Unseasonably warm

 E-yi-ya has gotten into the bike craze too.

Bbbbbb-bbbbbb-bbbbb (this is a motor-tricycle)

 Puddle-stomping on a sunny morning --

The boys are outside before breakfast most days.

 Examining the interesting swirls and patterns in the drying mud.

Posing with their spears --

I can't get boots on Diego to save my life. 

 Truen, the threatening monster.

Eliah dipping his finger in the mud and sampling it like melted chocolate.

They were waiting for Blaine to come home at the tree-line on our driveway.

They often wait for him to come home,clambering into his vehicle and asking, "Any treats??"

He did it!

 

Truen decided it was time. This spring. Seven years old.

Time to learn to ride a bike.

 And by golly, he did it.  It took him two days --

First he rode down the front walk, learning how to balance and steer.

After awhile he added pedaling and voilà! He did it.

He has been riding so much since that his little buns hurt.

He named his bike "Bird Wheel" and rides for hours every day.

It is a another dumpster-diving treasure I dug out the summer of 2007,

a few months before he was even born.
And now he's riding it.

My few favorite instances from this morning

QUOTE #1

Mama: "Where's the ball?"
Eliah: "Dere ball!!"

~ A first for Yi-ya, putting two words together.


QUOTE #2

"Mama, the geese are coming back!  I heard their voices."

~ Diego, after opening up the back door to a warm 40 degree F morning.


QUOTE #3

"Look!  There's a MANIA of pine cones up there!!"

~ Jamie, pointing up into a big black spruce in the front yard


And finally . . . Truen's determination to start riding a bike this year.  He's serious.  I think he's going to make it happen this year.

Meatloaf Monday

I am regularly looking for ways to streamline our life, to put the structure in place so I don't have to think as much and put myself into decision fatigue.  It makes life so much easier.

I've been doing just that with the chore routine for the boys.  After a bit of practice for all of us, it becomes the new normal. The older two boys are doing cat litters three times a week, emptying the dishwasher every morning, cleaning the bathroom sink and mirror every Friday, folding / putting away their own laundry, doing regular clean-ups throughout the day, getting the table ready to eat, after-meal clean-up and now after-breakfast chores: Diego clears and wipes the table, then puts the dishes into the dishwasher while Truen sweeps.

After just a few days, it absorbed into their system.  I generally don't even have to remind them and they almost 'whistle while they work'.  It is an especially sweet outcome for me, since both boys turned into dark clouds after I made the initial announcement of their new after-breakfast chores, and then accused by an angst-filled Diego who wailed, "Why are you ruining our lives??"

Right.  I had to turn my face aside and chuckle over that one.  It was so preposterous it wasn't even worth getting mad about.  And that same morning, both of them followed-up with a "That wasn't so bad" and "I actually like putting dishes in the dishwasher / sweeping".  Seriously.

But this post isn't about chores, it is about meatloaf.  Scrumptious, mouth-watering meatloaf.

I lahv meatloaf.

New at our house is "Meatloaf Monday".  It is so simple and such a great kick-off for the week.  I never have to wonder what I'm going to make that night or what I should pull out of the freezer that weekend.  It is already scripted into my weekly routine.

In addition, I've hit the sweet-spot where I don't even need to look at a recipe.  I've got it down pat.  It's my own creation too, grain-free and loaded with vegetables.

MARVELOUS MEATLOAF

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 large onion
• 1-2 carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 4-5 mushrooms
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1-2 cups cooked squash
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp sea salt
• parsley, sage
• pepper
• home-rendered tallow

:: Preheat oven to 350
:: Chop the vegetables and saute them in beef fat, adding the garlic toward the end
:: Put the cooked squash and egg into a large bowl, then beat the egg
:: Once the vegetables are soft and sweet and slightly brown, add it to the bowl along with the meat
:: Add salt, pepper, parsley, sage
:: Mix well, then put back into the 12" cast-iron skillet
:: Bake for 40 minutes

Oooo-la-la, it is amazing.

I love it with baked sweet potatoes, cabbage salad, and a pickle on the side.

The boy-ohs

Eliah (21 months) now says, "Papo!" and points to the top of the refrigerator (where we keep the pacifiers) when he wants one.  He's talking more and more and has recently added, "Throw!", "Wow", and "Uh-oh" to his usual "Dada", "Mama", "Ball", "Bath", "Bye-Bye" repertoire.  He whispers "Toots" or "Bay" and clicks his tongue, holding his hand out for the cats.  We are working on body parts and he can identify his belly button, nipples, teeth, tongue, nose, eyes, ears (most of the time), and his hair.  I usually quiz him during diaper changes just to keep him busy.  I asked him the other day where his hands, feet, and head were (never thinking to have asked before) and sure enough, he knew where they were.  Osmosis.

