Against the Grain

Seven Quick Takes: Almost-the-Solstice Edition

1. Peter and Leo started swim lessons this week at the neighboring suburb's outdoor pool.  I'm in the tot class with Leo while Peter's across the pool in level 1.  The last time anyone in the family took swim lessons was 4 years ago when Peter was 15 months old and I was very newly pregnant with Leo.  It took 3 days for Peter to stop freaking out about being in the water.  This time, they both love jumping in and are blowing bubbles like pros.  Leo's fighting the floating concept, but oh well.  I'll take not being scared of the water for now.  A bonus I wasn't aware of when we signed up -- we can come 15 minutes early and/or stay 15 minutes late without paying extra (it's normally $8 to get in, or $5 in the evening).  My next-door neighbor and her 3 year old are in Leo's class and the other day we realized we could take turns watching the kids after class so the two of us could head over to the waterslides.  It's a bit of a hassle to make sure we're done with dinner in time to get to the pool by 6:30, but the evening class lets us not worry about sunscreen and is a nice way to end the day.

2. We're finishing Week 1 of our flip-flopped summer routine with Dan as the primary caregiver and me the chief wage-earner.  I was fairly worried that it would be dull as nails to do my job for more than 2 hours at a stretch, but working during the daytime has made it easier.  I'm aiming to work 6 hours MWF and 4 hours T/Th.  I nanny Tu/Th but hope to work while she's napping and in the evenings.  That leaves me MWF evenings and the weekends to not work.  I haven't worked that many hours this week, but I did a lot over last weekend to get things done before a deadline, so I'm on track overall.  Next week, Dan will be out of town so I'll be back to fitting in a couple hours in the evenings like during the school year.  Then we have one week in town before going to the cabin for a week -- I'll bring the laptop and work a couple hours a day there.  The nannying gig will likely be done sometime in July or August, so that might switch things up again. 

3. We hit strawberry season here at last.  We picked about 4 berries from our garden before the birds got the rest.  Now we put a net up in hopes of saving some everbearing ones.  At 7am Wednesday, I went to a not-too-far farm and picked 13 lbs of berries over an hour.  My legs are still sore from crouching in the wet straw.  I made 7 half-pints of strawberry-rhubarb jam that night, 8 half-pints of strawberry jam the next morning (minus one lost when Leo made a jam tower), and froze a gallon plus a quart of halved berries.  Total cost: $23 for berries, $4 for lids and pectin (although it turned out I had enough at home already).  I'm planning to go back for more next week when they're fully in season and bring Peter and a friend (trading Leo with the friend's mom if I can).  5 year olds are much easier to manage than 3 year olds at berry patches  unless you've got a 1:1 parent:child ratio.

4. The garden is going full-tilt. We're drowning in lettuce, picking snap peas and munching them before they get inside, and I picked a big bag of almost-bolting spinach.  The first radishes were eaten weeks ago.  The beans are climbing maybe 6 inches a day up their poles and I finally finished attaching twine for all the tomatoes to climb on.  I bought some watermelon and squash seedlings when the gardening centers put them on 30% last weekend to supplement my still-puny ones.  We then got a ton of rain and everything looks healthier, but having too many plants isn't a big dilemma.  I put landscape cloth down around all the squashes and melons to keep down the weeds.  I thought about mulch but this seemed cheaper and easier. 

5. The chickens are growing and changing enough that Stripey isn't stripey anymore.  They've finally figured out how to go back into the hen house without a light to guide them or any encouragement.  They're almost fully feathered now and look really big and old until we see full-grown ones and realize how far they have to go.

6. The long hours are affecting bedtimes more than I expected.  If Peter listens to story CD's at bedtime, he'll listen for hours before falling asleep.  Bedtime has been shifted to 9, sometimes 9:30, but he was still awake at 11:15 the other day.  On the plus side, he had to be woken up at 9:30 today.  Leo usually sleeps until 8, at least.  I'd like to shift Peter to listen to a story CD in the afternoon to have some calm downtime--maybe I'll work on that next week.

