Nesting Neglect

If there is no such term, there should be. I've been nesting like mad this week, and while I do that, the girls are watching PBS until their eyes fall out and eating dry cereal that Libby pours out onto the table. I'm a good mom, really I am.

The last few weeks of my pregnancies (and sporadically throughout the year when I'm NOT pregnant), I go through these manic spurts of "gotta get it done NOW or the sky will fall" cleaning/organizing. The last two weeks it's been the organizing. Last week I steam cleaned the living room, which isn't a big deal, and it needed it, badly. But the next day I called Joyce and asked her to come down and help me get the furniture back in. We decided to move Jaina's dresser into our room to make room for plastic-bin-dresser thingies in her room, and then we moved the recliner into Jaina's room because it just wasn't working in the living room. (The recliner I bought off Craigslist for $50. Oh, and I bought a second crib for $25 and got the mattress to go with it for $10. I'm a Craigslist FOOL!) I hurt my back carrying that huge honkin dresser across the house, and we had a "Friends" "Pivot! Pivot!" moment when we got the recliner wedged half in the bedroom and half in the hall with Joyce's hand caught between the chair and the jamb and me stuck in the hall bathroom. Fun times, I tell ya.

That night John and I went to WalMart to get the bin thingies. We've had our eye on a 5x5 IKEA Expedit for a while, but figured spending $60 for four bins was better than the $200 for the Expedit plus the $50 for 10 of the cloth bins to go in it. I was sad, but knew cheaper is better at this point. While at WalMart I picked out some new sheets for our bed. I am very happy to have new, matching sheets for the first time since we've been married! We've always mixed-and-matched, and I'm tired of it! I need to get a few more pillow cases, and have my eye on a chocolate-brown quilt to finish it off. Anyway, we got the bins home and put away and I vowed to get all of our clothes off of closet shelves and into the dresser and all of Jaina's and the baby's clothes into the bin drawers the next day. But I never got around to it.

Anyway, then came the big baby clothing sorting from the huge pile I got from a friend and the little bit I got from a church Sharewear. Sorting into what could go through the regular wash and what needed to be soaked in oxy-clean, then washing it all, then going through again and scrutinizing each piece and deciding what was stain-free and what needed another round of soaking, this time in dishwasher detergent (works wonder on old spit-up stains), then another round of scrutinizing, with the few still-stained pieces going in the trash. Then sorting by size and packing away everything bigger than size 3-6 months in bins and hauling them out to the garage.

Saturday afternoon I was on Craigslist yet again and saw a 5x5 IKEA Expedit in black-brown for $100. I called the seller and she agreed to meet us at her store where the Expedit had been used. We climbed in the van (oh, how I love having a van) and popped a movie in for the kids (oh, how I love having a van with a DVD player) and we were off. It was just down the road in Frisco, so it didn't take long. It was in good condition, so John commenced taking it apart. The Expedit is HUGE, by the way. It took him about an hour to get it all done. Good thing I had brought a book. We got all the pieces loaded in the back, then came home. John had noticed a few missing/broken dowels, so we couldn't put it together right away like I wanted to. John got off lucky that time. But he still had to move Jaina's dresser back into her room. I helped.

Next week I have to go out to IKEA to get replacement dowels for 10 cents each (why next week? I'm saving the rest of this month's gas money to help pay for the Expedit). Then we have to take the bin dressers back to WalMart and return them. I told my dad that once I get this sucker put together I won't move any more furniture until after I have the baby. Unless he's late, then I might haul some dressers to get things moving...

Yesterday I decided it was a good day to de-tag and wash all the new clothes I bought and recieved as gifts, as well as washing all the old burp cloths and blankets. And the thought hit me "while I'm at it, why not pack away all the too-small summer clothes and pull out the fall/winter clothes for Jaina and get those all washed as well?" Good idea, no? I spent all day hauling, washing, drying, sorting, folding, packing, and putting away clothes.

Today was more of the same. And already I have lost one of the baby's socks. A new pair I just de-tagged yesterday. How does that happen? Where did it go? Oh, and I also had not been able to find the little crocheted hat that both Libby and Jaina wore right after they were born. It was one a church group had made for the birth center in NC where Libby was born. It wasn't with all the gender-neutral baby stuff, so today I went through all of the baby girl clothes bins and bags until I found it. I am determined to carry on the tradition.

When I told John about all the baby clothing washing and folding and sorting going on, I said "and I don't know why I'm doing this now when I don't even have a place to put the clothes once they're folded. Don't ask a pregnant woman to explain herself. Even she doesn't know why she does the things she does". I'd say that's a pretty fair statement at this point in time.