Category Archives: Accomplishments

The Week in Review: Week 48, 2018

04 Tuesday Dec 2018

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With December’s arrival I’ve started Christmas thinking/shopping in earnest.  So, I took one day last week to visit a number of stores where I’ve had stocking stuffer success in the past.  Some luck this year, but still some more to go.

The snow has mostly melted and we’re enjoying more mild weather.

Each of the children continued with their baseball, gymnastics, or swimming.  Before School Sports started for fifth grade; those same two went to Math Morning.

I changed the filters in the heating system, which will hopefully cut down on some of the dust in the house.  I still need to clean the ERV filter and replace the filter in the refrigerator; all of that gets done annually.

I sorted through some coupons and gift cards.  In that process I found a bunch of Amazon gift cards.  They were all small, but I loaded them to our account.  I updated the kids’ bank account information.

The Week in Review: Weeks 46 & 47, 2018

28 Wednesday Nov 2018

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Thanksgiving was clearly the big event in the past two weeks.  Everything else went fairly smoothly.

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For one, the dishwasher got fixed before Thanksgiving.  It turned out to be a broken washer in the overflow valve.  This is not good, Kitchenaid, since the dishwasher is only two years old.  On a separate note, unlike when our previous dishwasher leaked around the door gasket, the water from this leak never did appear in front of the dishwasher.  Instead, the floor warped.  And, not a little bit since each time it ran it leaked multiple cups of water.  Now that it’s fixed, the wood is drying out and will hopefully return to normal.  But, it caused me to wonder why there is no pan installed under dishwashers like there is under washing machines now.

  • Winter baseball practices, swimming, and gymnastics continued for the relevant kids.  Actually, each kid has one of those activities.
  • The fifth graders went to math mornings.
  • As a member of the winning Majors team, we were invited to the Little League awards dinner.  It was a nice night out and it was good to see all the kids together again.
  • I had my last round of parent-teacher conferences.  At the middle school level there are multiple conferences.
  • We had one dentist appointment.
  • We had one doctor appointment.
  • We attended one birthday party.

We had our first snowfall of the year.  They forecast was for two inches and we got more like nine which led to a two hour delayed opening.  This was on middle school conference day so my oldest was bummed that he lost two hours of home alone time.

  • I got the two travel soccer players registered for the spring.  We’d been debating what to do with our oldest as his baseball commitments grow.  But, with the end of Little League, they’re actually down again so we decided to go for it.
  • After Thanksgiving I made 10 quarts of turkey stock and a pecan pie (the dessert bringer didn’t provide one of those).  Since we cooked two turkeys I still have lots of bones left with which to make more stock.  I’m trying to decide whether it makes more sense to store broth or bones.  It’s rather nice to set up an assembly line to churn through the broth making.

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The Week in Review: Week 45, 2018

15 Thursday Nov 2018

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It was an interesting week with some school holidays and the end of the fall soccer season.

The public school kids didn’t have school on Tuesday, but preschool was open.  On Thursday though they were back at school and preschool was closed for conferences.  So, I had someone home every day.  There was also no school on Monday for Veteran’s Day.

We had the crossing of the seasons in sports:

  • The first week of baseball winter workouts thankfully didn’t conflict with the last week of soccer.
  • Our oldest had three baseball practices, one soccer practice, and two soccer games.
  • Between the next few we had two more soccer practices and three soccer games.  It was rainy and cold for the last Soccer Saturday.  The older ones finished out their seasons on Sunday which was colder, but not rainy.
  • Our youngest went to gymnastics class.
  • The middle four went to swimming lessons.

Most other things were standard events for us:

  • We had another math night (there is one per grade per year).
  • The twins went to math morning (weekly).

I’m slowly finishing up those things I postponed until preschool started.  This week it meant I got a haircut for the first time since March!

I also took some of the boys to use their birthday gift cards, which had the added bonus of giving me Christmas ideas.

I continued cleaning out. Look at all these WikiStix creations!

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On the downside, the dishwasher sprang a leak (photo at top).  They came out once to assess and are scheduled to be back today with the part to make the repair.  Hopefully now the wood floors underneath will dry out and re-flatten.

