A set of keys for the new house, a set of keys for the apartment, a key for the car and a sundry sort of membership/discount cards conveniently designed for travel, these are the current contents of my keyring.  I have even more keys.  The parents’ houses, other people’s cars, safety deposit box, an office.  It seems my circle of friends is a very secure lot. I wish I could scale down but every key I own is necessary in some way so I have developed a few rules for managing them all.

1. I do not need every key all the time. This means I only carry keys that are used daily.  Ones that are called into service less often remain at home until I need them.  On occasion I have been somewhere that I wished I had a key with me but these times have been few and don’t justify lugging around those extra ounces in my purse.

2. Keys that are not used every day must have a label.  A few weeks ago I saw that the key cutting station at Lowe’s had some custom key designs available.  (flowers, a college logo, or even the word “home”)  This is a good idea IF you can remember what designs signify what locations.  I try to be specific enough with my labels that anyone ”in the know” can find the right key quickly but vague enough that they mean little to a stranger (eg -”Grandparents 9410 back door”, “Will’s Cutlas trunk”).

3. Purge excess, out-of-date, or unknown keys annually.

4. Each set of keys has its own ring and each of these mini rings is stored on a carabiner. Here’s a visual for clarification.

This has been soo helpful.  Dropping my car off for maintenance, I can easily hand the mechanic what he needs while safely keeping the rest in my possesion.  On a hot day, I can start the car cooling and still keep house keys in hand to lock up. 

5. Finally, all of my membership cards are on their own ring and also get purged periodically.  This keeps them from getting in the way of my keys and from multiplying out of control.

This is probably more than you ever wanted to know about keychain management but it works for me.

Works-For-Me-Wednesday is hosted by Rocks In My Dryer.  You should go there.

Because at 375 they can right my world in 8-10 minutes.

Throughout the years we have owned cats off and on.  The “off and on” is important because during every “off” time we gave all our kitty stuff away and purchased anew at the next “on.”  And that is important to explain because I want to you understand that I have tried a LOT of litter boxes. … Well, not me personally … the cats have tried a lot … well, actually each cat only tried one but that’s not the point.  The point is:  I know about litter boxes.  (I put the point in bold in case you got lost in all the rambling at the beginning.) I also know the two most important questions to ask yourself when purchase a new litter box.  Is it easy to clean?  Will the cat be able to kick/track litter everywhere?  One hopes the answers will be “yes” and “no” in that order but only time will tell.  Last week, I discovered for the first time ever a perfect “yes/no” combination.  The Omega Paw Self Cleaning Litter Box is incredibly easy to clean (”self-cleaning” is a bit of a misnomer) and it’s completly enclosed except for the entrance so litter stays in.  For the little bit of litter that gets tracked out, I added a simple, litter mat and voila!  No more mess.  All told I spent about $35 dollars on the solution which is quite a bit more than your standard litter box cost but I figure I’ll make up the difference in headache medicine.

If you haven’t already, click on over to Shannon’s for more Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips.

Since moving to Bartlesville, I have been with both children (and occasionally Will) almost 24/7.  Last night the stress of joy of all that togetherness began to run over.  Will assessed the caged animal look in my eyes and sent me out the door sans children.

Wow -  unexpected time alone - perhaps if I were anyone else I might have gone shoe shopping or spent the evening at a local coffee shop but being me, I pulled out the to-do list I’d been struggling through all day.  Finally, progress could be made.

First stop: Karate studio.  A few weeks ago I asked Sister if she could learn about anything, what would it be?  I threw out several options (dance, gymnastics, piano, horse-back riding etc.) but made it clear that she didn’t have to pick from my list.  If she had something else in mind, she should say so.  And say so, she did - without hesitation, “Karate and dog training.”

“Uhm, Ok.  It’s good for me to know what you’re interested in,” I said.

Well, the dog had to find a new home before the move so that left her other choice.  My pretty, little, make-up, high-heel, skirt lovin’ girl wants to learn karate. Oh the sweet paradoxes of parenting.

