Doing Not Thinking: Week...is it four or five?

Here's an update for the Doing Not Thinking Challenge. I haven't updated in the last week or two because I've been too busy "doing". That's one ironic excuse.

Goal #1: Preparing to Move, Moving, and Setting Up Home in our new house in a controlled and organized manner. Doing everything in my power to make our new house truly feel like "home". Done and done. Pretty much everything is unpacked in it's place, and we just finished cleaning the old rental today. As noted in previous posts, the new house still isn't "home", but it's a matter of growing into it, not forcing it.

Goal #2: Take to plunge into gardening, but at my own comfortable pace. I bought herb starts and potted them this week. I'm waffling between buying some garden starts/planting something in the empty places around the foundation of the house (which is conveniently weeded and not sodded), but we have a (carpenter?) ant problem and I think that planting something there will encourage them to crawl onto the house (although they can do that just fine without encouragement)(the ants, that is, not the plants) and it might be a moot point if we eventually need to get a professional out here to spray them. Ugh. What a mess. Next month my sister-in-law Tweeter is coming to visit, and I'm going to consult with her about our future garden. She's quite the gardener. Oh, and we've got an impressive compost pile going on, to the point that we're going to be forced to build a multi-unit compost bin because it's just so big and out of control. Taming an unmaintained yard creates lots of compost material! On a related note, I'm planning on buying some red wriggler worms for vermicomposting my kitchen scraps. The lowest I saw them on craigslist was $10 a pound, but now the ad is gone. Darn.

Goal #3: Being conscientious about my Internet Time, ensuring that Internet Time is productive and not just time-wasting, and scheduling Internet Time so that it does not conflict with interacting with my family. I can't say I haven't wasted time on the internet--I think that working my butt off to move just burned me out. But it's mostly at night after Munchkin goes to bed, so that's good.

Suburban Summer

When I dreamt of owning a house, one of the big kickers was that I could do anything I wanted with the plants in the yard. I could remove plants, or, more importantly to me, I could plant plants.

So when I bought some herbs at the garden center earlier this week, what did I do? I put them in pots instead.



This way I can bring them inside for the winter. There is a perfect spot for them in the storage room, which is a large room that was walled off from the garage. It has a large window that lets in lots of morning sun. Last time I had anything in a container, it ended badly. So we'll see.

The weather's been beautiful here: sunny and warm (although today was more "hot"). Gorgeous. Perfect for grilling hamburgers, which go well with homemade potato salad.



While we're not gardening or eating, there's always laying in the hammock:



Ahh. The life.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to do anything fun outside today because Munchkin had a fever and was cranky, too. I have no idea what kind of sickness she's getting, but I hope it doesn't last long. Poor girl. She likes to cuddle when she's not feeling well, but today it was like snuggling an oven in the desert. I just about melted; I can only imagine how she felt.

Irritatingly, I have misplaced my notebook with all my weekly menus and shopping lists. I can only conclude that it is not in this house, because I've looked high and low. I hope it's in the van. The last place I saw it was at Target two days ago when I was doing a bit of shopping. I hope that if I lost it that someone would call the phone number I put on the cover, because even though it's just a silly notebook with nothing really too important in it, I think I'd loose my mind if I didn't have it. It's a collection of my family's culinary history. It's interesting to see what we were eating six months ago, and how much our habits have changed.

Plus I can't remember what I'm supposed to cook on Saturday, but it has something to do with rice.

A few more pictures

I've taken a couple more photos of our new home. Only a couple because I've only gotten the kitchen/dining room completely settled, haha. Everything else is mostly good, but there are still a few boxes of decorations/art/pictures that I'd like to put up before taking pictures. All in due time. ;)

Before I get the new pictures, I have something else: Pictures of our old home. You may not care, and that's fine. But I wanted to take pictures for the memories. Sometimes I wish I had taken more pictures of the first apartment that Husband and I shared. I'm glad that I remembered to take pictures this time. It is kind of weird, though. Now that we're pretty much moved in, I just don't have the yearning to be back in my old home like I thought I would. And that's good! I do wish I felt more comfortable here, though. I'm still adjusting.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures. They seem to sum up my photography skills: leaves something to be desired.



That's a corner of my kitchen. Don't you just LOVE the beat-up cabinets, old wood laminate countertops (you can't see it in this photo, but on the other side of the kitchen the front facing is falling off/non-existent), and faux brick backsplash? Gorgeous. Someday we're going to take the brick out and tile the backsplash, paint the cabinets white and put new hardware on them, and get some modern laminate countertop. But honestly, I don't really care as much as I thought I would.



