Random Thoughts

I was in the middle of a very late Halloween post with lots of pictures, but it apparently vanished. So instead I'm going to write about several small things probably not worthy of individual posts. 

1) The Art of Weekending

With Joe working long hours during the week, weekends have become super important both as a time to all be together and as a time for each of us to recharge. The key to a good weekend, for us, is to have a plan that is open to change based on how we feel when we wake up Saturday morning. We always start by walking to the Buzz Cafe for breakfast and to listen to Joe's dad play the banjo. Then we usually have one thing each day that we HAVE to go to (visiting family, pageant rehearsal, something previously scheduled). We try to plan one fun outing that is completely optional. If we're feeling adventurous, we'll all go have fun. If I need a break and a chance to catch up with things at home (or just take a nap), Joe will take the kids out. Or if a Joe needs to get stuff done, I'll take them. We try to be pretty conservative with our commitments so the weekends don't feel like work. So far, they've all been pretty great. 

2) Sleep

Because Joe has been getting home late, I have been having to put the kids to bed by myself. This is a particular challenge for us because Thomas sleeps in our bed, Lily falls asleep in her bed with one of us sitting next to her, our bedroom is joined to her bedroom, and neither of them will go to sleep if the other one is within earshot (except in the car for some reason). I am fully aware that these are all problems we have created. At first I tried laying down in our bed with Thomas and told Lily to stay in her bed and listen to music. Well, she just kept on talking to me through the wall and then Thomas wouldn't settle. So we ended up just going cold turkey and said goodnight, stay in your room and listen to music, I'll be in the living room with Thomas. She cried herself to sleep the first two nights then got over it. Now she goes to bed happily and just gets out of bed a couple of times early on to ask for another stuffed animal or book or to listen to Puff the Magic Dragon again. I was amazed. The transition was so easy. Why hadn't we done this before? She's doing so great! I found some random things in her bed when I changed the sheets, but she had been playing in there earlier so I didn't think much of it. Then the other night she came out and said she had found her ring in one of her boxes. Why are you looking in that box? Silence. Turns out that what I assumed was peaceful, quiet going to sleep-ness was really quiet, covert party time in her room. She likes going to bed by herself because she gets to listen to music, read books, play with stuffed animals and her dollhouse all without anyone watching her or knowing what she's doing. The other morning she said she had a Halloween party with all of her animals. As far as I can tell she's usually asleep for real by 9pm at the latest, so I guess that's good enough. 

3) Housekeeping

Two kids make a ridiculous amount of mess. All the time. Everywhere. I've been struggling to figure out a way to keep the house not looking like a sty without just parking the kids in front of the TV for an hour a day. I had come across some cleaning plans on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. Some of them are ridiculous. Who wipes down the baseboards once a week? But some are more reasonable. I don't know why I never thought of breaking it down into doing one thing a day instead of all at once. It's so much easier this way! Every morning I do one load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, make the beds, and sweep. This only takes like 15 minutes and I can usually get most of it done before we walk to school. Lily likes to help sweep and her two official chores are to match the socks and make her bed. We try to do toy pickup throughout the day together.  Monday I scrub the bathroom while Lily is at preschool and Thomas takes a nap. Tuesday I dust. Lily and Thomas LOVE to help with this. Wednesday I vacuum. Thursday I wash the floors and/or change the sheets. Friday is free! Or, more likely making up for whatever I missed earlier in the week. Over the weekend I try to get one larger project done (finish unpacking something, clean the fridge, hang art, etc.). Turns out when I stick to this the house never really looks like it needs to be cleaned. It's amazing. Things might not be as organized as I would ideally like, but it's clean, relatively tidy, and I wouldn't be  embarrassed if  someone unexpectedly came over. 

All of this is rather mundane, but it's my life these days. I'll try to put together the Halloween pictures again and there will definitely be a Thanksgiving post, probably sometime before Christmas. Have a great weekend!