Jamie (4 years) is currently going through a phase of carrying a notebook with him wherever he goes.  It is the cutest thing.  He like to "write" along the lines, in compact up-and-down scribbles, but he is also writing a few letters - "T", "H", and the cutest "E" with a few too many lines.  He LOVES doing his own "copywork" with his brudders during Morning Lessons.  He is right-handed a holds his pencil like a pro.  He is drawing too - stick people with big heads and long mouths.  The other day he asked for an "ink pencil".  And just yesterday afternoon he set up a little desk at the play table with the toy laptop and a pile of paper.

Truen (7 years) is always busy with little projects - drawing, painting, writing, making books, or building you-name-it with wooden blocks, Duplo blocks, Legos, Magnetix, etc.  He is an absolute self-starter and usually spends a good chunk of the night at the kitchen table at work while his brudders snuggle with Blaine on the couch in front of the television.  He wants to grow his hair out to "keep him warm".  His top-left front tooth is loose and will probably fall out sometime this spring.  He loves to speculate about big ideas like gravity or the heat of the sun.  He recently listened to The Boxcar Children during QT and came downstairs dreamy-eyed and wishing he could live like that.

Diego (9 years) has gotten back into drawing battle scenes.  Bigtime.  He filled the bottom-half of the large sketchbook he got for Christmas the year before last, but realized that most of the top-half of the paper is blank, so he has gotten back into the groove of adding to the action (different levels or ships flying through the sky).  If the house is quiet, he's usually either upstairs playing with Legos or laying on the sunroom floor drawing in his sketchbook.  He's able to make breakfast now: eggs.  I can count on his adept assistance with very little supervision.  Money burns a hole in his pocket and he spends time every day scheming on what Lego sets he (and his brudders) will buy.  He has a clear understanding of the clock, time, and money.

And my other baby, our little Homeschool.  We are in our third official year and I feel like I've learned so much.  We are in a solid routine of daily Morning Lessons with copywork, phonics, read alouds, map-making, etc.  Both boys are reading.  Diego's fluency and reading level are higher than Truen's, which makes sense give his age.  They practice by reading aloud to me every day.  I recently moved our read alouds to breakfast, morning snack, and lunch, which has been an absolute BOON.  I am actually able to get in all of our reading material each week and they are attentive and mostly quiet while I do so.  It is amazing! and it feels so good.  Before this switch, I would say we were definitely floundering.  Or at least I was.  It was hard to bore my way in through the noise and attention levels to get them to sit and listen.  Another addition that feels terrific: reading a longer piece of historical fiction that coincides with our history timeline.  Awesome.  Our most recent novel: Son of Charlemagne.

Pictoral Update

We were gone on our annual winter visit to the Twin Cities the week before last --

First with my friend Laura in Wisonsin, then with my SIL in a TC suburb.

Here are three of 'em readin' with Laura's Plumpy.
Just look at that holey knee: the demise of so many pants.

Everyone loves the fountains at Como Park --
And yes, Diego pulled out a few pennies before I put the kibosh on it.

We were there with my SIL and three of the cousins.

 You would not believe what it took to get this picture --

I had to haul Yi-ya up on my lap and block Jamie from the water behind us. 
Surrounded by boy-ohs.

 Visiting the cousins: I just love cozying up at home with them.

Here are the little guys playing with a favorite cousin upstairs . . .

 While the big guys did Lego battles with another favorite cousin downstairs.

Love them. Best cousins ever.

After a bit we came home, and after some fevers and coughing,

we continue the process of readjusting to "real life".

Just look at these little brothers!

It is amazing what kind of growth happens in less than two years.

 Just last week: I love this action shot in the kitchen --

The morning sun shining, our crowded refrigerator front,

Dishwasher, diapers, boys climbing like monkeys.

Resurfacing

I'm sure you could tell by my recent post that I have been working through what I've come to call a "mothering slump" in recent weeks and months.  Too true.  It has been hard, slogging through the day, feeling like all I do is break up ugly fights and scold young boys.

But then, like the clearing of a summer storm, everything has gotten better in a matter of days.  It seems like everything has worked together in conjunction to refresh my weary spirit.

