I survived the basement, now to make it thru a snow day!

I made it thru the basement purge the other day. Was able to take 4 garbage bags to Goodwill on Saturday, pack up 2 tubs for the barn and sort thru both closets down there. I feel pretty good about it. It looks pretty good, compared to how it was!

Now, today is a "snow" day -- there is really no snow, but ICE! It was treacherous this morning doing the newspapers. But, I made it! I was supposed to be the lunch helper at school today, so that's off. Cole was supposed to play at Evan's while I was at school, so that's off too and there was only a short meltdown about it. I stupidly called JoEllen back after she called last night. She needed someone to watch the boys for a while this afternoon, & I had told her no b/c I had to do the lunch thing @ school. Well, nice person that I am, I called her back and the boys are coming over here around lunch time today. I hope she's no going to be too long......... people forget that I get up at 1:30 am everyday and cannot survive without at least a little nap. My naps are not necessarily a luxury, but more of a necessity. If I don't lie down for a little while in the afternoons (like 30-40 minutes, at least), I am quite crabby by supper and barely make it to the kids' bedtime at 8.

Anyway, I just made the boys turn off the PlayStation for a while. We'll leave it off until Blake and Mitchell get here. I have a floor to mop and then I guess it can be another baking day. It might as well be, as we are not going anywhere. I need to get to Walmart, at least in Rensselaer, this evening or in the morning. Curtis' birthday is Wednesday and I need to get presents ready to send with Joe for Chris. Joe will be home tomorrow, for at least part of the day, as he needs to go to Traffic Court in Crown Point at some point. I'm quitting this post, because the more I type about my week, the busier and less normal it seems. Let's just get thru today trying to stay warm and not getting too cranky with each other.

I call it never-neverland

I am heading into the basement to purge our lives today. I got done with the newspapers just in time to take the kids to school this morning, Cole has to go to preK at noon and then they all need to be picked up at 3 pm, so there is no sense in trying to get any running (like groceries, which we desperately need!) today. The day is just too chopped up to do that without turning it into a frenzy.

So, off to the basement. We've got a back room down there underneath the stairs and off the laundry room that we call the "pump room" -- b/c the pump for the well is in there. It is the official dumping ground for things that otherwise have no home. One corner is the cold pantry -- canned goods and stock-up items that don't fit up here. The other corner has a big storage thing that I stick misc. Cub Scout stuff and other odds and ends, plus a shelf for the rest of the crafty items that I used to have time for. There is a sump pump hole along one wall and of course the pump for the well takes up a good chunk of space -- and the rest of the floor is just, like I said, "Dumping Ground". It honestly, haunts me, but most days seems like such an overwhelming job, that I avoid it. And, it's easy to avoid since that area is not a thoroughfare area of the house, but more of a destination. It is off underneath and behind the stairs, so you can almost pretend that that whole little corner is not really a part of the house.

I need to move the table that I have in the laundry room into said pump room. This table is where I used to do some scrapbooking and is still stacked with paper, stickers, tools, etc. It needs to leave the laundry room so we can get a deep freezer we acquired into the laundry room & out of the garage. Especially now that I have venison in the little freezer and would like to fill the rest with some beef here, soon. My other thoughts behind moving the scrapbooking, is that if I get it all moved into it's own area and organized again, then maybe I will actually work on some scrapbooks. I started them in 1998 and stayed current thru the years until Cole came along in 2004. Now, that poor boy has only a couple of 2 page spreads in a book and the rest of the pictures from '04 and on are either in a shoe box or stored on the computer! Cole thinks that he is the baby in the book labeled 2002. Which kinda works since all the boys look alike as babies! :)

I am going to publish this post and head down there with some 55 gallon trash bags.......... one for garbage and the others for Goodwill. Our house is just too small to store all the junk down there. It's nasty, overwhelming, stressful and just plain silly. My plan is to try and implement my laundry plan from a previous post. I may not jump into that plan as drastically as I blogged about there, but something has to be done about the mountains in the laundry room. Anything that looks like it has any value can go into some tubs to be toted to the barn for resurrection at a spring garage sale. The rest if OUTTA HERE!! The toys, mostly Rescue Heroes, may be given to a few friends/relatives (beware!!) or stashed for the garage sale. I know there is also a $17 Christmas Tree down there -- only used once, many suitcases, some coats that fit no one, etc., etc., etc.......... I wish I had done this before it got so cold and I could do a real "Clean Sweep". You know, haul it all outside and only bring in what I was keeping. Oh, well. I think Goodwill is open in the evening, so I can still get rid of this stuff before it migrates back in here. And, the dumpster at the church next door is always open, right?! :)

Wish me luck -- I'll post good news if I make more than a dent in all that clutter today! :)

There is no other title for this one than "Life with Boys".

