It’s been a stable day (at least in the context of the past week or so), despite being on the second day of hardwood flooring removal. (Man, is it a GRUELING process for this crew.)
I’ll detail all of the progress mañana, but what it means for today is that we are captive to a single room upstairs (Little Man’s) if we’re in the house. And due to the noise and destruction, it’s better if we can spend a whole lotta time outside of it.
So that means I’m sort of in a holding pattern with my long list of to-dos—at least through tomorrow.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s still a heckuva LOT on my plate, but it’s of a different variety until the flooring removal is complete. And I’ll take it.
So.
In honor of that, I’ll dedicate this post to the plethora of “sanity savers” that are getting us through this crazy time of ours.
I promise (promise, promise) all posts for the foreseeable future won’t fall under the “Winter Storm Disaster,” category, cause that’ll get real old, real fast, but, for now...it’s sort of our life. ;)
FRESH AIR/NOISE REDUCTION
Okay. So this first bucket of sanity-saving is a no brainer. Given the destruction and mass, LOUD chaos in the house, I’ve been doing my best to keep the kiddos out of it—at least during the general business hours of the day.
Now, we typically have crews arriving early morning, or coming late at night (like last night, when the water mitigation peeps were here staging fans around 8 p.m.), so this business-hour plan isn’t fool proof. But it helps to minimize our angst and save little ears from trauma as much as possible.
Yesterday, I concocted a whole plan of grabbing the kiddos from school, doing a lengthy Starbucks run, and then taking them up to the neighborhood playground on a glorious day.
Where we completed the least likely traveling, outdoor activity for a windy day:
LEGO building! Ha.
Yup. I packed up (carefully, with minimal risk of losing a gazillion tiny pieces) three different LEGO sets and carted them in a bag, with a picnic blanket, up to our playground.
And the best part of this excursion involved sugar (which is, of course, a lifesaver), all thanks to a very considerate neighbor, who had warm cookies and brownies delivered to our door yesterday, mid-morning.
I brought the big (gooey, delicious) box of cookies downstairs to the hardwood flooring crew, because...TOUGH JOB. They deserve alllllll the diverting sweets and treats we can give them.
And then I selfishly guarded this box of brownie heaven for the kiddos and I.
And packed it up with the fun LEGO sets:
It truly was such a glorious day to be outside, but the wind was a bit challenging, considering we needed to keep vital LEGO instruction booklets from flying away, ha.
But we managed. We spent a decent chunk of time out there. And by the time we were pulling back into the driveway, we were passing the hardwood flooring removal crew, who were leaving for the evening. Victory!
And with some cute creations to show for it. ;)
So...yay, for getting fresh air, in a quieter environment, whilst snacking on something yummy, and completing a project.
Win/win/win/win, and a definite sanity-saver!
ORGANIZATION
So...this second bucket of sanity-saving isn’t very glamorous, but it’s just VITAL: organization.
Needless to say, organizing the house for movers to arrive (with about 36 hours’ notice, and while major demolition work was continuous) and removing pretty much everything from the downstairs required a lot (a lot, a lot) o’ work.
Not only did we have to move all of our essentials upstairs, but we had to condense, prep, pack or protect everything that was headed out to the pod.
Loads upon loads of items just got carted upstairs and dumped wherever there was spare room, and that’s just no bueno. If we have to live peacefully up here for the foreseeable future, there has to be a place for everything, and everything in its place!
The hubby and I had to take over Little Man’s room as our “master” for the time being.
Chica’s room became the hubby’s temporary “office”—because, yes, complicating things further, he still works from home during Covid world.
And all three kiddos are now bunking in Chicklet’s room, which we’ve officially dubbed the “sleeping room,” ha.
And every other territory—and especially the playroom—is just a HOT MESS EXPRESS of stuff that needs to be organized!
Yesterday, while Little Man was at school and I was only risking my own eardrums in the playroom, that has no doors and opens up to the landing and the downstairs NOISE, I camped out to assemble an inexpensive storage tower to be used as a makeshift pantry up here while the kitchen is torn apart.
