The Return of Won't Wait Wednesday

Today is Wednesday. What does that mean? Well, it must be Won't Wait Wednesday! That's right. The day I'm supposed to be taking care of some unfinished business. I haven't done a Won't Wait Wednesday post for a few weeks, not quite sure why. Well, maybe because for a while the only business we were taking care of was the car and I was tired of talking about that. So, what have I done today?

Here was my To Do List:

1. Pay MasterCard
2. Pay cell bill
3. Pay IKEA
4. Go through the fridge and toss anything that looks like it might talk to me
5. Finish a load of essential laundry
6. Get some groceries

I had a little glitch in that my Hubby transferred money to the account I no longer use (because it's at the same bank that he uses) and I didn't get out in time to my bank. I could put cash in at the ATM but I wouldn't be able to access it for at least a couple of days! Not really a good plan. But, my old bank has MasterCard set up as a bill payment so I decided to pay the credit card from there and my IKEA bill from the credit union (because I already had the money for MasterCard in there). There isn't enough left for the cell phone bill there though and it's not set up at the old bank so I'll wait on paying that until I can deposit money when the credit union is open tomorrow.

Are you confused yet?

I got the laundry finished and I cleaned out the fridge though! And I'm on my way out the door to get some groceries. You know, little things like milk, cream, protein drink and root beer. Hmmm. That's all stuff to drink. Maybe I'm thirsty and that's why I can only think of liquid items. Anyway, I'm heading out before my get up and go gets up and goes.

Turning the Kitchen Over Part One

Well, I'm still massively behind on my Pesach cleaning but I'm on track with the kitchen!

On Thursday I received my dairy order, which meant that I had to clean most of my fridge. I still have to clean the big bottom glass shelf that covers the vegetable bins and the bottom shelf on the door (where the last of the chametz has been hanging out) but I'll do that tomorrow. Upstairs. In Eldest Daughter's bathtub, seeing as I still don't have a functional one of my own.

I made a point of "using up" food for Shabbat and after Shabbos was over I cleared the counters, scrubbed them, cleaned the stove top, scrubbed the burner pans with steel wool, scrubbed the double sink with steel wool and then self-cleaned the oven (sticking the burner pans in there on the rack). Now everything has to sit for 24 hours and then I can kasher the kitchen. That entails self-cleaning the oven again, pouring boiling water over the counters and sink and turning the burners up to max for at least 10 minutes each. Then I can cover the counters again with transparent contact paper.

I still have to scrub the inside of the pots & pans cupboard and the pantry cupboard and then line them so I can put stuff inside.

Since I can't kasher the kitchen until the middle of the night tomorrow night I am faced with the dilemma of what to do Sunday during the day. I have lots of general cleaning to do but there is also the tiling. Do I clean, or do I tile? If I don't tile I won't have a usable bathroom until a week or two after Pesach ends. If I tile on Sunday and grout on Monday my son-in-law can put in the vanity, countertop, new toilet etc. whenever he can. Well, he'd have to put in the toilet Monday night but the other stuff could go in then or when he's off on the following Sunday and Monday (he has a whole 5 days off at the beginning of Passover). And I could build the wardrobe in my multitudinous spare time (HA!) on Monday or Tuesday and put the coats into it.

But that cuts into my time for doing things like reboxing papers and suchlike and sticking them into the bottom of the closet. Or for reorganizing the storage room to try to get more into there. I have to spend some time on Dear Child's room because it's still full of boxes and I can't even get at her table and chairs, which I need for the kid's table at the seder! I have a bunch of laundry to do and the rooms all need to have floors washed, swept or vacuumed.

What will I do? I honestly don't know yet. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. Stay tuned for Part Two!

Not a Wednesday to Write Home About

I went to work for a couple of hours. I came home. I slept for a while. I packed the contents of the dairy pots and pans shelf. I did some banking. I picked up Dear Child and came home, then went back to work after dinner. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home. And I should be asleep now but I'm blogging instead.

The weather was disgusting. It snowed. Not much, and very wet snow, so it didn't stick. But really. It was April 1st. If I wanted to live somewhere where it snows in April I'd be in Minnesota or New York State or Toronto.

