Not such a great day

I’m really tired of Corey harping on Mercedes.  It just really seems excessive.  Every time she wants to do something, it seems, he’s nagging her about something.  Yes, I understand that certain conditions need to be met in order for certain things to happen.  And yes, I don’t think that she needs to be cramming junk food in her mouth all the time.  I’m not saying let her run wild and destroy her health, in fact, I’m the last one to bring crap into the house.  But sometimes, it’s okay to let her have real food after she’s had junk for a snack.  And honestly, if the man has a complaint about it, he really ought to examine his own eating habits.

Which brings me to the, well, for lack of a better term, issue we had today.  Mercedes and Alex had some Spaghettios, and my dad brought home Subway for lunch.  Corey says, “You’re eating AGAIN?”  And I told him that I’d told HER that it was fine, God knows how filling Spaghettios are, right?  He says, “Does she really need to be eating a sandwich after that?”  So I responded that maybe he didn’t need a sandwich after all the crap HE’D eaten this morning.

He blew up at me, and said, “I DIDN’T ASK FOR A FUCKING SANDWICH, SO JUST LAY OFF ME!!!”

I didn’t say more than three words to him for the rest of the day, until he sent me a text saying that he loves me and wants to talk.  At my convenience.

You may note that, in the previous entry, I really didn’t have much to say about him.  He was with me and the kids all day, but he was just pissy and bitchy and difficult all damn day.  He’s always nagging me about what are we going to do with the kids as a family, and he pretty much sulked all fucking day yesterday.  I’m just sick of it, so I pretty much ignored it.  I’m tired of trying to drag him into things.

Another successful home blessing

We got off to a slow start, and Corey did more balking and complaining about his simple chores than even the kids did – in fact, they didn’t complain at all but attacked their chores with gusto.  He still did what I needed him to do, though, and that’s the most important thing.  I did get to a point with him that I just wanted to say, “Fuck it, I’ll just do it all my own damned self.”  I resisted, though, and I’m sure it’s for the best.  Last week, I had everyone draw their chores out of a hat.  This week, I named a chore and let everyone choose whether or not they wanted to do it.  For those that more than one person wanted, we did ro-sham-bo.  Corey never raised his hand as wanting any, so he got stuck with bed-making and taking out the trash.  Mercedes and I did the ro-sham-bo thing over the dusting.  Since there are only 7 weekly chores for the home blessing, I decided to clean my nasty, wicked stovetop, using a tip that I learned from watching “How Clean Is Your House?” on BBC America.  I love that show.  LOL.  They make me feel less slovenly, and I do pick up some nifty tricks, several of which I’ve put into practice.

We spent the rest of the day with the kids.  We took them up to Bullhead, thinking that we could play some mini-golf since the weather’s been a little cooler.  I armed my purse with my trusty can of spray-on sunblock and some paper towels (for applying it to our faces), but when we got there, it was 111F!  No way were we going to be playing ANYTHING in that kind of weather.  We headed to an arcade instead, and I made a feeble attempt at DDR with Alex.  Har.  Not yet, darlin’, not yet.  I feel very little pain now, for the most part, but that still hurt, and one game was all I could do.  We retired to playing some street-racing game (allowing me to sit in a chair) against each other, and had a blast.  Mercedes preferred playing Ski-ball, which was fine.

Afterwards, we headed to the mall to find a gift for one of Alex’s friends, whose birthday party is tomorrow.  It sounds last minute, but for me, this is pretty darned good.  I usually find myself rushing around on the way to the party, trying to find a gift.  We found two things for a total of about $20.

We decided to take an early dinner, and chowed down at Joe’s Crab Shack.  Pricey?  Yes.  Yummy?  YUP.  Worth it.  Between the service and the food, I never have any complaints.

Alex’s reward for getting his room cleaned up so quickly was to have a friend spend the night.  Unfortunately, his buddy turned up sick today, so it may have to wait until next weekend.  Alex was disappointed, but he seemed to be more upset that his friend wasn’t well than that he wouldn’t have company for the night.

All in all, it was a pretty busy day, but I’m still feeling pretty good.  Mildly sore, but not enough to really deter me from anything.

