Day: August 9, 2005

I have an extremely sophisticated subconscious Kitchen-work avoidance system. It seems that every time I walked into the kitchen today I intended to do dishes. I have very a very clear memory of deciding that the very next thing I needed to do with my day was dishes. In fact I have at least four memories of deciding that. I have zero memories of deciding to do something instead of dishes. It worked something like this:

Okay time to do dishes. But then I heard the dryer buzzer. If I switch the laundry loads they can be washing while I’m doing dishes. It’s like multitasking, I’m saving time. So I go switch the laundry loads. Then my office door is right there, so I check email “really quick.” Then I’d post in a forum. Then I’d break up a quarrel… hours later I’d end up back in the kitchen and remember Oh, that’s right I was doing dishes. Once again ready to start, I’d remember that the mail really needed to be in the mailbox before the mailman arrived. Then the garbage cans needed to come in. Then Patches needed a diaper change. Then laundry needed to be switched again. Then I was hungry and ended up back in the kitchen. Oh. Dishes. But I decided they’d be easier to do if I got my energy up by eating first. So I sat down with lunch and a book. Then I wandered out of the kitchen with my book. Then I went to make the squabbling kids play outside for awhile. Then I helped Link ride his newly training wheel-less bike. Then we all needed drinks and went back to the kitchen. Dishes. Determined to actually get them done I consciously decided against picking up my book again. I consciously decided against switching just one more load of laundry. I actually opened the dishwasher. This time I was determined to do absolutely nothing else until I’d unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Then Gleek and her friend had a meltdown which included biting. So I had to haul Gleek home and help her write an apology note. And Gleeks hair was a mess, so we gave her a haircut. Then she needed help finding the dress-up she wanted. And Patches was having issues with a computer game. And Kiki and Link were arguing over the television. It was time to put them all to bed. So I did bedtime. After bedtime is my moment of solitude and sanity. I get a few moments to unwind, to be by myself. I walked from the kids’ rooms into the kitchen. Yup, still dishes. But I need just a minute first, so I came downstairs and checked email. Then I checked forums. And now here I am writing this journal. Guess what I’m not doing?

I cut off 6-7 inches of Gleek’s hair today. She wanted short hair like her friend’s hair. Howard agreed with her because it would be easier to keep tangle free. (And he is right.) I did the cutting and Gleek seems delighted with her new hair. But I’m sad. Her long hair was beautiful when it was combed and styled. I know it got combed & styled only about 1 day in 3, but I still loved it. sigh.

I spent a good part of yesterday morning with Kiki shopping for school clothes. In this case that meant pulling boxes out of storage and sorting through to figure out what fits and what she likes. Over the past 10 months I’d accumulated quite a lot from garage sales and as hand-me-downs from friends & family. It was really fun to have a huge pile of clothes for her to try on. I had more clothes than she needed which meant that if she didn’t like something she didn’t have to keep it. She liked almost everything. She would try on an item and rather than just saying “I like it.” she would describe exactly what it was about the item that she liked. “this shirt is so soft!” or “I like the way it flares on the sleeves!” or “This one has a really good pattern on it, I don’t have one like this.” It was almost as if she felt like she had to talk me into letting her keep the clothes. She was even able to give me a reason why she wanted to keep two identical sweaters even though she already had more than would fit into her drawer. Going school shopping with my mom and trying on piles of clothes is something I remember fondly. I’m so glad I managed to provide that for Kiki this year. Now I just need to figure out how to keep her from wearing all her clothes before school starts.