Grocery Shopping & the Budget

So, I have a new Budget, and an old system reinstated. Budgets are terribly necessary things, especially with the temptations of Debit Card. The Debit Card allows one to delude oneself that really there IS more money in the checking account than Quicken says...see there is a lot of money listed RIGHT THERE as the "Available Funds"... Er, no. College student checkbook "balancing" regressions are not permitted on one income, sorry.

The depletion of regular stock items such as canned tomatoes necessitates a run to Costco as well as the regular grocery store. So now is my time to check the Grocery Game lists for Albertsons and Safeway, peruse the Fred Meyer ad, and decide who gets my business today. Usually Fred Meyer wins, but occasionally Albertsons has a run on good deals for a lot of stuff we use, so I will go there with my Fred Meyer coupons and they will accept them. Occasionally I will pass through Safeway, which although a more pleasant shopping experience than Albertsons is usually the most expensive. And my total CASH budget for the week is $100. Eeek!!

I lucked out last week and bought 4 gallons of organic nonfat milk for $1.99 each--they were close to the sell-by date and were being clearanced out. Score! Normally we pay $5-$6 per gallon, so that was a big coup! I doubt I will be so lucky this week, so already I can count on $15 going to milk. *gulp* This budgeting stuff gets complicated! But I am trying to be gazelle-intense on debt paydown, and vanquish our credit card, then our HELOC, and finally my student loan. I also need to save up some funds for a trip to visit DH's family, but it will take a while. Automatic transfers to ING are going to be a regular feature, I think, in order to make that one happen.

I suspect my occasional indulgences of take-out lunches for DD & myself are going to go by the wayside. *sigh* That was a really lazy convenience for me, because having one day per week where I didn't have to worry about keeping DD awake long enough to eat after going to run an errand or storytime or whatnot was a nice little luxury. When stores don't open until 10 and your DD likes to go for her nap at 11:30, 12 at the latest, that makes it a bit of a time crunch! I try not to do errands in the late afternoon because the stores are busier and the kids are crankier, which in turn makes me crankier. Far better to stay home and entertain ourselves with a walk or playdate. Far cheaper, too, as I can resist the siren song of Starbucks' iced nonfat sugar-free vanilla latte.

All righty, I'm going to go blow on the coffee now to cool it down for a homemade iced latte, and continue my perusal of grocery ads. Being responsible with our Budget is kind of fun. At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself until I believe it!

Pernicious Parenting & Being Neighborly

Obviously this is not a good parenting weekend for us. After last night's diaper debacle, this evening we experienced the Chocolate Catastrophe, otherwise known as the Evening When DS Decided to Bathe in Chocolate Pie.

Today not being demanding enough with the house & yard in a below average state of cleanliness and general repair, DH & I decided to start painting our bedroom at about 2 pm. This was not the best decision, as it rendered our room Chaos Central ^TM, complete with complaining DS (1^st) and alternately complaining and "helping" DD (2^nd). Painting one colour would have been chaos enough, but of course we have the plastered over Freddy Krueger wall which required priming (Paint Colour #1), and the other three walls to be painted a very pale, muted green (Paint Colour #2), and finally the plastered wall to be painted an intermediate shade of muted green (Paint Colour #3).

As if that weren't enough general destruction, for some reason I decided that it was absolutely necessary to finally start clearing out the 2 foot tall weeds from the veggie garden, and proceeded to attack them viciously with a hoe this morning after ingesting a decent amount of coffee. I got about 2/3 of the way down the first row of corn, and I was D-O-N-E. How sad am I--I can't even hoe a whole row of corn on a cloudy, cool morning?? I am SO OUT OF SHAPE! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

After bemoaning my general state of un-fitness to DH and muttering to myself about "making time to work out" while eating cornflakes, I realized that our floors are really quite dirty and at about that time DH made a discovery in DD's bedroom, along the lines of "Oh my G-d, what is this on the floor...honey have you seen this??" At which time I go into DD's bedroom to discover scribblings in ballpoint PEN on the WOOD FLOORS. NO idea when this occurred...it's just small enough to go undiscovered for days, and after some futile scrubbing on my part with lemon Formula 409 I add "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser" to the shopping list and hope that it will come out with that magical cleaning product.

