19 July 2010

A good weekend

It was a busy weekend.

I started another blog, linked to as a page above, to motivate myself to de-clutter.

We did a Kaufland shopping trip (that includes staples rather than the meat and produce I pick up locally and at the Arab markets).

We went to Ikea, returned things, bought things, returned things, bought things, let the kids play and built things with Bauhaus materials.

It rained and the heat wave broke.
We biked all the way to the Botanical Garden but we didn't stay,because the kids were tired. So we biked home a different way and stopped off at a Biergarten where the kids split potato pancakes with applesauce and fishsticks (with a chocolate shake) and the German and I split a beef goulash and a bottle of water. Then we finished biking home and the kids had a bath and went to bed: a two+ hour bike trip (not including our stops) is a little too much for the girls, I think. But it's amazing what a great biker my 4 year old is and I think my 7 year old (just last week) may be ready to move up to a larger bike when we get back from vacation.

This is part of the reason that clutter and de-clutter are such a big issue: it makes no sense to discard things that are actually going to be needed, in just the same way it can be a waste of mental and physical space to hang on to things that may not be needed. A month or two ago we loaned our Laufrad to a friend of T2's who needs to learn to ride a bike. This week, we will take the Laufrad back and loan her T2's old bike. When we get T1 a new and larger bike, we will need to keep her current bike for T2 to ride either next year or the year after (depending on how quickly she grows!).

De-cluttering and down-sizing and generally living in a serene environment: can I do that while the kids still live with us?

Anyone have advice?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course that makes sense and I'd do the same thing. If they were a boy and girl rather than both girls, how would you handle it? Just a thought from a youngest (and least as they say in the south) who had more than her share of hand-me-downs during her life.

G in Berlin said...

That really depends on the girls: T2's latest bike (which she chose) is blue: she has decided that is her new favorite color. Since T1's bike is pink, we'll have to see what happens!

I raised the kids w/o pink (I hated the color, because my mom always painted my room that color) and I like boys' clothing: I think it's sturdy and well constructed and fun to play in. Since we have only 1 boy among my 5 nieces and nephews, we don't have a lot of "boyish" hand-me-downs. Also, my girls have acquired, through peer interaction, a love of pink. So, we are fortunate that their older cousins apparently went through the same stage!