday night and my body is still feeling the effects of holding a sleeping 40+ pound child.  So I'm now painfully aware that my baby isn't much of a baby anymore.  I think I need a lighter model.  I like to mull over major life changing decisions, so production of a new model hasn't been fully discerned yet.  My stumbling block on this issue is I'm not sure I can part with the few shreds of sanity that I still have. I can't keep the names of two kids straight.  It is unlikely that I will remember the name of an additional child, unless I go with the name "Whoever You Are" and that name is already heavily in use when talking to Ellie.  Poor child.

I started off my day trying to clean up the kitchen after the sword fighting fiasco.  The kitchen table, chairs and floor were splattered with cranberry juice that wasn't spilled if I'm to go with the answer I was given by Madeline last night and this morning.  Ellie told me what happened last night when I picked her up from school today.  Apparently Madeline's friend knocked the juice cup over with the sword and then the visiting friends ran out of the house like bats from Hell.  Nice friends.  Madeline didn't want to get in trouble so she decided deception was the way to go.  She clearly didn't think that I'd notice the cranberry stained towel in the laundry and she must have forgotten that her little sister who witnessed the event has a pretty good command of the English language.  She came clean this afternoon when I told her about the mess I cleaned this morning.  Looks like she's got a date coming up with her favorite parish priest.

My entire day and all the craziness that occurred stem directly from the juice incident.  My morning alone was devoted to cleaning a mess that was thrice denied.  Then I started on the laundry.  Or, I should say I tried to start the laundry.  That's when I realized that the washer needed to be cleaned.  My washer has a system clean setting to clean out the drum.  I've ignored this prompt a couple times and decided that I needed to do a system clean before doing another load.  Unfortunately, I didn't trust that the system clean had actually happened when I returned to the laundry room and loaded the washer.  It smelled like fresh bleach so I decided to take out the clothes and do a system clean.  Turns out I totally blanked on the fact that I had put detergent in the dispenser.  When I came back into the laundry room I had a washer filled with suds a la I Love Lucy.  Thinking that the bubbles would pop when I put the clothes in the washer I decided to push the clothes in and get on with the laundry.  For those of you who are wondering, suds happily move out of the way instead of popping.  It was a total I Love Lucy moment courtesy of Era HE detergent (I thought HE detergent was supposed to be low suds!) and Electrolux.

Once I got past the suds situation, I decided I should go into the utility closet and empty the frying pan that catches all the drips from the hot water heater that likes to leak.  It's a task that we have to do 1-2 times a day.  If we forget to empty the pan we wind up with a small flood.  Sadly, I walked in on a large puddle that took three full sized bath towels to soak up.  The kicker is that Bryan emptied the pan which holds well over a half gallon of liquid less than 24 hours before.  We really need to get a tankless water heater installed.

I've had a long day and I'm exhausted.  Sticky floor, sand coated child, super suds, mini flood, and neighborhood kids doing stupid things on my backyard swing set clearly trying to prove that Girls' Jackass may someday be a show on MTV.  Through it all I have maintained my composure and patience.

Cue the Darth Vader Music

Darth Vader's music just has that aura of impending doom. I think that music is appropriate for today.  Last night Ellie began to act sick.  She spilled her full cup of apple juice across the kitchen table. Twice.  Then she fell asleep on the couch before bedtime.  That was followed by a disoriented journey up to her room to get ready for bed and culminated in an accident.  Apparently she mistook the instruction to go potty for "go potty after you get in bed."  The hours between 5:30 and 8:30PM last night were very long, and I have still not recovered from the messes that resulted during that time frame.  I am happy to say that I did not lose my cool and get bent out of shape about any of the minor mishaps.

Ellie greeted Bryan this morning with the dreaded "my throat hurts."  My throat still hurts and Bryan is still taking antibiotics for his bout with strep throat.  Since she's well beyond the incubation period for strep, I doubt she has that.  In talking to the neighbors, I think what she may have is a strain of the stomach virus.  Some in our neighborhood have started off with a fever and sore throat that is followed by a day of vomiting.  I have a bad feeling my child who doesn't want to eat, unless you count the sour cream and onion Pringles she just ate for breakfast a few minutes ago as eating, is about to join the ranks of the upchuck brigade.