I went to a friend's house last Friday, someone I really connect with, and hashed through life for seven hours.  Seven hours!  And we still didn't cover everything. So many of my thoughts have very little outlet at this point in life - it was extremely cathartic to talk and talk and talk and talk.

The first term at our little homeschool ended, switching out books, poet, artist, and memory work.  Out with the old: The Princess and the Goblin, The Story of Marco Polo, Emily Dickinson, and Norman Rockwell.  In with the new: The Jungle Book, Langston Hughes, Carl Larsson, and our new poem The First Snowfall.  I am absolutely reinvigorated by our new material.

Another recent change is in our daily schedule.  Blaine just started going to and from work an hour earlier each day.  He is very pleased getting home at 4:30 PM with more sunlight in his day and doesn't mind getting up an hour earlier.  On our end, we are enjoying having him home earlier in the afternoon.  Additionally, in conjunction with the baby sleeping in until almost 8:00 AM (very, very new), it also has allowed me and hour or so in the morning in complete silence and solitude.  Bliss.

Thinking about it, that is perhaps the biggest factor in my recent buoyancy: morning solitude.  I have had it in the past, but not since the birth of baby #4 in May 2014.  A year and a half.  It has been rough.  I have been biding my time, trying to stay optimistic that it will return, but have felt wearier as time wears on.

I am cautiously optimistic, hoping it sticks and won't turn out to be just a short-term anomaly.  I have felt a significant difference in my energy levels and attitude throughout the entire day.  Significant.  That time worth its weight in gold.

To top it all off, the three older boys have broken through the spiraling fights for the time being and have been playing together peacefully, enmeshed in a world of make-believe that keeps them inspired and happy.  Today they were playing house under the stairs; yesterday, it was something akin to "army camp".  What sweetness there is when peace ripples throughout the house.

It never ends, but it never should end

I had an epiphany last week while listening to a podcast.

Organization is a continuous process, not an end-goal.  It is as unrelenting and daily as dishes or laundry.

Mind blown.

Let us not forget

The sweetness

Out-processing

I am finally at the place in my life where I am drug-out, bone-tired by bed-time.  It seems like it used to be "just tired" when it was time for bed - I'm sure I was sleepy, but this?  I am weary.  I'm not sure if that is just where I am at in the mothering journey or if it goes with the territory of being in my late thirties.  I have no idea where anything sits along that line.  Is X a sign or aging of simply the wear-and-tear of mothering?

I have many inspirational ideas for wonderful posts, at least in my mind, where I am able to thoughtfully process through life.  But when I sit down - poof - everything goes up in a puff of smoke.  I don't have one thoughtful thought in me.  Or perhaps it is all submerged.

I've experienced various levels of identity crisis in this mothering journey, the confusion of trying to sort out who I am amongst the duty of life and serving others.  It sounds so dramatic, and perhaps less pressing to those of a different temperament, but it has been a weight on me at times.  I look back to my daybook entries or blog posts, even from early motherhood, and I see a girl who has not yet become - still paddling along as I always had, exploring little nooks and crannies, full of energy,  interest, and fun.

But now? I'm the hag that says, "I'm not going to argue with you, just do it" and "Don't give me that look" or "I'm going to give you a chance to do that again" and "Are you ready to be kind?" or "I'm ready for boys to get the table ready for din-ner" and "Time for before-lunch clean-up!"  And so on.

"Free-time", or even down-time, basically doesn't exist - I always have a long agenda of items that need my attention, from the physical reality surrounding me to paperwork and life records.  I'm not even sure what I would do if I had TRUE "free-time".  Even writing this post makes me feel a little jittery, expecting to be interrupted at any moment.

Am I complaining? I don't think I am even though it may feel like it. (I dislike the feeling of "wallowing" in negativity and I especially detest presenting myself in a negative manner.)  I know I am out-processing reality as I know it.

I feel like a changed person - like a train on my tracks, there is no turning back.  Every year brings new challenges and victories.  I am getting better at the balancing of life (housework, organization, meal planning, schoolwork, household management, etc.) - I know I am - I can see the results around me.  I look back at my past self and see just how much I had to learn.  I'm sure that will be the story until the very end, but it is just so amazing to me.

Lil' Eliza Jane

 A niece!  The sweetest thing.

Born "on Christmas Day in the mor-ning". For realz.

Sweet Eliza Jane, named for my sister.

 Here she is, three days old.

Erik and Ashley are smitten. (Of course!)

I can't stop smiling whenever I see her.

 She was a breech baby until 39 weeks. Un-un-un-un.

Then she was posterior. Un-un-un-un.

