Right Appendage and Running the Halls

This is the last week before I have surgery on my peroneal brevis and peroneal longus tendons in my right ankle and foot a week from Thursday. I am not allowed to take any over the counter anti-inflammatories this whole week, so I'm going to be in a bit of pain. It'll be me and the ice pack hanging out on the sofa with my foot elevated -- a lot. It'll be good practice for the stupid amount of pain I'll be in when my foot swells up to the size of a basketball post surgery. Dr. Google sucks for things like this. Yes, I know what to expect, but I'm really not looking forward to the first week or so post surgery. I did, however, drop off the prescription for seven days worth of pain pills at the pharmacy today.

The rule is, and I promised my soul to Dr. Kluesner that I wouldn't break it, is that for two weeks, my foot is to be elevated above my heart except 1) when I go to the bathroom, 2) when I go to take a shower and 3) when I'm in the car going to my post operative appointments. So, I'll be stranded in my basement for two weeks. If you want to come on over and watch some TV with me or chat, feel free. We'll be in the pet-free, kid-free basement, which will be like my own private apartment until I'm off of crutches, which will be at least 4 1/2 weeks after the surgery. (4 days with a splint, 2 weeks in first hard cast, then suture removal and then 2 more weeks in another hard cast, followed by an air cast -- which I may or may not be able to stumble around in, it depends on the healing.)

But I'm kind of excited and -- dare I write it -- hopeful. Will this surgery finally end the 16-month ordeal? I mean, I can't even call it "the broken foot 2012" because it spilled over into a two-year period.

But I am also very nervous. Going into surgery is a bit like having to hire a lawyer. You always feel like you're in deep doo doo when you have to use their services.

On the other hand, it means I'm probably 97-ish days from getting in a running shoe again and maybe actually running (very slowly with lots of intervals). And holy cow have I missed that hour. Walking, though I like that alone time, just doesn't get the chemical rush in the brain that running does.

Plus, X-man has picked up a bit of the running bug lately. His favorite times to run are a) when he's having a squirt gun fight or b) when he sees striped carpets. (No lie!)

I bought new hallway rugs from Amazon.com last week. They're long and striped and cover the hardwood floor on our second floor. As soon as I got them in place, X-man started sprinting up and down the hallway between his bathroom and our bedroom.

Yesterday, while I was getting dressed for my Library Board meeting, X-man ran up and down the hall four times. After the fourth time, he pumped his fist in the air and said, "Yeah! I did it!"

My kid doesn't wear a watch, so he wasn't worried about time. I wanted to ask what he was celebrating, because it probably comes with some bit of enlightenment like, "I out ran a bear!", but I didn't want to ruin the moment with my stupid questions.

Let's see if he's as excited about running the 3k at school on Sept. 22nd. Last year they offered a 1k for kindergarteners and first graders, so he might decide to stay with his own age group, particularly since he did pretty okay in the standings among little people. Mostly, I just want him to enjoy the running and give a crap about the times. But that took me until I was injured to really understand, so you know, he's got 30 more years to "get" that lesson.

Roots and Recycling

Country Arbors came today and planted our two new Kentucky Coffee Trees. After watching Gingko 12" saplings try to grow for five years with very minimal success (they were 18"), I was very happy to have them. Plus, with the maple borer working it's way through the neighborhood, I was happy not to have chosen a Maple. The maple in the back is taking enough of a pounding. Poor thing.

I left as they were starting to hand dig the holes. I had to pick up the book drop for Tolono Public Library and then I had a series of stops to get rid of kid crap. The first was to go pick up a coat tree that I bought and used with my Clownfish classroom last year. It's a beautiful coat tree, but I don't have much use for it at home, and I'm not going to use it in California. So I took it and X-man's Melissa and Doug kitchen that he got for his third birthday to All Things Kids in Champaign. I hadn't been there in well over a year. (The last time I was there, I was reselling the Haba push car that X-man learned to walk on. I held on to it because I was being all emotional about it. Plus, I took his diaper changer.) As it turns out, I had over $100 on my account. I always figured if something sold they'd send me a check after 60 days or something, I guess I must have shopped there more back in the day and never really got sent a check because I'd recycle my credit into new purchases. After failing to sell three things on Craigslist, I just decided the drop off method worked a lot better for me.

But if you're looking for one of these things, I dropped them off today. They're in good condition, too. Except the timer on the kitchen was broken from so much use.

Because we're getting new carpet in the basement, we needed some space in the storage room to move the basement furniture for tomorrow. KTDID came over last night and went through some boxes that have been in our house since she lived here. As it turns out, she had a lot of paper shredding to do -- and I realized that I hadn't been keeping up on my own shredding of financial documents, so she and I sat on the floor of the storage room last night shredding and shredding. 7 full dumps of a giant shredder later, we were done. She managed to get her stuff from 8 boxes to 4, and I managed to keep my financial records in a decent filing situation (each year is in a plastic tub that is labeled and on the metal shelves).

