Adventures in Moving

We're moved.  I wasn't sure we'd be able to do it, and I must admit I panicked there a bit at the end.  We were truly blessed in the help we received from family and friends.  We finished moving 2.5 days earlier than we thought thanks to them.  That doesn't mean it wasn't an adventure though. 

Class ended for me on Thursday and that's when the moving weekend really began.  The next day we had to travel to the new house to wait for the cable guy.  While we were there, we put Little Guy's bed together and started making his room feel like a real home.  He had been having difficulties and I am positive it was due to all the changes.  His temper was shorter, he tried to push all the boundaries, and he just did not like what was going on.  Big Guy and I thought that getting some familiarity in his new room might settle things down.  So, while the cable guy set up our cable and internet, we set up the bed.  That may have been a mistake though, since he then wanted to spend the night there and we weren't done at the old place yet.  Plus, the bulk of moving was going to be done the next day.

 Saturday began bright and early.  Big Guy and a friend went to get the moving truck while Little Guy and I (mostly the *I*) continued to box things up and get things sorted.  All the electronic items were gone, waiting at the new house, and the entire house was just about done.  At about 10 am, people began to arrive and we started stacking stuff on the lawn and moving it into the truck.  Everyone took a load to the new place while I and two others held back and continued packing.  We were just about done when the truck returned and we finished up our last load for the day.  After that, we headed to the new place and crashed. We still had cleaning at the old place, but what we needed people and a truck to handle, we had managed to complete. 

Sunday, we were sore, we were tired, and we still had stuff to finish.  We went back to the old house to mop, vacuum, and finish wiping things down.  When we arrived, however, we were greeted with a surprise.  Someone had STOLEN our stair railings.  We considered that they may have been stolen for the metal...but someone had left the wrought iron doormat.  They hadn't just stolen the railings either, they broke the bolts getting them off.  Looking out our back window, we noticed that our back neighbors had a suspiciously familiar pair of railings while the guy across the street from them had their old railing.  It was beyond ridiculous.  We griped about it for the rest of the day as we finished cleaning but we got the place in order and went home.  We had a few boxes left that Big Guy was going to pack up the next day when he talked to the office about our missing rails. 

When he went in to the office to tell them someone had stolen our rails, the office's initial reaction was: "That's really not our problem."  Once he explained that we didn't waqnt to get charged on our move out and that we were renters, then they cared.  I couldn't believe it.  Yet another reason why we are so glad to be out of there.  After that he loaded up the last boxes and turned in the keys... And we were done there.  We've been unpacking and organizing and just generally trying to make ouselves at home.  The house is amazing and we love it already.  This has been such a positive move and a wonderful blessing for us.  I am thrilled.  And even Little Guy has started settling in. 

Finally! The end of April!

Today is the first day in a long while that I have had a chance to sit down and write. My class for April finished yesterday and I submitted the grades last night.  Whiteybare also moved in officially this week, so that has added to the busy schedule of the household. But, I now have a 3 day break before my May class begins. Whatever shall I do with all this spare time.

Well, today I made strawberry-blueberry muffins for breakfast.  Admittedly, they came from a mix, but Little Guy doesn't seem to mind too much.  I'm looking forward to making actual strawberry muffins when our strawberries start producing this year.  Provided, of course, that we get to them before the animals do.  I also have plans for an Italian Beef pizza at some point, on homemade pizza dough. 

The dough would obviously be made in our breadmaker (which has been a gift from the gods).  And requires the leftovers from the Crockpot Italian beef Sandwiches I made this week. (Thanks to eatathome.com!)  I had plans to do this whole homemade dinner thing, but our kitchen is a mess and I can't stand working in it.  There isn't enough room or clean dishes, and I end up getting all tense inside.  It's generally  Big Guy's job to do the dishes but, like everything else, dishes fell to the wayside with all the other chores. 

I am also going to work on the calendar and family room today and start getting our schedule back on track.  I want to get this place back to a point where I don't want to set it on fire and run screaming into the night.  Though, with a 4 year old hurricane running through the house, that may NEVER happen. I need to get done what I can today.

This weekend we're going out of town, though things aren't going to be nearly as pressed as I thought they were. Saturday we're heading up to Holland, MI to see my sister-in-law.  Sunday is NOT Mother's Day.  I say that only because I trule thought it was for the past month.  It's a welcome surprise though because now I'm not trying to figure out how to fit everything in. 