7. Next week, Dan will be in Chicago for a sacred music colloquium and I'll be fending for myself with the boys.  I made sure to buy groceries for food they'll actually eat.  Any other advice for handling life as a single parent for seven days?  Other than my bringing one boy or the other on my own mini-vacations, I've never done the single parent gig.

More quick takes here: http://www.conversiondiary.com/2009/06/7-quick-takes-friday-vol-38.html

Seven Quick Takes

1. I attended my first pre-k field trip today (Peter's fourth -- he's gone to Orchestra Hall, a farm, and Underwater World already) to a nature center.  I did my best to appreciate the fact that he wanted to sit next to me on the bus and gladly held both my hand and his buddy's hand (2 kids per parent volunteer) without my having to remind him to stick together.  He has never gotten dressed or out the door so fast on a school day.  Those kids were so wound up!  I love the joy emitted by 36 five-year-olds all doing their best not to bounce off the walls.  I also have newfound appreciation for their fabulous teacher who can quiet them without raising her voice.
2. Other than a brief visit at supper, Dan has a 16 hour day due to Baccalaureate and Commencement.  Wednesday was Senior Honors Night and was almost as long.  Ah, the end of the school year...
3. Dan's car, the 13 year old Cavalier, started smoking as it tried to shift gears recently, and after determining that it would take $3,000 and a rebuilt transmission to get it functional again, we donated it today to Cars With Heart.  We're using my sister's car until school's done, then we'll do the single-car thing until we replace it in the fall.  The big question -- do we get a cheap, small, efficient, old car?  Do we buy one of our sister's not-quite-as-old-or-cheap, efficient, small cars?  Do we buy a Mazda5 or minivan, using every penny we can save in the next 3 months?  They would be not efficient, small, or cheap, but we wouldn't need to buy anything else for a few years.  If only Dan's school was transit-friendly or close enough to bike/walk even in December.
4. We've had the chickens for two weeks now.  We got the oldest ones available -- 1 and 2 weeks old at the time.  They're cute, which has endeared them to the contrary neighbors, but they won't be laying until Halloweenish.  We've got 3 Americaunas and 3 Barred Rocks.  We're slowly naming them as we learn to tell them apart.  So far, we've got Stripey (Peter and my favorite, who actually likes us because Peter keeps feeding her inchworms), Raccoon, Sassafras, Curry, and Tarragon.  
5. I'm really ready for Peter to be done with school, if only so that he can go to bed at 9pm without being a terrible grouch the rest of the day.  It's light out so late here and pleasant to sit outside in the evenings, but ugh, the fallout is awful.
6. Leo has developed a cute but irritating obsession with sprinklers, hoses, and anything that pours water.  We have to leave the exterior faucets turned off from the inside to prevent him from constantly turning them on to water things.  The boys will also run through sprinklers even when it's cold enough for me to put on a jacket.  Our water bill will be crazy this month -- it hasn't rained in weeks and we decided to care what our lawn looks like, maybe to mitigate any annoyance about the chickens. 
7. With Dan gone tonight, I told the boys to get their shoes and meet me at the car for a surprise.  I brought them to Dairy Queen, where I had a B1G1 coupon and they had their first Blizzards.  Ice cream!  And M&M's!  Together!  I admit it -- I took a full medium and split the small between them.  We all finished at the same time...

More quick takes at Jen's Conversion Diary here.

Bring on the chickens!

Tonight, our suburban city council gave us permission to have 6 hens. 

We started the permit application process after building most of the coop in March so that we'd be able to accurately describe the coop.  Our city, unlike St. Paul and Minneapolis*, has quite picky requirements about outbuildings, including chicken coops.  If we'd known this before starting, we would have chosen exterior grade plywood rather than assuming chickens could handle painted OSB and a heat lamp in the winter.  Apparently, there's debate whether insulating a coop keeps them warm or isolates them too much.  The city wante

d us to put siding on the walls and shingles on the roof and told us it was illegal to compost food.  Oooookkkaaaay.  We made some changes, promised to do others, and got the approval of all the inspectors.  Then the city sent a notice to all the neighbors within 200 feet of our property lines (using a measuring approach that added a few on the corners in addition to including 8 homes whose properties are EXACTLY 200 feet away, across both an alley and a street).  Using that wacky math, there are 31 homes (all single-residences) within the range.  One next-door neighbor started avoiding us.  Our behind-the-alley neighbor came over to say she was worried about smell, noise, and rats.  Our other next-door neighbor said he had angry neighbors calling in ho

pes that he'd get upset and show up at the meeting to complain.  Other neighbors wandered by, excited about our plans.  I spent a week wringing my hands over the fact that people nearby are angry with me and don't have the decency to tell us what their problem is. 

