Dare I really say it?

I am getting into the groove of thinking about school starting and I'm really not minding it all that much.  Whew. That was a round about way of saying I'm looking forward to school starting.  Ok, well, I am and I am not.  It's going to be so tough to have both of my babies gone ALL. DAY. LONG. and it's going to be tough to deal with two sets of nightly homework, spelling test lists, science fair projects, read-a-thon times..... you get the idea.  But FG and I have both noticed that the days are getting a bit shorter and the nights are getting a bit cooler. But I am really in need of a break from these two!  I can barely think straight (ha, no comments please, I am fully aware I have Mommy Brain!).

This post was just interrupted by me telling my 9 1/2 year old son that he sounds like an idiot and kids will make fun of him for acting the way he was at that moment.  I told him I didn't mean to hurt his feelings but he will get made fun of by other kids and that probably will hurt his feelings a lot more if he keeps up acting like a complete fool.  He screeches like a girl and he makes these noises that sound like a strangled cat.  It grates on my every last nerve.

Where was I?.... oh yes, Mommy Brain.  My patience is running very thin from all the running we've been doing.  Our diet isn't great these days.  The fruit basket is E.M.P.T.Y., the carbs and overall crap foods are up.  Maybe that's the explanation for the idiotic behavior?  This week was supposed to be a bit slower but alas, no such luck.  Monday my mom was off work so I took the kids to swim. I normally do laundry and clean up the house on Mondays.  I've been piece-mealing the laundry all week and that is just not my style!  I do it all at once and get that shit folded and put away that very same day.  It's all in baskets in my bedroom right now - unfolded and wrinkling. I've been piece-mealing the housecleaning too.  Ok, that really doesn't work!  Then I get no respite!  I'm doing a "big" job every day and usually it's at some God-awful time like 10:30 at night.  It feels like once I get one bathroom cleaned and a floor mopped, it's time to do it all over again. 
Yesterday was only Tuesday but it was a work day for me both at the toystore and in the office.  So I rushed DS out to golf then rushed DD and I to the office to get some paperwork done for 2 hours then rushed out to get DS then rushed home to throw some food in all of us (at 3:30. Yep, that's when my kids finally ate some lunch which was a lovely balanced meal of chocolate milk and pizza rolls.  That was after DD had a cereal bar & a sucker around 12:30).  Then I rushed off to work at the toystore and no frickin wonder I didn't feel like doing anything when I got home.  I didn't have any patience when I tried to get the kids to bed either.  Yes! I'll start clearning room for my Mom of the Year Award.  So along with our wonderful diet, my psyche is not in a good spot.

4 weeks.  That's when school will start.  Things will really change around here and change with an SPD kid is always a big struggle.  That's another post rattling around in my head - the vast differences between a "normal" kid and mine.  I've got one of each and boy howdy does it keep me on my toes! 
Any advice out there to make the transition easier, please please pass it along.  We all suffer every school year getting the routine going.  Try as I may to start it early with earlier bedtimes and a more rigid schedule, I struggle with trying to make the most of the last precious lazy days of summer. 

I feel like I haven't read a blog all summer, like all I've done on mine is b&m about how busy we've been and how crazy it makes me.  I haven't baked or tried new recipes. Heck, I've barely cooked much!  I miss my bloggy friends and I know I'm here talking to myself because of it.  I'm headed to a new era and I'm scared.  On top of that, I think I'm going to work days at the store instead of nights.  I'm waiting to see what will happen but they are opening a new location in town (Liz, up by you!!!).  I talked to my boss and told her that I would ideally like to work a few days while the kids are in school. This works out for her too because the college girls go back to class soon too, making them unavailable during the day.  I may still work every other Saturday day because that is actually fun for me.  I see the kids and the parents from school and get to retain my "Rock Star" status among the elementary school age kids.  I wrap a heck of a lot of presents and don't do a lot of store cleaning.  So we'll see how this whole transition works out for this family of 4.  Until then, I'm trying to figure out how to get a break but still enjoy the last few weeks of summer with my idiotic wonderful little children!

Great book on less toxic living!

I checked out this book from the library weeks ago.  I stuck it on a shelf when people were coming over and didn't pull it back out until I realized it was due back.  Then I started thumbing through it.  I renewed it.

