Homebound weekend

It is incredible how productive a person can be when they are stuck at home. That would be me this past weekend.

Friday night Skadi fell asleep early saying she wasn't feeling well. By 11:30pm, she was up. Every 30 minutes she was up. Until 4am.

We would just start to fall asleep when she would yell again, "MOMMY I FREWUP!"

And AB and I would start the routine all over, AB swapping out towels under her head or changing sheets as necessary, me pulling off her jammies, wiping off her face, getting her a drink of water and comforting her. It was a long night.

We aren't used to this routine. My daughter, like me, gets carsick. But viral stomach stuff isn't a common visitor in our house. I read on Facebook updates from friends whose kids are sick, once again, with the stomach flu and I give thanks that it isn't us. Now, viral respiratory crud knows our address well.

I felt awful for my daughter, but figured I might as well make the most of the weekend stuck at home by actually doing some of the things I have been talking about tackling.

My October goal is to organize spaces. Namely, the kids' drawers and closets, their toys (I am itching to get rid of lots of plastic things that reside in the bottoms of toy buckets - I can't watch Toy Story right now, it might ruin my mojo). I also have stacks upon stacks of things to go back into the pretty play room. I need to go through all that stuff first. I refuse to put things back that we won't use or will just be clutter. I am not getting rid of the kids' Geotrax, the play kitchen and play food or the Little People things. Those items got a free pass back into the playroom. Everything else has had to prove its worthiness. Also on the reorg list is the garage... AB and his sister have been working that.

Accomplished? Skadi's dresser, her closet, her bedroom toys and 80% of the toys sorted for the playroom. Four large Rubbermaid bins were filled with size 2T clothes and baby/toddler toys. Not to mention the garage was worked to the just over 50% point. (Can you tell I am in earned value mode? Percent completes. I deem this project to be on schedule with a positive cost variance... I haven't spent any money on this project... yet.)

On top of the reorg going on in the house we also tackled spaghetti sauce this weekend and ended Saturday with 19 containers of fresh (now frozen) sauce. AB and I started this ritual either before or after Leif was born. We can't really remember. But in the 6 or so years we have perfected our recipe and even the kids don't care for the bottled stuff. We eat a lot of spaghetti sauce throughout the year - this should last us about 6 months we figure. I like knowing that this staple of ours all fresh at the peak vegies and no sugar.

I think it was Alice Waters who said, "if you have to add sugar to your spaghetti sauce then make pesto".

On Sunday we started the morning with homemade pumpkin pie (described yesterday) and load after load of laundry.

Of course the downside to this extreme productivity in a germ laden house is that come Monday night child #2 started vomiting. AB and I felt the nausea worm over us that evening and both woke up and told respective employers we would see them Wednesday.

As I am feeling much better I am thinking I can attempt continued organization efforts upstairs.

Or I could just go watch Glee instead.

On 2010 Goals

I got a lot accomplished with my goals method this year. And I still have a bit of time left. 2011 will be better, I know it will.

In August I meant to paint to my dining room and redecorate a bit. We started on this and then AB got a bee in his bonnet. (I love that saying.) He decided to replace the nasty flooring in the playroom with bamboo laminate. It is now complete, but the dining room redecorate went on hold. Then when success was in sight for the playroom it went on an even bigger hold when I decided that part of the dining room redecorate WILL involve installation of hard wood floors. We need a bit of time to save for this renovation, AB needs a few weekends whereby floor install is not on his list, and then new floors in the dining room (and office across the foyer… you can’t do one and not the other) will be mine!

So that takes us to October goals… I need to get the playroom reassembled. Yes, I know I can dump everything we pulled out of there back in likely this Sunday. But I have a fear of this. Because in the stacks of stuff, we have baby toys and way too much crap that the kids don’t use.

October is going to be the organization month. My goal is to go through the kids’ toys and throw away, donate, give away the stuff that is going unused. Then I need to settle on an organization strategy for the playroom. I am planning clothesline style art hangers for the kids’ (read Skadi’s) art. I am also moving the big, huge photos of the kids up there. And I am loading my sister in law up with whatever she is willing to take furniture-wise from that room.

In addition to organizing the playroom I also need to go through the kids’ dressers. Change out the summer stuff for winter stuff. Remove the stuff they have grown out of, etc.

AB’s October goals? (Yes, he IS jumping onto my goals bandwagon!) It’s to organize the garage. Oh and I think he wants help with that.

Also on the October list, now that I have a new sewing machine (thank you Freya dog…) is to resume and finish my quilting project.

November goals? Dare I say replace the floors in the dining room and office? No. I probably shouldn’t. The thought of having my dining room torn up over Thanksgiving isn’t appealing to me. Not sure…