This has been one of my favorite weekends in recent memory. Largely because it was the perfect balance of relaxation and productivity. It was basically a microcosm of how I’d like my life to be all the time.
On Friday afternoon, Caroline went with some friends to the Spring Fest at the junior high. If the name doesn’t give it away, I’ll clarify that it’s a spring festival involving silly string and cake walks and other various carnival activities. This was her first junior high activity and her report when she returned home was, “Man, I’m going to go to school with some BIG kids next year”. But she had a great time and spent all the money I sent her with, so I think it was a success.
Meanwhile, P and I found ourselves home alone for a few hours and so we took advantage of this quality time on a Friday afternoon. We fell asleep.
I took that pic of him from my position on the couch after I woke up because I wanted to document all the glamour of a typical Friday at our house.
And, yes, in case you’re wondering, that’s a box containing a brand new Husky Gear Box for his truck. We just like to leave various packages in the living room to add to the decor. As you can imagine, I’m beside myself with excitement over this new Husky Gear Box. Can you even imagine the storage he’s going to have in his truck now? I mean, besides just the whole bed of it?
After we woke up and Caroline returned home, we all went to eat Mexican food, watched T.V. and went to bed because we had soccer early Saturday morning. As long as you consider 9:30 early. And I do because a 9:30 game requires us to be there by 8:45 which means we have to be up by 7:30 and that is just wrong on a Saturday.
Our team lost the game, but we won the war because P and I took Caroline to IHOP afterwards for the Rooty, Tooty, Fresh & Fruity breakfast. There is nothing that takes away the sting of defeat like a plate of blueberry pancakes covered in whipped cream.
It was a rainy, gross day because it wasn’t so much rainy as just a mix of drizzle and mist, so I decided it was a perfect time to clean out our closets. I announced my intentions as we drove back to the house and stated that I needed to run to Target to buy more plastic hangers because I realized recently that the reason Caroline’s clothes don’t stay on their hangers is because I’m still using her baby hangers and, well, she’s almost eleven. Her clothes have changed in size significantly. And then I looked at P and announced, “I’m going to get plastic hangers for you too because I’m tired of all those wire hangers on your side of the closet”. He just looked at me and Caroline piped up from the backseat, “Daddy’s a grown man. You should leave his side of the closet alone”.
I felt like she spoke some truth to me in that moment. What he does over there with his array of fishing shirts is his business. And if that involves wire hangers, then so be it.
So I spent the next several hours taking down all my spring and summer clothes from the top of the closet and folding sweaters to put away until next winter and threw things that I didn’t want into a pile on the bathroom floor until it looked like this.
I cannot even express the level of accomplishment I experience from a cleaned out closet. It seriously may be a place in my life where I might struggle with pride issues. I can’t quit looking at it for days afterwards. And I don’t mean to brag (Yes I do) but this may have been my biggest clean out ever. I truly threw out some things I’ve held onto for years, including a paisley sundress from Harold’s that I bought in 1996. For those of you playing at home, that’s the year before I married P. It was time.
The closet clean out also proved to present an opportunity for P and Caroline to mock some of my hat choices of the past.
It’s easy to judge someone else’s fashion-forward choices when your wardrobe consists of things mainly bought at Academy.
After I finished my closet, I moved on to Caroline’s. She’d already made a pile of things she didn’t want anymore that largely consisted of the things I loved the most. But the heart wants what it wants so we put it all in a large bag and will never speak of it again because she specifically implored me not to ask her, “Are you sure?” about any of it.
Sadly, we did not have nearly as much success when I attempted to clean out some of our old games and such. She insisted she doesn’t want to get rid of her Dora the Explorer version of Candyland that she received for her third birthday even though she hasn’t played it in at least five years. If only she felt so passionately about that cute sweater we bought at Gap last fall that she immediately threw to the wolves.
Later that evening we picked up Chinese food even though I don’t eat Chinese food. My issues involve a long, complicated story that includes sensitivity to MSG and a 17 hour bus ride. But I was happy to get them their beloved sesame chicken and made myself a Frito pie with chili from a can. It’s anyone’s guess why I can eat canned chili, but not Chinese. I can only surmise that I am a true gourmet.
(I have to confess that while I was waiting on the Chinese food I nearly tweeted, “Picking up Chinese food because that’s how we egg roll.” But I kind of died inside at myself and opted to refrain from Chinese food jokes on social media.)
And, finally, we’ve determined we need a new washing machine. We bought this stupid, beautiful front loader about eight years ago and I don’t know that we’ve had clean clothes since then. I’m tired of wiping the mold off the door rim (Yes, I leave the door open between washes and it doesn’t help. Or maybe it helps to the extent that mushrooms don’t start to grow but that’s it.) and dealing with all its various issues.
So I went to the nearby Sears outlet and told the salesman that I want an old school top loader with an agitator and a knob you turn. No computer board, no bells and whistles, no fancy glass door where I can see the clothes. In short, I want something just shy of a washboard and a tub. I did this same thing when we had to buy a new dryer a couple of years ago and am so thrilled with my ugly, plain dryer with a knob you turn to DRY HIGH HEAT or DRY LOW HEAT.
The salesman told me they should be getting some in the next few days but were low on inventory because it was the end of the weekend. Which is how I ended up back at the house doing online research that led me to the both frightening and awesome discovery that there are entire online forums dedicated to washing machines. Not only that, but people are PASSIONATE about the subject. This is a real response “You don’t even have the machine and you’ve already decided you’re a fan. You have no idea what you’re talking about or if it’s even going to work. You should stick to things you KNOW.”
What is wrong with the internet? Can we not be kinder and gentler even when discussing washing machines?
All that being said, if you have any insight into this particular matter I’d love to hear it. And remember, let’s keep it clean in the comments.
Get it? Clean? Because we’re talking about washing machines.
Maybe I should just stick to Chinese food jokes.