Today was Wednesday. Next Wednesday night is the first seder. I am so not nearly ready that I'm starting to have panic attacks. That was why I forced myself to get up and pack that box. I should have done the meat shelf at the same time and then scrubbed out the cupboard. But I didn't and I'll pay for that tomorrow or later this week. I did do a ton of work on Sunday but I've been feeling sicker ever since then and I'm tired all the time.

I work all day tomorrow and then am home all evening. I really need to do a lot of work then in the kitchen. Right now, just packing up all the everyday stuff so I can scrub everything down and then get out the Passover pots, pans, dishes, etc. is the most important thing. Friday is the last day I'm cooking. After Shabbos I have to clean the stove and self-clean the oven to clean it. Sunday night I have to self-clean it again to make it kosher for Pesach. Monday I have to start cooking for the seders and Shabbos. Plus I have to finish cleaning the rest of the house and be finished by Tuesday night!

Lots O' Progress and a No Spend Day

Wow. I was really busy today.

I donated 6 boxes of books (about 1/2 of them hard cover) to charity (and still have 2 more small boxes, 1 of non-English books to give to the nursing home and 1 of Jewish books in English to give to the Jewish library).

I took 3 boxes of household items to Value Village.

I donated 2 bags of clothes (one was a bag Eldest Daughter packed but it was mostly things I'd passed along to her to take what she wanted first).

The front foyer is not tiled but it is basically empty and it's clean for Pesach! All that remains in it are 2 boxes containing an IKEA wardrobe (to be built as soon as the tiling is done), a small stack of the floor tiles I'm putting down there, the bags of thinset and grout, the 5 gallon bucket for mixing the thinset and the trowels.

I also cleaned out my clothes from the master bedroom closet and went through all the boxes on the closet floor!

And I washed, dried and put away 2 loads of laundry. I'm exhausted, but I feel like I did a lot. I'm still disappointed that I didn't get the tiling done. I really want to do it before Pesach so I can get the bathroom finished. It would really be nice to have a sink back in there and to be able to use the new tub. I just don't know when I can do it though. It will take me the better part of a day to tile, the next day is for grouting and then things can go back into place. A Sunday is clearly the best time for the actual tiling but next Sunday is when I'm supposed to turn the kitchen over, which is pretty much an all day thing in and of itself. I don't want to put myself in the position of turning the kitchen over late and not leaving myself enough time to cook for the seders and Shabbos (which follow each other 1, 2, 3 this year so I really need to have cooking done in advance).

At least all of this work today has freed up enough good boxes (along with some I'd already accumulated) that I can start boxing up the kitchen now. Well, not right now. Maybe tomorrow.

Right now I'm planning on going to bed and to sleep. I slept a lot on Shabbos but I'm still on the mend from what turned out to be strep throat and I need more rest. But today was a very successful day and I didn't spend a cent!

Ticking Items Off the List

Well, I was busy today! No, I didn't tile the floors, but we did move a bookshelf from the living room into the bedroom (which necessitated moving a bunch of stuff and tipping my bed on its side so we could get the bookshelf upright -- love those 7 foot ceilings!). It was blocking the glass front one that I wanted hubby to attach to the wall in the living room. Somehow we never got that far.

But I did clear off our nightable and windowsill and clean them. I also cleaned the inside of our bedroom window and the outside of ALL our windows! We vacuumed under my bed while it was on its side and my hubby filled the new bookshelf with all his music and sports magazines.

Maybe we can finish with the glass front shelves tomorrow. Then I can empty the 6 boxes in Dear Child's room into there.

On Friday I finally got my missing pay and my benefit cheque as well as two other small ones. I made it to both banks and also used the credit union ATM to deposit to my other credit union account in the Okanagan. The benefit cheque went in there to cover 2 months worth of electic at the house, the pay one went into the credit union here to pay for part of the cost of Dog's upcoming vacation and the other 2 cheques reduced my overdraft slightly.

Oh yes, and I baked cinnamon buns today! I was busy, I tell you.

