Today was the first day of school for the girls. They were so excited last night they could barely sleep, and then they were both up early this morning.
We started a “walking bus” to school with several of the neighborhood families. The girls were at the door and ready to go about a half an hour before we were supposed to leave to meet everyone.
After I walked back home from dropping them off, Z Man left to attend his college classes. Right now, no one else is home. It is SO quiet! It rocks!
I’m always finding stuff online that I think is really cool. I don’t actually buy the stuff, but I have a lot of bookmarks. Sometimes, I keep browser tabs open for a few days with something I really like, but then I look at again and realize I can live without it… and it’s closed. It saves me from buying stuff that I don’t really need or want.
It’s funny, because I (we) have been trying to downsize our stuff for years. When you have been together as long as we have (over 23 years♥), you accumulate a lot of “stuff”. Plus, add 3 kids into the mix and you have even more “Stuff”. I feel so much better when I get rid of stuff (either by selling, donating or just giving away to a friend). I feel “lighter”. Less to clean, less to deal with…. aah! Like a breath of fresh air! I really like being organized. I hate having to look for anything. It’s a waste of time, in my opinion. I like things organized. A place for everything and everything in its place.
That being said, we moved a into our current home 13 months ago and it is much smaller than our former home. MUCH smaller. We moved from a 1600 square foot house to a 900 square foot house. Plus, our last house was about 9 years old and our current house is 60 (yes, sixty) years old. Don’t get me wrong. I really like our house, but it is small. When this house was built, they weren’t thinking of walk-in closets or storage space. Back then, people owned just what they needed and didn’t buy new stuff to replace “old” stuff, unless the stuff was broken. Personally, I like that way of thinking. When I do find the need to get a new whatever, I try to give away or recycle my old whatever asap. I hate having old whatevers lying around! 😉
But, I digress. When we were getting ready to move to this house, we got rid of a LOT of stuff. I mean, a lot of stuff! We had a couple of garage sales, then donated 4 car loads of stuff to several charities. We still had furniture and all kinds of miscellaneous stuff that we did not need. One night, I placed an ad on craigslist with pics and a list of the driveway full of stuff and said “It’s all FREE and in the driveway now” and added our address. It was after 9:00 pm and dark outside, but FIVE minutes later I heard noises from the driveway. I looked out the front door and half the stuff was gone! I shut the door and went to tell my son how fast it had happened… we walked back over and opened the door… several cars were pulling away and everything was gone. The driveway was spotless. It was AWESOME! I was so happy. I didn’t have to deal with it and other people picked up what they wanted and/or needed.
Since we’ve moved here, I have donated even more stuff or given it away to members of my local mom’s club. We had a garage sale about a month ago and lightened our load some more. I’m still sorting through stuff and still have several unopened boxes 13 months later! I remember when I moved in with my husband and it was SO much easier! I took two small loads in my little Nissan mini-truck and I was done. Nothing was even packed in a box! Those were the days!
When I think about it, it doesn’t seem that hard to not buy any more stuff. I’m not a clothes horse, I don’t have a thing for shoes, I don’t buy gadgets or anything “as seen on TV”, I don’t buy books or audiobooks (I check-out books from the public library), I don’t buy CD’s (thanks to iTunes), I don’t buy DVD’s (thanks to Netflix). But, somehow we still have more stuff.
Of course, we don’t purchase all the stuff we get, sometimes it’s given to us. The kids get stuff for their birthdays, they win little prizes at school or elsewhere, family members send them toys, stuffed animals, etc… It all adds up. When school is in session, we have paper (paperwork, fliers, art, etc.) coming out of our ears. I get so tired of all the paper that comes home! I just want to scream. When I think of all the poor trees being ripped down for another unwanted flier from school… aaaarrrggg! AND then, there’s the artwork – it is SO hard to throw out any of your child’s artwork! I try to keep only the best things and discreetly (when the kids aren’t looking) recycle the rest. That being said, it is VERY difficult to decide what the “best” is and toss the rest. I end up keeping almost all of it. I can’t help it!
The girls are invited to lots of birthday parties and we usually give gift cards as presents. We like to give gift cards that are for a service or special treat (like ice cream, a smoothie or movie tickets). I’m at the point where I don’t want to buy stuff to fill-up anyone else’s house either! The last couple parties that they attended – they came home with more stuff than they took with them.
School starts in a week and a half and, while I’m excited for the kids, I’m not at all excited for the onslaught of the paper… I’m planning to use the quiet time to finish sorting through those unpacked boxes… of stuff that I (obviously, after 13 months) do not want or need.
Speaking of stuff, here’s an interesting video about it:
One of the best things about the house we live in is the view. We have an awesome view of San Francisco Bay and the San Mateo Bridge. It’s just beautiful.
Of course, the view of our backyard is pretty amazing in itself. Whoever planted the landscaping all those years ago (this house is 60 years old) knew what they were doing. It’s the definition of a year-round landscape. Gardeners call it the “Sequence of Bloom”, which is basically planting for different seasons of bloom and color. The person that planned our yard hit the nail right on the head. Every time a plants bloom begins to fade, another starts to bloom anew. There’s always something interesting. My favorite is the Hydrangea bush. It has these beautiful huge blue pom-poms that turn purple. It makes me so happy just to look at it. I’m also a big fan of the California Poppies that grow wild here. The bright orange bloom is so pretty.