So, I got the Christmas Tree up yesterday. I don't know what took me so long this year. Usually I am right on it the week after Thanksgiving. Maybe just a busy week this year or exhaustion due to the busyness leading to an apathetic attitude toward the work that goes into decorating for the Christmas. We got a new artificial tree last year after Christmas, so I should have been excited about putting up a tree that was not only pre-lit, but also not leaning in one direction or the other. Our last tree was beautiful, but the "stem" and stand had both seen better days. It was quite tilt-y -- and as soon as you thought you had it all straightened with little blocks of wood, duct tape, and some twist ties, someone would breathe on it wrong (actually the the kids touching it or the cat climbing it were more of the problems) and it would tilt the other way.

I must say, though, that in all the years we had that tree, I can only remember it being actually knocked over to the point of lying on the floor twice. And, once was actually my fault. We had it kind of wedged into a spot between a couch and the piano bench and I got up from the piano bench and knocked the whole thing over with my butt.

Now, getting to the "Life with Boys" part of this post ......... I got the tree up yesterday, but not decorated. The tubs of decorations are still in the barn, and I was lazy yesterday with no desire to drive back there and dig them out. Maybe today. :) So, Cole is pretty excited that the tree is up, but he is leaving it alone. He is actually more concerned and fascinated with the HUGE sheets of bubble wrap that were around the pieces of the new tree. The other boys came home from school and were excited that the tree was finally up, too. Clayton went to start his homework and Curtis, Cole, and I began to pick up the stuff that needed to come out of the living room since the Christmas tree took over -- Lego's are banned until after Christmas, books needed to be picked up and a few other things moved around. We got that done and I went to start the sloppy joes for supper. I hear much giggling and "rough" noises from the front room. This is not out of the norm here, but with the new Christmas tree up, I felt compelled to check on the level of wrestling that was going on in there. I walked around the corner into the living room and there were 2 little boys lying on their backs UNDER the tree! Like they were fixing a car or something -- WEIRD! I reacted similarly to the cartoon from my post yesterday -- "What are you doing?!" I must've frightened them just enough to cause them to SIT UP under the tree!! I couldn't get to the top of the tree fast enough to catch it and return it to the upright position, but I did make it! WHEW! It only tipped a little but and we put it back quickly. I "very calmly" reprimanded them with a "Stay out from underneath the tree!" and went back to the beef browning on the stove. More crazed giggling from the living room requires that mom return and reinforce the fact that children should not be under the Christmas tree. While they are gifts from God, they do no belong under the tree. Dad got involved at this point and put a piece of tape diagonally on the carpet in front of the tree (which is in a corner -- can you picture the whole scene?). No one may cross the tape and get close to the tree at all now. It's a very nice look for the living room, let me tell you!

Here's my "life with boys" thoughts/questions about this whole thing: Why, WHY are they under there? Neither of these boys is that young -- one is 4 and the other with be 7 in a few days! They have seen Christmas trees for years!! I used to put a baby gate/play yard thing up around the tree when the boys were really little -- but that was when we had toddlers around here. Maybe they are fascinated with the pre-lit part of this new tree? Are they checking out all the cords? Or are they lying under there with their eyes crossed making all the lights kinda blurry and psychedelic? Is it because there are no ornaments, ribbons, or garland on the tree yet and they can almost look all the way up the center of the tree to the top by lying under it? WHO KNOWS??

So again, I say, "WHAT ARE THEY DOING under there?? Seeing that they are boys, I guess I should not analyze it any more and give up on trying to figure out what is going on in their little brains. I probably should be thankful that they did not knock the tree over completely (yet). Yesterday afternoon could have been much more dramatic than it was. If I ever figure these guys out, I'll publish the secret. For now, I guess I blame that Y chromosome, that those of us without one just can't seem to figure out, for all the "weirdness" in my home! :)

Sometimes they look at me like this....(??!???!)

Sometimes the boys look at me like I just TOTALLY don't get it..........like I am an alien because I am both a grown-up and a girl. I will admit that a question like Calvin's mom asks here is one that comes out of my mouth quite often, too. And, really, how do we expect the kids to answer??
That is why most often, caught red-handed, the boys either completely deny what I just caught them doing ("No we WEREN'T!! Really!) or just say ("Huh?? Nuthin.")

Just a little smile for the day here.