I started on a task on my list that I can do with minimal finger usage — the file server. It is a terabyte RAID that only had 307MB of free space left. That would give me enough space for about 11 photos from my camera before we’d be out. I started sorting through the files today. There is some old stuff on there. Wow. And duplicate things due to it horrible organization. I also started going through photos — making sure they were all tagged and unneeded ones were deleted. I’m still in 2001. I worked on the file server for about 5 hours today before I just couldn’t do more. We now have around 25GB free.

We had Popcorn Movie Slumber Party Night tonight. I make the kids beds on the floor, make popcorn, and we’ll watch a movie before going to sleep. Tonight we watched Coraline. It was my first time to see it. I thought it was fabulous! Ada is settled down with her sleeping bag, and I’m about to do the same on the other sofa. Jay had to be put in his bed because he wouldn’t stay lying down. I wonder if they will remember these nights?

Yesterday was a bust, sort of. I woke up in the morning with the kids, letting Mac sleep in. James would not let me put him down. When I was holding him, he would just lie his head on my shoulder. He only does this when he is sick. I pulled him up in my lap in the recliner where he snoozed for about an hour, and I almost snoozed for about an hour, but Ada kept wanting help with Animal Crossing. After Mac woke up, I felt as tired as James, and I went back to bed. I took a nap, and then lied around with Ada, either playing with stickers and drawing or building our garden in Viva Piñata. That is all we did all day. We only changed out of our pjs when it was time to go back to bed. Then we put on clean pjs.

We started off a little better today. I’m taking a break from cleaning now. I started thinking about this week’s menu. I think that this week I’ll be winging it. I’m still not sure what I’ll be making for Wednesday either. The only thing I can think of as far as meals go is that I want to empty out the deep freeze so I can defrost it. One thing in there is a turkey, which for the four of us will provide meals for most of a week.

Todo List

• DONE: Finish cleaning kitchen. This was the kind of cleaning where I moved everything off the counter tops, cleaned the lids to all the flour bins, and polished all the stainless steel.
• DONE: Mop floors
• DONE: Organize the kid’s playroom
• STARTED: Fill up and label 400 DVD changer–It can read some of the discs and automatically put in the title, the others have to be added manually. Blech.
• DONE: Make bread–we are out of loaf bread
• Clean our bathroom
• Dust the high places that I can’t reach without a step ladder. That is a lot of places.
• Start planning Ada’s new math activity for her laptop. I requested a developer’s key for the XO. It should be ready so I can start programming things for her laptop.
• DONE: Get Ada’s Animal Crossing photo off the SD card in the Wii. Her favorite things are getting coffee, getting her haircut and getting new shoes. Want to see Ada’s Animal Crossing Personality?
• DONE: Make appointment to get the kids’ haircut in real life. James is getting shaggy^*, and Ada’s bangs are in her eyes and she’s starting to get tangles again now that it is shoulder length.
• DONE: Make an appointment to get my hair cut.

*I like shaggy hair on boys, but Mac doesn’t.

I made it 119 days in a row. I guess I’m going to have to do two photos tonight.

Another Hello Kitty item to add to Ada’s collection.

I’ve been in a “No Chores This Weekend” sort of mood, but they don’t get done when I sit on my duff all day. I managed all the laundry, which I love to have all done on the weekend. I’m going to scrub down the kitchen and bathrooms at the very least. Mac was very kind and picked up and vacuumed our room.

James sounds like he needs a nap, and while I’m doing chores is the perfect time for him to have one. It is hard to do them while he is clinging to my legs or opening the kitchen towel drawer^* and dragging out all the towels. I should get on it because I have a game to watch at 4:00.

*It is the only kid-reachable cabinet to which we didn’t attach a lock. It is one of the most frequently used drawer, and having to get the magnet to constantly unlock it would be irritating. And they are only hand towels and wash clothes. They can’t do any harm with those. But James has discovered he can open it. And drag out the towels. If he would pick one towel and play with it, fine. He just enjoys the act of taking out the towels, so he bores quickly with the one he has and goes for another. Sometimes I’m lucky and he finds thrills in just opening and shutting the drawer.

