Mod Apron

Cleaning up this one horse town

You may have noticed a distinct lack of blogging happening over here. Don’t worry, I still love you.

I’ve been really focused on some projects at home and I’m in the midst of doing a major Spring Summer cleaning. I’m going as minimalist as I possibly can (in other words, practicing “rational minimalism” to the best of my child-addled abilities) and I’m looking at every room and asking: “How can I downsize all this stuff”?

You should see my closet. It’s a thing of beauty. I’ve got everything paired down to only stuff that I wear, fit me well, and that I actually like. Seems simple enough, but I was amazed by how many pieces of clothing I had that didn’t fit within that criteria. (As a delightful aside, I’ve also trimmed most of my wardrobe to about 3 colors - blues, greens and yellows - which, Ayurvedically speaking, are supposed to be the best for me to wear.)

I’m cleaning up this one horse town as well as turning some of the attention to myself. I’ve been going to the gym almost every day and I’ve finally lost a bit of my baby weight, thank goodness. I still have a bit more to go, but I’m definitely making headway. I’m rewarding myself with a much needed haircut this weekend. I’ve been growing my hair out over the last 7 or so months and it’s currently in an awfully shaggy in-between state. I don’t know what I’m going to do to it yet, but something must be done. Dennis is begging me to cut it short-short again but I don’t think I’m going to go there. I haven’t decided. All I know is that I’m overdue for a haircut something fierce.

I stayed up until 4am last night working on our budget. Puzzling it out. Crunching the numbers. We have our property tax bills coming due soon and it’s causing me some anxiety. California is not kind to the homeowner. We’re on spending lockdown until I can figure it all out.

Apologies for not delivering my weekly meal plan last week. As I mentioned, my focus has been elsewhere (there’s only so much mama to go around!). But, my meal plan inspiration is renewed and I should have one for you guys on Monday morning. I’ve got an interesting week coming up and those are the weeks that for me, are the most fun to plan out. I don’t know why; I guess I like the challenge.

Stay with me folks, and stay tuned. I’m still here. And more good stuff is on the way.

Homebody

After creating last week’s new housekeeping schedule, I decided to start things off on the right foot by doing a whole-house general cleaning and decluttering. My timing couldn’t be better because the donation truck is rolling through our neighborhood on Monday morning and I will be ready!

Yes, this does go against my declaration of having claiming weekend’s off. But hopefully, this will be the last chore-filled weekend for a long while. Means to an end, people. Plus, I’m feeling especially “nesty” right now and when the urge to clean strikes, you’ve gotta seize the moment!

Yesterday, I deep cleaned the whole kitchen. Man, that felt so good. I loved getting all those little areas clean that rarely get touched. Today, I’m going to work on the master bedroom and the kids’ bedrooms. Oh, and I want to move our holiday stuff down to our new storage locker in the garage. Lots to do! All while hopefully fitting in an hour at the gym this afternoon.

In other housey news, after a search spanning many months, I found the perfect runners for our long hallway and ordered the rugs. I LOVE them and I can’t wait to see them in our space. I placed the order right before bed last night and I was so giddy about the whole thing that I fell asleep and literally dreamed about rugs all night. How sad is it that I am this excited about my new rugs? (Answer: Quite sad, actually.)

Anyway, the best part is that we paid cash (as we ALWAYS do these days because we are credit card FREE) and we got a smokin’ deal on some pieces for the house that I am really in love with. We’ve got our whole lives to get this place exactly how we want it, so I refuse to settle. Nothing is coming through our front door unless I really love it. And these rugs definitely fit the bill!

I’ll do a before and after hallway post in mid-August once our new runners have arrived!

It’s a beautiful sunny San Francisco morning and I’m really looking forward to enjoying a quiet Sunday puttering around at home. Puttering Sundays are THE BEST.

On keeping house

Now that Henry is old enough to join his big sister in destroying order around the house, I really need to step up my game to maximize efficiency. Some days I feel like I could literally clean morning, noon and night and never feel caught up.

At one point a few months ago, I came up with a “chores schedule”. It worked - sort of - but it was kinda complicated. I had everything divided up into daily, weekly, monthly, and “as needed” tasks, and it was loosely based on this method. My intentions were honorable, but admittedly, I found this housekeeping routine to be slightly too laborious. That, plus our variable schedule and my littlest one suddenly becoming super mobile, has forced me to rethink how I should spend my cleaning time.

