Everyday Household Magic

*If you have a walk-in closet, you probably can't relate to this post at all.  And if you tell me how big your closet is, we'll probably never be friends again.  Just sayin'.


My closet.  It's got so many uses.  That rod is packed with clothes hanging on it-- half of them never get worn, but I hold onto them for various reasons.  Some are professional clothes from my teaching days, and you never know when I might decide I need to look like my former alter-ego, my non-stay-at-home-Mom self.  Or they might simply be out of season.  Or, more likely, they're dresses and shirts that do not accommodate a breastfed baby, so they're biding their time until he's weaned.  (I guess that makes the odds that they'll be out of style by then pretty good, but style has never been my strong suit, and I see no reason to start worrying about that now.)  The shelves above that rod are strewn with skirts that I'm sure I'll be able to fit into soon (ha!), sweaters, scarves, and boxes of winter and maternity clothes.  And then there are a few other odds and ends that aren't even clothing at all: purses, backpacks, all the film negatives from my wedding...

But it's the floor of my closet that really gets interesting.  That's where I keep my assortment of slippers-- everything from purple & fuzzy to rainbow & fuzzy, and also a pair with Pikachu on them and a pair with bananas on the toes.  That's also where I tend to throw my workout clothes if I think I can get one more wear out of them before they 're too smelly.  And, of course, you'll find anything that was on the floor of my room that I shoved into my closet in order to quickly clean up or not have to look at the mess any more.  It's where you'll find stuff that my kids put there: sippy cups and toys and blankets (so many blankets...) and anything else they found to play with, and then abandoned on the floor of my closet. 

Because my closet is so much more than just a closet: it's a hiding place, a place to feel alone without going too far away from mommy.  It's a place to sit giggling until it's time to come bursting out and surprise mommy.  It's a place to go when you've got a laundry basket on top of you, turning you into a robot, and you're recharging.  It's a magical place.

But it had also become something of a dump.

So in a fit of energy one day, I cleaned off the floor of my closet.  I managed to make room in a drawer (!) for those workout clothes.  I put all the sippy cups in the sink to be washed and I even put the toys away.  I stacked the slippers on top of their mate so they were both matched and not taking up so much space.

And now I can see the carpet that resides there.  And it's so peaceful and restful and clean seeing the carpet on my closet floor.  I never knew I could love that little square of carpet so much, but every time I see it I feel like a woman who has things put together and organized, so much so that I can leave that patch of my home absolutely devoid of stuff.

It's become my happy place as much as it's always been my children's.  And even clean, it's still magical.

Keepin' it Classy

It took us a couple minutes yesterday to realize that Ryder had managed to go outside looking like this:

 

Wow.  Just, wow...  I'm not sure which is worse-- the utter and complete lack of pants, or the combination of crocs with black socks!?!?!?!?  Or the fact that above his pants-less white legs and diaper, he's sporting a button-down shirt and sweater vest!  The combination just sort of boggles the mind...

One more for the road:

I can't even imagine what the neighbors were thinking.  Especially once we dashed out and proceeded to take pictures before we even corrected the situation...!

Gold Stars

When I said earlier that we were committed to planting a garden next spring, what I really meant is that Craig is committed.  And I fully support him in this commitment.  Because while I do most of the day-to-day grunt work around here-- laundry, cooking and cleaning-- everything else usually falls to Craig.  This means he's in charge of yardwork, home maintenance/improvement projects, and changing lightbulbs.  And killing bugs whenever he's around to do it. (And helping me out with anything else that's going on when he's home.  Craig is a very helpful husband.)

So yes, gardening definitely falls under the "yardwork" category.  And you already saw the lovely garden box he's built.  He and Bentley have been reading Square Foot Gardening together and making lists of everything they'll need and having a nice time getting it all planned.  As part of this process, Craig decided that we needed to start composting.  He figured that in order to make this easy for me, he would set up the compost heap near the house, so I can pretty much just chuck stuff into it from our sliding door.

Craig knows me so well.

So he's built a little cage for the compost heap and now my job whenever I have vegetable peels or whatever is to throw them in there.