Payday Wednesday and Some Progress

I got paid today and received the pay advice while I was at work (usually it's sent to my home). I opened it and just about had a heart attack when I looked at the amount. I knew the cheque was going to be a little smaller than my past few cheques because I didn't work quite as many hours as usual but I wasn't expecting it to be around $250 smaller!

I pulled up my time sheet and compared it to my pay advice and discovered it was 9 hours short, compared to what I'd actually worked. That'll do it. I called the accountant at our Head Office back east and she promised to correct it tomorrow. So I'll have a cheque for roughly the net difference in my hands sometime on Friday (G-d willing).

Regardless, I still needed to take care of some business today. My son-in-law was off, so I was able to work until 2:30 pm. Dear Child was having early dismissal again today, so I picked her up and went to update my passbook. We went to Pini's Pizza on the way home (our local kosher pizza place) but not for pizza. They also stock groceries and I wanted a few very specific things for Passover before they disappeared from the store.

When I went through my menus from last Pesach and the notes I wrote just afterwards I saw that we had bought and enjoyed fish sticks with a potato coating twice last year. So I bought another 2 boxes, double bagged them and stuck them in the freezer. I also bought shmurah matzo meal, a special (stricter) form of matzo meal where the grain used to make the matzos was watched from the time it was harvested to make sure it couldn't have gotten wet (which would disqualify it from being used for Passover). And I bought us each a small package of cheese puffs, which are almost never available (at least not kosher). Those we ate in the car before we ever got home! Hey, everybody needs a treat now and then.

When we got home I made chocolate chunk cookies with DC and my 4 year old granddaughter because I'd promised we'd do it today before I got so sick. After that I went to bed for a while and Hubby took the girls to Play Dome (a spring break midway under the dome at BC Place). I lay around with the TV off, read some blogs, had a cup of chai tea and just generally tried to get a bit of rest. Well, I started a load of laundry too, but that just takes a couple of minutes.

When they came home I got dinner started (veggie cheeseburgers with mushrooms on challah buns) but turned the final part over to Hubby and went back to bed until it was ready. After we ate I rebooted the laundry and did a bit of work in DC's room. I got 3 or 4 more boxes into her closet, verified that 6 other boxes in her room contain fragile items that are supposed to go in the glass front cabinet (assuming it ever gets attached to the wall) and went through part of a box of clothes. Her room still isn't done but it's looking a little emptier every day. As for working on my bedroom, that was kind of what the load of laundry was all about. The clothes were all scattered about and now they're a) clean and b) not lying on the floor.

I paid the overdue portion of my cell bill and wrote cheques for Dog's upcoming boarding (or as we like to think of it, his vacation). Oh yes, and I cleaned out most of the fridge. When you consider how sick I am, I really accomplished a lot. Too bad there's still so much more to do.

To Dos and Ta Das

Here is my To Do List for today, with what I accomplished marked off on it.

Go to IKEA
Buy pink and white bins for Dear Child’s room DONE
Ask about white cover to fit sofa bed NO
Look at quilt covers DONE
Look at kitchen cabinets NO
Go through big toy box and weed out DONE
Go through non-fragile boxes in DC’s room, eliminate, consolidate & put in DC’s closet IN PROG
Do laundry, get it all off DC’s bed IN PROG
Buy new frying pan DONE
Take clothes for donation DONE
Take books for donation NO
Take other household items for donation NO

This week I've been concentrating on my Dear Child's room. I went to IKEA because there was no way I could organize her room without some more bins. Every time I look her Barbie dolls and Webkinz have multiplied again. I can barely find her bed under all the stuffed animals (okay and laundry too, because the laundry equipment is on the other side of the door in her room that leads to the other half of the house). Clean, unfolded laundry tends to end up at the foot of her bed.

I did 2 loads of laundry and still need to do more, especially white laundry. I also went through 3 boxes in her room and got rid of 2. No, I didn't get rid of everything in 2 boxes. I repacked the biggest box, took things out I need to use, threw away some junk, recycled a phone book, etc. And some things are still lying around, waiting for a more appropriate box to go into.