Because for days and days, we’ve been eating on the landing and tripping ALL over the food and random mass chaos that’s been dumped there. And it’s just an accident waiting to happen, and this pic doesn’t even show half of what was piled up there.
Hello, makeshift pantry in-the-works...
And, voila! A cleared landing and perfectly positioned “pantry” that’s as unobtrusive as possible.
Seriously pleased with how this turned out, and how very much it helped my mental state yesterday.
Additionally, I managed to get our takeover of Little Man’s room decently settled (except for the bursting-at-the-seams closet), and my next major organization project is the playroom. But most of that will have to wait until after the hardwood flooring removal is complete, or I might go insane-in-the-membrane amidst these noise.
So...organization, when possible: a definite sanity-saver!
SCHOOL NORMALCY
Now...this third bit of sanity-saving is mostly for the kiddos.
And that is the blissful normalcy that comes with being back in their general school routine now that the winter storm had passed, and everything is re-opened.
And better still, we had a diverting little project to tackle for Little Man, as he was assigned as Star Student of the Week, which meant he got to create a poster board all about things he loves, and bring it to share with the class. Sort of a hyped up show-and-tell that even involves the class asking him questions to learn more about him. :)
It was hilariously unfortunate timing for his assigned week to be THIS ONE, and the hubby was like, I’m sure his teachers would totally understand if you needed to push it back.
But I was adamant about powering through and tackling this fun item, if only to provide something for Little Man to do, and to keep a little bit of the routine that comes from school work and home work, and lovely classroom celebrations such as this.
He was ridiculously excited to make his poster, and although I’m biased, I think it turned out so amazing!
Funny little side note: despite his current obsession with Mario, he refused to put anything to represent it on his board, as he was convinced his classmates wouldn’t be familiar with Mario, ha. I just couldn’t convince him otherwise!
It was the absolute cutest to watch him shuffle out of bed yesterday morning and go straight to his poster to inspect it and enjoy it again. And he was examining it all the way to school. :)
Hilariously, the teachers forgot to mention that Little Man’s turn as Star Student would be pushed back a week, as last week’s selected student missed their moment because of the school closure during the storm.
So...all this was completed for naught.
Oh well.
We got it done a week early, and it gave us some happy, diverting time.
So...school normalcy is a major sanity-saver right now.
Who woulda thunk I’d be so excited just to tackle homework with the kiddos?? ;)
ACTS OF KINDNESS
I suppose this final sanity-saving category should really be titled something like repaying acts of kindness or gratitude. But you’ll get my drift.
Basically, we had a handful of neighbors show us incredible generosity and thoughtfulness during this past week, and we wanted to say thank you.
So as soon as we finally crawled out of our snowed-in, disaster-zone cave, we ventured to Tarjay and assembled some happy little spring “thank you” baskets.
I think they turned out pretty, darn cute. :)
Although I wrote my own thank you card for each basket, I also tasked the kiddos with writing one, as well. And they did such a lovely job.
I think it’s such an important lesson for them to see and participate in how to show gratitude. And these little cards they made almost made me tear up.
Especially Little Man’s, when he told me he picked “construction colors” for the hearts on his card. I die.
We had a wonderful walk around the neighborhood while delivering three baskets the other day. Each kiddos got to ring a doorbell and run. But each neighbor still popped their head out and we got to have a quick chat and another in-person thank you.
We have one more basket to deliver tomorrow, but expressing our thanks for all the kindness we have felt during this yucky time has been a definite sanity-saver.
Okay...I could probably go on and on about all the little things we’re trying to employee to maintain our mental health right now (and I could definitely do another post about all the things sapping our sanity), but instead, I’m gonna cut it off, fold some laundry, and collapse.
More tomorrow or the next day about the flooring removal process. OYE.
Until then...stay healthy, stay sane, peeps.
Over and out.
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