Playing catch up

 

 

Every morning this is the image that sits before my mind's eye.  How far will I get today?  How much of my leftover to-do list can I cross off?  It feels like a race that goes on, and on, and on.

 

I still have my pile of Christmas (now called New Year) cards to sign and send off.  I'm doin' it man!  I spent 40 bucks on those photo cards!  I still have the Thank You's for the kids (and Dean and I) to write.  I still have nine girl scout patches left to sew on, three boy scout, and 10 karate stars.  I still need to write out my New Year's blog post.  (and post about 15 other over-due missives as well.  Halloween and Pumpkin Patch anyone?)  A whole host of stuff to put away, cart away and haul away...

 

We're all in the same boat.  We're behind, behind, behind...

 

Nowhere is this more evident than in my log of the kids' completed school hours/assignments.

 

 

Sigh.

 

 

 

But I think I just may have found my answer....

Building Legos with 6,000 friends

We did something new last week. I don't remember now where I saw it, but I read somewhere (I think it was in my Facebook feed) that CurrClick has clubs that you can join. Specifically, a Lego club. All you do is register and it's FREE. You don't have to bundle up your kids, (hunting down coats, mittens and snow boots), just to drive across town and mess around with millions of tiny pieces of Lego and referee the occasional disagreement between kids and stretch the truth about it being an 'educational' endeavor. Nope. We got to stay home, commute to the computer desk, log in and click a couple of links and we were golden.

It is my understanding that this online 'club' meets live, twice a month - the second Monday and the fourth Wednesday. Both classes are exactly the same, so if you miss one, you can do the other - AND, the classes are recorded, so you can actually do it any time you please - if you don't really care about the live chat bit.

The moderator is a homeschool mom of two boys, and she runs the class. There are several windows open on the screen during class - a window with a webcam on the moderator, a large screen that displays videos and various graphics that relate to that month's build, a live chat window, and a window that shows who is present for the current class. The attendees can communicate via the chat window, either with the moderator or the other club members.

Each month has a different theme and build that goes with it. This month the theme is snow, and the kids constructed a rather intricate snowflake. Next month it is a section of the Great Wall of China. The moderator posts a materials list (various Lego pieces) way ahead of time (like weeks), so you have plenty of time to gather the correct number of pieces before the class. The color of the pieces do not matter in the builds. You can, if you choose to, order a kit for that month's build - and the prices seem very reasonable. Fortunately our kids own an obscene number of Legos, so I think we will be okay.

For our class (we did this last Monday), we got our pieces gathered up over the weekend. We logged in five minutes before class, and things were already up and running, with more attendees logging in at a fast pace. I think there were about 50 in attendance by the time the class started - and there are over 6,000 in the club worldwide. The moderator came on right at 2 pm, the appointed time for the class (which lasts an hour long). She introduced the month's theme, did a little bit of housekeeping, and then launched into the subject: snow. We first watched a video about the formation of snowflakes, and looked at a series of microscopic images of snowflakes - all categorized by structural form. They were absolutely breathtaking. Then a short presentation about the different types of snowfall, avalanches and the destructive force of massive amounts of snowfall. Finally we got to the build. The pace was reasonable and the difficulty level was fairly easy for Jordan. Rylan....not so much. I think she was frustrated by the constant chatter from the instructor as she helped other students, and got lost fairly quickly. An advantage of watching a recorded session versus live, is that you can pause the video and take your time to complete a step before you continue on.

The kids enjoyed it very much (when they weren't busy fighting over the chairs and grouching at each other). I enjoyed the fact that the other people in the session could not hear the kids bickering and my subsequent yelling at them to pay attention to the moderator. A win-win situation all around!

A short video presentation about a scientist's perspective on snowflake structure.

A snowflake...

Working on the build...

The finished product!  (If you had purchased the kit, all of the pieces would have been white.)