Last night, we went a few blocks away to a neighbor who has two unpermitted hens (permits are only required for 3+).  For the 20 minutes we were there, we didn't hear a squeak out of them and smelled nothing.  They said they'd had a raccoon try to get into the food stored in the garage once, but no predators had even tried to get into the coop and they hadn't seen a single rodent. 

Tonight, Dan went to the council meeting dressed in his tie from work while I escaped to an Usborne books party so as to not make things worse.  Our disapproving neighbor showed up to air her grievances along with another neighbor on the edge of the boundary.  Our two-doors-down neighbor came to support us.  

In the end, we agreed to block off the coop better on the neighbor's side -- it's 15ish feet from their unfenced property--and to come back in a year for neighbors to talk about any problems that may develop.  I'm hoping we can just put up a privacy fence along that section of backyard and make everyone happy.  Because we have to live next to them, our kids like playing together, and I'd rather find a way to make everyone happy than say "Ha ha, we won suckas!!!".  At least I won't to their faces :)

Coming this weekend, I hope -- photos of the new ladies taking up residence in the backyard. 

* The inner cities require approval by animal control, which does not involve siding, but does check to make sure the hens will be healthy and safe.  They're pickier with neighbor approval, which makes some sense with 40' wide lots.  80% approval within 150' is required, although streets aren't crossed.  So you can have one pissed off neighbor, but probably not two, and you need signatures of approval, which is trickier than just requesting people come to a meeting if they're opposed.  We didn't have any exact neighbor requirements.

Summer activities -- how much is enough?

How do you decide what the right number of activities is at each age?  We've avoided most organized sports for the boys until this year because we're cheap, Peter's been terrified of new people and situations, and moving/prepping to move meant we were in location limbo.  Now that Peter's been in pre-k and grown up a bit, he's much more ready to join in, but we aren't sure how scheduled and activity-centered we want to get.  I know I don't want to be running 6 directions with kids in three sports when they're 10, trying to get to soccer games on opposite sides of town one morning.  I like the idea of cross-country skiing together as a family and having the kids do less-competitive-to-join high school sports that can still be fun.  But if Peter needs practice with anything this summer, it's getting along with other kids and learning appropriate ways to interact with them and team sports would be a sensible way to do that.  We'd also meet more kids from the neighborhood, which would balance out all his schoolmates living in far-flung places. 

This winter/spring, we planned to put Peter in swimming and Leo (aka Monkey Boy)  in gymnastics.  I didn't get around to signing up for the January swimming session, then procrastinated with the March session until suddenly it was the second week of classes and I hadn't done anything, but the next session wasn't open for registration yet.  Meanwhile, I got Leo into March-May parent-child gymnastics, which turns out to be more stress than fun for my kid who would really rather jump on the mats than do whatever the teacher asks.

In early April, I went to sign up for swimming and realized that of the seven sessions, only one was still open and it was the least convenient time.  Okay, now I understand -- signups don't happen two weeks before class starts.  Everyone in the know registers much earlier.  Got it.  I gave up on spring swimming and checked out the local community pools' summer classes.   Registration was just starting for those and I got Peter into the spring sports sampler (one class each of soccer, floor hockey, basketball, and a repeat) and obsessively checked the swimming numbers until the non-resident-at-residents'-rate signups opened the next week.  I have both boys in swimming lessons at the local pool in June for the same cost as just Peter taking it at the Y, with 10 lessons instead of 7.  I'll be in the pool with Leo. Hopefully they'll both be comfortable enough in the water to enjoy swimming in the lake at the cabin over the 4th of July. 