But the garbage guy probably hated me this morning. Because we had our three blue bins full (because we didn't put out garbage last week before we went to Maine), our office paper bucket next to my desk was out, a box full of papers that didn't need to be shredded was out and then the six bags of shred. And we had a full garbage can from cleaning out the basement.

Positively Trying

I've been feeling like I'm taking one step forward and two steps back when it comes to various life issues lately. It's nothing major. It's little stuff and it's annoying.

For example, while we were gone an e-mail came out from school about after school clubs. X-man sees the Mathman on Wednesdays in September and if he likes it, he'll continue. On Thursdays he sees his behavioral therapist to work on his anxiety issues. He knew they had clubs last year but didn't want to really be a part of any of them. But he asked about them this year (mostly he wanted to know if there would be an at-school Lego club, because he found out they have them in California). When the e-mail came out, it announced that clubs were available for children in first through fifth grade.

They had some copy troubles at school, so the parent organizer said we could request a permission slip via e-mail, if they didn't come home in folders on Friday. Since we were gone, I just went ahead and asked for an electronic version for the American Sign Language Class. The permission slip came via e-mail -- and it turned out that there was an error and the club was the only one NOT available to first graders. Now I have a sad panda on my hands, because he wanted to learn to communicate better with the kids at his school. I told him I'd get a book at the library and we'd learn a bit of sign language together. And I totally understand the teacher's concern that first grader's aren't great spellers yet, so it makes it hard to teach children the alphabet to sign and then how to spell words. So I'm not frustrated.

It's just that we seem to come up with this kind of thing a lot, where I do some research on something, get the information, tell X-man what I think the right information is and then when it turns out there's been some kind of typo or mistake on the other end, and then I have to do a lot of work rebuilding his confidence and convincing him that the world is not against him because something didn't work out that he was excited about. And I get that it's annoying, when say, a camp counselor calls your mother and tells her what group you'll be in the next morning and with what counselor, but then you show up and the information is totally wrong, because there were two X-men at the camp and they read the wrong line when they called.

It's just the way life is. People make mistakes. But to a six-year-old with an anxiety issue, it's a mess. Sometimes I wonder if this is why I'm so particular about certain things. Did I used to get this bent out of shape when I was a kid and that's why I have plan A through M for everything? Just so that I could get used to the disappointment and them make lemonade 13 different ways to keep a positive outlook so that I don't become an Eeyore?

Speaking of positive planning, I have two more exciting things happening this week to the house. We're getting new basement carpeting and new carpeting in the upstairs guest room. The two new Kentucky Coffee Trees that I ordered come to get planted on Tuesday.

Motivation

So, after the awesome walk this morning, I came home and did what I told SuperShanna I was going to do today, which was clean out the garage. Normally, we have a SWAP in the fall and a SWAP in the spring, but with everything going on in everyone's lives lately and the departure of some friends, that tradition has come to an end.

It used to be my motivation to clean out my garage.

But today, it was just the need to clean. If you haven't met me, I'm not a clean freak. I'm not a germaphobe, but holy cow do I like the donating, selling and throwing things out part of household organization. Less is more. I live with two boys who like to rat pack things, so it takes some work to declutter sometimes.

I should have taken before photos, but it was too gross. You don't want to know how much mouse poop and dead bugs I swept up today.

But here are the after photos. And I'm pretty happy with it. (Now to start on the basement storage room, as soon as the garbage comes and empties out our blue waste bin tomorrow.)

Knock Out Roses

So this was what my garden looked like at the beginning of the week. Can you see the two rose bushes toward the front of the photo? No? How about the vegetable cages toward the back? No? Really. I'm shocked. :-)

The First step was weeding. I bet now you can see the two rose bushes up front AND the vegetable cages in the back. Unfortunately, the vegetable cages were pretty much just holding up weeds. Only three of the eight pepper plants that I put in survived the crappy drought, because I just stopped taking care of them. The newer rose bushes are going to be more lively, but you know... we do what we can. Except the ground was so hard, I couldn't dig holes. So I had to soak the ground for three hours in order to get the suckers in.

And here they are, all happily planted. You'll also notice that I moved the vegetables. I transplanted the three surviving plants with baby peppers on them. We'll see if they survive. If not -- oh well. Lily isn't helping either. I found her eating one of the bushes today! So, I'll have to put a protective fence up that the Supers left me when they moved. The roses were on sale at Prairie Gardens for $13.97 each.

Okay, I lied. I left one red bell pepper plant in the back corner, figuring when it was done, I'd just yank it up and be done with it. But it looks MUCH better than the first photo, and now with all the rain we got today, the yard is looking quite green, too.

Warming Up to School

X-man has had a hard week at camp. Apparently Savoy is one of the few places having summer camp this last week before school starts and the place is FULL. So full, that X-man's having to fend for himself and he's having a hard time of it.

Every day I get stories about other kids who make him the bad guy and chase him. Boys who won't stop when he asks them, too. Incidents where he's got so carried away playing that he's hurt someone. Or when he tried to use his words and got so frustrated that he's pulled someone's hair. It makes me feel totally awesome when I pick him up and he's crying every single day.

