Time to Whack the Lilacs! and other home maintenance tips

We are experiencing thunderstorms nightly, occasional tornado watches, and ants in the house.

In other words, we are running a little late, but it's spring in Missouri.

We had about 6 inches of snow on the 3rd day of May this year, and a few days that got up to about 90, but here on May 30th, the temperatures are only in the 70's.  This means we can sleep with the windows open at night and we don't have to turn on the air yet!  It also means the ants have invaded the kitchen again, but that has come to be a spring ritual.  

Whether they come in due to drought or flood, come in they always do.  I am a Terro girl when it comes to getting rid of ants, but this year I'm doing something else in addition.  I am wiping down the counters with 1/2 white vinegar and 1/2 water that I keep in a spray bottle. It destroys the trails they follow.  At least that's what I read somewhere, and it is working.  Vinegar and baking soda have long comprised most of my cleaning solutions.  What one won't do the other will, and in dire cases, pour a little of both on and watch it work.  I also keep ammonia and bleach around, but those 4 are all you really ever need.

Oh, and if you ever need to get rust out of clothing or linens?  WHINK!  Whink is exactly what you need!  My oldest baby left a sweatshirt on the back of the dryer for about 6 months and lo and behold, when he finally got it to his room, it had rust spots on it.  I got on FB and asked if anyone had a sure-fire remedy and one of my oldest and best FB friends, Shirley, put up a link.  I trust Shirley completely, so I clicked on the link and ordered it.  It came within 3 days and all I did was squirt the clear liquid Whink on the spots and they disappeared!  Completely!! Before my eyes!!!!  In 3 seconds!!!!!  It was as close to magic as I had been for a while and I gotta tell ya, you need a bottle of Whink.  Even if your children put up their clean clothes faster than 6 months, even if your dryer isn't rusty, you want a bottle of Whink for when you have to change the toilet lid.  NONE of those are without rust, I am sure.

Tornado watches and being banished to the basement are much more fun with FB, and I found the easiest fudge recipe on there EVER, that does not involve marshmallow cream (which I do not like but will eat, I'm hypocritical like that, but only when it comes down to fudge).  All you do is take a bag and a half of your favorite flavor chips, mix with a can of sweetened condensed milk, bring to a boil, throw it into a buttered 8x8 pan, and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.  My favorite chips are peanut butter, but I seem to be unable to keep them in the house for more than 6 hours, and so I used semi-sweet chocolate chips for our tornado warnings this week and we all survived quite happily.

And last, but not least, I remind you that between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, it is time to whack your lilacs down to about 3 feet high.  I was terrified the first time I did that, but it was well worth it.  Then your lilac bushes will send their energy into their smallest little runners, and the next year your bushes will be wider and more uniform in height.  Don't be scared, be brutal.  It's for their own good, and they will be more and more beautiful for it.  You can also get starts by digging those little runners up and putting them in a pot for a couple of years.  After that it should be ready to be transplanted outside and they make really wonderful funeral or wedding offerings that will never be forgotten.  I have a white and a purple lilac, and while they both bloomed for a few days this year they were covered in snow and frosted severely when they tried to hang on.  Next year I hope they will do much better, but it all depends on the weather.

Happy spring cleaning!

Rosie Posie Girl.....

So Rosie is now 7 months old, sitting up and happiest in the middle of all the action.

I kiss you back!  I mark you with my bodily fluids! Muahahhahahahah!

She has the funniest way of looking up at you when you hold her, as if she is checking to see whether she knows you or not.  She knows me, and once she realizes it's me she grins all over herself. Then I give her 1,000 kisses all over her neck as fast as I can.  She likes it!

Yes, I let you kiss by kissy cheeks, nice lady who doesn't think I should be put down.

I had a little trouble during the time I had both girls by myself.  The angel showed up unexpectedly to cut some limbs for me, bringing his two dogs. His two dogs are the mother and brother to my own, so I had two small children, two big children of my own, an angel with a chainsaw and 4 dogs running in, around, and through the house for awhile.  Remember when I said I'd relaxed about how clean, or unclean, my home is all the time now?  Well, it's here to stay.  At one point I was holding the baby, sitting at my kitchen table, and one dog or another would come in and either stay or go back out, Abigail was having the time of her life with her "big boys" in the backyard, and I thought, "this is all right!"