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Visual chaos: Organizing Board Games

I'm not playin'

 

Don't even think that this is a nice little piece that is about to preach the merits of a well-organized games closet and a 'how-to' bit that will only further demonstrate my OCD tendencies. This is about preserving what little sanity I have left when it comes to dealing with the chaos underfoot in this household. It's also about survival. Because I'm going to strangle the next little urchin who comes along, drags out a game, and scatters the pieces to the wind.

 

If it's been awhile since you've had little people running around, let me refresh your memory. They get into things. Lots of things. They open drawers and clear out the contents. They open boxes and dump out the contents. If the boxes are hard to open, they just tear them open, because they are on a mission. TO DUMP OUT THE CONTENTS.

 

Colin is a master at dumping out the contents. For the past 18 months, he has, on a daily basis, dumped out the contents of at least 10 - 15 different board games - in addition to everything else he does... These are games that have lots of little pieces, like RushHour, Tipover, Blokus, Dominoes, Scramble and BoobyTrap. It didn't matter if I shoved them to the back of the shelf or moved them out of reach - he would grab a chair to find them. Some days I just didn't feel like fighting the fight. Those were the days that the various game elements would migrate to every. damn. room. in. the. house. Imagine fighting this fight every day. Every day. You begin to feel that there is no hope. The mess, the broken and missing pieces... Now add this on top of the normal (and excessive) toy, laundry, and paperwork clutter. It is just too much.

 

My first attempt at containing the mess was to clear out the lower half of the upstairs linen closet and store the games there, where they would be out of sight. It is one of those closets that goes a ways beyond the width of the door, so there was room to tuck plenty of games in. This closet is located in the main hallway, and you have to walk past it all the time to get to the W&D and the kids' rooms. So Mr. Dump Out the Contents would consistently open the closet doors, drag game after game off of a shelf, and dump out the contents right there. Right where you have a 3 ft wide hallway to walk through and right in front of our bedroom door. Most of the time I would employ the 'sweep it all aside with the foot' technique, until I could take the time to put it all away. Sometimes I would forget it was there, and at 2 a.m., when a young child was calling out for me, I would have the pleasure of stepping on something like this:

 

 

 

Now that's a sure fire way to wake your ass up in the middle of the night...

 

So in November, when we moved the dining table out of the kitchen and actually had a designated dining room again, I moved the games onto a book shelf in there, thinking that we could start up Family Game Night again. Nice idea, but a very, very stupid move. Because now ALL of the games were accessible! Oh the joy! The timers! The card decks! The letter tiles! Woohoo!

 

I reached my limit last week when I took down the Christmas tree and found a treasure trove of game pieces under the tree skirt and tucked in the lower branches of the tree. I Googled up a boat load of storage pictures, ideas and suggestions. I wanted to keep the games in close proximity to the table, but if that little boy dumped out the contents ONE MORE TIME!... So they had to be out of sight in some way, but the budget was not going to allow for the purchase of anything - every potential storage container would have to be something we already owned. The most reasonable way to deal with it was to reduce the amount of 'stuff' that needed to be stored in the first place.

 

 

 

 

It took a couple of hours of all-out searching to get as many game pieces as I could find back in their boxes. I had to bribe Jordan to keep Colin occupied in the basement so he wouldn't undo everything. And then I spent the most cathartic hour..ditching the boxes, game by game. Yes. I threw away the boxes. (My brother is dying a thousand deaths right now...). I read it in multiple places, all over the advice columns of the internets (sic), that getting rid of the packaging was the best thing you could do to reduce clutter. Some of the best ideas came from homeschooling families that RV full-time - now they are the storage solution masters. There is NO reason to keep the packaging - the game boxes come in every shape and size (mostly B.I.G.), they can be a nightmare to try and keep stacked neatly, and they don't last. So, with a Sharpie, empty containers and a box of Ziplocs by my side, I went to town...

The outgoing pile of paper goods to be recycled, and non-recyclable plastic (boooo!).

