February’s list update February 3, 2009

Last month’s list ended up like this

• Finish painting office
• Paint doorways in hall
• Fix paint in boys bath
• Put together alternate days workout for home
• Make regular shopping lists
• Make boys “chores chart”
• Clean out and organize Family Room closet
• Clean out and organize hall closet
• Put together a meal rotation spreadsheet
• Choose and print pics for shell frames

This month’s list (carrying over unfinished stuff)

• Finish painting office
• Paint doorways in hall
• Put together alternate days workout for home
• Make regular shopping lists
• Make boys “chores chart”
• Put together a meal rotation spreadsheet
• Clear off and organize desk
• Go through all file drawers and purge
• Do company books and get stuff to acct for taxes
• Make surf shower curtain for boy’s bath
  

Maybe if I put “The list” out there… January 2, 2009

I always have lists of projects etc. that I’m trying to get done.  Many of them have to do with establishing some semblance of order in my life and/or making me more organized / productive.

I notice that the lists remain pretty static.  So, in hopes that a list which exists in a bit more public place might inspire more effort to cause things to be removed from the list, I’m going to put one here.  And, hopefully, update it every month.

The items on the list won’t necessarily make sense to anyone but me.  Hopefully, none of them will sit there for so long that even I forget what I meant by them although that scenario would not be unprecedented.

So, here’s my plan.  10 items at a time.  Updated monthly. Hopefully, my next year this time, it’s a different 10.  And a more fun 10.  You know, because I’d be all caught up on the boring, mundane crap.

• Finish painting office
• Paint doorways in hall
• Fix paint in boys bath
• Put together alternate days workout for home
• Make regular shopping lists
• Make boys “chores chart”
• Clean out and organize Family Room closet
• Clean out and organize hall closet
• Put together a meal rotation spreadsheet
• Choose and print pics for shell frames

Rex meets the iguana October 9, 2008

Several months back (at least a month before we adopted Rex, the mischievous beagle) I was working one day when I noticed a rather large bright green spot moving about in the grass in front of my office window.  Closer inspection revealed an iguana between 2 and 3 feet long.  This was the start of numerous and frequent iguana sightings in the yard.  He was kind of cool to observe and it made it easy to get the boys outside to run off some energy.  “Hey, guys, I think I saw the iguana over by the mango tree – go see if you can find it”.  They’d run off to look, get distracted in about 45 seconds and spend an hour or two playing outside.  This worked especially well since they’d never actually seen it till a week or two ago -I just showed them the picture I’d taken of it the first day.  I mean, really, if you’re a five or eight year old boy, what could possibly be more fun than hunting down a giant lizard rumored to be squatting on your land?  They did finally see it when DH came across it while doing some yardwork.  They all watched it for awhile and much excited discussion ensued.

Now, Rex came along somewhere in there.  He’s a 1.5 y.o. beagle we adopted (which I may or may not have neglected to blog about) and, just like the other boys in this house, is much easier to live with when he spends significant time outside running off some energy.  Being a beagle, Rex has to smell pretty much everything also, which, thankfully, the other boys do not.  One afternoon, when Rex was having some lovely hunting dreams in his bed in my office (I know he was, because he was barking and yelping in his sleep)  I noticed the iguana climbing up the tree in front of my window.  It occurred to me that given the amount of time Rex spends exploring the yard, he must’ve had an iguana encounter at some point.  So I assumed that they could peacefully coexist.  This weekend’s showdown, though, leads me to believe they had both somehow managed to avoid that up till now.

I was heading out to run errands Saturday when I find DH and the boys standing in the driveway watching Rex barking like a maniac at something in the grass.  Yup. He’s met the iguana and they’re having a little canine/reptile showdown.  This carries on for a few minutes with Rex barking his fool head off at the iguana, periodically making a move in or past the iguana causing the iguana to spin to face him, move again, spin… so for several minutes the dog ran circles around the iguana who spun the other direction to keep facing him.

The boys, of course, think this is about the funniest thing they ever saw.  I’m not sure which was more amusing – watching the antics of Rex who just clearly doesn’t know what to make of this or listening to the boys giggling hysterically watching the show.  I did sort of feel sorry for the iguana who, I’m sure was just heading out to check out the lunch menu over at the post in the bushes where the boys throw out all the unused fruit / veggies / bread etc.  I’m sure that spot is like the all you can eat buffet for Mr. Iguana (and the rest of the critters).

Anyway, Rex was getting braver and braver (I’m sure he was just trying to make friends – he kind of desperately wants some friends with more than 2 legs but no, I’m not up to another 4 legged child just now) and the iguana is flicking his tail at him as he spins.  So, I figure that is his defense but don’t know whether he can actually, you know, *hurt* the dog.  I’m starting to get concerned about this and seeing no evidence that DH is thinking of breaking up this little game of Here We go Round the Mulberry Bush Iguana, I decide I’m going to risk life and limb and get Rex.  Just as I make my move the iguana makes his and bolts for the nearest pine tree and scampers up it in a split second.  That sucker is FAST!  I realized he was inching his way over to it with each spin ’round while Rex was tormenting him.