The Week in Review: Week 44, 2018

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

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Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

It’s transition time here with a week off between fall and winter baseball.  It’s also been colder, rainy, and blustery so some soccer has been cancelled.  That made for an odd weekend as we had nothing on our schedule.  Can’t think of the last time that happened!

So sports are a little light this week:

  • Gymnastics for the youngest.
  • Two soccer practices and no games.  What?  Yes, everything else was cancelled for either Halloween or rain.

But school was busier:

  • I had three parent-teacher conferences.
  • Our oldest went on a field trip to see a musical.
  • Our youngest had pajama day (at preschool).
  • The twins had math morning.
  • I went to a school start time meeting.

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And then, of course, there was life:

  • Halloween.  Can’t skip that one.
  • We had one Dr. appointment.
  • I took my car in for service.
  • I registered the youngest for the next gymnastics session.
  • I registered one for spring baseball.

I’m working towards my November goals.  I made an appointment to get my haircut.  And, in the spirit of Christmas that is coming, here are the first six days of the 30 day cleanout:

By the end of November, these were made to leave:
Six pumpkins glowing,
Five expired helmets;
Four hanging dresses,
Three canned goods,
Two sippy cups,
And a broken kids lawn chair.

The Week in Review: Week 43, 2018

30 Tuesday Oct 2018

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First, I found an additional 190 things (with help from the pile of old school papers) to toss, bringing me to 465 for Sept/Oct combined!

In sports (winding down):

  • Gymnastics for the youngest.
  • Swimming for the middle four.
  • Four soccer practices but only one game.  The rest were rained out.
  • I registered the fourth for baseball in the spring.

And, in life:

  • I had one parent/teacher conference.  Three more this week.
  • We completed health insurance signups for next year.
  • We got flu shots.
  • The twins went to math morning.
  • We carved pumpkins.

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As this basically closes out October, here are my goals for November:

  • Clean the garage.  This largely needs to be done while everyone is at school which will be a bit challenging with Thanksgiving and parent/teacher conferences taking away some preschool days this month.  But, there’s a limit to the cold temperatures I’m willing to work in so it needs to get done soon.
  • Get a haircut.  This is the second to last item on my backlogged list from the summer.  It’s been since April.  Also much easier to do when preschool is in session.
  • Throw out another 465 items.  I’m going for the # of the day method this month.  And, I expect to be relying on the school papers pile for the 20+ numbered days, but there’s plenty more cleaning out that needs to happen so a 30-day month provides some nice motivation.

I think three goals is a good target for the month.  Obviously other things will happen, but three is a reasonable number to focus on.

The Week in Review: Week 42, 2018

25 Thursday Oct 2018

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October has been all about polishing off those things that I fell behind on over the summer, got bumped by the hectic school start schedule, or otherwise just needed to wait for a calmer period (preferably with fewer/no kids at home).

Over the summer I had hoped to tag 465 things for the twins tag sale at the end of September.  By the time the sale happened, I had tagged 337.  So, I didn’t hit that goal, but realistically there was no additional space in the minivan.  Apparently I need to keep that in mind next time!

I sold about half of what I tagged.  The rest got sold, donated, or packed away for another sale.  So, let’s see if in September and October combined I can get to (roughly) 465 things out of the house!

So, for simple math lets say I sold 160 things (roughly half) at the tag sale.  That would leave me with 305 left to go.  I donated two piles to local children’s charities totaling 37 items.

I donated 14 and 35 items to two other charities.  Then I totaled up my fabric recycling (stains, tears, broken zippers, etc.).

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I gave someone the infant tub and infant car seat.  I sold 10 items.  I returned one item.  So, that brings me to 190 items that need to leave by the end of October.  I’ll update this project next week.

In sports, we had:

  • gymnastics class for the youngest.
  • the final three fall baseball practices and game for the oldest.
  • a total of four soccer practices and four soccer games.
  • and orientation for the spring baseball program.

I went to my final Back to School night for this year, this time at preschool.  There was also a principal’s talk at the Middle School.  Both were sandwiched inside of soccer practices.  Soccer is 7:00-8:30.  Back to Nursery night was 7:30-8:00 and the principal’s talk was 7:00-8:00.  It made for two busy, but oddly efficient evenings.

