The Return of the Fidget

Glory to God! My little man made it home last night! And he's psyched about our new eating plan.

It was an interesting week. I was working on cleaning up his room, which had an odor I couldn't find the source of. Well, I found it.

See, the thing is, my child is six, and still wets the bed fairly regularly. The doctors have said they don't consider it abnormal until it's still happening when he's coming up on nine. So we just handle it. Or so I though. I've layered the mattress - a waterproof cover, a fitted sheet, repeat a few times. I also snagged him some extra bedspreads. That way, if he wets, we can pull off a fitted sheet and a quilt and just throw on a new bedspread and get back to sleep. No big deal, right?

Apparently it is. It seems that his dad's family makes a HUGE DEAL about it, and he gets in  trouble there if he wets - even though his dad has admitted to wetting through elementary school himself. So, I guess he's sort of internalized it or something. Or he's afraid that I am going to flip out too. I don't know. I get that it's embarrassing. I really do. But I try to make it "just a thing" for us. It's just something we deal with because it has to be handled.

But he had trashed his closet. I mean toys, books, shoes - everything just CRAMMED IN THERE. And not just crammed in, but covering his hidden accidents. When he wet, he crammed stuff in the closet instead of coming to me with it. So I CLEARED OUT THE CLOSET. All of it. The closet is no longer storage for toys at all.

It became a project for the whole house.

I pulled books off his bookshelf, and moved the books to the living room. I pulled the bookshelf (yes, bookshelf) out of the bathroom to store our collection of VHS tapes. I put the bookshelf from his room into the bathroom. Then I set out to build him cubbies out of milk crates so I could take the plastic drawers and reclaim them for art supplies. Here are some photos. Please forgive the blurriness of some of them. I took several, but I've got this hand-me-down point-and-shoot.....

Milk crate cubbies - all of his toys are organized and accessible under his loft bed. He has a toy cave!

This corner was ALL cluttered up. The bookshelf (and four milk crates) were at the window, and everything else was shoved behind the closet door. Now he can actually get to his music stuff!

I shifted around posters, cleared and cleaned the top of his desk (and underneath it. Dude is a clutterbug!).

This was also crammed full of toys (and milk crates!). The cool hat rack was behind the bedroom door)

I cleaned up the area between the door and the closet and used some wood salvaged from my neighbors kitchen remodel to build the boy a trophy shelf. I have to pick up his trophy, but when he got home, we hung his pine derby ribbon and put the derby car on the shelf. 

Smaller, but much more suited shelf in the bathroom. I think I like it better!

This one WAS in the bathroom, and the VHS tapes were taking over my world (and by "world" I mean "beloved huge bookshelf that I scored for cheap at Goodwill). I love it here, and all our movies fit. There WAS a stack of milk crates there, but they were turned into cubbies in the boy's room. So we've gone full circle!

I am still working on the rest of the house. Still figuring out how I want the laundry/storage room organized, how I want my art/craft supplies organized in there, and how to get people to buy all the loads and loads of stuff in my carport waiting for a yard sale!! I have to move my dresser to make room for an extra-large dog crate. And I am still working my way through laundry - cleaning EVERYTHING here!

I know some of you are curious how the "diet" is going. I hate that word, "diet," but I guess it applies if we take it to mean "the way a creature eats" not "a hare-brained scheme to lose a lot of weight fast with no long-term plan."  The Young Farmer is totally on board, especially if it means he gets to graze on fresh chard and carrots. I'm working on a pot of soup for his lunches this week, which he's totally excited about. It's split pea and broccoli soup with some turkey. He picked it out.

We talked about gluten, what it was, and why it may not be a good idea for us. He wasn't sure what to think at first, then he discovered the juicer and forgot ALL ABOUT bread. He had fun picking out stuff to put in juice. We have made apple juice and blueberry lemonade for him today. Both were pretty exciting. 

My "jus de jour" today was kale, cucumber, swiss chard, carrot, dandelion greens, bell pepper, apple, blueberry, and lemon. It is actually quite satisfying and tasty. No, I haven't quit my coffee. 

For dinner, we made stir fry with chard and carrots from the garden and your standard-fare stir-fry veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, water chestnuts, snap peas, green beans, peppers, baby corn, mushrooms, fresh garlic, onion, a bit of kale, and brussels sprouts) cooked in bone broth with just a bit of fish sauce and about three ounces of ground turkey. I am guessing the boy liked it. He ate THREE BOWLS of it.

So, so far so good. Kiddo loves his room, loves the kitchen, loves the food. He loves to have a hand in the decision making about what foods we're eating. I think that helps a lot. We talked a bit about how Mama is sick a lot, and this can help me get better, and also about how it might help him feel better instead of feeling so frustrated and grumpy sometimes (how he explains the "ADHD moments" - oh, how well I understand!).  His only request was that we make Saturdays pizza day. I told him we could compromise with a gluten-free crust. He agreed happily. 

I will take off for now, I've got laundry waiting for me! Thanks for reading. Thanks for praying. And thanks, so much, for being with me on this journey of mine.

_______________________________________

Linking this post with:
Making the World Cuter
Make it Pretty Mondays
Inspiration Monday