I'm still feeling unwell.  My day of neglecting housework so I could focus on resting didn't do me too much good yesterday.  Last night's soccer practice brought a fresh load of dirt into my house, so I'll be sweeping, mopping and vacuuming up the dirt trail my husband kindly made for me this morning.  The man walked through the kitchen, down the hall, up the stairs, down the hall and back, into the bedroom and master bath and back down the stairs.  I easily have 70 feet of dirt tracks to clean. Sigh.  Here's hoping there will be no vomit trail to go with it.

I even had to call and ask for a sub for my CCD class tonight.  I can't drag Ellie out so I can teach a class if she's not feeling well.  I guess it's a good thing I wrote up a lesson plan last night.

How did Christmas Eve get here?

It's true that I have been finished with my shopping since before Thanksgiving. It's also true that all of the gifts have been wrapped and tagged since the first week in Advent. So it would stand to reason that I'd be totally ready for Christmas at this point, right? Surprisingly, I'm not. Cookie preparations and Christmas crafts have been my stumbling block. Add in some snow and the resulting messy kitchen floor (I lump my entry way into the floor since it's all connected) and you wind up with a frantic Karen.

This morning I woke up at 6AM and simply could not go back to sleep. So I did what any neurotic mom would do on the day before Christmas. I got up, spent about 15 minutes in silence meditating (which was interrupted by husband who also couldn't sleep) and then got to work cleaning and baking. I now have a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (third batch in under two weeks--this is unheard of for me), a pie in the oven (a frozen one), and a freshly mopped floor. The tasks that remain include cleaning cookie sheets, wiping down the stove top, vacuuming and laundry. I also need to formulate my covert operation of present arranging this evening and I will need to place bows on certain packages.

As of right now I feel a little overwhelmed. I need to iron our clothes for Mass tonight and prepare a baked ziti for dinner. If I didn't think the kids would balk at having pizza again (They're such odd kids, I could live on pizza every day, but they for some reason can not live like that.) I would take the easy way out and order a pizza after Mass.

Here's hoping this day is long enough for me to get everything finished and still have time to relax.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I've managed to run around the house cleaning like a crazy person and my anniversary slipped quietly away and Thanksgiving has arrived! Thanksgiving and Christmas are my absolute favorite holidays. Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart because it always falls close to my anniversary and because it always has my favorite meal. I love turkey, Stove Top stuffing [it has to be crispy like Mom makes it] and Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberries (I can make them come out in perfect can shape, even with the crappy new can design they implemented a few years ago). And let's not forget the Mrs. Smith's Classic Pumpkin Pie and Reddi Whip whipped cream (the full fat version, nothing else will do). All of the specific brand foods are must haves for my Thanksgiving dinner to make me one very happy Karen. It's not Thanksgiving without all of those elements present.

When Bryan and I got married it was two days after Thanksgiving. Since I love that holiday so much, I decided that our wedding menu would consist of one dinner selection: Turkey Dinner. It was essentially a Thanksgiving meal with all of our family and friends. In some cases, it would be the last time the entire family was together for a Thanksgiving meal. My grandmother passed 4 1/2 months after our wedding. All of her children and most of her grandchildren and great grandchildren [at that point in time] were present. I particularly love that each year close to the date or on the date of our anniversary Bryan and I get to have the same dinner we had on our wedding day.

I am thankful for my wonderful family, friends and neighbors, the delicious foods that I look forward to eating on my two favorite holidays (I really love food.), Colgate Spin Brushes (those things are amazing for cleaning bathrooms--no idea on how they do for cleaning teeth) and having a wonderfully clean house (thanks largely in part to the Grande Peppermint Mocha Frapuccino from Starbucks that I picked up today). I realize some of the things I'm thankful for may seem trivial or downright absurd but I've been cleaning for hours, thus inhaling all sort of fumes from cleaning products and it's after 1am in the morning.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Oh and I'm thankful for those of you who read my blog and leave wonderful comments of encouragement or support. Have a great day today! I so cannot wait to have some turkey and half a can of can shaped cranberries!

