the pieces of my life

Some days just don’t go as planned. Today is one of them.

The weekend was good but hectic with lots of running running running to get to places on time. Doodles and Pie had their last morning of hockey. Hockey ended at 10:30. Pie had a birthday party to attend at 10:30. Run run run. On Sunday, Doodles had Hebrew School at 9. Pie had an introduction to Hebrew school at 9. So Adam took them because I had a 5k race at 11, a baby shower at 11:30, and, as it turned out, Cub Scouts at 3. Run run run.

I promised a friend to run this 5k with her, to make sure she got over the finish line, which she did in fabulous style. She ran faster than I think she had anticipated and it was great. And wet. Very wet. We’ve got a Nor’easter going on here with, if I may, wicked winds and rain. Oy, the rain. We were soaked before we even got into the car, never mind the race. But let me tell you, the St. Paddy’s Day crowd in Somerville is a dedicated one and the race was packed. And the lines for the pubs after were insane. Not that I went. Because I ran to the baby shower.

Show up at the shower, run upstairs to change my clothes. Only… I forgot a dry pair of shoes and a dry bra. So I put my lovely shirt on over my jog bra (which had been under both my shirt and my jacket), but as it was soaking wet, I soon sported what looked like two lovely milk leaks. Fun times! I spent the whole party with my hands crossed over my chest, a la a junior high girl with new breasts, until I got teased one too many times so I flipped my shirt backwards.

I got home with a whole half hour to dry off, greet my family, change my clothes and then get the boy to Scouts.

All the while, I was keeping my fingers crossed. Every Facebook status, it seems, of local folk, every message on the town’s Parents e-mail list, even some e-mails on the school’s PTO list, was pleading for help on how to get water out of basements. My fingers are crossed. My fingers are crossed. My fingers are crossed.

Guess what? It doesn’t work. Adam is home right now trying to concoct some Rube Goldberg-style contraption to get the water out of our basement. Of course, there’s not a sump pump to be found, so Adam asked his father who lives the next state over to scour the hardware stores there and to bring one to us. His father is currently searching. I won’t bother keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll find one. The next step is to build an ark. I swear I saw two squirrels and two raccoons waiting patiently by our back door.

But at least it’s a blessed Monday, so while Adam vacuums out the basement, I can give my novel that final read over and try to get it out the door. Oh, wait! That’s right. Pie has no school today. For some random conference. But she does have a room full of Polly Pockets and Groovy Girl dolls that she wants me to play with.

Good times, people. Good times.

While it wouldn’t be quite accurate to say summer has arrived to New England, we do finally have a day decent enough to sit outside. I’d be happy if it were a tad warmer–lower 70s would be perfect–but it’s not raining at the moment and I’m happy to simply accept that. Our yard is finally in, and while the backyard is not-yet-suitable for walking upon, well, we’re walking upon it anyway. We put down grass seed in the back and all this rain has washed a third of it away and the birds have gotten the another third. So our backyard currently looks like a failed Chia Pet. Lovely. I do appreciate the fact that the wireless connects in the backyard so I can play on the computer while Pie plays with her friend. The front we used sod on, which kind of depresses me, because it is the ultimate in suburban lawns. However we’ve got a lovely planting plan that will transform it into something romantic and inviting–we just need to wait till the coffers are refilled enough to afford all those romantic and inviting plants.