 

So where'd all the games go? Well, I moved the old bookcase out, because I wanted it upstairs in our bedroom. I moved in the shoe cubby thingy from the front hallway (just a couple of feet away) and stood it up vertically. Only the kids keep their shoes here, with each kid having their own bin. (So those are the four bottom bins). The top four shelves were now going to be repurposed to hold the games. Before this, they were just getting filled with toys and dirty socks. This is configuration is MUCH better, and it is one less piece of furniture in a high-traffic area.

 

So here is about 80% of the games. Ziploc bags hold most of it, and plastic Gerber baby food containers (I saved a jillion of them, and they are an awesome size for smallish things) hold things like dice, gems and playing pieces. It is also nice that most game boards now fold down into fourths, instead of just in half.

 

The rest of it went into the Hall Closet of Doom, which is just adjacent to the dining room. There was just enough space to jam the rest of the stuff (including the games that I couldn't stand to 'debox')' and the over-sized things like the Blokus game boards and so forth. And, most importantly, the most problematic games that Colin liked to get into the most.

 

This is the lower half of that closet. Last year I moved all of my cookbooks out of the kitchen because I needed upper cabinet space to move the arts and crafts supplies into because, you guessed it, Colin kept getting into them. So this was my solution for that. The white drawer bins hold a couple more of the over-sized game things.

 

One last thing - thanks to a tip on Pinterest, this is what you can do with all of those game instructions. Grab a bunch of page protectors (I had a ton left over from my college days) and stick a set of game instructions in each one, and file them away in a binder. So now the games binder resides on one of the cookbook shelves as well. And no, it is not categorized in any way, shape, or form. What do you think I am? Anal?



So, did it work? Has Colin left things alone? Yes, with the exception of one item - the Bananagrams letter tiles. They are (were) in a small wicker basket (see the bookcase picture) that holds our most-often used games. I think I found them all... I guess I had better go check the floor vents.

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I want mah co-feh!

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

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Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

 

Outside my window... A beautiful sunny blue sky, bright sun and melting patches of snow.

I am thinking... About a blog post that a friend posted about a new lock-down policy (in a knee-jerk reaction to the Sandy Hook shooting) that was put in place (with no prior notice to the parents) the last day of school before Christmas Break (it is a once-a-week enrichment program for homeschoolers, operated under the direction of the local school district). (WOW! A sentence with three, THREE!, parenthetical interjections!) I envy the experiences that my friends' children are receiving in this program (Jordan attended for two years, but we pulled out a couple of years ago), but I am so, so very thankful that I no longer have to hand over my children to other adults to watch over and keep safe. The kids who attend have to traverse between four different buildings throughout the day, and some were locked out when they left one building and attempted to enter another. That is absolutely inexcusable.

I am thankful... For the homeschooling life, obviously. I am also thankful for washing machines, coffee, and my headphones.


From the Learning Rooms... We didn't do a lick of work this week. We did play a lot though. I taught Rylan how to play Mancala, and she is already grasping the strategic thinking that is involved. She worked on her karate workbooks that are due this coming week, and read all of the directions to me as she did the various activities. We haven't done much reading practice since before Thanksgiving, yet here she is, reading away... I am in awe. She is also practicing her subtraction skills as she plays on her own Hay Day farm (a game she plays on Dean's iPad). She has to calculate how much more of something she needs to complete an order, or how much more money she needs to earn to purchase something-or-other. I keep trying to convince Dean of the game's educational merits, but he is not buying it...


In the kitchen... I need a new coffee pot. Desperately. My Mr. Coffee died a long time ago, and I have been subsisting with my French Press. The glass carafe cracked several months ago, but it was still usable - until it was knocked off of the counter the morning we were leaving for Christmas in OKC, that is. We have the espresso machine, and I love using it, but sometimes you just don't feel like waiting that long for a coffee. And a mocha is a pretty 'heavy' drink.. I don't want to consume something like that every day. So I am advocating hard for a Keurig. We'll see.


I am wearing... pj's and a big fluffy robe.