Then Ash pushed for 5 hours after laboring on and off for three days. 

UN-UN-UN-UN. (Lil' Eliza's head was at an odd angle.) (She had a tilted conehead.)

In the end Ash feels good about her birth, and I'm so glad.

One week old, lips pursed.

"It is amazing how fast they change." But seriously.

I thought she looked more like Ash this time,

though when she opened her eyes I saw Erik.
I can hardly wait to smooch and snuggle her come March!

2014 Booklist: Completed

• Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles : Winning for a Lifetime - Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
• Better Late than Early: A New Approach to Your Child's Education - Moore & Moore
• The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children - Ross W. Greene
• Emily Dickinson: An Interpretive Biography - Thomas H. Johnson
• Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates - Patrick Leigh Fermor (first chapter only, would like to read in full)
• The Way of Boys: Promoting the Social and Emotional Development of Young Boys - Anthony Rao
• Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and Whole-Foods Lifestyle - Diane Sanfilippo
• Nurture by Nature: Understand Your Child's Personality Type - And Become a Better Parent - Tieger & Barron-Tieger
• The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-to-Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle - Jennifer McGruther
• MotherStyles: Using Personality Type to Discover Your Parenting Strengths - Janet Penley
• Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences - Leonard Sax
• A Woman's Journey Round the World - Ida Laura Pfeiffer (audio) (half-done)
• The Elliott Homestead: From Scratch: Traditional, whole-foods dishes for easy, everyday meals - Shaye Elliot
• Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child - Anthony Esolen
• Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (audio)
• A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (audio)
• Coriolanus - William Shakespeare (audio)
• Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men - Leonard Sax
• Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne (audio)
• Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry - Katrina Kenison
• The Heart of Learning - Lawrence Williams
• The Call to Brilliance - Resa Steindel Brown (skimmed)
• Take My Advice: Letters to the Next Generation from People Who Know a Thing or Two - James L. Harmon
• Family Feasts for $75 a Week - Mary Ostyn
• The Sane Mother's Guide to Raising a Large Family - Mary Ostyn
• Mary Poppins - P.L. Travers (audio)
• Fed Up with Frenzy: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World - Susan Sachs Lipman
• The Stay-at-Home Survival Guide: Field-Tested Strategies for Staying Smart, Sane, and Connected While Caring for Your Kids - Melissa Stanton
• The Cat of Bubastes - G.A. Henty (audio)

First time skiing this season

The boys are super-pumped to ski this year --

We've only had one prime weekend thus far this season

(back at the end of November), but they skied both days. 

 Getting Jamie's skis on is a two-man operation.

Holy smokes.

 Diego and Truen were already outside for awhile before

we were able to wrestle Jamie's skis on.

(See our native grass & flowers along the driveway?

Beautiful summer & winter, awesome snow-block.)

 Blaine said that all the boys have improved from last year.

Jamie is strong and amazingly coordinated

with little patience for messing up, though more he had than last year.

I watched him successfully turn around with his skis on, stepping carefully.

Amazing.

 Diego flails all over the place --

super-enthusiastic and loving it,

but not much interested in besting it.

(I have no doubt this would have been me too.)

Truen is slower and more interested in working at it.

He also loves squatting down and sliding along close to the ground.

(The red "belt" came about after we pulled the coat out and realized the zipper was missing.)

E-yi-ya

 Remember this guy...?

Two weeks old

June 2013

Curly-headed Eliah Len 

18 months old

December 2014

 Painting like one of the brudders --

He absolutely insisted on it.

Funny how life changes: I never even considered him,

whereas I'm sure I had Truen painting long before this.

He's still such a baby to me.

Running up our driveway last weekend --

This year it has been "November in December"

and "December in November" in terms of snow and temps.

Just a'nudder brudder

 E-yi-ya likes to do whatever his brudders are doing.

In this case, a morning snack.

 The "Cheetah Game", where they strip down to their skivies and run amok --

Honestly, I don't even know what this game is even when I pay attention.

It looks like a lot of running and rolling all around.

 Masks with Jamie

The felted fox was made by my SIL - the cutest!

Another morning snack during Morning Lessons --

I've got to keep the little guys busy while the big'uns do their schoolwork.

Pan :: Pancake :: Pantsy :: That Lil' Rascal

Our Jamie is almost 4 years old.  How did that happen??  He's been saying the funniest things recently.  Little tidbits that make me drop everything and run for a pen ASAP.

:: "Mama, there's a lot of dragonflies in our town . . . in our universe . . . in our Minnesoter."