We’ve recently added a few new plants ourselves. We’ve planted strawberries, jalapenos, basil, red bell pepper, cilantro and a couple of heirloom tomato plants. We also have a Meyer Lemon Tree that we need to plant. So far we have a bell pepper (still green) and several Meyer Lemons and tomatoes growing. It’s so wonderful to see fresh produce growing in your own yard. Even if it’s just a few little things. My daughters love planting and watering their plants and they get so excited about every new growth!
The girls have been attending rock climbing camp all this week. They had a great time. They love climbing things and I love that they got to push themselves and go higher every day. I’d like them to try everything at least once. I was afraid to try new things as a child and I’ve been working on that, so I would prefer that they skip it all together! These pics are over a few days and are of them climbing in the warm up room. I took video of them on the big walls which I did not post.
Have a great weekend!
BTW – Mike sent me a text right after climbing camp ended the first day. He wanted to know how the girls liked it – and whether Princess A tried to wear her black pumps to camp!
I came across this quote that really spoke to me a while back:
“I think we often want too much, too soon; that we want to be instantly gratified. But most glories come slowly. They take a while to bloom. And you can’t always tell what’s going to be beautiful, sweet and nurturing by looking at it’s small bare beginnings”. – Susan Wittig Albert
The princesses attended another birthday party today. The had a blast. There was a bounce house, a pinata, frame decorating, face painting, etc. When we went to pick them up they looked so cute!
Both girls have also been learning to Rollerblade. Have you ever seen a rollerblading leopard before?
I’m so happy on Wednesday morning when I get to go to the farmer’s market at the college. Today all the kids went with me. The girls like to just be there, but they also like to pick-up some nice fresh kettle corn. Today’s haul of locally grown, organic goodies included: 4 pounds of Bing & Rainier Cherries, Asparagus, Corn, Apricots, Peaches, and 3 pounds of Strawberries. We also bought some fresh-baked yummies from the Italian bakery, including chocolate croissants and Flan (they call it Flan, but it’s more like Egg Custard Pie – which Mike loves). Of course, we had to buy the kettle corn too. It’s hard to not buy too much there. Everything looks so good!
Usually the girls take turns carrying the basket, until it gets so heavy they can’t carry it anymore… then I lug it around. Today, Z Man was there and he offered to carry it around and all the way to the car. Probably because I bought him a chocolate croissant!
I have to mention that Princess A dresses up no matter where we’re going. Today was no different. She had to wear her black velvet dress and black shoes. Those shoes are so worn out on the toes (as you can see), but she loves them because they have a little heel on them. She’s definitely a girlie girl!
On Saturday, the girls were both invited to a friend’s birthday party. The party was a luau and they had a great time celebrating with Nika and bouncing the afternoon away in the bounce house. Mike stayed home to finish some project proposals for work and I spent the afternoon chatting with friends at the party. It’s always interesting trying to complete a conversation when you are constantly interrupted (intentionally or unintentionally) by all of the kids. One of us parents is always on the lookout for the next fall, spill, oops or bad behavior. Sometimes it takes weeks to actually finish a conversation or thought and sometimes they’re just left permanently incomplete. Wait…. what was I saying??
Princess A dressed for the party!
On Sunday, Princess A was invited to another birthday party for her friend, Willow. The theme was Willy Wonka. I mention the theme because when we received the invitation in the mail the week before we thought it…. was…. AWESOME! The invitation is SO cute and well thought out. I want to use the same one for a party someday! Seriously, I’m going to! The invitation was almost TOO good! Princess E was so bummed that she couldn’t go. The girls are invited to parties all the time; sometimes they’re both invited and sometimes they’re not. We promised “E” that we would take her someplace that she would love while “A” was at the party.
The invitation/envelope
The Golden Ticket!
We ended up taking “E” and Z Man to the a Seafood Buffet. “E” is one of those rare children who will try pretty much anything. She loves crab, shrimp, sushi and mussels. We had never been to this restaurant before and thought we would give it a try since “A” was at the party. “A” does not like to try new things. She doesn’t like meat very much (except for Daddy’s special recipe Korean BBQ chicken breasts). In fact, after seeing everything the buffet had to offer, I think “A” would have only wanted to eat the fresh fruit (melon, oranges, pineapple, etc.) and something from the dessert bar (little slices of cake, cheesecake and ice cream). We may have possibly coerced her to try the friend rice, teriyaki chicken and a piece of bread, but it would have been difficult. Seriously. “E” tried a lot that she didn’t care for (sushi, halved lobster, clams, etc..) and a lot of things that she loved (crab legs, mussels, steamed shrimp and teriyaki squid tentacles). She was cracking crab practically the whole time we were there and when she couldn’t get some of the meat out, she would suck it out of the shell. She ended the seafood session with a nice bowl of vanilla/chocolate ice cream. All in all, it was just an okay seafood buffet. The crab and shrimp were good, but most of the other foods were just okay or not good at all. For the price (adults $22 and kids $10), I’d rather go elsewhere. “E” would probably disagree!
E's favorite foods
E eating Teriyaki Squid
Later Sunday, we checked on the blackberries that are growing wild on the side of our yard. We love having berries growing in the yard and we tried some of the ripe ones. They’re just a little tart still. Don’t they look great?
Princess A received a birdhouse kit for her birthday and really enjoyed painting it. She even let Princess E help her with the decoration. Then, about a month ago, they painted 2 more birdhouses. I love the way they turned out. Last week, Daddy hung them in the front yard. We think they look really cool hanging from the trees. After Z Man saw them, he said “Great! Now, we’re the weird neighbors!”. That’s okay with me.
Planetpowers 