So after getting DD down for her nap, full of homemade mac-n-cheese (to which the credit goes entirely to DH, who makes a mean cheddar cheese sauce), DH & I spent about 45 minutes leisurely perusing brain-dead TV (in our house, this means the Food Network) before deciding, "Let's paint our bedroom!"

Worst decision ever, I think. After a frenzy of painting and multiple paint pails around our bedroom, a toxic odor of drying latex paint which necessitated opening the French doors & thus inviting in hosts of flying organisms, and cleaning DD of latex paint TWICE, I deemed it time to take the kids for a walk so DH could mow the lawns. (Incidentally this means we could check on the neighbors' garden & feed their cat, whom I believe hadn't been fed AT ALL during the first week of their honeymoon, since they asked us to look after the garden but never mentioned their outdoor cat...poor thing was subsisting on who knows what before I realized what must be occurring and fed her yesterday.) Sure enough the cat was waiting for me and consented to being petted, although she is probably still quite huffy about getting no FOOD for a week. I will definitely clarify this with our neighbors when they get back because DH & I are quite sure they never asked us to feed the cat but it seems obvious no one was, so we want to be quite clear in future if they ask us to look after watering the garden that they also mean their CAT as well. (I mean it's one thing to not water plants except every few days but QUITE another to not water & feed pets!!).

Anyhow, we got back and I made dinner--a cobbled together lasagne with quite a motley assortment of leftovers. The beef was fine if oxidized, the leftover bits of onion were getting close to declaring independence but were still acceptable for use, and DH poo-pooed me because I added the garlic late instead of sauteeing it with the onions at the start. I also added some leftover roasted garlic marinara sauce (another no-no to DH), since we didn't have enough crushed tomatoes to make enough sauce. By some grace of God I actually stretched this measly amount of sauce to make a FOUR layer lasagne, something which normally escapes me, so I was feeling pleased enough with myself to whip up a quick dessert using what we had on hand. Tonight that meant organic vanilla animal crackers (Costco, we love thee), some butter, and 2 boxes of instant Jello chocolate pudding and milk. Voila, a chocolate pie was born, after some cathartic bashing of animal crackers in a ziploc and frenzied whipping with a whisk. Yum!

Which brings me to the evening's denouement...DS, who is in that fun 'grabby' stage, decided HE wanted some chocolate pie, and made a grab for mine, resting on the arm of the sofa. Er...suffice it to say, he had chocolate pie filling over his face, hair, in his ear, and down his chest, and I had an ample sufficiency on my arm and clothing as well. DD thought this was uproariously funny, seeing as she had been eating her sliver of pie with her fingers, and proceeded to declare he needed a bath. So all three of us ended up in the bathtub, where we washed off all the chocolate pudding with DH's help. I smell of Johnson & Johnson baby wash, am significantly de-painted, and DS still has a tiny bit of chocolate pie filling in his ear. I doubt I would improve the situation by attempting to clean it out with a cotton swab, so he's just going to have a dab of chocolate pudding in his ear. I'm sure the ladies in the nursery at church won't find it TOO unusual tomorrow...at least I hope so...

Let us hope that we can end the weekend without one of our children ending up in the ER for some small object stuck in their noses or ears. At this point, I will take that and celebrate it as an enormous success!!!

Worst Mother Award

If there were a weekly award for motherly incompetence, I have surely won it this week. Why am I blogging at 3 am? Well, that would be because I went in to check on my DD after hearing a noise, and found her sleeping, on her tummy, with the grossest poopy diaper.

Now, I am already feeling like an idiot for missing some key clues about a diaper rash she has now--a yeast infection, to be precise. She got this red bump about five days ago, and DH & I assumed it was an insect bite of some kind. However, it wasn't going away, and it was getting worse. At the same time, DD was sobbing about her sore bum, coincidentally at naptimes and bedtimes. Being 2, she is saying all sorts of things to prevent or delay bedtime and sleep, and I just chalked it up to more delay tactics.

