Sometimes I amaze myself. This weekend was one of those times when I was truly awed by what I was able to accomplish. So I'm going to brag a bit - not to impress anyone else but mainly to keep a record of some of what I was able to accomplish on two of my better days.
Saturday started out with a pre-dawn 5 mile run. Cut Ram’s hair then tried to get our tiller running to level out some ground and dig a hole to plant a mango tree. After cranking and fiddling with it for about 15-minutes, I discovered the choke lever spring was broken and doing nothing so I gave up on that, grabbed a hammer & nails and went about reattaching and securing the railing slats around our exterior footings under the house that keep the dogs in our yard and other unwanted creatures out. Watched some of the Tour de France & national swimming meet during breakfast & while doing dishes then went to work spot treating the remnants of everything on the living room carpet. Then I decided to just keep going and shampooed the whole carpet with our trusty all-in-one Kirby.
While letting the carpet dry, I started assembling Zana’s back to school supplies and checked all but 4 items off the required supply list with stock I had purchased on sales over the past few months. While digging through the office stash, I found the portrait I had done at Olan Mills of Zeth commemorating his adoption finalization 2-months ago so I found a picture frame, cleaned and filled it and mounted it on the wall in the living room. I also came across a long-forgotten owners guide for our wonderful front-loading washing LG He washing machine. I browsed through it and learned that my machine has a lint filter in a little trap door that is recommended to be drained twice a month. We purchased the machine 1.5 years ago in November 2007 so it was probably due for a good purging. But it was already in the middle of washing a load of rugs and I got distracted by the kids playing with the dogs and on the swing in the back yard and ended up out there scrubbing down lawn chairs which were encrusted with dirt.
Somehow during my unanticipated weekend cleaning spree, the fever caught on with Ram so while I was attacking the inside, he was doing yard work. Once his pile of bags of rocks, poop & weeds was ready to go he agreed it was time for us to dig out our broken down treadmill in the laundry/food storage room and haul it to the dump. So we did. That was no small ordeal but I’m so much happier with the light and space we gained in that room. So of course when we got back from the dump, I went right to work sweeping & cleaning out the room then rearranging all the luggage, holiday decoration boxes and food storage in a more accessible and condensed arrangement. Meanwhile, Ram washed both of our cars.
While folding loads of laundry I started cleaning out my dresser and meticulously disposed of a large pile of old under clothing for both King Ramsey & myself. I decided it was time for me to sew the torn side of our bed skirt which has been slowly ripped off by Zeth’s little feet which use our box springs as a step while scaling up our lofty king-sized pillow-top mattress. So I removed the skirt and sewed it up nicely then threw it and our comforter in the wash. My legs were taking on the appearance of an European backpacker and so I sat down and Epiladied those back into a more suitable state and finally hopped into the shower – 14 hours after my morning run began. It was really time for a shower by then.
While I was cleaning up, Ram and Zeth had eaten leftovers for dinner and were lounging on the Lazy-boy so I took Zana out for dinner and did our grocery shopping then back home to find our boys fast asleep. Good thing, I needed some quiet time to prepare my lesson for church in the morning. I was asked to sub for the Mia Maid teacher who just had a baby. Yay! While mulling over my lesson, I went to throw a load of laundry into the dryer and remembered the lint filter so I drained it. Mostly sand. Lots of sand actually. Go figure.
Sunday morning came bright and early. I made it with the kids for our 8:00a Sacrament Meeting. Great speakers, great spirit. Did my job as Sunday School secretary. Got about 5-minutes into my lesson with the Mia Maids and Laurels (who joined us because their teacher was not there for some reason) when the bishop’s counselor comes in and asks our whole class to join the rest of the adults and young men for a combined emergency preparedness class. So my lesson was cut short which was just a little frustrating after mentally preparing for it all week but the 72-hour kit meeting was enlightening & motivating.
After church I rolled out our neglected 72-hour kit and started updating it. I estimate it had been 3 years since I last opened it and it was interesting to see what happens to certain comfort foods in that amount of time. Yuck. So I gathered an updated set of clothes for each of us and vacuum-packed them in individual gallon sized ziplock freezer bags to keep them dry. I’ve got a great list of things I’m going to include in the kit this time but got distracted every time I tried to focus on it and didn’t get it all done yet.
During lunch, we watched a Liken the scriptures movie then Zana wanted to read about the Liahona in the Book of Mormon. Zeth just wanted to play and was being so stinkin cute in his attempts to deter our reading. He’d sit on the book or lean on us so hard we’d collapse on it or get in our faces so we couldn’t see it. We didn’t get too far on our reading but I did teach Zana how to use the Index to find subjects.
One of the best distractions of the day was after lunch while getting him ready for a bath, Zeth made his first B.M. on his training potty. Sadly he also made a small soggy deposit on the carpet inside a closet before making it to the bathroom but he did the vast majority of it on the potty. Yay! Then he got another bath which is one of his very favorite things to do. Since I was positively on fire, our 50-gal water storage drum out in the garage was about 5-years overdue for a fresh supply. I was nervous about opening the lid after so many years but there was no odor, cloudiness or sliminess as I had anticipated. I watered our plants with the old water then scrubbed it down and replenished it with fresh water and 2oz of bleach. I feel more ready for hurricane season now.
The kids were outside with me entertaining each other mostly coloring with sidewalk chalk and riding bikes. Zeth figured out how to propel himself on our 3-wheeled razor-scooter and impressed me with his natural good instinct to let go of the handlebars jump off and save himself each time he’d start to topple. Zana and I drew large swirly bike trails down the driveway and into the street with chalk for the kids to follow on their various toys until daddy got home from church. Meanwhile I also noticed our palm tree cluster was blooming and several palm fronds were blocking our walkway so I got out the jaws of death and cut off some key branches then chopped them down for the compost pile.
One of Zana’s favorite treats is Spam musubi and she was hankering for some so for dinner I decided to make a batch. She was thrilled and wanted to help but just as the rice finished cooking, Zana slipped away and fell asleep. It was only 7:30p but I couldn’t wake her. So I wrapped up half a dozen musubis and stuck them in the fridge. She had one for breakfast this morning and was pleasantly sated.
It was a hard-core labor-intensive weekend and it felt so great to get so much of my long to-do list accomplished. See ladies, sometimes a little PMS is a good thing! ;-) Tonight we had FHE with our regular FHE gang and the entire Wasson family who are having a reunion this week. We went for a driving/walking tour of historic points complete with ghost stories by one of the kupuna (grand parents) in our community. I had a hard time shifting gears to slow down and rest well last night but I think I’m all revved out and ready to get truly comatose for the night. Is it really still Monday?