When it was just little Maya (long before Henry came along), I would bomb around the house first thing in the morning, doing all my chores before she woke up. This worked well, and it was lovely to have everything completed before the day really got started. Flash forward a few years and another kid later, and now I feel like I can barely keep up. I swear on all that is holy that my kids seem to follow me around, immediately undoing at least 85% of my cleaning progress as I complete it. So I run around in circles re-doing chores whilst constantly trying to keep on top of the scattered Cheerios on the kitchen floor before somebody steps on them.

Efficiency? Uh, not so much.

I think at this stage of my life (and the kids’ lives), there will always be some element of constant clean-up. I will likely never get to sit back and bask in the glory of my perfectly clean house, at least not for more than 5-10 minutes at best. The laundry never ends. The dishes never stop. And oh, the Cheerios. Please don’t get me started on the Cheerios.

Currently, I run around cleaning up little messes all day, and then I do a major clean-up on the weekend when Dennis is home to help wrangle the kiddos. Yes, this approach gets the job done, but it means that I’m ALWAYS cleaning. Every single day. And in my opinion, that’s just not fair!

So how does a busy mama manage?

Simplicity. And acceptance. I’m realizing these concepts go hand-in-hand, are the keys to keeping an organized home. Simplicity and acceptance are paramount for survival.

THEREFORE.

I have divided my chores into very general categories, based on each room/area. For each room listed, I will complete a basic, no-frills clean-up. This means declutter, wipe, dust, polish, mop, sweep, vacuum, etc. I will also choose ONE drawer, cabinet, closet, etc. at my discretion, from that room, to thoroughly clean.

For example, if it’s Monday and “Kitchen” is my room for the day, then I will likely:

• remove any toys, books, mail, etc. from countertops
• wipe counters, stove, windowsills, windows
• polish stainless steel appliances
• mop floor
• and ALSO perhaps clean out the cutlery drawer

The idea is that each room/area gets my attention once a week, and most long-term cleaning projects will be negated as they are always constantly, slowly in progress. So something like a major kitchen cupboard re-org will happen, but probably take several weeks to fully complete. Make sense?

Also, I have one rule: When my room of the day is complete, I AM NOT ALLOWED TO CLEAN ANYTHING FURTHER. No exceptions. I’m all done for the day (except for the ongoing daily chores listed below, no escaping those, I’m afraid.)

So this is what my housekeeping schedule will look like going forward:

• Mondays: Kitchen
• Tuesdays: Bathrooms
• Wednesdays: Kids’ Bedrooms
• Thursdays: Master Bedroom
• Fridays: Dining Room/Living Room/Hallway
• Saturdays & Sundays: Weekends OFF!
• Ongoing Daily Chores: Make beds, laundry, dishes, toy clean-up, garbage/recycling/compost, Cheerio management.

I like this cleaning schedule. It’ll keep each room looking tidy while simultaneously allowing for the completion of larger-scale tasks. Plus, I get weekends off from cleaning! Sounds awesome to me!

Likely there will always be a few chores that I will need to schedule separate time for. These will probably be “one-offs” and I’ll have to tackle them as needed. For example, at some point, I’d like to organize our storage locker down in the garage and this might just have to be a weekend thing.

As for acceptance, I’ve just come to the realization that messes are a part of my life right now. We don’t live in a museum. We have real lives and little kids. My inner neat freak just has to let go and unclench. Some days are just going to be messy and that’s OK. Years from now, I probably won’t remember that the Toy Story toys got mixed in with the Barbies, or the night I left some dishes in the sink. But time with my young family is precious, fleeting and indelible.

A day in the life

5:00am: I’m awoken by Henry crying. He’s caught Maya’s cold and, for the past two nights, has been especially fussy. This is the fourth time he’s been up crying tonight. I tiptoe into his room and nurse him back to sleep. Then, I put myself back to sleep for a precious few minutes longer.

