Nestling In With Field Guides

 We escaped this past Saturday to a local greenhouse for a little snow relief. We have been amazed that the snow has just kept coming. We have had no real bare ground around here since December which is unusual. I keep stuttering over the fact that normally I have snowdrops poking up in my garden in February....this year there's no plants or even garden edging stones in sight. All still buried under about two feet of snow. We were outside shoveling yesterday morning first thing and we had to push the van out when it got stuck in the driveway momentarily today. What a winter!

I usually am looking for a little sight of green and some warmth right about now...all the seed catalogs showing vines and flowers and nothing looking remotely green in the yard at this time. This year that concept on steroids. We enjoyed our greenhouse escape. The place we go, Logee's Tropicals is a cobbled string of greenhouses that have retail plants but clearly have their roots in being personal growing places. There are giant towering citrus trees planted directly in the soil that drop fruit on the rows of pots for sale in the benches below and avid vines climbing the walls and creeping into every crack and rambling around all doorways. Its a very human kind of place. Very warm. Very green. The boys love it too and immediately start hunting up homes for themselves under certain potting benches or behind terracotta planters. Who wouldn't want to homestead in a greenhouse?!?

 At home, life continues apace. We may have a later spring with all this snow to melt, I sure wonder. I am packing for Florida (we leave Friday for a week!) and while away I am kind of hoping to map out where the vegetables will go in each garden bed. I might even order seeds while sitting in the tropical sun. I'm also really excited for the chance to see people we love who have moved away to the land of sunshine. We will be seeing one of Ru's oldest playmates, the daughter of some sweet friends that we have just managed by the skin of our teeth to stay in touch with through several moves and accumulating years. The mama in this particular family was one of my first mama friends. When I was just getting started, and had only one or two children, we would get together to talk about our latest parenting conundrums. Amazing to think of getting together with our now enormous kids, on a beach and laugh and talk together again. I'm also really excited to visit with my cousin (always a big hit with the boys!), eat Cuban sandwiches together, reminisce about our childhoods together and compare life goals. Family is the best invention ever.

 I am packing suitcases with all our shorts and bathing suits, thinking so excitedly of being in actual warmth. I cannot wait to lay in the sun on a beach and fall asleep while "reading." My shell picking fingers are itchy for beach combing and the boys are talking all day, every day about the sand castles they will build and the tricks they'll do in the water. So much, absurdly giddy fun to think about the magic of air travel and how it can take you to another place where life is so different and so warm but in the same world and time. What an incredible thing!

 The boys have been having lots and lots of snow play this year which is really cool. Our two sleds have been getting the best workout of their lives. We've also had snow ice cream a couple of times this winter. So much fun to enjoy the last of the cold weather with a tumbling bunch of little boys who go spilling out into the snow like so many puppies. Ru has also really been getting good at shoveling which is fantastic for the whole family and for his muscles and sense of accomplishment. One of his chores right now is making sure the front and back walks are clear and sprinkling salt if needed. He feels like a legit groundskeeper and gets a lot of positive regard for his hard work. Winter gifts.

Sending you all warm thoughts in the midst of another gentle snowfall as I traipse off to bed to flip through my stack of South Atlantic shoreline field guides....shells, sandpipers, sponges, seaweed......*sigh*

Laundry Salvation

So excited about my new laundry system.  Small, home-making victories that matter!!!!

I have discussed my laundry battles before. Some woes are perpetual. I think, however, that this time I have the upper hand with my clever new scheme. On the weird side....it involves five million laundry baskets....on the plus side, its a LOT more organized, somewhat perpetually caught up, and it makes me feel like a mommy-rock star!!!

 

 

I have baskets for sorting the laundry and all the dirties get put immediately into one of these bins as soon as they enter the basement laundry zone.  Ru has just started learning to load the washer or dryer and having sorted bins of dirties makes it a much saner process. He just stuffs the washer full with his chosen color (I sort whites, lights, darks and reds) and then I add soap or bleach and start the machine when I get a chance. 

 

After washing and drying, all laundry gets folded and sorted into the next bank of baskets, labelled with names. Each person has a basket, neatly labelled and they stack on top of each other for space saving convenience. Love this part. So soothing to go down in the basement in early morning before the house is awake or late at night when the littles are running around crazily with toothbrushes on the 2nd floor....and just have a little sorting binge.

Just me and the laundry...each thing in its bin, every one folded and ready for putting away.

Dee loves the new system and it is bringing out his inner organizer. He goes energetically down the basement to empty his basket every morning and tells me several times a week how much he loves the new plan. Cute little kindred spirit. I am a mess on the outside and full of spontaneous creativity but I have a strong inner craving for order and aesthetic smoothness. Dee and child-me are a lot alike.