Laundry Routines

One of the good and bad things about a move is that it rips away your normal routines of daily life and forces you to figure out new ones.

This is bad because until you lose them you don't realize how comforting routines are.  Until you develop new routines, you feel unsettled and walk around with a vague sense of disequalibrium and also generally take way too long to do simple tasks.

This is good because some of your routines aren't really helpful but you keep doing it that way because that is just the way you do it.

And figuring out those new routines is a process of trial and error to see what works and what doesn't in your new home and location.  I always say it is a major accomplishment in each move when I finally settle into the routine for laundry that works in our new location.

Image courtesy of Keerati / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In this house, I think I have now nailed my favorite laundry routine of all time.

For the record it is as follows.  Small hamper in kid's bath and master bedroom.  Emptied almost every day into three large hampers  (darks, mediums, whites) next to washer and dryer.  When one of these hampers is full, throw load in wash.  Put clean clothes in basket, hanging up items that need it on rod dangling from ceiling (thanks, Professor, brilliant idea).  Place basket on table next to dryer.

When tower of baskets on table threatens to tople or someone runs out of underwear grab Oldest Girl to help fold clothes and put away. Oldest Girl is necessary because she is the only member of the family who can tell her clothes apart from Music Girl's.

Music Girl will wear anything placed in her laundry basket as long as it is comfortable. Seasonal appropriateness and/or fashion and/or presence of holes in unfortunate locations will not faze her.

Imagination Boy will wear anything as long as it is black, jeans, an acceptable t-shirt (dark and plain or with some kind of geeky saying), or a black hoodie (since he wears a hoodie year round everywhere he goes I don't know why he cares so much about the t-shirts but he does).

When we lived in Japan and Hirokosan came to clean the house each week including doing the laundry, she had a tendency to assume any black clothes that weren't obviously man sized were Imagination Boy's.  He came out of his room one morning complaining that these pants are a little big. He was wearing my pants.  Whenever the girls couldn't find an item of clothing that was black they learned to look in Imagination Boy's room.

Since she also unloaded the dishwasher, Hirokosan's visits also led to the fun family game of "If you were Hirokosan, where do you think you would put the potato peeler (or whatever)?"

I miss Hirokosan.

But I digress, back to laundry.  A basket of clean folded laundry is deposited in each person's room. They all deal with it in their own way.

Oldest Girl has a detailed and complicated system for where each type (with subcategories) belongs and she puts them there.

Music Girl has a dresser and a closet with a system for where each type of clothing belongs.  However this system was developed by Oldest Girl and is rarely used.  Instead she just pulls her favorites out of the laundry basket until I tell her to put her clothes away because I'm running out of empty laundry baskets in which to pile clean laundry at which point she dumps the clean clothes on the floor and gives me an empty laundry basket.  About once a month or so Oldest heaves a big sigh and goes in to Music's room and puts things away where they "belong".  Music Girl is leaving on a school trip tomorrow so I hope Oldest Girl doesn't have much homework tonight as she will definately need to help pack.

Imagination Boy has the simplest system.  He takes his laundry basket and dumps the entire contents into the large plastic tub in his closet.  Done.

The Professor has a detailed and complicated system like Oldest Girl's but since he isn't interested in actually putting his clothes away himself he makes do with the somewhat more simplified system I'm willing to adhere to.

And I put my clothes away in a system that works for me more or less.  I find myself getting rid of clothes if they don't fit my system.

Since Oldest Girl is currently taking both Sociology and Psychology I figure she could do a term paper about our laundry habits and what it says about us.

Eating Out American Style

Another adjustment to life in America has been eating out.

Image courtesy of KEKO64 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Since we moved into a house and almost immediately tore apart the kitchen we did a fair bit of this.

We are still trying to get used to the differences between America and Japan.  These include

• getting a bill and paying the waiter rather than going up to the counter to pay.