The pines we have are very tall and thin with only a few branches near the top.  The iguana was obviously taking no chances as he scampered up the trunk of the tree and didn’t stop till he was right at the top – at least 25 feet up.  And we was not coming back down by the look of it.  Rex, for his part went a bit nutso making a thorough inspection with his nose of every square inch the iguana had covered.

I went off to do my errands.  When I came home later, DH informed me that the iguana was still up there an hour later when they went inside.  Later they’d gone back outside and witnessed the sequel when the iguana was still in the vicinity.  He got chased up another tree.

I think the iguana might may be pondering whether it’s time to seek out a new home which is pet-free.  He’d probably thought he had it made before Rex was on the scene.  Now he’s having beagle nightmares.  And poor Rex still doesn’t have any 4-legged friends to play with.

“Did you write ‘Sugarlump’?” September 24, 2008

I have this thing I do with the boys when I’m snuggling with them. I say “who’s my sugar lump?” and they smile big and say “ME!” and I say “Right!”

Of course, DS2 has developed his own variation on this because, of course, nothing is more fun than teasing. So, his version now goes like this:  Me, “Who’s my sugar lump?” DS with the trademark twinkling eyes, makes a face like he’s thinking hard, “ummmmm…” then he’ll go into a string of guesses that is usually in an order something like this

a skunk? (this is almost always first, he thinks it’s hilarious),

thunder?

random object he sees in the room 1 / 2/ 3 /etc.

Rex? (the dog)

DS3?

DS1?

Daddy?

then a long pause, a big grin and “ME?”.

At this point I say “YES!!” and give him a big shaking hug and he giggles like we haven’t done the routine 400 times before.

So, a week or so ago there was an informational forum at the school in the evening where you meet the teacher and they give you the lowdown on how they do things and run their classroom, etc. It’s parents only. Before this night, they have the kids make a folder and other cute little projects for you that they put all the paperwork (with which they love to inundate me) into. Usually, they also have the kids write you a note to say thanks for coming and whatever else. Then you write them one back and leave it on their desk for them to read in the morning. It’s kind of sweet and the kids get a huge kick out of it.

So, a couple days later I asked DS2 if he got the note I wrote for him. He looked confused so I figured he obviously hadn’t gotten the note. So I asked if he remembered writing a note to us for that night and he did. So I told him that his teacher told us we could write one back and leave it for him on his desk. He grinned at me and said “did you write Sugarlump in the note?” I hadn’t thought of it at the time but when he asked I wished I had. Luckily, I get another chance. And another and another …

Project and kid stuff I found in my office September 20, 2008

I painted my office. Now, 5.5 years after moving in, I’m down to the master bedroom and the laundry room still in ugly old builder white (something that it gives me immense pleasure to cover with color!)

Anyway, of course, the ugly part of that job is the putting everything back. The reason I procrastinated it for so long is because there is one large wall that is covered 80% by hanging shelves. Onto these shelves have gone a) everything my husband has no need of but can’t bear to part with b) everything I plan to go through / do X with “someday” or when I have time (aka never) as well as anything else that seemed it should be kept but had no other place to go. And, of course, all your usual office stuff.

So, anyway. It’s a lot o’ crap. It had been living on the floor of the master bedroom all week (to the delight of my husband, no doubt. It wasn’t in the way as that room is a fine example of wasted space in a floorplan but unfinished projects (mine, in particular) make him a little twitchy. Yesterday was cleaning lady day so it was relocated into my office (seems like maybe it’d be easier to have just gotten it gone through last week rather than moving it 2 more times first…) Today, it all either going back onto the shelves in an orderly fashion or it is going to find a new home.

I just wanted to record 2 pics here because there’s a 50/50 chance I will lose the items I’ve scanned here. The first one is a pic of a stencil I had painted on the wall in my kitchen in Jamaica. This was one of my projects that I was most proud of. And which I would never, ever attempt again. I had found some way cool pepper fabric that I made the kitchen window treatments out of (and maybe some other stuff – I don’t remember). I took a blank piece of “make your own stencil” plastic stuff, lay it over the fabric and traced about a 24″ strip of the repeating pattern of peppers. Cut it out with an exacto knife and then stenciled it to approximate the colors of the peppers in the fabric. This required buying one bottle of stencil paint in approximately every shade of red, orange, yellow, and green known to man. (This is the sort of thing for which my husband has bestowed nicknames upon me which imply that I, perhaps, get carried away with an idea from time to time).

Anyway. I loved that fabric and that stencil. I just came across the photo of the stencil on the wall.

The other thing was from a day when DS1 was in first grade, I think. That’s my best guess based on how long it’s been in my office and based on the writing. I was sick one day on the weekend. He took it upon himself to go get the stuff he needed to make me this little card. Notice the Now and Later faces. I thought it was very sweet but also very funny, and clever.