And to finish out a busy week:

  • I took the youngest to a play date.
  • The twins went to math morning.
  • I sold the last two items that seemed hot.  I have a few more listings, but they don’t seem to be moving so I’ll take them down and maybe post another time.
  • I picked up a check for two things that sold via a consignment store.  The check arrived from the consignment sale.
  • I attended the local rummage sale.  This and the twins sale are the two I try to go to regularly.  I spent just under $40 at each this year, which really isn’t too bad.

The twins sale is limited to seasonal kids items.  I spent just over half my money on the youngest and got a few items for the boys.  I went in with a fairly precise list of what we needed.  This year I largely steered clear of books and toys as we really didn’t need anything there.

The rummage sale is much more comprehensive.  They have clothing for everyone, toys, books, household goods, and who knows what else (just not outdoor/garage).

I spent $28.50 – plus a $1 admission fee – the first day.  The green shorts, solid pink shirt, and Patriots sweatshirt are the only items that will fit the kids right now.  The three dresses will be for next summer.  Everything else is probably farther out.  I felt like the biggest scores were the sweatshirt ($2), the khakis (Gap NWT size 12 for $3), and the brand new canning jars ($4).

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The second day is half price and no admission.  In the past I’ve only gone on the day my kids were in preschool.  But the middle three boys really needed pants so I bit the bullet and went the first day with a child in tow in the hopes of finding some pants.  I struck out.  But, I found a few things and I saw some things that I figured were worth it at the lower Tuesday price.  Plus the youngest was in preschool so I could look a little more thoroughly.  As you can see I went a little more summer, things that hadn’t really been on my list the first day.  Best deals today were probably the wrapping paper (large roll for $0.50), the raincoat (Land’s End for $1), and the Nike pants ($1.50).  At $0.50 each the shorts were good buys too.

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So in the end I did bring some items into our house also.  But, they’re hopefully all things that will be worn in the future.  Looking forward things seem to be calming down.  I have a few more to do items that have been held over from summer, but the press of fall activities seems to have abated.

The Week in Review: Weeks 38 & 39, 2018

02 Tuesday Oct 2018

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Fall is in full swing.  Along with school for us that means mostly soccer, swimming lessons, and some baseball.  Since both baseball and soccer practices occur in the 5:00-8:00 weekday evening window, it also brings lots of split dinners.  This coming week is particularly bad as we have something that will split us up every night.  Two weeks ago was more normal with only three evenings of activities.

  • All the boys had picture day.  It’s nice to get that out of the way early.  Thankfully it wasn’t so hot this year.  Sending them in pants just looks so much nicer than shorts.
  • Four kids had swimming lessons.
  • One child went to gymnastics.
  • Our oldest had three baseball practices and one baseball scrimmage.
  • Between four kids we had five soccer practices and four soccer games.  One soccer practice conflicts with a baseball practice so we miss that one unless it rains.  That soccer practice is on turf so it is only canceled for lightening (which we did have one week).
  • One kid went to one play date.
  • I took the Kindergartner to a birthday party.  I’m not sure who thought these kids would actually be able to paint that tree, but the whole thing went remarkably smoothly.

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The last week of September was more challenging as 5th grade math night took our Tuesday and Elementary Back to School night took Thursday.  I was at tag sale setup Friday night.  We had no weekday dinners together.

  • Four kids had swimming lessons.
  • One child went to gymnastics.
  • Our oldest had two baseball practices.  We opted for soccer this week so on the baseball practice/soccer practice day we went to soccer and on the baseball scrimmage/soccer game day we also went to soccer.
  • Between four kids we had six soccer practices and four soccer games.
  • The kids played with our neighbors.

The twin’s group tag sale was this past weekend; that occupied much of my time over the past two weeks.  I had more volume and more dollars tagged than any previous sale and much of it sold.  This week I’ll be sorting through what I got back to see if it gets saved for the next one or donated now.  Unlike previous sales there were no donation options onsite so everything that didn’t sell came home.

Here’s the first layer of the minivan packed.

And here we are all filled up and ready to go!