But no, my child has a yeast infection, and her bum really IS sore. Great job, Mom. Now, last night, she was crying when DH put her to bed, and we didn't turn on the monitor right away. Yep, and she now knows she's not supposed to come out of her room...so she took off her PJ bottoms, and set about trying to get as comfortable as she could, eventually falling asleep in a very poopy diaper, with her sore bum. My poor baby. Yes, she had the antifungal cream on, but steeping a yeast-infected bum in poop for nine hours is not the best way to cure a yeast infection! I asked her if that is why she was crying, and she said yes, and she had been telling us she had a poopy.

Worst. Mom. Ever. My poor girl...here she was telling us what the problem was, first with her sore bum and then with her poopy, and no one was listening. I apologized to her and promised to listen next time, and gave her lots of cuddles and hugs after I got her changed, creamed, and re-PJ'ed. I also read her an extra story...at 3 am. My patient little girl. Bear with me kiddo, I'm just learning like you are. *sigh* I feel so guilty!

David and the Ordinary

Last night was my women's Bible study night, and once again I was struck by how many women create an artificial divide between those things that God is "known to be interested in", like church committee work, or service to others, or instruction of our children; and those things that He just doesn't talk about much, like running a household and washing clothes and managing a budget, etc. Of course these women will delight in Proverbs 31, where it talks about a godly woman doing precisely all of those things, but somehow it just doesn't filter down to what we actually do each day.

I've been trying to do my David study. Very half-heartedly, I may add--first, the brevity shocked me (and not in a good way) for each day's study, but coming off of Precepts perhaps that was to be expected; and I need accountability for these sorts of things. Nonetheless, I have been thinking a lot about David and what his life was like before he became king. He was the youngest boy, and he was given the crappiest and loneliest, mundane job of being a shepherd to the sheep. He had to direct them around the hills, canyons, and valleys of Israel, defend them from wolves and lions (no small job, and quite scary for a teen, I'm sure), and he had plenty of time to just sit and watch them eat. Instead of worrying about that lion that was sure to come, or whether it was going to rain, and what that cute girl Tamara next door thought of him, David spent his time pondering God and the Scriptures. We know this from the vast number of psalms he composed--probably some on his harp (another reason I like him!).

So, instead of goofing off, practicing with his slingshot, shooting at birds, David was practicing his harp (again, I admire the fellow because that requires peculiar tenacity), meditating on God's Word, and writing songs of praise. All while he was doing his 'ordinary' shepherd job and probably making fires with sheep dung. You can't get much more ordinary than that, folks. Which goes to prove, even if you're scrubbing toilets, there IS a way to do it and still be keeping an ear out and a mind on the Lord. Now if only I could master this skill when my DD is annoying me!

Mundanities, Mars, & Venus

Here I offer a classic example of the difference between men & women...witness the conversation my DH & I had last night, on one of those rare occasions where our children are asleep and we are miraculously still awake enough to have a conversation:

DH: What are you thinking about?

Me: Well, just about God and the mundane realities of life--you know, the 'mundanities'. There is a tendency to want to disconnect God from the everday, you know? Things like, washing your dishes or changing diapers or grocery shopping, cleaning your house...all the stuff that you have to do but you figure God isn't interested in that.

DH: Yeah, I know what you mean.

Me: But the thing is that God IS interested in the mundane things in our lives, and He IS in those things...we just have to allow that God is interested in us cleaning our dishes or scrubbing our toilets or doing the weeding in the garden, and He WILL speak to us while we are doing those things and reveal more of Himself if we just listen out for Him. And I think it's a shame that more people don't do that, because you really can get an awful lot more enjoyment out of your mundane life if you listen out for God in everything, even the "ordinary".

DH: Yeah, I think you're right.

Me: What are you thinking about?