And I LOVE IT!

I totally love it.

Who would have thought composting could bring so much joy?

We've been trying to eat healthier, so I've been cooking with a lot more fruits and vegetables, and nothing makes me happier than chopping vegetables for dinner, collecting all the stems and stuff on a plate and then presenting it to the compost pile.  It's a double win-- I'm eating healthy AND helping my garden!

I feel like I am being rewarded with gold stars on my forehead every time I contribute to the compost heap.  Like, if someone walked by and took a look, they would be impressed by what a healthy and environmentally conscientious family we are.

Who would have guessed that I was so easily motivated?  And that I could get so excited about garbage?

A Couple Quick Things

Ryder was pulling a hard-done-by face as I cleaned him off, so I asked if he was turning into a drama king.  He answered, "No, me just king."

He also has a knock-knock joke now.  It goes like this:

Ryder: na-nock.
You: Who's there?
Ryder: Rock.
You: Rock who?
Ryder: Let's do it Rock-apella!


This was, of course, inspired by Craig teaching him that phrase (all of my blog readers remember the kids' game show, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, right?).  But Ryder made it into a joke all by himself, which I thought was kind of impressive.  The kid has got a funny bone!

And on a completely unrelated topic, I really liked these still photos of Colton trying out solids for the first time:

Getting him prepped (ie, putting a bib on him)

"What is this strange substance?"

Frankenstein arms

Actually eating

Big eyes

Decision, Decisions

I hate to delete documents.  I always worry that I might want them back.  So rather than just letting this one be gone forever, I'm posting it here.
It's a list of every single possible way to have Colton that I could think of.  Every. Single. Possibility.  Some of them are terrible ideas.  Actually, most of them are terrible ideas.  The fact that I even wrote them down should indicate just how desperate I was for a happy birth experience.

Enjoy reading and laughing.  And breathe a sigh of relief (with me) that things ended up going so perfectly!

Birth Options

Hospital:

-Research hospitals, find one with more lenient IV and monitoring requirements (tricky, because they lie on the tour)

-Give power of attorney to Craig, let him fight all my battles

-Don't tell the doctor I'm pushing until the baby is out

-Meet the doctor, leave if I don't like him/her

-Hire a doula to attend birth at hospital

Birthing Center:

-NOVA

-Marshall Midwifery

Home Birth:

-Have midwife present (from Marshall Midwifery)

-Call EMTs

-Have John* & Jackie Ahrens present

*Jackie is our Relief Society president, and her husband has delivered six or seven babies as a firefighter and EMT.  That's why they made the list.

A Half-Birthday!

Colton is six months old today.  Six months!  Half a year I've had this little roly-poly baby to smile and coo and giggle and blow raspberries with!  And what a joy it's been! 

To celebrate this milestone, he decided to bust out his first tooth, beating his older brothers and sisters by MONTHS in the First Tooth category.  (I couldn't tell you when each of them hit that off the top of my head, but I know Ryder didn't get a tooth until he was 10 months old, and that was following the precedent set by his older siblings.  So, yeah, Colton is definitely ahead of the curve here.  For being my child.)  And since he's both six months old AND has teeth, it made sense to finally feed him some solid food.  So here he is, trying out oatmeal for the first time EVER.

I apologize for the fact that I forgot to turn my phone sideways.  I'm totally bugged that I did that...

It's always amazing to me how you can add a kid to your family, and then immediately feel like they were always part of the family.  Colton is no exception to this-- I wonder how we were ever happy without him.

I love my little half-a-year-old man!

End of Summer Stuff

Yes, I know all I've done is inundate you with photos recently. I'll try to actually have something to say next time.  But until then, it would be a shame to not share these pictures with you, too!

We definitely have another thumb-sucker on our hands

Kendra got some caterpillars and we've been watching them turn into butterflies.  Here we are on their release day!

Coaxing them out of their home

(No, I don't think I brushed this poor girl's hair all summer...)

Ryder, as always, wants in on the action

Here's Ryder "helping out" with Colton's tummy time

Kendra contributes to tummy time as well

After visiting Polyface Farm, we are recommitted to planting a garden next spring.  Square Foot Gardening, here we come!