I am creating... Well - if the stars align and the kids leave me alone, I just may, MAY, get the annual Christmas letter done today. Nothing could be more simple to write (I write reams on this blog! WHY can't I get a couple of paragraphs pounded out?!?!), yet I have repeatedly put the job off to the next day and the next. I was totally ON IT this year. I got on Shutterfly, created and ordered our family photo card and received it BEFORE Thanksgiving. So what happened? I suck.


I am going... Grocery shopping at some point...


I am wondering... When exactly Lego is going to have its Minecraft set in stock again. I have checked every day since mid-December, and they still say Sold Out. I could purchase it on Amazon for twice the price, but that is just ridiculous. Bad form Lego, bad form.... (this is one of Jordan's Christmas presents...)

I am reading... I just got a copy of J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy from Dean for Christmas. I haven't cracked it yet, but I will in the very near future. It's this month's pick for bookclub.


I am hoping... That we finish the bathroom today. All that is left to do is the tile backsplash. I can't wait to post pictures! We have all exclaimed that it feels like a completely different house when we go in there.


I am looking forward to... Getting back into the groove this week.


I am learning... About DropBox and the all of the possibilities that it opens up. Technology can be so cool and useful!


I am hearing... 'Goodbye In Her Eyes' by the Zac Brown Band, on their new album Uncaged. Love it. I saw them perform on Jimmy Fallon recently (aired in November, but we have a jillion episodes on the DVR to watch yet) and I was instantly smitten. We think the lead singer looks exactly like Dean's niece's husband, Chris.


Around the house... Laundry. Owen had been suffering with a stomach bug for several days, and it was hard to get in just a load of regular clothes in between all of the loads of sheets and towels. Now it is Colin's turn. Except it is all coming out of the other end. (You're welcome.) Both of them have had fevers that have been off and on over several days, and Owen has slept for hours on end. The longest stint was 16 hours. Poor kid. I think he has turned the corner, though. I just hope it doesn't progress on to Rylan or Jordan.

I just completed an organizing project (post to come soon), and it has been a nice morale booster.

Dean and I just got a new budgeting program called You Need A Budget. We are using the 30-day trail to try it out, but we are already really impressed. It was our goal over Christmas Break to get our financial house back in order, and we think we have found it. If I get off my lazy duff, maybe I'll get a post in about it over on the 2 Cents blog. (just as soon as I blow the dust off of it).


I am pondering... ummm... not much. Trying to stay away from introspection today.


One of my favorite things... A new track I just found on Spotify! Zac Brown AND Jimmy Buffett!! I think I need a little more Jimmy Buffett in my life. Maybe that's what wrong - I had stopped listening.


A few plans for the rest of the week... An ortho appt for Jordan on Tuesday, and a return to the lessons line up. Owen started back up with gymnastics yesterday (luckily he felt perky in the morning - but he slept from 3pm until 10 pm, and then went back to bed at midnight). Karate belt testing is this coming weekend. Jordan also has his second round of MBU (scout Merit Badge University) classes as well. Rylan will test for her red belt on Saturday, and Jordan will test for his Green belt during a make-up test the following Monday night.


Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

This is called Blu Track, and it has been voted the kids' favorite toy of the season. It is such an awesome, creative toy! Owen's Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve ordered it for him from Fat BrainToys for Christmas. I highly recommend it. It also makes great entertainment for kitties.

To read more entries and visit a variety of other blogs, go here...

 

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Sorting it all out...

Failing to sort anything out pretty much defined all of last year. And the year before that. And before that. And....before that.

 

Perhaps I should look to Owen for inspiration.

 

He is really good at sorting. He's my OCD child. He sorted out the entire contents of his Christmas stocking. He lined his socks up in a row, separated out the peppermints from the chocolates, and promptly packed away his new toothpaste and Sponge Bob body wash in his duffle bag. He was very concerned about making sure that all of his new things would make their way home from Oklahoma. He is also the boy that is adamant about fresh underwear morning and night. And sometimes even in between. He is methodical about E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.

