Two Posts in One: Awesome Mother's Day & Containment Rooms

Sunday was a great day, even though I'd been up late the night before. I managed to sleep well, and get up early enough to get going and get out the door. Some friends of ours were headed to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, and let me ride along. Conversational topics on the drive were geared toward energy work, urban witchcraft, and creation. It was great.

We wandered, and played, and watched a sheepdog demonstration. Yet again, I had a reminder of why I should be working with my dogs every day; and yesterday and today, I have stuck to that. At least 5 minutes a day with each dog is not nearly enough, but it's certainly better than nothing.

I ended up bringing home some handfuls of roving, the knowledge of a drop spindle lesson and a wheel-spinning spindle, and a small frame loom. I've been trying to figure out and learn some techniques. And I need to grab my drop spindle and work with it, but right now I'm just longing for a wheel. It was so very much easier and more fun than using a drop spindle.

I also brought home a pin that says, "I spin therefore I am." I thought it entirely appropriate for this household, whether I'm spinning fiber or not ;)

When I got home, Daddy B had done 8 loads of laundry (and put them away!), played with Elijah a lot, and tidied things up. And Daddy C had made bacon before he had to go to work. It was a great thing to come home to. I was able to settle down and eat, and then play, and sleep.

Thank you to all my boys and to my mother and to my friends for my awesome mother's day :)


And as for the containment rooms... multiple parts of the house are sealed off with plastic because an industrial hygienist said, 'There is mold. Seal it off now.' There are very loud air-cleaning machines that are, well, loud. And they shake the floor. And it's very interesting and strange and I cannot wait for all the work to get done. We'll have two remodeled bathrooms by the end of it all, and hopefully the house-cancer that is mold will be eradicated from the house for good.


I also want to take this opportunity to rearrange Elijah's room and possibly take the bookshelf out of it. His room is so tiny that space is at a premium. I want to put up more of the IKEA Wall Pockets to get the books off the shelves but keep them on the walls. And I'm not sure what other methods to use to store things. But I want Elijah to have plenty of floor space to build with his trains. A small loft bed would help a lot. I really want to attach a slide to a small loft bed for him, too :)

I should make his closet usable again. Right now it's full of stuff he's not using, but if I clean it out I can use its shelves for books and school stuff.

Any other small-space storage ideas are welcome. I'm trying to figure out multiple ways to use shoe pocket things, too. Lots of toys, books, office supplies, and random other stuff in this house, and they all need places to live. Labeled boxes are extremely useful, too. These are things I need to remember.

Perhaps if Elijah's bookshelf comes into the dining room where we already have a short bookshelf, put the bookshelf fish tank on the middle shelf, and then labeled boxes full of office supplies, spices, whatever else we need to have right next to the table.

As strange as it may sound, getting a bigger TV (some day) will help us regain some space in the living room. Right now, our TV is an old CRT, and taking up a lot of space. A flatscreen hanging on the wall will free up a lot of space.

Hm. I'm just rambling now. Oh well. This will make sense to people who live here... and to people who don't, once things get done and I take new pictures :)

I have so many ideas. On days like today, when I feel good (thanks to plenty of sleep and a nice long walk with the dogs), I want to do everything. I want to make everything, and make our space happier and healthier. I need to slow down and do it a little bit at a time.

I love you all, my family. Thank you for my life.

Advice

I had a long chat with my country-girl aunt Loretta from Kentucky, yesterday. She's a widow now, alone in her house and trying to keep going after losing a husband and a son. She raised five kids and kept a household running for many years. Her kids and grandkids are happy people, and I look up to her a lot.

I asked her for her housekeeping advice, and was rewarded with the best/most amusing advice ever:

"If something's dirty, clean it. If it didn't get clean the first time, clean it again. If that exhausts you, find a better way of doing it."

She has also said:

"Every new mother feels like she'll never figure it out, but you will. Just do it. One day, you'll just get it."

And:

"You can't do it all at once. Don't worry about it. Do it tomorrow."

I love that woman :)

-Mama Coyote

Sunday

"Think of pleasing her, not vexing her. You are intoxicated, you should go home."