An evening at the park

Carrying Colton

How does summer go by so fast?  Seriously, how did that happen???

SAHBs

It seems like Ryder and Colton deserve some pictures, even if they didn't start school. So here are few recent shots of my two stay-at-home-with-mommy boys:

In his awesome lion towel-- roar!!!

Having some naked snacking time.  Every boy's dream come true.

Floor time

This is one of my favorite outfits for Colton-- thanks to my mother-in-law for finding this!

Colton can now roll from his tummy to his back and then back again-- I guess the next step will be crawling

Funny face

Surprised face

Some friends gave us this dragon costume, so Ryder wanted to try it on

So funny

And without the hood/head

Craig surprised us with doughnuts, and to this Ryder said, "Me like dis big doughnut!"  Indeed, son, indeed!

 

School Started Here, Too!

I think I'm the only person in the world who didn't manage to put these pictures on facebook.  But like the rest of the public-school-enrolled children across the country, we also had school start!  And everything went very smoothly-- both Bentley and Kendra are very excited to be back in school and learning and seeing their friends.  Life is good.  Here some pictures from the first day, before someone shows up at the door and confiscates my Mommy Card!

So excited, and SO ready, for kindergarten!

Yup, her backpack is wider than she is!

Guess who's not nearly as nervous as Kendra?

'Cuz he's a tough guy!

Seated in her classroom

Picking them up after school.  I told Craig we shouldn't be looking into the sun, but he thought we needed the school in the background.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I was right and he was wrong...

September is a happy time!

Boating on Lake Anna

At this very moment, I have two children at school, and two children napping.  Can I even begin to describe how wonderful the peace and quiet is?  And rather than taking a nap myself, I'm using this time to update ye olde blogge.  I'm always looking out for you!

Earlier this summer, my father-in-law suggested we all go boating out on Lake Anna some time.  This sounded like plenty of fun, but due to scheduling conflicts, and the fact that Lake Anna is two hours away from us, we weren't able to make it happen until the very tail end of summer-- but better late than never, right?  Naturally, the night before this excursion, I began panicking about all the things that might go wrong when you mix kids and boats (not to mention my penchant for seasickness on small vessels), so I'll admit that I was nervous that things would go badly-- anything from sunburns to drowning played out in my mind.  This might have caused me to lose sleep, except Craig coming home from class around 11:30pm and Colton waking up ten minutes after I fell asleep took care of that issue instead.  So I started out the day exhausted.  (You know how there are some people who can get four hours of sleep and be fully functional?  Like doctors?  Yeah, I am NOT one of those people.  I like my full eight hours, thank you very much, and I make no apologies for that.)

But my fears were unfounded because we had an absolutely wonderful time.  And thank goodness, I remembered that we still had some Dramamine left over from Hawaii, and took some that morning!  The weather was perfect-- sunny, but not too hot, and with the pontoon boat motoring along, there was a splendid breeze.  And, Tom had splurged and rented a brand new boat, so it was clean and comfy and just wonderful.  I even managed to take a nap on the boat (hearkening back to my days as a regular commuter on the Seattle to Bainbridge ferry), so it was all good!

Here are plenty of pictures of us looking wet, windblown, and happy:

Yes, here's how paranoid I was: mandatory life jackets for children!

Feeding the baby, while on a boat

My Mother-in-Law enjoying the view

Bentley watching the wake trailing behind us

"I'm on a boat!"

Exploring one of the tiny islands inside the lake.  Kendra makes me laugh-- the pose and the swimsuit falling off her...!

Going for a very refreshing swim

Colton was very excited by his red solo cup!

Supervising Bentley while he paddles around

Kendra waiting her turn

Grandpa helps Bentley take the wheel

Kendra gets a turn, too, although she spent the entire time looking at everything except where the boat was headed...

Ryder was thrilled that he got a chance to steer, too--he looked like a little race car driver

Awesome booty shot of my two eldest

Thanks for a wonderful day, Tom and Donna!  We'll have to do it again!