cooly house

Of all the styles I like, of all the things I find beautiful and cool and awesome and exciting, I will have to say that the log-cabin is the number one for me. Do you know that store, Outdoor World? It is this giant mega mart of fishing and hunting crap, crazy tents and grills and boats and acorn shirts for Grandmas, but the whole thing in there just gets me so excited. I want to "do" my house up like that. I want a bed with big huge logs for the frame of it. I want log couch, too. Log walls. Wood floors. Massive amounts of money spent on feeding and enjoying and listening to the birds, identifying them, recording it all down, encouraging them to nest and stay all year. On my log couch with my special sitting nook and coffee coffee coffee and tea tea tea and yeah hell yeah the new agey tribal flutes Cd, too-- all of it. The Oak leaf fleece blanket on my slippered feet. A mountain retreat?

Ok so what about the high rise and IKEA and pink neon plastic JPop ornaments and Chinese paper star lanterns and the Bubble Chair and post modern modern 3 story deluxe apartment in da sky? I don't think they are mutually exclusive. At all.

So the closest to my dream would be the kinda stuff you see on maybe Extreme Homes or something, even though none of it is very crazy. I want beauty and peace and woodsy modernism. Like Cardinals and acorns but drawn in a cool way.

Birdie

http://www.zacandzoe.com/misc/zzonebird.html
See this? Why is it so expensive? i think I want to make some cutey little calico birds for decorations/toys and I might use these for inspiration. Cute, right? Rediculous what some people will pay for things.

So cute new blankies

I have a thing for winter-symbolism. Snowflakes, especially. Any time of the year, the darling and precious snowflake on a plate, a cup, a sweater, a hand towel, or a BLANKET, and I am just giddy. So adorable and appealing are the pictographic images that surround not necessarily Christmas, but winter, and I am just ga-ga.

So guess what I got? The yummiest, fluffy-puffiest, deep and warm and utterly GORGEOUS bedding set from Target last night! My sweet sweet people from the Friday night gang at work chipped in and got me a Target gift card--such an unexpected surprise, especially the nice thing they wrote in the card--sniff! sniff!-- and I high tailed it to the nearest Target and bought this fantastical thing. Comforter and 2 pillowcases. Flannel. Coolest color scheme. SO thick--did I even know I wanted a thick quilt, per se? Well, lemme tell ya this bed is SICK now, how it beckons me! I really cant even look in my room when I visit the bathroom oh so many times a day because like a magnet, this "new bed" SUCKS ME IN with its soft and fluffy beauty.

Thank you, sweet curling club Friday people, and thank you Target for selling something so high quality and gorgeous for $29.99. My bedroom is so glorious now, I am going to go jump in immediately! G'night! Off to puffyville!

Seasonal complaints

My whole family is drying up! They are thirsty and have the driest skin. I chase them around with lip balms and ice waters and bought super expensive cracked-skin cream. Arggg. We need a humidifier but I picture it not working and the little ones dumping it or drinking it or worse. Winter can be a pain. I like it, alot, in theory, but it is just a PAIN. In summer, it is hot and you always feel sticky and gross and flithy, but at least there isn't all this huge MAINTENANCE the second you wake up, you know? In winter, t is just so much WORK to feel like you have it together. It is the opposite of relaxed-island living.

I wake up and immediately I am FREEZING and have to put on a huge outfit. Long sleeved shirt, sweater, jeans, socks, shoes, and then run to go pee! My lips are split and I am super thirsty and cold. I cant bear the idea of going out to the kitchen shivering and tense, and all the household chores seem much harder. The kids don't want to get up, and when they do, they seem to always be barefoot and i pester them to get some socks on, NOW. I HATE seeing their little red feet with crumbs on them--- YUCK. I want everyone to be totally dressed, even down to shoes. I get uptight when it is cold. It is my parenting/protecting thing coming out. I feel much less tolerant of relaxed/lazy stuff and want hot meals to be eaten properly, at the table, and then cleaned. No summery treats all over the place. If my kids liked this stuff, it would be oatmeal for breakfast, soup for lunch, chili or stew or lasagna for dinner, cocoa for bedtime. Baths for all children, slather them all from head to toe in the expensive medical cream, pass around the chapstick, 4 sippy cups of ice water, and in footie pajamas asleep by 7:30pm. Too bad I'm never even home anymore at night.

So what is it about winter that I supposedly like? It is pretty. when we have what we need in the house, which feels like never, we can be cozy and safe. We can sled, in theory, but we don't get deep snow like we used to, and it is an ORDEAL to put it mildly. Maybe this year Steve can come with us--but we never have boots of our own, only the kids do....last year Charlie couldn't walk so I concluded that he was too little to sled so he stayed home with Daddy.

We could ice skate but we don't know how and it seems difficult/impossible to teach 4 kids to skate at the same time if i cant skate. This would be a good situation for a helping adult friend. We have an ice arena very close by....

In theory we could have jaunty laughing friends over for jaunty laughing hot drinks and movie nights....this one does sound quite good....

I like to wear big cozy clothes that make me feel cute and not like my lard is spraying out. Summer time is a gross time of armpits flying out and hyper leg hair maintenance and dry-spot-on-your-foot-shame marketing pressure and i resent all that. That stuff ruins summer. In winter I can wear my jeans and long sleeved t shirts and look cute and feel nice and protected, not like I am in some swimsuit competition everytime I go to the grocery store.

I like to cook and bake and have it be a good thing that the oven heats up the whole kitchen, not a torture fest.

I guess all I am actually trying to say is winter and summer suck and I like fall. Taking care of four children in extreme temperatures is much much harder than when it is nice out.

:)

Battling the brrr

Wow, did we ever get close to doing something rather hasty. We were --this close-- to moving just because we have some ideas about simple living and thought that we HAD to live in a tiny tiny cabin to live simply--and mostly, because our gas heating bills were so high last year and we thought with our big, old, inefficient furnace, and our long, big (for us) drafty house, there was no hope. But we can do simple living here, and we have made lots of strides in this area, even if all the work has been majorly curtailed by me working most nights, we are still on track. It costs about $2000 to move and we dont have it. Plus it is really really really alot of work to re-set up a home life. With little children, it is so much more than just unpacking stuff when you can. It is major disruption of schedules and lots of negative fallout as a result that takes months if not longer to recover from. Sounds kinda like a nightmare right now.

So here is my new stance on the heat-bill thing: The Man cant chase me from my home. Can I honestly say we did EVERYTHING we could last year to keep the bills their lowest? No.

The new plans:

We will discontinue all use of our "3 season room" which connects our driveway to our home. You can park in the driveway but then you have to come to the front door. There is no overnight parking on our street, so oh well. Walk 100 feet and get over it. (These mean words being directed at myself not my visitors!)

