A Day in the Life

OK, I know I still have just about two weeks until the kiddos head back to school, but I am in Fall mode already, so figured I should update the progress on my summer goals.

• De-paper the guest room. I made a dent.  I still haven’t tackled the box of papers from college, or the boxes containing the kids “keep” items, but I did sort through all my work/volunteer files.  Grade: B-
• Clear out the too small dress up clothes. It is on deck for tomorrow while the dog is at the vet’s for his “procedure.”  Grade: Incomplete.
• Find a good home for many, many boxes of books. I sorted many, many boxes.  They are now awaiting delivery to the church book sale this fall.  Grade: A-
• Deal with the basement shelves. Didn’t touch this one, and have no plans to do so.  Mainly because I just can’t face disposing of the old paint cans and batteries.  Grade: F
• Knit. I knit very little this summer.  But I did sort through the stash a bit, and bagged up some of the yarn I know I will never ever knit with to donate.  Grade: D

In procrastinating my actual to-do list, I also accomplished the following:

• Cleaned out the art closet and labeled the bins.  An annual pre-school ritual around here.
• Cleaned out the upstairs game closet.
• Found space in the back hall closet for the dog’s supplies.
• Sorted through my t-shirt drawer and got rid of all the stained, torn, and over-worn items (and then proceeded to Target to replenish my supply as there was nothing left).
• Helped the kids clean out their closets and stuffed animal bins.
• Emptied out all the baskets in the living room.  The things that were found in there?  Christmas ornaments that have been missing since we lived in the City (8 years ago).  C’s missing kindergarten homework (he is now entering 3rd grade).  Lazy Cat’s favorite plush mouse (which she is apparently too old to play with now).  Pictures, pictures, and more pictures.  Magazines, magazines, and more magazines.

And, now, the kids’ five minutes of peaceful play has turned into a full-on brawl in the playroom.  Do you think I could send them to school early and call them interns?

We made it to our final destination, cargo bag intact.  Unfortunately, while the cargo bag stayed put, it was in fact not waterproof as advertised.  We discovered this as the instant I hit the MA border, the heavens opened and it poured.  All the way to the NH border, where the weather magically improved.  The only things damaged in the deluge?  My year-long magazine collection and my clothes.  Thankfully, M had the sense to put my knitting in the car, so I didn’t end up with a bag full of felt.

The kids have fallen right back in with their summer friends, disappearing for the morning at tennis and various other activities and spending the afternoon running from one family’s beach encampment to another’s.  I have gotten 3/4 of the way through my waterlogged magazine collection, and finished the back of my cardigan.  The weather has been beautiful, not too hot and not too cold.

Added bonus: Right now everyone, including the dog, is fast asleep.  At 1:20 in the afternoon.  Do you think I can stay on vacation permanently?

I am packing for our annual Eastern Seaboard trek.  Complicated this year by Herr Dog, who not only takes up the entire back of the car, but also requires his own bag.  So we have now become uber cool and will be treking north with a cargo bag on our roof.  Let’s hope the Amazon reviews were correct and the $40 bag is just as good as the $200 hard carrier as I will be mighty miffed if our belongings end up scattered across the Mass Pike someplace.

Thank goodness I have my packing list to refer to.  This year I am adding onto it the various non-clothing things I never remember.

• Cell phone and charger
• Camera (and charger, and the card reader so I can actually download the pics)
• Video camera
• Kindle (and charger)
• Sun glasses
• Kids’ bike helmets
• Headphones and iPod arm band

I am also going to add on some more specifics at the END of the vacation, such as how many outfits the kids actually need, etc.

Wish me luck…

The Invechr, By A, Age 6

ouns ther wus a gilr. She had a dog and two cats and a fyou fish. She wotitid to go on a hick. Her mom had set up a TV, but she had uthr plans. She got a fyou awtfits for the hick and with that, she ran off.

Translation: The Adventure. Once there was a girl. She had a dog and two cats and a few fish. She wanted to go on a hike. Her mom had set up a TV, but she had other plans. She got a few outfits for the hike and with that, she ran off.

Personally, I don’t see it, but who I am to question a random meme website???

I write like
Margaret Atwood

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

As written by A, Age 6

Jesick and Cser wre sistrs.  Thaey wrte not just sistrs but dtettes too.  Jesick wus tee ordist. Tay had two dogs and tree cats and a fise.  Thaey had two bruthrs Frack and Joe.  It was winter.

Translations: Jessica and Sara were sisters.  They were not just sisters, but detectives too. Jessica was the oldest.  They had two dogs and three cats and a fish.  They had two brothers, Frank and Joe.  It was winter.

I don’t know why I am even making summer goals, between the kids who are doing a whopping 12 hours of camp all summer, and the dog who is lovely, but the biggest productivity suck M and I have ever experienced in our life, I’ll be lucky if a bed gets made by September.  But, because I am the queen of setting unrealistic goals, burning out, and eventually accomplishing something nowhere on my list, I feel the need to set goals, if only so I can figure out what that something that needs to get done but is nowhere on my list thing is.