Now I'm looking at the later-summer options and debating the busy vs. fun at home approach.  Swimming is a no-brainer because I feel that kids ought to know how to swim at least well enough to play in water over their head.  In retrospect, Leo wasn't ready for organized gymnastics and I'll hold off another year before putting him in another class like that.  I was surprised how serious most of the parents were about it -- I have no plans for a future in gymnastics for him, I just thought he'd like bouncing around and learning somersaults.  He does like the balance beam and has caught onto Red Light, Green Light. 

For summer, I'm thinking about putting Peter into a twice-weekly park program where he goes for 90 minutes and does crafts and games.  I loved that when I was his age and everyone I mention it to has similar happy memories.  It goes for 6 weeks, so 12 sessions for $17 and it's two blocks from our house.  It almost seems wrong not to, at that price, even though we'd miss a week.  There are a couple options for baseball.  There's a 3-5 year old program with parents, once a week for 4 weeks, or a 4-5 year old program without parents, same time schedule.  I've learned my lesson and won't put both boys into the 3-5 year old one.  At 6, the only option is t-ball, with games and a longer season.  Similarly, soccer runs Sept-Oct and at five he could either do a practices-only, 4 week thing, or 6-8 weeks with games and extra practices.  Next year, the more-intense version is the only option.  I'd like to put him in the 4-5 year old no-parents-but-no-games sessions of both baseball and soccer to see what he likes without committing to anything bigger.  But that feels like we're starting the giant cog of sports-madness and we'll be sucked into Little League and soccer clubs forever.  The seasons don't overlap during elementary school, so it's possible to do Little League April-July and soccer late August-October.  Some of Peter's classmates have been doing indoor soccer all winter, but that's definitely past what I'm interested in. 

We're also planning to have both boys in Vacation Bible School for one week in June and one week in August, every morning for a week.  So if we sign up for everything, this is the schedule:
June 15-19: Bible School 9-12 Peter and Leo, Swimming 6:15-7 Peter and Leo
June 22-26: Swimming 6:15-7 Peter and Leo, Park program T/Th 10-11:30 Peter (Dan will be out of town all week)
June 29-July 2: Park program T/Th 10-11:30 Peter, Baseball Monday 5:15-6 Peter
July 6-10: Away at the cabin
July 13-17: Park program T/Th 10-11:30 Peter, Baseball Monday 5:15-6 Peter
July 20-24: Park program T/Th 10-11:30 Peter, Baseball Monday 5:15-6 Peter
July 27-31: Park program T/Th 10-11:30 Peter
August 3-7: Bible school 9-12 Peter and Leo
Then nothing until soccer starts on Saturdays Sept. 19th.  I'd consider putting one or both of them in the last swimming session in early August if they really wanted to.  School starts the day after Labor Day and Peter will be going to kindy all-day, every day and Leo has preschool at our parish 9-11:30 Tuesday/Thursday.  I'm a little concerned that Leo will be bummed that Peter gets to do things that he doesn't.  There's a once-a-week park program with parents for 3-4 year olds, but the one at our park isn't that convenient timing, and what's Peter supposed to do while the parent's at the park with Leo?  The total cost for the park program, baseball, and soccer would be $63, which seems crazy-cheap to me.  I'm not going to do any weeklong daycamps or anything and I think this would be enough scheduled activities to give us some routine without having somewhere we have to go every day. 

Oh, experienced parents!  How much is too much/too little? 

7 Quick Takes (Monday)

I can't even figure out how to center the image, but I'm tired of trying.  It's a fitting way to start my first blog entry in 2 months anyway.

