Bates House of Chaos

Blessing or Curse?

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:45:44 -0400

I love email. I love how I can compose a (usually) well-worded note to someone without them knowing that all heck is breaking loose around me.
If a kid interrupts me because they’re bleeding, I can take a few minutes to staunch the flow of blood and apply a bandaid and then come back to what I was doing, with the recipient not being any wiser.
Contrast that with a phone conversation where the caller can hear my kids apparently maiming each other while simultaneously tearing the house apart (but thankfully, can’t see me shaking the “you’re going to get it when I get off this phone” pointer finger or vehemently motioning for them to leave the room) and you can see the draw of email.
But I’ve gotten to the point where I conduct and coordinate almost everything via email. And this means that every time I sit down to check my email, I’m almost guaranteed that I’ll spend an hour writing responses and taking care of needed items, and I’ll still end up with a list of things I need to do when I’m done.
And if I miss a day, it just adds another hour’s worth of catching up on the following day (which is what prompted me to write this post).
So what’s your take on email? Is it a blessing or a curse in your life?

Highlights of My Day

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 22:14:31 -0400

It’s a toss-up between:
1 - Cleaning loads of poopy water that overflowed from the upstairs toilet and was dripping from the ceiling in the basement, all over the shelves that contain all of our DVDs and Wii games, and
2 - Finding out that Zane had seen it but was too busy making his new Mii on the Wii to let me know that it was raining in the basement.

Sew Much To Do, Sew Little Time: The Results Post

Fri, 6 Aug 2010 10:50:01 -0400

And the winner is . . .

The Storage Room!
Obviously I don’t take advice very well, considering the fact that everyone told me to finish up the sewing.
My reasoning was that Jeff would be out of town again in another week (he should be coming back some time early today) and I could do all of the sewing stuff then.
I didn’t do a bang up job on the basement. There’s still that no man’s land of items that we always figured would be pulled out once we’d remodeled the basement. I can’t face any of that stuff right now!
Another organization trick that I’ve used while totally cleaning out my house is what I’ve lovingly termed my “Project Boxes.” I’ve had piles of half-finished projects floating around the house for a while now. Periodically, I’ll reorganize them or shove them in a new spot, but nothing really ever gets done with them.
Meet my project boxes.

As I’d come across some sort of unfinished project (scrapbooking, partially finished gifts, items for the house, etc.) I’d dump them in the box and write the item on the side of the box. The boxes will remain closed until school starts in another month. I’m thinking of giving myself a deadline to get through them all and then anything that’s left over can be donated or otherwise chucked. What do you think?
I did manage to get some sewing done that week, but only because we needed three dresses for an upcoming baptism and I only had one. Here are the two I made.

And this week I tackled some new chair covers for Primary. I got the idea from another ward that shares our building. You sew vellum to the chair cover and insert a sheet of paper with the class’s information.

Here are the ones I made.

I also made a brag vest for Zane for Cub Scouts.

And I got through several clothing items that needed mending, were missing buttons, etc. (I know, exciting stuff).
I had also planned on finally sewing down all of those patches on Jeff’s, Avery’s, Zane’s, and my Scout shirts that I’d temporarily affixed with BadgeMagic. Just FYI, BadgeMagic and sewing machines don’t mix. So now I’ve got to decide if I should try to remove all of the BadgeMagic from the patches individually with Goof Off! and then attempt to sew them back on. Not a fun prospect!

Dad Life

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:06:42 -0400

Jeff had this video sent to him by a friend.
Suburban dads unite!
Personally, I think it’s funnier the more times you watch it.

Sew Much To Do, Sew Little Time

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:04:41 -0400

I’m trying to decide whether or not to clean out the storage room or finish some sewing projects. I’ve been working on a couple of baptism dresses for our ward Primary that I’ve got to get done by this weekend. However, I’ve also got the usual items to mend, Scout patches to sew (on FOUR shirts, no less!), plus a couple of other projects that I’ve been holding off on for months now.
The stinker about my ever sewing anything is that, by the time I haul everything out of the basement and set it up, I’m already out a good hour or two - depending on how long it takes me to remember how to rethread and recalibrate the serger.
And the office gets taken over by all of my sewing paraphernalia.
So what’s your vote - sew or tackle more dust bunnies?

