Today

Laundry - I tried hanging my laundry to dry on my new drying rack.  Should save energy and money.  Went okay. Last night I sprayed Ben’s school uniform with stain removing stuff and left outside on the washing machine to let it work overnight.  This morning it went in the second load of the day.  When I picked it up it was positively yellow almost over the entire front and right sleeve but white on the left sleeve, collar and spot in the middle where I hadn’t sprayed.  Washed.  Still yellow.  Soaked in oxidizer for a few hours to whiten again.  Slight change.  Not sure what to do from here.  I guess bleach is my next step.

 

Bills – Got a bill from Fairfax County regarding our personal property tax for the cars we sold in January.  Brian had already notified them we sold them.  Tried to update their records using their online system again.  Did two different transactions, one for each vehicle.  Got the same confirmation number for each transaction.  Obviously it didn’t work right.  Again.  Decided I can still make the May 1 deadline if I mail today.  Set it aside on the kitchen table and went to get Ben from school.  Come back to address the form and it’s missing.  Search all over.  Give up.  An hour later I notice it on another table near the front door.  Or was it.  There was a part of the letter/bill.  Maddie had taken it to make me a Mother’s Day card while she made the ones for the grandmas.  Sweet thought.  Now I have no form to mail back.  Unless I can scavenge all the scraps from the recycle bin and tape it together.  That could actually be funny if I included it with a note about why my form was all chopped up.

 

Mother’s Day – thinking I would be amazingly organized I had Maddie decorate the cards for grandmas today.  She drew a picture of her in one card.  In the other one she says, “I drew some scribbles so they would think it was from Jake.  I don’t want them to think he didn’t love them so they will think he sent a card too now.”  Oh yeah, she totally denies it, but the Mother’s Day cards are a little chopped up too around the edges. “It wasn’t me, mom. I don’t know who cut up the edges of grandmas card.”  Lying has been a bit of a problem this last week in particular.

 

Cleaning – Yesterday I got a lot of work done on the unpacking again.  Everyone preforms better with deadlines it seems and mine is that my brother and his fun family arrive early Thursday morning to stay for a little more than a week.  We’re totally excited but I used that as an excuse to make myself get a few more boxes put away.  It worked.  Jakes room has one half full box left (just need a smaller box to compact things into then put it in the closet).  Ben and Maddie’s room is box free!!  Don’t open the wardrobes though.  Something is likely to come tumbling out.  I also cleared the wet kitchen almost completely.  Too bad the main living area is still a bit cluttered.  At least it’s all boxed and along the walls.

 

Exercise – Jake started begging first thing this morning for a walk.  “It walking time.  It walking time mom!” he said all morning long.  I held him off long enough to get Maddie on the bus before I had to cave.  We walked the hot and humid streets for over an hour.  He rode his bike and was completely happy.  When we got home he “helped” me sweep the leaves off the grass since we don’t own a rake.  Then we scooped them all into a bag and the front of the house looks lots better.

 

Humidity – Part of cleaning off the wet kitchen counter was tidying up the storage room and trying to make strategic decisions about what I could store in our outdoor storage.  We already have just the tiniest little bit of mold growing on my vinyl casserole dish carrying case.  Time to reorder and organize instead of just throwing stuff on shelves to get rid of the boxes.  I closed up the storage room and put a couple Thirsty Hippos in there.  I’ll check it in a week and do a mold check to see if that will cut it or not.  My honest guess is that it won’t work.  Not sure what good the space is if I can’t put anything in there at all.  I know, it’s the maid/helpers room.  I’m just not ready for that yet.

 

Dejunking – I can hardly wait for the community yard sale in just three weeks.  I’m trying so hard to be patient and wait to get things.  I have to borrow a vacuum each day the cleaning ladies come until I buy one.  Patience.  Patience.  I figure 20-30% of the neighborhood probably moves out each summer back to their country so we’re hoping to score lots of great things like a vacuum, toaster, iron, etc.  Because of the power difference those things won’t work for them when they leave.  One thing I didn’t expect was that in the unpacking, I’ve come up with quite a pile of things to get rid of myself.  I tried to pack strategically.  I did pretty well, but I’m still finding stuff we don’t need and it’s just taking up space in our house.  Precious space in the “no mold indoor zone.”  Okay, the “less likely to mold indoor zone.”  It’s just too humid here.

 

Time to walk the neighbor home, borrow a vacuum and make dinner.  Back to real life. Sigh.