DH: I was wondering if this is a part of your bum or not. (Aside: DH was rubbing my lower back while I was talking and had wandered down past my waistband)

Me: Huh?

DH: Well, because my hand is past the waistband of your pants, but is that really part of your bum? Because your bum hasn't actually started yet.

Me: No, I don't think that is part of my bum. That is still my lower back.

DH: That's what I thought too.

And there you have it--the difference between the sexes. I was pondering the imponderables of God and how He could possibly be interested in how many times I've emptied the dishwasher and how He teaches me valuable lessons about my children if I just pay attention during those 'everyday' moments, and my DH is enjoying rubbing my back and wondering if it's where my butt starts. A classic. *LOL*

Career Fragments & the Train Wreck

Well here I am, a year plus since I left my full-time job and moved to a completely different state to become a stay at home mom. As inevitably happens, I have kept in touch with a number of my co-workers, and their occasional diatribes and updates about the situation at my former workplace leads me to study (again) my feelings about the experience and the fragments of my career.

It would not be fair to say that working as a postdoc at the institute shattered my career. Rather, it was a tediously slow process of crumbling it, such as it was. I'm not going to pretend I had a glorious, glittering pathway ahead of me, nor can I say with certainty that I knew exactly what I wanted. I give part of the credit for that to God, because surely He was changing my mind about the whole career treadmill the entire way through grad school and then my two equally disastrous postdocs (each in their own way). You will notice that I say "treadmill", because I do believe that a career, however fulfilling you may find it, doesn't really take you anywhere in the end and it's worth reminding myself of that when I think about it with some sniff of longing. In the big scheme of things a job is what it is--a job, a means to an end. Sometimes you work at a job you really love, but if you wouldn't still do it without a paycheck then is it really something you love?

Anyway, I digress. I was talking about my job at the institute last night with DH and I expressed again that it did make me sad, how something that could have been so great and maybe just a little bit glorious (and here I refer to the team effort for the project, which had it succeeded would have indeed created something a little bit glorious, pushing forward the technology for forensics as it would have) was doomed to fail so completely. One of the dangers of doing postdocs is that you are pretty much required to publish papers from it...and a lack of papers from my 2nd postdoc spells out F-A-I-L-U-R-E quite loudly and clearly to all and sundry in academia and some industry. It is irrelevant whether the postdoc him- or her-self is solely responsible for the failure, the fact is that a postdoc is still in a training/trial period and the failure to publish is weighed heavily on his/her shoulders.

it is with me. If I were ever to want to return to my career as a scientist (such as it was, really the cusp of cygnet into swan, if I were being generous) I would have to do another postdoc in academia if I wanted an academic career...and I might have to do one in industry too, from the way the job market for chemists is going. And that is depressing, quite frankly. To spend five and a half years in grad school, then six months in a hellish postdoc, and then three years in a more likable work environment but with absolutely NO progress and complete dependency on others' work ethic (or lack thereof!!), and to end up on the losing side is really quite crappy, to be blunt. So the selfish/human side of me is waiting for those responsible to be punished, because I still succumb at times to the expectation that there WILL be some fairness in life and those who treat others poorly will receive their just reward in this life.

So now it seems that perhaps that inevitable train wreck is coming for those in power who knew about the abundance of problems at my workplace and did absolutely nothing to rectify them. It seems that the two contracting parties are coming for a visit, and the view from the nosebleed seats (read: those who still work there but have absolutely no say in what goes on) looks like there will be a sword drop. I have heard murmurings that the institute is trying to fire my old boss, and I would be lying if I didn't think that would help tremendously. But frankly there is another person there, who is apparently on leave now, who took all the credit for everyone's work and who out and out LIED about results. Unbelievably, this person has gotten away with it for more than four years. I am hoping that some justice falls on this person, who is so smarmy in dealing with co-workers that they are all celebrating this person's absence during his/her leave!! Crazy.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when the visit takes place in mid-August, but that is just me being selfish and giving in to my small remaining lump of anger. The further removed I am from that chapter of my life, the less I care...but I do care about my friends still there who have to put up with that nonsense still. If only for their sakes, I hope some big changes for the better ARE forthcoming.