 

I am a Type-A borderline OCD, living a life that does not lend itself well to those tendencies.

1. I totally over-schedule myself.

2. I am mean to myself by constantly give myself negative feedback.

3. I am totally undisciplined when it comes to taking care of the household and the people who live there.

4. I have let chaos prevail for too long and the ruts down this bumpy road are very deep.

5. I have let perfectionism completely cripple my ability to get anything done.

 

I know I am the p**rfect candidate for Fly Lady, but I have yet to really make a go of using her system. Since I have been living in a constant state of pitting my natural tendencies toward a totally chaotic reality, it is no wonder that I have been fighting off an ever-worsening level of depression.

 

Why I haven't been able to turn this ship around, I do not know. Lots of thoughts have been swirling around in my head as I think about how to solve this, and it all comes back to sorting. Sorting out the priorities. Schooling and at least some semblance of order is the most important priority for me, but why am I allowing everything else in life to interfere with it? Most likely it is because it is not happening as I would envision it.

My ideal: A morning or afternoon spent investigating a subject, in a clean and organized environment. We would read a story, watch a short video, do a little experiment, write about it, and then craft something. All the while smiling and being pleasant. (Snort.)

My reality: I can't find my papers, they can't find their notebook/pencil/ruler/whiteboard. I sit down with token child and immediately the dog wants out, a poopy diaper has manifested itself, the phone rings, my husband texts me, an irate email has to be dealt with, I forgot a bill that has to be paid NOW, the karate gis need to be washed for the lesson that begins in 90 minutes, the toddler has located a sharp implement, is drawing on the walls or is clearing off every shelf of neatly folded clothes in the closet, and the XYZ needs fresh batteries. Oh - and let's not forget the 70+ decibel level of noise going on in the background of bickering kids, toys and electronic devices.

 

My knee-jerk reaction is to curl up and cover my ears. Which is pretty much what I have been doing for the past several months. Instead of dealing with it, or writing introspectively about it or hiring a nanny/tutor/housekeeper, I've been escaping into anything I can lay my hands on. Books, iPad games (Hay Day anyone? I'm averaging 3-4 hours a day...disgusting!) and reading about how other moms are able to get things done, and secretly hating them. It's not the life I want to live. It's not the environment I want to spend any length of time in. And I am sure that the rest of the family feels the same - we are just have a great deal of difficulty landing our finger on exactly where the problem lies - because there are issues wherever we look!

 

There is visual chaos - nobody puts anything away. There is crap on every single surface in this house.

There is verbal chaos - the chosen way to communicate is through yelling. (Not always in anger - it's just the only way to be heard when six voices are sounding off at once, from various locations in the house.

There is auditory chaos - music, tv and computer, (often all at the same time) is a constant. Along with endless kid squabbling. This one is especially hard for me - I crave silence.

There is scheduling chaos - too many kids, too many interests. And only one car.

There is schooling chaos. As great as I am in developing grand plans in my head, and purchasing the magic bullet curriculum, I am lousy, LOUSY I tell you!, at actually implementing, well...anything?

There is financial chaos - we are still operating on a cash-only basis (YES!), but we have come to the edge of our own little personal fiscal cliff many times in the past year because we aren't budgeting like we know we ought to or keeping tabs on our checking account. We've emptied the Emergency Fund three times - for no reason other than to buy stuff with money we shouldn't have been spending in the first place.

There is internal chaos. I am really good at bringing myself down. I constantly berate myself for being a lousy wife, mother, daughter, sister, teacher, cook, housekeeper and friend. I don't get out much and I have difficulty maintaining friendships because I am lousy at it - who wants to stay friends with a boring, introverted frump? Yes, I am very, very mean to myself. (Now stop it!)

I have yet to do my New Year's retrospective post (let alone post pictures from my summer garden, the pumpkin patch, Santa visit or even get the damn Christmas cards out...), but I guess this is as good a place as any to state my intention for this year. I have no idea what I stated as my intention for last year, but I'm sure I missed the mark by a mile (see? I can't stop being mean to myself). My intention is to sort it out this year. Sort out the problems by exposing the deeper issue and dealing with it.