I got rid of a huge box from the restoration company that was mostly junk in the form of baby toys (rattles, anyone?), stuffed animals she never played with and sadly deflated balls and balloons. Cleverly, I did this while she was at a play date because (like her mother) DC refuses to part with the smallest scrap of paper, gift from strangers holding yard sales, etc. This was all stuff she hadn't seen or played with in at least 2 and a half years and I kept toys that actually held meaning (like the crocheted Beatrix Potter character) or that I knew she'd really play with (like a Ken to go with all those Barbies). But it wasn't in her room. No, it was in the living room.

I also took Eldest Daughter to Wal-Mart for something she wanted and managed to get a replacement for my frying pan, which met a burnt and sticky end the other week when Hubby left the heat on under it after dinner was done. And I dropped off 2 bags of outgrown kiddy clothes and toys in good shape in one of those big metal bins. I meant to go back with some of the books I'm getting rid of because they have a book bin beside the clothing one but it started to snow again so I didn't. It looks like you have to feed the bin one book at a time and I have a big box. I'd rather do it on a decent day. And I'm still not sure where to take the miscellaneous household items. Is there a place to drop things off at Value Village?

Yes, I said it was snowing. This is just ridiculous. All the spring flowers are out and I saw pussy willows on the trees a few days ago. It isn't supposed to snow here, period. And certainly not during Spring Break. Luckily, it was very wet snow and has totally disappeared already. Of course, it may start again in the middle of the night but I sincerely hope not.

Anyway, what does any of this have to do with my financial situation? Well, I must admit, I put the stuff from IKEA (about $45 worth) on my IKEA card. It has a horrible interest rate (28%) but I haven't been carrying a balance and I do hope to pay off the card in a timely manner. I'm afraid Pesach is usually a time when there's a fair bit of juggling in order to pay for everything but at least I get 3 paycheques next month.

Plan the Work, Work the Plan

I made up a plan for cleaning for Passover that started February 11th (and completing other preparations as well, such as buying stuff, cooking, etc.) but I have continued to fall behind.

Tonight I finally completed one task that is actually on my list for this week. I totally cleaned Dear Child's dresser. This involved emptying the dresser and clearing it off totally. The dresser itself was cleaned both inside and out. Then only clean clothes went back in neatly. I put back stacks of cleaned books on top neatly and symmetrically. The only 2 other items that went back on the dresser top were her new jewellery box and a tzedakah [charity] box she made this past summer. It looks lovely.

Too bad the rest of her room is still piled with boxes, clothes, stuffed animals, etc. But I'm trying not to beat myself up for the things that remain undone. Rather, I want to focus on what is good and go from there. I've created an island of Pesachdik order in the midst of chaos. Now I just have to keep expanding the order or creating more little islands that will eventually overlap. I just have to take it One. Day. At. A. Time.

I don't know if there will be time tomorrow before Shabbat begins (although it starts an hour later this week, now that we've changed the clocks) but I would really, really like hubby to attach my glass door cabinet to the wall in the living room so I can put in the glass shelves and put the beautiful and mostly fragile things that belong in it on the shelves. That will take care of at least five whole boxes out of DC's room.

I was looking at her closet tonight. Now that I've gone through her clothes for donation, I see there's not much left that really needs to hang up. The few things that do, with the exception of her Shabbos dresses, are not clothes she'll wear during Pesach. So I've decided that I'm going to put some of the excess boxes into her closet, fill it right up, and then sell her closet for Pesach. [This is how we get around owning forbidden things like our everyday dishes on Pesach. They're sold for the duration of the holiday and bought back afterwards.] I'm hoping that, between filling the closet and emptying as many boxes as possible, I'll take care of all the boxes that are taking up space in DC's room at the moment.

Walking Again

After not going for several weeks because of bad weather, illness, etc. I went to shul today for the second week in a row. Even better, Hubby and Dear Child also made it. There was a big lunch today, in honour of a friend's son's recent marriage, and several of DC's classmates who normally go elsewhere were at our shul today. She was very happy and split her time between us and playing with her friends after the main part of the lunch.