We will lock and put down blankets/towels in front of the door that leads to this room and will not go in there unless extremely necessary. For those of you who remember me saying it was going to be our homeschool gym, well, we just cant afford any play toys at all although we got a slide a few months ago, we can put it in the kids' bedroom and be "fun-parents" until spring.

We will put on the storm windows AND the blow-dryer plastic treatment on EVERY window in the house. We will put down rolled up blankets in front of every door that leads to the outside. We will lay down rugs and wear shoes and socks or slippers from the time we wake up until bedtime.

We are going to start using space heaters, as well. These are not dangerous as people are lead to believe, they are small and cheap and efficient and they all have no-tip sensors inside so they instantly turn off when and if they get knocked over. We only use 2 bedrooms for sleeping, so we could theoretically turn the heat OFF at night, or way down. Daddy gets up early to go to work and, like the olden times only much much easier, he could be the one to turn on/up the heat.

We could theoretically use 4 or 5 little space heaters at different times and not use gas heat hardly at all. I already use cold to wash clothes and we don't have a dishwasher. So it would be heating our baths and showers only, and somewhat our home. We are on a "payment plan" with the electric company anyhow, we pay $104 a month so we could use the electric space heaters without too much worry.

I think back to what people used to have to do in the mornings in the way of chopping wood out in the snow, using outhouses, milking freezing cows and goats, lighting fires, and I think we are wimpy pathetic people nowadays. I have no interest in "freezing" all day, nor wearing hats in the house or anything so sad or extreme. But with the money saved from not living the way we did last winter, we could definitely afford six pairs of slippers or a fireplace guard (we only do fires at night because Charlie can walk right into our fireplace, it is right at floor level.)

Thank you, Mom for helping us out last year when we got our gas bill for $800. It won't happen again!

Peeping tomgirl

Ahh, winter. Time for Cocoa, fireplaces, big cozy sweaters, and peeping into people's houses.

HUH???
;)

Yes, I am going to admit here that I LOVE it when people leave their window shades open when it is dark outside and they are home with lights on. Am I trying to see some family dispute, a torrid love scene, something titillating? Well, no-- unless, like me, you are completely enamored with home decor, which can be quite exciting!

It gets dark around 5pm now, and I drive to work around 5:30. My favorite part of the drive is seeing in all the houses! I am so intrigued by the paint colors, the furniture choices, the layout of the rooms, and the actual architecture of houses, it is a wonder I stay in my lane. I hope for red lights so I can look in and at the houses. I love the tiny houses that have upstairs. I love the Brady-Bunch "modern" slab houses with the funny little carports. I love the big old farmhouses, and I love to hate the random huge new-construction homes that pop up in the middle of modest streets and never seem to sell, forever vacant with their oversized garages and no yards and no lawns and no trees, and their for sale signs out front, eventually replaced by for lease signs. I love to see how many people have a television as the ONLY thing in their living rooms besides a recliner, and I love to see funky kitchens with brown or green refridgerators and a hundred pictures of grandkids on the walls interspersed with kitschy needlepoint blessings and half hearted collections of all kinds. I love the ugly houses that look like hip IKEA showrooms inside, and I love the gorgeous homes with nothing in them. I just love it all.

I always close my curtains, maybe because I am so keenly aware of how easy it is to see everything inside a lit up house when it is dark outside. I am not some sicko, just a very curious person who finds so much of human behavior absolutely fascinating, especially when it comes to artistic choices. If I had a dog to walk, I would probably be more subtle in my peeking. I have babies to walk, but when the weather is nice enough for that, it is usually light out until way past bedtimes...So for now, I will limit my peeping for the carride to work--and if the idea of people looking in your house freaks you out, then for goodness sake-- close your curtains!!!!

Laundry talk

We found a dryer on craigslist for 20 dollars!!!
We are going to go pick it up somehow tomorrow!

The nightmare of no dryer might be over. Can u even imagine, such a vital part of big family living, just interrupted? It has been horrible. BUT, soon we will be dryin up a storm, I hope.

What I want is two washers and two dryers, but I would settle for 2 washers and one dryer. anyhow, for now, that is only a dream.

We have new system, and I know big families are constantly in search of systems, so here is what we do:

We have 6 baskets, one for each person. I lay them all on the couch and then tkae huge mounds of clean clothes and toss them unfolded into their person-basket. then Daddy and the kids take them off to their appropriate rooms and, with some assistance for Charlies cloths of course, they get folded and put into the drawers and you have to bring Mama back the baskets. Somedays I will refill 'em, somedays that is all you have to do. I shouldnt say days, it is an evening chore.

What do you do to get the clean clothes back to the drawers, if you do at all? ; )

My first time

We just had to do what I think alot of parents had to do way before I ever did: completely LEAVE the grocery store without completing the task of obtaining the food, due to toddler spaz attack, level 4, code crimson.

It was actually quite funny and liberating! We have needed to grocery shop for days and days now, and even though I can get better prices pickin' and choosin' at the farmer's market and the produce store and Sam's Club and Wal-Mart and the little grocery store near the house, ummm its not my big life to shop with four kids all day everyday. I am tired, we have one car, we have limitations on alot of things, and so Kroger it was decided.

I don't know if these store names are familiar to anyone living outside of the midwest, but Farmer Jack was a big store that recently went out of business, leaving Kroger and Meijer as our only local "Big Grocery Chain Stores" and the competitive pricing has gotten less competitive and stuff is just getting so expensive! I had a bad feeling when I saw $2.49 a pound for red onion and $2.19 a pound for apples. APPLES! In October! In Michigan! no. then I wanted a small bag of almonds and they were 7 bucks. Frozen Salmon was $8.99. Pop was like 4 bucks. It was stupid.

But back to the toddler meltdown.

So we got one of those fun carcarts, and Casey and Charlie rode in the carpart. Knowing that this would only last so long before they beat each other or started to climb out the window of the car or whatnot, We also brought a stroller which Greta and Mickey pushed, empty. I had some ridiculous image in my mind that Charlie might "rest" in there, like he is 6 months old or something. So I brought a blanket and a pacie and a water. Thoughtful of me, right?

While we were still in the produce section, Charlie started up his high pitched demand of "I COME OUT. I COME OUT. I COME OUT! I COME OUT?! I COME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I COME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I! COME! OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ok, ok, there are like 12 grandmas staring at me like they never saw a mom before, and so in my best, best super patient "lil' buddy" voice, I said ok, honey, lets try the stroller" and I put him in the stroller. He was screeching before I could even buckle him in. Of course, I am over 6 feet tall, bending over our piece of crap broken stroller with some sweater on that only a few minutes ago felt cozy and jaunty but now was strangling me to death and threatening to roast me/give me heatstroke/itching, bleeding hives and so, I was pretty much high blood pressuring out and we weren't even in aisle one.