Better Basics for the Home by Annie Berthold-Bond.  Simple solutions for less toxic living.  It is full of recipes for various household formulas.  I plan on mixing up a batch of weed killer this weekend!  Salt, vinegar and liquid detergent.  I just have to go get some better liquid detergent.  FG and I have a huge battle of the weeds. They are out of control in our rocks.  Literally.  He will whack them down and then BURN them.  Uh, we live in the DESERT.  Burning is not a good idea!  He does it regularly and I'm just waiting for him to get in trouble.  It's such a big no-no!!!  Thankfully he's always got the hose right there but still. Dude. It just seems stupid to me!  Anyway, he doesn't like to use harsh chemicals on the weeds.  I know we could literally erradicate them in an instant but our animals and our kids play in our yard.  Do I really want that crap on their bare feet or their hands when they are exploring?  So we just live with a jungle of awful weeds.  We pull, we do use some weed killer on areas that they don't play, he burns.  Yet they seem to be always present.  I'm hoping this formula, used on the rocks will help.  Even if we do have to do it every few weeks, it's non-toxic so I don't mind. 

There's recipes for just about any & every household product in this book.  Right down to shampoo and homemade hair dye.  I plan to copy many of them and eventually buy the book.  I will draw the line at using whipped egg whites as a hair mousse though. 

I have been happily using baking soda and vinegar for a few years to clean.  Yes, I do still use the occasional Comet but most of the time, it's baking soda and vinegar.  It works well and it's super duper cheap!  I also told FG that I am switching from OxyClean to Borax after this box is gone.  I do love the way OxyClean gets out stains so well though!  Does anyone know how awful it is for the environment? I know it's derived from hydrogen peroxide but don't know how bad that or any of it's other ingredients are. 

So check out the book if you are looking for some alternatives.  I need to hit up our health food store for some items to make a salve for DS's eczema spots.  The Dr. gave us an oil that worked well and it was mostly made of peanut oil (thankfully, no allegies here!).  I'm hoping I can use the recipe in this book and make it with peanut oil and give him some relief!

Probably the last post of the decade

It very well may be the last post because my kids are home from school and driving me crazy.  The house is driving me crazy too. And the f'ing snow.  Why did FG buy a Mini again?  Oh yeah because it gets great gas mileage.  But it is a freaking go-cart and when we have a few inches of snow, he doesn't want to drive it!

Overall, our Christmas was GREAT!  FG spoiled me as he usually does.  I felt inadequate because I can never do for him what I want to do or even come close to equalling how he spoils me.  So instead, I give him what he tells me every guy really wants. (wink wink).  And I wash his clothes, make good food, keep his kids happy & healthy (for the most part) and the house clean (again, for the most part).  But I went and bought some new clothes and now I'm sitting here in stretch pants and a long sweater that covers my ass.  I have my tall black boots on too.  Hmmm, I seem to remember doing this once before. Oh yeah, the 80's! Now I remember!  Gawd I can't believe I bought stretch pants and long sweaters.  Where's my Aqua Net?  My bangs are a bit flat and I don't have those wing things sticking out over my ears. I'm also 25 years older than I was too and have two kids in my living room.

Speaking of those two kids.  DS got about 2000 Lego pieces. I'm NOT kidding.  DD got about 200 little Barbie pieces.  I'm NOT kidding.  Now my challenge is storage.  We got DD a pink plastic tub. She was happy with that because it's pink but I feel bad that we have to toss all the furniture etc. into it and she has to drag it out and set it up to play with it.  But the Barbie Dream House is not in the budget. I'll keep watching Craigslist and take one off someone's hands. 

Yesterday I had one kid playing one video game system in one room and the other kid playing another video game system in another room.  Can you say "Slacker Mom"?  It did allow me to get the house de-Christmas'd of everything besides the tree.  FG needs to help with that.  I also got all the laundry done (thus sitting here in my new clothes!) AND I made dinner, which is something I haven't done lately.   Now I have two kids in their PJ's at nearly 11 am shaking the house playing the Wii.  That's fine. It's cold as a witches tit outside (I had a boss who used that saying regularly.  Weird) and snowy and gloomy and grey. At least they are moving even if their jumping is making my computer monitor wiggle.  I'll eventually make them get dressed because we're going with my dad to see Alvin & The Chipmunks this afternoon. 

My parents got FG and I a new wine fridge. Our old one died. Now I have two sitting in my dining room.  One works and is full. Yay! FG also enrolled me us back in our old wine club.  Yay!  We will get our first shipment next Wednesday.  I'm gonna need it after this week of playdates, crazy cabin-fever children and in-law's. 

