what's up weekly.

This week was pretty low-key.  We took a break from school, since we've been going for about twelve weeks now and the kids were ready for a bit of a breather.  I'd been putting off doing a break week, since our normal weeks have been a bit spotty through the first trimester of this pregnancy, so we haven't exactly completed twelve weeks of schoolwork.  But they'd been diligently doing all their independent work (read: anything that didn't require any help from me, other than pushing 'play' on the math instruction video), and they had earned a bit of time off.  So time off we took.

On the one hand, it was great.  We got a lot of extras accomplished throughout the week that had been on the backburner - I actually made it to a midwife appointment (I hadn't been seen since eight weeks, and I'm now seventeen... whoops), I took all the kids to the chiropractor, we took a trip to the library, and we stopped at the Dollar Tree to fill our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.  Last night, I even went and got a massage to hopefully take care of the last lingering remnants of the Two-Week-Long Migraine.

In addition, because I've been feeling a bit better, I got some projects done around the house: I started switching out the kids' seasonal clothes, I sorted through their shoes (kill me), I cleaned the laundry room, I got caught up on laundry, I cleaned our bedroom and got winter bedding on the bed, I graded and filed all the kids' schoolwork, and I even took a big load of stuff to Goodwill.  I am woman, watch me clean stuff.

On the other hand, break weeks are often difficult around here.  After the first few days, the lack of structure and routine results in lots of bickering and squabbles amongst the kids.  Add to that the fact that a few of them are in 'spurt' mode, so they're extra hungry, extra tired, and seemingly extra hormonal.  AND add to that the change in weather (it snowed last night!), and it has been pure chaos around here.

So, lots of Grumble Jobs have been assigned.  In fact, play time yesterday afternoon was just scrapped in the name of doing chores, chores, and more chores.  Why?  Great question; thanks for asking.  First, a kid that spends their time indulging bad attitudes like laziness, grumbling, bickering and sassiness is often in need of extra responsibilities.  To use a metaphor Todd is fond of, a pickup truck drives straighter with a load in the back.  Secondly, if they're wasting their play time with fighting, they may as well waste it with work.  If they're not playing anyway, they may as well be productive.  And third of all, they're distracted from fighting with each other when they're all given separate jobs and a common enemy (namely, you the parent).  It's a win-win-mostlywin.

All that to say, my house is currently about as sparkling as it is ever likely to get.  My floors were mopped, bathrooms scrubbed, laundry folded and put away, basement vacuumed, garage picked up.  Maybe I should encourage the kids to start fighting more often so we can maintain such a high baseline level of clean...

Speaking of things that need to be cleaned, I give you a partial photo of what's going on in my pantry right now.

I rely much too heavily on this cheap-o door organizer, hung on this even cheaper-o hollow core door.  Because there was nothing solid in the door to screw the organizer into, the mounting system was being helped by duct tape.  Classy stuff.  Then, the metal attacher-clip-things holding the bottom section to the rest of the unit cracked, causing this mayhem.  Now, all of these pantry items, which no longer fit in the pantry, are in a plastic tub on my already-cramped kitchen counter, awaiting a miraculous permanent solution.

My pantry is a serious bane.  The opening is very narrow, and exacerbated by the fact that I have homeschool files hung on one side, and a door organizer hanging on the other side, making the actual access opening to the pantry about 12 inches wide.  On top of it, the pantry itself is a huge disaster, housing everything from small appliances, to our recycling, to cleaning supplies, to Tupperware, to snacks, to overflow from my small cupboards.  I am really needing to get the laundry room cleaned out so I can put some overflow shelving down there to house some of this stuff.  But in order to clean out the laundry room, I must first move what's down there to the garage, which means I must first clean out the garage... the storage situation in this house will be the ultimate test of my domestic capabilities.  Can I figure out a workable long-term solution, or will I kill myself from the hopelessness and futility of trying?  It's all very unclear at this point.

ALSO.  BIG NEWS.  This little booger turned three.  I'll post more about him and his party next week, but let me just say he is SO adorable and SO infuriating and already SO three.

Lolo seems to like him.  The feeling is universal.