We're watching Kate & Leopold, and I need more sleep.

I also need to clean my house, and get started on my week.

I want to make grand, sappy statements about how important my family is and how cleaning the house and keeping the kitchen running smoothly is part of my expression of love, because all of those things are true, and half of me wants to get up off my couch and get to work... the other half of me wants to just sit here and possibly fall over sideways and go back to sleep.

And now my sister pack is awake and afoot, and it seems that we're starting Kate & Leopold over again :)

(Though I think I need to start actually structuring my housework a little better. Something like devoting two hours a day to housework, and the rest of the day to playing with Elijah.)

(This has been quite a week. And weekend. And now it's time for a new week.)

Morning, and time for rest.

It's nearly 9am and Elijah is still asleep--but I've been up for an hour. This is unusual, strange, and kind of nice.

I'm sitting here trying to put together a coherent article for Squidoo, and going through my email, and drinking tea, and watching Remmy chew on a piece of rawhide. What I really should be doing is waking Elijah up so we can go for our morning walk before the plumber is scheduled to be here, but, well, I just don't want to wake him up. Who would? He's so sweet and cuddly. Mostly I want to just curl back up with him and go back to sleep.

I may do that.

This post brought to you by tea, playtime, and ibuprofen.

I realized that everything I was telling Corinna today should be a blog post, but I am too tired to rewrite it.

So here is that email in full, almost completely without context. Please enjoy ;)

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"Er. Not "don't make the basement useable" but DO make the basement useable. Plans that DO make the basement possible for us to use.
Yeah.
The plans involve making sure the plumbing is fixed, first of all, so the basement stays dry... then cleaning it a lot, because it is dusty and dirty and stuff. And then painting the floor, then hanging a lot of fabric on the cinderblock walls, then putting down a lot of rugs everywhere to warm it up some. Then shelves and furniture and stuff. It will be eclectic and awesome :D
I do still read FlyLady sometimes. I'm trying to follow the principles a little more... I've mostly managed to do one load of laundry a day for a few days, so that's a start. I've also made sure dinner was ready for the last three days, and that's better than I've been doing lately.
I've also been trying to keep Elijah's room tidy. It makes me smile to see it all nice and babyproof and straightened up. We can go in there during the day and he can crawl all around and play.
I cleaned the hallway out tonight, so it is clear and walkable :D That makes me happy.
I also cleared out three crates and two boxes of stuff in the bedroom... so it's coming along as well.
The current rules are: Keep Elijah's room tidy. Keep the hallway clear.
Eventually the same will apply to all the other rooms, one at a time... the diningroom and kitchen seem to be almost impossible for that, but it will come. Especially when the basement is set up for use and storage. *claps her hands*
I also won a level of Katamari that has stumped me for a few days.
Tomorrow, I will continue to work on the bedroom. One day, it will be cleared out and looking good.
Maybe I'll post pictures tomorrow too."

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As a side note, I've been playing Evony today. I don't know why. I've also been playing Vampire Wars on Facebook, but that's not new. And it's just to watch the numbers rise.

Speaking of trashy mindless vampire-ness, why in the name of all that is holy can I not find a copy of the third Twilight book? We've been on four different excursions to three different stores to look for it, and for some reason they have all the others, but not the third one. What? Why? All I want is my mindless trash to read in the shower--what is so karmically wrong with that that the cosmos is not allowing me to find this book? Arrrg!

There. I think I needed that rant ;)

As usual, InTuneWithSpirit.com and the Sisters of Mercy are helping keep me sane. In addition, so is the audiobook of A Confederacy of Dunces. I love that book so much. I've never read another book where the main character is so despicable, yet the book is amazingly entertaining. It's just wonderful.

I had a short-lived, air pressure-induced migraine today--from about 3pm to 9pm. Okay, maybe not so short-lived; 8 hours is probably about normal for me. The strange thing was that as my joints were seizing up and my head being fitted into a vice, Elijah became more and more energetic and obnoxious. It wasn't my perception that makes me feel that way--he was honestly more bouncy, and was taking delight in hitting me in the face. We took a bit of a nap and then Brian was home and I was rescued and able to hide under a shawl for a while.