Second stop:  Dance studio - a mum can hope can’t she?

Third stop:  Wal-mart - your one stop shop for all things consumer-y.  We love to make smoothies so item #1 on the list was a blender, followed closely by milk.  After these two essentials were taken care of I rambled around the isles. Looked with sympathy upon the mom telling her child through clenched teeth, “Would you please just sit down already?” Found some beads for Sister on sale and finally ended up in Health & Beauty.  This is NOT a section I frequent.  Usually, I rush in only to grab toothbrushes or razors or some other practical item.  But on this occasion, I found myself tossing fingernail polish, nail buffers, brushes, hair clips and other sundry items into the basket.  At the eyelash curlers, I realized the insanity had to stop so I raced for the nearest checkout.  The twenty or less lady eyed my 30 something cart dubiously but let me through just the same.

Outside I tried to get my bearings.  Where did I park?  Oh yes, that row there, on the left.  My eyes scanned the cars looking for my distinctive, green Cavelier.  Halfway along, I spied it … on the… right?  Okaay.  I pushed my treasures right up the trunk, inserted my key and turned.  Well, I tried to turn but nothing happened.  I closed my eyes and sighed.  Only last week $200 had flown from hands into auto repair shop for just this problem.  “We replaced the entire lock.  You won’t have any more trouble getting that trunk open, Little Missy.”  (The ”Little Missy” part was unspoken but it was there all the same.)  It was almost 8pm.  Will had been alone with the children for over an hour.  I was beginning to fear for their his well-being. “I’ll just have to put everything up front and deal with this later.”  I looked up and caught site of a Dunkin’ Donuts cup on my dash.  Wait, I don’t have a Dunkin’ Donuts cup….or a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from my mirror…  Feeling as if I’d just stepped into some sort of twighlight zone, I cautiously turned around and looked straight at …. my car… on the left … just where I’d thought it was.

This Little Missy then walked sheepishly past some inquistive bystanders, loaded her bags in the trunk that opened perfectly and sped back to her family where her madness could be hidden behind the guise of motherhood.

No, I don’t mean parking ON the sidewalk… that’s just silly.  I mean parking NEAR the sidewalk and for good reason.  Two young children getting out of the car in a crowded parking lot or on a busy street can be a very scary thing indeed. (to the mom… the children usually don’t care at all)  Sidewalk parking is my attempt at safety.  Most places have at least a few spots in front of the sidewalk.  Sometimes these parking spaces are not obvious.  They may be far from the door or even around the corner from your destination.  To me it doesn’t matter.  I park, remind the children to “go to the sidewalk”, then it’s a free-for all to see who can get there first.  Okay, not really.  Sister gets out and waits on the sidewalk while I help Brother.  Once we are all together again I let them run ahead to a specified point (you can go to the lightpole, or that red line, or the second bush or the door with the blue letters).  Not only do I not have to worry about them running out into the street; they get to release some extra energy before we enter a store.  This is especially helpful on days with many errands.  Sometimes it takes a little longer but overall there is less stress and that works for me.

I had two problems.  First Grandma had me order an acrylic tea bag holder from an online catalog.  Unfortunately, it arrived chipped and Grandma decided to return it.  Rather she decided to have me return it.  I HATE returning things.  It’s such a hassle.  So the box sat and sat and sat and would have sat some more except for my other problem:  too many little girl hair clips.

Look!  Here’s the solution we all liked.

Sister loves the box because it’s pretty.  I love it because she is actually using her hair clips now that they are not tucked in the dark recesses of some drawer.

There’s more (and even better) tips over at Shannon’s! 

This post about how to cure colic just popped up in my Parent Hacks feed.  It isn’t a birth thing but it is a very important baby thing so I’m sharing it just the same.  There is many a parent who has spent sleepless nights and days listening to their crying child and wishing hopelessly for a cure.  Please pass this one to anyone with a young infant.  Oh, and if you don’t know what a Probiotic is go here for a quick explanation (Basically it’s good bacteria.)