One of the first times we went out Music Girl was horrified when we started to walk out of the restaurant.  "Dad, we can't leave without paying."  She had missed the subtle exchange between her father and the waiter at the table.

• being able to ask questions.

At a Thai restaurant Oldest Girl was concerned that a certain choice might be too spicy for her.  "You can just ask the waitress how spicy it really is." the Professor suggested.  It hadn't occurred to her that such a thing was possible.

• kid friendly food everywhere

My picky eaters are still adjusting to the fact that it is nearly impossible for us to choose a restaurant where they can't find something on the menu they like.



And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Other differences include:

• quantity versus quality
• large glasses of water refilled frequently versus one tiny glass that you have to ask to have refilled or do it yourself
• enormous menus with a wide variety versus a plastic food display with a few choice options
• waiters who try to take your order when you have barely begun to read that enormous menu versus a button to push when you are ready to order

The kids have really enjoyed all the burger joints that seem to have sprung up in our absence.  It is their goal to try them all, purely for comparison purposes.  So far the winner is Smash Burger which happens to be walking distance from our house.  Unfortunately it isn't as healthy or as cheap as Kappa Sushi which was even closer to our house in Japan, but it is tasty.

Missing Military

I sold our old fridge today.  This is pretty exciting for me since it has been taking up space in my basement since the Professor bought a new one at a Thanksgiving day sale.  I've listed it several times on craigslist and thought I had buyers all lined up but they failed to show.

Apparently the 5th time is the charm.

There was a moment this morning after I finished making arrangements over the phone and realized that I had just told a stranger my address and exactly when I was leaving for and returning from work when I wondered if it was foolish to be planning to let someone who contacted me via craigslist into the house while I was home alone.

But the thought of actually getting rid of the fridge and for CASH seemed to me to outweigh the minuscule risk of rape and/or dismemberment.

I got home from work and the buyer showed up soon afterwards.  He was a nice looking, clean cut guy who brought a 75 year old father in law with him.  I figured no one brings a father in law along for a rape so I was probably safe.

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We got to chatting and I found out he was Air Force.  And not only that he had been stationed in Japan and had flown his Blackhawk up to our neck of the woods many times.  Now he is at the Pentagon which he is just enduring.  I've yet to met a pilot who was happy to be stationed at the Pentagon.

I can not tell you how much this brightened my day.

Loss looms large for me these days and one of those losses that I didn't expect to be so hard is the loss of the military lifestyle.  I miss it way more than I imagined I would.  It was a major part of my life for six years that now is completely and totally gone.

When I see someone in military uniform I practically have to restrain myself from going up to talk to them.  At work today a Major walked by.  If I hadn't been leading a bunch of three year olds in parachute games at the moment I think I would have followed him just to chat.  ("So, where are you stationed?  Where else have you been?  Oh, me too.  Do you know so and so?")  But trust me, you do not turn your back on a dozen 3 year olds with a parachute so I refrained.

Here's some of what I miss

• fast friendships (there's no time to take it slow)
• people who have time to meet for coffee or lunch or girls night out
• knowing your spouses co-workers and running into them while grocery shopping
• running into people you know everywhere you go
• being called Ma'am and having doors held open for me (by men and women)
• interracial couples and that being common and no big deal
• people taking pride in their appearance (and not in a pretentious designer clothes sort of way just in a being fit and neat and well groomed way)
• going out to dinner with visiting VIPs
• being surrounded by people who I know would die for me and for our country
• having one grocery store and one department store and if I can't find it there I wait several weeks or I do without

I'm not saying everyone or everything in the military is perfect or that the above applies to everyone, far from it, but there is a lot to admire and I miss it.

So I'm very happy to think of my fridge going to the nice pilot who not only didn't dismember me but also gave me cash and made my day a little brighter.

Phone--for me?

There are many things about being back in the states that take some getting used to.

Phone calls are one.

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For the past six years we haven't even had a home phone.  We used our cellphones for local calls and phone over the Internet for family and friends in the states.  But family and friends rarely called because of the time difference.

