We got out the paint this morning. And normally my blog entry about it would be something like this:

You know, a collage highlighting the kids having a blast and a few of the most impressive details—a too-full brush, sweet baby hands, ice cube tray full of paint (brilliant idea!).

Then I’d add a shot or three of the action and/or aftermath, just to punctuate how much fun we had and how cute the kids are.

And that would all be true. We did have a good time, mostly, and the kids surely are cute. But lest you think it’s all trips to the park and an ever-more-organized house around here, here’s what’s also true:

Neither one of the kids liked the fingerpaint. At all. Ian didn’t know what to do with it and apparently didn’t like the feel of it on his hands. Simon couldn’t stand the mess and kept asking for a napkin to clean off his hands and made several trips to the sink before finally settling in with the tempera paint and brushes (much better!). Jason has been on edge throughout the weekend because of an injured foot that has been causing him a lot of discomfort. And the paint was kinda globby.

Also, it took me a long time to get things set up.

No matter how cute the kid, drool and spit are hard to glamorize.

And since we gave both kids a bath afterward, it was temporarily House of Pain around here. They are both going through big bath-hating phases (at least I hope they’re phases).

More pics here.

Our pantry has no heat, and we are less-than-half joking when we say it acts as an extra refrigerator/freezer in the wintertime. For the past several months, I have gone in there as little as possible, so it’s not too surprising that it has ended up as a total disaster—everything thrown in willy-nilly, lots of repeats since I never knew exactly what I had, things that didn’t really belong in the pantry at all. It was jam-packed and seriously overwhelming. And my refrigerator was in much the same state, though I had no good excuse for that. All this to say, Project Simplify was once again much needed this week.

I started first thing on Monday with the pantry, and let’s just say that chaos- and mess-wise things got worse before they got better. I have to add, though, that my kiddos were nothing short of amazing. We spent close to two hours working on just one shelf. Ian, with his signature laid-backness, was perfectly content in his seat the whole time. I decided to risk the mess and give Simon the expired spices and whatnot (chocolate drink mix, baby rice cereal) to make his own concoctions with. Totally worth it. He was still dumping and stirring his ‘pices long after Ian and I had decided to call it good for the day.

After naps on Monday, I got something of a second wind and decided to tackle another shelf. This time Simon’s primary ingredients were flour and chocolate sprinkles. None of us had quite as much stamina as we had had for the morning shift, but we made good progress.

We picked the project back up today, starting with the fridge. Simon was my Best Dumper, and together we poured out the “ucky” contents of most of the jars in the door. As it happens, we are collecting jars for the decorations for my sister’s wedding, and I think we probably doubled the number of jars we’ve saved so far.

My mom was here today, and she wrangled the kids, which is the only reason I got done or had a shred of sanity left at the end of the day.

Getting this done felt particularly good. I went deeper than I ever have before, meaning that I was more realistic about what we would actually use and pitched (or donated) the rest. I feel inspired and hopeful about a fresh start and better habits going forward.

Funny side story: When Jason left for work this morning, I was already stacking yogurt and leftovers (refrigerator top shelf) on the kitchen table. He kissed me and said, “You are an awesome wife and a terrific housekeeper.” I thanked him for his pep talk but reminded him that we both know I’m actually not a terribly good housekeeper. He revised his encouragement: “You’re a tenacious housekeeper.” Well, okay. I’ll take that as a compliment?

A series inspired by beauty that moves.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11

My dad came tonight to take Simon to a “west-a-waunt” for dinner. He called just before he left his office and told Simon he’d be here in about an hour. Not five minutes after we hung up the phone, Simon bolted down the stairs because he thought he heard Papa outside. I explained that an hour would take a little longer than that but that if we played it would go quickly and Papa would be here before we knew it. Still, ten minutes later, Simon was at the front door eagerly looking for Papa’s car, and he was unmoved for a good twenty minutes, sure Papa was coming very soon. He passed the time by pretending to talk on the phone and by remarking on every truck that passed, including a mail truck, a delivery truck, and several pickup trucks; the cars must have passed without comment. After I managed to snap a few pictures, he was distracted enough to come away from the door for a time, but he returned frequently to check.

On most days, I would not have given the scene much thought beyond being charmed by Simon’s three-year-old grasp on the length of an hour (although his daddy also has a terrible sense of time, so perhaps that’s more an inherited trait than a childhood thing) and his unrestrained excitement to see his papa. But today we learned that Jason’s Aunt Eileen passed away after a painful battle with cancer, and so my thoughts were a bit more solemn, perhaps a little more contemplative—tending a little less toward the daily grind and a little more toward eternity.

In Simon’s waiting for his papa, I caught a glimpse of what I’d like my perspective to be as I think about eternity and waiting to meet Jesus face to face. Simon was persistent and hopeful. Even when he was temporarily disappointed, he didn’t lose sight of who he was waiting for. He was also busy. Fully engaged. Quiet and rambunctious in turn. Asking “When?” again and again, not out of petulance, but anticipation. He knew that Papa promised to come and yet was still surprised and utterly delighted when he finally arrived.

I think one of the best things about Project Simplify (and decluttering in general) is that one good thing tends to lead to another. As we make our way through the five weeks, I’m finding that I’m also tucking away ideas for what areas I want to tackle if they don’t come up as one of the hot spots. On Sunday night, I went downstairs to put in a load of laundry and was reminded that the playroom has been total chaos lately.

I made a mental note that a major playroom rehaul would be my first priority for continuing to declutter once Project Simplify is over, so I was super excited to read that toys and/or kids’ clothes were the next hot spot to be subdued.