Bad day for the itsy bitsy spider August 4, 2008

It’s summer in Florida which means plenty of rain and thunderstorms in between blazing hot and steamy weather.  it’s also the season when daddy-long-leg spiders tend to invade the bathtubs after said rain.

Today was the second and final day of the great toy purge (which was sold to the resident toy users as a toy “sorting and organizing” project) which I’ve been procrastinating, successfully, for quite some time now.   During the course of it, we came across some great little spinning tops and the launcher they work with (the ones you sent, Mom – they are still a big hit).  These had been long forgotten, no doubt buried at the bottom of a bin filled with toy and gamepiece shrapnel for who-knows-how-many months, so it was like a new toy again.  Sometime later, I was done enlisting their help with the sorting phase and off they went to play (thus enabling me to engage in the purging phase without the customary weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth).

Before long, I hear them in the bathroom that is just off the bedroom turned tv/playroom/toy warehouse where I’m restoring order.  Since eavesdropping on their play is some of the best entertainment available to me, I’m listening as I go about my wanton discarding of stuff.  I figure out from their chatter that they are launching the top into the bathtub.  I foolishly assume this is because they are heeding my 17 warnings (and that’s only today’s count) that they are all big enough to keep track of their own toys and put them back etc. and *I* won’t be doing this all-weekend job again (i.e. “you keep it sorted and put away because the next time I had to do it I’ll just be putting it all in the garbage”).  Obviously, they’ve taken my words to heart and so are launching the tops in tub where they can’t possibly get lost, right?

Um, no.  Turns out they’re shooting spiders, so to speak. Or a spider – I’m not sure.  This game went on for some time, though, with much discussion as to how each new launch should or should not be recalibrated to increase the probability of a hit.  Apparently, “aiming” a spinning top is more a matter of luck than skill.  Fortunately for them, a spider in a tub isn’t exactly going to make a getaway so they could take all the practice shots they needed.

A little later my presence was requested in the bathroom to “demonstrate our top secret mission”.  Who knew that spiders in tubs were such a security threat?  It’s a shame the spiders don’t have a better intelligence network – they could get the word out to the rest of the arachnid kingdom that the inside of my house is a combat zone and they’d be best to avoid it.  I’d be fine with them passing the word along to the whole of the insect world, actually.

If only it worked that way July 31, 2008

We have recently instituted a more defined set of chores the boys are responsible for.  This household re-engineering came with a totally awesome (if I do say so myself), custom chore chart they get to use dry-erase pens on (they have an inexplicable attraction to dry erase pens.  Come to think of it, so do I).  So, the chore chart worked fabulously to get the least motivated among my offpsring – that would be DS2 – on board.  Of course, predictably, even the novelty of the dry-erase pen wore off before long.

As it did, DS2 came up with the latest all-purpose excuse when he doesn’t want to do some little job he’s supposed to do.  “My feet don’t want to walk that way.”  I find this placing of blame on specific body parts quite amusing, actually.  DS1 used to place a lot of blame on his stomach – as though it were an entirely separate entity with a mind of its own over which he had no control.  With DS2 it is feet, though.  Convenient in its ability to be universally applied since pretty much anything requires moving from where you are to wherever you need to be / go to do whatever it is you’re attempting to avoid.

So, the other day I ask DS2 to take his dishes to the sink.  He is standing about 10 steps from the table.  Right on cue we get “But my feet don’t want to walk that way”.   DS1, who continues to operate intermittently under the impression that he is vice-parent in this house jumps in with a solution.  He promptly goes over and gets down by the renegade feet attached to DS2 and says which way do they need to go.  DS2 grins and points to the table.  DS1 starts “typing” on DS2′s toes and says in a measured pace as though he is typing it as he says it “turn around. walk to table, pick up dishes (presumably this was not intended to be done by his feet – perhaps this is the input center for the hands, also?) walk to sink”.  Then he pushes an imaginary button on one of DS2′s feet and voila – DS2′s feet are now on board with the requested task and off he goes.

Now there’s a programming language well worth learning.

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“Kids these days” June 20, 2008

In my local yahoogroups-based mom’s group, we’d had a (tongue-in-cheek) discussion about how, if the telemarketers and spammers are to be believed, I must the luckiest person on the planet since several times a week I win fabulous prizes and large sums of money in draws and lotteries which I’ve never even heard of, much less entered.  Then I get another one of these emails claiming I won another meeeelllion dollars.  Even more remarkably, this was for the 2010 FIFA world cup or some such nonsense.  So, turns out I’m so incredibly lucky, I even win lotteries in the future.  The bottom line in the email was “just reply with all your personal information so we can send you a big fat check”.

I mocked this ploy again in email to the mom’s group.  Here’s a reply that made me laugh.

Just makes me lose all regard for these id thieves when they’ve gotten so lazy they’re not even willing to dig through the trash like the stand-up thieves of the past. This next generation is just getting lazy!!