Cleaning Out

On a day when all the talk is around this glorious snow outside, or the fact that our head football coach was just fired this morning before the season is even over, we are cozy inside doing a bit of school and a bit of laundry.

Knut had a successful trip to the ski swap he drove 3 hours away to with David.  He picked up some used boots and polls for me to go with the skis he got me last year.  He also got some more kids’ skis, which I’m sure will be put to good use no later than this afternoon.  We got some good snow this morning and I don’t think it’s going anywhere!

I’ve been having this mental checklist of things that need to get done before the baby comes.  As I’m days away from finally being term (although not due!  Let’s not be too hasty!) I’ve been using spurts of energy to get some things done that will help me feel more prepared to bring another baby home.

This morning, I cleaned off the cradle and put fresh bedding on it, and picked a few cute swaddling blankets to have nearby.  My hospital bag is basically packed, but I went through it to double check.  I still need to clean the carseat from being in storage, as well as the baby swing.  I’m thinking carseat today.  Baby swing later.  I’m debating bringing out the swing at all this time around.  I’ve used it so much in the past, but I’m wondering if it will be less work to have the little girl in the Moby wrap close to me rather than policing the boys not to swing the baby crazy high.  Yes, I’ll have to carry her, but would it be less work?  I did pick up a new(used) vibrating bouncing chair which I’ve always used more than the swing anyway and the one used by the other 3 kids has bit the dust.  Thinking…thinking…

Last night I got a really big project done that I try to do twice a year.  I’m so relieved to have this done before the baby comes!

(Never mind the boys in their pajamas, and no, I will not tell you what time of day this picture was taken.)

Every year in June before Silje’s birthday, and just before Christmas, I do a major toy purge.  I go through every toy in the house and toss anything that is broken into one bag, and have another big bag of toys that have a lot of use left to them, but my kids no longer show interest in that will go to Goodwill.  Sometimes I have a storage bag too, where I keep toys with sentimental value but the kids don’t have much interest in, or toys that are no longer age appropriate but may see use in the future.  Not this time.  This time I filled 2 large kitchen trash bags full of toys that are leaving my house.  One is going to the dump, the other to Goodwill.

How all these toys get to my house, I’ll never figure out.  However, I find that mid summer, when Silje has a birthday, and garage sale finds that the kids spend their pennies on seem to trickle into the house.  We need a big toy purge before that season.  Then there’s Christmas.  We really don’t buy a lot for our kids for Christmas.  They each get a book picked out by Knut, an ornament picked out by me, a new pair of p.j.s usually made by me, and one toy that’s somewhere in the $15-20 range.  (Although I think the 2 little ones won’t get p.j.s this year as they have so many.  If not getting p.j.s for Christmas when they are newborn and 2 years old puts them in therapy down the road, we’ll have to deal with that when we get there.)

However, toys just seem to appear during this season.  As courteous as the grandparents and aunts and uncles are in asking what the kids may want/need ahead of time, little toys just appear.  It needs constant management to prevent it overtaking the whole house.  This time I safety pinned little felt labels for the older 2 kids to read what is on the inside of each toy tub.  That’s been a huge challenge for them in picking up their toys.  David just doesn’t know which bin is supposed to hold which and has no patience to look inside each bin, and they tend to take a bin out and put it back in a different spot each time.

Now to make an I-cord for one more newborn bonnet…clean the carseat…finish a few more Christmas presents…make some decisions for her baptism soon after birth…really the list is getting short!  What a good feeling!