Mature & Together

Those were the two words that leapt out at me recently when a friend from church described her surprise to learn that I am the youngest child in my family. Apparently I am perceived as being very mature and "having it all together". Haha! This kind woman has never visited my house during the week.

You see, I have been doing the women's Bible study thing for about a year now, and I really enjoy doing it. The reason I enjoy doing it is that I have realized exactly how much I don't know about the Bible and God, and it struck me that this was not a good thing. Indeed, I can count numerous examples of friends and family who have been hoodwinked occasionally by the newest fad or socially acceptable practices because they did not know what the Bible had to say on those subjects. So, I recognized a grave lack in myself (and I do think it is a grave lack, that is, a very serious omission on my part as a Christian) and have started what I feel are the first small steps toward rectifying it before I pass on my destructive ignorance to my children.

This kind lady has not seen me at my worst, but God has. While my cluttered house goes unseen by church friends and visiting family, God knows that I can be a lazy @ss sometimes, sitting around on the internet instead of cleaning my house, doing my laundry, emptying my trash, or doing the dirty dishes. She hasn't seen the dirty dishes piled up haphazardly above the dishwasher because I haven't emptied the clean dishes out of it yet. She hasn't seen the eight loads' worth of dirty laundry piled up in the corner of my bedroom, waiting for me to gather up the energy and commitment to do it all. She certainly hasn't seen the dust bunnies the size of Rottweilers under my bed (and just as mean). And she hasn't seen me totally lose it because my DD has pushed one too many buttons and I flip out over something stupid, that requires me to apologize to her later for getting mad about whatever minor thing it was she was doing. And she certainly hasn't seen my very weedy vegetable garden, which probably would grow a lot better if I cleared out all the weeds around the veggie plants.

That is me at my worst, and frankly, it's the norm. I am not "all together" most days. Those days are rare. I hope they are increasing in frequency, but I can say the messy house and messy me is more the norm. And really, that is true of my Christian walk, too. I need commitment and hard work required to keep me keepin' on with getting to know God & the Bible better. I know it's essential, and hence, the women's Bible study. Accountability is a beautiful thing.

Disordered Routine

I am completely at a loss here. My entire morning routine has been disrupted...it's quite odd! My DD is still sleeping, even though it's now time for her favorite TV show. I'm certainly not waking her up for it; but additionally my DS is having his first nap of the day. Weird! We forgot to grind the coffee before the kids went to bed, so I don't even have my cup of java as part of my normal morning. I made some instant coffee, but it's so bad and lukewarm--just not the same.

It's very strange to have one's established routine disrupted in this way. I can do some laundry and fold some clothes, but in essence I am just sort of waiting for DD to wake up so I can make her breakfast, get her dressed, brushed, etc. Strange how inclusive my mornings are of care for the little buggers. I don't know what to do with myself when they're both asleep in the morning! Hehe. It's a nice problem to have.

Shoe Me, Please

Do you ever have those times where all of your previously comfortable shoes are suddenly rubbing your feet in the wrong spots, and causing lots of pain and discomfort? I am now healing a third abrasion on my feet from suddenly uncomfortable shoes! Ironically, I was wearing the offending pair of flip-flops because I had gotten blisters from my "comfortable" Merrells on my heels. Now I have an abrasion on the base of my toe from the top ridge of the open-toe rubber sandals.

Are there any pairs of shoes left in my closet that I can wear? I'm beginning to wonder. The shoes I wore to church today were chosen based on my various healing injuries, so I had to pick the only outfit that matches hot pink sandals. Any more injuries and I'm going to have to go barefoot!

This is why I have so many pairs of shoes in my closet, DH...you see, I really do need them all. Hehe. If I have to start wearing high heels to get different parts of my feet exposed to wear and tear, then I know I'm in trouble. And DH gets by with just 2 pairs of work shoes, 1 pair of sneakers, and one pair of flip-flops. That's a man for you.