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Hmmm. No, I really don't think the tiny details of my life are interesting to the Internet at large, or even my friends. But I know they will be interesting to me in fifteen years, and that's why they're here.

Most life-saving meal this weekend: A McDonalds cheeseburger Happy Meal with fries and chocolate milk. OMG that chocolate milk was what I needed right then.

We have been to IKEA three days in a row. We have two Billy bookcases, a Benno DVD case, an Expedit 5x5 shelf system, three black shoe storage bins, a tube thing for Elijah to play with, babyproofing items, rails to hang kitchen things from, and and and... so much stuff.

We've also been to Salvation Army, yard sales, Craigslist sellers, and Bottom Dollar Food. We have chickens, a ham, tortillas, pork skins, broccoli, bananas. A computer armoire, an IKEA coffee table, candles, baskets, plushies for Elijah (given to him for free by the yard sale people), a toy hammock, magazines, clothes.

We've done so much shopping this weekend, and so much assembly-of-stuff. I feel like we got an amazing amount of stuff done, but also like I've done nothing. Ahh, perfectionism.

Tomorrow I need to get back to--
-cleaning the kitchen
-making food
-doing laundry
-walking the dogs
-shining the sink
-tidying Elijah's room at night
-relaxing!
-Katamari
-organizing stuff

Yeah.

So tired.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll write about being overwhelmed by the things I need to do, rather than doing the things I need to do.

Update-ish thing?

9:30am
Home
listening to the stream at InTuneWithSpirit.com

The house is coming along. I'll have pictures... some day.

My brain hurts today. I'm really only here at blogger because it's morning and my head hurts and I don't want to go out into the sunlight for the morning walk we've been taking lately. But I will. In a bit. When the tea kicks in.

Elijah is afraid of the Swiffer Sweeper Vac. It seems like a pretty decent tool so far, but he screams when I use it, even if I'm carrying him in the Moby Wrap, so I'm not sure how much I'll be using it.

If I haven't said, the sheep of a tiny dog that was Remmy is now the new and improved Remmy--shaved down to less than an inch, pink skin showing through the bright white fur. He had an oatmeal-shampoo bath yesterday and was not pleased about.

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Breakfast: Leftover saffron rice with lots of butter, and an egg, cooked in the toaster oven (because our stove isn't hooked up yet).

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Elijah is currently alternately playing with his toys in his playpen, and standing up to fuss at me to throw soft jingly balls at his head. For some reason that's quite a fun game.

I need drawers. And a wardrobe, because the closet that spans the entire width of our bedroom is not big enough for the two of us. Seriously. We are LARPers, and both have more costuming than everyday clothing. And I was raised by my grandmother, so I have an awful lot of everyday clothing... I've already gotten rid of everything I'm willing to get rid of, so at this point it's a matter of organizing it so that 1. I know what I have, 2. It stays clean and relatively wearable.

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11am

Elijah woke up from his nap, rolled over, and hit the space bar on the laptop, successfully unpausing the Sisters of Mercy. Then he smiled at me.

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1:12pm

Morning walk completed, late. Salsa consumed. Katamari played. Elijah is playing in his playpen, putting toys into the dog bowl. My tongue is burning.

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3:43pm

Elijah is napping. Logically, after a mostly sleepless night, I should be as well, but the ibuprofen and tea and regular infusions of protein have done their job and I am more or less functional right now... so I am putting pictures up on Facebook. Why not Picasa? Oh, who knows. I'll put some up on Picasa later. I think I'm just craving comments.

I made fresh bread! Praise be for the bread machine (which was free). This is happiness, for the moment.

---

4:20pm

Sometimes I feel like some sort of uneducated imposter because I've never watched Julia Child or read any of her cookbooks.

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10pm

Bedtime. Cuddling with the squirmy boy while he nurses, hoping he'll sleep soon. I want a clove and some icecream and t sit in the rain with the dogs. It's an evening of feeling sorry for myself for my lack of freedom. But it's okay. Or rather, it will be okay when the discussions of what other people do with their freedom fades, and when I've had a night's sleep.

