Stuff...

The good news is that I didn’t get sick, at least not yet and hoping it doesn’t happen. Hubster is much better and so are the girls. So, all that said, what the heck have I been SOOO busy doing for almost a week that I couldn’t bother to post. Well, the answer is … stuff. Almost literally.

Hubster was home all last week because he was so sick. He tried to go to work and they sent him home. Yeah, pretty bad.

I had 3 school meetings, took the girls to the zoo, piano lesson and gymnastics and then in between all that I’ve been bustin’ on my house.

I cleaned out both girls rooms, big time. Then my neighbor offered me her toddler bed and bedding, so I took down Baboo’s crib (she cried, even though she loves her big girl bed) and rearranged her room. I found a cute valance that works really well.

Then I took on the playroom. Oh my. THAT was an adventure. Nasty.

Then I finished cleaning up my desk space. Again. Oh my.

Friday, I broke down and went to get some clothes for fall so I don’t freeze in December in the 2 pairs of capris that fit me right now (see rant about that here). I cleaned up at Goodwill then hit Kohls with Kohls cash, a gift card and power hour sales. Yay me.

Saturday, Hubster and I cleaned out the garage. That meant taking EVERYTHING out, spreading it all over the lawn and driveway, turning away 100 people who wanted to buy everything we owned, insulating a wall at the last minute (of course, AFTER I ran to Lowes to buy insulation we found several rolls of it in our garage attic left by the previous owners. Gah! And thanks!), sorting everything out and then, well, putting it all back in. We’re having a garage sale with our neighbours in 3 weeks, so all the junk we decided to get rid of … is back in the garage. So, we spent an entire day sweating away and it looks like we did nothing at all.
So, I’m making some progress on the house, which is good. It needed a good clean out and to have a garage sale soon, is also a relief. I’ve got a few little details to finish up and 2 rooms to do and I will have tackled every room in the house. Yay me. Whew.

And yesterday, just for kicks, we decided to have a kind of impromptu barbeque with some friends and neighbours. We actually had a really nice time and though the weather was crummy allll day, by the BBQ, it was sunny and warm. The kids played nicely together and once again, Hubster and I marveled and how fortunate and grateful we are to have made such good friends less than a year after moving into our house.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for both of my girls. I’m excited and nervous for them, as they are for themselves. We are definitely ready. It’ll be a while before the girls being in school will actually be a BREAK for me, but that’s ok. Right now, it’s more about getting them settled and I’m ok with that.

So yeah, that’s what I’ve crammed into this past week. It’s been a busy but productive one.

Wandering....

I'm still here... well *HERE* has changed as we're no longer at the cottage, we're home. We've been home for a week and a half.

But things have been crazy as my folks stayed until yesterday and we did some decorating in the midst of crash landing back into real life.

My folks left yesterday and I had a feeling of being a bit lost. After a month, basically, with someone with me the whole time, I felt a bit disjointed. So the girls and I spent the day at home.

Anyway, besides not having time to write just because our days were packed with other stuff, I haven't really felt the urge to write and am left wondering where I'm going with this blog. Do I need to have a place for it to go? I don't know. It doesn't feel like it has a direction or a focus.

My head is wandering around trying to find a focus. I've got a few projects on the back burner but due to the whole TIME CONSTRAINT frustration (with small children) and my need for sleep, I'm not really getting anywhere.

Anyway, I'm still here. Still pluggin' away. And I'll still keep posting, once my wandering mind returns to my head and I'm able to put 2 sentences together.

A Rambling Post of Mostly Nothing-ness

Yes, I’ve been MIA again. Maybe I’ve fallen into the void where my keys are. No, I still have not found my keys. &^%@#

So what have I been doing? Well, last week was hot so we were at the pool. A lot. I think I’ve seen gills starting to grow on my kids. And webbing between their fingers and toes. My kids are the crazy, kamikaze kids you see at the pool – you know, the smallest ones jumping in the deep end with no floatation devices. Or diving to the bottom of the pool for rings/sticks. We elicit a lot of stares and amazed head shakes. They are nearly fearless (especially Baboo) but are confident, good swimmers. Mouse swam from the end of the deep end all the way to the shallow end by herself yesterday, without stopping. It was awesome and she felt like a million bucks. Even the lifeguard (we’ve been there enough that they all know us) was clapping and cheering her on.

I’ve also been in decorating mode. I found the fabric that fits my combined kitchen and family room perfectly and working with my Mum, we have devised a great plan and I’ll put her to work later this summer, painting furniture, making curtains and the like. And we’re doing it all for $500 or LESS! Hey, maybe we should make a show about that? NEVER MIND… there’s already a show with EXACTLY the same theme. HA!

I think I’ve been reluctant to really DECORATE our home. The previous owners were well liked by the neighbours and left a few things (curtains, wall shelves etc) that while they didn’t really suit us, weren’t highly offensive either. I felt bad booting their presence out of the house. But they don’t live here any more. I know. It’s stupid.

But now I feel like I can put our STAMP onto the house and make it ours. ! I’m very excited about it though. It’s going to look great and to me, it already feels more settled.

I’ve been attempting to clean up a bit. It looks like a bomb went off in just about every room. I’ve been cleaning out some books and baby stuff and have set up a few things to sell on Ebay. I sold my Hypnobabies cds/book last night in 5 minutes. Seriously. While I’m happy about that, I think my heart broke a little bit. It seems so… final. Admitting that yes, we are done. No more births. I can’t say that I got rid of ALL my birth books, I just can’t.