We go over the plan on what he should do every day in these instances, but he is frustrated that in the heat of the moment he can't control his impulses. He's a wreck.

This morning we had headed over to Carrie Busey to check out the teacher list. X-man has the two new teachers that are going to share the first grade classroom. In all honesty, though, it took me 45 minutes to convince him that it was okay to just walk into the doors of the school to see the class lists. He was dead set against it. The idea of a new building was scaring him. Between the events at camp and the reaction to school, it made me nervous. Last year he made a couple friends but he did best with them one on one. In a group, he was always crying and had a hard time figuring out how to negotiate play, until he started crying. And then some kids would just walk away and refuse to play with him, and other would start to make fun of him to call him a cry baby. Sometimes this was because he was trying to get them to play his game, his way -- and I've done enough of that to know it's impossible because he's always changing the rules and story line on you (the six year old development book says this is very normal, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating). Other times, kids were being manipulative and telling him that he wasn't their friend any more if he didn't do something their way. And -- because he wanted to belong -- he'd go along, even if he knew it was a bad idea.

So, I'm hoping this year doesn't have 12 weeks of hell before it finally gets better -- socially. Academically he does okay. He's not the brightest but he works hard and he really likes math, but hates handwriting. He's also ferociously interested in everything science-related.

I e-mailed Mr. Scott, the principal today, because he'd mentioned when X-man started behavioral therapy with Dr. April last spring that maybe he'd like to come and check out where his room would be. I saw that there was a note sent home that said this might not happen. So, I let him know if it was too early, that I understood.

In true Mr. Scott fashion, he e-mailed right away and gave me a 4 p.m. time slot. I got X-man out of camp early and drove him over to the school. He was all tied up in knots about going in. But once he got in, he was enthralled. He was checking out all the basketball hoops in the gym, and the moveable door between the gym and the cafeteria. He saw Mrs. Kloth's art room and complimented her on all her new pictures.  Mrs. Burt's room has a cool circle built into the carpeting that he found convenient.

Mr. Scott pointed out all the wireless routers in the rooms and library, and X-man went around and pointed all of the routers he could find around each of the rooms. He saw a kindergarten classroom and then he got down to the first grade and he was every so excited to meet both of his teachers, see where his backpack will hang up and meet the other first grade teachers. Each classroom has moveable walls and purple doorways that he found very fun.

He got to see the bathrooms and where Mr. Scott and Mrs. Magrini's office. And when we left, he was a pretty happy camper. So hooray.

In other news, we went to X-man's swim lesson at the Y. Ms. Ellen tried to give him a "swim test" for the water slide without him knowing it. But X-man totally figured it out. He treaded in the deep water for 10 seconds, but once she threw the duck down the lane pool for him to fetch. He refused. Even though he could swim the shorter part of the pool no problem.

They also had the Crocodile in the pool! We hadn't seen it since we toured the place before they officially opened. X-man and our neighbor Sam I Am ended up playing and climbing everywhere. We're trying two new Parents' Night Out programs this fall, because, sadly, the ones at Savoy Rec keep getting canceled due to lack of participation. So we're trying one at the tennis center in October and one in October and November at the Y. We'll see if X-man likes them. They're a little shorter than Savoy, but similar in structure.

I worked on developing a rose garden in the backyard yesterday and today. I had planted two bushes earlier in the summer before the drought next to where the peppers were supposed to be. But then crap happened with Maya and travel and I didn't get out there to care for them like I should have. So I had 4' tall weeds and 15" tall pepper plants. :-(

I transported the three out of the eight that survived and then tried to dig holes for the rose plants. The ground was too hard, so I left the sprinkler on for three hours this morning, and finally the clay was loose enough for me to dig. Then I filed the hole with topsoil.

It was a lot of work, but the bushes look good. And I promise to water them to to keep them alive.

Digging in the dirt

I'm loving this cool weather. I set up the sprinklers today so it would wet the ground enough that I could pull all the 3-foot tall weeds out of the garden. I got halfway done with the front yard. My goal is to finish the front gardens and then start on the backs, which are way worse than the front.

Since they were doing the patio, I haven't been able to get back there at all. I'm lucky I've been able to pluck anything from my gardens and I've pretty much written off this year for produce. Sigh.

Today, MacTroll and I are going to go to the movies to see Hope Springs. LL said it reminded her of Hope Floats. I'm not sure I ever saw that movie, but for some silly reason I can remember who stared in it.

Tonight, I'm making a Cherry Tomato and Yellow Squash Crumble. The boys are going to BBQ chicken to go with theirs. But for me, it's the main course.

I'll post the recipe if it goes well.

Tree of Life

The birch tree that MacTroll and I picked out at Country Arbours got planted today. It's in the garden that we tried growing blueberry bushes in, but to no avail thanks to the bunnies. I think it looks very cute and happy, which is nice because the ashes of Riley and Looseyfur are there. We'd been waiting to make some improvements on the garden before spreading Nyssa's ashes there. So I think we'll get a chance this weekend. I just need to pick up one more Sedum and one more Liatris to plant on the south side around the tree and it'll look symmetrical. 

