With the warm snap of a few weeks ago we were doing so well. I was able to take Emma and Harrison both out to play on the driveway, where neither could get stuck in snow, but where the snowbank boundaries also worked in my favor as a sort of child-corral. I dragged out the ride-on toys and basked in the delight of sunshine on my face for hours, watching them splash in puddles and throw slush balls at each other. They were good and tired by naptime, which gave me a few free hours with which to sit at my sewing machine in the afternoons. Life was very good.
But Mother Nature has nothing if not a wicked sense of humor and now we've got 15 inches of new snow out there, which just makes me grumpy. I am tired of this, I want to be somewhere where I can see the grass, where the lake water isn't frozen, where I can leave the house without 42 layers of protective clothing. I am very, very ready for spring.
Just thinking about spring makes me want to shake the dust our of our house and make a huge cleaning effort. I have been slowly but surely getting rid of extraneous stuff and junk, of which we seem to have tons. It is a slow process and one that I do not find much joy in, but I am determined to complete the project. My goal last fall was to decrease our worldly belongings by 1/3, which is now looking much more difficult than I once thought. I think a more realistic approach will be to rid ourselves of 1/4 of our stuff, and implement a strict policy of removing one item for every item added from here on out, with an extra effort not to buy things to replace all of the crap we are getting rid of in the great heave-ho. It's tough. There are things I pine for, like new pillows for the couch in a pretty shade of blue, and sisal area rugs for the living room, and new upholstery on the couches in the living room that have been trashed by toddlerhood (Also, who buys dark green upholstered couches? In Upstate NY, where winters are dreary and dark? What were we thinking?). The wish list is ever-so-long, but I am trying not to succumb to the subtle pressures of magazine articles about fresh new looks for spring.
Our laundry is out of control. Unless we do two loads per day the mountain of soiled fabric grows exponentially in the basement, where it is easily forgotten unless one seeks it out. Part of the problem: we've decided the kids have too many clothes. I started going through them today. Harrison had thirty t-shirts in his drawer, not counting the plain white undershirts and the stray ones hidden in the mountain of dirty clothing downstairs. Thirty t-shirts. That is ridiculous. I started a bin of items to be donated and tossed in everything that is 2T and under in size, regardless of whether or not I think he can sneak in another month or two of wear. That eliminated a huge pile of clothing, and I was surprised to see how many 18-24 month items were still in the mix. I fear the project of going through Emma's closet and drawers. Like her beloved Aunt Brooke, the Little Miss is a bit of a clothes horse. Thankfully I have a few places to hand down the girl clothing, and the rest can easily be donated as well. My goal is to have only clothing that I love for them to wear in their closets and drawers. With such a variety and stock of clothing surely I can weed out those things that are dated, misshapen from too much laundering, or just aren't great with their skin tones or slender build. After the kids' rooms come our closets, and I do plan on forcing us both to try on each and every item to check for fit, style, and general like-ability. Anything that doesn't make the cut will be donated. We really, really, really need to do this because we just have too much. All of us.
We are signing up for a CSA with some friends of ours...that's Community Supported Agriculture for those who aren't familiar. Basically, we're buying a share of a farm's produce for the season, which will be delivered weekly to a convenient pick-up location for twenty weeks. We've very excited to try the news vegetables and fruits they offer, and I am looking forward to the challenge of finding recipes to go along with the new produce. We're splitting the share this year, but if all goes well and we like the process we'll consider a full share next year.
I have realized that we average one roll of paper towels per month. I think that is pretty good. How do we do it? We use cheap washcloths to wipe down counters and kids' faces and we wash them in bleach. We use a lot of cloth napkins. We use dish towels for our hands, and our dishes drip dry. My mom asked me how we manage on so few paper towels and still clean our windows, to which I had to laugh because we clean our windows...well let's just say infrequently.
And finally, a few pictures of the ice storm we had last week.
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