"There you go, hun" I smashed the little clicker into its receptacle.

"Greta, please push him around so I can pick some things"

Mickey has chosen this moment, like so many other high pressure moments, to chitty chitty chitty chitty chat and vaguely beg for weird things. I completely do not answer him. ?If he missed the 15 minute prelude speech that I gave in the parking lot about how we are only buying what is on the list and if you beg for other crap you will not go trick or treating then that isn't my problem, and besides, who could hear anything right now with Charlie SCREECHING.

I put a tiny bag of $4.99 a pound sugar snap peas in my cart. I have no idea why.

We get to the end of the produce and Casey is climbing out of the window of his race car cart and Mickey pounces onto the roof of it and screams "BOO!" and Casey starts crying, a bit fake, but nice and loud. So now I have 2 boys crying. We enter the beginning of aisle one. Some woman in a Kroger uniform walks over to Greta and the strollerfull of screaming Charlie and sticks a purse that is in the shape of a dog in his face and says "Look! Look! Look! Who's this? Is this doggie? Is this doggie?" and I said "Please, don't. Excuse us, please"

but over the din of Charlie's crying, neither of us really heard each other and I made a head-bobbin motion for Greta to just push the baby away and go on a walk, which she did not get and started getting frustrated with me. I decided to "pull over" and "regroup", and so I squatted down to Charlie to decipher what it was he was screaming. "I WALKIN" is what he was saying. He wanted to walk. As in, like a person does in a store. Like you see little girls do in stores, but not so many little boys. (Call me sexist, but then go do some field research and get back to me. I got 10 years in the field and I know what I know. 2 year old girls are capable of straight-line walkin now and then. 2 year old boys....they got about 5 or 6 more years to go before walkin can be achieved without some major glitches)

So, in the same delusional universe that decided to wear the wool sweater, that decided to go with the car-cart, that decided to buy snap peas, that decided to pack a little blankie in case he wanted to REST, I unbuckled Charlie and thought maybe he could walk with us.

and then he was gone. for a moment I thought "ahhh silence" but--no, no that's terrible--"Stay here, guys!" I briskly walked around the corner , fully expecting to see a tiny little person and when I didn't, I felt horrible. I ran to the next aisle and the next aisle--where he was about halfway down the aisle, trotting pretty fast. (Oh, how I wish for his birthday tomorrow I could rent him an empty grocery store and let him free!! No glass jars or staring grannies, please) so I jogged up behind him and said "Hey, baby! You can't just run off like-----"BOOM! He bucked back and headbutted me in the jaw. I dropped all facades at this point and put him under my arm like we all do when hoity toity grannies are not looking. I marched back to aisle one and told the children "We are leaving. We are not buying the food right now. It is ok. Lets just leave"

That's all I needed to say, right?

No. Mickey and Casey were SO confused and really, weren't we all? They thought that perhaps here, in this burning inferno sweater, in aisle freakin ONE, holding a 30?40? pound child who is completely tantrumming out and screaming SO hard he was turning FUSCHA. that I should explain in 100 words or more exactly what was happening.

"WE ARE LEAVING, GUYS. NOW. LETS GO!"

I grabbed our sticky gross pop cans, my purse, and ripped off that damn sweater, and threw them in the empty stroller which Greta thank goodness had the sense to just push and not question me. Mickey and Casey were blathering on: what about the apples and what about the peas and fortunately for us all, Charlie was just too loud to really be expected to hear anything.

And so, calmly, swiftly, mainly just just determined to hold my head up high---I channeled all the stories of all the mommies who ever "had to leave" , and they enveloped me in a good, rightful, strengthening, refreshing harmony as we made our way out to the car. I felt brave, in control. I didn't want their rip off food anyways, nor did I want to see another evil rich peach haired old lady for a long, long time. I felt really, really much better as soon as we got out of that store.

Or maybe it was just taking off the sweater.

We'll get some other groceries from other stores someway somehow along the way over the next few days, we always do, and we have stuff here tonight to eat for dinner, (along with what I can only hope are plenty of Butterfinger bars and dark chocolates from trick or treating!!!) Of course not every trip is like this, in fact, it really hardly ever phases me to shop with all the children.

Happy Halloween!

Compacting continues

*The only homeschool stuff we need for DAILY use. the rest is on bookshelves or in the shoe-holders*

We have found so many cute houses online now, I guess nobody wants to move in the fall--so awesome! Places that are 3 or 4 HUNDRED dollars less a month than where we are now, plus smaller newer home means smaller heat bills, which we simply MUST have.

I am doing all kinds of behind the scenes things to prepare to move, things that, even if we didn't move, are of great benefit to our home. I have been downsizing, downsizing, downsizing our clothes and books and toys, getting closer and closer to the goal of having very few things that are beloved and well taken care of, and that have a place where they go. Our linen closet, (which you used to need a hard hat just to risk opening), now looks like this:

There is only soap, towels, and a tupperware of ALL medicines we own. The towel pile is so small because our dryer is broken again and we have to hang them out to dry, but it rains everyday it seems and so my towels are wet wet wet. This pile was washed by my best friend--thank you!!!!!

I have plowed through our toy boxes, baskets, and bags and plucked out all of the good toys, the wooden toys, the complete sets of toys, the long lasting, high quality toys that we love and use, and have displayed them on some of our newly-bare bookshelves, in reach of the children, easy to clean up, and find.

I have gone through our homeschool stuff, and done this: only the curricula that we love and use, only paper and crayons, only the best of our manipulatives and tools are going to clutter up our lives. No more puzzles with missing pieces, no more 80% filled in preschool books from the grocery store from 1999, no more drawings smashed in with white paper, and a big huge outside-type garbage can sits right in the middle of the room now. I even nailed up some of those "shoe organizers" (5 bucks, wal-mart) right to the wall!
Each child has a drawer (not Charlie) for their notebooks and for their "WORK". this can be ongoing projects, special drawings, 1/2 done fingerknitting, etc. It is all there. I cannot see how any parent, even of pone child, let alone 4 homeschooled kids, could live with the constant "Mama!? Where's the Pikachu I drew in the car that one time? Where's my super bracelet I was working on? Where's my chart of the fruits we did? Where's my old list of ideas I did for my birthday party next year?..."

It is in your drawer, because hopefully you put it in there, my dearie, is what I say.