What this means is that for the last six years the phone didn't ring very often and when it did it was almost always someone I was happy to talk to.

A ringing phone was a positive, joyous event.

Not so much any more.

It's not like the phone rings off the hook or anything it's just that every time it rings I get that jolt of excitement, that initial thrill of --who's been thinking of me and called to chat.

The answer here most often is your friendly neighborhood cancer/firefighters/politician fundraiser.

At first the kids were confused.  "I think our phone isn't working right.  When I answer there's no one there and I have to say "hello, hello, hello" before someone finally answers."

As I wrote this my phone rang.

Caller ID showed that is was the Children's Cance...

It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have to answer the phone.

Cool.

The Summer that Wasn't

This was the summer that wasn't.

It's not that there was no summer. There was.

There was time off of school.

There was hot weather.

There was sun from early morning to late evening.

Image courtesy of David Castillo / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But for us, this was the summer that wasn't summer in the ways we appreciate summer the most.

There wasn't a summer family vacation.

There wasn't time lazing about the house sleeping late, reading a few good books, getting bored.

There wasn't time spent just hanging out with friends free from the pressures of the school year schedule.

There weren't any friends.

Because this was the summer we moved.

And it was hard.  It IS hard.


I need to write more about our summer and our transition and the ways we have learned and grown.

But first let me write briefly about the summer that was.


There was a summer spent together as a family.

There was the challenge of stretching ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally and realizing we are capable of handling and doing more than we thought.

There was fresh fruit and vegetables and meat on the grill and laughter and love at the dinner table.


It is difficult to let go of what was and embrace what is.  Change is hard.  Major change is even harder. But change is inevitable.  Embrace it.  Mourn it.  Celebrate it.  Roll with it.

Toothpaste multiplies

So apparently while our backs have been turned the toothpaste in our house has been procreating.

This is the only possible explanation I have come up with for this

little baby toothpastes which Oldest Girl gathered from various nooks and crannies in the bathrooms today.

And this pile doesn't include the large tubes we regularly use (the parents I suppose)

Or the ones we threw away because they were a brand no one in the house would use.

Or the ones already packed inside each family member's individual toiletry kit.


About 2 months ago the Professor decreed that no more shampoo or conditioner would be purchased in this house.  Instead we would use up supplies on hand.

There was much weeping and nashing of teeth.

This was totally unreasonable.  I assured my female offspring that we would indeed buy a big bottle of the preferred brand as soon as we used up all the little bottles which would of course be within a week or two.

Silly me.

We have purchased no additional hair care products nor will we until after we are in our new home.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

When the Professor and I got married over two decades ago we were poor struggling college students.

I believe our monthly budget was about $400 and over half of that went to rent.

Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So we furnished our first apartment with whatever we could get our hands on for free.

The summer we got married the Professor worked maintenance at the college dorms.  They were replacing some furniture that summer so he was able to bring home two desks and two dressers.

Do you have any idea what state dorm furniture is in by the time it is discarded by the college?

Just use your imagination.

Over the years as we moved again and again (and again and again) various bits of this furniture were scrapped.

But one college cast off dresser made the trip with us over the ocean to our current location.  Here it has served ably in the garage holding mittens and scarves and random craft supplies.

But it was time to say goodbye.  This dresser was not fit to make yet another move.

I sat down with the screwdriver and pulled the dresser apart so the trash people would pick it up with out charging us extra for furniture removal.

It was very bittersweet to dismantle this item which had seen so much good usage and been with us so long.

As I piled all the pieces by the trash I just couldn't get rid of it all.

I saved this, the base of the dresser.

I figure we can use it in our new crawl space to pile stuff on that we don't want sitting on the floor.

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to think that this item someone else discarded and which has been a part of our entire marriage will still be used.