Before: All four of us had gotten completely overwhelmed with the sheer volume of toys. Everywhere. All the time. The boys were hardly playing with anything. I think they probably just didn’t know where to start—they would dump out a bin (that was a mishmash already) and then just move on. It was ugly.

The Plan: Although Tsh suggested that we involve the kids in the process, it was just too much. I think next time we do a purge, we’ll be able to ask Simon (and Ian when he’s older) to choose one or two toys to give away, but this first time, we had to make major cuts, and the only way it was going to get done was on the down low. We gave to friends or donated five bags of toys, and we put away the baby toys that even Ian has grown out of, the toys that the boys just don’t get how to play with yet, and about a third of the trains and trucks (to be pulled out as new and exciting in a few months).

After: I wasn’t surprised at how good it felt to get this done, but I do have to say that it has been even better than I expected. I had been pretty sentimental about some of the toys that didn’t make the cut, but the boys’ reaction has more than made up for any angst I felt about letting toys (just things, after all) go. They don’t, of course, even notice that they are missing any toys, and I can already tell how much they are enjoying playing with the ones they do have now. And they are really playing trucks and tools and blocks instead of just dumping them out and kicking them around or tripping over them.

The Best Part: I kept the actual bags out of Simon’s sight so that he wouldn’t melt down over any specific toy, but as we drove to the People’s City Mission this morning to drop off the bags, I talked with Simon about giving some of his toys to other kids who don’t have as many as we have. He seemed to be okay with that (he was, of course, more interested in all the construction on N Street), but I wasn’t really sure how much he was really getting it. Then this afternoon as we were getting ready to pick up Jason from work, he came running out of the house clutching a toy. I asked him if he wanted to bring it in the car to pick up Daddy. “No, Mommy,” he answered. “I want to give it away. I want to give it to some kids.” Heart. Melting.

And I’ll share as a sidenote that I also got the kids’ clothes all rotated out for the spring/summer. I didn’t expect to be able to get that done this week because it is such a huge job, but it just kind of fell into place today. Simon was actually a big help in putting his own clothes into his dresser drawers, which is fun. We also finished up the dressers in our bedroom this week. We’re still not finished with the paper clutter, but we’ll keep hacking away at that.

A series inspired by beauty that moves.

When the second Project Simplify hotspot was revealed to be paper clutter, my first thought was “Meh. Too easy.” After a quick look around the main floor, I was almost disappointed with our lack of paper clutter. How was this supposed to keep me busy all week? I figured I’d deal with the mail basket by the door, the short stack of papers on the dining room table, and the addresses and notes on the refrigerator and be done with it all before the kids finished breakfast.

But then I remembered that we sometimes put papers that need to be filed in a pile on Jason’s desk. And, oh good grief, suffice to say I was wrong: as it turns out, we have no shortage of paper clutter. Plus, Ian has been helping Jason with the filing, and while I’m thankful that he wants to help, I think the system needs a bit of tweaking.

This project will be ongoing for a while: Jason had saved every bank statement, bill, pay stub, and insurance EOB since at least 2004. To his great credit, the first several years’ papers were neatly filed (the folder for the Sprint bills was three inches thick). For the last year or so, though, papers started getting stashed and stuffed, just to get them out of the way. We did a bit of research on what you actually do need to keep (relatively little) and then started shredding.

We filled up a huge box of papers to be shredded, and Simon was gleeful at getting to help. We turned out six garbage bags plus a giant tote all full of shredded paper before I busted the shredder. We’re probably about halfway through, so I will continue to sort and recycle until we can get a new shredder.

In the meantime, we have a new and improved system for dealing with incoming mail. I am ever so slightly disappointed that we didn’t get done with the paper clutter so that we could have a clean slate for next week’s project, but we have made so much progress, and I can see how good it will be when it’s all done. So that’s a big something (that doesn’t take up any space at all).

I almost hesitate to gush too much about the Digging Park (known to most as the Natural Play Area at Pioneers Park Nature Center) because it truly is one of Lincoln’s best kept secrets, and there’s part of me that wants to keep it a secret. Truth be told, though, I think there’s some kind of space-time warp because it seems that I talk to plenty of people who know about it and love playing there and yet eight or nine times out of ten, we have the place to ourselves. In the two years since we first discovered it, we have spent more happy hours than I could possibly count digging, building, splashing (well, not so much splashing).

Our primary activity most days, as you might have guessed, is digging. There is a huge sandbox (or dirtbox, more accurately), and you don’t even have to bring your own tools. They have plenty of shovels, rakes, trowels, yogurt containers, and those whatchamacalits, the plastic things that go under plants to catch water. And sticks. You do have to bring your own snacks, though.

Beyond the digging area, there are also bunches of other things to explore, including a stage, a fort, a great big fallen log, a table with chairs made of stumps, and lots of open spaces filled with bugs and plants and rocks and sticks and whatnot. In terms of opportunities for unstructured play, the place is a jackpot.

One of the things that I appreciate most about the Digging Park is that it works for all ages. Ian is as happy digging and stacking wood blocks as Simon is jumping off the benches and climbing through the log. And I’ve found that we can easily spend two to three hours at a time once or twice a week without the kids even approaching boredom with the place. It seems to keep us busy longer than playground-type parks (though we like those a lot too).

Another bonus in my book is that there’s always plenty of shade. I hate, hate, hate the heat of midsummer in Nebraska, and if I’m going to be outside then, it’s more bearable at the Digging Park than it is most other places.

We haven’t done much exploring around the rest of the Nature Center, but I understand there is a whole network of paths. Perhaps this summer if Ian decides he’s going to learn to walk, we’ll venture onto them as well.

Visitor Information: The Nature Center is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

More Digging Park photos here.