A Pain in the Neck

Yeah, I know. It's been awhile. I have a valid excuse. A week and a half ago, I woke up with a crick in my neck. It got progressively worse and as is my usual fashion, I procrastinated on calling Dr. Quack. I finally called and have been receiving daily [expensive] treatment since.

One thing I know for certain: my pain in the neck is at least partially punishment for all of the precious hours I waste on the likes of Facebook and Blogger. There is, at this point, no comfortable way for me to access this evil machine. As I write, I am sitting on my favorite recliner, ice pack on my shoulder, rolled up blanket behind my neck, and my computer on top of my lap desk which is balanced on a pillow on my lap. And did I mention that after I finally got sort of comfortable in this position, the phone rang? Yeah, forgot the phone. I yelled to the kids to answer it, but they got to it too late. Not a big deal. Just annoying.

This morning I actually woke up feeling not quite so bad. At least the pain of having been frozen in the same position all night did not cause me excruciating pain when I tried to delicately roll out of bed. And when I say roll, I mean that literally. However, as is my usual fashion, I took my feeling better to mean that I should DO Things. Like vacuum. Oh, and move a desk.

You see, I really want a desk in the family room. I realize a desk will not look that great in our already crowded family rom, but it is for Functionality's Sake. Unfortunately, my dear husband has not seen my vision and thus has not moved my desk into the family room. In cases such as these, I take it upon myself to move the furniture where I want it in order to surprise him when he gets home: "Surprise! The table you didn't want in the middle of the living room is now there. But doesn't it look much more lovely than you ever imagined?"

I had the boys, for the most part, move the desk according to my direction. But then of course there are other things that need to be moved. The desk was the Princess's art table in her room, so I had to move a table from upstairs into its space. But there was the crabs' terrarium on top of the table, so that had to be moved as well. I suppose in retropect, this was not as urgent of a project as I deemed, and it could well have waited until a later date when my neck is healed.

Waiting would go against my usual fashion, though.

Just declare it a disaster area...

...our whole house, that is! My house is ABSOLUTELY trashed! And I have no one to blame but myself, although I guess the 25 people we had here Christmas day probably contributed a little bit. But I could have had all of that cleaned up by now if one thing hadn't led to another. We are rearranging the house. Let me back up to find the first event that occurred to spark this move:

Actually, it was two events, one ongoing and one actual event. The ongoing event is that for the past year Alex has been calling the guest room her room. I suppose since it was her room it was actually no longer a "Guest Room"; however, when we had guests, she would get kicked out to sleep wherever but only after much, much, much (did I say "much" already?) prodding to clean it up because she's quite the slob (I can call her that because I was just like that growing up, plus I'm her mother!). It was a battle and one we grew weary of.

Then there was the boys' bunk bed. They have roughhoused on it so much that several of the slats on the top were broken and Jacob was constantly reminding us to do something about it so Michael wouldn't come crashing through on top of him. While my handy husband could have fixed the slats, why bother when my rough boys will just continue to break them? So in the interest of the safety of our youngest son, we took the beds apart. As we were taking them apart, I had a brilliant idea (not looking quite so brilliant at the moment as I sit here with piles of stuff precariously balanced on my desk). I suppose there is a third contributing factor to my brilliance. Up until this point, the playroom has doubled as our schoolroom. While I love the space, I hate the mess.

So here's what we're doing: the boys are going to move into the playroom, Alex is moving into the boys' room, and our guest room will once again be a guest room. As for our schoolroom, well, I'm sending the kids to school.

Just kidding.

We're going to do what every other homeschooling family does: school at the kitchen table. The guest room will double as my school "stuff" storage room (neatly, of course, which is my motto). Now I'll be able to school and make lunch at the same time. Or watch the cookies in the oven while we school. Or clean up breakfast while we school. Or just school but feel much less like I'm trapped in a pig sty.

As for my guest room? I don't have to change the sheets everyday as we juggle guests (and we do have a lot of people drop in). We don't have to come up with a place for Alex to sleep. I don't have to go behind her idea of clean at the last minute to actually clean it up. I don't have to contend with dried toothpaste in the guest sink. Or spit on the mirror. Or Pollys laying in a puddle of who knows what on the bathroom floor. Or wet towels that have been on the floor for a week. Or dried shampoo rings in the shower.

This is quite a process, however. I'm questioning my brilliance at the moment, but I'm sure once everyone is settled, we'll love it. In retrospect, I'm thinking it may have been even more brilliant to put away the Christmas stuff BEFORE we started this massive project, but once I get an idea in my head, I have to see it come to fruition immediately so there you go. I am getting a little antsy to have the entire mess cleaned up, though. You see, I'm one of those psychotic people who can't sleep as well if the house is a mess. And I can count on one hand the number of times the bed has gone unmade in the last 5 years. See? Psycho.