It all worked out fine and then I couldn't get Miss Rosie Posie to go to sleep.  She wasn't cranky or anything, she just wouldn't go to sleep and I couldn't put her down and Abigail was only going to be entranced in a movie for so long.  So I strapped that baby in the car and drove around for about 20 minutes. When we got home she was almost out, but she had this thing she does where she leans forward.  What she is leaning toward  I do not know, but she's going to have a great set of abs at the very least.  I rocked her a little more and she let go completely.  I laid her down in the cradle and then I went in announced that she was asleep for the night and Abigail and I did the happy dance.  It came right back to me, just like riding a bike.  That gave us time to watch a movie together, which we do in bed, eating popcorn and drinking juice or tea.  She always announces that she doesn't get to do this at her house because "mommy doesn't like messes".  I tell her it takes a long time to get over hating messes and her mommy isn't nearly old enough for that yet. ;)

The next morning Rose and I were up early, getting along just fine when she gave me *that look* sitting beside me in the corner of the couch.  I know *that look* and so I picked her up.  It must be very hard to poop when you are sitting on a couch, don't you think?  Sitting on anything, actually.  Once I picked her up it really got to going faster.  We were in it together, I felt her pain, I told her she wasn't alone.

Soon I felt the dreaded blow out diaper leaking through her back, onto my arm, and then on my front, onto my chest.  It kept right on coming faster than I could find anything to absorb it. I started for the bathroom and it started dripping off my elbow!   Frantically I rolled my robe up to try and contain the hot, pungent mess as I raced down the hall to the bathroom.  Down went the baby onto the bathmat!  Off came any and all clothes that either of us were wearing, I rolled it all into a huge ball with nothing showing on the outside, and into the shower we went!

I had told her mother the day before that I would probably just take her into the shower with me.  Her mother said she didn't know if she would like that because she had never been in the shower before.

I am here to report that she liked it just fine.  Whether this is because she was covered in hot, stinking, radioactive teething baby poop or because we had bonded and she had decided she could trust me, I couldn't say.  Probably a little of both.  She didn't make any sounds when she was pooping and she didn't make any sounds in the shower. She seemed to be in her happy place, in fact.  I cleansed her off, talking to her the whole time.  I said I didn't know WHO had pooped in her pants but they better never do that again!  I rinsed and then I lathered up and then I rinsed her again and she seemed to enjoy it!

I washed her off, heart in my mouth, remembering the different holds, turning her, alternating the holds, and then sat her in the back, out of the spray where she had a ball trying to grab the shower curtain while I washed myself.  I don't know why I was so afraid, I've taken MANY showers with many babies, and never come close to dropping one yet.  I think it's just that I've lived long enough to learn that it can be dangerous to be over-confident.  Not to worry, though. I still got it!

After that it was just a short time until we had to go meet their mom.  I was both looking forward to, and dreading that.

Abigail said her legs were hurting and she needed to stay with me a lot longer.  No, she couldn't get up.   She couldn't feel her legs.  I dressed her like I used to "when she was a baby" and let those two little girls spend as much lazy time as possible in Mimi's bed.

My new favorite sight.

The others babies that love my bed.

This is how she looks when I kiss her head.  I am behind her doing just that here.  This child saved me in a way.  She came along just as I was about to lay on the couch forever and let it all slide.  For her I got up, and my small part of this world has been so much better, ever since.

When we met their mom, she was impressed that Rosie tracked me with her eyes.  What can I say? She's a sound judge of character and she knows who loves her.  After that blow out diaper, there really could not be any doubt.  Only she and I know just how awful it really was.  When I got home and looked at the sweet little pink sleeper imprinted with rosebuds that was soaking in the sink, the stain went from one ankle to the armpit on the other side.  It was EPIC!  Epic in a horrible but memory-setting way!

Only you know and I know, my Rosie Posie girl. ;)  Well, and now the internets.  I beg your pardon in advance, for when you are 11 and can read and get mad at me for this.  

I also had a great idea.  I've always read in books about taking out stains with club soda.  I had never tried it, but I did have some Ginger Ale from making awesome waffles, and I figured I would soak the acidic stain in the greatest antacid known to man.  IT WORKED!  The stain came out.  I was so excited I called her mother who said "Oh, she's about to outgrow that size anyway."

Took the wind right out of my sails, I tell ya, but still, at least now I know.  And now you know too!

It took me a week to catch up on my rest and everything that *must* be done around the house, but it was so worth it.

Until we meet again, my sweet girls.  Next time I promise to schedule a lazy morning in there. Some things you have to make time for, and some things just can't be hurried, especially when you can't feel your legs.

Being Home.....

There is no time sweeter to me than Christmas these days, simply because that's the only time all my kids are ever home at the same time anymore.  