Shopping Trip

We went ahead and hit the big sale at Smith’s today.  We got a LOT of food, although not more than we can store and use.  Christine was telling me that her electric bill went way up due to her chest freezer and suggested that I fill the part I’m not using with water bottles.  To kill two birds with one stone, I put our dry goods – mac n cheese and cornbread mix – in there instead.  First of all, it will keep those nasty little buggies that like to live in those sorts of food from growing, and they’ll be a little less likely to go to waste.  Second, it’s taking up that extra space and helping us use less energy to keep the frozen stuff frozen.

A Good Day

Actually, it was an excellent day.  I got up and took care of my morning routine, even though I kind of groaned about the whole idea while I was still laying in bed.

I finally got the chance to go over and visit with Christine, and really, really enjoyed the time.  It was more enjoyable than the two barbecues and karaoke night I’ve attended over the past week combined.  Seriously.  There is nothing better than getting that quiet one on one time.

Afterwards, I ran home, grabbed all of the recyclables I could see and packed them into the car.  I hauled the plastics to the recycling plant, and then headed over to the hospital.  I stopped at the volunteer desk to ask if they could use the books, whether for visitors and patients or in the gift shop.  They said they would be happy to take them in the shop, since that’s where the volunteers get their funding to pay out on nursing scholarships.  One of the volunteers drove me back to my car in his little golf cart, helped me load them up, and also helped me carry them in.  They’ll be sold for 25 cents each, and since they were donated, there’s no overhead.  So, I’m happy.

I had just enough time to get to my doctor’s office for my follow up appointment.  I told her that I wasn’t sure which was worse:  Still having pain, or still being on pelvic rest.  She did a vaginal exam and said that as long as there’s lube involved, sex is fine.  Woohoo!!!  The incision is all healed, but there are still sutures in there that haven’t dissolved yet, but that’s not a problem at all.  I can have sex again by Saturday.  Corey, by the way, thinks he’s cute, and said, “So, Saturday or later…”

Christine gave me a tawashi and some dishcloths that she made.  I don’t know if she knitted them with aggression, but they sure kicked ass on my sink and bakestone.  My sink shines again!

I also created a new adventure on Chore Wars :  Doing Yourself Proud.  I know that it’s hard for me not to seek approval when I do something worth mentioning, and I thought it would be great to have a place to record that we’ve done that something without actually saying what we did.  I think we deserve to have some of those special, brilliant moments all to ourselves.

P.S.  Have I mentioned my gorgeous daughter lately?  She’s really grown into the weight that she put on last year.  I’m afraid to let her walk out of the door every day.  If we didn’t have the talks we have, I’d be TERRIFIED to let her walk out the door.

Actually, we recently had a talk.  She said she’d been getting mixed signals from her boyfriend.  I told her that he’s still just a little boy, and little boys just aren’t ready for relationships.  I suggested that if he breaks up with her, no matter how he does it, she should try to go easy on him and not hate him for it.

She came to me just a little while ago and said, “Well, I think it’s pretty much over for us.”  She wasn’t hysterical or depressed, just a little sad to see it end.  I offered her a shoulder to cry on if she needed it, but she said she just needed a hug.  Freaking amazing.  I’m so proud of that girl.  I think I’m doing something right here.

OH!  And I just found a site that has instructions on how to fix the “stupid” that I did to my countertop exactly the way I want to fix it!

http://www.askthebuilder.com/350_Laminate_Countertops_-_Repaired.shtml

Plans

I went shopping, and it kicked my butt.  Thank goodness for the courtesy clerks who will take your groceries to your car.

I only did some basic shopping today.  Tomorrow, Smith’s is starting their truckload sale, which means that to get the deals, you have to buy by the case.  We usually do really well with those sales, though, and it allows us to get extra for food drives, which should be rolling around soon.  I need to clear a space to put it all, though.  We haven’t really done serious shopping like that for awhile, and I don’t have the shelves in the garage that I used to have for storing it all.  I definitely don’t want to have stacks of boxes that don’t fit anywhere.  I’m thinking that Thursday morning, Corey can clear some space in the garage, and we can either do the shopping after the kids get home or on Friday while they’re at school.

I’m so tired.  I don’t even want to put the rinsed and stacked dishes in the dishwasher or clean up my lunch mess.  I will.  But I don’t want to.