~ Sitting on the sunny front walk in September, with peanut butter smeared all over his face, watching the dragonflies zoom over the driveway.

:: "This is one of the rarest things I've ever seens."

~ Showing Blaine Diego's 'Monster Fighters' Lego set.  "Rare" being a very common description these days with our fellas.  Mostly about Lego pieces.

:: "I'm not hungry anymore . . . I ate my cat food."

~ After a recent and unfortunate trend in consuming cat food.  Blaine had just found him eating handfuls of it.

:::

Jamie (with dramatic sadness): "Mama, Gramma said I couldn't wash dishes when we were butchering"

Mama (with tenderness): "Oh yeah...?"

Jamie (even more dramatic, doe-eyed and pouty-lipped): "Yeah.  I almost went outside to get helded."

Mama (melting heart): "Oh . . . it must have scared you?  So that you needed to get helded?"

Jamie (resigned): "Yeah.  And I really wanted to wash dishes."

~ A morning a week or so after butchering.  Blaine's mom was holding down the fort inside, including managing the hot water and caring for Jamie and the baby.  Washing dishes just wasn't in the cards that day.

:::

Jamie: "I love looking at the snow, Mama."

Mama (gooey heart): "Me too."

Jamie: "Tim is nasty, Mama."

Mama: "Tim is nasty??  Why?"

Jamie: "Because of all the snow on the road that he blends down!"

~ Our neighbor Tim faithfully plows our driveway every winter.  "The road" = our driveway.  We already have a thick blanket of snow for the season.  Un-un-un-un.

Gutting the toy mess

It is snowing today, with wicked winds from the north.  We were gone this past weekend in the Twin Cities and Wisconsin, visiting our SIL & kids and Blaine's grandparents.  It felt good to be together, away from the feelings of pressure to "get something done" at home.  We laughed, nuzzled, talked, connected, cried a bit (just me), and enjoyed everyone's company.

Things on the home front are feeling more ordered.  The boyz and I are thriving under the newly implemented structure of Morning Chores and Morning Lessons; this combined with my cut-throat attack on the play table and the space afforded by our new bookshelf, things are feeling mighty fine.  Instead of feeling whipped around in the swirling eddies of chaos, I feel strong, like I have a handle on our time and space.

It is so interesting to me, how narrow my focus in life has become.  As a homeschooling mother, my world is confined within these four walls.  All of my mental, physical, and emotional energy is used to maintain our household, keep us clean and fed, and cultivate our children.  I am fascinated by the fact that while what I am doing is not at all what I would have ever expected to "be" "when I grew up", I am completely satisfied and extremely engaged by it.  Expectations formed by cultural undercurrents are not at all what I have found life to be; or at least, not what I have found satisfying in my own life.

In regards to the TOY MESS.  I'm fairly certain I have removed 75-80% of the glut.  I have gone through everything 4-5 times now, sifting and gathering, sorting and shifting.  I was completely heartless and got rid of more than just mismatched riffraff and plastic toy bits.  I gathered many different sets that don't get played with or fall into the "too much of a good thing" category.  Do we honestly need so many toy instruments?  Or two sets of Melissa and Doug toy food?  18 billion plastic farm animals?  Three zillion toy trucks?  No.

 What we've been living with for the last two years

All the sifted toys are sitting in boxes in the basement, mostly sorted.  The next step is to go through everything and finish bagging up the various sets.  I keep finding more pockets of hidden toys throughout the house and I refuse to laden our small-town thrift store with a mismatched blow-out.  We have all the pieces (or most of them) and I want to keep them together for the next person.

But the most amazing thing by far is that NOBODY MISSES THE TOYS.  Diego has commented on how nice it is to have less to clean up.  Jamie and Eliah, who have never had the chance to play at the play table in their entire little lives, are making full-use of the space.  It's like an entirely new world opened up for them.  Even Diego and Truen have been playing on or around the table.

I've kept select vehicles (trucks, tanks, tractors, boats, airplanes), all the action figures, the best of the musical instruments, the wooden food set, the Imaginext dinosaur set, select stuffed animals, a few inside balls, the two little "car" riders, the doll house, hospital and parking garage.  Everything else is getting the boot.

[This is such a laugh, because we still have our wooden block set, the Duplo blocks, Magnetix, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, all the costumes, and the multitude of Legos (sets and miscellany).  These toys are all stored on various shelves and qualify in the "use, then put away" category.  We still have SO many toys.]

