Weekend Window

Here's a view outside my window on this frigid January morning. You'll see the snowman my guys built last weekend started to melt during the week but is now frozen solid . . . and headless. Hope wherever you are, you stay warm today!

Let The Purging Begin

In an effort to get rid of the junk that occupies my home, I have begun cutting some of the excess. I started with the kids. Sorry, but they're still little and won't know the difference.

#1. I started with the toy boxes and baskets that are in almost every room throughout the house. Anything that is "baby" or broken was tossed in the trash. The little guy is almost 20 months - bye bye baby. Then I took the toys that I know they don't play with but are still in great shape and took pictures of them. I'm going to first try selling them on ebay. If they don't sell there, I'll bring them over to my local consignment shop to see if she'll take them to sell. Plus side of selling on ebay - I don't have to split the profit. Down side of selling on ebay - I have to ship the item. That means packaging the item up, prepping it for shipment and then giving it to the mailman.

#2. I went through the boys' book collection and tossed the torn books, books missing covers and ripped-off pages from books. Then I went through the stack of coloring books. The ones that were almost completely colored I junked. Ones that were falling apart, junked. Same thing with sticker books - ones that were missing most of the stickers or completely finished, out in the trash.

I actually made some headway. Baby steps actually, but at least I'm clearing out something. Before you know it, birthdays will be here and a new round of toys will be coming in to the house. Ugh!

The Cesspool That is School

As a mother, I find myself worrying more than I ever did before. And I was a worrier before! But now I have 2 other little people to worry about and, quite honestly, it's exhausting. I say this because as I dropped my 4 year old off at preschool this morning, there was a boy in his class coughing his head off. And I mean that phlegmy cough . . . that sounds really bad. As I rolled my eyes and hung up his coat, I had to remind myself that schools are a cesspool of germs. I've been saying this for years so this morning's cough-fest should be no surprise to me. And I would assume the mother dropping him off knows better than to send a contagious child to school (she says knowing full well that's not the case). It just seems that kids are not fighting off sickness the way they used to. My guy's been coughing since before Thanksgiving and finally sounds like he's getting better (until today, I'm sure). He's been on so many medicines that don't seem to help, I wonder if he'll ever be well while he's in school. And I'm not sure if this is good or bad. Some would say too many antibiotics are to blame. Maybe but don't you need to kill an infection if there is one? Others tell me it's good for them to be sick - it builds up their resistance. Really? My guy's not resisting anything these days. I just know worrying all the time is exhausting.

Be Gone Nutcrackers

I'm still trying to get all of the Christmas decorations down and I'm starting to feel the funk. Why is it so exciting taking out all those boxes and decorating your house, and then when it's time to bring those boxes back out to put it all away, it's a royal pain in the a$$? I can't tell you how many times I've banged my head in that stupid attic space where we store the Christmas stuff. I swear I have a concussion. And I feel like I'm not even half way done. I think most of the problem is my nutcracker collection - somewhere around 80 nutcrackers I believe. Do you know how hard it is to store those suckers? The box gets mighty heavy if you put too many in one. And forget about the big ones. We're talking 1 per box. That's a lot of boxes . . . and a lot of head-banging.