Raising Dust

Yesterday SIL The Mentor came over to help me start sorting through the clutter in my house. Before she got here I fixed breakfast, fed the kids and animals, did a load of dishes, watered the garden and did several loads of laundry, sorting out some things to give away and sell and helping the kids put their clothes away.

When SIL arrived we were just finishing lunch. I'd made a smoothie out of frozen berries, orange juice, rice milk, calcium/magnesium powder and acidophilus, with a handful of fresh greens. Even with 2 or 3 turnip leaves, a leaf each of kholrabi, collard, lettuce and cabbage, and a few Swiss chard leaves blended in, the smoothie was quite sweet and delicious. I was surprised at how good it was. What an easy way to get the kids to eat raw leafy green vegetables! Most of the greens were straight from the garden--young, fresh and sweet. I think I'll try that again today.

After I got the cauliflower soup simmering for dinner (with a few collard leaves added this time), SIL and I got to work.

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First we loaded all our old rickety chairs into her van. I'd bought a set of 6 wooden chairs in good condition for $4 each at a garage sale last week, so for the first time since we got married DH and I actually own a matching set of dining chairs. It's so nice to have a set of chairs that look decent, and none of them are wobbly or falling apart. At $24 for the set, it was an affordable luxury.

SIL and I attacked the office next. We sorted things into piles to throw away, give away and sell. She filled her van with items to donate and took them to drop off for me on her way home.

It was so wonderful to have the help and moral support from SIL. We made good progress, although it will take weeks or months of hard work to get the house decluttered and organized. SIL is going to help me come up with storage solutions so that I have a place to put away all the craft supplies and other things I'm choosing to keep.

This morning I filled several more bags and put them out for the ARC pickup. We still have a long way to go, but you can actually see a fair amount of carpet in the office now. The whole room was piled high with clutter--mostly bags of clothing I'd bought years ago to sell on eBay, before Baby E was born.

The clothes I'm not donating, I'm going to take to a couple of local consignment shops. DH and I also decided that it's not worth the space to store most of the baby things. With a few exceptions, they would be easy and fairly inexpensive to replace if we had another baby.

So we donated several large items (like the exersaucer) to our church MOMS group garage sale fundraiser. I'm setting aside a few items to sell, and more to give away. We'll donate many of the necessities like car seats to a ministry that provides a home, help and support to young mothers in difficult situations who are choosing to keep their babies. It's a good cause. I'm glad to be able to help in a small way.

After SIL left last night, I fed the kids dinner and talked to a reporter from the New York Times, who had called to interview me about something I wrote months ago on my blog. That was kind of exciting.

Just as I was finishing with that, Malamute Rescue Guy arrived with his three kids. Since his wife is on a business trip, I volunteered to watch all 6 kids so the two guys could go to a meeting for the worship teams at our church.

Baby H, who is several months younger than Baby E, missed her mommy and daddy, but her 7-year-old sister A was a big help in distracting and cuddling her. Mr. M, the 3-year-old boy, did great. My kids, of course, were thrilled to have playmates.

All 6 kids played on the swingset for a while. It was so cute seeing Baby E trying to guide Baby H around the yard and coax her to go down the slide. She led Baby H by the hand to the small slide, got her to climb up, and then ran around to the bottom of the slide.

E held out her hands to Baby H, saying, "'Mon, H. Side. I tatch oo. Side; 'mon. Ooo do it. Tatch oo."

Baby H wouldn't slide, so Baby E went around to the steps, climbed up next to her, and showed her how to go down. Just then H realized afresh that her Daddy was gone and started crying, so I picked her up and tried to comfort her. She did enjoy the baby swing, though, and was happy as long as she was being pushed in that. E enjoyed helping "push" her.

After a while we came in and I let the kids help me make a special treat. They peeled zucchini, measured, sifted and stirred while we made a chocolate-zucchini cake. Made with 2 cups of zucchini, mixed with whole-wheat flour and sweetened with honey, it made a relatively healthy treat that was a big hit. While it baked, I helped the kids get their pajamas on and then we read stories.

By the time the extra kids were gone and our kids were in bed, I was completely exhausted. My allergies were acting up from all the cleaning even though I'd worn a dust mask much of the time. There were no sheets or blankets on the bed, but I ended up falling asleep next to a pile of laundry I'd been sorting and some other things piled there to put away, fully clothed, with my cell phone and keys still in the pockets of my jeans.

Unfortunately, sleeping on just the dust mite cover over the mattress wasn't helpful. By the time I woke up this morning my allergies were even more in full bloom and the fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue symptoms were flaring up on top of the congestion, coughing, itching, watery eyes and runny nose. A dose of Zyrtec is at least helping me to be functional. I think I'll vaccuuum the mattress cover before putting on fresh bedding. Hopefully that will help.

Baby E is napping early today, so I think I'll have the older kids take quiet time early so I can shower and nap (or at least rest a bit) too. Then we'll take a load of things to the consignment store.

I'm really excited to be getting so much of this junk out of our house. It will make our home so much more pleasant and usable, and I hope it will help with the allergies too.