Garden Bounty

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:04:03 -0400

Things are finally paying off!

Where Dust Bunnies Fear to Tread

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:03:25 -0400

While Jeff and Avery have been out of town, I’ve systematically super-cleaned the entire house thanks to the zone lists on the FlyLady’s website. I haven’t gotten to bed before midnight for the last 10 days.
I don’t know if it’s because we hardly have any carpet in this place or if it’s just because we’ve got 50 years’ worth of spiders and other critters roaming around, but I’ve never seen so much dust or so many spider webs. I went through pretty much all of the Swiffer products I own and at least two vacuum bags (which says a lot since I used the bagless vacuum cleaner for the majority of my cleaning!).
My favorite “find” was a candy cane attached to a booklet that had been handed out by our ward’s Relief Society back at Christmas. It had ants in it. They had started at the crook end of the candy cane and completely eaten all the way down to the straight portion. Yeah, I know I’m entering TMI territory here, but how I’m going to get that thing to hang on next year’s Christmas tree, I’ll never know!
So to anyone who’s ever let their kids come over here to play, or who have let their babies crawl on my floor, I’m truly sorry!
Now the only area I have left to tackle is the storage room.
If you don’t hear from me for a while, send in a rescue squad!

Butterflies and Discovery Rooms

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:57:40 -0400

Once again, we headed downtown (this must make some sort of record for our family) and went to Jeff’s old stomping grounds, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
We first got our tickets for the Butterfly Pavilion, which is free on Tuesdays. While we were waiting for our allotted entry time, we took a tour of a neighboring exhibit.
Ana, as usual, couldn’t wait to get her hands on some gross-looking bugs. Yep, my skin’s starting to crawl, too.

My little termites.

Then off to check out the butterflies.

I was hoping to get a shot of one on one of the kids, but the butterflies weren’t very cooperative.
I think this was one of my favorite butterflies, not flashy by any stretch of the imagination, but it had four clear windows in its wings. Here, it’s resting on one of the outside walls of the pavilion. Seriously cool.

Then off to the Discovery Room. I remember this from waaaaaaay back when Avery was a baby. They’ve got lots of hands-on exhibits that the kids can touch and manipulate, but no high-tech gadgets (I’m talking interactive video equipment here). I really thought the kids would get bored rather quickly, but they loved looking through microscopes and checking out all of the exhibits.

By the time we headed back to the van, the kids were pretty tired. But that still didn’t keep them from their favorite D.C. pass time, pigeon chasing.
We happened upon this family feeding pigeons. They must have thought it was pretty cool, because the dad kept taking pictures and videos. The kids hung out and watched for as long as they could.

And then Ana just couldn’t help herself!

Tell-Tail Signs

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:55:17 -0400

Any guesses as to why our bird feeder gets emptied in less than a week?

Getting Crafty

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:51:46 -0400

A very crafty mom organized a summer club for several of the girls in our ward (so many that she ended up having to divide it into two separate groups).
I took the first turn and had six eight- to ten-year-old girls over to paint birdhouses. I was surprised at how detail-oriented they all were, taking an hour to paint the base . . .

Followed by an additional hour to paint the details.

Since it was a three-hour long craft club, I entertained the girls between coats of paint by setting up the slip-n-slide in the back yard. They got sick of that in about five minutes, but then they came up with the brilliant idea of tying a sprinkler hose to the top of the trampoline (which required the assistant of Ana’s six-foot-tall momma :) ). That and a few frozen confections kept them busy for an entire hour.

Someone should patent that idea. It’s brilliant!
And here is Ana with her finished product.

A home fit for the birds!