Stuff like super balls and mini yo-yo's and stickers and all other gumball machine types of things that children seem to accumulate even if you haven't yourself put a quarter into a gumball machine since the 1980's--this goes in their "special drawer" in the kids' lounge. Another cheap, cheap find at any store, but of course it could be anything, a cardboard box, anything!

I hope we can find a new smaller home quickly and can easily pick up these things and move. I hope this is the last house that we haul pounds of flim flam to, that's for sure. As I learn more and more about the decluttering movement, the simplicity movement, I am learning tons more and more about what it is that our family really wants and needs.

With lower house payment, lower bills, and me working, maybe we can get back to a place where we are the fun, on the go family that we used to be--with a tidy and simple home, and some actual money, we can have a savings account and go places like we used to almost daily--far away libraries, hands on museums, science centers, nature centers, visiting relatives and friends, --we are so broke right now that the gas and the food alone to do anything is prohibitive. It might sound really cute to say "pack a lunch!" and believe me, we do--but lunch for 5 or 6 people gets pretty tricky to pop into a stroller under-bag, and I think my husband works damn hard enough for me and/or him to get huge hot coffees when we leave the house with 4 little kids by 8 am on an outing, call me exorbitant, but I have spent all of my adult years bringing nasty burnt homemade coffee in leaky spilly "travel mugs" wherever I go, and it just sucks. (For some women its a Prada bag, I just want a fricking coffee from a drive thru, and I don't even want to think it over if I want large or Grande or whatever-- didn't I eat enough kroger macaroni all week to garner this expense?)

Some people want a huge home and to be broke all the time. We are done with that lifestyle. We would like to have a VERY modest home and to feel like we aren't going to die every time we get a flat tire or the kids need shoes. Living without credit cards is a blessing and one that we are very proud of, but it of course, makes the "paycheck to paycheck" a 100% reality, especially since my husband took about a 45% pay cut this past spring unannounced and for no reason.

Wish us luck!

:)

http://www.paperlanternstore.com/

I am going to get some of these someday. So dear.

Gettin started on downsizing

We like to change our rooms around. Through various ages and stages, wants and needs of our four children, through fads and phases and theories, we have made some choices that have ranged from perfect to absurd to weird to impractical to genius.

Well, this is what we did yesterday: We took all four of the kids' beds, and put them into our smallest bedroom. All lined up like a little storybook cottage. Nothing else in there, no dressers, no toys, no flim flam. Just 4 beds, a nightlight and a fan for white noise.

In the other bedroom, our biggest one, we made it into a sort of super fun kids' lounge. 2 TVs, a couch, a little table, video games, lamps, a few toys, open ended stuff like little cars and blocks, and some throw pillows. They got to hang every crazy poster they collectively owned, The Beatles, Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter. Spongebob, and all the drawings they ever wanted to tape up.

Then the third bedroom is for me and my husband.

There are boxes and boxes of flibbety flub for us to go through and to get rid of/sort/and distribute. We told the kids that this is going to be a fun hang out for EVERYONE, and so it cant be all delicately decorated with Charlie on the prowl. I told them they will each get a shelf about 4 feet up to lay out their display items such as jewelry box, little trophies, special trinkets.

The Mom-secret to all of this is that all the stuff that is crazy and hodge podge can be in the their kids lounge, and I can have my nursery-decor urges fulfilled by the sweet and peaceful little sleeping room they share.

I think back to how we used to fret about what "people" thought back when Greta and Mickey--gasp--shared a room when they were little tots. I laugh and shake my head at how much I cared what relatives who came by twice a year (if we were lucky!) thought about our life. Silly old 20-something Joy. I remember how excited Greta was when baby Mickey started sleeping in her room and not with mama anymore, and how much fun they all have had in various room-sharing combos over the years.

Now we have 4 kids sharing a room to sleep happily and we got this amazingly cute and fun kids lounge room out of it. They have proclaimed me to be a genius and were jumping up and down and screaming how much they loved it. Cool!

Maybe it will last and maybe not. But it was fun to do and I think it will solve alot of small issues we were having. For example, Greta likes to stay up later, but me and Steve are kind of "done" by about 8 or 8:30. So, we told her she can stay up in the kids loungey room and read for a while, watch an approved show that her brothers are too young for (she likes Animal Cops, a scary true show about animal rescue squads in different cities: pretty graphic images about abused dogs and such--she also likes Goosebumps, a mildly "scary" show written for her age that is too scary for Mickey that comes on at 8:30-9pm)

So we put Charlie to bed first, around 7:30 and let him fall asleep. Then Casey around 7:45 . then Mickey around 8, then Greta later. It worked last night, hope it continues.

I keep learning so much from these small house people, and this is good practice for us. As Greta put it yesterday when we were setting up all the beds, "Mama, there is room for 4 bunk beds in here! That's 8 people!"

That's my girl! She and I have been pouring over this site for days now, looking for inspiration. We have a tentative plan to declutter, compact, and scale down over the next few months so that we can begin to look for a new more simple and small and cozy and affordable home in the area in January. I must admit I have already been peeking and poking about online on craigslist and realtor.com and there is lots of stuff out there at a fraction of what we pay now. We are looking for something with a small cottage like inside and a fenced yard. Other fantasies include a kitchen with some kind of half-wall so I don't feel so isolated in there (found 3 online already but I'm not supposed to be looking yet!! arg) and just a simple, cheery vibe. I want NO ceiling panels and NO upstairs with dangerous stairs. I also really do not want carpet--too many bad memories of stained crusty grossness at the old house.

Today: going through the schoolroom and leaving ONLY what we use and love.

(This is so fun!!!!!!)

Learning about the Small House Society

I want to move to a teeny, tiny house. Am I crazy? Do I love punishment or suffering? Have I forgotten our old place and how cramped it was?

No, no, and no. You might want to start here, at the small house society

You see, I have been a non-practising admirer of the simple living lifestyle for about 3 or 4 years now. A lurker, if you will, in magazines like Ready Made and Simple Living, a flybaby on http://www.flylady.net/ and contributing somewhat to a few discussion boards on Mothering.com about getting rid of all of our junk and becoming free. I am a huge fan of Walden. I choose a tent over a fancy RV, outdoors over indoors, etc.

I want to simplify. We are getting rid of our things. Each weekend we are giving away clothes to the goodwill and salvation army. We are purging our house as the first step to freedom from our possessions. We are discussing special trips for Christmas instead of more toys. We have pared our schoolroom down and down and down to what we really actually use and need and love. We have been trying to have hearty, simple meals such as just baked potatoes with toppings, soup and crusty bread, granola and milk...We have gotten rid of tons of dishes, and the children each have one special spill proof cup. We each have 2 sets of sheets and one comforter for our beds. (the babies have more sheets)

But its not enough. I want to move to a tiny tiny house someday. Look at this website. Type tiny houses or small house or simplify or declutter into Google and see what you get. I fantasize about being forced to have less stuff.