1. Our chicken coop is almost done.  Unfortunately, we now know that our suburb requires the same code for small outbuildings as for homes and they'd really rather we cover it with shingles and siding.  That's not going to happen.  We're hoping that photos of the painted, trimmed, OSB structure and promises to replace any worn pieces with exterior-grade plywood will suffice.  They have bizarre compost rules too, but those are a lesser fight to bother with.
2. Peter is really reading.  Sit down with a book on the couch reading aloud to his brother reading.  He asks about big words but silent e's don't even phase him.  He'd rather sit inside reading than play outside. 
3. On Friday at dinner, we were asking Peter to spell words.  How about bake?  Cake?  Shake?  Shake threw him off so we asked what letters made the shhhh sound.  "S-H," said Leo.  Our eyes nearly popped out of our heads.
4. Lettuces went into the just-expanded garden on Saturday.  Tomatoes are being moved into 3" peat pots under the grow lights as I get to them.  They look big and grown up in such big pots.  They've got another month+ before it's safe to go outside.  I think I saw the first pea sprout today, 9 days post-direct seeding.
5. I've been sewing a lot for my pregnant sister-in-law.  I'm up to 6 small diapers, 1 newborn gown, 2 3-6 month gowns, 1 3-6 month romper, 1 0-3 month romper, 1 newborn side-tying t-shirt, and 2 3-6 month t-shirts.  So far I love KwikSew patterns, which run one size big and sort of long through the torso, compared to Big 3 patterns, which are beyond wonky.  My favorite so far has been the long sleeve tees that I reverse constructed from an AA blank.  Pattern options must be bad if I'm coming up with my own.  I got a whole bunch of bamboo velour to use which is so soft, but a pain in the neck to sew.  I'm hoping to get up to 12 diapers and a few more of this and that if I can ever find patterns I like enough to use more than once. 
6. Good Friday really hit me this year.  I listened to a description of what it feels like to be crucified and I'm really stuck on how huge it was that Christ DIED in such an awful way for sinful me. 
7. The boys finished Sunday School yesterday with the end-of-the-year concert in which Peter dutifully did all the actions for 5 songs and probably sang.  A huge leap from last year when he cried through the first month of classes.  Next year he'll be in the oldest class already.  Leo did a few actions, stuck his fingers in his mouth and nose, and didn't run all over the stage, hence doing considerably better than at the Christmas concert. 

I have photos to attach to most of these that may or may not be posted someday. 

Hmm, apparently I'm too late to show up on the main list.  Oh well -- read others' at Conversion Diary.

    

Other times, my kids are THAT kid

This week, I feel like I'm hitting both my parenting local mins and maxes (what, you don't associate parenting with graphs of derivatives?).  After the high of the POPS concert, on Monday we went to a nearby fieldhouse during open playtime.  I had 19 month old N. with us and ended up staying closer to her than the boys because they were happily on the bouncy slide and she kept bolting to the soccer game.  Peter was playing with a playgroup friend for quite awhile until the other family left.  Maybe half an hour later, another mom determined that I was Peter's mom and told me he was pushing kids down the slide and had hurt some of them.  We left as soon as we could (which took awhile with 3 coats, bathroom visits, etc) and I spent a good chunk of the 20 minute drive home talking to Peter about why that was not okay and how we would not be going back this winter.  He was crying, I was nearly crying, he had all his privileges for the day revoked and we all felt rotten.

Today, I attempted to bring the boys to Ash Wednesday Mass at Peter and Dan's school.  Dan's singing at our parish's 7pm Mass so I knew it would be me alone with them no matter when we went.  I've learned that 7pm is too late to expect the boys to handle it and the other options were either over lunch or dinner, which didn't seem wise.  1:45 in a room full of other kids sounded like my best bet.  We got there with time to spare, talked to Dan for a minute, and found seats in the back, with a couple buffers rows between us and the students.  Then Leo would. not. stop. talking.  Squirming in Mass I can handle, but the never-ending "Where's Daddy?  I can't see.  Who's that?  Why are we back here?" etc etc is so stressful.  There were kids from first grade through twelvth there and not another peep in the whole room.  By the first reading, the Headmaster came over and asked if he could provide babysitting of some sort.  I asked if that existed, more surprised than anything, and when he said not really, I knew we had to leave.  Peter was crying because he didn't want to go, Leo was obliviously still asking for Dan, and the choir was singing nearby (with no congressional singing expected in the immediate future) when I told Peter to follow me and walked as quickly as I could the whole long way up to the front and out of the room.  I have no idea how to teach Leo to stop talking.  Peter had his own quiet-at-Mass issues, but non-stop talking hasn't been a problem.  I don't want to keep him away from Mass because that'll be easier for me, but not better for him.  Our parish has a side area that isn't quite a cry room, but is generally accepted as the louder area where kids are expected.  That sort of works.  I'm just frustrated.