• De-paper the guest room.  No, not wallpaper, paper paper.  The guest room is the final resting place for all those “important papers” that generally live on the kitchen counter but have to get shoved someplace when company comes over.  Except the papers go in there and they never come out.  I am fairly confident if I ever go through that room I will find milk order forms from two years ago.
• Clear out the too small dress up clothes.  Seems like a no-brainer, right?  Ha!  A has a dress up collection that rivals a small theater company’s wardrobe room, and loves each and every piece in her collection.  But, she has moved from the dress up every second of the day stage to the horses, horses, horses with a few fairies thrown in for good measure stage.  Which in my mind means that at least some of those clothes should find a good home someplace else.
• Find a good home for many, many boxes of books.  When we moved, four years ago, we swore that we would get built-ins done for the living room to house all the books that had lived in the built-ins in our old house.  Its been four years, and those books are still in my attic.  Thankfully, I had the sense to mark which book had the Harry Potter series in them, so when C started in on those this year I didn’t have to dig through all 20 boxes for them.  But I am sure there are other equally well-loved treasures in there desperate to come out.
• Deal with the basement shelves.  In our basement, there are two lovely sets of shelves that would be perfect for storing extra rolls of paper towels, tissues, and TP.  But at the moment they are filled random, random junk.  M may disagree with me on this one, since they live in his corner of the basement, but I have a feeling that he can’t identify most of the shelves contents either.
• Knit.  I must knit, if only to reduce the stash and reclaim some of the guest room closet so I can store the papers referenced above in there.

Do you have any summer goals?  Besides staying sane and trying to convince the kids that tattling never pays, of course…

I had to force myself to pack one. last. lunch. this morning.  I hate packing lunch.  Had I known that there is no cafeteria at our neighborhood school, I might have chosen to live elsewhere.  Not that I would have the kids buy lunch every day, but, once in a while, when I just can’t face making another sandwich, it would be nice.  Plus, over the course of the year we have lost three lunch boxes, all of our reusable containers have broken, and the kids “misplaced” several water bottles (I have no idea how many, I just know that my cabinet went from not empty to, well, empty).  While I am, in theory, a fan of the reusable lunch movement, it is not exactly a cheap option for a family with children who seem unable to keep track of their lunch boxes and drink containers for six hours.

M doesn’t understand my hatred of packing the lunch boxes.  And on the surface, I can see his confusion.  It is not like I won’t have to make lunch every day when the kids are home for the summer.  But if they are home I don’t have to try and guess what they want to eat, and is has become abundantly clear this year that what they want at 6am is almost never what they want at 12pm.  Plus, if they are eating at home I can serve food that requires an oven or microwave for reheating.  For as much as I try, those thermoses apparently don’t actually keep warm food as warm as the kids would like.

During the school year, if we are out of food at 6am Monday morning, I have to scramble around to come up with something approximating a lunch.  One slice of bread, applesauce, a cheese stick and some cereal?  Lunch of Champions, I pinky swear kids!  Over the summer, if we are out of food at 6am Monday morning, we can either run to the store before lunch, or, perhaps more likely, we can go out to lunch.

I would say it is an odd quick of mine, but based on the excitement at drop off this morning from pretty much every parent I talked to, I think hatred of packing lunches is a widespread phenomenon.  Regardless, I can rejoice for the next seven weeks, and rejoice I will.  I will also be hunting down lunch containers with a built in GPS.

It isn’t a national holiday without a sick child at Chez J-E.  A has been sporting a fever of 104+ since half-way through her kindergarten graduation on Thursday.  And may I say, there is nothing like being in the back row of a church, watching your child go from happy happy happy to swaying and about to topple from the top riser in under 30 seconds.

I will take stomach bugs any day over the random viral fever.  Ulgh.

• I went to a conference last weekend, and discovered upon arriving at the hotel, located far far away from any store of any kind, that I brought a wardrobe of white tops and only black bras.  Yes.  I sported a unique look for the weekend.  Thankfully, I had learned how to discreetly cover my boobs while nursing the kiddos and spent the weekend artfully draping my wrap.  To the point that one of the attendees commented on my love of the wrap as an accessory.  Which, of course, forced me to tell her the reason, causing her to laugh hysterically in sympathy and then and share my predicament with others.
• At this same conference, I arranged a networking dinner for 23 women.  About halfway through dinner, the lights dimmed and raunchy music started playing.  I leave the rest to your imagination.  That’s what happens when you try to plan events with puppy brain, and fail to do due diligence.  In my defense, it got rave reviews on Open Table, and the food was indeed exceptional.  What the reviewers failed to note was that 10pm on a Thursday night there is a “special” show. (And no, there was no nakedness or removal of clothing, just, um, scantily clad).
• If one were to rate networking events on how well folks remembered each other years from now, however, I bet mine will rank up there.  At lunch the next day, several of the women who attended were chatting happily away with each other and regaling everyone around them with the story of their evening.
• As you can imagine, by the end of the conference EVERYONE knew who I was.  Unfortunately, it was not for the reasons I had hoped they would.  On the upside, as a result of my “reputation,” I did get an exceptional turnout at the session I led, and it was successful enough that I was asked to lead it at another conference in October.  I was not, however, asked to plan a networking dinner.
• I promise to wear all black and order room service all weekend.