Unpacking

After a weekend of doing pretty much nothing (except watching Guardians 3 as a family), the kids started camp for their last full week of summer.

I cannot believe I was even considering pulling them from camp this week. By 3pm on Saturday my son was out of his mind bored, and driving everyone crazy. Also, his friend (the one who went to the KOA with us) is at the same camp, so he is happy to be there (or happier than he would have been). My daughter is super stoked to be at painting camp. She was up and eating breakfast without me having to remind her this morning.

I spent the day getting some stuff done. I unpacked all the kids clothes and most of my own and put away all the luggage in the shed. I also excavated deep into the stack of plastic containers in the back corner of the shed and grabbed some towels and sheets that I bought for when we AirBnBed the house several years ago. I realized my daughter has been using the same sheets since she graduated from a toddler bed, and I have two sets just sitting in there, not being used. A bunch of towels needed to be replaced too, after the cat fiascos this summer, and I had a ton of barely-used white towels in there for guests.

Speaking of which, Serval is doing a lot better now that he’s eating completely chicken-free. Which is impressive since we changed both his wet and dry food right as he started refusing to take his anti-diarrhea pill (he just eats around it no matter how we present it). He’s still not back to normal, but he’s going exclusively in his box and that alone is a huge improvement.

The house still smells weird. And I keep finding little dried stains that were missed in initial cleanings. I will be steam cleaning all the floors this week, but a lot of the stains are on other things, the leg of the workout machine, the couch bed platform, the bag with the blankets, the cat scratcher. I really hope we can get this place smelling good again. Or at least neutral. It such a bummer to come back upstairs and realize it’s still not quite right up here.

I donated all the left over food to the SPCA today, and stocked up on more of the new chicken-free kind. I also did an epic Costco run. So many of our household staples were on sale – and I got us a new trashcan for the kitchen. The old one has been so gross for so long, and it periodically stops working. When it does work it makes this weird sighing sound whenever it closes. I have hated it for many years, but replacing it was expensive. They had a trash/recycle duo at Costco for half of what replacing the old trash can would have cost, and it fits in two different spots. The recycle part is awesome too because the cats are always trying to knock over the old recycle bin, and despite the hook I installed, sometimes they do.

Tonight I’m heading to the dojo for the first time in over a month. I’m going to the Basics class, which I need to teach in a couple weeks, despite not having gone in probably years. A red belt is teaching it tonight, so she should know what she is doing. And I’m also looking forward to getting out the house.

The truth is I’ve spent A LOT of time with my kids this summer. Which is amazing in so many ways. And also exhausting. I need to be ready to welcome 120+ middle schoolers to my classroom in a couple weeks and getting a little alone (or no-kid) time, will help me be ready to do that.