In better news, we went to a new-to-us grocery store on the way home and the boys were super-helpful and patient.  It's double coupon day and we've already done our grocery shopping this week so I was finding the most useful ways to hit $25 and trigger the double coupons and it involved a lot of wandering around the store.  Ended up with 4 jars of organic spaghetti sauce ($0.25 first jar, $2.25 other jars, down from $4.79/jar), 2 pkgs of cat anti-hairball treats for 50 cents each (down from $1.79), a 12 oz box of Rice Krispies for $1.60, next week's organic bananas (green) for 69 cents/lb, 3 kids' toothbrushes for $1,  and some other things I know we'll use before too long just to reach $25.  Ended up paying $26 for $43 of stuff.  Tomorrow we'll make Rice Krispy treats for the first time in ages :)

He appreciates culture more at age 4 than I do at 30

I'm so proud of Peter tonight.  I reminded Dan that I was going to his cousin's senior year POPS concert (also my sister's SIL, in our convoluted family) with my sister and Peter piped up that he wanted to go.  Dan has been bringing Peter to various concerts and plays at their school for at least the past year, but those tend to be one-act plays or 45 minute middle school band concerts and such.  I tend to get antsy during concerts and I figured I would bring Peter tonight and it would be a good excuse to leave during intermission if necessary.  Instead, we stayed the entire three hours.  It had more elements of a talent show than any of my high school band concerts so no particular group performed more than three songs before someone else came on stage, but some of those had multiple parts.  We'd brought along a backpack of books for him to look through as he often had at other concerts, but it was too dark in the audience to use any of them.  I had to remind him to stay in his chair (the kind that eats kids whose feet don't yet touch the floor) once, but he really just sat and listened.  He freaked out a bit at intermission because I refused to buy water, but he wouldn't drink my root beer.  We found a drinking fountain and the crisis was averted.  Two hours into it, his head started bobbing and fifteen minutes later he said he felt dizzy and could he sit in my lap?  I got to cuddle with him snug on my lap for the last 45 minutes and his uncle carried him, still mostly asleep, out to the car through the snow.  I was surprised to find that they were charging admission when we'd entered (is that standard?  isn't it doing them a favor to come to a high school band concert?), but at least they let Peter in free.  I'd say we got our $6 worth! 

Job?

I have a job interview at 3 p.m.  I'm pretty nervous that I'm going to blabber on and talk with my hands and not finish a single sentence.  The part of me that knows I have the right experience and skills for this needs to smother the freaked out part of me.

If I get it, I'll be able to:
--Bike or bus there in under half an hour (and shower in their gym if necessary).
--Get to play with spreadsheets, then use the information to help communities deal with foreclosures.
--Stop working from home in the evenings.
--Afford to put Leo in preschool next fall, which he and I would both appreciate.
--Pay my SIL to watch the boys this spring, an ideal situation because she wants the work and I don't want to put Peter in a new situation for 3 months.
--Work three days a week and be home the other days.
--Pay off our student loans by June and have a full emergency fund by fall.
--Gain more work experience before my last project becomes ancient history.

I'm sort of torn because this would probably delay our having another baby -- I'd feel bad getting pregnant right after starting.  Leo would end up spending 9+ hours at a preschool/daycare three days a week and I think he'd love it, but I still feel weird knowing he'd be away from me that much.  He's going to be lonely otherwise with Peter at all-day kindergarten next year, though, and I don't really want to pay for preschool unless I'm working more.  The job is almost ideal for my background and I love the idea of using the information I'm analyzing to directly help people. 

We'll see how it goes. 

Cleanliness and Organization

In 2008, I revamped how we eat and deal with finances.  A couple weeks ago, something in me snapped and I couldn't accept our messy house and disorganization any more.  Maybe it was realizing that we'd missed Peter's show and tell day two months out of four.  Or thinking I'd cleaned the basement, but seeing 18 month old N. find tiny things to eat every 30 seconds anyway.  Or watching our cleaned-for-Christmas house fall apart immediately.