And my sling. I had it all ready to post and I caved. I can still use it with Baboo, though I rarely do, mostly because she’s so fiercely independent. Mouse in particular, lived in the sling until she was 3. Maybe I need to hang onto it and pass it down to her when she’s ready. I used the denim LLL carrier my Mum used on my brother for both kids when they were tiny babies. It worked great.

And I’ve learned that I can’t sell my cloth diapers on ebay. Anyone want to buy some cloth diapers and covers, in excellent shape??

It doesn’t help, that for Father’s Day I got Hubster a digital picture frame and loaded it with photos of the kids from the year dot. And then I watched them grow up in front of my eyes when I previewed the slide show. And then my heart broke into a hundred tiny little pieces. It was wonderful and bittersweet at the same time. I love who they’re becoming but at times I miss their baby-ness so much. Those days that seemed endless at the time, now seem to have passed in the blink of an eye.

The girls loved watching the photos and laughing at their funny faces or crowing “THAT’s ME when I was a BABY” when one of their photos came up.

In other news that makes me feel old, especially with my birthday right around the corner, my brother, my little brother (who is also almost 33 years old!) is getting married. Yes, married. Not for a few years, but this weekend he proposed to the young lady that he loves and he called to tell me all about it. He sounded happy and excited and I'm happy and excited for him. I wished them well and am already looking forward to meeting his fiance in a couple of weeks.

So now I’ve rambled on about mostly nothing, which is mostly how things are going for us these days. We’re rambling around at top speed, not really getting much of anything done, but mostly enjoying ourselves none-the-less.

No, Really. I'm NOT Dead!

Hey, guess what!? I’m not really dead… I’m only MOSTLY dead.
Just kidding.

I know I’ve been MIA for over a week - ok, ok, 2 weeks. But well, since so few people read here and most know that I was busy, I’m not worrying too much. You know where I was. You know I was slogging around in the mud and RAIN when my folks were here last week. We were working on our gardens, which around here, is also known as mud slinging because it rained pretty much all week. Nasty.

And we’ve been working on the first stages of our “backyard oasis” which involves a pergola and a clothesline. It seems like a bizarre combination, but it makes me happy. We got to do our pergola in gusty wind. Now THAT was fuu-unn.

And you also know that I’ve been up to my eyeballs in just STUFF - kids, school, clutter, playdates, committees, meetings. And if you didn’t know that, well, now you do.

However, the focus these past 2 weeks has been the garden. I had a garden in Eastcoatsville. My whole front yard, which was about the size of a postage stamp, was a garden (and that's allll the yard we had), and my folks also helped me with that garden as well. It was fabulous before we moved. It was all I could do not to dig up some of my favourites and bring them with me across 3 states. I still mourn my hydrangea. I loved that plant.

However, despite having, what by comparison seems like a football field of yard, we got a great start on the new garden and I’m excited to see how things fill in this year. I bought a NEW hydrangea, and am attempting clematis again. I hope I don’t kill it. We built some garden boxes in the back and have a fun kids garden and my herb garden. Finally!

And I definitely need to say a HUGE thank you to my parents who went above and beyond AGAIN for me. They built the boxes, painted, helped me to decide on plants, shared their "planty" wisdom, carried soil, slogged endlessly in the clay/mud/rain, dug through rampant hostas, clay and 9 thousand layers of landscape cloth, hauled all manner of crap to our back yard. And held up pergola posts in gale force winds. And watched the kids and did the dishes. And did not freak out when I had one of my over tired, guilt ridden break downs when I kind of freaked out about asking/needing so much help.

Thank you a thousand times for everything you do for me/us.

What I’ve Learned This Year:

* I love hostas. Love them. Despite the fact that they grow like weeds, I love them. My front garden was totally hostas. I loved them, but well, I needed more variety. I couldn’t BEAR to part with any of them, so after we dug them up, we planted them all over the yard.

* I also am aware that I’ve just spread my slug problem all over the yard, as slugs seem to love hostas almost as much as I do. Except, um, I don't really want to eat them.

* The nasty, twiggy shrubs by my front windows were azaleas. Never would have guessed. They were being choked out by the periwinkle. So, we dug those up too, twigs sprouting a few sad, pink flowers and leaves and move them too. I’m willing to give them a second chance.

* The other twiggy type shrub by the garage is a beautiful lilac! I was so going to dig that sucker up and toss it because last year it was just nasty, but well, every time I walk out my front door I get wafts of lilac scent and I just can’t bear to get rid of it. It’s just too pretty. It's redeemed itself, so, it gets to stay.

* As a result of digging things up, I got a whole side garden from the leftover lilies, hostas and azaleas. Whohoo.

* Most of our yard, under the grass is clay.

* In general, sod is heavy, but even heavier when covered in clay.

* Wet clay stuck to your shoes (and pants/hands/hair) makes you feel like Frankenstein.

* Wet clay is really, really hard to get off.

* Kids covered in wet clay who then roll in sand are almost impossible to get clean without scraping off a layer of skin.

Anyway, I’m attempting to get back into the groove here, or maybe I’m attempting to FIND a groove as I can’t ever seem to get into one. I feel like I keep popping my head outside to check in on all my little plants in between all that other every day life stuff.

But stay tuned for: the Mother's Day recap, shopping for shirts when you're short waisted during a long shirt trend, Mouse - the birthday prep, and the end of the school year wind down.

I know, you can hardly wait, right? Oh yeah. (bwahahaha!)