Then she ended up going to a nearby friend's place with several of the other girls and playing until Shabbos was over. Even better, she let me walk home and didn't insist that I stay with her! I got time to read my Tanya and take a little nap before Shabbos ended and it was time to pick her up. I'm actually happy I walked the hour or so home because I really need the exercise. I've gained another 3 pounds and I know it's a combination of too much junk and far less walking than I'm used to. I'm hoping the weather cooperates for the next while and that I can keep getting to shul on a regular basis. One of my goals has been to lose 10 pounds and that's never going to happen if I stay home and sleep half of every Sabbath away! Plus I really miss it when I don't go.

Eldest Daughter is away again until Thursday so I'm going to bed early because I have to get up when my son-in-law leaves for work to look after the little girls. I hope I'll get a chance to get started tomorrow on the Passover cleaning I planned out the other day. Right now I'm halfway through the first week and I'm already behind. Not a particularly auspicious beginning.

How Goes the Vacation?

Only two days left before we have to return to the real world. So, how are we doing? We had intended to do a number of things around the house and to have some fun. Have we accomplished what we set out to do?

Well, the grass is cut and we’ve been watering. A few things died, a few are struggling and some are going pretty well. Unfortunately, the weeds aren’t among the things that died! We’ve been debating over how to get rid of them.

On one hand, we could borrow a rototiller from friends in town and mow it all under. The disadvantages are that it’s a lot of work, we have to have the van in order to borrow the rototiller and when you churn up all the weeds you release a lot of weed seeds that then start to grow.

Or we could try the extinction method. Basically, you cover the area with layers of newspapers, then cover the papers with a tarp and weight it all down with rocks. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t happen right away but it’s not a problem if time isn’t an issue. Since we’re only here some of the time we could cover an area just before we leave, then deal with it on our next trip out.

In a way, we did just that already on a limited scale. One of the things we accomplished the other day was to hire someone with a truck to haul away all the construction debris, leftover junk from the previous owner, etc. It had all been stacked in a particular area of the yard and, once it was removed, the ground underneath was pretty bare.

Hubby painted the master bedroom, which is now a very pale blue that looks different in different lights. We put new hoses on the washing machine and I’ve done laundry and demonstrated that it no longer leaks. We also had a plumber in to work on our pipes and more than half of the job is done, although he’s going to return after we’ve gone to replace the trap under the sink.

On the fun side, we took our Dear Child to the beach yesterday, over her strenuous protests. She just wanted to go home to play with the girl next door and gave us quite a list of reasons why she absolutely would not go to the beach. It stinks, there’s seaweed, the water is disgusting, the sea dragon in the lake might come and get her, etc. We pointed out that she’d never been to a lake before and that most of her objections were based on her previous trips to the ocean. I ignored the Ogopogo red herring, just drove to the beach, parked and we all got out of the car.

She loved it! She splashed around with her PFD on (we were in an area where there is a bit of a drop off), made a sand castle, tossed rocks in the water and just generally had a riot. In fact, she cried when it was time to go home! We’re planning to go back later today (and probably to take Dog with us because there were quite a few dogs there yesterday).

I need to go to the credit union today while it’s actually open and order more cheques. I’d like to lay the laminate flooring I’ve got in the master bedroom so we can move our beds and night table back in there and I still want to drive around in the nice weather and tour a couple of wineries. Plus, we were talking about maybe painting one wall in the living room and putting up the new curtain rods and the drapes I have for the room (instead of the nasty ones from the previous owner). We’ll leave sometime tomorrow afternoon for the drive back, but we have to remember to buy gas today before the price goes up tomorrow when the carbon tax kicks in.

The more we come here and spend time like this, the more I wish we could just stay. That isn’t possible right now, so I’ll just enjoy what I have and come back as often as we can.

10 Miscellaneous Things I Should Do

1. Go back to the gym.
2. Make a deposit into my credit union account to cover my eletric bill. Done
3. Update my passbook at my main bank. Done
4. Enter info from my receipts etc. into my budget spreadsheet. In progress
5. Make a payment on my cell bill. Done
6. Return a couple of items to IKEA. Returned 1, decided to keep the other.
7. Set up new financial files. Started, but lots more to do.
8. Go through 2 boxes of meat dishes. Done
9. Unpack my spices. Done
10. Make labels for Rubbermaid storage boxes.