 In process

It looks cleaner, there is less to clean up, toys are actually getting use played with, with more space to play in, etc., etc., etc.  I could gush for hours.  Less is really more.  And I am going to be vigilant about it from now on.  I refuse to be swallowed by a toy mess that has taken a life of its own, ever again.  Less is more.  Less is more!

It has also taken me down the path of reexamining all areas of our household.  Our book collection, the holiday closet, other areas of storage.  I am done with sentimental ties holding me down to stuff.  Some of it I will keep, but the days of accumulation are done.

The Semi-annual Pumpkin Picture

 

My two favorite shots - #18 and #31.  Blaine went bananas behind me to keep their attention while I snapped away (thank goodness it wasn't another 2012).  Often the very first picture is the very best, but not this year.

We didn't carve pumpkins last year.  I can't remember exactly why, though I think it may have been the combo of new baby and no pumpkins from our garden.  Or maybe it was too cold?  Or could it have been that we were too upset about my BIL's cancer?  I honestly have no memory.  I don't even remember being sad about it.

This year Diego and Truen carved their own pumpkins.  In typical fashion, Diego imploded and stomped off all upset in angst and sheer disappointment, as carving was harder-than-it-looked and things-weren't-perfect, while Truen patiently worked toward the end goal without a hitch.  Jamie wanted a "mad-looking" pumpkin and Eliah was just happy to mingle.  The feathers strewn around are the remnants of butchering from the previous weekend.

Years' past for all our viewing pleasure:  

2012

2011

2009

2008

Like the crack of the whip, I snap attack

I am on a major reorganization and de-cluttering binge.  MAJOR.  I have had enough. 

Let me count the ways:

• Sorted through sock and undies drawers, the pajama drawer: match, storage, thrift
• Cleaned the wooden shelf formerly in storage in our quonset (gutted from Blaine's parents' kitchen after their remodel), brought to the basement, organized ALL boy shoes, sandals, mud boots, snow boots by like-kind and size.
• Vacuumed, sanded, painted the exterior, then cleaned the innards of a gargantuan bookshelf, again, formerly in storage in our quonset (and a library shelf from the old-old library in Small Town, MN, the nostalgia).  This sucker is is probably 8-9 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide, solid wood.  Un-un-un-un.  It comes inside to electrify our book organization this weekend.  I can't imagine ever needing another bookshelf (if we keep our collection within reason).
• Started sorting through the DUMPSTER we call our play table.  Goal: to get rid of 75-80% of our toy collection.  It will be a many day process: my plan is to sift, sort, toss, organize, then haul the excess to the thrift.  I already have two gigantic boxes filled to the brim.  Vengeance is mine.
• ATTACK the mess in the upstairs storage room (ebay, mending pile, seasonal clothing): buy a new shelving unit, sort, organize, put away.
• Clear the MESS atop my dresser (in disarray from the last disaster, i.e. "Don't climb the dresser drawers", otherwise known as, "Jamieeee!  Ohhhhhh nooooooo!" in slo-mo, already at least a year ago).  The days of pretty display are done: this is survival.  Sort, put away for future intrigue.  Leave out a few necklaces and earrings.
• Start getting ruthless with my clothing glut.  If it doesn't fit right, get right of it.  If I don't really like it, get rid of it.  Sort by season and store in the off-season (I already started this last year).

Much of my inspiration was fueled by the deep-clean on our kitchen last June done by my mom and myself.  It was so refreshing and I have been reveling in it these many months.  Thanks, Muver.

Listening to a podcast from The Art of Simple last month kicked things into high gear.  I am on a crusade.  It's time to get radical.

She sings; she reads; she loses her temper

The mother is a world of great mystery.  She loves; she does all kinds of interesting things throughout the house; she sings; she reads; she loses her temper; she may be as peaceful as a summer evening or a whirlwind of fury.  But she is always the mother, and her love for her children, even when it is shot through all the flaws of her character, will be a human love.  It may be far from perfect.  [But it will be something real.]

~Anthony Esolen
Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

This description struck me when I read it.  It is within the context of his "recommendation" to put all children in full-time daycare, to replace the mother-child relationship with a worker-client relationship, written in extremity and entirely tongue-in-cheek, of course.

The picture he paints resonated on a deep level with me.  I love the romance and reality all rolled into one.  A mother, as peaceful as a summer evening or a whirlwind of fury.  Yes.  I've been there.

This book was an amusing and thought-provoking read.  He presents sound observations on life and culture that are worth contemplation; within the realm of growing children, definitely, but more expansively, on the needs and desires of the human soul.