When someone is pregnant, they typically experience a surge sometime during their last trimester to majorly clean and organize the house in preparation of the impending chaos. Experts call it "nesting." I never experienced this. Sure, I had a desire to have a clean, neat environment in which to raise my progeny, but not the energy to put forth the effort.
Apparently, my nesting instinct strikes, oh... about 18 months AFTER the birth of my SECOND child. I am as NOT pregnant as they come, but recently, I have begun to completely clean and organize the house. Not just little spurts as in the past, but I actually have a plan for every room, and intend to do it all before the winter.
I believe the motivation came from conversations with my husband about moving. We've been talking about the little things we wish our house had and how we might want to look elsewhere to find them. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize that we really do have a great house, and we can do a lot more with what we have. There is plenty of space in this house that is just used ineffectively, and I am going to change that. Both kids have huge walk-in closets that are currenty filled with stuff they don't need. And the stuff they DO need is spread all over the house. We have a HUGE storage closet upstairs that is only about half-organized, and could really house most of the stuff in the kids' closets. We have shelves that are just covered with piles of stuff rather than organized in any reasonable way. We have a huge desk with junk crammed in and on it, rendering it (and the stuff it contains) useless.
My concern is that this won't last. I'll get part-way through the house and just give up. I think part of my stamina is coming from the fact that my job is very sit-down lately. Lots of writing and meeting. So I have an outlet for the physical activity of cleaning. But once I'm back to more running around the library, I have to keep the energy up. We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, I've done most of the dining room, most of the master bedroom, completely done my closet, and I've done a good part of the kitchen. I'm off this weekend, so I hope to make a lot more headway then. The best part is that both Chris and I are finding it soothing and relaxing to have such a clean space, and we've started getting on the kids about leaving their stuff around. Let's see if we can really change our ways completely and get the house organized AND keep it that way. Wish us luck!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Taking a Bite Out of the Big Apple
First, let me apologize for my long absence. I feel horrible about it, and I suspect I lost many of you. But my computer died and I've been writing a lot at work, so it has kind of kept me from blogging.
However, I'm still here, and I still plan to blog. And at the moment, I plan to blog about my recent trip to NYC.
I left on Friday. My flight was delayed a few hours, which is at the very least irritating. We didn't take off until close to 7pm, and there were so many things I could have done between 1:45 and 6 if I hadn't been sitting at RDU. *sigh*
Fortunately, both my mom and I are very stubborn, so we pushed our reservation at Bar Americain (Bobby Flay's place) to 10pm and we went despite the late hour. He did not disappoint... I had duck, mom had salmon, and we both had the deep dish chocolate cream pie, which was delicious, although it's not what you would expect. It was sort of a pudding, covered with a cream, covered with a chocolate cookie.
My sister was supposed to arrive from San Fran around 1am. However, her flight got canceled, so she moved to another flight that arrived at 8am the next morning. We were staying at the Sheraton Towers, which is close enough to Times Square that you can get there easily, but not so close that you see neon lights through your window all night long. Mom and I went to one of those diners that employed wanna-be Broadway stars, who treat you to karaoke-like performances while you eat. They were all great and mom loved it. Food was pretty much crap, but we wrote it off to the good entertainment.
Once Linda arrived, we headed down to SoHo for shopping and lunch. I treated myself at Eileen Fisher, as I feel it is important to support any designer who designs clothes for ALL sizes, from petite to 3X. Plus, she was having a sale, so I got a couple of REALLY nice, well-made items at Limited prices. Woot! We also went into a French purse boutique, Cleo & Patek. They had great stuff, and they were also on sale, so again, I got a French designer purse for Dooney & Burke prices. Score.
We ate at a French bistro (Croque Monsieur... yum). Then we headed back to the hotel. Mom wanted to rest, and Linda and I headed back out for my appointment for a fitting. NYC is THE place to be fitted for bras. And I am so freaking tired of being uncomfortable. So I vowed to splurge. I chose to go to Ripplu, which is a Japanese owned establishment, and despite the fact that all the clerks were stick thin, typical Japanese build, they did, indeed have all sizes on hand.
No surprise to me, I measured two sizes larger than what I've been wearing. Between that and the higher quality garments I purchased, I can't believe what a difference it made. Only drawback... the new bra set off the security gate at Laguardia. I've noted this for future air travel plans.
We also stopped into the new Mac store on 5th. It was cool, but crowded. So we just went in, looked at the iPhone (I hadn't seen one yet) and left.
Saturday night, we ate at an Italian restaurant that I didn't feel lived up to its Zagat rating. Then we saw Curtains with David Hyde Pierce. It was enjoyable, but clearly won't go on past the original cast. Much of the humor relies on the star power of those carrying it out.