An extremely poorly-lit picture of the dining room, taken from the kitchen. I'm glad our table fits where it does; I was afraid it would block the sliding glass door.

And a gratuitous picture of Munchkin at Husband's church softball game tonight:



They actually won, which ties their number of wins from last year: one. Hurray!

Miscellany Regarding Current Life

Here's a picture of my roses, as promised:



Roses aren't something I would have chosen to plant, as I am super-practical and I'm not feeding my family roses, but darn those are pretty.

Husband installed an over-the-range microwave today. It took him six hours. At one point I asked him alarmedly, "Did you just start a fire in the wall?!?" But in the end it turned out alright, and now I have a microwave to use! Now I just hope it doesn't, you know, fall out of the wall.

The weather's been great here and we've spent a LOT of time outside weeding the yard. That's our recreation. Weeding. It's fun and therapeutic. We aspire to have a food-producing garden, but we're sticking to weeding for right now. It's really hard to screw up weeding. I did buy some herb starts at the store today, but now I have no idea what to do with them. I'm scared to do anything, lest I kill them. I'm petrified, people. PETRIFIED OF GROWING PLANTS.

I'll get over it. ;)

Munchkin is still irrationally cranky. Can't tell if it's toddlerhood or the move or teeth or just because she wants to make hell. I don't know if it matters, because I can't change any of it. Going outside usually helps, and I will gladly oblige.

I used my new (used) washer and dryer for the first time yesterday and opened up the washer to find that I left a giant permanent marker in my apron pocket and ruined a whole bunch of white clothes, including Munchkin's awesome white sweatshirt that we got from Nicole. :( Craptastic! On the plus side, the washer and dryer actually work really well without added markers.

I've been feeling really here-and-there, this-and-that lately. Not in a hypomania kind of way, but just because there are so many little random things to do and take care of and I don't feel settled. I hope this soon passes.

We've Landed

We've been "moved into" our house for two days now, and there are so many great things I don't know where to begin.

Moving was extremely busy and exhausting, but we are mostly unpacked. There are a few home maintenance things that we've been doing, as I outlined in the last post. The list is not getting any shorter, no matter how hard we work on it. That's okay with me at this point, because it's fun. 

The house didn't come with a washer and dryer or a microwave, so I scouted out craigslist until I found all three: washer and dryer for $225 and brand-new over-the-range microwave for $120. Score! I love craigslist. I'll be needing a new refrigerator and stove soon, so I'll be keeping an eye out for those.

We've found that the temperature fluctuates wildly in the house, getting chilly at night and warm during the day (the cold is what bothers me, though). We've lived in shared housing so long that we are used to using our neighbors to buffer us against the extremes. I've learned to shut the windows just after the warmest part of the day to keep the heat in, even though I would love to leave them open.

But the best part of our new house is not the house at all, but what's outside of it. It sits on a nearly quarter acre lot, the perimeter of which is lined with a six-foot fence and trees, including a cluster of pines, a few maples, and a couple that I haven't yet identified but they are very large. The backyard smells of the woods and lilacs (my neighbor's, but they droop over the fence onto my side). I have a couple of bushes out front that are flowering right now (pictured in this post), and a couple of rosebushes, one of which is blooming right now with the most beautiful roses. I'll have to take a picture of those tomorrow.

The very best part is that from our back porch (which is so big that according to Husband's friend Jim, "You could play full-court basketball on it!"), I can't see my neighbors and my neighbors can't see me through the vegetation. Total privacy. I can truly relax without worrying that someone watching me, which sounds ridiculously paranoid, but nobody is at ease under (perceived) observation, right? The morning sun filters through the trees right onto the porch and the birds sing their songs. A show just for me, every morning. Peace.

A Brief Update

Tonight is our last night in the condo. Just about everything but the essentials and the furniture and all of Munchkin's stuff is at the new house. My kitchen is 90% organized and I hope to have it and the bathrooms done by tomorrow evening. I'm also taking Munchkin's bedroom stuff over tomorrow morning too, in one fell swoop (or van load). My intent was to make sure she felt comfortable while we were moving, but today I thought that maybe she was feeling a little scared that we were going to leave her here since we've moved just about everything except her stuff. 