But it will get done. It must get done because we have another guest coming tomorrow to stay for a few days. And sometime next week an entire family is dropping in. So it must get done. Quickly.

If I could capture the enormity of the mess in one photo, I would, but it's too spread out, so picture any one disaster area and you've got a visual on our house.

Motley Crew

How many men does it take to plaster a 16x28 ft. pool? Apparently about the same number as it took to frame this 2-story 3300 sq. ft. home! The crew of about 10 descended on our house this morning at 7:30. I could feign irritability at their early arrival, but since the princess had already been awake for an hour, it's all good. They were supposed to come yesterday, but the particular plaster material we ordered didn't come in on time, so I was actually pleasantly surprised to see them on a Saturday.

These are not the normal pool guys we've been dealing with up to this point. Our pool guy subs out two parts of the whole job, and plaster is one of them. This was a rather motley crew: about half of them were clean-cut Hispanics sporting bling around their necks. The other half looked like they dropped in from Woodstock: long hair in ponytails, long beards, bandanas. The boys had a few comments: "Daddy, that man is naked," commented one boy. He wasn't really naked, just shirtless, although he would have been a little easier on the eyes had he pulled his pants up a tad...and put on a shirt. Case in point: Boy #2 added, "And he has a baby in his belly." I'm guessing that if the man really does have a baby in his belly, the baby's name will be Budweiser.

We went out for awhile and came back to find the regular pool guys here completing the final acid wash. This is the last step before we get to the hard part: filling the pool. Yes, I said that filling the pool with water is the hard part. We're on a well, so we can't just run the hose for hours or we might: A) Break the well pump or B) Run the well dry. So...we're running the hose a couple of hours at a time, giving it a break, and then resuming Operation Fill the Pool. We are also having a water truck come in on Tuesday to give us a little help. Of course the water truck not only costs extra, but the guy is also worried about cracking our driveway. We've already had concrete trucks up here, though, so what damage can a water truck do? Anyway, we've promised the kids that they'll be able to splash in the overgrown puddle we will have accumulated by tomorrow after church.

Soon...very soon we can have some relief from this horrible Georgia humidity! Even our Motley Crew commented on the heat this morning, and they're used to working in it!

HGTV at Our House

As you know, we've had a little construction going on in our backyard for the past few weeks. What you might not know is that several weeks ago, Mark and I were seriously considering selling our house. Because we built the house ourselves, there is a lot of equity in it already after just two years. We thought it might be a good idea to sell and use that equity to pay down a new house. We had a couple of agents in to look at the house and we even went out to see what is "out there." We weren't all that impressed with what is out there, so we changed our mind and decided to fix up our humble abode here on Cox Dr.. So, as we have worked hard over the last few weeks to make our house our own little paradise, we have essentially gone from "Designed to Sell" to "Designed to Stay."

I mentioned in a past post that I'm not a process person, and I stand by what I said. I want the dirt to be gone. I want the various boxes of supplies and tools to be gone. I want to be able to close my gate again. I want to be on my own schedule instead of someone else's. And I want to be able to freely use my bathroom again without fearing that a worker will be peering in at me from the backyard. While I like hard workers, the other morning I heard them outside my bedroom window before I had even gotten out of bed and dressed yet. Granted, I had chosen to sleep in on that particular morning, but it will be nice to wake up to the sounds of birds rather than Spanish and the rattling of tools.

The kids, of course, don't mind it all; it's something different and out of routine, not to mention the fact that they know they'll eventually have a pool out of all of this (the hope I hang on to as well). This past week has probably been the most interesting for them. Monday the pool guys came and put in the concrete around the pool. It's always exciting to watch the concrete shoot in from the hose and then watch the men smooth it all out. Yesterday they came back with a saw to cut grooves into the hardened cement.

The day turned out to be a noisy one because the "concrete sawers" tag-teamed the landscapers who came to cut down 7 trees. Now this was entertainment for the whole family! We all enjoyed sitting at the window watching these trees being taken out, quite quickly I might add. The kids really got a kick out of the whole event when the guy had to shimmy up the tallest tree with his belt harness and spikey shoes in order to gradually cut it down.

Our yard looks enormous to us this morning with all of those trees out. It's brighter too with the new sunshiny spots as well as the reflection of the sun on the new concrete. The pool is just about finished, and clearly you can see that we have a little ways to go still with the landscaping, but we're just about "Designed to Stay!" Once we're finished, HGTV, eat your heart out!

A Before and After:

Update on the Princess and the Pool

First the Princess…it’s been 4 days since her injury, and she’s doing well; she even attempted clapping today. Despite her discomfort, I have to admit that she is an absolutely adorable invalid (But then she’s pretty much absolutely adorable no matter what she’s doing!). Her little bandaged hand looks like a cast, and she holds it up and out to the side. She is especially cute when she does her new trick—the kids will ask her a question like, “Who’s cute in this family?” and she’ll raise her little bandaged hand and yell, “ME!” That’s about the most movement she gives her injured hand up to this point, though. She had left-handed tendencies before her injury, and we’ve decided that this experience will dictate her definitive left-handedness since she is using it for everything.

