It's tough to find any calm in my house these days, but when I was home alone for about 90 minutes yesterday (while Neil and the kids took Dash for exercise at Chloe's house), I captured some calm blue, green, purple -- and me. This image isn't exactly what I was going for, but it was the most interesting among a bunch of dull photos and I didn't have time to keep looking. My reflection appears in the window of the china cabinet and in a dark blue teapot inside the cabinet.
Our Sunday was mostly filled with sorting toys to keep, give away, and throw away -- as well as sorting toys into their sets and types. Although we got rid of loads of toys last summer, we still have so many! It's way too much. I was very pleased with the girls' willingness to let go of a bunch of things in this round: all Barbie, Dora, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and Polly Pockets are going, plus some miscellaneous things. (Sadly, several Barbies and Strawberry Shortcake dolls had to be thrown out due to missing feet and hands; chewed off by Dash. The survivors are better off leaving our house!) While you'd think Georgia would still want to play with these items, she was very willing to part with them, and the other two don't care about them any more. Sophia was just slightly concerned about My Little Pony, but preferred to keep Littlest Pet Shop when given a choice. (I left one pony in the bathtub.)
The girls still have PLENTY of toys. Lots of Littlest Pet Shop, Zhu Zhu Pets, play food and dishes, shopping toys (they would NOT part with the shopping cart Sophia received as a toddler), games, dress up clothes, baby dolls and accessories, stuffed animals (far too many stuffed animals), Tinkertoys, K'nex, puzzles, quite a collection of Fisher-Price Little People... We'll have to do another toy decluttering session this summer. We really don't have room for all of this stuff and I know there's much remaining that they don't use, but we ran out of time and energy for this task. I'm very happy with what we accomplished in this session, though. We weighed the outgoing (including the garbaged toys) and it was 31 pounds! I had offered the girls $2.50 worth of dinner (for the whole family) at a restaurant for every pound of toys they parted with, so we went out for dinner with $77.50 to spend.
We attempted to go to Montana's, the girls' first choice, but were told the wait would be an hour. At 6:00 pm on Father's Day, we weren't surprised. Ribs were desired, so we went to Smokin' Oakies on the East side. It was good (although they were out of a couple of things we wanted to order), and I liked their new bright dining room. Great to eat local (non-chain), too. From there, we went to the Coldstone Creamery as we hadn't been there yet (in Regina). The line up was long and it is rather pricey, I must say, but we all enjoyed our treats. My "Raspberry Soiree" (raspberry ice cream with raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries mixed in) was yummy! Neil enjoyed his raspberry ice cream with chocolate shavings. I think raspberry is then next kind of ice cream we'll have to make at home. And the girls all selected cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears and marshmallows mixed in.
We usually only eat out once a month, so this was a very big extra treat. In addition to the kids' toy-reduction incentive, I also thought it would be nice for Neil not to have to make supper on Father's Day. Could I have made supper instead? Sure, I'm capable, but I'm not in that zone at all these days. It didn't even occur to me until now!
P.S. Madeline did sleep all night, getting up just before 7:00 am. I asked her what it felt like to get 14 hours of sleep, and she replied, "I feel tired."