At our old house, it was a bit of a hellish nightmare. We had a "normal" (American) amount of c-r-a-p, but no garage, no attic, no basement and miniature closets. And so things like sleds in the kitchen and clothes in Rubbermaid containers in the living room made for a home that looked completely filthy and gross and chaotic almost all the time. We werent knowledgeable about simple living and so the smaller house was just a nightmare. We were slaves to the shuffling, cleaning, distributing, resdistributing, arguing about, and "organizing" a giant landfill amount of CLUTTER.

So we moved to this big house, near to Daddy's work, and we love it in many ways (1800 square feet 1950's brick rental, long L-Shaped ranch, one story, garage, no basement, lots of closet space) and it can look really neat and tidy whenever we need it to--company coming, etc. even with four homeschooled kids home all day long. But its a total sham. We still have WAY too much crap. You cant even open our garage door without mystery flim flam spraying down on top of you.

So, here are all the ideas I would want for a tiny tiny house with a family of six. Everything I want to own on this Earth. This is my actual list of what I would want to keep in our lives. (Then I am going to get to work on it!!!) I think being in denial that this is right for us has kept us back all these years.

Bunk beds. Custom made, if necessary, for more than 2 children. (Triple bunk!!) In the tiniest of rooms you can still fit many bunk beds. They are cozy and private and fantastic.

One bike for each person, hung from ceiling or stored somewhere clever.

Basic toiletries: Shampoo, Conditioner, mild soap, mild lotion

Towels+washcloths

Bedding

Big pot

Little pot

Frying pan

Pitcher

2 Mixing bowls

Spatula

Ladle

Tongs

Toaster

Teapot

6 Plates

6 Bowls

6 Cups

Silverware

One container for each person of "special possessions"--jewelry or trinkets.

Drawing Paper

Pens/pencils/crayons

One curriculum box for each child

One computer (laptop would be so cool, and save space but we don't have that)

2 Hampers

One giant garbage can, one little one for the bathroom

Our favorite books, the ones we really want to read and refer to, (not just the ones that seem cool to own or display)

Our favorite DVD's

Portable DVD player

One boombox type radio/CDplayer/Cassette player-recorder

Ipod

One sled for each child

One pair of boots per person

One pair of snow pants per person

One winter coat per person

Seven t shirts apiece

Seven long sleeve shirts apiece

Seven pants or shorts apiece (I don't even have this now)

Seven socks apiece

One pair of tennis shoes

One pair of dress up shoes apiece

One bathing suit apiece

One pajama set

Seven pairs of undies

Seven sweaters or sweatshirts

Full set of cloth diapers (the one size fits all kind would be ideal)

2 hats (baseball and snow)

2 mittens

One scarf

One large Rubbermaid box of old photographs

One couch (possibly a hideabed for mom and dad if it was a one bedroom cabin)

Refrigerator

Stove/Oven

Minimal toys: music toys, wood blocks, multitasking toys such as Lego or a wagon

Large family tool box with hammer nails screws screwdriver drill level pliers wrench and ratchet. Also in here could be magnifying glass, funnel, scissors, flashlights, batteries, tape, stapler,glue, hole punch, needle and thread and buttons, and measuring tape and magnets.

Sewing machine

My makeup and hair elastics

Extreme minimal first aid kit: herbal and regular medicines, bandages, peroxide

Coffee maker (or french press using boiled water from teapot)

Recycling bins (even if I had to take the stuff into a different town)

Kitty+supplies

Bunnies + supplies

Rugged jogging type of stroller for lots of walking and not using cars.

Camera

Lamps and candles

Bleach-vinegar-borax-baking soda-natural washing soap

Mop+bucket

Broom+Dustpan

Beloved board games

Wristwatches and clocks

As far as toys: my older kids love their gameboys and pets, and my littler kids love their traintracks and matchbox cars. We all play with blocks and EVERYTHING else we could go enjoy "in town."

I have left out a few things that I love and use daily but could live without and am actually a bit curious to see how I would do:

TV (Love it/hate it/would rather go outside with my kids)

Washer and Dryer (love it but some tiny houses aren't equipped and would be willing to laundromat as a weekly event)

Microwave(convenient/dangerous and scary)
__________________________________
Well, that's it. That is all I would bring. this list might have been incredibly boring to read, and I apologize--but it was really fun to write and it took me a long time. Tell what you think!

Currently reading: Simplify your life with Kids and Simplify your Christmas, both by Elaine St. James. So far so good, although she she doesn't have kids and doesn't refer to or even seem to know about homeschooling, these are both nice reads so far.


***Mom gets to keep more shoes as a gift for being so fabulous :)

***Mom reserves rights to extraneous undies :)




Please check this page for tons of info and great links and pics!

Click this to see an amazing home that you wont believe the pictures of the square footage :)


I will need to whittle down my list but if I really got to the point where everything we had in this house was that list, then maybe we could look into making some kind of huge amazing life changing move in the future--a few years down the road.

Cool Wife 101

I am happy to say that I am a cool wife. Yep. By this I mean that I am neither a doormat nor an evil shrew. I don't take no abuse and I don't give any. If I ever do by mistake, you had better believe I apologize and I mean it and I make darn sure it doesn't happen again and I expect the exact same from my husband. I try to enjoy life and spread the joy around, and the number one person that I love is my husband, and so, when you love someone, you want them to be happy, and making them happy would feel good and that good vibe would bounce right back at ya and there you'd have it, a happy scene, a happy home. It is totally ok to open yourself up to love giving and love receiving and being COOL to someone! Don't be sucky! Don't allow yourself to be treated wrong! Speak up immediately, immediately, immediately, say HEY! Thats not cool AT ALL! and explain. Be able to hear the same from your partner. BE COOL TO OTHERS!

Allow me to extrapolate: I do not get pleasure by seeing to it that my husband is deprived or beat down or depressed or feeling lower and/or crappier when I am around. I do not degrade him, diss him, hate on him, roll my eyes at his jokes, boss him like an evil substitute teacher, treat him like a servant, rain on his parade, ignore him, berate him, isolate him, control him, embarrass him or do passive aggressive manipulative stuff to him. Sick! Would you like that? YUCK!

Common decency starts from the moment you wake up. Throw everything you ever read in the women's mags and all the demented stuff you learned on MTV and Doctor Drew and Doctor Phil and just start by being a good roommate. Then move up to friend. Then maybe youll get promoted to lover--teehee. Remember who you love and why you love them and above all treat others the way you would like to be (and deserve to be!) treated.