At 5:45am, the alarm goes off and I hit the snooze button. Five minutes later, Dennis puts on his shorts and goes out for a run. I stumble like a drunk zombie into the kitchen and take the bread out of the bread maker. Then, I hop in the shower and let the hot water rain down on me until I start to feel a little more awake.

6:00am: I put the kettle on and get dressed while the water boils. Then, I grind some coffee and pour that, and the hot water into the french press.

While the coffee brews, I make the bed, put on my makeup, turn the radio on to NPR, and start the first of many, many loads of laundry. I’ve come to learn that if I don’t get the laundry started nice and early, I will regret it.

Usually I’d start making some breakfast for the family at this point, but since the kids have been fighting this cold, I decide to let them sleep in. I do, however, make breakfast for Dennis - oatmeal with raisins, walnuts, strawberries and almond milk. I can’t think past coffee right now so I don’t make anything for myself.

7:00am: The caffeine has kicked in and Dennis has left for work. The kids are still asleep so I take the opportunity to do a bit of blogging and read some blogs that I follow. I answer emails and reschedule a lunch date. It’s already quite hot outside, so I open the windows around the house.

Around 7:30am, Maya, sleepy-eyed and wild-haired, comes and finds me. I put her on my lap for a few minutes and I ask her what she dreamed about. I also ask her what she wants for breakfast and, upon seeing the loaf of bread on the counter, she asks for that. She puts her head on my shoulder and we cuddle in near silence for awhile. Then, I tell her to go potty while I finish typing out my train of thought, and then I’ll make her breakfast. “Hot cocoa too please, mama” she adds.

8:00am: Henry is awake now too.

I nurse him, change his diaper, bring him out to the kitchen and plop him down on the floor amidst a bunch of toys. He plays while Maya slowly finishes her bread and hot cocoa. She asks for a banana so I give her that too. I call my mom and have a short chat with her while I make Maya’s bed. I empty the dishwasher. I carry on with the laundry. I do a load of whites.

9:00am: I feed Henry some breakfast (apples and oatmeal) and then get the kids washed and dressed. Well, actually, I get Henry washed and dressed. Maya is having a meltdown about not being able to find a very specific toy cat and decides to crawl under her bed to have a cry about it.

I let her have her moment while I fold some laundry.

10:00am: Maya is still refusing to get dressed until she finds her toy cat. She enlists my help and we search everywhere, and to no avail. She starts crying again and I tell her that I’m not going to help her anymore until she stops crying. It’s now nearly 11:00am, and she finally agrees to cheer up and get dressed. I brush her teeth and wash her face. She picks out some clothes and insists on getting dressed all by herself. Now Henry, who suddenly finds himself hungry and tired, has his turn to melt down.

During all the chaos, my friend Cristin arrives for a visit and her timing could not have been better. She plays with Maya while I quickly feed a sobbing Henry a mashed banana and some rice, and then nurse him until he settles softly into a much needed morning nap.

11:00am: Time to make some lunch for Maya. I ask her what she wants and she says “strawberries.” So, I make her a strawberry-themed lunch: A peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich (without the crusts please), a strawberry yogurt and, of course, strawberries. I try to arrange it all fancy on the plate.

Maya and I have a very “Jack Sprat” relationship when it comes to sandwiches. She hates the crusts, yet they’re my favorite part. Go figure. So I ate up her PB&J sandwich crusts and it occurred to me that this is the first thing I’ve eaten all day.

12:00pm: I chat with Cristin for awhile and we sip some of the homemade lemonade that Maya and I made yesterday. Maya eats (most of) her lunch and now it’s time to head to school. I snatch a cozy, sleeping Henry out of a lovely, peaceful nap and shove him in the stroller (so unfair for my little guy). I sunblock everyone up and off we go. Cristin walks part of the way with us before she has to head home.

The kids and I continue on to school. Maya flashes peace signs at the people we pass on the street.

I drop Maya off at preschool and decide to take a different route home than I usually do. I see this and for a moment, I feel like I’m back in the suburbs of Vancouver, BC.

But then I see this and I remember that I’m still in sunny Cali.