Excessive Alcohol Consumption

So, here I sit, 1 beer and 2 hard lemonades later, and I can definitely say that I'm drunk. While by many standards, including that of most of our Irish in-laws and friends, that is a very poor drinking record, I plead the effects of breastfeeding and alcohol avoidance. My goodness, I don't remember being this toasted for a while. I have quite a buzz, and it's been some time since I've felt this way. I suspect I will regret it tomorrow morning.

Does Sam Adams Cherry Wheat have a higher than normal alcohol percentage or something? Perhaps when I am sober I shall investigate. Needless to say, the fact that I craved pancakes for dinner and sweets for a snack indicates my total absence of control when drinking. I told DH, "I think I will have to cut out alcohol if I want to lose weight, because I get the munchies when I drink!" And of course, my innate sweet tooth craves sweet things.

Yes, I am having pancakes for dinner--chocolate chip pancakes, to be precise. And the fact that it took me a minute to notice DD artfully scribbling faces on one of the cabinet doors with the green pen I was using earlier to compose a grocery list. Yes, one of my cabinet doors is graffiti-ed now, and I will have to try out Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser to see if it removes it or if I have sentenced myself to repainting that door.

This has been a strange week. I have a new resolve about spending and debt paydown, I have a new budget that proves how broke we are (haha, at least until I cut the cable and phone bills), and I have a new creative streak inspired by the need to cut costs. Our fun family activity for the weekend was a trip to a free local water park, complete with picnic lunch and PB&J sandwich for me, cheese sandwich for DH. DH poo-pooed my bread as being the "leftover" bread from our vacation a month ago, but hey, I didn't care as long as it wasn't moldy. Yes, it's a bit crumbly, but it's been in the fridge and I"m not wasting it.

My plan was to weed more of the veggie garden this morning. After a few tossing and turning nights with DS, plus the heat and DD waking up routinely, I was desperately in need of some sleep. DH bravely got up with DS at 6:30 am (bless his heart) and I slept in until 9! Hooray!

Now I have to find some extra money (HAHAHAHAHAHA!) to pay for the paint for our bedroom, or get reallllllly creative. I don't which it will be yet, but ask me in two weeks. If I haven't saved the money for the paint by then, it will be time for ultra-creative and budget stretching measures. Wish me luck.

Raising Parents

So you think raising children is difficult? Try raising parents. Yes, you read that right--raising parents. As your parents age, unless you are completely disconnected from them for your own reasons, you will have to deal with the sometimes less than graceful transition from independent living to assistance and care. The thing is, you are not dealing with children, you are dealing with grown up adults who have their own opinions on how things should happen and what should happen, and that creates conflicts.

My parents are not in the best of health. My dad is not in good health at all, and is in fact in the hospital right now due to neglect of an open wound. He is diabetic and now has an infection, which seems to be responding well to treatment with antibiotics. He has other self-care issues that are lingering on, a year past their inception. His circulation in his lower extremities is extremely poor, and it is just a matter of time until he has a leg amputation. I'm not being cynical here, it's just the way it is. You can take one look at his leg and see how bad the damage from diabetes is--it's badly discolored and he has swelling problems sometimes.

Of course my dad being my dad, is being stubborn and insists he is taking good enough care of himself. What my dad and mom fail to understand is "good enough" is not good enough where diabetes and circulatory issues are concerned. The care has to be perfect, or there will be degeneration to the point of amputation. That's just the way it is with this disease.

The trouble is, my parents either don't understand enough about the disease, don't care, or are choosing to ignore it and hoping it will go away. It won't.

This is the crux of the problem. Looking at the issue from my eyes, there is only one obvious solution for quality of life and longevity purposes. The fact that my dad is NOT choosing this solution is leading me to question what he hopes to get out of the remaining time on this planet--a nice view from a wheelchair or hospital bed? Is he trying to kill himself? The fact that I am seriously asking myself that is a real measure of how deeply I don't understand what he is doing. And I don't understand my mom's complete enabling and passive response to it. I DON'T GET IT, and it's maddening. How the heck as an adult child am I supposed to respond to something so clearly WRONG and poorly chosen? Is it an act of love to treat it as if it were nothing, and move along without saying anything? This is my parents' preference, and I just don't see how that is right if I love my dad and want him to be healthy and enjoy a good quality of life. How do you "raise" an aging parent? Right now, I have no idea.