Since the Super Neighbors have put their house up for sale they've been getting a lot of viewing traffic, so their dog, Super Coop has been coming over to our house. My guess is that they will have accepted an offer by the weekend (they've had a lot of families come for more than one visit). I've noticed a lot of houses in the hood have gone quickly this summer, my guess is that it's due to being in a Proximity A school neighborhood. This gives me hope for next spring. But it was also very cute to watch my black dog (looking very chocolatey in the sun) get some tug time with a very blonde dog.

X-man has a playdate at our house today from 1-4. So I'm hoping to get in some bush trimming, weeding and grass trimming while he's entertained. So far this summer he's been unimpressed by the amount of "Mommy Work" I get done during the day. And I'm apparently ruining his life by not playing with him every moment of the 14 hours that he's awake.

Oh the drama! ;-P

It's Coming Together!

MacTroll and I headed out to Country Arbours on Saturday after dropping of X-man with my dad for their canoeing weekend in Starved Rock. (Well, actually they were canoeing at Rock Cut in Rockford, but it was an in-between place to do the exchange.)

We bought a birch tree that is going to be planted in our front yard on June 6. My dreams of having blueberries in that garden died when the bunnies decided to eat them all winter for three years in a row. :-)

We also replaced the Corlus bush and the dead hydrangea bush. And all the stuff is off the deck for the guys to come smash it up and fix it while we're in D.C. this week. Super Shanna is keeping an eye on the house for us, so she can turn the air conditioning off and on while they take it off and get rid of it and then pour the new concrete.

At least that's what's supposed to happen.

If it doesn't, we'll be contacting our lawyer. And, even though I have loved a lot of people who have become lawyers in my life, I hate having to deal with them in any actual real official capacity.

We'll be leaving the door to the basement propped open so that the cats can go down there to cool down. And I think I'll move Sally Ride down to the basement bedroom, so she's chill too. She is still maintaining her private suite. And I think she likes it that way. KTDID might have a friend interested in adopting her. If not, she'll go to CATSNAP sometime next week.

I also turned the basement closet under the stairs into X-man's dress up closet. I hung some 3M hooks on the walls to hang up all of his cool dress up hats. And there's a giant Rubbermaid box down there with all of his dress up outfits.

The beds are stripped. MacTroll and I had "clean sheet night" last night (which if you have animals, you understand). And X-man's are about to go into the washer.

My goal for this summer, and I know some of you who are super readers will laugh at this, is to read a book a week that is not a book I'm reading for my child. It's also to read the books I have on my bookshelves that I have never read before so that I can decide if we'll move with them, or if I should donate them to the library for them to sell.

This morning the puppy got us up in a crazed state. She needed dog time. So, we took her over to the dog park. She's transitioned from wrestle play to wanting to fetch tennis balls the entire time we're there. This is an interesting situation because Riley NEVER liked balls. He hated all things spherical. He did love fetching sticks out of lakes though. Part of me wants to take her over to the Colbert Lake and see how she does in the water. I'll need to be armed with a bunch of treats though, so she doesn't go far. Also unlike Riley, she is entirely food motivated.

Tomorrow is X-man's last hour and 15 minutes of kindergarten. I'm meeting Quigs for breakfast at Panera after we drop him off. Then, we're taking my car in for an oil change. Exciting stuff.

My hope is to take X-man to Sholem that afternoon as a family to celebrate summer. I even stopped by Target last night to arm my whiter than white husband and child with 50+ sunblock.

Then on Wednesday, we get up early and head to our first summer vacation in D.C./Baltimore-area.

Back and forth, back and forth

There are times when I wonder if my mind is going.

There are times when I wonder if my mind is going because I'm old.

There are times when I wonder if my mind is going because I'm too busy.

There are times when I wonder if my mind is going because I'm borderline anemic.

Any which way, it's totally going.

When we took Clawdio to the vet the other day, I forgot my wallet and got "all the way back to Savoy" when they called and I headed back up north again to retrieve it.

I stole a sweat towel from The Fitness Center on Monday and had to return it on Wednesday, but I totally forgot my water bottle. 

Today, my five year old decided he was too -- 5 years old - to put on his shoes for t-ball, so he decided he'd put them on in the car. Of course, he grabbed his glove and ran out to the car leaving me with the simple job of picking up his shoes and carrying them to the car. Yeah, I got one of his tennis shoes and one of mine. When did I notice? When we got to t-ball. So "all the way back to Savoy" we went to fetch the other shoe.

Shit like this happens to me all the freaking time. And it drives me insane.

On a good note, Concrete Evolutions started on our patio today in the backyard. They moved the hot tub, took up the old one (which was crumbling apart because MJE did a crappy job on it 4 years ago) and getting it ready to start pouring -- hopefully, tomorrow -- if it doesn't rain.

House Ownership is Overrated

Last week MacTroll mowed the lawn. I'm not sure what happened, but apparently he got into a fight with our steel mailbox and ripped the safety cover off of the mower. Since they make those covers plastic now it couldn't be repaired and our decade old mower wasn't easy to find replacement covers for. So MacTroll "fixed" it.