1:00pm: I’m back home and I’ve got 30 minutes to prepare for an HOA conference call. I throw in some diaper laundry, change Henry and give him a snack (Cheerios). I eat exactly 3 crackers with hummus, half an apple and a handful of dried apricots while I read through my notes for the conference call. I clean up the lunch dishes, sweep the floor and pick up Maya’s room. I find the missing cat. I realize I have some bananas and rice from Henry’s lunch stuck to my shirt so I change my clothes. Then, I set up the dining room table with some toys and more Cheerios, which I hope will serve to entertain Henry while my neighbor and I take our conference call.

2:00pm: My neighbor arrives and we sit down at the table with Henry. We get started with our conference call and I am very impressed with how well behaved and content Hen is to just sit at the table with us and quietly play with his toys.

3:00pm: Our conference call ends and I need to run to pick up Maya from school. Just as I’m loading Henry into the stroller, a get a quick whiff of him and realize he’s in dire need of a diaper change. This makes us late (the teachers get really cranky if I’m late), so I literally sprint with the stroller to pick Maya up from school. Thanks to the running, I arrive one minute early! Just enough time to snap a picture of my sweet relief.

4:00pm: We’re back home again and it’s a whirlwind of shoes off, bags and books on the floor, potty time, diaper changes and all the business of getting settled. I nurse Henry and then set him on the floor to play. I hang the clean, damp diapers over the shower rail to dry.

I put in another load of laundry, and then make a batch of baby food (a puree of sweet potato, carrot and spinach) for Henry’s dinner.

5:00pm: I start putting together dinner. We’re having salmon, herbed cous cous and pan-seared garlic asparagus. Maya comes into the kitchen and asks if she can help cook. I tell her of course she can, and ask her to go and wash her hands and come back. She gets distracted by a toy on her way to the bathroom and I have to carry on cooking without a sous chef.

Dennis arrives home about 5:30pm and the kids attack him while I finish up dinner. Maya returns to the kitchen and is disappointed that she didn’t get to help with the cooking, so I ask her to set the table, which she does, and doesn’t do a bad job either. Dennis takes her to wash up for dinner and then turns on some music while I set everyone’s plates out on the table.

6:00pm: We eat dinner and talk about the news of our day. We chat about work and school. We laugh at the funny things the kids are doing and saying.

After dinner, Den plays with the kids while I clean up the table and the dishes.

As strange as this sounds, I really look forward to this part of the day. With the kids entertained, I can take my time and wash the dishes in peace and quiet. It’s very relaxing. After-dinner clean up is my time. (Yikes. How sad is that?)

7:00pm: I give Henry a bath.

Afterwards, I dress him in his pajamas and nurse him to sleep. While Henry is nursing, Dennis gives Maya her bath and then reads her a story.

I take the last load of laundry out of the dryer and put it away. Then, I go in to Maya’s room to help her feed her fish and tuck her in.

I lie in bed with Maya for a few minutes. We chat about our favorite things and why it’s not good to cry for no reason. I kiss her goodnight.

8:00pm: Den and I sit in bed and he finds a movie we’ve never seen before (The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain) on Netflix. I watch it with half my attention and write this blog post with the other half. I’m blogging, looking at the photos I took today and texting with my bestie.

Soon, I’ll brush my teeth, wash my face and go to sleep. Another day is on its way and I’ll probably live a similar, yet slightly different version of this day tomorrow. It’s been a very interesting exercise for me to record the minutia of a given day like this. It’s not glamourous or very exciting, but I see a lot of beauty in all the little details. Moreover, it will be quite something to read this in a year, or even twenty years from now, and remember all the small things I’d forgotten about this season of my life and the way I lived a random day.

I am so lucky that I get to be a mama every day and do all the things I love to do. This, my friends, is a charmed life indeed.

All the hours of the day

I have come to the conclusion that no one - not even me - knows what I do all day. Every evening, Dennis comes home from work and sweetly asks me how my day was, and what did I do. And lo how I search my poor child-addled and sleep deprived brain, I cannot, with any certainty, tell him.

I know I was busy all day. I know I was rushing around all day. I know I didn’t sit down once all day, save for some scattered moments when I would feed Henry, and sometimes not even then. But when it comes to specifics, I really have no idea where my time goes.

I know that since beginning this post, I have been interrupted 4 times and have had to stop typing to attend to something 3 times. I know that I am typing this standing up. I know that someone (not naming names) is demanding hot cocoa this very minute.