I hope I find some way of relating to Dad and Mom in a manner that respects their independence while informing them of my opinion. And really, is it appropriate for me to voice that opinion? They are my parents, not my children. What sort of obligation do we really have to inform and mildly try to correct what we perceive as willful errors on the part of an aging parent? What does the Bible say about it? I haven't found much guidance other than "Honor your father and your mother." What is more honoring to them--to take their cue as long as they aren't incapable of looking after themselves any more (mentally or physically), or to speak up when you see something that is hurting them, out of the love you have for them? I don't know, and it sucks having to navigate this minefield. *sigh* Dear Lord, help me.

And So It Goes

I doubt there will ever be a day when our house is 100% neat, clean, and organized. I just don't see it happening in my lifetime, apart from a massive influx of cash courtesy of the stock market or lottery or 'far off in the distance' distant relative dies leaving fortune to us. Ahem. Not likely. While I hope our meager portfolio (under $3k) does well, I hardly think our investing genius (and I use that term loosely) stretches far enough to amass wealth of Warren Buffet proportions.

What sparks this interest in tidiness, household organization, and general absence of clutter? It's my coffee table. No, not THAT one, in the room we actually USE...the OTHER one. The one I cleaned off late last week which has managed to stay clean and uncluttered. I've walked by it several times today and each time I thought to myself, "Aaaahhhh, that is so nice." And I look at our formal living room (which we actually live in, and it looks as such), and our formal dining room, that we actually eat in (and it looks as such), and, well, they are NOT tidy. I have 2 stacks of untended mail on the dining table, plus some of DD's artwork to be mailed as "art attacks" to the grandparents. Hmmmm. The tablecloth is mostly clean, a point in my favor, I think.

The living room is (as usual) strewn with the detritus of toys of DD's whirlwind of activity since waking. Of course I still have my two clutter points on the kitchen counter and IKEA cube thingy. And I don't want to think about my bedroom. *sigh* Someday, sometime, all the clothes WILL be clean, folded, and put away. Maybe. In about ten years...give or take a few.

Make no mistake, I have started to clean up at various times today. Then, DS escalates from a mild whining complaint cry to a full-out "I'm DONE and how DARE you leave me in this swing/exersaucer/playmat for so LONG!" cry. That necessitates feeding, holding, burping, changing, etc. At some point (a year) I know he will grow out of this, but it's kind of tiresome. And of course whatever toys I tidy away are pulled back out by DD, or she seeks out new ways to punish me methods of creating chaos. Does it ever end?

I need to hear from some parents of older kids out there, ye who lurk but do not comment. Does this end before they move out, or does the crap left everywhere just change? I have some reasonable hope that DH & I can teach these little ones to put stuff away (*gasp!*), but whether we can retrain ourselves is another story. Hmmmm. What do you think? Is there hope for us?

My 'Other People Quotient' is Full Now

It was DH's birthday weekend, so he got to set the agenda for Saturday and Sunday. I was expecting a "do nothing" day, and indeed that was the agenda yesterday. On Saturday, however, DH decided he wanted to go to the zoo with his family; so after getting everyone dressed and breakfasted and cleaned up from breakfast, we hit the road. Argument ensued in the car as to the best ferry to take, and with a nail-biting eight minutes to go until the ferry departed and several rants at the moronic drivers ahead of us in the queue, we were finally on the ferry and on our way.

First off, let me say that we made a gargantuan error in choosing to go to the city zoo, instead of the other one. We had to deal with a maze of one-way streets and crazy lanes that stopped without warning or became left-only lanes without warning or were acceptable street parking at any time except 2 hours M-F (remember it was a Saturday, peeps). Even lunch at Chipotle did not improve my mood--it was a location near a university and the quality/service suffers with a lackluster and non-demanding student audience. Grrr.

