A Day in the Life of a Sick House

I should have been writing all week to keep sane instead of living on Facebook and Netflix.  We’ve been sick.  Not horribly, terribly sick where all I do all day is shovel baby Advil down throats while taking temps and cleaning up vomit while worrying about dehydration, but enough to keep the washer going (and kill my ecstasy at being caught up on the laundry), and everyone in the house (save for the few times they escaped the house and I had to round them back up).  It’s the you-think-everyone-is-better-but-then-someone-randomly-throws-up-or-spikes-a-fever kind of sick that keeps you guessing.  So even though no one has vomited or had a fever in 24 hours now, I’m still not letting anyone outside, and kind of waiting on edge for the next victim to surprise me.  Maybe I’ve been in the house too long.  

While being trapped entombed, um…while lovingly taking care of my sick children in our home, I have noticed a few problems (read: railed to my husband over the phone about the mess in my house until he consented to let me get rid of anything I want to) that need to be addressed.  Since my husband’s “okay”, I have been going through books, games, clothes, and getting rid of half of everything. 

I have yet to tackle the cookbooks.  I will be sad to see them go, but the truth of the matter is, with the rare exception, anytime I’m looking for a recipe I end up looking on the internet.  It’s easier.  And faster.  And I get more variety very quickly.  And each recipe has ratings.  With tips.  So really, they are going to need to go.  

My minimalistic tendencies should be well-honed by the time I get to 70.  By then the grandchildren will be screaming at their parents as they are dropped off at my house “No!  Not Grandma’s house!  It’s SOOO BORING!  She has nothing in her house at all and there is nothing to do!  She doesn’t even have a couch to sit on!”  In the meantime, there are 40 tabs up on my phone.  House plans at 1500-2000 s.f. (with 4-5 bedrooms), couches a roomba can fit under, cleaning droid reviews, and a fruitless google search for how to have only 100 things and still raise 5 kids.  Did I mention being in a house for 5 days with sick kids makes me want to burn down the house, or at least throw everything away?

On an entirely different note- I read a most wonderful Ensign article about going to bed early and rising early.  My best friend called me and tipped me off that I should read it (does she know me or what?!).  I have struggled for years with not only the bad habit of going to bed late and getting up as late as possible (and detesting mornings with everything that is in me), but even to cultivate the desire to go to bed early and get up early.  I know it’s a commandment- it probably goes hand in hand with “thou shalt not kill”, but nevertheless it has been one of my problems for years and years.  I would try every now and again, but always ended up falling off the wagon in short order.  Now, I read this Ensign article and was greatly inspired and motivated to change.  I even toyed with the idea of hanging the article in a frame in my bedroom (I still might!).  I set a firm bedtime for myself, and stuck with it…only to be awakened several times by children who had thrown up in their beds (I was pretty awake by the time I was done cleaning up children, changing all the bedding, and throwing a load of wash in), a teething baby, and a humongous cockroach that I could hear in the laundry room from my bedroom (the ensuing war was not pretty), and a couple of false alarms (that had me running upstairs to prevent as much of the mess as possible) by a fitful sleeper.  All of this tells me that God has a sense of humor.  Or he’s just testing me to see if my resolve to keep his commandments will hold.

And- a personal update: I'm fine.  Really, emotionally, physically, doing great.  The emotional angst over the miscarriage ended almost as soon as it was over- well, a couple of days after, and I'm happy to have the opportunity to become more physically fit and work on being healthier before getting pregnant.  My leg is also improving rapidly.  The limp is almost gone, except going up/downhill and the occasional ridiculous attempt at running after a child.  Running.  Ha.  The stairs are still hard.  I can't kneel yet.  But I am working on it- stretching, strength exercises.  Real life is good therapy.

Life With Less

I've been reading minimalist blogs again, and dreaming of a life with less stuff.  Inspired, I went through a kitchen drawer after one post (determining that I NEED a drawer organizer thingy to keep my whisk and potato masher from becoming entwined), cleaned out a cupboard, and cleared all the counters.  I liked that advice, to clear off all the counters in the kitchen.  It's a small kitchen, and it looks like there is way more space now.  I put all the stuff I never use in the guest room- a holding place for a few months to determine if I miss anything terribly.  Then I get to make another trip to Goodwill!

As my sister (who recently visited) can attest, I'm really not a minimalist.  I have a lot of stuff.  Can you be a minimalist with 4-5 kids?  I have a lot of books, and a lot of blankets.  Boxes full of my husband's stuff (I'm not sure what exactly is in them), boxes of cds and vhs tapes, many boxes of clothes, and lots of swimming and beach paraphernalia.  So, I'm not a minimalist.  But can I call myself an "aspiring minimalist"?  I hope to eventually clear my closets of most of it.  Except the kids' clothes.  It's too valuable to me to be able to pass them down.  But they can certainly have less of them :).

On that note, we have pared down for Christmas this year.  No toys, just useful things the boys will appreciate.  This comes after my frustration of having bought toys for birthdays that were used for a couple of weeks and then never touched again.  The toy drawers are hardly touched, except to pull out everything in search of more cars.  I'm now an advocate for games and other things/activities that promote family involvement/time together.  And I adore the idea of experiences as gifts (unfortunately, most of the ones I would give are out of our price range right now).  Someday.

What I’ve been up to in the past few months.

Slowing down.  No more cooking club.  About to be done with voice lessons.  Seriously looking into minimalism as a lifestyle but skeptical about how “low I can go” on the personal possessions with a house full of children.  Still- I have been throwing inanimate objects out right and left.  I try to keep the ones that holler when I pick them up :).

Homeschooling.  Not tons of creative stuff right now.  Just getting through the basics.

Gymnastics.  Because that is pretty much what life revolves around right now—sad as that may be.

Growing a baby.  20 weeks along today.  Don't feel bad if you didn't know.  This is also an announcement.  Not my favorite picture, or shirt, and no makeup, but it would take so long to get one I like…

Playing interior decorator.  Well, just basically trying to make my house look nice and put together.  *Sigh* I have a feeling this is going to take a while.  

Reading.  For the sake of my sanity.  And because the more stuff I throw out of my house, the less messy it gets and the more time I feel like I can spend reading.  Pretty much all homeschooling, pregnancy, and religious-type books.

And in the interest of organizing and minimalizing- we have redone the boys' closet.  Actually, I took everything out of their rooms except their beds.  No toys, no clothes.  They do each have a drawer up there where they can put their "treasures."  It's basically the only safe place in the house, where I won't come throw things out...but it has to fit.  This closet is downstairs--a spare one I happened to have hanging around in the laundry room.  Convenient huh?  And while it probably doesn't add much to the decor, these are the all clothes of 4 boys in one closet, right next to the washer and dryer.  No more endless trips up the stairs to gather all the dirty laundry, or getting down on all fours to inspect under the bed, only to tell the boys that shoving everything under the bed does NOT constitute cleaning the room! We pared clothes down, and may do it again; they don't wear half these clothes.  I put baby blankets and extra towels on the very top.  They each get one towel till I'm ready to wash them.  I had the hardest time getting them to stop using a new towel every day, so I finally just put them out of reach.