Since I know someone will ask – I took out all the seats except the one with a car seat installed.  Yes, taking it out would have made packing easier.  But, I’m pretty good at car tetris and removing/reinstalling a car seat is a lot more effort than removing/reinstalling backless boosters.  Plus, I needed that seat closer in time both before and after the sale.  I still haven’t put all the other seats back in!

Apparently the front seat is bad luck as most of what you can see there – tub, bouncy seat, house, and ride-on – came back.  The swing did sell.  The only other big things I see in these pictures that didn’t sell are the smallest stroller (top in halfway picture), toddler chairs (there are actually two in there), Power Wheels, gate, and learning table.  I was very happy that so many large items sold as they are harder to store.

These sales happen twice a year though, largely because of baseball and soccer, I don’t always participate.

 

Summer 2018 Recap

05 Wednesday Sep 2018

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Because I knew most of our summer would be occupied with baseball and swimming, I didn’t set myself that many goals.  But, here’s what I did set out to do.  And, the mid-summer update.  So, let’s see how that last month went.

On the schedule this summer:

  • Swimming lessons for the middle four will run most of the summer.  This also results in our spending lots of time at the pool.  We missed two swimming lessons: one because it rained and one because it was painfully hot so I decided to leave for our 4th of July trip a bit early.
  • Our oldest has one week of baseball camp.
  • The oldest three have one week of track camp.
  • Kids B-D have one week of tech camp.

Somehow I never did list the baseball team.  We made all the baseball games and practices, as well as a few lessons.

We have a list of day activities for days in between.  And, hopefully we’ll get some movies in on rainy days. (Thus far we’ve had only one.) We did get in some movies: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, Avengers Infinity War, and Skyfall, among others.

We traveled to DC.  We went for mini golf and bumper boats.

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I need/want to accomplish the following:

  • Finish up school/spring sports:
    • Dry all soccer cleats and put away
    • Clean all sports water bottles (3)
    • Empty back packs
    • Clean lunch boxes
    • Clean all school water bottles (8)
    • Check status of all items in preparation for next year
  • Keep the woods from encroaching on our yard
    • On one side we have a five leaf vine thing and the plant in these pictures.  This second plant looks sort of like ferns when kept trimmed, but it puts out creepers that wrap around trees, thicken, and eventually kill the trees.  I think I did a pretty good job keeping this side in check.  I may need to beat it back some more next year though. 
    • On the other side we have the same five leaf vine, raspberry plants, and a different sort of climber.  This one doesn’t strangle the trees, it just creates a net over them that doesn’t look very good.  There’s also poison ivy on this side, which I am very allergic to, so I’m less brave about tackling things.  I had someone come in and remove the bulk of this as my only option was to bag it for the yard waste truck.  They removed the volume of an entire commercial truck!  I sprayed the poison ivy a few times and did make some progress.  There’s much more to be done.  Unfortunately after their work was done, first we traveled, then it rained, then it was very hot.  Maybe next week I can get back to it. 
  • Throw out/donate/sell/etc. another 465 items.  This counting thing has been working well for me.  I had planned to do this again in the late fall, but there’s enough kicking around now that I’d just assume move it along.  I made it!  I went in chunks as shown.  I missed one item in these pictures, but clearly got most of them.  Clearly there’s a bunch for paper recycling.  The bottom picture is all fabric recycling.  The “5” will go to Goodwill.  The other two did hit the trash.  The lower picture is a mongrel collection that completed the 465 items.  I added my Pampers points so I can get rid of the packaging.  Everything else is broken in some fashion.

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  • Tag 465 items for the fall tag sale.  My rules for above were that it has to get out of the house within the time period.  Since the tag sale isn’t until the end of September these items don’t meet that criteria.  As a result there are many things that should be leaving our house that aren’t going anywhere yet.  But, tagging needs to happen sooner rather than later.  I’ve set aside a number of things, but haven’t actually tagged them yet.  I need to get moving though because the sale is at the end of September.
  • Prep for the 2018-2019 school year.
    • Purchase a new lunch box and water bottle (I actually found one in our collection of freebies that he’s happy with.) for the incoming kindergartner.
    • Complete preschool paperwork for the youngest.
    • Pay bus fee.
    • Purchase school supplies after the lists come out in mid-August.
    • Check fit of soccer cleats for four kids.  Upgrade as needed.
    • Check fit of baseball cleats for oldest.  Upgrade as needed.