We finally got to the zoo, and discovered it has the World's Worst Parking Ever ^TM . Yes, they don't tell you about that on all the radio ads about their great new African exhibit and the Maasai. They don't tell you that not ONLY will you contend with ridiculous streets and angles to contort your car in and out of numerous parking lots, but that every other freakin' person in the greater Seattle area will be there to use the park or go to the zoo, and there will be a quintillion zillion other cars a la the Kia commercial zooming to get parking spots when they miraculously appear. I was driving (and ranting) and after we had circled the entire park once and found NO PARKING, I gritted my teeth and started circling the last lot. DH wanted me to continue around to the other lots again, something I was sure was only going to be a perpetual merry-go-round, so I said through my gritted teeth, "No, we are staying here and we are FINDING a parking spot or we are LEAVING and going to the OTHER ZOO!" DH wisely stopped talking and I concentrated on skulking behind people who might be returning to their cars, along with the other dozen or so cars doing the same in this lot.

I will spare you the agony of waiting for the Chinese lady with the stroller who was only getting something from her car, but finally we got super lucky and were in the right spot when a young couple came out and quickly departed. Hallelujah! DD, who had been asking endlessly when she was going to see the 'creatures', was delighted. Fortuitously DS slept through the entire parking debacle. We paid for our parking and tickets, and proceeded to evaluate what is supposedly the 'better' zoo for our area.

Needless to say, the zillion jillion people who were looking for parking, or occupying the parking spots, were in fact IN the zoo. For some reason my brain had not processed this before we entered the zoo, and we found ourselves mooing along with a sea of people meandering from exhibit to exhibit. If there is one thing DH & I find more irritating than a herd of humans, I don't know what it is. We were quickly reminded of our dislike of places full of people, as the worst human character traits were on display. Adults who had been standing watching the animals for (I kid you not) TEN minutes or more actually gave ugly looks to parents with small children who attempted to wedge their young ones in where they could actually SEE the lion, or the giraffes, etc. Unbelievable. All the fun crafts that the zoo had artfully advertised were, of course, NOT FREE, so we passed on those after burning up who knows how many dollars of gas trying to find parking (parking which we had to also pay for, btw). My personal favorite was the woman who was making faces at the large male orangutan and who took off her glasses and stepped right up to the glass when he came over to get a closer look, and actually started making noises at him. Yeah, because *I* wouldn't find that annoying if I were on exhibit. I'll bet he was contemplating how easily he could grab her neck and wring it if it weren't for that darned annoying glass. Leave the animals be, please!

The most annoying and frequently repeated annoyance was people stopping right in the middle of the freakin' path! You know, those small, narrow paths that meander through foliage to make you think you're actually in Asia or Africa or whatnot? The ones that it's next to impossible to maneuver a double stroller through without nudging someone and getting a dirty look, unless you are making minute steering adjustments all the time? Those paths? Yeah, people would just STOP right in the middle and discuss the weather, politics, the presidential race...ok, so maybe they were talking about what they wanted to see next, but come on people!! Don't stop in the middle of the path on a crowded day with people all around you trying to get by! And for Pete's sake, MOVE ON when it becomes clear that you're blocking everyone else!

We stopped for ice cream and found a blissfully quiet corner in the shade from which to people watch. DH braved the line for the ice cream, bless him, while I claimed our corner. There wasn't a table, but that is the beauty of the double stroller with built-in trays. Ahhhhh...relax! We noted sadly that most kids & people were overweight, regardless of ethnicity or gender. We include ourselves in that classification, natch. I'm working on it...but it was a good reminder that we have to be diligent with our kiddos to be sure they get enough exercise and good snacks, not just easy pre-packaged crap. Good reminder. Ice cream eaten, DH said he was done and it was time to go. Thank the Lord. Both of us said our OPQs were full--and that little dose will last us for quite a while.