xogsmommy

Thoughts and musings of a mom of three.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Today of the First Day of the Rest of the Year

Hear that sound? The whining and feet dragging? That would be my beloved children going back to school. New teachers. A new routine. This has been a crazy summer and I don't have enough words to say how relieved I am that school is back in session.

I am trying to come up with a decent routine for school. I am not a morning person, as my sister can attest to. Coming up with something that suits four people, only one of which is an early riser, is challenging.

Getting the baby to bed is the biggest challenge. I almost feel like nothing else will get done until he's asleep. For now, I sit next to his bed until he falls asleep. He rolls around. He asks to brush his teeth again. He lists every last person he knows and asks what they are doing. Sigh. He doesn't nap anymore, so getting a good night's sleep is really important.

In other news, I spent the better part of three days in the most god awful heat, digging holes. When we moved in, there was a single clothesline. I don't own a dryer, and I don't intend on ever owning one. The clothesline broke. Not the line part, the pole part. It just wasn't fixable. Hubby got a new one, and I put them in the old holes. There wasn't any concrete, so I thought it would be ok.

They fell over.

Ok, off to Home Depot. I got quick setting concrete, thinking, surely this will do the trick. I'm not Bob Vila, but I AM pretty handy. The kids and I had a good time digging the holes. I poured the concrete and thought that was a job well done.

They fell over.

Back to Home Depot I go. I talk with some random employee walking by, and at his suggestion, get two bags of concrete. I am to redig the holes, going down in a v shape for the old concrete ball, then wider, for the new concrete.

The heat index was 110. I ran out, dug a bit, and ran back in to sit in front of the fan. That kind of heat is just illegal, or should be, anyway.

Finally, Saturday evening, the clothesline was put back up. Sunday I really needed to do laundry. We were out of almost all of the clothes, except the ones that rarely get worn.

The load of laundry finished. I stood in the yard, eyeing the line warily. I was so afraid that it would fall down again, but we were about to totally run out of clothes. Tenatively, I began hanging up my laundry.

It held.

Huzzah!

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

ssssPAckle

Yes, say it outloud, just like that. ssssPAckle. It's kind of fun. Can you guess what I've been doing the last few days? The attic is my husband's "man" room, and it needs a lot of spackle. I like to spackle, it's kind of soothing in a way. Then again, I also like watching laundry in a washer.

We are really settling in. I began the process of tiling the bathroom floor. The old floor was cream and green checker board in ancient linoleum tile. It looked lovely. This house is odd, the previous owner kept everything in good repair except the bathroom and kitchen floors. It's all good, I'm beyond happy to be in my own space, that we own. That is ours. OURS.

Except that I irritated my shoulder spackling. A lot of the cracks and dings were over my head, so my arm was up in the air. Ten years ago or so I was wrestling with my younger brother. My younger brother who has been taller than me since I was 14. He tackled me into a wicker couch that was up against a wall. I didn't dislocate my shoulder, but it hasn't been right since. Right now it hurts.

I'm still glad to be in my own home, sore shoulder and all.

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Captain, My Captain

I took a carbon output test to see how environmentally friendly we are. My family scored a 348. I couldn't seem to find whether that is average, high, or low. I know we could score better. For instance, we don't have all halogen bulbs, just some. They are expensive, so as bulbs burn out, we replace them with halogen. So that one will get better.

As we settle in, I'm thinking more green. Growing up, we had rotating chores. One of the chores was the light captain. This person was responsible for going around to rooms and making sure the lights were out. I am going to do that here. That would help our green rating, besides saving on electricity.

I wonder what the average family can do to be more green without spending a ton of money?

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Monday, August 13, 2007

That Tricky Air

My sister called yesterday. She is an amazing person, one of the smartest people I know. I seemed to get all of the clumsiness in the family, she got the looks and the brains. However, I was reminded that, while I fall all of the time and she rarely does, she tends to get hurt in spectacular ways.

She got chicken pox first. I can barely stand on skis, she falls once and gets knocked out, complete with a ride down the mountain in an ambulance. I've only had stitches once, not counting the epesiotomy stitches, she's been sewed up twice. I've broken my arm and most of my fingers and toes, and as far as I know, she's never broken a bone, so she's one up on that.