If you do not love them or all you can do is sit there and huff and think "he needs to read this, not me" then you need to go to counseling or consider splitting up. Its 2007, it happens!

I repeat the bit about a decent roommate, because here is what decent roommates do that so many long term couples still cant seem to handle: SHARING and CARING! Yes, people, you are only 50% of the little bubble that is coupledom, and that means 50% of the housework, the back rubbing, the helping, the alone time, the active listening, and the REMOTE!

Work out deals. Constantly. "If you do the dishes Ill do the folding"...negotiate
"If you get that crap put back in the garage I will bring in all that crap from the attic and we can go through it together"...negotiate

"If I do this entire horrible bathroom will you go get us sundaes?"...negotiate

"If I get to sleep in tomorrow, you can on Sunday"...negotiate

"What shows would you want to watch if you had the house all to yourself? This is what I would watch...lets work something out..." negotiate

"I seriously cannot plan one more menu. Please help me think of food to buy and I will help you with your___ that has been driving you nuts"...negotiate

"Can we cut a deal regarding me not doing these dishes tonight?" (sexy wink) LOL

I could go on and on. But seriously! Why and when did being super mean and distant and or/evil and power mongering and controlling and seething become the standard year 2 until death or divorce way of treating each other?

I am a *cool wife* because I see how happy my husband is to be with me, to live with me, to hang out with me--HELLO--what about the fine and simple art of HANGING OUT?

There are no excuses for not trying this. There are no lack of babysitters, because you want to know another secret of me and Steve? We have a special date night almost every night. We celebrate e v e r y t h i n g. We celebrate things such as:

Its the weekend!
I worked late tonight!
Its halfway through the week!
I think my cold is getting better!
We didn't bounce any checks!
I love my new haircut!
I love your new pajamas! Go put them on for me!
We have leftover pizza AND pop AND ice!
I TiVo'ed something ridiculous on VH1 for us!
Lets do a fire in the fireplace!
Survivor is on tonight!


I don't like to reveal quite this much about my private private life. It feels a bit freaky. But what I don't like even more are all these lovebirds who are being so bad to each other. Life's short, folks. Find happiness in yourself, and spread it on. It really is ok to be a cool partner/roommate/spouse. In fact, its totally contagious ;)

His Majesty: The Scarlet Oak

I adore Oak trees, there is simply no other tree that can match its awesomeness. I love the leaf shape, I love the straight trunks, I love the precious, darling, amazing little acorns, I love the history and symbolism of Mighty Oak, King of the Forest. But the Black and White and Pin Oaks around town, as cool as they are, and as much as I appreciate each and every one of them, just do not do much in the way of exciting color display come autumn. The vast majority of our Oaks around here turn a very UPS brown, the poor dears.

But.., there is an Oak tree so awesome, so ridiculously beautiful in the fall time, that if you happen to luck upon one you will be forced to rub your eyes and squint at it, scarcely believing it is real--and that is the Scarlet Oak.

Scarlet Oak leaves turn an absolutely pure, fire, cardinal red. No hues of yellow, no bursts of pink, I am talking R-E-D. It looks fake! The first time I saw one, Casey was a new itty bitty baby, 2 months old, mid October 2003, and we were trying our hand at homeschool outings with three kids--so we went to a nature center about 20 miles north of my house, and we saw these gorgeous red trees. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were Oak leaves, and I was so excited! I started piling them into our car, into the stroller basket, into my bag--there was just not a single one of these trees anywhere in town. I would have noticed for sure. I thought it surely must be a "Red Oak", but when I got home and did a little research, I found out that it was the one and only fabulous SCARLET Oak--a perfect name for this color.

If I ever buy a home where I really am going to stay for years and years, I would immediately plant dozens of Scarlet Oaks around my property. I imagine people coming from miles around to stare at my cinnamon-cherry forest, kids picking up the leaves as fast as they could fall, folks taking photographs of their frolicky dog jumping in the bold red piles....

So, look around for any Scarlet Oaks near you! (And whatever you do, don't call it a Red Oak! Those are lovely too, but they are not the same.)

Red Oak; Not the same.

A few gaming pics

Dada and Charlie, playing Baby Bird Game.















Charlie contemplates his next roll.













Keeping an eye on Dada, so he doesn't try to pull any funny stuff.










Heroquest, the game Greta and Mickey love to play with good old Dada.

Coca Cola Blak -c'est tres delicieux!

This is my new special treat. I got one once in a gas station last winter and I LOVED it. But then I didn't see it for a while and assumed, like so many things I like, that it didn't take off and was discontinued. But not so--I got a 4 pack today from a local small grocery store--hooray!

Although this is what the official website has to say, I would describe it more as a very dark and luxurious chocolate/caramel/coffee Coke. It is decadent, like Godiva chocolates or something. It is amazing. It only comes in little glass bottles and that might make it more special. (In fact, I know that that makes it more special, because just imagining drinking it out of a plastic cup makes me feel very sad.) So yes, the little glass bottle adds to the whole thing.

If you like Guinness, espresso, or dark chocolates, give this a grown up, sultry, big sister of Coke a try. I think you might just find that its awesome.

Big Wheel link

Here is a link that I got by typing "Big Wheel Tricycle" into Froogle.com

http://www.playthingspast.com/em701.html

With an adjustable seat (no tools required, just lift it out and pop it in wherever you want) it can be shared with more than one kid.

If you don't know about Froogle, oh my gosh-- it is a service linked on the google main page that price shops for you! Try it out! Save hours!

The Bald Cypress

The seed

The leaves
The crazy roots
The bark
The "knees"

The body shape
Seed again
Swamp livin'
One more pic of the gorgeous fruit.

There is a tree that I love, called the Bald Cypress. I could have copied and pasted something off the net here, but that just isn't my style. So lemme tell ya about this cool, cool tree.

It kinda looks like an evergreen at first glance--it has needley looking, feathery leaves. It has a main trunk that is tall and thin, like a pine. But, if you get lucky enough to get close to one, you might find yourself thinking "huh?" You will see that has a very, very peculiar fruit, which looks like a lumpy little globe! They are fantastic, blue and brown and bizzarre.

The trunk has a very rosy hue, and is shaggy and flaking off. This may or may not catch your eye--but hands-down, the neatest thing about the Bald Cypress are its' knees! It has these roots that bulge and grow upwards out of the surrounding areas, all around the tree and far , far away! These have come to be known as their knees. They really do look like knobby, bumpy, scary knees of an old creepy tree person. These could be really bad for your home's plumbing, I am thinking, if you had a Bald Cypress in your yard.

