Spring Fever

No, not Beiber Fever. SPRING FEVER.  For me that translates into obsessing over getting every closet, drawer and shelf cleaned out and getting RID of stuff. Spring cleaning fever has hit me. Over the last several weeks I've been trying to accomplish my ultimate dream of having every nook and cranny in my home organized. Today was a day I realized  likelihood of that EVER happening was like slim to none. Sad. Though I needed to acknowledge the attempt is important as well as essential to not only my sanity, but to the welfare of my family members. Cleaning out, parting with STUFF is always good. More room for things coming in, because let's face it. With growing kids, stuff will be coming in for the next 20 years and it needs handling. {Do you have trouble getting rid of STUFF? Watch Hoarders. It will motivate you. Cross my heart.} 

  I feel it in my bones that if I could just accomplish this ultimate dream of having everything in it's place and ridding my home of things we don't need, use, or have multiples of, THEN I'd have peace in my heart and would be a better mom. However, during the process of purging, I am not a good mom. I didn't time Cade and his friend as they were making loops on the go-cart, I didn't sit and play a game with Sav, and Ruby hung out in the saucer all afternoon in the garage with me if she wasn't napping or being fed.  I was on a mission and so focused.Today was forecasted to be the only sunny day this week, so I set it aside to clean out and organize the garage. And not just quietly in my mind. I mean this was an event that was discussed at our calendaring session during FHE, making it a totally official event.

There's a problem with the garage though.  Like many garages in America, it has LOTS of stuff. Stuff I'd LOVE to get rid of. but also stuff I"d like for him to evaluate how often he uses it in order to decide where exactly it would go. As such, I need Kyle present to make those choices. However he has this thing called work, so he couldn't help me clean out the garage today and so after about 3 hours I felt like I had gotten nowhere and I was getting really agitated. My favorite part about starting a project like this is finishing. And I didn't get anywhere near finishing. So I got irritated and short and by 5 o'clock today I wanted to pull my hair out. It was a scene of complete disarray. The toy room had blown up, the garage was a mess, dinner was cooking in the crock pot but the kitchen was a disaster....and the dinner that was cooking wasn't turning out how I wanted it to. I had this bad idea that I should try a new potato soup recipe for dinner tonight. It's especially a bad idea because I was bringing someone dinner tonight. It was BLAND....salt helped...but not the kind of soup you want to share with a neighbor recovering from surgery....

It's a good thing my friend who was my "partner" in bringing dinner to our neighbor brought a delicious chocolate cake that I swear looked just like the chocolate cake painting I dream about. I'll have to show it to ya'll some time when I have it hanging in my kitchen.  It has fresh strawberries, homemade frosting....and is just beautiful to look at. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I mean, after all, chocolate cake can make anything better. Including a mysteriously colored potato soup with serious lacking in the flavor area.  For me, personally, I do NOT like the color a soup turns into when you use water, chicken bouillon cubes AND milk, cheese, and sour cream. Not appetizing. Oh Sister M. I am so sorry about the soup. Hopefully she just skipped the soup and went straight for the dessert. I know I would have. 

So after the family was fed, the kids put to bed, Ruby's sheets changed after she spit up/threw up?  and re-swaddled to bed, and the kitchen was cleaned I sat on the couch and took a few deep breaths (you wanted to take a breath reading that run on sentence, didn't you?), all of the sudden I felt better. Really, truly better. I laughed. It was really that hard to finally get a moment to just sit and take a deep breath. Who would have thunk? Oxygen made it all better. So I went upstairs and apologized to Cade for being so short with him and promised I'd do better tomorrow. 

It's nearing my bedtime. Below is a snipit of one of our evenings around here.....

This girl is delicious.

I mean these cheeks are just SO kissable. 

Cade reading Sav her bedtime story.

 Cade decided he wanted to hold his baby sister.

Then Sav wanted in on the fun.

And was determined to hold her just like her own baby.

Except Ruby wasn't such a fan.

*Funny sidenote about the outfit Ruby's wearing. She received an outfit just like this from our sweet neighbors across the street. From the perfect pink color to the darling tutu on it, it was my favorite outfit of hers. I was so sad to pack it away when we couldn't squeeze her chubby wrists through the armholes anymore. One night last week I drove to what I thought was the Dollar Tree to pick up some last minute items for Cade's birthday party. The Dollar Tree had completely disappeared. No sign saying "we've moved...." or anything. BUT-- as luck would have it, Kid to Kid, a Second Hand clothing store for babies and children was right next door. So I went in and tried my luck. Usually I can find one or two cute things for a good deal. Well, amidst the picked over 6-12 months girls section was this outift in MINT condition for a few dollars. I was so excited I didn't have to say goodbye to it after all. :) 

Then I drove to the nearest existing Dollar Tree and stocked up on silly string and glow swords. More on that excitement to come.

PS-- ordered 2 of these several weeks ago and they finally came. So comfy to read on! If only I had more time to read....

The end.