I've worked so hard these last six days. There was TONS of things to do before we could even start moving things into the house. Cleaning every surface of the whole house several times, carpet cleaning, air duct cleaning (which has been postponed because the dude that was supposed to do it "got sick" last weekend), painting two rooms and a hallway (which in itself was a two-person, three-day job), mowing a huge overgrown lawn, wallpapering shelves and drawers, making fifteen trips to Home Depot, installing bathroom hardware, closet rods, door jams, doorknobs, toilet seats, a washer and dryer, an over-the-range microwave, built-in shelving, and shower heads. The house still has a weird funk to it despite leaving the windows open for several nights, a combination of staleness and public bathroom and cats. Blech. While we did eat out on the weekend since we had a friend in town to help out (fast food and pizza), we've eaten at home otherwise. Thank God for frozen soup. 

The only major bad thing that has happened in the last week was that Husband and his friend did a great job of painting the living room, hallway, and master bedroom...ORANGE. Seriously. Freaking orange. It didn't look like orange on that little card we got from the paint store. But it is. Orange. The color is called "Hacienda Clay" and on the walls it looks like orange, a little yellow, and a pinch of tan. I was going for tan with a hint of warmth. You can see it on this page. Just do a "control + f" and search for "Hacienda Clay". Looks like a nice warm tan, doesn't it? Nope. It's yellowy-orange. It's going to look just great with my dark green couch and my deep reddish draperies and my subtle (okay, nearly non-existent but intended) Asian theme. *sigh* Let this be a lesson: ALWAYS PAINT A TEST SWATCH ON THE WALL.

Anyway, tomorrow night will be our first night in the new house. I'm excited but a little sad to have to say good-bye to our little rented condo. While I hated it at first, I've had many great life experiences happen to me while living here, even while physically inside here, and it's grown on me like a good old friend. I found out I was going to be a mother in the bathroom. We brought Munchkin home from the hospital here, and I had the most wonderful babymoon I could have ever imagined. I embraced the title of "HausFrau" here, with all of the rights and responsibilities therein. We had our first family Christmas here. I could go on, but the meaning is personal and hard to explain. 

We get internet installed at the new house on Thursday morning, so I won't be updating or browsing other blogs for a few days. But I'll be back. :)

It's Go Time

We get the keys this evening! Hurray! Our Realtor is dropping them off at 5:00. And the chaos will then commence. I honestly don't know what kind of free time I'll have to write for the next week or so. So I'm not going to make any promises until the end of next week, although I hope to pop on once or twice to update. I'm so happy!

No Pain, No Gain

Well, we went and signed papers yesterday. Surprisingly, there wasn't that much to sign. We had to sign almost as much paperwork just to get pre-approved for our loan before we even went house hunting. Anyway, it was pretty anti-climatic, as we don't get the keys until tomorrow. We were supposed to close no later than today, but who-knows-what happened behind the scenes and we have to be extra patient, which is okay with me because at the end we get a house! 

Unfortunately that means we are a day behind in getting the house move-in ready. We've got a lot to do: Husband is painting the living room, hallway, and master bedroom. We have to get the air vents cleaned (they are sooo gross) and the carpets cleaned, too. I have to deep clean the whole house, since it's been unoccupied since last summer and there's been people traipsing through it occasionally. We have to install the new doorknobs, toilet seats, baby locks and smoke/CO detectors. I'm also wallpapering the shelves and drawers in the kitchen and bathroom cupboards. THEN we can start moving things into the living space proper. The plan was to do the bulk of the actual "moving" next Wednesday, spending our first night there that evening; we have friends planning on helping us with the big stuff that day. So now we just have to work extra hard to make that goal. If we have to push it back, so be it, but I don't want to have to change plans with our helpers last minute. 

As if this wasn't stressful enough, Munchkin is acting like a super-hormonal teenager with PMS. Normally she's always happy, only crabby when she's tired, and easily consoled. But for the last few days she'll start inconsolably sobbing at the drop of a hat at the simplest things. It could be the move. It could be teething, as she's getting her eye teeth in (although she's never been bothered by teething before). Or, and I really hope this isn't it, it's a vaccine reaction. She got her first MMR shot on Monday. She's also started waking at night again, 3-5 times a night. Whatever it is, I hope it's just a weird fluke thing that will resolve itself. If she's like this for the next week, I'm going to need some extra patience. 

With that, I'm going to sign off and get some sleep. Hopefully.