Whew! I've been busy!

We spent the weekend hanging out with our neighbors and getting a few minor things done around the house.  By Sunday night I was totally wiped out.  Who knew socializing could be so exhausting?  The good news in we had a great time with our neighbors.  Bryan and I are just so happy that we have friends that we can hang out with in our neighborhood.  It's been a while since we've had people to hang out with on the weekends. (We're really not as pathetic as I just made us sound.)  The bottom line is we had a great time.  And since I haven't mentioned it lately, I just love my neighbors.  I don't have a single one that I dislike.  That's pretty cool in my book.

Today I took Ellie to get her birthday pictures done.  She acted like a goofball the entire time Erin (our super cool photographer) was shooting her.  Sadly, I only managed to get 4 shots that I liked.  Then the girls decided to fight in the store (FUN!) and totally irritate me.  Ellie made me totally regret buying her the matching purse for her birthday dress.  She fooled around with it for the pictures and then started using it as a weapon against Madeline.  She'll make a mean old lady with a purse some day.  Watch out muggers!  Ellie will take you out before you can blink.

Then, I made a scary decision to take the kids to Wal-Mart.  I don't like to go to Wal-Mart, ever.  I go in the store only when I'm desperate or need to find something that no one else sells.  That said, I probably wind up in that store 2-3 times a year.  I was in there to look at Corelle dishes (I'm tired of the pattern on my current set.  I think it's to be expected with Corelle that you tire of the pattern before the dishes actually need to be replaced--those things last FOREVER!) and I also wanted to see if I could find a palm tree tooth brush holder.  I didn't get new dishes (wasn't planning on making that final decision today), but I did get a toothbrush holder.  I went to a lot of stores over the past two weeks looking for one.

I also managed to get my huge backload of laundry washed and folded.  I had ten loads of wash.  I'm now down to half a load of stragglers.  I'm pretty happy with that.

I even found the time to read some of the book I'll be reviewing soon for The Catholic Company, too.  I'm going to be burnt out by tomorrow after all that I've done over the past few days!

Quiet

At long last, my house is quiet.  For the past 5 days I've had everyone at home.  As much as I love having Bryan and the girls at home, there are times when I wish I could just have a few minutes to myself.  Today, I have just that.

Bryan went back to work today and the girls are both at Vacation Bible School.  I'm relishing my three hours of solitude.  I managed to mop my kitchen floor, water my tomato and basil garden, brush Mr. Furkins, have a phone conversation without interruption and spend some much needed time just meditating.  I feel like I got a lot accomplished and I still have 30 minutes left before I have to go get the girls from the church.

The past few days have been rather busy here.  We had Ellie's party.  I'm happy to report that it went quite well.  Bryan and his father also ripped out the shower of doom in the master bathroom and replaced it with a nice shiny new one.  No more previous owner filth and no more leaks!  Yay!  I suspect that I will be able to  use my new shower by the end of the week.  We still have to do some caulking and I have to paint once the walls are properly finished (The old shower was embedded behind the drywall.).

I'm hopeful that I can just relax tomorrow morning when the girls are away.  Maybe I'll lounge in the pool tomorrow morning.  I don't get to have the pool all to myself very often.  It's only happened a few times.  I think I could enjoy reading St. Augustine's Confessions while I float around.  I used to love reading in the pool when I was in high school and college.  I can't read in the pool when I have the kids.  Not only would my book get wet, I wouldn't be able to watch the girls. 

Small Successes

Celebrating the small things in life that add up.