But summer it apparently is, and we had a lovely 4th of July and now both kids are at camp. I had a hard time sending Doodles to camp, putting him on a bus to be carted off with all these children who were about twice his size to go off to swimming and boating and ropes and T-ball on his own. Pie is at her preschool camp and she, in her spunky way, “LOVES IT!” while Doodles in his typical more subdued way “kinda likes” camp, but definitely enjoys it more than he would staying home. And me? Me, I’ve got a three and a half hour stretch in front of me every day. And while I am doing a bit of puttering and cleaning–finally getting the clothes Pie has grown out of out of the house, doing the grocery shopping and baking cookies for friends with a new baby–I am also working on the novel. I’m getting in a good hour a day of decent writing time. It’s one of those things that I have a hard time starting, but once I get started, I have a hard time stopping. I find my thoughts frequently drift back to my characters and I’m trying to take notes at odd times so I don’t forget ideas. It feels good to get back into a writing routine again. I’ve got three more weeks of kids’ camp (maybe more!) so I hope to really get a solid portion under my belt. (I’d like to write “under my typewriter ribbon” but it’s been too long since I’ve used one of those… Maybe “under my web camera”? as that’s what’s atop my computer.) I make myself a pot of tea (because, yes, it’s been that chilly), sit at my computer, attempt to ignore Facebook and Twitter, and plug away. My novel readers are awesome and have been giving me great feedback, which I’m working hard to incorporate. Writing is a lot like exercise–when you’re not doing it, you can’t imagine doing so. But once you start, you simply can’t stop.

So yes, the blog posts may be a bit more infrequent. But that’s only because there’s other writing to be done. Because it’s summer time. And the writing is easy.

For the past few weeks, my life has been all about unpacking and preparing for Passover. Well, the seders have passed. The house is 97% unpacked. And I was looking forward to finally getting my office all in place and getting back to my writing! I’m jonesing for my computer. Eager to get back to my writing. Last week, Pie didn’t have school on both Wednesday and Friday for Passover. Doodles was out of school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday because he was sick. Friday no school for him because it was Good Friday.

So this is my week! Except… Adam just reminded me that tomorrow we have to go to close the loan on our house refinance. So I won’t work tomorrow. And he’s leaving town tomorrow night for a couple of nights in NYC for work, so there’s no back up at night. And normally that’s rather fun for me because I can put together a girls’ night in, but with the kids being sick, I can’t count on them to reliably sleep through the night and I don’t want to leave guests for two hours while Pie has night terrors/trouble sleeping. And of course there’s no extra night of sushi ordering, because of Passover. Oh, and Wednesday Pie has no school for the last days of Passover. And Friday is a short day–Pie is only in school from 9 till noon, which means I can either get my office going or I can get a smidgen of writing done.

But the week after… Oh, wait. The week after is spring break. Right. Both kids have the entire week off. And Adam’s company, for all the things they do right, don’t see Patriot’s Day as a holiday.

My to-do list is growing: I have birthday gifts that are well over a month old waiting to be mailed. My office supplies are rustling loosely in a box, waiting for a home. I still don’t have a desk. I have a Torah portion to read at my bat mitzvah in, oh, about a month, and I haven’t even begun to try to decipher the Hebrew never mind the Torah trope. Nothing major, but as a Type-A label-making, superorganized person, the little things not being in their place make me crazy.

Enough whining. Time to go to bed. I’m got a closing to go to tomorrow. At least it’s close to a Container Store. Organized drawers, at the very least, here I come!

Why was that night different from all other nights? Because it was the first night I was able to host a dinner for 18 people and not stress about it! There was plenty of room in our house, the fridge amply held all the food, I had plenty of burners for cooking, and I could relax knowing that with 8 adults and 10 kids, it didn’t really matter what I did because the night would be such complete chaos that no one would know what the heck I did. The only downer of it was that Doodles has some sort of weird something that’s been going around, where during the day he seems pretty fine, but he tends to run a fever at night, so he’s been homebound and lethargic for a while.

So I was pleased with the way the seder went–I went a little cheesy at points (the Pharaoh called in the middle to demand the kids build pyramids; I messed up the story of the Exodus and had to give the kids prizes); Pie complained about my singing (she covered my mouth and whined, “No, Mommy! No!”) although she executed one of the four questions beautifully, if through tears {she had been injured in rough Passover play); I had to simply yell the end of the seder to be heard over the kids (“NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM!”); but the food was eaten, the wine was drunk, conversations seemed to flow, and we made it through the (homemade) haggadah. What else can you ask for?