Sunday, we rented a car and headed out to the house my mother was basically raised in. When my uncle died two years ago, mom sold the house to a very nice family who said they wanted to fix it up and live in it forever. True to their word, they let us come by and visit, and the place is looking great. They've redone a lot of floors and ceilings, plus two of the four bathrooms. It was great to see it being taken care of after years of neglect by my uncle. And it's especially nice that they are keeping the house and fixing up rather than flipping it... or worse, tearing it down.
In the afternoon, we headed back into the city and prepared for dinner. We ate at a highly rated Greek place that specialized in seafood, and it was glorious. We then headed over to Times Square to catch the 7pm curtain of Spamalot, which also did not disappoint. I considered buying Athena a rabbit puppet (complete with big teeth), but it was actually pretty scary. I also considered the catapult toy (complete with cow), but it was $35. So no goodies from Spamalot for my kids this time.
The flight back Monday was uneventful, and now I'm back into full swing at work. There you have it! Hopefully I can post again without another three-week hiatus.
However, I'm still here, and I still plan to blog. And at the moment, I plan to blog about my recent trip to NYC.
I left on Friday. My flight was delayed a few hours, which is at the very least irritating. We didn't take off until close to 7pm, and there were so many things I could have done between 1:45 and 6 if I hadn't been sitting at RDU. *sigh*
Fortunately, both my mom and I are very stubborn, so we pushed our reservation at Bar Americain (Bobby Flay's place) to 10pm and we went despite the late hour. He did not disappoint... I had duck, mom had salmon, and we both had the deep dish chocolate cream pie, which was delicious, although it's not what you would expect. It was sort of a pudding, covered with a cream, covered with a chocolate cookie.
My sister was supposed to arrive from San Fran around 1am. However, her flight got canceled, so she moved to another flight that arrived at 8am the next morning. We were staying at the Sheraton Towers, which is close enough to Times Square that you can get there easily, but not so close that you see neon lights through your window all night long. Mom and I went to one of those diners that employed wanna-be Broadway stars, who treat you to karaoke-like performances while you eat. They were all great and mom loved it. Food was pretty much crap, but we wrote it off to the good entertainment.
Once Linda arrived, we headed down to SoHo for shopping and lunch. I treated myself at Eileen Fisher, as I feel it is important to support any designer who designs clothes for ALL sizes, from petite to 3X. Plus, she was having a sale, so I got a couple of REALLY nice, well-made items at Limited prices. Woot! We also went into a French purse boutique, Cleo & Patek. They had great stuff, and they were also on sale, so again, I got a French designer purse for Dooney & Burke prices. Score.
We ate at a French bistro (Croque Monsieur... yum). Then we headed back to the hotel. Mom wanted to rest, and Linda and I headed back out for my appointment for a fitting. NYC is THE place to be fitted for bras. And I am so freaking tired of being uncomfortable. So I vowed to splurge. I chose to go to Ripplu, which is a Japanese owned establishment, and despite the fact that all the clerks were stick thin, typical Japanese build, they did, indeed have all sizes on hand.
No surprise to me, I measured two sizes larger than what I've been wearing. Between that and the higher quality garments I purchased, I can't believe what a difference it made. Only drawback... the new bra set off the security gate at Laguardia. I've noted this for future air travel plans.
We also stopped into the new Mac store on 5th. It was cool, but crowded. So we just went in, looked at the iPhone (I hadn't seen one yet) and left.
Saturday night, we ate at an Italian restaurant that I didn't feel lived up to its Zagat rating. Then we saw Curtains with David Hyde Pierce. It was enjoyable, but clearly won't go on past the original cast. Much of the humor relies on the star power of those carrying it out.
Sunday, we rented a car and headed out to the house my mother was basically raised in. When my uncle died two years ago, mom sold the house to a very nice family who said they wanted to fix it up and live in it forever. True to their word, they let us come by and visit, and the place is looking great. They've redone a lot of floors and ceilings, plus two of the four bathrooms. It was great to see it being taken care of after years of neglect by my uncle. And it's especially nice that they are keeping the house and fixing up rather than flipping it... or worse, tearing it down.
In the afternoon, we headed back into the city and prepared for dinner. We ate at a highly rated Greek place that specialized in seafood, and it was glorious. We then headed over to Times Square to catch the 7pm curtain of Spamalot, which also did not disappoint. I considered buying Athena a rabbit puppet (complete with big teeth), but it was actually pretty scary. I also considered the catapult toy (complete with cow), but it was $35. So no goodies from Spamalot for my kids this time.
The flight back Monday was uneventful, and now I'm back into full swing at work. There you have it! Hopefully I can post again without another three-week hiatus.
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