Similar to the time in college when he decided he could put off spending money on a new exhaust pipe and muffler, MacTroll's "fixing" went directly to tape. In college, he used duct tape. With the mower, he decided to use packing tape. So when I went out at 10:15 a.m. to mow, I saw the fix sighed and primed the engine. I got 8 passes before -- you guessed it -- the tape fell off and exposed the blades.

At which point, I pushed the mower into the garage and sent MacTroll out to do his favorite kind of fixing -- buying something new. He asked if I had any requests, and I said that the mower could not be self-propelled. Apparently, asking for a mower that you still REALLY have to push is a bit like asking for a cellphone without a camera or a keyboard. They don't really exist.

MacTroll came back with the one mower he could find, prepared it and then set off and finished the front and back yards. I continued to weed and mulch until, around 2 p.m., I wore holes through the fingers of the garden gloves I bought in May. Then, X-man and I headed to Wally Mart to pick up some annuals to fill in where all the dead tulips we just pulled used to reside. X-man helped me dig the holes to plant the flowers and then he watered them (his favorite part).

After we were all done, we played a couple innings of baseball in the backyard. Riley managed to come out a couple of times to supervise the yard work from the shade before he went back inside to snooze. We got a couple tail wags out of him today, and he ate some treats.

Now I'm lying in bed and I can totally feel the sunburn on my shoulders (Oops, probably should have reapplied the sunblock.) I'm about to wander into the shower. Tonight after dinner (I'm making scallops with bacon and spinach) I'm going to go for a run in my new shoes and over the counter inserts to see how my foot feels.

Then I need to clean up the freaking inside of my house. How lame is that? Six hours of housework and there's still the whole inside left to go...

Weeds: Televised and Reality

I love rainy mornings. On rainy mornings my child sleeps forever. This morning he slept until 9 a.m. That's insane. He usually wakes up at 7:15 a.m. He was asleep so long that I got to finish the Netflix DVD of Season 6 of Weeds that's been at my house for 10 days or so. I know others keep theirs for months, but seeing it on my nightstand every night was driving me nuts.

Then the rain went away and I went out and weeded the garden for three hours and did some mulching on the east end of the house. It was toad mania: Tiny toads, fat toads, green toads, spotted toads, brown toads.

I looked down into the window well to the basement and indeed, there were 9 toads hopping around, so MacTroll went into the grate and handed the toads up to X-man and I who put them over by the fence to jump away. Sadly, we still have a bunch of mulch to do, but it's a pretty pleasant job to do after 7 p.m. these days.

Update on the foot: I ran for 25 minutes tonight. Well, I ran and walked, per the PT's direction. It was totally do able, but I don't usually run at the end of the day, so my energy was way down. I was out of breath from not really doing non-cycling or non-walking cardio for pretty much the last month, and it was 30 degrees warmer than the last time I ran. So, you know, it sucked. :-) But at the same time, I was happy to be out there. Maybe next time I'll get to do it in the a.m.

Life and Death

Today MacTroll and I accomplished something we've been meaning to do since we moved here.

We found ceramic hose holders because those lame plastic ones are always breaking and leaking. I indulged and got a new sprayer, too. This one works like a firefighter's nozzle. X-man spent the 96 degree day in the backyard pretending to put out fires. It worked out pretty well.

As I type this, MacTroll is trying to sleep on the couch downstairs. Riley was pretty good all day after waking me up every hour on the hour to eat grass last night. Apparently, when he does this for MacTroll, he just let's him stay outside and sleeps on the couch until the dog wants to come in (which could be an hour or more).

To me, I can't not call him back in. When he's just sitting outside, I think, "Is this the part in the nature movie where the animal wanders outside to die?"

When that happens, I don't want him to be alone. I keep pilling him and feeding him and taking him for an ever so slow walk around the block once a day.

But I know with this kind of cancer, if his spleen ruptures, it'll be over quickly. It's also weird that as I prepare my son for the inevitability, I can't look at my dog and tell him that I love him and say goodbye, yet. I keep hoping he'll be like Clawdio and come up with another life somehow. Because there's no good reason that cat should still be around... but he is.

Tomorrow's the day to make sure I get a good chat in with the dog. He'll give me that look like I'm an idiot similar to when I used to hold the phone up to his ear and MacTroll was on the other side saying hello, I know. But at the same time, I don't want to miss the moment.

Does that make any sense?

How much work is it to compost?

About two years ago, I started eyeing some giant fancy composting bin in Gardener's Supply Catalog. I never purchased it because it came, even on sale, with a large price tag.

Last week I went over to my friend Ms. Awesome's house to check out her set up. Her family of four uses some upcycled tumblers in their yard. There are two bins that are fairly large that they put all their scraps into. Ms. Awesome went over the rules (no bones, no pits, no weeds, etc.). Then she showed me how it tumbled and vented and talked about how it took a few months to get compost from them. It was a large system, and I know that if we had trees that had leaves or if we had a few more people at the house besides X-man and me (MacTroll doesn't really eat a lot of fruits or vegetables on his own) it would be a good system. Of course, I might need to improve my upper body strength because by the time one of those suckers got half full, I'd get a work out trying to tumble it. It was nice that the tumblers were sealed tight against possible pests, though.