Happy Labor Day 2008

This morning I got up and did my morning routine, did my ONE 15-minute chore for the day, and then Mercedes and I set everything up and started making sushi together.  She really seemed to enjoy it, and it was really nice getting to spend that kind of time with her.  I snuck in a just-short-of-weepy hug and a sappy “I love you.”  Hee.

We packed the sushi up and headed up into the hills to my friend Rachel’s house for a barbecue.  The kids hung out with other kids, and I snuck in a word edgewise here and there – no small feat for so many very loud people!  I got to visit with Rachel, Alex the Girl (I have to refer to her that way or people get confused), and their mom, Linda.

I also managed to find someone there, in a stroke of genius, who would love and read all of the romance novels I took off of Jamie’s hands – 7 grocery bags FULL of Harlequin Romances.  I still have 4 bags’ worth here in the house, but I already have plans for them.  I’m going to pass them on to the hospital.  Whether they pass them out or sell them, it will still benefit the volunteers, so I’m not picky.  Just get ‘em the heck outta my house!  Anyway, Terran is very happy to have all the books I gave her.  She immediately began listing the places where she was going to stash them so she can always have one at hand.  That makes me feel good – like I’m not just passing junk onto someone else that’s just going to regard it as clutter.

I’ve started my FlyLady Control Journal.  I’ve decided to use the beautiful journal that Christine made for me.  I can’t think of a more beautiful use for it.

Family Day

After we finished our home blessing, Corey and I decided to take the kids on a letterbox hunt in Needles.  We headed up there for lunch, found the letterbox (it’s a recent letterbox, placed in June!), and drove around for a little while.  Of course, being Needles and right after a rainstorm, it was horrifically humid and hot.  I remembered that Needles had a Thrifty, so we drove over to the strip mall.  It’s not Thrifty anymore, but they still have the old Thrifty ice cream counter in the RiteAid, so we all got ice cream cones, wandered around while we wore ate them, and then headed back for home.

When we got back, we sat and played a game with the kids, and then packed them up to go spend the night at friends’ houses.  We have the rest of the evening to ourselves, and it’ll be nice to relax.

Woohoo!

The weekly home blessing was awesome.  It started off a little rough – Corey being annoyed because I didn’t have anything specific in mind to do once we were done, Mercedes being ticked off that I wasn’t letting her crawl back into bed.  But, we got it done.  No, it’s not perfect, but it really made a difference!  I had to trade vacuuming away – I’m still not allowed – and I was the one left with a single chore, so I used my second 10 minutes helping Alex push the mop.

The biggest reward?  Mercedes, saying:

“None of this is all that horrible.”

Yeah, baby!  That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Grr.

I want to be able to vacuum and move furniture.  That was supposed to be the last MAJOR thing I do in the living room for the month.  Corey said he would do it for me, minus moving the furniture.  It makes me feel frustrated and weepy.  I feel like he’s willing to exert himself for anyone but me.

Hmm.  Is that PMS talking?  It seems a little early, but who knows.  I just did this the week before the surgery, unless my darling daughter is dragging me on her 21-day path with her.  THAT will be fun, won’t it?

Otherwise, stuff is still going well with the house.  I’ve been having the kids do the Riley Challenges from FlyLady – I bought them timers and everything.  I can’t believe they still grumble about having to do that ONE THING, and only for 5 minutes, and once per day!  They’ll get used to it, though.  5 minutes a day is nothing compared to being stuck in a room that’s so messy you don’t know where to begin.

Tomorrow, we’ll be doing the weekly home blessing.  I’ve taken the 7 chores and put them on little folded slips of paper and put them in a hat.  We’ll all draw until we each have 2 – whoever ends up with only 1 will get to help the person of their choice with their second chore.  We should have the whole thing done in 20 minutes, if I can get everyone to stick to the 10-minutes-and-it-doesn’t-have-to-be-perfect rule.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s a hell of a lot more than everyone’s been doing in the past, and it’s bound to make a difference.

Making it all work together.

I’m telling you, I’m not messing around on this housekeeping thing.  I’m using the FLYLady website, the FLYLady Yahoo group, WordPress, and Chorewars.  I’m planning on getting myself the FLYLady’s Week of Dishtowels (7 dishtowels embroidered with the days of the week) when I have earned 7 Scrubbing Sponges of Justice on Chorewars.  Just a little something to make me smile a little more.  I might even get myself the feather duster once I’ve earned enough Vials of Glitter.  I just have to set the goal.