Two, two, two posts in one!

Post #1:  My Kids

My Kindergartener.

Ella wears her new shoes and LOVES her doggie.

Post #2:  Mc Fatty Monday- revisited

Remember this mess?



It was the disaster formerly known as my craft space.  A dear friend of mine eloquently said something along the lines of you won't make a change until you are mentally ready to do so.  I really wanted to get this space under control but I never really had a reason.  No project looming or other reason to get it whipped into shape.  And, I had other things on my mind like a new baby and a busy body child to take care of.  I just didn't make time to clean.  Well, with a lot of energry surrounding me in the house (Dustin's rock band) and no access to the TV, I did it.  There's still nothing on the walls but the table top is clean, most of the stuff under the table is gone, and the shelves have been rearranged.  All photos are now in the front room and more boxes are stored up high.  Here it is now.

Shortly after this picture was takn, the rest of the stuff on the table was dealt with.  I have two bins of papers that need to be filed or shredded.  The white notebook you see in the middle of the table was my wedding planning book.  Yeah, it's been buried long enough.  I saved some stuff and trashed the rest.  I gotta say.  It feels good to have a clean table.  Now to trash it again with Halloween costume making.  Ahhh.

Boring beans or Wordless Wednesday

So, other bloggers have themes on certain days of the week.  Wordless Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Blog Hop Friday, McFatty Monday (didn't I try that one with regards to cleaning?  Oh yeah.  That hasn't gone so well).  I don't lean towards these because I don't like cookie cutter blog entries and I never usually need a reason to put down a story.  My kids give me ever story starter I ever need.  Until now.

I don't know if my mind is swamped with the mixed emotions of quitting my job and becoming a SAHM- that's Stay At Home Mom for those not bump-inclined or if my kids really haven't been doing anything funny lately.  Is that possible?  I don't know but here's some pics in lieu of a cute anecdote or witty quip from Breckin.

Ella can wave bye-bye.

Breckin loves his sister.

Ella loves to watch Elmo.

Mommy loves these eyes.  Seriously?  Killer eyes, dude.

And, one more cause it's so stinking cute.  Holy Flagnar, it's cute.

Oh, hell. McStuff with no pics.

Yeah, it's Monday again.  Yeah, I had another "1 lb week."  I'm not losing weight (well, technically, I am cause I am throwing old stuff out of the house and that's a bigger weight for me than my body ever will be) but I am losing stuff.  Slowly.  So slowly that the average person couldn't really tell.  But, if I just showed up one Monday with a miraculously clean craft room, this journey of the McStuff Monday would be a joke.  And a mini-series.  I'm going for a 6-season, epic battle with my stuff.  I will win but it's really hard for me. 

I have a hard time getting rid of my stuff.  Mostly, my craft stuff.  What if I need it one day?  It's raw materials and what if Breckin has a craft project for school that requires a small square of neon orange felt?  If I throw that scrap away, I'll kick myself for having to buy another one.  I'm not a hoarder, people, but I'm as close as you can get without the germiness and rotting food and inability to walk through rooms.  I have squiggle scissors that I got when scrapbooking first took off- in 1995.  I have fabric that my Grandma Mary used to have in her stash and have vowed to make a mini-quilt someday with them but haven't found the perfect pattern.  I have 2 oz jars of acrylic paint in every color imagineable cause I've painted with them- even if just a small drop- at some point in the last 10 years.  What do I get rid of? 

Well, this weekend, I got rid of scraps of paper, fabric, and ribbon smaller than my hand.  That was my guideline.  Know what?  I got rid of a large Nordy's bag full of scraps.  If I need them, oh well.  I still have a wall of shelves of other, larger pieces that will have to work.  

I still have those empty bins waiting to be filled and I still can't decide what should go in them.  The table is still cluttered with stuff but one of the boxes is actually just holding empty bins.  My next project is the photos.  I know we have multiples of most photos and I'm ready to pare them down.  They will all go in albums until the day comes that I can scrapbook them.  One of these days, you WILL see a clean room.  And then, season 2 will begin cause it'll take me even longer to tackle another space.  Who knows, I might interject another McStuff room in the middle of this one.... The fridge and pantry are looking mighty McStuffy...

McFatty takes a Holiday

I really shouldn't be posting cause today is hectic so I'll keep it brief.

