Quarantined

We're living primarily on the second floor of the house right now. The first floor of our house is pretty much uninhabitable for a number of reasons: the kitchen is torn up; the dining room is full of all our kitchen stuff, as well as our new cabinets; and the family room is both full of new cabinets and without power.

So, we live upstairs. And outside. Last night, we went on a 2-hour walk. Maya had dinner in the park. It's actually not so bad. Our neighborhood is so kid-friendly and walkable, and now we're actually taking the time to appreciate it. Sure beats watching prime time TV.

Still, I'm counting down the days until we no longer have to wash vegetables and baby bottles in the bathroom sink, or eat dinner in bed.

Nomads

So much has been going on lately I don't even know where to start. So, let's do this PowerPoint style, as in, lots of bullets points and an occasional visual thrown in:

• We all went to Kansas City for a wedding and then to Branson to hang with the in-laws. Missouri itself was great, but getting in and out of Chicago during tornado season was less than. Without going into the gory details, I'll just say this: Over the course of 6 days, Maya and I spent a combined total of 15 hours in airports. Fun times.

• After we got back, we stayed at our house for all of 72 hours before going to stay in the suburbs. Maya's daycare is closed this week, so we stayed at my parents' house for three nights.

• We leave again tomorrow to head to Pittsburgh for another wedding. Thankfully, this time we're driving.

• Traveling and sleeping in various cities and states over two weeks is stressful. So naturally, Chris and I decided to do what any two sane people would: remodel our kitchen. Honestly, this does make sense. Because we're spending so little time home, we're not as disrupted by the construction. But I must admit — you don't realize how much you use the kitchen sink until it's not there anymore:

Once we get back from Pittsburgh on Sunday, we have six blissful, travel-free weeks. Which should give me plenty of time to train for that triathlon I've been meaning to prepare for. Ha.

Things 14 & 15

Oh, I have so much catching up to do. I should be up to Thing 26 by now. Instead, I give you Things 14 and 15:

From 365 things

Like our dear iron, this silverware is backup-backup silverware. We got everyday silverware for our wedding, as well as fancy silverware. But then I also have my parents' first set of everyday silverware, which they've since replaced, twice. All of the silverware you see above is the random, unmatched stuff I used in college and before Chris and I got married. Which is why it's perfect for my cousin who just graduated from college.

From 365 things

That same cousin also recently took home this colander. This is our backup colander, and as much as I'm all about having a backup for everything, I decided I needed to let this go. I'm mean really, how many colanders does one need? Plus, we have a set of mesh strainers sitting the bench in case we ever encounter some sort of straining emergency.

The purging, photographing and blogging will be on hold for the next week as the Wunder family travels to Missouri. In a few days, Chris and I will be sitting poolside, sipping margaritas, while Maya spends some quality time with Gigi and Grandad. Bliss.

Mondays

I have tons of catching up to do on my purging project. I've actually continued to work on this, and even found someone to take some of my stuff. But I'm a bit behind in the picture-taking and posting department. Maybe tomorrow.

The little Wunder family has being running around non-stop lately. On Friday night, we went to North Center's Ribfest. Saturday was Aqua Babies. Saturday night Chris and I went to a wedding, and my cousin stayed overnight to babysit. Sunday morning, we all recovered a bit, had a big brunch, watched some soccer. Then we headed to Blues Fest to meet up with an old friend and her parents. There was also tons of errand running, cleaning and gardening going on over the weekend, too.

I'm beat. By 7 o'clock last night, I was starting to look forward to going into work today.

Honestly, I sort of love Monday mornings. Usually, I get in early before most of my co-workers. I make the coffee, log onto my computer, and just enjoy the silence for a bit.

The running around continues this weekend. On Friday, we fly down to Kansas City for a wedding. Then we're meeting up with Chris' parents in Branson for a few days. Eight days after we get back, we'll be off to Pittsburgh for yet another wedding. (We have five total this summer, three of which are out of town).

Just thinking about all this is making me tired. Time for more coffee.

Things 12 & 13

Remember when I said I only had one "designer" item and therefore saved the pretty box it came in? I lied. I own two "designer" things. Chris got me a Burberry watch for Christmas. This is the box it came in. Isn't it purty?

From 365 things

Then there's this discman. Honestly, getting rid of this thing is kinda difficult. It's a relic, a symbol of my youth, something Chris tried to convince me to keep just so we can show Maya what a discman was someday. But I can't save crap just for the sake of its obsolescence. Besides, I still have a tape deck and a closet full of cassettes and VHS tapes. So Maya can marvel at those someday, then return to listening to whatever wireless, brain-activated music device they've invented by the time she's a teenager.

From 365 things

Things 6-11

I'm still here, getting rid of junk. I just took a little break from picture-taking and post-writing to enjoy the long weekend and such. But without further ado, I give you things 6-11:

From 365 things

Thing 6: This was a hand-me-down from some friends. Like most parents, I still get up some nights to make sure the baby's breathing. It's this strange OCD-neurosis thing that overtakes even the most laid-back moms. You wake up at 3 AM convinced that the baby is eerily quiet, or maybe you think you heard her cough or snore, and you convince yourself she's suffocating. And there's no way you can go back to bed until you check to make sure everything's OK. It happens to every parent. Fortunately, my form of neurosis never got so out of control that I needed this baby motion sensor. And considering it's never been opened, I assume the same was true of our friends.

Thing 7: Those same friends did use this wipe warmer. Perhaps there's some medical or developmental thing behind using warm wipes that I don't understand. But Maya seems just fine with room-temperature wipes, so we're sticking with those.

