aint it the troot

"children go to sleep just in time to save their lives"

just read that on another blog. such a welcome chuckle in this day of whining and complaining from all sides...husband included. they sleep as i type; the kids that is. and the inside of my head is mine, mine, mine...if only for a few minutes more. wonderful.

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been thinking of this minimalism thing for a while now; and i'm having trouble resolving my desires with my reality.  to wit; i have kids.  am i damaging them psychologically by throwing away all their stuff?  NO!  whoops, that was my inner voice. shut up... 

i'm sitting here in my living room, surrounded by books, throw pillows, toys, curtains, doo dads, cast-off clothing (not mine; it's freezing in here!), art, cat hair, electronica, dvd's, plants, and i ask myself; where the hell do i get off claiming to be a minimalist???!!!

first of all, i have more than one kind of salt....that's probably the first clue that i'm no frikkin minimalist. better to call a spade a spade and admit i have sentimental attachments to all kinds of things.  i have mugs from 20 years ago that i can't bear to part with. i have old baby clothes, i have busted-down dolls and toys from 40 years ago. what the hell?  how can i point a finger at my own mother when i'm still harboring all these bits and pieces myself? my only advantage is give or take 25 years....then we'll see just how many boxes i have in my garage.

stop with the stuff already

good garage sale haul!  made 160 bucks; on stuff i would've just dropped off at the goodwill! yay!

 in other news....d had his first day of preschool today.  no, i didn't cry.  somehow i feel like this isn't "official" school...and i'll save my crying for kindergarten (?!) 

m had a lovely first birthday party on sunday.  lots of cake smeared in all his nooks and crannies. not too many toys and crap, thank god. d was a little jealous i think, but he hid it pretty well. just runs around with m's new toys and balloon in his hands like they're his...but we can handle that. mom and dad were here and that was great as always. went shopping with mom (of course), and i didn't even dip into that 160 bucks!  i'm trying SO hard to keep a lid on the acquisitions around here.  it's hard! especially when you're out shopping with a die-hard maximalist like my mother. ay, she has a "way" of talking you into buying something you'd never consider otherwise.  i got away with only a grater and a couple things for the kids, but i felt like yelling "step away from the knick-knacks, i'm a minimalist, i can help!" although i feel i'm just an intern minimalist....no one really has to know that. 

The littlest hustler

holy fuckbox!  d had the mother of all tantrums today.  screaming and crying because his girlfriend, maeve, wouldn't do his exact bidding.  i'm at a loss as to wtf that was all about.  my gut tells me he's overtired.  (m fussed a little last night, no nap yesterday at grammie's, crap nutrition as well).  why, oh why, does she think a 'lunchables' is adequate nourishment for a 4 year old??? topped off with mini oreos?  whatever. i'm no saint; but geez.

i'm still holding fast on the absence of the black box.  he whines only periodically for a show. oddly, he only really whines bad if he's 'gotten a little taste'; a little huff off the lysol and he's hustling me again...lying, cheating and dancing on the coffee table for attention. 

oh well, better news.  getting ready to hold an impromptu garage sale tomorrow. i have acres of detritus lined up on the front porch ready to be thrown onto the front yard.  god i hope someone buys most of it; don't want to be hauling that much crap to the goodwill on monday.  i'm a pretty ruthless purger; but i have a tendency to want to purge other people's "stuff" (crap), along with my own. example: i am sick sick sick of all these thomas trains.  he doesn't play with half of them, doesn't appreciate another 1/4 , and the remainder are littered all over the house most of the time. but you know if i got rid of ...say...Toby...that's the ONE TRAIN he'll turn the world upside down hollering for in two weeks.  i actually took a whole box of trains out last winter, stashed them in a closet upstairs and waited for him to ask about them.  didn't happen. what now to do about his father's crap?  can't these people get on the minimalist train with me! 

The TV Experiment-part 3

over a week. going to make this permanent! at least until winter boredom sets in, then we'll see just how crazy things get and make a judgement from there.  

The TV Experiment- part 2b

AND,  m is sleeping through the night again!  yaaaahooo! does it have anything to do with the t.v. fast?  i don't know, but i wouldn't be surprised.  although it probably has a lot more to do with our re-committing to the cry-it-out method and the fact that he's gotten over the runny nose he had last week.  at any rate....i'm glad.  but, also cautious....because, after all, the first rule of sleep club is never to talk about sleep club.

The TV Experiment- part 2

well, a few bumps in the road are to be expected.  yesterday dominic discovered that he could watch youtube videos whenever he got the whim, and re-discovered the t.v. in the master bedroom (which we NEVER use....don't even know why it's there).  today we went to have lunch out, because the cupboard is bare and i asked dominic if he wanted to go to subway; and he responded "eat fresh".  holy crap, i'm more committed than ever to this t.v. diet now.

on the bright side, i asked him last night if he missed it any and he told me he was 'getting too big to watch t.v.'. well, yay!  i'm not missing it as much as i thought i would either.  i certainly have less inclination toward buying stuff!  isn't that amazing?  i'm not a real good navel-gazer when it comes to analyzing my feelings or revelations about situations, but i can say that it feels nice, and kind of calming not to have the t.v. in our lives anymore.  this feels like what "normal" is supposed to be,  like before this we were sitting around as empty vessels, waiting to be filled with opinions and stimuli.  i honestly know i haven't missed a damn thing, and if i stopped looking at blogs i'd feel the same way, i'm not going to suffer or be labeled a social pariah if i don't know who's on Go Fug Yourself today.  such a waste of time.