This tree is supposedly unheard of where I live--it is a swamp tree! The knees are usually pictured as protruding up out of the swampy waters of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, the Carolinas. But we had one by our old house, and tonight, out walking with the boys, I discovered one by us! I was so happy! I wanted the people to be out in their yard, so I could talk to them about their Bald Cypress, and they could think I was a freak, and I would not care. And maybe they would start to love it, if they didn't already.

Maybe you have one near you, and you didn't even know it. Tell me if you see one, ok?

Big Wheel bliss

There are few things in the world of childhood more awesome and right-on as a low rider, Big Wheel bike. Trike. Three wheels is a trike. Whatever. You know exactly what I am talking about...that rumbling sound, the determined way that a kid has to wriggle their whole body to really make it fly---priceless, such a snippet in time, such a CLASSIC. Any other words escape me. Gertie from E.T.? That kid from The Shining? Everyone you knew in the '70's and '80's?

I don't like these tiny versions of big kid bicycles that the stores are promoting nowadays. I think they are inferior, unstable, dangerous, even. It's a very new invention, these itty-bitty bikes with the little training wheels--and ya know what? I am going to go so far as to say SCREW 'EM! I hate them. It is a big ploy to sell you more and more itty bitty __itty little bikes, and helmets and pads, too--'cuz you know what? A Big Wheel, a genuine Big Wheel, can last your kid from age 3 to 8 or even longer. In this disposable age, wheres the "value" in something that actually lasts more than 2 minutes? Those tiny tiny bikes with the 10 inch wheel diameters suck. They tip over, and if your child is that tiny, to ride a ten inch bicycle, then they are pretty young and tippy themselves. Why add more misery?

Kids on Big Wheels can FLY. They can SOAR. They are steady and sturdy and stable and strong and powerful and mighty and awesome--exactly what the big corp's do NOT want for our kids--its a conspiracy, I swear it. I swear it. I swear it.

Children! Parents! Friends! Stand up for big wheel tricycles! Get them for our girls especially. They will have enough low quality tipping and teetering thrown their way as they grow up. Let 'em soar.

YO GABBA GABBA!

OH MAN!!!

I just got to see my first episode of Yo Gabba Gabba on Nick Jr--I knew I would like this thing, I had heard alot about it, but I LOVED it, if only stylistically.

With its myriad Atari-Generation references, sparse and uber-hip techno soundtracks, totally Gen X graphics and "look", I almost want to say it is like a Wonder Showzen for toddlers. Except that is really, really bad to say. Because Wonder Showzen is terrifying in its over the brink insane irony and painful humor--but if you get it, you get it, and you will get me when I feel a connection.

The first episode featured some ska, Tony Hawk, Biz Markie, a furry hatted DJ, some haunting Nintendo-esque melodies, and just heaps of great 70's and 80's fonts, graphics, puppets, kids doing the robot, and just total Pee-Wee's Playhouse, indie-rock aura.

Is it a bit stupid? Yes. Is it a bit annoying? Yes, the puppets giggle too much. But in the sea of faux-educational programming out there, this is a COMPLETE breath of fresh air. This one feels like your film student friends had a baby and now they made a show for kids, if only to make parenting more pleasant and tolerable for the artsy-wonderfully-intelligent-enough-to-know-that-its-more-than-ok-to-just-freak-out and-shake-your-rump-ah crew of Gen X-ers who are having children who really cannot stomach much more Dora or Barney.

Click the link and you will see how !Brilliant! this thing really is.

It's baaaaaack...

Well, for a while now we have had no satellite TV service. We have existed perfectly well with just the shows that come from the air. PBS, CBS, and occasionally a few others "come in clear". It was summer, and I wanted to be ____ somehow lofty or good or thrifty or highbrow or low tech or what have you and not watch TV very much. We were gonna do other stuff, and all that, remember?

Well, when Steve told me that for TWENTY DOLLARS LESS than we currently pay for Internet and Phone, we could have Internet, phone, and cable TV as well, I was curious and irritated and excited and mixed. but the others "won", and the cable is here!

Look, if you don't want your kids to watch TV, turn it off. But if and when you are gonna watch TV, I'm not gonna be fake and say it isn't awesome to have Animal Planet and Nick Games and Sports and Noggin and Discovery Health, History Channel, Discovery Kids, Nickelodeon, National Geographic channel and Sprout rather than static-y Sesame Street and Price Is Right.

We get to watch sports again now and I don't even dare think about Comedy Central and all that stuff---tonight I will check out all the channels we have, it seems like alot of really good ones! YAYAYAY !!!!!!

My Internet seems faster and they switch the phone in a week or so.

I am really glad. My little sick kids are completely festing out with the new shows, and they are laying still and drinking ice water. So I blog and fold clothes and switch laundry loads, and all is calm.

sometimes a pat on the back has to come from yourself

Steve and I were on track to probably each bring in $40,ooo a year, give or take. We could have had all of the outward trappings of modern-day middle class "success". 2 new cars, a stainless steel fridge, perhaps matching couches or a TV that was thin. Gutters and gutter covers. Go golfing, I dunno.

But then we had a baby and we wondered how it would all work out. Was the baby as important as the fridge, the gutters, the golfing, the flat screens, the couches? What about if we wanted more than one baby?

... then we heard about this fantastic invention: it is a person who lives at your house, full time, and does it all. She cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She does all your grocery shopping, staying within budget, making healthy choices, catering to the various needs of all the family members. She cleans and cleans and cleans, even if you don't have a dryer. She does laundry and she gives the kids baths and brushes their teeth and hair and takes them everywhere they need to go. She makes appointments and keeps track of who needs what when and where. Throughout the day, she will feed your pets and clean them, too. She does toilets and stains and organizes closets and garages. she keeps up on your pool and your mail and your outside birds. She can take your kids to their schools and keep up with all of their school needs and expenditures and activities and field trips and friends and teachers and grades--or--for slightly less cleaning and slightly more money, she can teach your kids right in your own home--freeing you from worry about shootings and shunnings and failings and flunkings and lack of education and also the need for 4 minaiture trashy wardrobes. She entertains your children and keeps up with your work schedule so that you will have a hot meal ready when you walk in.

The only problem is, she costs about $40,000 a year to hire, give or take.

So we got the brilliant idea to just eliminate the middle man and have me do this job.

I don't care one bit if this post sounds sexist, in our family it was a MOM that we needed as a couple, and we both agreed that we wanted me to do this. In many families it is a DAD. In many families there is only one parent. Or two moms. Or two dads. Or Grannie and Big Ben and a dog. Whatever, I wanted to write this today instead of just cutting and pasting yet another one of those articles that claims how much what I do is "worth" in dollars. To Steve and I, me doing what I do was worth exactly one full salary of one person with a bachelor's degree in Psychology.