Then I went over to Ms. Amazing's house where Mr. Amazing showed me his red worm compost set up. He started about 4 months ago and has proven to be really successful at it. His worm casings (i.e. compost) were beautiful. But holy cow, they're like pets. In order to get some really sublime compost, you have to grind down a lot of what you give to them. There's a temperature control situation, standards for venting the worms so they stay happy, which means you would need to keep the worms in the house (likely the storage room in our basement). There's also a mite issue that you have to look out for. And again, there are rules. No meat. No dairy. No citrus. Dry your egg shells...

I can't have a heap in my yard because we finally got our winter mouse issue under control because we back into a cornfield and an open field and a park area, and I really don't want to attract more rodents.

Rogers has been attempting to compost now for four years. She has a neat-o-keen large bin in the back from Lowe's, but she said she couldn't make it work. Things just kept rotting, which was a total flag for me, because there's a reality to how much effort I'm willing to put into the job. I also have to admit that MacTroll was not thrilled with the idea of housing worms in the basement. He'd be okay with the garage, but our garage isn't heated.

I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs and realizing that maybe I need more of an apartment dweller's solution, since I'd only be composting the food of 1 adult and one child. They have some pretty fancy machines out there these days. I remember B.Lime downtown advertising the Naturemill machine on the local news some months ago. But again, it's pretty expensive (although uses very little electricity). So, back to the books I go...

There's a Reason Why It's Called Yard WORK

The entire family spent 5 hours in the backyard today working. MacTroll scooped dog poop. I weeded the sandbox and then X-man helped me weed all of our box gardens while MacTroll ran to Wally Mart to pick up 20 bags of sandbox sand. Then while he filled up the sandbox, I ran to Wally Mart to find out they weren't selling mushroom compost this year. I LOVE mushroom compost, but not enough to drive somewhere else to get it. So, I picked up some Organic Garden Soil with some moss mixed in. We only needed 10 bags of that to fill in the gardens (a lot of sand and dirt blows off during the winter). X-man helped me spread the soil and then he helped me plant tomatoes, peppers and herbs all over the place.

When the planting was done he got to take care of his favorite part -- "The Hose." So, while he watered, I went around looking at the perennials. Turns out some of the strawberries that I got from Me and My Boys last fall actually took, but not where I was expecting. I have some tiny breed of strawberries that are "non-runners" in a little garden behind our hot tub. I put about 12 of Me and My Boys' transplants there -- and only three took. I thought because the other strawberries were thriving there that they'd do okay, but clearly I was wrong.

But then I put six of her transplants in the front "whale-shaped" garden and five of them took there, which is awesome, because I've had a dickens of a time getting anything to grow up there that's not sedum. My hope is that as the years go by, her strawberries will run and take over the whole garden. Because really, I could eat my weight in strawberries every summer.

Our raspberry bush is in its third season and it's going gang busters. Hopefully, this year will be the first year we get more than just four cups of berries from it.

We're also going to try something new and get our mulch from the Urbana Landscape Recycling Center. I'd stayed away from them in years past because when CARE used the Meadowbrook Garden, they wouldn't let you use their own mulch there because it wasn't "clean enough." That sent up warning signals in my mind about chemicals, glass and plastic. But it turns out they have several different kinds of mulch, some of which they say does well on inclines (and ooh daisy, I have a bit of an incline erosion issue next to the driveway). And -- it's stupid cheaper for something that is just going to blow or get washed away every year due to high winds and crazy amounts of snow.

Why not try rocks in windy Savoy? Well, as my child proved today when he threw a rock at a girl at a friend's house (He wasn't the first child to throw one, but he should have known better) we're not out of the rock throwing phase. And I'd much rather replace mulch each year than windows.

Anyway, the Urbana price per cubic yard for the premium hardwood mulch, in bulk, is $20. I need five cubic yards for all the gardens. Last year I ordered five cubic yards from Country Arbours and paid almost $300. So, we'll see if saving the $200 is worth it. I'm hoping we'll spend it on one of the trees I'd like to plant. I would like to add a tree in the front yard, one in the back, and I think I'm going to replace the two "Arbor Day" saplings I planted when we moved in because we didn't have the funds after building the house to get "big trees" then.

In other news, The SuperFlynns' concrete guy from Concrete Evolutions in Bloomington is coming over to look at our patio this week. We have a ground squirrel that burrowed a home under our patio. His burrowing apparently was so intricate that it is causing part of our patio to sink in and crumble like a fault line. We had always talked about putting in a walkway from the driveway to the back patio, so maybe we'll just have them get rid of the ground squirrel and get us a new patio, too. One that makes some space for MacTroll and his smoker and maybe a larger seated area. I mean, in the long run, it means less grass for me to mow, right?