I thought about using my 3-year-old Motivated Moms calendar or splurging the $7 and getting the current one.  I checked out my LTK licensor's organization files (she's a mom of 4 boys, married to a neat freak, and runs a successful home business - she must have things put together).  In the end, neither had everything I wanted and I killed a few days putting together my own list and putting onto a new Google Calendar and then the first two weeks in Excel for more convenient printing.  I think I'm just a sucker for spreadsheets and lists.  Now I'm glad I didn't work ahead any farther with Excel because it's easier to edit Google calendar as I figure out that I don't need to scrub my stovetop three times a week if it was clean to start with and how often do I really take out the garbage?  In typical Amy-over-detailed fashion, I have daily, twice-weekly-three-times-weekly-four-times-weekly, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, seasonal, semi-annual, and annual activities all factored in.  I've kept up with it for almost two weeks without throwing in the towel.  I'm exhausted with a cold and up against work deadlines with Dan gone for evening activities most of this week, but the worst shape we've been in is to not handwash the stuff that didn't fit into the dishwasher.  Since those tend to sit for a week, a couple days is far better than usual.  I didn't feel guilty when my mom came over, knowing that she tends to clean all the messy stuff while I'm at Bible study.  There were some clothes to put away, but that was it.

I spend a lot more time cleaning than I used to, but it's not overwhelming.  I don't worry about laundry on non-laundry days.  It's okay if we're running low on bread on Tuesdays because Wednesday is baking day.  It feels like the 300 household management tasks that used to rattle around in my brain making me feel guilty but being too overwhelming to tackle have all settled into their respective time slots and now I'm free of them.  Today I need to figure out what we'll do for February birthdays and holidays.  Tomorrow will be backing up the harddrive.  And nothing takes very long.  Washing the mirrors?  3 minutes tops.  Cleaning around the toilet?  1 minute.  Things don't have a chance to pile up for very long, so they don't take long to put away.  All the time I spend cleaning now, I was probably reading your blogs before, and there's only so many times anyone should check email each day. 

I came upstairs the other day and found Dan scrubbing the stove.  He said the computer told him to -- yay for pop-up windows!  I have it set up timewise so I do most cleaning during the day, but hopefully Dan will be able to help with some of the more obnoxious occasional stuff, like keeping the photos uploaded. 

Here's my week so you can see what I'm doing.  Online, everything has a particular time, but those weren't as important as just getting through things each day.

Download Big Ol' Chore List 2009 Week 1

Best Christmas Present

I've been afraid to say anything and jinx it but I think Leo's done with diapers.  We haven't changed any poopy pants since Christmas and he's initiating use of the potty.  Trainers are actually being useful because he often realizes he needs to go slightly later than he ought to, but he does pull off his pants and hunt down a bathroom at that point.  Maybe it was the cool new low-flow toilet, or having functioning bathrooms on both floors, or just getting tired of sitting in wet clothes, but at 2 3/4, he seems to have finally decided that pee-pee does belong in the potty.  For most of December, I had a sticker chart on the bathroom door and once he got 12 stickers, he picked out a toy truck from the thrift store.  It took forever to fill it out and didn't make a huge difference that I could tell, but who knows.  I've had him in the same fleece pocket diaper and flannel pants for bedtime since last weekend.  Since the boys share a bed and Leo usually ends up in our bed by morning, I'm not sure I want to risk getting all of us wet, but we could probably switch to underwear overnight without too many changes of sheets.  I just might be able to move the diaper shelf downstairs and use it for books this year. 

For anyone wondering how much of a difference the whole changing 25 times a day and teaching him to use the potty at 6 weeks old has made -- Peter decided to start using the potty at 35 months.  Leo is 33  months.  If I'd let him run around naked, he would have used the toilet full-time six months ago.  He has peed when I brought him to the toilet since he was tiny.  But the stubborn kid wanted to do it his way and apparently, that time was now.  I need to convince myself that I don't need a diaper bag with 5 changes of clothes when I leave the house -- that could be tough. 

I'll probably do E.C. with a potential next child but I might find a way to let it be more child-led.  Having a daughter who could wear dresses and go bottomless without being so obvious would make that easier. 

Here's to a diaper-free 2009!