What is in store for our future? Possible midwifery, possible travel/relocation. Possible Dad does the homeschooling. Possible live in a camper and make our fortune doing some kind of internet based thingy which so far eldues us. House boat. Log Cabin. Downtown Loft. Who knows. But right now, I am a suburban mom, albeit a progressive one--and I know in my heart that the way we do things and the actions we make are much more real than any labels might make me or our family sound on the outside.

Two loads a day, weather permitting

Our dryer is broken, and the landlord couldn't seem to care less. So, I tell myself, at least it ain't the washer, right?

I like to hang clothes out to dry. I like the zen and the meaning and the conscious and purposeful work that is involved. I like that it is slow, and I like how much it makes us appreciate each piece and article that much more.

Except, it has been raining here alot, and if it isn't raining it has been humid and cloudy. Crappy for hanging out my zen clothes, for sure.

When it is warm and dry, though, I can wash and dry two loads--big loads--in one day. If we had more clothesline I could do much more.

One of these weeks we will scrape together the money for a new (used) dryer, and possibly take that amount out of the rent. Before it is cold out, etc.

For now, wish me sunny breezes and children who don't spill so much

:)

The Salmon and Salad diet, day three

I sent a bunch of my friends an email which contained a link to a "diet" (HATE that word) which is, in essence, extremely low in sugars. Its nickname is the Salmon and Salad diet, and it has alot of sound wisdom and information on the website, confirming all the things my body and my research have shown me to be very true.


This was a weird weekend for us, with my husband being out of town, unseasonal pouring rain, and of course, almost no money--so I did not go buy anything very special, but did decide to implement this new --you know-- D WORD as smoothly and as mindfully as possible, without fretting too much about going off of it. I cant tell you how excited I am to go buy a bunch of beans and greens from farmers market this weekend.

Here are the changes I have made since Sunday: I will start from waking time and end at bedtime.

Coffee with no sugar or delicious poisonous powdered creamer. Yeah, black. Shudder. Woulda went down better with a donut, but alas, that would be sugar ;) I am switching to tea someday soon...

Eggs and fake sausgage, but with no toast. So yeah, you guessed it, that means no cinnamon sprinkles, no strawberry jam, no nutella.

For me, eggs are pretty nasty without a sweet drink, and so I had some DietPepsiMax with this. Pepsi max has ginseng! I know, I know, carcinogens, yadda yadda, Im tryin, here, folks. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Tons of water, just because.
I like lemon water--and squirt a big squirt of reallemon in my water. Tastes less like city sewage and more like something sparkly. In case you didn't know this already, I love sparkly foods, and this adjective is the highest honor I can bestow upon a food.

Sunflower seeds to munch on, as well as cheese cubes.

No more sandwhich for lunch, instead I had salad. But dont think iceburg-ranch-and a crouton, more like dark greens, feta cheese, black beans, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, onions and olives.

Hummous to eat would be good and I want some soon.

No candy, no ice cream, no popsicles, and no regular pop!

We had mexican food last night, and while it might not have been on the "diet", what I had was really low glycemic index stuff. Black beans, cheese, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, pinto beans, jalapenos and more diet pop. I had a few tortilla chips but not mountains of them. I passed on the tortilla soft shells and the dessert which the kids enjoyed.

So, now comes my annoying born-again pushy part:

I feel like a new person and it is only day three.
No sleepy feeling after breakfast
No falling over after lunch
No evil mood swings which cause my children to look at me and wonder which mommy they will get this 5 minute interval

No sweats
No shakes
No temper tantrums
No confusion
No nothing, really!

The two greatest things so far:
No "IM SO HUNGRY! OH MY GOD! I GOTTA EAT RIGHT NOW OR I WILL PASS OUT!"

AND
No feeling like I got hit by a Mack Truck in the morning. My late night carb freakouts were causing my sugar to crash while i slept, making my awakening 7 hours later feel like a herculean task. No more, and this is the greatest gift I can think of. Yeah, it sucked a little when Charlie cried at 5:50 am. But I went and got him, and we went out in the living room, and that was that. I made my pot of black coffee and started up some eggy-wegs for me and him and was a normal girl.

It is 3:40 pm and I have not had ONE episode of hypoglycemia today. Casey left most of his pb+j on white bread on his plate and I did not jam it in my mouth. I put it in a ziploc and poured myself some more lemon water and had a handful of sunflower seeds.

Small victories!

"compacting"

http://leighsteele.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/eco-groove/

Check this out and tell me what you think!

We are looking into/talking more again lately about simplicity and de-cluttering, but this time I dont mean buying $100 worth of cute containers.

morning snack

As we tackle all the obstacles in the way of us having harmonious times this school year, I am analyzing just exactly what it means when our days feel like they have, for the most part, been whiney and bad.

Today's subject to tackle: mid morning snack.

Invariably, just as the breakfast mess is starting to congeal, I will hear a voice or two saying "Hey Mama!? Im sooooooooooo hungry."

I havent been too nice about this, but it isnt about then not being actually hungry, it is about my frustration with what in the heck to give them, especially if they have had a sugarish breakfast.

Here are some high protien, or at least not sugary things I have come up with, that they CLAIM they like:

Peanuts

String cheese (not Mickey)

Those cheese-n-peanut butter crackers

Pinconning cheese

Wheat thins

Cheez its

Carrots

So, if they eat at 7:30 am which they did today (so much for Mickey sleeping in!! yikes!! its all falling part before it starts!!! breathe breathe its all ok) they cried and begged for more food at 9:45. So, a couple of hours. which now makes our 11 oclock lunch rediculously early AND Greta is still asleep, so is she going to waste away as she misses one of the three meals each day?

ARGGGGGGG

this seems hard today.

I know I could tell them no, or I could go get Greta up. But, feeling both extremely exhausted myself today, AND knowing all about needing to eat ASAP, I dont have the heart.

We need a more accessible kitchen, more snacks that they can get themselves, and all sorts of other solutions that I am too tired to think of right now.

Night time bliss

Camraderie
Comfort
Closeness
Closure

Late evening bliss

Kids all in pajamas, teeth brushed
I read the baby a story while they get their ice waters ready
Baby nursed and put to bed in his crib without a fuss
Daddy reads the older ones a bit from a chapter book while I start the laundry
We put them to bed together; kisses all 'round
Older kids read to themselves for 1/2 hour on the bell-timer
Casey goes right to sleep
______________________________
Steve picks the CD: Iggy, MC5, Dylan, the Black Lips and more
We talk while doing 1/2 hour of power straightening and tidying
Laundry in the dryer
I lay out the next day's school work
I use the computer while he showers
He does the same while I shower
Meet up on the couch, 9:30 at the latest