Monday starts my May class and I am teaching Fundamentals of English again.  It will give me a good ten minutes at the end of class to write something while the class does their freewriting, so I hope to get back on the blogging track as well!

Weekend's end with guns and bread

I love weekends with my family.  This weekend has been an excellent weekend in terms of recharging the batteries.  We've been clearing out space for Whiteybare which required  moving much of Little Guy's stuff into his room.  We moved his car table which holds his collection of Hot wheels and his train set into his bedroom.  We also moved the TV and PS2 into his bedroom.  I'm feeling kind of torn about that one.

On the one hand, we are now one of "those" parents.  The ones whose four-year-old has a TV and PS2 in his bedroom.  On the other hand, this effectively limits what he can watch.  When the TV was in the front room, it was hooked up to cable and Little Guy discovered Cartoon Network.  I wasn't too thrilled with him watching it since I prefer that he watch good programming.  I became even less pleased when this new programming he had discovered led to him actually punching people and laughing about it.  That was a swift trip to no TV for a while.  However, now that he has the TV in his room, it's not connected to the cable and I know exactly what he can watch. 

But moving the rooms around wasn't the only thing we did this weekend.  We also picked up our Mosin Nagant rifle from the gun store.  Big Guy and I spent the evening yesterday cleaning it off, wiping it down, and learning how it works.  It's a beautiful bolt-action rifle that we've polished and cleaned up nicely.  We're looking forward to target practice out at my mom's place and maybe even hunting.  We were talking about how great it would be to have a Thanksgiving turkey that we just caught ourselves.  Yum!  Needless to say, it was pretty cool getting a gun made in the 1930's all cleaned up.  Big Guy and I Were talking about how cool it would be to find out the history of our gun in particular, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. 

This morning we woke up too late for "church", so I made coffee and waffles instead.  I added powdered sugar and vanilla and made a large batch of waffles.  Little Guy ate about 5 waffles and Big Guy and I decided we could not find better waffles even in a pancake place.   I put the pack of uneaten waffles in a ziplock bag in the freezer.  It will make a great breakfast throughout the week.  This evening, I even dug out an old jar of strawberry jam that hadn't set to use in bread. 

We got a breadmaker off of Cheapcycle for $25 and have definitely gotten our money's worth.  We've made loaf upon loaf of bread, spending only the money needed for the flour and the sugar.  It's been working out extremely well.  Currently, I have the batch of bread with strawberry jam in the breadmaker in an effort to produce a good breakfast bread. This will leave our day-to-day bread free for sandwiches and give us a good, hearty fruit bread for breakfast.  I have plans for cherry bread and perhaps even berry bread.

Valentine's Day Recap

My Valentine's Day went pretty well.  It started rather oddly though.  I awoke to a rather strange rattling noise coming from the front of the house.  I nudged Big Guy and told him to go see what his son had gotten into.  He listened for a minute and then said he knew what it was and it wasn't Little Guy.  He also said I needed to get up first. 

So, I stumbled from our bed, made my way into the kitchen, and stepped into water on the floor.  It wasn't anything too terrible though .  Big Guy had gotten up earlier and set the coffee maker to brew some coffee.  Unfortunately, he had forgotten to put the top down and it sprayed some of the water on our floor.  After we fixed that problem, I went into the family room and was greeted with an adorable teddy bear and chocolates. 

I received a small box of assorted chocolates from Big Guy and a large Kiss from Little Guy, a 7 oz one!  We played games and watched TV and were generally happy relaxing together.  Little Guy went into the front room and played Lego Star Wars until he decided he wanted to play with actual Legos.  At that point, I had to put the brakes on relaxing. 

Big Guy and I told Little Guy that if he wanted to play with Legos, he had to clean up the floor in the front room.  Little Guy took us at our word.  With in five minutes, he came running back into the family room, telling us that he had finished.  Big Guy and I exchanged glances and then Big Guy went back to check.  Withing moments, he laughingly called me to the front room. 

Little Guy had indeed picked up the floor - and covered the sofa and his car table with his toys.  After I finished laughing, I told Big Guy we needed to do something about this.  So, a portion of our Valentine's Day was spent cleaning the front room. 