Speaking of, I didn't get to mow my patch of dandelions in the backyard today. Hopefully, the weather will stay nice enough for me tomorrow, so that after my run, I can at least mow the back.

I meant to take "before" and "after" photos of all the work we did today. But I forgot. And then it was dark. But hopefully in 50-85 days we'll have salsa for everyone. :-)

Addictions

Today, I picked up X-man at school a little later than our usual 3:45 p.m. Tuesday time. When I walked in he was sitting on the floor watching Ms. Shari play his favorite game (Trouble) with some of the kids. He saw me and looked sheepish.

Then he came forward ever so slowly put out his hand and opened it. In it was a X-man handful of little pieces of white thread. Apparently, he's been tearing apart his socks at school and hiding them under the carpet near his group spot. The teachers caught him doing it today...

My child, who has been told that if he continued would have to purchase his own socks with his allowance, apologized. Then he said, "I keep trying to stop, but I can't. I can't stop. I need help."

I'm going to remember this in case he ever suffers a drug addiction. Or -- more likely if he's like his mother -- a food addiction.

It's a nervous habit, kind of like the nose picking. But he's learned that no kids make fun of him for the sock thread pulling. Instead, it just annoys his mother who loves him no matter what. So, really, it's a much better nervous habit.

How bad is the habit? I've thrown away over 20 pairs of socks since November. He's got three pairs left. So, we'll be taking the $4 and whatever change he has in his piggy bank to Wal-mart so he can buy some more socks. I kind of have a feeling the only solution to this issue will be sandal season.

The happy part of my day was that after two hours of waiting, Carter's delivered our new sofa and oversized chair for our living room. We didn't get anything fancy because we have pets and a kid and well, we're the kind of people who are stupid and spill. But it's microfiber and big enough to cuddle on, which is awesome. Tonight, X-man and I cuddled while watching Kipper.

Problem Solving through Nesting

It's been a busy around the house weekend this weekend. I spent 5 hours on Saturday cleaning and organizing the storage room. Now that we haven't seen a mouse in our house since Mousehunter Jim was here, I went down there with my vacuum, Clorox and a couple garbage bags to clean out the areas. Mice climb and can fit through any area that is smaller than a quarter of an inch. So, I did some mouse hunting myself -- only it was to make sure there wasn't a piece of mouse poop or the sight of mouse pee anywhere. This gets difficult, as the storage room is also home to MacTroll's network. Lots of cables to wipe down.

Most of our items in the basement were already in plastic containers. Plastic containers will keep lazy mice out. They can chew through the plastic if they really want what's on the inside. Metal is the best, but it's expensive. I purchased some containers of varying sizes and rearranged what was down in the basement. Now everything, except one box of cords is put away. I also realized that since we moved all the holiday stuff from the garage to the basement, we were going to need another set of metal shelves from Target. So I ran out and picked those up today.

I have an annoyance in my house. There was currently no good place to put shoes. We have hooks in the laundry room where we hang our most frequently used coats and our snowpants in the winter. But shoes end up on the floor of the utility closet in a big mess. And I have to admit that at one point, a cat peed on my shoes there, so I'm paranoid about leaving them on the floor. MacTroll, on the other hand, can't seem to remember to take his shoes off, and then always seemed bewildered that the floors got so dirty or the walkway from the kitchen to his office that used to have carpeting (and was high traffic anyway) was a different color than the rest of the carpet. I kept explaining it to him, but he refuses to believe he's that dirty. Sigh.

Anyway, while I was at Target picking up the metal racks, I found that they had a tall set of shelves that could be used as a shoe rack that would fit in the space in the utility closet and still leave plenty of space to store our vacuum. I was excited because it was also on clearance for like $20. I bought it and X-man helped me put it together tonight. He put all the plastic covers on the screw heads and then I started the nails into the cheap particle board backing and he got his toolbox hammer and finished nailing them in. Then he helped push the shelf support brackets into the right holes and collected all the shoes to put in the right places once I got it set up in the closet.

MacTroll poo pooed me for my organization. But if I prevent cat peeing and get rid of the heap of shoes, I kind of feel better about our house. It feels more home-like. So how can that be a bad thing? I mean, homey-ness for $20?

In other news, I replaced one of the cats' litterboxes this week. But before I put it down, I picked them all up off the floor, vacuumed the laundry room area where the boxes reside, and then got down on my hands and knees with a sponge, warm water and some Method floor cleaner and wiped up the whole laundry room. When it was dry, I put the clean/scooped boxes down with fresh litter in them and felt good about that, too.

I also broke down this week and ordered a carpet and a light box table for my Loosey room in the basement. I wanted a furry shaggy rug that was soft to sit or lie on. Something that makes your feet happy. Most of them in a 5'x8' were really expensive. I found one for half of what the others were costing online and decided I'd take a chance with it. Plus, it came in a platinum gray versus others that were either natural or beige or white, which kid of scare me for different reasons. It's on back order until April, however. The light box was on sale at Pottery Barn Teen, which is my Pottery Barn catalog of choice. Now I just need CB2 to put some of their yellow tables on sale, and I'll be in business... well, that is if I can settle on what I want to sit on in my room besides a fuzzy carpet. I found a couch at Carter's, but I kind of want something that can double as a guest bed. We're headed to Ikea in a few weeks, so I printed a wish list to check out what they have.

