Next Chapter

Yesterday both girls went off to their first day of school.  

Kid is in 5th grade this year (that sounds especially old) and is an Amazon.   

Baby is in 1st this year.

Their first day was a 1/2 day and so we were all eased in a bit.  Especially since I stayed for morning chapel and was really only gone for an hour and a half.  

(P.S. taking the PTL gig was the best decision I ever made... completely changed my social circumstance at the school)

But today is REAL.  They both just drove off for their first full day of school and I may have cried a bit.  And I may cry some more before the day is over.  

8 hours is a long time to contemplate the advancement of my life... even for me

This is the longest Baby has been away from me, except a few rare sleepovers, and even with that most of that time was at night.  

I have all of the usual mothering anxieties... 

mostly just hoping she'll be able to open all of her lunch containers (and actually eat the food).

Last night, after dinner, she handed me her dirty plate with a few scattered peas and 2 lumps of spinach left behind from their pesto pasta beginnings.  "So, you are all done with this?"  I asked.  "Yeah, just scrape it into my lunch for tomorrow.  I'm going to be there for a full day and I know I'm going to be hungry."  Baby replied.  The absurdity of her actually wanting that for lunch mixed with her earnestness about it, made me laugh and laugh.  

Yesterday, she came home with her classroom newsletter and we learned (to our horror) that she has memory and spelling this year.  "What?!!!  I can't even write in English!"  Baby cried out. 

She was in that moment teaching herself Chinese calligraphy from a picture book.  

(and yes, Mr F and I have decided to start saving up for an arts high school)

Reformed

"I have ONE word for you!"  Baby announces.

"HO.... LY.... CRAB!"  She continues.

"It's a swear word religious people won't get mad at you for."  She explains.

Yes, We Still Live On

Things That Happened In July

We went Up North for The Fourth of July:

 We forced Mr F to express his latent heritage at The Cedar Polka Fest:

 Kid sported this amazing unicorn towel turban:

Baby blew the minds of everyone on Face Book with this drawing:

 Baby made me take a picture of this crazy pumpkin shaped grape:

 Big Boy tried to get used to his new blog reader (he is unimpressed):

We met up with Kid's boyfriend and his family:

 Kid let me cut 5.5" off of her glorious locks:

 And loved it:

 We went back Up North:

We found a bat on our bedroom ceiling at 2 AM:

 (I also got bit by bedbugs... not pictured... you are welcome)

We played at this park on the beach in Traverse City 

and couldn't think of one single reason not to move there:

 My hysterical niece with her beloved Biscoff Spread:

And admittedly superior rotisserie s'more technique:

 Kid decided she's playing the flute this year in the 5th grade band:

 Baby broke-ish her arm (still waiting final x-rays tomorrow):

We went to visit my 100 year old Nana:

She schooled us in Hopscotch: 

This one finally lost her crazy hillbilly tooth:

This dick took a shit INSIDE of our washing machine:

 Kid accused Baby of being a hoarder:

(It takes one to know one)

 And last, but certainly NOT least, a skunk sprayed the side of our house last night at 2 AM.  

Our windows were open.  

There is no way to adequately describe how horrific the smell of a direct skunk hit is.

It is not that weirdly sweet smell of a skunk at a distance.

Or those old school scratch & sniff stickers.

It is so strong it makes you nauseous.

Like unbelievably strong burnt garlic.

And there is seemingly no way to get the smell out of the house.

Are There Words...

This is the BEFORE:

 

(I feel compelled to say:  You don't understand how awkward the space is! The vast majority of those shelves are 8" high and 8" deep...what can you fit?!  Yet, there is a ridiculous amount of space... because the other shelves are over 2' deep, so everything got unpacked into it when we moved (things like Christmas tins and random small appliances that should have been relegated to the basement)... and we laid it out ALL wrong, and then, well, you just aren't ever going to take the time to empty it all out and start over... especially when you and your spouse disagree about what is wrong with it.  Okay.  The need to dump stuff on the deeper shelves meant that things got lost and forgotten about, knocked over tupperware had pretty much taken over and YES we had like 4 boxes of 1/4 eaten stale Count Chocula from the last 3 years... and Halloween candy (and Easter FROM LAST YEAR) and every other random junk food treat we ever bought, and then forgot about, cluttering EVERY surface.)

This is the Middle:
So we emptied it ALL out:

YOWZA... yes, all that was in the pantry!  And there was plenty of stuff we trashed.

And Mr F painted it:

Since the shelves had to cure for about a week... and our pantry shit had to reside somewhere... our kitchen was pretty much unusable. We hadn't counted on that when we we got the courage to tackle this... it's just one of those one thing leads to another and you might as well take it all the way situation. We ate a lot of take out.

This is the mostly AFTER:

 

Those containers still need to be washed and labeled and filled with my baking things (flours, sugars, rices, etc).  I'm 100% in love with them, they are made by Sistema and come with an included measuring cup... so easy for baking staples!!  I found some at TJ Maxx & HomeGoods and got the rest on sale at Macy's (by Martha Stewart).

 And there is another lidded bin to come on that shelf next to the existing one for all our water bottles. 

My FAVORITE PART:

These awesome rolling laundry baskets under the big deep shelf 

(from the children's section at Target!):

One for lunch boxes and the other for lunch containers!

So easy to dump and grab to pack school lunches! 

My other super awesome non-food container storage find were these small stacking bins from Staples:

 I have absolutely no idea what there intended purpose really is... but... DUDE they fit granola bars and

fruit leathers PERFECTLY!!!!!  They were $1.99 each and I found them in the desk organizer section. 

The hardest part of this project was trying to figure out why the pantry wasn't working and how we could over come that.  Setting up a system that allowed non stackable things to be contained was obviously key for us.  Also I learned that we just cannot have food that is 2 rows deep (the exception is with replacement jars of the same item).  Things just got lost and knocked over in frustration.  Surprisingly almost everything is back in there.  Getting rid of stale/expired food was about 1/4-1/2 of it.  The Christmas tins are also gone and down with our Christmas stuff in the basement.  

And if you need inspiration... I highly recommend watching Alejandra's videos on YouTube.  I find her endearing (maybe you won't), and she has a lot of great ideas.  It had really never occurred to me that we needed to find a way to store non stacking items before she mentioned it.  

Things That Happened In June

Baby graduated from Kindergarten:

(Best teacher in the world!)

This made everyone cry:

(Yes, she elected to wear last year's dance recital dress to her graduation... what of it?)

Baby had her ballet recital:

(Baby is 3rd in from the Right... sorry... 

it's as good as I could do covertly)

My mother turned into her mother:

 Godzilla's suspected cross-dressing was finally revealed:

 Father's Day happened (Mr F is laughing at Baby's fake smile):

 A make-over went terribly awry:

 Baby worried about trying what she dubbed
"The World's First Meat Flavored Ice Cream"...

Culver's "Turtle Dove":

 (Which disappointingly wasn't really made from turtle and dove meat)

Big Boy gave us the cold shoulder:

 The village ripped up our driveway to install sidewalks:

 Which has made groceries more of a pain then ever:

(for them... bwahahahaha)

 Kid discovered Pinterest: 

(I've already had to give her a 15 minute daily limit)

On to July!

(And a major organizational project reveal!)