(Just as soon as I harvest my crops, milk the cows and fill up my boat order....)

 

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The Tooth Fairy visits Rylan

Rylan's top front two teeth have been loose since just a couple of days before Thanksgiving. We have been coaching her for weeks about how to wiggle them to loosen them further (you could even see her gums moving back and forth) but they wouldn't budge. She even tried falling face first on the couch to see if that would knock them out. She always braced herself with her elbows, so it wasn't very effective. Rylan has also consumed more carrots and apples in recent weeks then what seems humanly possible. I was just itching to sing a certain Christmas song to her - but would it happen in time?

We left for OKC on the morning of the 22nd, (only) five hours behind schedule. We had skipped breakfast in the effort to keep shoving stuff in the car, so we pulled away from home half-starved. After a quick stop at the Starbucks down the street, we dug into the stash of snacks. Rylan and I had shopped for the trip the day before, and had picked up a dozen of the velvety soft, slightly chewy cinnamon rolls from the Great Harvest Bread Co. with the plan in mind that we would eat them for breakfast. So we passed out the rolls and dug in. I was on the phone with my mom to let her know we were finally heading out of town, when I heard a shout from the far back seat. I looked back and saw Rylan looking stunned, excited and a little scared, as she triumphantly held out a tooth. We pulled over on a side street, and congratulated Rylan and took some pictures of her new smile.

 

What I love best is that we were all there with her when it happened - even grandma was on the phone! And that night she got a hug from her grandparents in Oklahoma, who were excited that they would be hosting the Tooth Fairy in their home.

 

Tooth Fairy? (Gulp). I had intended on making a special little pillow for the sole purpose of keeping a tooth safe and secure until the Tooth Fairy arrived to take it. And what is the standard exchange rate for first teeth? I know we went through this whole process with Jordan, but I don't even remember it now... And ever since his mother spoiled the whole Santa Claus/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny thing when he was at the tender age of barely nine (yeah, I'm STILL pissed about that), we didn't do the tooth under the pillow thing anymore.

 

After consulting all things Google, we settled on $4.00, but golden dollar coin procurement would have to wait until the 24th, when the banks were open. So, on the 24th, with kids in tow and a long shopping list to contend with as well, we visited bank after bank in search of coins - which was so much fun, considering all of the holiday traffic. I think we visited seven banks in all, in the effort to secure four measly coins. They must be a hot item during the holidays.

 

Rylan and I worked on her letter to the Tooth Fairy late that afternoon, and agreed that taping the tooth to the letter would be okay - that way it would not get lost. (And bleary-eyed parents would not have to fish for it).

 

So the society of Mythical Figures had to work overtime on Christmas Eve, with both Santa AND the Tooth Fairy visiting on the same night. The Tooth Fairy arrived, fist-bumped his pal Santa, and made his way to Rylan's bedside with the four coins wrapped in tissue paper (which seemed like a perfectly fine idea at 1 a.m.), and made the exchange. (Yeah, you read that right. Santa is a SHE, and the Tooth Fairy is a HE, in our line-up of parental duties).

 

Early the next morning (too early in my opinion), I heard the crinkly sounds of tissue paper as Rylan discovered her package. (I still remember that feeling of excitement, when I was her age). I heard her fiddle with it (probably trying to figure out what it was), and then a gasp as realization hit. She carefully opened it and counted out her coins. She made no mention that the tooth was gone or anything like that - she was just so excited that the Tooth Fairy had left her money. She proudly showed her little brothers the coins, and Owen was visibly impressed and excited for Rylan.

 

And Rylan swears that the toothpaste and toothbrushes that came out of the stockings that morning were left by the Tooth Fairy... And not the Tooth Elf - Santa's personal dentist, as we have led her to believe.


 

 

And the other tooth? Still hanging on. Maybe Valentine's Day?

 

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