So, in order to answer the pressing question of what I do all day (even if just for myself), I’ve decided to try a little experiment. I’ve set an alarm to go off every hour, on the hour, during the course of today, whereby I will quickly jot down what I’m doing at that very minute. I’m hoping that by doing this, it will paint a fairly accurate picture of where my time goes on a given day. That day is today, and I’ve already started!

Tonight, I’ll present my report. Stay tuned!

Down with yoga pants (Part 2)

(If you missed it, here’s Part 1 of this series.)

So, last week I left you dear readers at the edge of your seats, wondering what oh what could possibly be my solution for the replacement of lowly yoga pant, the “mom uniform” of ill repute? Well, friends, I think I’ve found something that checks all the boxes and has allowed me to downsize my wardrobe significantly. 

I needed a style solution that:

• is easy to wear, dress up and dress down and suitable to varying SF weather
• is comfortable and not at all constrictive, because being a mama means carrying babies, squatting down, sitting the the floor, bending over, twisting, running, etc.
• is easy to launder, no dry-cleaning or ironing, thankyouverymuch
• and - perhaps most importantly - makes me feel pretty and confident (the way that yoga pants FAIL MISERABLY in this regard)

My solution? Are you ready?

Dresses.

Easy, breezy, beautiful dresses. I have collected 6 of these now, in varying lengths and patterns. They’re all 100% cotton and feel absolutely dreamy to wear. 

I can dress them up with boots or flats, a belt and a scarf or a cute jacket. Or I can dress them down with sandals, Toms or flip flops. In the summer, their simplicity is a thing of beauty and in the winter, I can pair these with tights and boots and a long-sleeved shirt underneath, or a cardigan over top. I can add jewelry and a cool belt if I’m feeling fancy, or I can simply wear them plain and feel just as pretty.

I LOVE DRESSES.

Look how pretty!

Dresses are just perfect for this San Fran mama’s lifestyle. I can move around freely and with ease. I can bend, lift, twist and turn just as easily as I can give a piggy back ride to a 3-year-old. All of my dresses can be thrown in the washer and the dryer. The light cotton dries quickly and with nary a wrinkle. Why have I not thought of this before?

I wore the purple one in the photo above to a Cinco de Mayo party in the park today. I wore it with leggings and slouchy boots and brought along a light cardigan although it was so hot today I really didn’t need it at all. I spent the afternoon playing with the kids, sitting on the grass, carrying Henry on my back in the Ergobaby carrier and chatting with the other parents. I overheard Maya talking to another kid on the playground, proclaiming, “That’s my mama over there. The one in the beautiful princess dress!” Yup, that about sums it up, sweet girl. Mama does indeed feel like a princess these days. Viva la dresses!

I have officially tossed out ALL my yoga pants (which were all worn out and pilled anyway) since starting my personal dress revolution, save for one pair that I will use for actually doing yoga. I’m done keeping stuff that isn’t working for me. And yoga pants were doing me no favors, let me tell you. From now on, whether I’m hanging out at home or going out for dinner, it’s dresses. I’m building my whole wardrobe around this concept. No looking back.

And, in case you’re interested, these dresses were very frugal purchases. I already owned 3 of them but 2 of them never really fit quite right so I had them altered to fit me perfectly ($16 for both of them to be altered). The other 2 I found on a clearance rack at a cool vintage shop in my neighborhood (2 dresses for $10!). And one I bought just before I realized I was pregnant with Henry and I’d completely forgotten about it, only to recently discover it again, misplaced in an old box of clothes I thought didn’t fit.

I’ll continue to be on the lookout for a few more dresses like these (and I don’t expect much trouble with this because San Francisco happens to be the hippie dress capital of the world). Because dresses are so multi-functional and multi-seasonal, I consider them to do the job of several pieces of clothing. In other words, 1 dress = at least 5 outfits. In this regard, I think having several dresses makes sense (and by “several”, I mean maybe a total of 8-10. Because aside from a couple of pairs of jeans, a few t-shirts, tank tops, and a couple of cardigans, this will be my whole wardrobe. 

What, you think I’m done with this series? Not even close! Stay tuned for Part 3, coming soon!