But now we are in the middle of Passover, and all I can do is despair that my diet is normally absolutely, completely, and totally carb based. Sushi on Saturdays. Spaghetti once or twice a week. Rice, tortillas, bread. Snacks are popcorn, veggie chips, snap pea crisps. Passover isn’t a big deal in the sense of “Oh my gosh, how will I make it!” because really, it’s a freakin’ week. I can eat this way for a week (although Doodles is another story–that kid may starve before the week is over; the kids are eating about a dozen eggs a day. Pie woke up yesterday morning crying, “I want Cheerios! I want Mighty Bites!”). But it’s a big deal in, “Oh my God, what is my diet?” Every Passover I swear I’ll eat better. And for one week, I generally do. More fruit. More veggies. This is the way we’re supposed to be eating. All year. Not just at Passover.

Of course, it might all be negated by how much matzah and jelly and matzah and cheese and matzah and cream cheese I eat. And the candy fruit slices. I do eat a lot of candy fruit slices. And the Passover brownies. They’re actually better than normal brownies. I mean, how can you go wrong with any recipe that starts with two sticks of butter (and every Passover recipe starts with two sticks of butter and a dozen eggs).

Tonight’s dinner is a veggie lasagna (zucchini instead of noodles). It’ll be nice and healthy. Which is good, because I just got another box of fruit slices. The yellow ones are the best!

–The boy twisted his ankle today and sprained it while playing on his gymnastics mat. He had to hop to dinner. Lie on the couch. Moan. We did the RICE treatment, so I had him stick his leg on the arm of the sofa and put an ice pack on it. He got a couple of shows. Adam carried him to bed. And then I asked, “Can you twirl your foot?”

The boy: Ow, ow, ow! [he twirls his foot] It hurts!

Me: Are you sure? Because when you were laying on the couch, it was the other foot was the twisted one.

The boy: Oh. Which ankle did I sprain?

–I promised my b’nai mitzvah class that I’d have a rough draft of our dvar written in two weeks. That was one week and six days ago. It’s a very dry parsha. Jubilee years and all sorts of fun stuff. But no worries. I have a couple hours tomorrow after volunteering in the kindergarten to get it done. Oh, whoops! What’s that? Pie has a fever? No school tomorrow? I’ve had how much wine? Should be an interesting Torah talk…

–The boxes are pretty much unpacked. But in order to get those boxes unpacked, I had to put the stuff somewhere. So the floor is now covered with stuff that had been neatly put away in boxes. I have one week to get it all put away because…

–In one week I host my first social event of the year. Sure, some might call it a solemn religious occasion, but why split hairs? I’m hosting a Passover seder, which will call for full use of my beautiful new stove. I can’t wait. Including my family, there will be 18 of us. I’ve already made two huge batches of chicken soup, farfel kugel, and I’ve bought enough matzah and gefilte fish to get us through at least a few days, so at this point I know no one will starve. I’m plotting out what to cook next.

–So the contractor handed back his key today. Sad, sad day for me. No more, “Could you just…” “Would you mind…” “Hey, maybe we should…” Now it’s just me and Adam. The trailer’s out of the front yard, the garbage is off the front porch, and the mailbox has even been returned to its rightful place on the house. All that’s left is for me to get my crap off the floor.

–Random link: I love this site. Everyone go save a word. I haven’t officially adopted a word yet. I haven’t found the one yet. I’m waiting for my beshert. Although I’m sure you’ll be able to tell on this blog when I’ve chosen my one. I’m also into the Very Short List. Best e-mails I get.

–When I was a wee girl, I had three stuffed animals: Beady Bear (named for the book of the same name), Snoopy, and Elly Belly Elephant. I will come out and say that Elly Belly Elephant was a disputed animal: The Tweedle Twirp seemed to think that Elly Belly was hers. Let me set the record straight here: The Tweedle Twirp was wrong. I still own Beady Bear. He’s a little worn, but still recognizable. Tweeds had custody of the other two.

