Category: Groftzoo Updates

Garage, not Junkyard.

The time has come. The time is now.

I MUST stop my house from vomiting into my garage anymore. It’s getting ridiculous.

As the toys and clothes continue to multiply and try to take over every square inch of living space, we gather them up in baskets and throw them into the garage and slam the door before they can sneak back in the house.

But it does. It gets back in.

As the Flylady says, “You can’t organize clutter.”

And how!

So, this is day one. It may take a while, it may take a whole year for all I know. BUt from here on out at least one of Lily’s naptimes per day will need to be dedicated to the garage. And here, for posterity is the proof of what it looks like right now:

First: the view directly from my Laundry room door. This is what I see when I go in there to take something out of the freezer… it’s enough to freeze the blood.

Garage Day 1

Swing your eyes to the left a little, still standing in the doorway and your eyes are greeted with this:

Garage Day 1

Now let your eyes glide to the right from the same spot. I kid you not there really is a ping pong table there. It has stuff under and over it to disguise it. Clever, eh?

Garage Day 1

Finally, if you continue to actually WALK to the right (be careful about where you step!) you will find this, one small swath of real, live garage floor, as yet untainted by our crud.

Garage Day 1

So now you have seen it. You have living proof of what a slob I am. And now I have to either clean it or kill you for having seen it. Hmmmm….. let me think about that one.

I have been slacking off!

I haven’t posted here in a bit… I have been busy sending all my posting energy over to CottonBabies and the blog over there, where I am writing twice a week. In the mean time my own blog has been gathering cobwebs. But since I have a readership of like two people, I figured it wouldn’t make too much a difference. (Hi Tiffany!)

In the mean time we have been going through the Great Illness Influx of 2008. It seems like every 3 or 4 years we have a string of illnesses that seems to stick around for months. There hasn’t been a week yet in 2008 when I didn’t keep at least one kid home from school one day. First there was a nasty stomach virus that took out Max, Posy, Ben, Me, and Jay. Then there was the Real Flu, that awful respiratory stuff that lasted for over a week. That took out Max, James, and finally hit Posy, leaving her with pneumonia. Then last week Max introduced a new one to the household: Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease. I am still hoping that Lily doesn’t catch it, we are not quite out of the incubation period yet. If we can make it to Sunday with no one else getting it, I think we can emerge from our self-induced quarantine.

What a Week!

This week:

  • Jay was out of town for three days.
  • Posy had pneumonia, and missed the whole school week, poor baby was so sick!
  • I spent 9, count them NINE hours on the phone with tech support trying to fix a very stupid problem on my computer. Thank the Lord it is FIXED!
  • Today I get a new grown up adventure, something I have never tried before: getting my car emissions tested with baby and toddler in tow. I am waiting for Lily to get sleepy so she will hopefully snooze through the whole thing.

This was a good week to practice being thankful for things in my life.

Smells like What?

This morning we picked up a few groceries from Trader Joes. On the way out I noticed the real evergreen wreaths by the door and said, “Mmm… lets smell the wreaths!”

I took a deep breath and they smelled so lovely and fresh and evergreen-y.

Tessa smelled them, wrinkled up her nose and said incredulously, “They smell like TREES!”

I’m not sure what she was expecting!

Family Picture, Christmas 2007

Christmas Greetings from the Groft Zoo! Things are crazy around here as always, but here is a brief update about what we have been up to.

Paisley – A senior at Bourgade this year, she is looking forward to turning 18 in March and moving out to begin living the college life. She is working two jobs right now as well as keeping her grades up. She directs two children’s choirs and is working at a skateboarding shop. In her free time she shops and hangs out with her friends.

James – 15 now and itching to be 16 and drive! He is active in the youth group and continues to make trips a few times a year to help build houses for the poor in Mexico. He plays bass, guitar, and piano as much as he can, and has been performing monthly at an Art Walk downtown.

Posy – Nearly a teenager! She will be 13 in February. Posy loves to help people, she is always at her Nana’s helping her out, and she is invaluable around here. She works very hard in school to keep up her grades. She loves to read and hang out with her friends. She is involved in two choirs, one with her Grandpa and one at our parish.

Ben – 10 years old and always has his nose in a book! He has a wonderful imagination and way with words. He is always a joy to be around. He started band in school this year and is playing the trombone.

Tessa – started Kindergarten this year! She is so grown up and is definitely all Girl! She loves to play dolls and house and has discovered arts & crafts. Her favorite activity right now is coloring. She loves to give her creations to anyone she cares for. She recently began violin lessons.

Max – turns 3 on Christmas Eve. He loves to talk, although his lisp makes him hard to understand sometimes. He is very loving and very much a little homebody. He also began violin lessons with Tessa. We were blessed to find a lovely teacher who is working patiently with both kids.

Lily – the newest Groftling. Lily is now 3 months old, she was born on September 14, delivered by her daddy because the midwife hadn’t yet arrived! Thankfully the midwife arrived only a few moments later. She is a beautiful baby who loves to be swaddled and snuggled. Her siblings all adore her.

Jay & Jenni – Jay is working hard testing tanks and every spare moment Is taken up by singing. He is putting together a CD and hopes to have it out early in 2008! Jenni stays home with the kids and tries to keep the peace and keep the house from being condemned. She sews, scrapbooks, and reads when she can but those times come seldom with a tiny baby in the house.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you! May you be blessed and safe in the coming months!

Amazing!

This past Sunday, while we were waiting for mass to begin, Max was watching the violinist warm up. So I let him go out into the aisle to watch her a little closer. She motioned to him to come and touch her violin.

He walked over, ever so tentatively, and touched it. Then she handed him the bow and showed him how to move it over the strings. While he did that she helped him play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. He was enchanted! Then she looked up to me and said, “I have started children as young as two and a half before.”

Well, I thought, we can’t just pass on an opportunity like this! This past summer I had started trying to find a Suzuki teacher for Max and Tessa but they were all too far away so I gave up. This nice lady may not be a Suzuki teacher, but I figured she had experience with very small children. So Jay and I talked and decided that we would do whatever it took to get the kids into lessons with her.

I called her last night. I am so amazed at how blessed we are.

  • She will start them this Saturday.
  • She will come to OUR HOUSE to teach them.

AND… (drumroll please) she is certified in the Suzuki method.

I am totally doing the happy dance!

The Swing (AKA Neglect-o-Matic)

With other babies, when I had a swing (which was not even with every baby) it was in use for 15-30 minutes a day.

Lily is in LOVE with the thing. Last night she screamed and screamed and nothing we did made any difference… until we put her in the swing. Then she let out a big sigh, turned her head and went right to sleep. And she just did the same thing this morning. I feel like I am leaving her in there too much, I feel like I am depending on the swing too much, I feel like I am holding her too little.

Guilt just comes at us from all sides when parenting, doesn’t it? Holding too much, holding too little; feeding too much, feeding too little; sleeping too much, sleeping to little; not doing enough of this, doing too much of that… on and on it goes.

But she is sleeping and that is a good thing, right?

(And how can she love the swing and the car? I don’t get THAT at all!)

I feel so, I don’t know… un-AP right now.

(Not that I feel like I have to fit under certain AP guidelines, but I have always been a baby-wearing, snuggly type of mom. This is a puzzle to me.)

I do worry that she should learn how to sleep on a flat, non-moving surface, but maybe that just needs to wait until after this fussy stage is past.

Ah parenthood. Just when you figure it out they change all the rules on you! 🙂