 

Two Weeks in Review: Weeks 32 & 33, 2018

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

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We really haven’t done much to prepare for school yet.  That will be this week’s task.

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Last week we were on vacation in DC & Virginia.  I’ll post more about each of our locations over the next week or so, but first some general trip thoughts.

  • We drove.  This works well with so many people and a relatively short trip.  We also needed a car while there.  But, I do have some thoughts on that subject.
    • First, I’m not sure Google Maps can properly estimate traffic hours into your journey.  It persisted on sending us through NYC on the George Washington Bridge.  Much past experience (paper map driving days) tells me to take the Tappan Zee/Garden State Parkway route.
    • On the plus side, Google Maps did suggest a new to us route east of the Tappan Zee bridge which we will have to make note of because it was much better than our previous trips on the Saw Mill Parkway.
    • I also wish the Google Maps app could let you quickly switch between routes like you can on a computer.  It is very difficult to check alternate routes while underway.
    • Why oh why are rest areas in New Jersey so terrible?  I somewhat understand the issues with the ones closest to NYC.  There’s a big time gap between rest areas on the east and west of NYC so lots of people stop immediately after; that’s a big drain on anyplace.  But, we stopped much further south and still terrible.
    • On the other hand, big thumbs up to Maryland House.  I remember this one from childhood trips and it is still excellent.  I’d like to assume the other rest stops in Maryland are just as nice.

And now for the previous week.

  • Three kids were at tech camp.
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  • Our oldest spent the week preparing for a Home Run derby, which ended up being rescheduled and then cancelled for weather.  It has been very rainy here the past two and a half weeks.
  • I signed the middle four up for fall swimming lessons.
  • The boys had haircuts.
  • One child went to two birthday parties.
  • We went to one doctor’s appointment.

2018 Summer Goals: Mid-season Update

09 Thursday Aug 2018

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I tried not to put too much on my summer list this year.  And, thus far I think things are going fairly well.

  • Scheduled activities:
    • Swimming lessons, baseball camp, and track camp are done.
    • Tech camp is almost done.
  • Rainy day movies turned into Heat & Air Quality Alert days.  We’ve had very few rainy days.  But, we did watch:
    • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1 & 2
    • Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
    • Skyfall
  • School/spring sports tasks are done because I did clean all the lunch boxes.
  • I’ve stayed on top of the upper side of the yard (with the five leaf vine and fern-like things).  I’m trying to pull out all of the vine and thus far I’ve gotten everything I’ve seen.  I can’t take out the fern-like plants because they’re coming from conservation land.  It takes a relatively quick weekly trimming to keep them at bay.  I’ve also continued to find poison ivy here which I spray when it’s not too windy.  But, I doubt I’ll get all of that this year.
  • On the downhill side, I’ve made some additional progress but its very slow so I’m bringing in reinforcements.  I’ve kept it in check, but it needs to be thoroughly taken back and it’s mostly our property (no conservation land) so this is more doable.  There’s more poison ivy here so that’s been getting in the way too.
  • Throw out/donate/sell/etc. another 465 items:
    • 69 items so far, officially.  I returned one item (left), I sold a baby gate (not pictured), I donated a piano bench (not pictured), and I used two socks to protect one child’s feet during a long pool day (not pictured).  The second picture shows a cardboard “sword” that had worn out, two Toys “R” Us cards, a shirt that no longer fits right to donate, and some blackout curtains that never really blocked enough light that will also be donated.  The socks with holes are self explanatory.  On the far right are a mix of fabrics for recyling: a crib sheet and pillowcase with holes, a cheap oven glove that arrived as an ad in the mail, a fabric cover for a new sheets set, a shirt that’s so yellow as to no longer be useable, kid’s jeans with holes in the knees, and a pile of underwear.
  • Tag 465 items for the fall sale.
    • I haven’t tagged anything yet, but I have set aside five boxes of things to tag and identified a few large items.  Not sure how many items this is.
  • Prep for the 2018-2019 school year.
    • Not much here.  I’ve started a list, but the school lists won’t arrive for at least another week.  And, I try to save shoe shopping for as close to the end of summer as possible.