Goodnight.

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Today's food, from Twitter feed:

Dinner for me: Tom gha gai, rama noodles with a little broccoli. For Elijah: Plain noodles.

Snack fr me: Fresh bread with butter.

Snack for me: Ham, then icecream.

Breakfast: Leftover saffron rice w/ egg.

Life in the new house...

A few days ago...

I have so many thoughts and no coherent way to express them.

We're moved in properly now, and out of the hotel. I'm trying to unpack. It's going more slowly than packing.

The kitchen is getting sorted out. Brian put the vinyl tile down, and it looks awesome despite being cheap as hell vinyl tile. I have to get everything out of the way before the appliances are delivered tomorrow, and that is so not happening tonight.

I found at least thirty souveiner plastic cups that my dad left behind when he was here for a few days to help make the house go. They are from a place he's never been. Query?

My kitchen has one. ONE! drawer. This may be difficult, but will also force me to declutter and be creative with organizing. That's a good thing.

Elijah's been trying to figure out how to stand on his own for more than half a second. That's pretty awesome.

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Back to the present--

I was up at 8am today, because for some reason that's when Babyface decided it was time to wake up. So we took the dogs for a walk through the swamp, and he slept for half the walk. Sigh.

I had a good, real, proper shower for the first time in a few days, and it was glorious. My hair is clean and shiny and soft. Unlike the shower in the apartment, our new shower remains a constant temperature. Amazing!

Elijah and I spent the day wandering around the house, not unpacking boxes. Some laundry got done, which is good.

Elijah's room is good. It's small, but all it needs to hold is the full sized mattress he and I sleep on, and some toys. And it does this quite well. There are covers on the outlets, and a baby gate at the door. We can hang out in here for an hour or so, playing with toys, and it keeps him happy and laughing. It's great.

5 things I'm grateful for today--
-water filter
-bed
-shower!
-the Internet
-a working stroller

Night.

Elijah is asleep, there's rain outside, Chris is watching TV in his room, Brian is watching anime with headphones across the room from me. The dogs are woofing quietly at the new neighbours who are very loud, and I am wallowing in my head pain, and having a midnight snack.

Midnight snack: Ibuprofen, vitamins, Sudafed, bread and cheese, and Function: House Call. Which is supposed to be honey green tea but tastes like libraries.

When I stood up to go get my midnight snack, I took three steps, swayed, sat down again. My migraine attacks have been weird lately--not nearly as frequent as they were before pregnancy, but more surprising. I used to have ample warning that one was coming, from significant aura. Now they come on much more quickly, and are more susceptible to light and sound than the old ones were.

Dinner was a surprising success; apparently an orange and some cajun seasoning on a chicken in the crock pot works well. We also had cheese to go with the potatoes and broccoli. It was quite good. And Elijah rejected chicken in favour of broccoli.

And after dinner, I had icecream with cream, because my grandfather and I were talking about how much we used to eat icecream, earlier, and how infrequently we do now. But I tend to be happier when I'm eating a lot of icecream, so perhaps I should get back to that.

The day's productivity continued: I packed three crates of books, two boxes of clothes, and one box of sheets. I may have done more as well, but the pain in my head is preventing memory from surfacing.

After dinner, we picked up Marcy to show her the new house, and mostly so she and I could smoke a couple of clove cigarettes and catch up a bit. It was good. It needs to happen sometimes.

And then babyface screamed the entire way home, which sure didn't help my head, or Brian's stress level. So now we're vegging.

Sunday

Sigh.

Life is crazy.

I don't think I have anything coherent to say; I could ramble at length, but mostly it'd probably be a lot of negativity. The house isn't ready yet, stress is high, the dogs are going stir-crazy, etc.

Brian is out at the house, painting it with friends.

Meanwhile, Elijah and I are watching House, doing laundry, trying to do some cleaning, and wishing we had more breadsticks.

Hopefully there's dinner later. And the pool. And a shower. And sleep. Lots of it.

And eventually I'll post more pictures.