Not Buying It: Week 2

Here's my update for the Not Buying It Challenge:

Clothing: No update. Haven't bought anything, and haven't saved anything from certain destruction.

Food: If I was limber enough to kick myself in the face, I would totally do it. I bought three pounds of ground beef on sale last week and forgot to re-package it to freeze it, so it went bad. There is nothing about being a HausFrau that infuriates me more than when I forget about meat in the fridge. It's not even so much that I "forgot" about it; I just procrastinated too long. There is no valid excuse. So very useless. 

Household: I pilfered cardboard boxes out of the recycling dumpsters to use during our move, which is technically stealing since the hauling company SELLS the material to the recycler, but I figured that they'll end right back up in the dumpster anyway. So I'm not stealing, I'm borrowing. I can't imagine why anyone would pay for cardboard boxes.

Utilities: I'm trying to use more natural light, or just be content with the natural light and not turn on the lamps.

Gifts: Homemade Mother's Day cards for both of our moms.

Exercise/Self-improvement: Packing up all of your worldly possessions counts as exercise, right?

Homestead: Ummmmm...well, I tried to bring home some watermelon rinds from the restaurant we ate at yesterday, but I forgot them at the table.

Education: Nothing new. We did have a "TV Fast" that lasted about 36 hours, which surprisingly enough was Husband's idea. (We had to turn the TV back on tonight for the season finale of House. I'm rolling my eyes right now.) I think one reason it lasted as long as it did was that there are really heavy boxes of books blocking the doors to the armoire so I can't get it open. Unfortunately, this also meant that I couldn't turn the stereo on, so we were also music-less. We did sing more songs and read more books. That's kind of nice.

Weaknesses: We ate out three times this past weekend. I think that's a new record. We had fast food for lunch on Saturday, then on Sunday Husband suggested this bistro in downtown Sherwood that he wanted to check out. They were having their Mother's Day brunch, and after we were seated we noticed that it was $16 per person. Yikes. And the food was not worth $16, even for someone with a loose grasp on reality. What a waste. Why can't we have any luck with Sherwood restaurants? *sigh* Then some friends from back home stopped by as they were going through town and we ate at a Korean BBQ restaurant which, I admit, was pretty cool but also really costly. We blew a whole week's food budget in one day. Which stinks, because I was hoping we'd eat out a few times in the next week or two so that I won't have to worry about cooking in the middle of the move, but it looks like I won't have that liberty. Horrible.

Purging: Still finding things here and there to put in the recycle bin or in the donate box, but I think I've gone through just about everything we own now. I've mastered purging, mwahaha.

My Mother's Day Gift

I was busy packing up my linen closet, trying to figure out how to cram all of the miscellany that ends up in there into boxes so that I won't be too confused when I unpack them. I was concentrating hard, and I felt like I was in the middle of a mess.

I looked up and Munchkin was standing there, still as a gravestone. Her face was beet red. Her eyes bulged. She didn't breathe. Her face told me she was in distress.

Adrenaline ran through my veins. My heart raced. I was sure that she had picked up something on the floor, put it in her mouth, and inhaled it. "WHAT'S WRONG?!?" I barked. "ARE YOU OKAY?!?"

She took a breath, pointed to her crotch, and said, "Fart!"

Doing Not Thinking: Week 2

Phew! I just spent several hours on Husband's computer geeking out to Diablo II. My wrist hurrrts. I think that was the first time I've played that kind of mind-sucking computer game in a LONG time. Oh wait, I remember playing WoW when I was like, eight months pregnant, so it's been a little over two years.

Please excuse the previous paragraph. The move has made me a bit...cracked. I guess I'm reverting to college.

While gaming helps with the "Not Thinking" part of the Doing Not Thinking challenge, it doesn't do much for the "Doing" part. :(

Here's a recap of my goals, and this week's progress:

1. Preparing to Move, Moving, and Setting Up Home in our new house in a controlled and organized manner. Doing everything in my power to make our new house truly feel like "home". I've gotten some more things done for the move, like organizing those nooks and crannies that always seem to gather random things, setting up the utilities, and scheduling a time for carpet cleaning.

2. Take to plunge into gardening, but at my own comfortable pace. I stopped at the Master Gardener booth at the farmer's market this morning, and asked the lady what kinds of edible plants grow well in the shade, since we have an abundance of shade in our new yard. She basically said she didn't know, why don't I call this here number? And I was like, I thought you were a MASTER! Anyway, she did have some basic info guides for beginner gardeners to give me, so I took those. I also cracked my Gardening for Dummies book open, but it seems to be directed more for growing flowers.