After we finished, Little Guy watched the Star Wars movies and played with his legos.  When Big Guy finished playing his video game, he went in there and "helped".  It was adorable.  I asked Little Guy what his dad was doing and got the response, "He's building!" Even more adorable, Big Guy and Little Guy came out to show me the "cool" space ship Big Guy had made. 

While my Valentine's Day may not have been red-hot and sexy, it was definitely a sweet day...  More a nice shade of pink. 

Update to yesterday's list and flowers

Yesterday, Big Guy came home with flowers. Not just any flowers but 12 long stemmed roses for me. Why? What was the special occasion? There wasn't one. He brought them home because he felt I deserved roses and he knew when February 14th arrived, their price would sky rocket. But he wanted to make sure I got roses, "just because".

I was...semi-successful with my list yesterday. I finished 4.5 out of the 7 items on my list, including the getting up and making coffee. Well, 4.5 is better than 0, so it sort of worked. Little Guy got clean and I managed to get some of the family room picked up, but not vacuumed.

Big Guy's Valentine's Day Gift. Dragon Age: Origins, arrived and I decided, since my birthday gift was also a game and I was going to guard the PS3 after its arrival like a dog with one pup, that I would give him gift early. It seems to have been as successful as the series of books I bought him for Christmas. I am going to breathe deeply and thank the powers that be. I'm doing good on gift giving.

List of things to do

Final exams for my class were yesterday.  There's always a lightening of the spirit in the air when the class ends.  It's an end to routine, an end to the day-in-day-out.  The students are happy and excited because, for most of them, they've come to the end of their first class in college. 

For me, the end of the month means a three day break before I go back to school.  I always fill those days with grand plans that never seem to come to fruition.  For example, right now, I'm thinking that I'll get the laundry completely folded, the laundry room swept and mopped, the kitchen swept and mopped, and the family room picked up and vacuumed.  I'll also work on the blog and finish reading my book. 

Now, I know that two of those items will definitely happen.  Two others, I know, realistically, are only semi-likely to achieve completion, and the final two items are not likely at all and will take a miracle to happen.  Hey, at least I'm being honest with myself.

What I need is a plan. I need to put together a list of things to accomplish.  So, here goes my list for today:
1 - Get up (This does deserve a spot on the list because, dammit, it's hard sometimes)
2 - Make coffee
3 - Do my blog stuff - write and post the entry, EC stuff, etc
4 - Little Guy's breakfast (or lunch depending on his wake-up time)
5 - Make grocery list and menu
6 - Pick up the family room and vacuum
7 - Give Little Guy a bath and fold Laundry

The hope is, if I make a list, I will follow through.  And I am nothing if not a constant lesson in "hope springs eternal".  I admit it, this is all probably a pipe dream, but some day I will not get distracted.  Some day I won't wander off halfway through a task because something else caught my eye. I just hope it's not because I'll be old and blind. 

Now, obviously I've accomplished #1 and #3.  Little Guy is working on #4 and I still need to do the second item on the list.  So, I feel like I'm off to a good start!  I think, once I get caffeine in my system, following through the other items will be easy!  Wish me luck! 

Original photo by D. Sharon Pruitt

The Week Begins

Today begins the last week of class for the month.  That means final exams and grades. It also means it is a Monday, the end of the weekend, and the need to start behaving like a grown-up. Angels and devils, choices to make, do I act productive, or do I wallow in my creature comforts. 

I always start the week with good intentions.  I plan out what I need to get done on which days of the week.  I even try to figure out approximately how long it will take so I can maximize the efficiency of my days.  And then something happens.  I could probably blame it on ADD, Little Guy, or a combination of the two, but nothing ever goes as planned.  I always end up with part of the list done and none of it hen it was supposed to happen. 

Little Guy does more than his fair share of throwing wrenches into the works. The child has not met a room he could't destroy in under five minutes.  There are times I picture him as Pig Pen from the Snoopy cartoons, surrounded by a whirling mess of toys and books. Right now, I've got the door to his room closed as I try to ignore the mess he's created.  He's since spread out from the bedroom and overtaken the Front Room as well. 