I cleaned some stuff.  I mean, I looked through the piles and resorted them into different piles that made more sense.  I made two bags of stuff disappear- one to the local dump, one to Goodwill.  I found that I have two totally empty storage bins and now I have anxiety over what to put in them- what precious things will get a new, dust-free home?  I have more scrapbook paper than humanly possible and my storage bins are ::this much too small:: to hold 12x12 paper so it's currently filed on the floor.  But, I went in the room and made baby steps of progress.  Consider this week equivalent to a 1 lb loss.... enough to motivate and feel like I'm actually doing it, but not enough to feel successful. 

In other news, and maybe it should have it's own post, so I'll insert a post title here....

Ella says stuff and I grasp at straws to think it was intentional.

When I change Ella's diaper, to keep her from reaching down and grabbing ahold of dirty yuckies, I give her a plush baby doll to hold onto.  I usually hold the doll above her face, say Baby Doll in the most embarrassing, goo goo voice possible, and snuggle the doll into her waiting arms.  She squeals/screams every time she sees the thing cause she gets sooooo excited.  It keeps her occupied and she has some lovely conversations with her Baby Doll.  Mostly, she eats her hat. 

Well, on Saturday, I put Ella on the changing table after she woke up.  She's squirmy and giggly and generally happy about life.  And then.  She babbles.  She says Da Da Da Da repeatedly and waves her arms around like she's trying to flag down a taxi.  Her consonant is very clear.  Da.  I repeat it back to her a few times thinking she's funny and grab her Baby Doll to distract her.  She sees the Doll.  She SCREAMS Da and squeals loud enough to rival any Beatlemania fan.  Did she just say Doll?  Really?  She damn near bites Doll's head off in all of her excitement. 

I didn't mention it to anyone cause I must be crazy to think my 6 mos old tried to talk.  But, I can't stop thinking about it.  She's seen her Doll since then and hasn't said Da Da Da.  What do you think?  Of course, I can't remember when Breckin first spoke.... I mean, I'm a mom and have severe mom brain.  I know his first word was ball... I just don't know when he said it. 

I'll let you know if it happens again.... sheesh.

I'm avoiding Monday

Ok, so it's my fault that I stayed up til 1:15 to finish the FOUR AND A HALF HOURS of Lost.  I know that.  It's also my fault that I had ZERO motivation to work on my McFatty Monday project of cleaning the craft room.  I literally put nothing away, sorting nothing, didn't even really walk in there all week.  In fact, I am working on a painting for Ella's room and I took a bottle of paint out and didn't put it away.  Yep, that's negative progress.  So, why?  Why can I not find enough time or energy to clean up one small room?  Maybe I don't even care if the room is clean?  No, that's not it.  It drives me bonkers that the entire house looks like a tornado hit it. 

Oh, wait.  Here's a clue. 

• Tuesday- Dustin goes to bowling and I'm chillin with the kids til bedtime. 
• Wednesday- I take some me time and go to the gym for an hour.  Right at dinner time.  And, Breckin comes with me so he needs to eat first cause he can't wait til 7:15 to have dinner so I spend time making 2 dinners.
• Thursday- We have Tball from 5-6 so I have to drive home to Maple Valley, pick up Ella, drive back to Kent/Auburn for practice, then come home at 6:30 to do dinner/bedtime.
• Friday- Who the hell wants to do work on Friday?
• Saturday- TBall game and Dustin works outside and some sort of birthday party/bbq/movie night/errand running combination
• Sunday- Maybe a few hours to work but I feel guilty that I haven't played with my kids all week so we pretty much just play all day Sunday and I do all meal planning/grocery shopping on Sundays.
• Monday-  Ah, crap.  I didn't do any cleaning.  And, it's Monday again.

I really need a wife.  One that will stay home and do all the things that I can't seem to do.  Someone to bathe the kids, clean up the backyard, and do the laundry.  Or- even better- one that will go to work for me so I can stay home and do all the things I can never manage to do. 

I would have really loved to post a picture of that craft room with sparkling clean surfaces and nice little tidy rows of boxed-up paper and stickers.  Instead, I start my McStuff Mondays with a let down.  No clean craft room. 

But, you know what?  I drew a crazy good hopscotch game on the sidewalk and made six jars of pureed yams.  I lost this week's battle but I still have a chance of winning the war.