3. Being conscientious about my Internet Time, ensuring that Internet Time is productive and not just time-wasting, and scheduling Internet Time so that it does not conflict with interacting with my family. Haha. That's all I've got to say about that.

Jumping In

Have you ever gone swimming with your friends on the first nice day of the year? The pool isn't quite warm yet but you have been waiting all winter for this day, and you don't want to get in because it's going to be almost unbearably cold. You dread it. But you remind yourself that it won't last too long, and after that you and your friends will have a lot of fun. That seems reassuring, but you still dread it. After stalling for awhile, you finally force yourself to jump in...

I'm there. We have loads of empty boxes laying around, begging us to be filled. Meanwhile, I'm still futzing around with things in cupboards and drawers and closets and shelves, meticulously putting them away after I've sorted through them as though they won't be thrown in one of the aforementioned boxes in a few days. I carefully clean my kitchen every evening, putting everything in its place, and I almost can't bear to think that I'll be tearing it all apart within a matter of days. I'm holding back, clawing at "home" to keep it from vanishing. The end is imminent.

In other news, my finger is doing better. It doesn't hurt anymore, but it is really stiff. I can't flex it all the way, and it is weak. As long as it doesn't hurt though, I'll be okay. I can move with a stiff, weak finger, but not a stiff, weak, PAINFUL finger. 

Munchkin refused to take a nap yesterday and never became belligerent, so she skipped it. I think that's the first time she went all day without a nap. Let's just say I prefer naps for her. I like my little break in the afternoon! Hopefully that was just a fluke, and that she continues to nap, like she did today. I just need to be better at wearing her out.

Seven Days

Seven days from now we're going to be homeowners. 

I could type a book on it, but I think I've already said what I needed to say regarding how freaking awesome that's going to feel. But now I'm starting to understand the dread, the ball in the pit of my stomach, calling, "You can't go back nooooooooow!..." The huge responsibility. 

Of course, this sinking feeling comes right on the heels of every single horrifying The Money Pit-esque thought that barges into my brain unannounced. 

The siding is filled with mold and carpenter ants. 

There are wild animals with rabies living in the crawlspace. 

There's a dead person hidden in the attic. 

It's freaking HAUNTED. (Seriously, how do you fix "haunted?")

To the best of my knowledge, only the first one is even remotely plausible. Let's hope, anyway. But what if? And what if it's something we couldn't foresee and can't fix, like having CRAAAAZY neighbors? Or what if it really is haunted?! What if I move in and just plain hate it?

I should take a lesson from myself: "Worrying never helped anything" is something I've been saying to Husband a lot lately, who is a little on edge about job security (but unjustifiably so).

(But no, really, if it's haunted I'm going to need a place to stay while it goes back on the market. Because there is no way in HELL I'm going to stay there.)

Another, more genuine issue that's starting to make me panic is the loss of our home. We've put so much energy into this place, and even if it is a crappy little condo in a crappy little cookie-cutter neighborhood, it's home. Now I have to pack up our things and put them in a new house and pretend like it's all hunky-dory but it's not going to feel comfortable for a long time. I hate the new house break-in period. :(

All that aside, we really are excited about it. Only seven days! A week from now we are going to be walking through the house like we own it, because we will! (Well, sorta. After thirty years.)

Laryngitis For My Fingers

Did you know that it's incredibly hard to type when two of your fingers are buddy taped together? Well, it is. So here's a picture!

Not Buying It: Week 1

Stay with me here, I'm working with a bum finger. Husband and Munchkin and I were roughhousing earlier tonight and while I was trying to block a beach ball flying at my head at breakneck speed, I somehow jammed my finger into my own thigh.

Oh wait. Uhh, that's not what happened. I was fighting off muggers mugging a helpless old lady, and during the melee, I jammed my finger. It didn't hurt. Not a bit. 

(I'm eyeing the Percocet leftover from my c-section two+ years ago. Gotta type through the pain...)

ANYway, I have yet another challenge which I found (this is going to sound complicated) at Dancing in a Field of Tansy, which I found from Two Frog Home, which I found from The Organic Sister. A friend of a friend of a friend, if you will.