I never thought much about it when they were all home and I felt like I was drowning in kids all those years, and the quiet is welcome, but every once in a while, this old house takes on the rhythmic routine of days gone by. It's like being able to go into the past, only everybody is older now.  There is none of the anxiety that hounded me for so long.  For decades I was stressed over things not being "good enough".  Now I find comfort in the fact that nothing can hurt this house.  We have seen it all, from bees in the walls to fountains of water pouring out of the wall in the shower. I am telling the truth when I say that it would take a doozy to throw us off now.  We have practically been through basic training with this house.   I like it much better this way.

 For the past few days I have:

     - spent the majority of time in my pajama's or an apron, or both.

     - met one or the other of my older "children" coming in at 4 am, and not been upset with them for missing a curfew.

     - visited with my pretend daughter and noticed that of all the people in the house, no one said a word or remarked in any way when my pretend grand baby serenaded us with her version of a song on the piano.  Not too loudly and not for too long.  I was so proud nobody told her to stop.  We are a mellow crew at my house, I am inordinately proud of this.

      - felt the boys trying to gauge how awake their sister is, trying to make the choice between sleeping a little later or getting in the shower before their sister, as there is a long wait for hot water after girlfriend gets done.

     - heard the voice inside my head ask "are you really listening to your brother and your son have a seemingly casual conversation about AR's, which I am pretty dang sure are assault rifles, and both of them sound pretty knowledgeable?" and answered the voice inside my head "Yes......yes, yes I am."  and then smiled.  We are a family who can protect ourselves and those we love or are prepared to die trying.  I am most definitely proud of that.

       - divided up left over ham while my sons bring a table into the house by way of taking off the back door, and then the weather stripping, until they achieved success and kept me from having to turn around and sell a great table and benches that I bought second hand.  Without measuring my doors or the top of the solid tabletop, just in case that was not self explanatory. ;)  I have raised men who rise to a challenge, not to mention perform miracles with nothing more than a pipe fitter's wrench, a tape measure, and 7 flat head screwdrivers of varying lengths.  What a relief.

      - watched while wringing my hands as my sons tried and failed to get the old table down the stairs, as the "new" table would not possibly fit down the basement stairs.  This did not deter them either.  We just switched out the sets and now I can do puzzles on the table in the basement while my youngest baby plays video games with his friends and asks me to "please do not be a part of this conversation, Mom".  Something tells me this could be a game changer.  The basement has been forsaken by me for several years, for reasons having to do with testosterone and dog hair.  No more.  Muahahahahahahahahahaha.

    - watched one of my mother's dearest friends see the Rock Star's tattoo, (which is his grandmother's name right over his heart), tear up, hug him and say "I am so proud of you", which is pretty much the same thing that I did when he showed me, and the LAST thing I ever could imagine saying when presented with any of my children's first tattoo............of which I had adamantly insisted there would never be any "as long as I live".........  I can eat crow like nobody's business, having had quite a lot of practice over the years.  I think I have learned that you just never know what a day will bring, but that it will probably be all right, whatever that is.  I needed that.

       - comforted and reassured my sister in law that it really wasn't a problem that my nephew left the door open and the dog ran in with big muddy paw prints all over the kitchen, because a) This happens all the time!  Really! and b) I bought a carpet cleaner for this exact reason!  You know those commercials where the kids make a terrible mess and the mom just smiles and says "that's OK" in a sing songy voice?  Well, I am now that mom.  It took 22 years and a Bissell but baby, I am finally there and I have to say, it feels good!  It really is OK!!

      **It should be said that if you want to be "that mom", (and you do!!  Trust me, you do!!)  you should be very careful not to replace your carpet or fix anything that happens to your walls for a couple of decades.  This process will erode the part of you that cares about your house looking "good".  This is crucial, not to mention freeing.    At the end of the 20 years, you will not give one single flying flip about another stain on the carpet, OR another hole in the wall, for that matter.  I didn't say it would be easy, I said it would be WORTH IT.  In other words, give up now, give up and relax and just enjoy those kids while they are still there.  The other stuff you can fix or remodel later, or not........ 

I hope you had a great Christmas and some down time to just "be home".  It isn't easy to accomplish in today's world.  You have to really make your priorities count.  And if you are one of those people who are still caught up in getting everything perfect?  Give it up, now, while there is still time.  If you can't drop everything and have a child, at least borrow one for a while, or get a dog.  There is still time to save yourself.  I have often said of children, "they save us".  They really do, not in ways you would recognize as "saving" at the time.  It's in the looking back that you see how the hardest  things were the best things, in the end, and marvel that you wouldn't trade them for anything.

It's nice to be reminded of that once in a while, even at 4 am.

To my kids, you did a really good job with me.  Thanks!