Living at the Summit

Pretty funny little comic, though I don't think I've ever achieved anything under "stage 3". Laundry, laundry is the worst possible ongoing chore that has ever been a part of the maintenance routine of most every mom. For the last 8 years or so, "stage 6" seemed to be the neutral zone. A few clean clothes were in the drawers, most likely ones that were too small, big or ones that the kids don't like to wear. Laundry was washed occasionally, when there were no more clean socks or under ware. But, alas, remained in unfolded piles on the sofa. It eventually got folded but still wasn't put away so the next day it would be in knocked over half folded mounds on the floor. "Stage 6" laundry may have seeped out into the living room infecting the "clean" laundry piles so most all of the clothes would somehow find their way into the laundry mountain again. Most always a load would be in the washer getting smelly, waiting to be rewashed and dried. And a load would be in the dryer waiting for someone to dig through it looking for matching socks. Even during the weeks where I did 2 loads a day ritually it still seemed to not get better than a "Stage5" and usually it didn't take me long to get depressed at the notion that no matter how driven I was at conquering Mount Schmidt, I could never keep up with the perpetual creation of dirty laundry.

Then sometime last month, I was sitting, feeling depressed at the sheer monstrosity that was my dirty laundry pile. How could I do this, something desperately needed to be done. The laundry situation was making my whole house messy. Once the laundry room was full, it seemed to pile up in the rooms, spill out into the hallways and living spaces in the rest of the house. I needed to manage it differently, approach it in a way where I could accomplish something but not feel exhausted and depressed.

So, I've been having the kids do their own laundry. They each get a day and they have to wash, fold and put away their own clothes. Nic gets a little help on the folding part but he loads the washer/dryer and starts them himself. They have to collect their clothes up and get all their duds washed or else they won't have any clothes to wear.

Can I just say this was a brilliant idea... Never have we had so many (folded and put away) clean clothes that our drawers and closets are overflowing. I had to buy 20 more hangers so they all had a place to go. The floor in the laundry room has been seen for a few weeks now and you can actually open the door between the garage and the house. I think next I'm going to finally do personal towels and have the kids keep them in their rooms and be responsible for them as well. That will help on a lot of the bulky laundry out of our way too.

Anyway, I feel like this was an accomplishment. Albeit a small one. Now if I could only conquer that pit of despair in my kitchen called a sink.

The Call of The Back Yard

We got a tremendous amount of work done in the back yard this weekend. I was preparing for nasty weather but unlike the weatherman predicted it was quite beautiful for the majority of Saturday and Sunday. Like typical spring weather it was sunny skies with a short bout of heavy rain here and there.

We installed a standpipe in the future garden area. I did a considerable amount of weeding and Kenny laid all the sprinkler lines for the remainder of the backyard. Now we plan on filling in the trenches, tilling some nutrients into the soil and laying sod.

We've had 3 estimates for a fence done... 2 have come back. The price difference is pretty staggering. The first bid we got came in at 3300. Which is incredible, I'm going to call today to see if I can see some of his work. The second one we got from Freedom Fence, a much larger company, at about 4100, almost a thousand more. We had Frontier Fence come out, I've not heard back from them yet, but I assume they'll be close or over the 4100. The Frontier guy was even preping me for a very expensive bid (blah blah blah, my fence boards don't have any holes in them, the posts are uber deep with tons of concrete, the rails are bolted to the posts. So what am I looking for? Well, steel posts that are deep (which all of the guys have told me so far) and 3 rails (they've all told me that too) But, other than the bragging about quality boards, they've all basically given me the same pony show, the Frontier Fence guy just made a BIGGER deal about his pony.

It'll be nice to let the dog out in the back yard to romp and play. He's so stressed out watching us outside from the back window. He's already made 5 escapes this spring, all of which were during our active times outside (they just drive him batty)