This challenge is called Not Buying It. And I challenge myself to not buy things to fill the needs in a category. Simple, no? Here goes:

Clothing: I mended one of Munchkin's shirts (okay, all I did was sew a button on, not THAT complicated), and I also went to great lengths to get rust stains out of another shirt of hers. Boiling did the trick. Bleach, oxygen bleach, dish soap, vinegar, and lemon juice did not. But um, now her off-white shirt is decidedly white and perhaps a tish bit smaller than it was before. But it sure looks clean!

Food: We did spring for Wendy's once this week, but other than that we've made everything from scratch. I hope to start making bread from scratch again when we're in the new house.

Household: Uhh, well, I didn't do too well in this category. Remember the $165 toilet seats and doorknobs episode? Yeah. We aren't going to be doing too well in this category for awhile. I guess I just have to focus on spending less money. And to that end, I did put back the fancy doorknobs and got the cheaper ones while we were shopping for them. Also, I went to The Container Store looking for something to store a fifty pound bag of rice, came out with something woefully inadequate, and returned it the next day. So I unbought it. 

Utilities: Nothing new to report here, other than I feel as though I've been more conscientious about my light usage. (Edit: Although it was a purchase (is that against the rules?) we bought a low-flow shower head this weekend. It was on sale AND we used a coupon!)

Gifts: I didn't buy anything. I'm a Scrooge and love no one, apparently. 

Exercise/Self-Improvement: Um, let's just say I haven't bought anything in this category for a long time. ;) Chasing a toddler is free.

Homestead: Thinking of a summer garden is as far as I've really gotten. (I guess it means I didn't buy anything!)

Education: Got SouleMama's book from the library (The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule). It's been on hold for a while. Horrible timing, as I don't think I'll be able to examine it as much as I'd like with all the chaos going on here. I'll have to put it on hold again.

Weaknesses: Let's see, I mentioned the Wendy's, the doorknobs and toilet seats, what else? I think that covers it, actually. 

Purging: We've saved the best for last. So far I have organized and purged: the storage closet, Munchkin's bedroom closet (in which nothing was actually hers), Munchkin's dresser storage, the storage area in the end table, my sewing and craft stuff, the guinea pig stuff, and part of the bathroom. Areas to be hit this next week: kitchen (big one), the rest of the bathroom, entertainment armoire, bookshelf, clothes, and laundry room. Right now I have some scrapbooking supplies and some grids and connectors (to make DIY cube shelving) to put on craigslist or freecycle.

Doing Not Thinking: Week 1

Earlier this week I found an awesome blog via The Organic Sister called Two Frog Home. She has a challenge going on right now called Doing Not Thinking. Basically I interpreted it as a challenge for me, a chronic procrastinator by way of overthinking things as a mental block to doing them, to STOP the superfluous thinking and just do it.

I've got three goals for the Doing Not Thinking challenge. They are, in no particular order:

1. Preparing to Move, Moving, and Setting Up Home in our new house in a controlled and organized manner. Doing everything in my power to make our new house truly feel like "home".

2. Take to plunge into gardening, but at my own comfortable pace.

3. Being conscientious about my Internet Time, ensuring that Internet Time is productive and not just time-wasting, and scheduling Internet Time so that it does not conflict with interacting with my family.

And my progress thus follows:

1. While I think I did overthink it a little, plus I had a case of The Funk earlier this week, I am busy cleaning and organizing and purging our stuff so that packing can be done in short order and easily. Today I cleaned out two of our three closets, purged and organized my craft/stationary/scrapbook supplies, and cleaned out two totes of guinea pig stuff and condensed it down to one tote. I've got a checklist with all sorts of stuff I need to do, people and companies I need to contact for various moving-related reasons, and a timeline of our move-in process with task lists for both me and Husband. Phew!

2. Um, not much. Focusing mostly on #1 right now. But I did go to our town's farmer's market this morning and visited a booth with a family who was selling "Victory Garden Kits" for $10, which included seeds, row markers, and extensive instructions on how to grow your own victory garden. I like that idea and am playing with the idea of buying one to support them. They seemed genuine.

3. I could be doing much better with this, but for at least a few days I was doing well. I just have to keep trying.

Naked Time

Munchkin: Pee floor.

Me: Did you pee on the floor?

Munchkin: Yes.

Me: Show me.

Munchkin leads me to a soaked section of carpet in her bedroom, smiling proudly.

Me: *sigh*