All Systems Are....Systems!

The kids are all back in school now.  That was one sorry excuse for a "vacation," although it was nice not to have to be in particular places at particular times, for a couple of weeks there.  It's also good to get back to what passes for normal or the "new" normal or whatever kids being back in school actually translates to.  Beyond my having 6 hours on my own each day.  Which is something, I tell you what.

I have been focusing a lot of attention on building good habits and new routines in the new home in addition to unpacking and putting away and organizing.  The frustrating thing is that I feel like I am spending less time hauling things out of boxes at rapid speed and more time doing, you know, laundry, dishes, cooking, entertaining.  Well, actually, it's not frustrating, it just means that the unpacking and organizing is a side-project and I'm doing my best to set things up so they function, rather than just getting things out of boxes and putting them wherever.  Recent side-projects have included putting away the remaining holiday decorations.  Another little project was drilling a hole in the back of the rolltop desk so I can keep my computer over there and charging instead of being muddled in with the kids at the big work table.

We have also been looking at bench units for what is now known as "the freezeway."  It had started out being called "the breezeway" and connects the kitchen and workshop.  Fact:  It's not heated out there and as such, Freezeway is currently quite apt.  None of us wants to leave our shoes or coats out there in the winter, but still, we feel a need for some sort of furniture to punctuate the bare walls and cold floors:

I have also selected and ordered a bench to put in the kitchen with cubbies for backpacks.  Far better for  things to have a clear and definite home, rather than just going where kids drop them and where I'm tripping over them.  And good to have a place to sit and put on boots and shoes in the kitchen, too.  If we can avoid letting it get piled up with THINGS.  We'll have to have some sort of guideline to go along with the ban on paper on the kitchen island.

All of this is part of setting up the house to work for the people living in it.  I was realizing that I am very keen right now on rules, guidelines, and systems, systems, systems.

Little stuff can make a big difference.  Sorting socks with Scott the other day, I told him that my theoretical method was to have one kind of sock per person, so it is easy to tell whose is whose AND each of a person's socks match all of the others.  Sometimes it doesn't work out quite right - I bought pink-toe socks from Kohl's initially, then when I went to get more, they didn't have those.  Only yellow toe socks.  Hanes makes it easy to tell the kids' apart with their different color toe thread for different sizes.

Additionally, I am giving up on almost all of my tupperware and going with the ones from ziploc because they stack neatly and compactly and all of the lids match easily.  Well, except we still have some of the previous generation.  I have decided that I don't want those previous generation ones anymore.  Lucy is planning on baking something to give as a gift this week.  Perfect, right?

My theory is that if I get rid of a lot of the non-system-compliant socks and containers, for instance, I won't have to spend any more time matching wrong things to wrong things.  Right?  A savings in time and frustration is possibly worth the initial cost of new socks.  Right?

I also asked Justin to go around to all the bathrooms and put extra rolls of toilet paper in the extra roll dispensers.  Each bathroom now has one, and it is important in a home in which if you holler for someone to bring you a roll, you may not be heard, and even if you are, if you locked the door with the old fashioned little bolt, they won't be able to get it to you anyway.  After he had made all the deliveries, he said to me "I guess I will do that every Monday, then."  The boy appreciates structure and routine.  I am just glad he thought of it himself.

In the meantime, I am very exhausted.  And I hope I can keep this up in the long term.  Change is not easy.  Slipping into old habits is VERY easy.

Fortitude!

Theatre Bonus:  Rehearsals for Completely Hollywood start tonight, and I had to put a bunch of stuff back in place that had been removed when we weren't sure if the lease with this place was continuing at the end of last month.  I fixed the broken table, loaded in tables and swanky new chairs, trash cans, hand soap, toilet paper, paper towels and a mop.  It's better than nothing.