1. I survived Madeline's First Holy Communion.  The entire day went smoothly from her hair to the party and everything in between.  It all added up to a very nice day.  Even the weather cooperated.  I am very relieved that all the craziness leading up to her big day is a thing of the past.  Four more years and I'll be repeating all of this for Ellie (she's already talking about her Communion).

2. I managed to eliminate the menacing mountain of laundry that was threatening to take over my basement. Everything is cleaned, folded and put away!

3. Finally, after 8 days of rain, I got the mulch laid in the front gardens.  If the claim on the bag is true, I shouldn't have to battle weeds for another 6 months.  That'll work for me!

Small Successes

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I finally got all the bags of hand-me-down clothes that need to be given away out of my living room.  6 bags of clothes take up a lot of space.

2. After much searching, I found a quilt for Ellie's room that matches her existing sheets and goes with her wall color. I no longer have to deal with her poorly made lumpy Tommy Hilfiger comforter that didn't last 10 months.  Now, I'm just waiting for the new bedskirt and accent pillow for her arm chair to arrive.

3. I have just about everything on the main level of the house cleaned and ready for the party we're having after Madeline's First Communion.  Only two more days left!  I'm excited for her.

Bonus #1: Yesterday we got Madeline's new glasses just in time for her First Communion (I've been worried that they wouldn't be ready in time).  Now she won't have to wear beat up glasses on her big day.  I don't know what that girl does to her glasses, but she sure is hard on them.

Bonus #2: I managed to not kill naughty Mr. Furkins today.  Someone decided that it would be a good idea to dig in the backyard after 7 days of rain.  That someone also mistakenly thought that we would be pleased that he decided to dig up an area where we are desperately trying to grow grass that was destroyed during the pool construction last year.  In making these most terrible decisions, Mr. Furkins has caused me 1 load of laundry, a dog bath and the necessary cleaning of a now muddy tub.  Thanks, Mr. Furkins, I don't already have a ton of stuff to do between today and Saturday morning.

Stranded

Bryan's car went in for repairs on Monday night.  Apparently, the car has a laundry list of repairs that need to be done.  We were expecting the car to be finished yesterday, but we got a call late in the day and were told it wouldn't be ready until Thursday.  Bryan could have worked from home today and tomorrow, but that would force him to go into the office on Friday.  So I decided to sacrifice having my minivan for the day so Bryan could get to the office today.  Fortunately for me, we have really nice neighbors who don't mind taking Madeline to school (their son is in the same grade at the same school, so they were going that way).  I don't have any errands to run today, but I hate not having the ability to pick up and go. 

I wish that it wasn't raining today.  I could really take advantage of being stuck at home a little better if it was sunny out.  I have hedges that need to be trimmed and 6 blueberry bushes that need to be planted in the almost finished retainer wall.  

Some good came out of my being stranded.  I managed to get my small mountain of laundry washed and put away.  I also got the house straightened up.  And, best of all, I got to have a rather leisurely morning.  In fact, Ellie is still running around in her pjs.  If I had my car, I would have had her washed and dressed before 8:30am.  

Tomorrow will be a busy day for me.  I get to play the part of the family taxi driver.  Ellie has school and Madeline has her final CCD class for the school year.  I can't believe she only has one more class and a rehearsal before her First Communion, but I digress.  After her CCD class, I have to run Madeline over to the optical store where we get her glasses.  They ordered frames for her and I have to bring her over there to see if they fit her face well.  The optician felt that the frames she tried on this past weekend were on the verge of being too small for her.  Four years ago I had the hardest time finding frames for her that weren't too big for her face.  It's hard to believe that she's outgrown two (almost three) sizes of frames in that span of time.  I'm hopeful that the new frames will fit her well.  I'd like her to have new glasses before her first communion since the current frames are a little beat up after 18 months of daily wear.

Small Successes

1.  I cleaned my kitchen counter tops and every window that had puppy or small people prints on it.
   
2. I ironed the dresses the girls and I wore for Easter.
3. I imported and organized over 5,000 photos into my iPhoto.  Only 24,000 to go. Ugh!