Thing 8: It's hard to find shoes tiny enough for my tiny feet. Amazingly, these shoes are too tiny.

Thing 9: I bought a pin at the Marc by Marc Jacobs store a while back. Although the pin was relatively cheap, it is the one and only "designer" item I own. So why am I getting rid of it? I'm not. I'm getting rid of the box it came in. Because when you're a true pack rat, you save things like fancy boxes from high-end stores. It's an illness, I swear.

Thing 10: This is a tissue dispenser that I got for free at the Taste of Chicago a few years ago. Why would anyone ever need this? And more importantly, why would anyone ever save it? See above.

Thing 11: What is it about women where we save clothing, convincing ourselves that someday it will fit? This dress is too big on top and too small on the bottom. And surprisingly, after holding on to this dress for years, my body shape never changed drastically, other than the giant belly I was sporting for a few months. It's time to let go of the dress, and the ideal.

Things 3, 4 & 5

Wow. I have a lot of crap. Let's start with Thing 3:

From 365 things

I got this candle from my boyfriend in high school. It's a black light candle, which is way cool when you're 15 and sit around staring at crap under a black light. Then one day you wake up and you're 30, and you realize that this has to be the ugliest candle you've ever seen. Like, seriously. Fugly.

I'm going to attempt to sell it at our yard sale, but I can't imagine anyone would actually want to own it. The only reason I've held on to it for the past 15(!) years is that I keep thinking I'll melt it down and turn it into some other, less god-awful candle. But after a decade and a half, it might be time for me to realize that I'm not going to be struck by some artsy-crafty bug anytime soon. Which brings me to Thing 4...

From 365 things

I bought this pretty blue bottle while on a winery tour around the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. I thought the color was gorgeous and vowed to use it to decorate somehow, obviously forgetting about my lack of craftiness and apartment full of other knick-knacks, like the aforementioned ugly-ass candle. But that's what happens when you make purchases after visiting six wineries. Which brings me to Thing 5...

From 365 things

It's one thing to save a gift from a high school boyfriend or a pretty blue bottle — things that have the teensiest bit of sentimental or monetary value. But it's a true sign of illness when you save some stupid string of plastic obtained for free while drinking in the name of an Americanized holiday honoring an ethnicity of which you are less than 5%.

Maybe I saved it because of the cute, little Chicago flags. Or maybe because it's from Miller Lite — my favorite cheapo beer. Or maybe because I dropped it on a shelf one St. Patrick's Day after a few drinks and never thought about it again.

I honestly don't remember when or where I got this. And for the life of me, I can't imagine why I STILL have it. To the basement dungeon you go, cheapo Chi-rish beads. And take your empty blue bottle and ugly candle friends with you.

Too much light makes the baby go to sleep

Things 3-5 will come along later today. But for now, enjoy these pics from our friend Todd's visit and Maya's second Cubs game.

Thing 2

I don't have much of a story behind this thing, other than to say that I thought I could wear it. But I can't. I just can't pull it off.

I bought this belt online about two years ago. Since then, every few weeks I try it on with an outfit, then throw it to the side because it just doesn't looks right. And back into my closet it goes.

If, after two years, I've yet to find an outfit this belt looks cute with, then it's time to go. So long giant belt!

365 things

Oy, I haven't posted in more than a month. It's not that I don't have things to blog about: We recently had our annual Cinco de Mayo party, my uncle's doing our landscaping right now, we're getting our roof replaced, we're planning to partially redo the kitchen, and so on.

But instead of blogging about any of those things, I'm going to blog about this iron:

Thing 1

I've had this iron for many years. I don't remember exactly when I got it, but I believe it pre-dates me and Chris' itemhood, meaning that I've had it for at least 8 years.

But I haven't used it in quite a while. This used to be our back-up iron — we had another iron we liked more, but kept this one around just in case. But about a year ago, we got a new, fancy Rowenta number. It's like the Cadillac of irons. And as a result, this iron became our back-up, back-up. So, should our all-mighty Rowenta fail us, we have another iron. And if that one should fail, we have this fella.

That's a lot of ironing insurance for people who iron, oh, maybe once a month.

Which is why this iron is being sacrificed for my newest blogging project — a project I'm sure to get all gung-ho about for a week or so, and then abandon, as I'm wont to do.

I recently read an article in Body + Soul about de-cluttering — something I'm so desperate to do. Chris and I have a problem with clutter. When an English major/lawyer and journalist get married, it's inevitable. Identical copies of British literature. Every copy of Esquire from the past four years. All my newspaper and magazine clips. Old reporter's notebooks. Volumes and volumes of law books. And these are just the things I can see. Right now. From my computer.

Add to that all the things not currently in my line of sight. And then add all the clutter a 7-month-old accumulates. I'm amazed we don't have a show on TLC.

I've managed to organize, file and store things in a somewhat neat way, so to the untrained eye, we don't look like hoarders. But I still know it's there — useless crap taking up precious space in my house.

Anyway, in this article, the author talks about how she decided to tackle her own clutter problem by getting rid of one thing every day for a year. She called it 365 in 365. I instantly fell in love, and promptly decided not only to steal her idea, but to blog about it as well.

Which brings me back to this dear, old iron. This iron is going to go live in a box in the basement with some other things I had already decided to purge. I'm going to keep adding to the box every day. Then, later this summer, we're going to have a yard sale, and whatever clutter doesn't sell immediately goes to good will. And after that? The clutter collection shall continue, until I hit the one year mark, or I run out of stuff to get rid of, or I forget about the whole thing and start some other ridiculous project.