live from sublurbia

Summer of cousins is over :(, school year is begun :), Tropical Storm Danny has me out getting my six five-gallon water bottles refilled :(.

My sister and mom decluttered the panlaundrium and kitchen a bit (See, I told you my methods make sense! They put everything where I expected except for my little plastic IKEA bowls – I think they ate them.) and it didn’t “hurt” as much as I expected. Decluttering for me, as opposed to me decluttering, drives me NUTS, but now that it’s over and I didn’t know it was happening, well, maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

And seeing progress makes it easier for me to make progress.

Anyway, I have ton of blogging and reading to do, but I need to go spend some hours on my clients first, catching up on their bloggy administrivia and support, then do the same catching up on my own (I’m revamping the site so don’t mind if I go dark a few days).

Stay tuned and happy back-to-school!

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Speaking of disposable diapers, head on over to Pittsburgh Mom to read my guest post: tips on shopping for disposable diapers.

Thanks, Heather*, and good luck on the Diaper Drive!

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So far I’ve uncovered:

6 size 1 disposable diapers from my eldest’s short time in disposables

1 flannel 2T jacket

Size 0 left shoe, worn once for pictures

Information about recycling at our old home

A packet of unopened crayons suitable for school this year

Lots of random unsharpened pencils from various goody bags over the years

A peanut M and M that looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle

Can’t wait until school starts; with the kids out of the house I’ll probably find even more.

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_{For other WFMW tips, see our hosts at “We are THAT family”!}

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I told myself I wouldn’t pressure myself to WMFW on vacation, but sometimes inspiration smacks you upside the head.

Instead of making sixteen billion different custom sandwiches for the kids every lunch day we have sandwiches, we made three or four and cut them up. The kids served themselves, family style, and all we had to do was shout “This plate is peanut butter, this plate is jelly” half a dozen times.

One time we got smart – jelly on white, peanut butter on wheat. Two days later even smarter – different shapes! Pictured are cheese (triangle), jelly (square) and peanut butter (rectangle). We’re still repeating ourselves, but not quite as much …

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Catching up, cousins “downloading” new things to each other Matrix-style (“I know kung-fu!”) and just generally hanging out without the rush and bustle of the everyday work routine. Dinner with this clutch of family, beach with another, and more to come. Summer isn’t long enough.

And of course, sitting down with a round of milk and cookies, because it’s three o’clock somewhere! I love milk and cookies time. But I think we all (adults included) need a nap time, too.

Going to be a bit quiet here the next few weeks as family season ends and school starts, plus I’ll be ripping out the website guts a bit so pardon the mess. :)

Happy last days of summer!

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So we’re done with school shopping; probably need some paper or notebooks, but we’ll find out more the day before school (though I’ll stop by the office tomorrow to see if there are any basic lists out). One thing I finally figured out! Use the shopping cart to boost the kids up for a drink at the water fountain instead of trying to hold them, a purse, the fountain trigger, and stay dry.

Dear Target,

Oh, Target, Target, Target, you make me laugh. Buying more underwear means less laundry? Noooooo. Maybe a less frequent need to launder for fear of running short of running shorts, but really? You’ll have to do more once you get there. I don’t call it our Laundry Pile of Doom for nothing. Continue Reading »

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To find more school tips, hit this weeks WFMW!

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Ah, shoes and socks and bits and bobs, it’s time to get ready for school again. Yesterday I pulled out the school clothes tub to sort through what we’ve got an what we need. Pulled three shirts I’m going to try and de-stain, added three I picked up from an outlet store last week. Pants and shorts we’re good on, but I’ll need to take my eldest shoe shopping.

The day before school starts, we’ll pick up his classroom assignment, teacher assignment, and supply sheet. The supplies usually range from typical, such as paper, pencils, and crayons, to class-wide, such as construction paper, hand sanitizer, and modeling clay.

Some of these things can be acquired sustainability – sure I can go buy a pack of Play-Doh, but I’ve been saving it up from kid meals and party bags. Even getting it out for the kids to play with from time to time, I have a fat ton of that stuff in the house. Paper? Notebooks? Pencils? Recycle-content goods! Even plastic bags have gotten into the act, made with less plastic (and at a higher price, go green gouging!).

And what am I sending the supplies in this year? A reusable bag. Continue Reading »

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I’ve got some things around that are quite trashy. I’m pretty pack ratty, as I’ve admitted before, but I think I am and can stay a far pace away from hoarding … but you never know.

I’ve got tea bag wrappers. No reason to save them, but they smell so nice. And I came up with a use for them. But not the time to use them in.

I’ve got old mailing envelopes. Some can be reused, some can’t. The “can’ts” can be reused in other ways, but I want to do more research on Tyvek before I get into it. I had hoped to have a nice long piece about Tyvek tonight, but I was thwarted by bad javascript. :( I understand DuPont wants to capture information about their users, but should I really have to fill out tons of personal information to read a PDF about the Tyvek life cycle? Continue Reading »

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