Admittedly, I am holding the wall on the Family Room and attempting to prevent the mess from further incursions, but it's a losing battle at times.  Particularly with a busy boy like Little Guy.  He constantly surprises me.  When he was born, I couldn't imagine what kind of child he would become.  Now, at 4, his personality is emerging on a regular basis.  He has his likes and dislikes and expresses both on a regular basis.  In general, he's a happy kid, but I worry about him. 

His life has changed so much over the past year.  As his mother, it is my duty to make sure that the difficulties that his father and I deal with don't affect him overly much.  How do we really know what he thinks or how it affects him?  I suppose the happiness he exhibits is a good enough sign that we're keeping most of the issues from registering. He's a smart kid and it's going to require fancy footwork to keep him free and clear as he get older.  He already wears me out now!

Grey days and clean clothes

Last night there was a freezing fog advisory for our area and I noticed, when I looked out the window this morning, it was a bit hazy.  I also noticed that the branches of the trees seem to be coated in an icy glaze.  I wish it would choose something other than grey though.  Snow, I can handle and would enjoy.  Sun would be bright but nice.  Grey clouds that reflect grey off the snow and light the world in a grey, dismal light. This does not help in cracking the post holiday blues. 

However, forcing myself out of the rut does.  As you can see, I am getting myself back in the habit of writing.  It would be poor form for a writing teacher to preach writing on a daily basis but not do so herself.  And yesterday, while G and Little Guy played Lego Starwars 2, I made more laundry detergent.  We haven't had to actually buy laundry detergent for over a year. 

Big Guy has no complaints about the homemade detergent and is pleased that the clothes get just as clean for a fraction of the cost.  And, aside from the soap scent that I add to it, there are no other additives.  The clothes get clean, there's no weird stuff in it, and we aren't paying a ton of money for it.  This last batch, all I had to buy was the washing soda at a little over $3.  That should last me for the next few batches and the only thing I'll need to buy will be the scents if I choose to add them. 

Because today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I have no class tonight.  I don't know what we're going to do tonight, but it won't involve school.  I'm holding out for a trip to Barnes and Noble, but it depends on Big Guy's mood when he gets home from work.  In the meantime, while I wait for word, I'll do some grading and see what pans out.  I'll probably even do some laundry.  Little Guy is playing with his cars and animals and watching Thomas and Friends in the front room and will probably ask to play with his trains soon.  Later, we may curl up on the sofa together. 

Post-Holiday Blues

I have homemade chili bubbling away in the crockpot and Little Guy is (hopefully) napping. It's still a bit nippy in the house because I have to keep the heat set at 65 to avoid a massive heat bill. But I also recognize that I am dealing with post-holiday crankiness.

Post-holiday crankiness happens to a lot of people. The coming down from the build up and excitement of the holidays leads to depression and unhappiness. I get cranky after the holidays. Luckily, I recognize it and try to offset the crankiness. But, the whole post-holiday crankiness bothers me. Because it bothers me, it tends to make me crankier. This makes for an unhappy dpwnward spiral. One thing I know I need to do, that will break the spiral, is get back into a routine.

My current routine has flown to the winds. It used to be: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays were teaching days; Wednesdays were my "at-home days", used to get chores and the niggly bits out of the way; Fridays were my days with my mom. Weekends were reserved for Big Guy and our activities. Then, two things happened. Mom's car broke down and eliminated the Friday routine for the time being, and the holidays hit. This event nixed all other routines.

As Big Guy will attest to, I do not do well with change. It is an unfortunate and unpleasant side effect of the ADD, but there it is. A change in routine throws me off and affects me mentally and emotionally. Even worse, the ADD also makes it that much more difficult to get back on track. And if I'm not careful, my distraction can really upset the balance in the household. Big Guy and I are not fanatic cleaners, and Little Guy, for as much as I adore him, is a hurricane and a tornado combined.

What this means is that if I get distracted, nothing happens until I throw a fit because now the house is a complete mess. Big Guy and Little Guy watch me in complete and total amazement while I start slamming things around trying to get things cleaned up. I know the easiest thing to do would be to pick up gradually, but it never seems to happen.

It's times like this that I wish I hadn't married a guy whose cleanliness threshold was so much lower than mine. On the other hand, if Big Guy is the way he is and nothing happened around the house with Crazy Ex unless he did it, what must her house be like now?