What a Mess

My eyes burn. Not just from the onions I just cut up, but from fatigue.

Our household goods finally arrived on Thursday. Fortunately, Matt was granted a couple of days off. As I walked down our street and into Parade to drop Olivia off at a friend's house, I saw the movers pull onto our street. I was filled with excitement and dread.

Oh, I longed to hear the whirl of my mixer, the grinding of fresh coffee beans and to feel the comfort of my old slippers, bathrobe and mattress.

I did not, however, long for box after box of clothes neither child fits into any longer. And, where would we put our two Chariot strollers, extra bases for car seats, baby swing, bikes and toys, ginormous garage and basement storage shelves, miles of books and enough Army trunks to store military gear for a whole company of soldiers? And, what about winter clothes and recreation equipment? Camping gear, tool boxes, etc.

You see, we have no storage space. And, when I say no storage space, I really mean it. No garage, no basement. Just a few closets and one small storage nook.

Well, we have to get creative (we have no storage space to rent available to us here), buy a storage shed and even then, possibly ask the landlord to store some of our "stuff" in the unrented house next store. Note-to-self: If ever stationed in Europe again, store items you will not need before you move.

Oh, and toys. I haven't mentioned the toys. The bikes/riding/pushing toys, the dolls, doll clothes, doll beds, blocks, stuffed animals, child-sized purses, children's books, etc. Did I fail to mention the baby blankets? We have enough to donate to an entire orphanage. Olivia loves baby blankets for her dolls-but, I think I'm going to have to have to store the majority of them in our "next baby girl boxes" (because we'll surely have another girl). The playroom suddenly became a place to store toys - not to play in. And, Olivia and Lila are, primarily, only interested in dolls. The closest they come to playing with toys is pouring them out of bags or the toy box, and then leaving the room. Olivia will push or carry one of her dozens of dolls around the house while Lila follows behind yelling, "oilia!" As soon as I'm finished picking up the mess they left behind, they are back at it again.

I'm tempted to throw out all toys that don't relate to dolls (aside from puzzles, books, blocks and art supplies), however, my husband would kill me. In the mean time, I'm going to have to store some toys and rotate them out from time to time.

I did throw out a couple of dolls who suffered an untimely death of severed heads. I dumped random toys into the toy box and brought it upstairs to Lila's room. Her room opens up to our balcony and we, obviously, need some balcony toys.

We quickly discovered that our living room furniture does not fit. Our living room will always look cluttered and shoved together. We currently have a bookshelf in our dining room. I have yet to unpack my clothes and put them in my dresser. I'm still working on going through the boxes of Olivia's clothes that now fit Lila or will fit into within the next year.

However, it's slowly coming together. Nothing appears broken or ruined. Our kids are happy (Lila's a bit upset to be in a crib instead of the Pack and Play she's been in since she was four months old- but she'll get over it). I'm exhausted but feeling less overwhelmed than I was. I do love our house. I love the location, it's old charm, balcony, fenced-in back yard, uncarpeted rooms, large (larger than our kitchen in AK) modern kitchen (we have a gas stove instead of electric!) and more. I just don't love the lack of storage space!

Matt was finally able to hook up our router. We are now wireless. I can now browse the Internet and use my VOIP phone at the same time. I can't, however, do both and watch AFN (Armed Forces Network-American TV) because Olivia decided to wash the AFN receiver the other day. She was trying to "help" our housekeeper. Help all right; she fried it! We're not sure if we can get it replaced for free or if we'll have to pay for a new one. Oh, the joys of toddlers!

It Ain't Easy Being Green

In this month's edition of Mothering Magazine, editor and publisher, Peggy O'Mara says this in regards to sustainable living and our environment, "The carbon footprint of US families in particular is irresponsibly heavy. This is why it is imperative that we, as parents, become conscious of the impact of our behavior on the environment and become its allies..."

This week, NBC is going green. A few months ago, Hollywood got together and broadcast Live Earth.

It seems everywhere we turn, we're being encouraged to start living a "Green" lifestyle. It is easier said than done. It's time consuming and in some ways, means changing the way we live our life.

Matt and I, recently, started to attempt to live a more green lifestyle. We use reusable grocery bags, recycle paper, plastic and glass. We use a water filter instead of bottled water, use cloth diapers (Lila only wears disposables when a sitter protests),use eco-friendly laundry and house cleaners (meaning no chlorine bleach products aside from a Bleach Pen), line dry (here in Portugal line drying is a way of life) our clothes much of the time, use a energy efficient washer and as our light-bulbs burn out, we replace them with energy efficient ones and so on and so forth.

However, we haven't been able to get rid of our SUV. You see, in America, we think we can't live without one. We need one to tow a camper, we need one that has a 4-wheel drive, etc. We make excuse after excuse in justifying why we need one. While Matt and I have had serious talks about replacing the 4-Runner with the Toyota Hylander Hybrid (it tows!), we haven't done it.

So sound off on what being green and living a sustainable life means to you and your family. What does your family do? If you don't do much, why? Do you think the current push is a fad? Is it over-rated? Too much effort and time? Something you just don't think about? You can't give up things like bottled water or your SUV (remember we drive an SUV - so I'm not attacking anyone)? Cloth diapering is gross, time consuming and only for the crunchy parents (if you're going to quote studies that say cloth is just as bad as disposables, make sure the studies weren't published by disposable diaper companies - as most are)? I want to know what everyone else has been thinking. Feel free to leave anonymous comments and, while I would love comments, if you're too busy, take the poll to the left.