I hear James though, so it is time to get them up and start prepping dinner. I also need to take a photo today. Maybe I’ll try to shoot a muffin.

Since I was out with my mother yesterday, chore day didn’t happen. I came home to a messy house. I canceled family day today because I had to tackle some of it or go crazy. I did the typical putting away things that were on the kitchen counters instead of in the cabinets where they belong. I scrubbed down all the counter tops. I thought that we must be collecting a lot of bread since there were quite a bit scattered near the breadbox, but upon opening the breadbox, I found it empty, so *whew*. It was just that people couldn’t take the extra couple of seconds to put the bread in the bread box. Why when it is so much easier to just throw the bread in the general vicinity of the bread box? In between tackling the kitchen, I did 6 loads of laundry including the sheets.

My pet project was the refrigerator. I took out every shelf and scrubbed them down. I tossed all but the recent leftover. I looked at every condiment bottle at expirations dates. What I ended up with is a clean and organized fridge. It was my picture of the day because I want to be able to look back and remember. It won’t stay this way for long.

I finished and put this picture up just in time to make dinner. Beef pinwheels with a creamy vege soup that I’m making out of the veges in the fridge that need to be used or tossed.

• Wipe down washer & dryer
• Organize and wipe down utility cart
• Mop laundry closet floor
• Empty dryer lint trash bag
• Scrub out kids’ tub
• Mop kids’ bathroom floor
• Mop our bathroom floor
• Clean & organize kitchen countertops
• 2 loads of dishes
• 5 loads of laundry (including a load to wash all the rags that I used to clean)
• Clean & shine front of appliances
• Scrub kitchen sink
• Make dinner with extra chicken for dinner tomorrow
• Pick up all toys
• Check/replace air freshners
• Vacuum (okay, I feel guilty putting this since the Roomba does the vacuuming while I do other things)

Mac pitched in and cleaned out and organized his half of the closet. He ended up finding a container that had some old yoga pants! I now have two more pairs of pants for exercising/lounging. He also started organizing our DVDs. We have many and many and many.

James had a melt down this evening. He really is a calm and easy kids. He cries, and it is either diaper, food or sleep. I get one of three, and he’s fine again. Tonight, he just wouldn’t stop crying And if I put him down, he cried so hard his face turned bright red. He wouldn’t eat. His diaper was fine. I gave him a lotion rubdown and some of his cream for his skin. He just kept whining if I was holding him, or screaming if I put him down. Finally I was able to rock him back to his calm self. I was getting a little worried because it is very much out of James’ character. If it was Ada, I would just think “eh, another day with Ada.” Not my boy though. I tried looking at his gums, but I didn’t see any signs of teeth trying to push through.

Mac went out with friends and I’m going to read until he gets home. Yes, read! It has been so long since I’ve read fiction. I started a book that I should have read already because I know the author’s talents, but it is in a genre that I don’t typically like. Now, I am reading it, and I’m enjoying it and wondering why I waited.

Today is the day that I do chores. Let me make a small correction: Today is the day that I attempt to do chores. With family day being on Sunday, and me not being organized enough to keep up with everything during the week^*, I generally have to book it on Saturday to keep up.

This is the basket that used to belong to laundry, but now is designated as the pick up all the loose toys around the house basket. Ada can empty it as fast if not faster than I can fill it. She also likes to sit in it as well as the tall baskets that are still used for laundry.

I missed a wonderful photo opportunity today because I had the card out about to download the current images. Ada walked up to me without pants wearing one boot, and it was on backwards. No, not on the wrong foot. She was trying to walk around with the toe pointing towards her heel. By the time I had jammed my card back in the camera and swiped off the lens cap, she had taken the boot off. Drats.

Okay, time for chores.

*For example, say I stay up a few minutes later on Thursday to mop the kitchen floor. Then, on Friday, someone** leaves the bowl of peaches on the table a little too close to James, he grabs it, and throws it on the just mopped floor.

**That would be me.