Tweeds decided it was time to pass the two on to my children. I took the two creatures, which were recognizable. That is, if by recognizable you think of a homeless, strung out, Avenue Q-version of Snoopy and Elly. Those two have never been washed. I’m pretty sure not ever. Those animals are about 38 or so years old, and untouched by water. So I took those animals in the name of my children. And I decided it was high time they were introduced to the pleasures of cleanliness. Into the washer they went.

It is with great regret that I have to inform you that they didn’t make it back out and they have gone to the great playroom in the sky.

RIP Snoopy and Elly. You were well loved.

We’ve got separation anxiety going on here. Serious, serious separation anxiety. The kind that keeps you up at night and leaves you in cold sweats. Because we are about a week away from the contractors being done. And leaving. Us. Me. No more, “Hey, I can’t quite reach that. Can you put in that light bulb?” Or, “What do you say? Should we hang that mirror there?” Or what about, “This shelf is sticking. Could you get it in the proper place for me?” Forget live-in maid or cook. I want a live-in contractor. Every time we’ve had any oddity (“Is that supposed to do that? Is that making a funny noise? I wish we had an outlet there”), it’s been a simple matter of “Oh, Leo will be here in the morning. We can ask him.”

But it will end. The punch list is just about punched. The shingles are shingled. We’ve got a single stair rail to go up outside. We’ve got gutters to go up. But that’s really about it. We’ve got just mere days of “ask Leo.”

And I’m not sure I can handle it.

But it’s time. Time to let go. Time to grow up and enjoy my brand-new grown-up house all on our own. And speaking of brand-new house, I believe I’ve been delinquent on photos. Today I give you the kitchen. I was going to wait until it was nice and clean and everything put away, but I thought you’d want photos sometime this year, so here it is in all it’s everyday-use glory.

The old kitchen:

See those expanses of counter space? The beautiful cabinets? The aisles of storage space?

Note, here, the oven hood that Adam installed that prevents the cabinet next to it from opening all the way:

The new kitchen. Not the best pictures because you can’t truly see my beautiful 36-inch stove, but I’m too lazy to take more photos:

We couldn’t get a proper mud room into the house, so we now have a new side entrance and cubbies for each of us:

With Adam’s master Elfa pantry. I haven’t mastered the wide shot of the small space, so you can’t really see it in all it’s true glory, complete with my lovely drawer labels. There’s a whole wall on the right with more shelves and drawers:

(And I have a secret: we’ll need to replace our front windows and front door soon. Leo may not have seen the last of us yet!)

More rooms to come…

I’m unpacking. Can’t you tell? I’m doing the big push of just freakin’ emptying the boxes so I now have individual pieces of crap all over the house, but at least the boxes are noticeably dwindling. The kids have more toys than any of us know what to do with and I need to do some stealth thinning. And we have a lot of stuff that I’m getting rid of now (like hooded towels–I had saved all those baby hooded towels and the kids just aren’t wrapping themselves in ducky hooded towels any more). Freecycle has been my best friend these past few days.

Adam’s best friend has been the Container Store. he is elfa-ing like crazy. At this second, he’s knee-deep configuring our pantry (I’ll add a picture here when he’s done). He’s also done the fourth–yes, fourth–Ikea run in the past three weeks (our house is embarrassingly filled with Expedit shelves).

And now I need to find a space for everything. We have lots of room, but a lot of the stuff I have is “display” stuff, and I don’t have many surfaces for “display” at the moment. My mom sent me a ton of my grandmother’s stuff–about a year ago I went through her house (with the other grandkids) picking out things we wanted. And then she packed it all up and saved it for the year while we did our house remodel. Which is great, but as I’m unpacking, I don’t remember what half the stuff is. Some of the stuff is super cool–I have this musical cigarette holder of my grandmother that makes me want to take up smoking (not really, Mom; it’s just a joke). And most of the stuff is cute tchotchkes that I want out and about.