I just tucked my child into bed with his Tag reader at 9 p.m. He's been reading and playing games with that pretty much 4 nights a week at bed time since Christmas. He's excited because I found the Ben 10 book in a post Christmas sale. He didn't get out of his pajamas all day today.

Tomorrow, I get to start back in my Body Bar class (it was on break over the holidays). I've got a list of fitness/nutrition books I'd like to get from the library, but three of the five aren't even available throughout the entire Lincoln Trails Library System. They appear to have two of them in Palatine, so we'll see if the Tolono library can set me up to get their copies.

I hope everyone has a happy new year.

Not Quite Grimace, maybe a little Grape Ape

Quigs asked for photos of the purple bathroom. The first photo is pretty much what the bathroom looked like "before" the painting (when they were building the house, so yes, the floor was a mess). I didn't take a more recent "before" photo because I guess -- it's a pretty forgettable bathroom. :-)

I found the shimmery shower curtain at Kohl's today. It's striped light purple, dark purple, white, and silvery gray with shimmer, so it fits with the trim pretty well. X-man was very excited about the new towels, but he agrees that we need something ("Maybe another bar, Mom") over the toilet. We have one of those small cupboards above the toilet in on the first floor bathroom. I may wander back to Target and look for another version. 

I also have a silver mirror that we had in our last house to put up in the basement. It's more decorative than the plain one. I'm not sure why we didn't have the builder put it up 3 years ago. It's just been sitting in our garage. But it's no secret that MacTroll and I suck at hanging things. (Rogers, got an afternoon you want to head over with your laser accuracy?)

The flooring guys are coming back on Friday to insert the correct laminate. Then Picasso and Sons painting will return on Monday to do another coat of yellow in the Loosey Room and touch up all the trim around the floor area again after the baseboards are put back up. 

A Room of One's Own update

One step forward, two steps backwards. It's hard to imagine that a 12'x12' room creation in my basement could be such a pain in the ass, but it has been.

For example, whenever a process seems too easy, it probably is. We went into Flooring America by Meijer and picked out the laminate I wanted in 2 minutes. The sales woman was pleased that we were so low maintenance. She came to our house 48 hours later to do the measuring and talk to us about baseboards and installation. Then she sent me the quote for the materials and labor. It was under my projected budget, so I was happy. Then the guys came and started installation on Nov. 22. I was running around doing errands that day and MacTroll was working from home. It wasn't until 3:30 p.m. when I got downstairs to take a peek. 

It was a Coastal Living Flooring -- but it wasn't the gray I ordered. It was a brown. I told the guys to stop and called the sales person. She was out to lunch. I got the guy who does the ordering and told him the problem. Of course, the order form that I approved (because I saw Coastal Living and the price and not the color) had the brown floor. But it wasn't the sample I picked out or the one I took home... so they took up the flooring and placed an order for right one. 

I never heard back from the sales person to apologize. 

Several years ago, I wanted the house on Buttercup painted white in the living room. It was beige and I'm not a fan of brown (clearly). But if you know me, you know I lack the coordination to walk up stairs without tripping... Therefore, ladders and I do not get along. I hired Blair Cohen at Picasso and Sons to do the painting. I love them. They left my house every day cleaner than I ever had it. They were timely, polite and they did a bang up job. They are not cheap, but they are worth every penny. 

So, I hired them back to do the basement work and the trim around all the new floors. The basement bathroom is now purple. My Loosey-only room is optimistic yellow... They have to come back after the flooring is installed to make sure their paint job doesn't get messed up by the flooring installers (and for that I'm grateful). 

At some point, I'll get up to Ikea to pick out some furniture. I did find some interesting couches that turn into a double bed online that I'm keeping in mind. We'll see. 

Finishing Things

I've made a pact with myself that I'm going to get things done this week that I've been putting off.

I have to go pick out flooring for the Loosey-only room in the basement. I don't know why, but my heart hasn't been in it. Then I need to go pick out my paint colors. I also have curtains that I've been meaning to hang for (no lie) two years in the dining room and MacTroll's office and curtain tie backs I never quite got to in the guest room.

We're refinancing our house next month (or at least we're supposed to do it next week when MacTroll is in town). So, we're excited about that. I'm hoping we'll also finally order new living room furniture.

Yesterday, while I was at Target I finally purchased the navy blue kids' nightstands I'd been staring at for three or four months. I also picked up a small replacement full-length mirror for the giant idea one the cats broke when we were in Maine.

It's hard to believe on a day like today when it's going to be 80 degrees and it smells more like May than October that X-man is going to need a winter jacket soon. But I'll let him pick out his own from Target. (It worked last year, right?) I went looking for one at Champaign Surplus yesterday that looked as nice as the Marmot coat I saw in the REI catalog. Alas, they don't carry Marmot and their reds weren't as shiny. So much for keeping it local.