On Sunday, she was leaving a friend's house and turned around while walking down the sidewalk to wave bye. There was a lumpy, bumpy pile of AIR in her way, and being turned around, she didn't see it. She tripped and fell, royally banging up her right knee and severely spraining her left ankle. My poor sister.

I'm sending her good healing vibes. She was supposed to start a new job today, but she can't drive. Her car is a stick shift.

Feel better soon, Sissy!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Yummy, Delicious Blood

The neighbors two yards over have a blow up swimming pool. It's filled with what looks like fetid swamp water. When the wind is just right, the smell is horrible. Now I've discovered that it's a breeding ground for skeeters.

My oldest, X, is covered in giant mosquito bites. They are swollen and larger than a silver dollar. Gross. He's like me, mosquitos just love our blood.

In unpacking news, we're about 75% unpacked. It's awesome. Of course, the bulk of what's left is books and movies. The bookcase didn't survive the move, so I'm waiting until we have the money to buy another one. I can't wait to unpack my "friends".

Yes, I know I'm a nerd, why do you ask?

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Thursday, August 09, 2007

I Hear the Secrets That You Keep, When You're Talking In Your Sleep

Any given morning, I will wake up to one or more children sleeping in my bed. Usually with their pointy toes lodged in my back. Sometimes even a foot jammed against my chin. As much as I like having my space, I think that as long as they are sleeping, I'm not going to be picky as to where.

Last night, I crawled into bed way too late. X was already sleeping in my bed, but whatever, he was asleep. He's eight, and somehow had gotten the idea that he gets to have an opinion about everything. He's adhd and the sweetest boy in the world.

When I flopped down, I shifted him. He rolled over, and through half mast eyes, he said, "Tell O to go around the other way." O being his six year old sister. I said, oh, the other way? He nodded and said, "Find a way to make it happen." I had to smother a snicker, sometimes he sounds like 45 year old man.

My sister also talks in her sleep. You can actually carry on a conversation with her until you wake her up and piss her off. I don't talk in my sleep, but my husband does. So far, X and O talk in their sleep, but not G, my two year old boy.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Apparently I'm Five

I am sick. The kind of sick where I want to curl up in bed and ignore the world. I have an ear infection. The pain is amazing. Here I am, very close to 30, and I have a kid's illness.

I hate being this close to 30. I don't care how old other people are, but in my mind, I'm much closer to 20 than to 30. Why is that? Could it be our society's obsession with youth? I truly have no idea. I just know that when I look in the mirror, I see an old lady. An old lady who somehow has developed acne and gets kid's illnesses.

I have a picture of myself taken at age 20. It's a professional portrait and I look amazing. When I showed the kids, they didn't know who it was. Have I changed that much? That picture was 50 pounds, three kids, and nearly 10 years ago. What happened to me?

How do I recapture my youthfulness without looking pathetic?

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Sunday, August 05, 2007

Done and Done

The move went off without a hitch...

Oh, who am I kidding? True, it went as well as I expected. Later than expected, but all in all, not to bad.

It was a strange day. Bob had to meet with the realtor for a final walk through. For whatever reason, we didn't know about this until the day before. We altered our plans to include this, which made things really rushed.

When we went to pick up the uhaul, I got a nasty surprise. My license was expired. Not just recently expired, but January expired. Shit. I honestly had no idea. The lady was nice enough to ignore it. Bob is really twitchy in the morning, so she must have figured that I was better to drive it.

My mother in law was a gem that day. She wound really tightly and she's very nervous. We don't always get along but we really bonded that day. She even bought us lunch.

At about 2 pm we hear sirens. We all run outside, and holy moly, there's an actual fire. Billowing smoke, firefighters hooking hoses up to hydrants, the whole nine yards. A 14 year old boy was left in charge of four younger siblings, all boys, and somehow the fire started. It was insane. No one was hurt, but it broke my heart to see a firefighter carrying out a sooty kitty.

So we are now slowly getting settled in. Hooray for a home that is ours!

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