Over the years of marriage our fortunes have changed.  We can buy new furniture if we want to (which we rarely do).  But that original spirit of working with what we have, of being content with less, of seeing possibilities where others see trash, that hasn't changed.

My Dad would be so proud.

Moving gratitude

Today I am grateful for the movers who are packing up my house.

I am grateful to have lived in this house for six years.

I am very grateful not to have to pack myself.

Plus these movers are fantastic.  Our dining room chairs look so good wrapped up I may leave them that way.

I'm grateful for an ipad to type this on while all around me are boxes and organized chaos.

I'm grateful for good friends who willingly took in my sick teenager when she woke up this morning with a fever.

And I'm grateful in advance for the house we will move in to.

And the new friends we haven't met yet in our new location. 

I hope they like sick kids.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Unleavened Bagels

Who knew that my children like unleavened bagels?

Image courtesy of Marcus / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I've mentioned before we are in full blown, must eat everything that is in the cupboards, mode of moving house.

It's interesting what things I seem to have stock piled.  The content of our cupboards currently, after almost a month of dedicated eating from the pantry are as follows:

• lots of diced tomatoes (it was a fantastic sale lasting several weeks. I would go to the store and see a great price on tomatoes and pick up a few more cans.  Then I would get home and see how many I already had.  Oops.  Of course I would do it all again the next week.)

• lots of ramen noodles ( I may have sent the Professor to the store and mentioned that we were out of ramen)

• an incredible amount of sugar sprinkles and other cookie decorating supplies (I almost never make cookies or cakes you decorate and I've apparently been collecting other people's leftovers as they moved away for 6 years now.  I know I didn't buy this stuff)

• Tequila (what can I say, Margaritas always sound like a good idea but I never actually make them)

• lots of Kool-aid packets (If the evidence wasn't piled up and spilling over in the deep dark corners of my pantry, I would have sworn that we never ever drank kool-aid as a family.

• instant pancake mix (this one actually makes sense and I think we can use this up by the time we leave.   Pancakes are a hit around here for any meal of the day)

• oatmeal, lots and lots of oatmeal (I was eating oatmeal ever morning for a long time.  Then I did a grain free month.  Today's agenda includes baking a ton of oatmeal cookies for the Boy Scout bake sale)

That is not an exhaustive list, just the highlights.  And that certainly doesn't cover the many items we have managed to use up.  I've been doing a lot of baking to use up the vast quantities of flour we had.

Which brings me back to the unleavened bagels.  Two out of my three children eat bagels every morning for breakfast.  Usually I just buy frozen bagels but I have all this flour and yeast to use up so homemade bagels it is.

I made two batches.  The first turned out fine.  The second batch, however, never did rise and I'm pretty sure I forgot to add yeast.  I decided to cook them anyway because at least I could feed them to the dog and I had the oven on already for batch #1.

I put my unleavened bagels on the table at dinnertime along with our spagetti.  

"Think of them like really heavy round bread sticks," I told the kids.

I think those bagels may be the only thing Imagination boy ate for dinner. 

This morning both children choose unleavened bagels for breakfast and Imagination boy made his lunchtime sandwiches using them too.

I guess yeast is over rated.

Temporary Fixes

Sometimes a temporary fix lasts a long time.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been cleaning out my closet.

When we moved in 6 years ago, I need to figure out what to do with my clothes.  Our last house had a nice built in closet system that I loved and we didn't own a dresser.

In this house I just had a deep closet with only one shelf high up.

But I did have a lot of empty moving boxes.  So using the boxes and some packing tape I created a makeshift, temporary shelving system to store my clothes on until I could figure out what I really wanted to do.

I'm guessing you already know where this story is going.

Here is what my temporary fix looks like today.

It's a good thing we are moving since my closet organizer is getting a bit saggy.

The moral of the story:  sometimes a temporary fix is so good you never get around to a permanent solution.

OR, it's amazing what you can do with a bit of cardboard and tape.

OR, wow, Mary is cheap frugal.