I don't make true resolutions for the new year so I don't have any to share on here.  Instead when I decide I don't like something, I try my best to change it and do so whenever that strkes me.  Sure I want to exercise more even though I despise it and I want to take better care of myself and be a better parent to the kids.  After spending all day yesterday doing everything but playing with the kids, when DS asked me to play a new board game they got I decided that the vacuuming can wait and I sat down to play with them.  Now, the vacuuming is still on my to-do list so I must get off this computer and go get it done. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

PSA - Dryer vents!

Yesterday I knew our weather was going to be be drastically different starting today. So I did all the laundry and hung it on the clotheslines. I cleaned up the backyard toys that DD had scattered everywhere. I repotted an indoor plant so I didn't have to do it in the wind today. Most importantly, I had FG drag out the shop vac and take off the outside cover to the dryer vent. We did this last year as well and it was the first time we had done it since building this house. I was shocked last year when he sucked out an insane amount of lint. I figured, eh, 8 years worth of build up so it couldn't be too bad now.

HA! As he threaded the long hose into the vent, I lightly held onto it so I could feel when something was going through it. Again, scary amount of lint globs were being sucked out of the vent!

We had to buy a new dryer last year. I clean out the lint trap every load. I regularly take the indoor vacuum and stick the hose down the vent/lint trap of the dryer itself. A couple of times a year I pull the dryer out from the wall and clean out the vent in the back as well as the hose and the vent hole in the wall. It shouldn't surprise me but it does. I just can't believe that there was so much lint in the vent!

So a little PSA for you, before your weather gets nasty, take whatever vacuum you can and go stick the hose in the outside vent of your dryer. Your energy bill will thank you for it. (As well as your home since it can be a fire hazard - just ask my aunt who had hers catch on fire. Thank goodness she was home! Thus, I also never run my dryer when I'm not home!)

I'm an old fashioned laundry girl

I always have been old fashioned when it comes to laundry. I don't usually like my dryer much. I use it for things like towels and clothes that won't shrink. I like to use it to get the wrinkles out of a table cloth. But when it comes to drying clothes, anything that has a bit of cotton in it gets hung out to dry (except socks & underwear!). FG thought I was nuts when we lived in an apartment and I would haul our wet laundry to my parents house to hang it to dry. Then when we moved into our first house with an actual backyard, my dad built me some nice sturdy posts and secured 4 lines to it. Again, FG thought I was crazy when I made him dig up those posts and move them to our new home. I was not going to be without a clothesline! Apparently now I am totally hip. In the winter, I use a drying rack but I get as much mileage out of my outside lines as possible. I practically weep in the fall when it gets too cool to hang anything out. Then I'm stuck back inside with my drying rack. I guess we are also lucky that where we live is dry and warm in the summer. With so little humidity, a warm day and slight breeze and my clothes are dry in 1/2 hour. So laundry goes quickly in the summer too. Clothes are easier to fold, easier to iron things that need pressing etc.

I've recently started another old fashioned laundry practice. Super-retro if you may. I am falling in love with Mrs. Stewart. It is working wonders on our whites! I soaked a gauzy white shirt in it last week. I've had it for awhile and those horrible yellow stains were showing up on the under-arm areas. So I thought what the heck, I can't ruin it because it's getting to be un-wearable anyway. I mixed up some cold water and a couple of drops of the bluing in a basin and soaked it for awhile. It is sparkly white and new looking! I'm going to soak another white blouse that is getting bad too. I'm just so pleased with it. My ONE mishap has been my own damn fault. I have a baby blue shirt that goes perfectly with these pants I have. Well somehow I got a white spot right under the boob. Not sure how I did that but I did and it made that shirt un-wearable too. I'd only worn it once! grrr. Damn cheap Target shirts. So again, I thought I can't ruin it anymore than it is and tried to soak it in the bluing solution. When I didn't see any real results I dripped some bluing onto the spot but under the water. Oops. Too much. Now I have to follow the directions of soaking in an amonia solution to get the excess bluing out. Or I may just chuck the damn cheap Target shirt and find another one. Either way, it's doing wonders for our dingy whites. Even better than Oxyclean does! And better for the environment than bleach too.

I've been baking AND took a bunch of pics. Stay tuned for some yummy recipes as soon as I get time to re-type them and upload photos. Right now the dishes and the kids are calling my name.