We’ve developed quite a routine for changing her bandages, although that routine was disrupted today when Mark left. She normally cries and fights us when we change her together, but tonight she was a perfect angel when I went solo. Mark had suggested before he left that I put her in her seat at the table. I did so and gave her some candy to hold with her good hand. Then we chatted about the birds and the dog and before she knew it, she had a clean bandage on. Then came the most important part of the routine: The first time she had her bandages changed, it was so traumatic, I took her outside afterwards to calm her down. Now she expects that we will go on a little walk down to the mailbox and back each time she has her dressing changed. She’s quite the little character!

As for the pool, it’s coming along nicely. The crew was here today putting on the coping after having installed the tile last week. Next will be the decking which will happen sometime this week as well. According to our contractor, we may possibly be in our pool weekend after next! It has certainly been a quicker process than anticipated, although I’ve had about enough of the dirt everywhere!

Mark spent some time working in the back yesterday. My genius Handyman Husband ran a gas line to the far corner of the lower end of our yard where our grilling area will be. He also ran electricity to meet any needs we will have when we transform that space into a seating area. In addition, we plan to have a lamppost to which he ran an electrical wire as well. As the days get warmer, I’m looking more and more forward to being able to jump in!

The kids have enjoyed the pool already—exploring the concrete depths of it, that is. Audrey spent a long time yesterday collecting leaves. She would toddle down to the deep end—her little feet padding against the concrete, her injured hand up in the air—pick up a leaf, pad back to me, add the leaf to her pile on the steps, and then return for another one. She was quite proud of her accomplishment and protested loudly when it was time to go in.

Processes and the Perfectionist

Today has taught me something about myself. Of course I already knew I was a perfectionist. Any psychologist could tell me that without spending any time with me--I am, after all, an only child! So what did I learn today? I hate processes! When I want something, I want to just disappear until the project is completed (perfectly, of course!). This morning at 8:30, our yard looked pristine…OK, well, if you know us, you know pristine is not entirely accurate, but anyway…

By 9:15, it looked like, well, I didn’t snap a picture of the initial mess (I was up to my elbows in waffle batter, 2 babies, and 5 kids; I was babysitting). As of this evening, things do look a bit better…and very different: For all the mess there was, it is actually pretty clean. We have a great contractor for this pool—very conscientious—one I wish did other things besides just pools, so we could use him for other projects as well. Anyway, the pool process is quicker than I anticipated; however, the whole process thing does bother me.

Mark got to leave today. And he wanted to stick around for the process. Of course I do get the unwanted privilege of sticking around to endure the process. But I've got my four, including the Princess. And she is SUCH a princess. She discovered some high heeled dress-up shoes and was absolutely so proud of herself for putting these things on. She pranced around in them a bit, and Alex made a big deal of it. When she saw this reaction, she pointed upstairs where the boys were and indicated through her grunts and gestures that she wanted them to come down and make a big deal over her as well!

As far as the other kids go…school? Isn’t that what’s supposed to be going on right now? Well, there actually hasn’t been a whole lot of that going on around here, but I’ve got the plans laid out to get back on it tomorrow. I’m hoping VBS can count as school or we’ll be well into June before we can break for the summer and begin enjoying the pool fulltime! VBS really is very academic…Bible, music, recess, crafts; it’s better school than you’ll get at the P- Academy for Homeschool (PAHS). Ahhhh, but I do have so many academic aspirations for next year! Hopefully, I’ll have enough sense to work toward those goals. As for today, we’ll chalk it up to Tools and Technology since the kids got to watch the tractors dig the big hole in my backyard.

Matches Made in Heaven

Today is Mother’s Day, and I feel so honored to be Mother to my four. It is such a privilege that God entrusted these four to us!! Are there four children in this world who could have fit together in this family more perfectly? Not a chance!

It’s been a good day…dreaming of the day in a few weeks when we can jump in the pool on a hot, muggy day like today; planning and dreaming up gardens and fun places to create and play in. And…I think Alex has her first crush! She was really hanging around this boy named Jonathan in Sunday School, and he seemed to have a special affinity for her as well. She gets a little crimson colored and giggly when you mention him, so one can only guess. A few minutes ago, she informed me that Jonathan also watches American Idol and America’s Funniest Home Videos. Aaahhh! A match made in heaven!

The ground breaking for the pool will take place tomorrow morning. And we will soon have a landscaper lined up to come finish some things in the yard. Although our budget is small, we will at least get the rest of the backyard finished in matching grass as well as get rid of a lot of trees that are casting unwanted shadows on the pool area. Our pool area at this time is set apart by string, which has been pinned to the ground for the last week just waiting…