Okay, break over. Time for sushi and then more unpacking. No rest till the boxes are gone!

My life revolves around routines. It’s what keeps me sane and organized. It’s what allows me to bake hamantaschen in time to give to Pie’s teachers, to bake hallah every Friday, to take classes here and there, to volunteer at the kindergarten and synagogue. It’s what keeps me up-to-date on this blog and on my e-mail. It’s what allows me to plan trips to Israel (or New York or Miami). It’s what keeps this house together. But most importantly in my little world it’s what gives me the freedom to be able to write creatively, to work on my novel. Routine gives me my haus frau extraoridinaire status (is mixing German and French cliches the same as mixing my metaphors?).

Can you guess what’s sorely lacking in our lives?

We haven’t had family dinners, I didn’t get to boot camp class, the Purim preparations were nil (at least I did get the boy his Darth Vader costume and I was able to find it used), and I can’t get to evening classes because I’m usually asleep these days by about 9:30 because I’ve spent the days unpacking and running errands at top speed.

We’re slowly getting out from under the boxes but we’re missing some basic pieces of furniture essential for getting things away (I don’t have a desk–my computer is set up on a card table–nor a shelf or file cabinet…; the kids playroom doesn’t have a single piece of storage equipment so it’s toys, toys, toys everywhere!), so those things are lingering in boxes. We have no shades yet so we spend our evenings dodging the many open windows (thank goodness it’s Beetle and her family who lives across the street, and I don’t care if they see us all in our PJs). My running has fallen by the wayside–I basically took two weeks off–figured my body could use a break–but man is it hard to get back to that routine! My first run after two weeks and it was like I hadn’t run in years. I barely made it four miles and I was sore the next day.

But that’s going to change. It’s time to reintroduce the routines! The Nana is here to help out–we’ll be hanging artwork, figuring out where to put what, meeting with someone to choose some window coverings, and perhaps even squeeze in a trip to Ikea or the Container Store. The weather is improving just enough that I can no longer use it as an excuse not to run (although I can always use daylight savings, as running in the dark at 6:30 is a total downer). And I’m going to get this office set ASAP so starting next week, when the kids are in school, I can get my writing routine back. I promise (well, I strongly intend) not to desert this blog again for such a long time, as it’s as hard getting back on the blog as it is to get back into those running shoes.

Starting now, it’ll be business as usual again. Now to catch up on that backlog of e-mails….

1) Figure out how to clean vomit out a mattress
2) Figure out where to stash child who was going to have a playdate, but will now be moaning quietly in some corner of the house while we move.
3) Load crap into van.
4) Listen to sick child whine.
5) Move furniture into house from apartment.
6) Listen to healthy child whine.
7) Go back to apartment for 12 more runs grabbing those last little things that somehow didn’t make it into boxes.
8) Grab lunch from Blue Ribbon for brother-in-law’s birthday, which we wouldn’t be celebrating at all if it were left up to my deadbeat husband who says things like, “Isn’t his helping us move into the house on his birthday present enough?”
9) Clean the apartment.
10) Clean the house.
11) Wash sheets covered in vomit because we’ll actually have a dishwasher again.
11b) Realize that it’s been so long since I’ve done laundry that I can’t tell a dishwasher from a washer and let Adam do wash.
12) Hope that the cable guy can hook us up otherwise we’ll have an ad nauseum repeat of #4 and #6.
13) Clean the house some more.
14) Go to unpack but realize we have no where to put things as furniture doesn’t come out of storage until Friday and closets won’t be complete until Monday.
15) Try to get kids to sleep in their own new rooms.
16) Take a bubble bath in my new bathtub and have a glass–or five–of wine.
17) Spend the night–all four of us to a double futon mattress–in my and Adam’s brand new bedroom.

Our friend with the pickup truck comes 8 a.m. Saturday. Our lease
expires midnight Saturday. Oy vey! The packing commences… now!