Next week I’ll get back to sharing birth stories and such.  You can go here to read archived posts on this topic.

And just for fun this week:  go here to find out how popular those baby names you’re thinking of are and what they mean.

My Mommy’s Place is giving away copies of The Motherhood Manifesto on DVD.  Go, leave your comments on “Balance”  here to enter.

Remember the guy at the circus who would spin plates on top of sticks.  He’d start one after another and when he got to the end he’d rush back to the beginning to re-spin each one before it toppled.  I used to think that achieving balance in your life meant that you finally got all the plates going.  I thought it meant that nothing was crashing and breaking.  On top of that as an American I have been so brainwashed to do/have/be more that I thought the best example of balance was to have more plates going at one time than anybody else.  Can you be a spouse?  Yes.  Can you be a mother to two kids?  Yes.  Can you work part-time? Yes.  Can you be a partner in a start-up retail business?  Yes.  Can do all the books and such for your husband’s company?  Yes.  Can you teach childbirth classes? Yes.  Can you be a doula?  Yes.  Can you volunteer at church?  Yes.  Can you do any of it well?  *CRASH!!!!*  And at that realization I started putting away my plates and sticks.  For me, balance means being done with the competition.  Currently I maintain only two plates.  That’s how many hands I have so I have determined that is what I can hold without stress.  I am a wife and I am a mother.  And I am getting better at each of them every day because I have time to think about how to get better and I have the energy to put those thoughts into practice.  This is not to say of course that I don’t do other things just that now those other things are not critical.  They get done when they get done IF they get done and that keeps me balanced.

I love Wednesdays.  I look forward all week to a new slew of tips from all the Works-For-Me-Wednesday participants.  There is nary a week that I don’t learn a new thing (or twenty) but I had a little problem.  There are so many tips at this point that reading through them all in one setting means ignoring my house and childen for an unacceptable amount of time.  What to do?  My husband showed me the benefits of tabbed browsing a while back and this was the perfect application if every there was.  Here’s my system:

Starting with #’s 1-5, I skim through and open the ones of interest to me in new tabs.  I then skip over and read them (opening successive interesting links in their own tabs).  As I finish one I close it’s tab.  When all the tabs are closed, I stop.  Leave the computer.  And do something productive for at least half an hour.  When I do return, I repeat the process with #’s 6-10 and so on.  Make sense?

I find it so easy to get sucked in by that screen, following link after link until my eyes are glazed over and I can barely mumble a coherent answer to my children’s simple questions.  Now I have an end point.  It’s like putting a bookmark in a book knowing you can pick up right where you left off - not missing a thing.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you need to go here.  Shannon’s got a great thing going and I’m sure she’d love to see your name on the list too.

CAR

EDITION

When Sister was an infant she hated having her diaper changed in store bathrooms. Even when the facilites were nice and clean (which they mostly weren’t) the random loud flushing and hand drying of the other patrons bothered her.  So we tried to be at home for changes as much as possible and just did the best we could while out and about.  When Brother came along I was determined not have the same hassles so I created a diaper changing station in the trunk of my car and made a habit of changing him before we went into a store. This obviously did not work so well for the winter months or when it was raining but it was GREAT the rest of the time. To make it easy to switch vehicles and to keep everything from scattering all over the trunk, I kept my supplies (a stack of diapers, a box of pop-up wipes, rash cream & a single onesie) in a small open-topped canvas bag with handles. My changing mat was simply a folded blanket covered with a waterproof mattress pad.  Many a time we took the blanket out for a picnic and the mattress pad was handy to put under children in wet swimsuits. Another plus about changing in the trunk - the light fascinated Brother such that he would actually stay still for the change.

I know it may seem a bit odd and I got more than one inquiring stare from well-meaning bystanders but it worked for me.