Rage cleaning.

Are you a rage cleaner? I didn't realize that was a thing until a few years ago. My therapist told me it's an anxiety overload thing, but also probably some OCD thrown into the mix, too. I realize now that all of my crazy cleaning marathons that I would go on years ago were likely my anxiety taking over because life was hard. Life was busy and I only had two kids then, but I was working full time, so I just never had time to do.... nothing.  

Fast forward to now and while technically I have the time to do nothing, I don't have the opportunity. Most of my days are spent trying to keep up with all four kids, but trying to keep the house relatively clean. I've long since given up my magazine worthy kind of clean for my house, because I don't have the energy levels to do that but also, just vacuuming the one rug exhausts me and I have to lay down for a half hour just so I can then make some toast for myself for lunch. 

God knows I haven't done a deep clean on anything in years. My standards have gone down drastically. 

This last weekend though, I realized the front porch was out of hand. It's the catch all area for toys and kid things, it's basically a play room for them. We never needed a play room before but since we moved, and downsized in space by almost half, we've had to get creative with space and storage. The front porch became the toy room, play room, storage for kid crafts and books, and other. It doesn't take long for things to get out of hand, let's put it that way. So I decided that I was going to spend the time to clean it out and get rid of the things we no longer need. 

I was hoping for help, but this is what my helper opted to do instead. Granted, it was significantly warmer outside than I thought it was going to be, so I know it slowed me way down. Twinky decided he was going to live his best life on the couch while the fan above blew cool air onto him in his indecent position. Jerk. 

It took me hours and I really mean hours to go through every box, every drawer, and every shelf. I went through every single toy piece by piece. Matt ended up hauling out two bags of garbage and a couple of boxes of things to donate. We were able to get all of the kid things onto one side of the porch, so it's not a spread out mess. 

Now we have this whole other side to either leave it empty or do something with. I think the horse (behind my rocking chair) might go soon, I'm not sure. The cats like that cat tree there since they can be the neighborhood watch from there. I'd like to get some kind of lounge chaise or something so I can read out there in the sunshine. Other than that though, I don't have any ideas. I might move some plants out there to see if they do better with more sunlight. I'm trying to get into house plants but so far I've not been real successful. I'm trying, though! 

Moving + Pandemic = Anxiety

I know this probably feels like the longest move you've ever heard of and I would agree with that but technically we've only REALLY been at it for two weeks. You think I'm nuts but no, aside from random boxes here and there, this has only been happening for two weeks and it has been the longest two weeks of my life.

In fact, March is the month that never ends and I just really need it to end right now.

So, updates. Well, we are officially in the new house. The only stuff at the old house is the entire basement, the garage, and then the yard stuff which is still frozen to the ground. We have no real game plan because we have no room in our current basement for our old basement's stuff but we also can't put it in the garage because we have garage stuff, and so we are left with a really unclear plan on what to do. I told Matt maybe we should just rent a storage space and be freaking done with it and he's not super excited about that. Apparently, he would rather live with crap everywhere and climbing over boxes to go pee, which is the current state of things.

In other news, our bedroom is is like 90% done. We have to trim out the window, door, and closet still. We have closet doors that need to be trimmed a little and then those go in. We have yet to purchase something to hang clothes on for in the closet. But other than that, totally done!

It isn't huge but it's actually really nice and Matt did a great job on it. Now if only he'd get my office/craft room/library done we can bring so much stuff down there that is currently spread all around the house. 

Since we are doing this while in quarantine, I've been home to watch TV. We only get local channels so I'm pretty much stuck between PBS, The View, Hot Bench, Dr. Phil, and Judge Judy. That rounds out my day mostly.

It is obviously very exciting.

The fun thing is on The View they often have the "View Your Deal" and I saw they had the Happy Wax things so I bought them because it was on my Christmas and Birthday wish lists and I did  not get them. Treat yo'self and all that.

Oh, and Wisconsin schools are closed until April 6 or 7 (so far) but the rumor is we'll be out for the rest of the year. Who knows if that will happen, I hope not because that would suck. We are supposed to be doing virtual learning and while Olivia and Jackson can handle it themselves with very little help from me, Penelope and Lucy need me to basically be the teacher.

THANKFULLY, Lucy's teacher from Head Start brought this bag FULL of lessons and activities, the supplies to do it with, pajamas, a book, a new toothbrush, and a new stuffed animal. Seriously, it was amazing. 

She was so stinking excited about it and we start her lessons this week. I have to sit down and get everything organized so we can make some kind of sense of it. 

Penelope's is online but I have to have Matt help me with the printer because I just can't comprehend things on a screen so much anymore, I really work best with it on paper so hopefully we can get that organized tonight. 

In the middle of this I had to finish packing up the last of my books and we moved big stuff out of the house, thankfully we had Matt's dad, brother, and sister to help since I can't do anything. It was kind of sad seeing my lovely candles in a box next to my Linda Howard books which are my favorite. Linda got her own box, obviously. 

Oh!! And I found a random cat hanging around the house. I still don't know if it belongs to someone or if it needs a home. Of course I throw all common sense and caution to the wind and snuggle a possible stray cat like its a baby, and Matt says its a miracle I've made it to 38. Which is probably true. 

I posted on Facebook how I was kind of sad when I saw Penelope and Lucy's room empty and fully cleaned out. I remembered how excited I was when I was pregnant with Penelope and I just thought it was sad that what I thought would be the start of an amazing chapter in my life ended up being the beginning of the worst. I obviously don't regret Penelope or Lucy, its just interesting to realize that is maybe the only time in years I had been able to reflect on previous events and see the last few years as a whole piece of my timeline. Which probably makes no sense but most of what I say doesn't anymore so I remain consistent.

Also sad? It was this weekend when Lucy really realized that we live in THIS house now and we won't be going back to the old house. The entire concept really upset her and even though we've reassured her all of her things are here, all of us are here, and talked about the things that are nicer here, she really was upset. I was reminded of what a gentle little soul she is. 

Pandemic continues, though. Wisconsin is now under an essential business closure on top of what we already had. I did have to go to Target on Sunday and it was so completely eerie driving around and nobody at all being around. Aside from my doctor appointment today, that's the only outing I've had (outside of driving back and forth between houses). I have another appointment on Thursday but I might just skip it because meh. 

Like I said, we start kind of home schooling. Yesterday I tried to get the girls to work quietly and it lasted a solid 15 minutes. 

But weren't they cute doing it? Look at that concentration! Perfect pencil grip! 

It all quickly turned into a who-can-do-it-faster thing even though they were doing two totally different activities. I have no idea how I'm supposed to do both kids at the same time. Oy vey.