Sorting and Schedules

Organizing the basement has been on my to do list for a few months. Thursday I sorted through the kids' clothing for the first time. It was a major project as thus far I hadn't sold or donated any of their clothing (about 3.5 years worth of clothing if you combine their ages). Although we're taking quite a bit to the thrift store today (en route to getting Paul's picture taken to renew his driver's license and having dinner with friends), there are still many boxes of their clothing in our basement. It's hard for me to part with their clothing. I kept reminding myself that I have lots of pictures of them in these outfits. I found it easiest to part with their pajamas and play clothing although I did keep some play clothing, particularly those made of denim. I probably could have continued storing what I set aside to donate and sold it at a yard sale instead. I've never had a yard sale before, but I should probably have one next summer. I also could have taken them to a consignment shop, but I opted to just donate them. It seemed like too much hassle, and I know this thrift store is a worthwhile charity. I'll have to do another sort, as I have saved far too much, but it was emotionally hard for me to part with any of their clothing so I view this is a baby step in the right direction (away from babies ironically). I do plan to sell some items on eBay, and I also plan on keeping some things either for Nadia to use for dressing her dolls OR for our future grandchildren to wear some day. I'd like to pass on some baby clothing to Nadia and/or Ian if they become parents some day 20+ years from now. I have to say while I was sorting through their clothing I was wishing I only wanted two children. I can't change my desire for another baby, but I can keep reminding myself to be very grateful for the two I do have. I may not have four like I dreamed of having for more than 2 decades, but two is far better than none. Speaking of having more babies, I found out this week that my sister, Yvonne, is pregnant with her fifth. In a few months my parents will have ten grandchildren under the age of nine! I'm not sure when we'll all get together again (they live in Turkey), but when we do I pity the poor photographer who tries to get 10 children to smile at the same time for a family photo, lol. There were 8 children in our last family photo, as I was pregnant with Ian at the time.

This week I've also been working on our spring schedule as well as planning our excursions for our cruise. In terms of our spring schedule I've decided that on Tuesday mornings we'll go to ladies Bible study at my former church. I figure Ian can nap on the way there. Wednesday mornings I'll take the kids to Lewisburg's preschool library time at 10:00 and gymnastics at 10:45, and Friday mornings I'll take the kids to our town's preshool library time. Lewisburg's program is technically for ages 3-5, but their toddler program is on Tuesdays when we'll be in Danville. If it doesn't work out, we'll just do gymanstics on Wednesdays. I explored many options such as Mommy & Me dance class before deciding to do another session of gymnastics. There are going to be many more options for Nadia once she turns three. I definitely am going to have her do a session of Baby Ballet once she turns 3. I figure while she's young I'll have her try a variety of things and then when she's older she can stick with the one she enjoys the most. Others I plan on having her try at some point are swimming lessons and Little Grapplers (a martial arts program for ages 3-5). I'm also planning on having her join an AWANA club next fall to do the Cubbies program. Our church has that, but there's another church about a mile from our house that has it also so I'll probably have her go there on Wednesday nights instead of doing it on Tuesday nights at our church. My girl is a social butterfly so I want to give her lots of opportunities to be with other kids, especially since I am planning on homeschooling her.

As for planning our vacation, usually I put a LOT of time into researching and planning for our vacations. I actually enjoy the planning almost as much as actually going. This time around I am finding it impossible to be as thorough in my research as I was with our previous trips. I should mention that I didn't need to do much planning for our trip to Florida this year since we were visiting my Aunt Janet. A few days ago I booked our excursion for Roatan, Hondurus. I picked a tour that included snorkeling (from a catamaran) as well as a trip to Gumbalimba Park, which has monkeys, parrots, etc. I thought Paul and I would enjoy the snorkeling, and the kids would enjoy seeing the animals. Last night I selected a tour to Chacchoben (Mayan ruins) for our Costa Maya stop. The Roatan tour I booked through the cruise, but the Chacchoben tour I booked through another site that had high reviews and was much cheaper. This weekend I'm planning on booking our Belize tour through Norwegian and finding a cheaper snorkeling tour for Cozumel. Our luggage tags came in the mail this week from Norwegian!