"Go tell mommy. I'm not the boss."

Yeah, right. If only that were true... Felisa and Corey are playing. Corey bumped his chin on something. He told Felisa, "I hurt myself." Her oh so helpful reply is above. I find it particularly funny that she said that since she loves nothing more than finding someone to boss around, someone who will do her every bidding. I'm not the boss? Since when?! She had her birthday playdate with Melissa on Sunday. They played at Melissa's for awhile, baked cookies, etc. then came home to recruit more bodies to play hide-and-seek. The other kids weren't home so they played Candyland instead. When I passed through the living room, Felisa was telling Melissa every step of the way. Do this, do that, say this, let's go here... and so on and so forth. She's cute though so it's hard to resist her direction.

Hodge Podge

As I write this, Ryan is dusting my shoes. This is a job he adopted a couple years ago. He will periodically sit down in front of my shoe shelf and pull out each pair, dusting them off, and replacing them. “This doesn’t have a size. Sometimes the size will show the age.” “These two shoes are from the same company but are different sizes. The green ones are 9 ½ and the blue ones are 10.” Based on those two quotes, I would say that I probably bought the green shoes first. And if I had to try them on, those green shoes just may not fit anymore!

From yesterday:
The Mud Puddle Incident…
Just before noon, the phone rang. The elementary school was on the callerID. Oh no, I thought. Who and what now?
Who: Ryan
What: Covered from head to foot in mud.
Why: Apparently he miscalculated the dismount from the small bar and ended up IN the mud instead of swinging OVER the mud.
So, I brought him a change of clothes then came home to do a little laundry.

The Catfish On Legs…
Ryan came in to tell me that he needed help capturing the bug in the girls’ room. Apparently there was a crazy looking bug under the blanket on the floor. “A giant head that looks like a catfish but it has legs!” Hmmm… Why don’t they ever call Ron to catch the freaky bugs?! We did indeed manage to capture the bug, using our friends’ cup-and-card method. I released him to the outdoors though he may have gone into shock and frozen to death since it was pretty cold out there last night! I’m not sure why this bug was caught and released since our usual M.O. involves squishing with a shoe. Guess it was his lucky day!

My Afternoon Blues…
I cleaned yesterday. Cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Can’t even hardly tell. I cleared out the entry way, putting away about 5 jackets and 8 sweaters. I cleaned off the white chair which is where I usually dump all of my stuff. I put the library books back in the bag. Then I went upstairs to continue my cleaning rampage in the girls’ room. I threw away a bunch of old junk and compiled a bag of miscellaneous toys to be donated. You can see the floor all the way from the door to the back wall. I cleaned out the wooden puzzles but the cardboard ones remain for another day. And then they came home from school and messed it all up playing ponies. Grrr… The foundation is there though so if I can just be tougher and more consistent about making them clean up… And really I’m not done in there. It’s an on-going project.
Then it was time for dinner… while the food was cooking, I cleaned up some of the mess. Washed dishes, cleared a bit of the counter. Then… (and this is where it gets crazy…) I had 10 minutes left on the timer for the fish. What would I normally do, especially if I had been cleaning non-stop all afternoon? I would normally go upstairs and kick back, maybe check email or watch tv. BUT – are you sitting down?!? – I didn’t! I said to myself, you have 10 minutes. Why not see how much vacuuming you can get done before dinner? I’d been meaning to vacuum all week and hadn’t gotten to it yet. So I did. And you know what? I vacuumed the entire living room, kitchen, and under the dining room table. I can check that job off my list. So out of character! I was thinking though at the time that I wasn’t really liking this productive, clean all day way of life. Ultimately though, it was nice to have done a lot. And I still had plenty of veg time in front of the tv after dinner while I worked on cleaning out my email box. I made it from July to Oct 2007 in only 2 ½ hours. What? Shocked at the amount of clutter in my life, even virtually? You shouldn’t be.

So, there you have it. Now I’m off to clear more old emails. Already this morning I have put out two freecycles for pick-up, made scrambled eggs for everyone for breakfast, and got my card ready to mail (I sold another card on Etsy! WooHoo!). Later today I have a playdate for the kids where I will be staying for about the first hour and I have to get the ropes and plates ready for Blue and Gold tonight. Ron’s headed out for a bike ride later and if I’m really lucky, I’ll have time to spend scrapping.

Go me!

Mid-Afternoon Blues

I was so full of energy and plans and determination this morning. Alas, where has it all gone? And with it has gone the time. I have reached that mid-to-late afternoon time (around 3 or 4ish) where I am left with only the overwhelming thoughts of all that remains undone. So much I want to do in each and every day and yet I lack the energy to maintain the pace. By this time of day I have switched over to regular daily maintenance (i.e. dinner preps and kitchen cleaning) or avoidance (i.e. hide in my room doing not much of anything in particular while I try to avoid the noise levels of the children playing elsewhere in the house). I know that most likely, not much else productive will be done by me after this point in the day. I'm just waiting for it to be bedtime so I can chill out in my warm bed (kind of an oxymoron, eh?!), watch a little TV, and go to sleep. I am so much better in the mornings. For example, last Friday night - the kitchen was a total and absolute wreck (even though I didn't even cook dinner - just ordered pizza) and I was going to be gone to a crop all day Saturday. Ron saw the disaster and panicked a little. What do you mean you're going to bed? Aren't you going to clean up before you leave? Trust me, I told him. That's what tomorrow is for. You see, for him, sooner is better than later and evenings are better than mornings. But for me... later and eventually work fine. And so does 5 a.m.! I got up at 0515, cleaned the kitchen, showered, finished loading odds and ends into the car, and was ready to leave by 7. I'm just better in the morning. More efficient, perhaps a bit. But generally just better able to cope.

So know you're thinking... why not just get up early every day then? I'm thinking the same thing myself. Unfortunately I do struggle a bit more with getting up early (without a good reason like scrapbooking to look forward to!) when it is so dark and cold outside. My other problem is that I'm up early because I want to be alone. If I make too much noise or turn on too many lights, well then, I won't be alone any more. And if I'm not making noise or turning on lights, well then, what am I accomplishing? See the problem? I just need someone to fix it for me. Fix. IT. Please!!!

For now, the sun is still shining, though it is starting to fall below the treeline so technically I can still think of it as daytime. So perhaps I shall go back to my deep-cleaning of the girls' room. We're having leftovers for dinner (shh - don't tell Ron!) so I don't have to do that right away. The kitchen can wait until morning (shh - don't tell Ron!). And so far today I have vaccuumed up about 10 pounds of snack crumbs, changed the sheets, found a library audiobook that I swore I had returned in June last year, and freecycled the baby dolls that the girls NEVER play with. I'm tired of looking at them - out they go! (The dolls, not the girls.) Let's see what other damage I can do in there before the sun goes down...