After weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, we’ve begun to have periods of mild weather. We may have two or three days in a row or temperatures in the 50s, and if the sun also suns, it is quite wonderful. I like all the seasons, but especially, I like the turn of the seasons and enjoy the mild days of spring and autumn the best. If the dreariness of winter and the languidness of summer were but 4 or 5 weeks long, I would be most happy.

Last week, on a particularly bright day with the temperature around 56 or 57 degrees, my kids, “hot” in even their light fleece pullovers or sweatshirts, asked me if we could get out the kiddie pool later. Uh, letmethinkaboutthatforasecond, no. It’s not that warm, I told them. My sister, down in Alabama, is freezing with temps in the fifties.

Yes, warm weather will definitely be most welcome to our bundled bodies. And some green on the trees and ground will be a delight to our eyes (although I fear there is no hope for the mud that is now the backyard). It will be nice to open the windows, and wonderful to not spend more time dressing and undressing little ones than they are able to spend outdoors playing.

But I have some very practical reasons for needed the weather to turn soon. While sorting laundry, I espied another pair of Fritz’s pants with the knee completely shredded. I think he is now down to three pairs of pants, including his dress khakis for church which are about a half inch too short now. Jenny, I swear, grew three inches in February, and all her pants are pushing the boundaries of acceptable length (acceptable in a fashion sense, of course, but that really does matter, at least to me). And both Katie and Billy, for whom I struggled to find pants that would stay up around their skinny little waists back in September, can barely get those same pants buttoned (Katie’s pants are the adjustable waist kind, too).

I’ve written before about the pain that accompanies the “changing of the clothes” for five kids every season. I’ve managed to get it down to twice a year, because I happen to have an extra dresser that can store the heavier layers in the summer once spring’s final chill has passed and can hold the really bulky layers needed for winter while they are still enjoying the last warm days of fall. But that semi-annual headache is rapidly approaching. I’ve actually scheduled it for Holy Week, because we are heading to Florida for Easter – they have to have summer clothes. Perhaps, because it is the last hurrah of Lent, I will have the fortitude to slog through that dreaded task with good cheer and a happy heart.

I just hope the kids can make it the next month with what they’ve got. We’ll be quite the ragtag bunch by the end of the month.

And new this time: my friend Rachel has given me a definite works-for-her-answer as to how many outfit a kid needs. Rachel has six kids seven and under. She does laundry every day. She limits the kids to FOUR outfits each (obviously more for non-potty trained little ones). She never has difficulty finding soccer uniforms and socks on game day – with small laundry piles generated daily, she is always on top of it all. There is something to be said for this. And so, I will do my best to severely limit the number of t-shirts, shorts and sundresses that fill my washer. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Katie: Mommy, can you get the blue Lego bucket down for me, please?

Fritz: Those are MINE! You can’t play with them!

I overrode him, assisted Billy with a math problem for thirty seconds and turned to go upstairs to get the blue Lego bucket. By now, Katie is hysterically crying.

Me (more than a wee bit exasperated): What, Katie?

Katie: Jenny took my (plastic Playmobile) unicorns and washed them in the sink!

Me: Yes, I know (and there was peace and quiet throughout the house). What’s the problem?

Katie: They’re MINE! She can’t play with them!

Right. Because we don’t share toys around here. Saves me going up the stairs for those Legos………..oh, what’s that? We do share toys?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

For reasons beyond the ken of mere mortals, the public schools are closed for the third day in a row. The streets are clear, but apparently, the sidewalks are too icy for the kids to get to school (but not too icy for them to get to the sledding hills).

This school has not been closed, but our scheduled has been lax and abbreviated. Not that my kids can’t make 20% less work take 20% longer to do.

My neighbor just called about something and then asked me how I was making out with house-bound kids and all. We got off on a tangent about the weather conditions under which we went to school back in the day and laughed over how we sounded just like our parents. I realized after she hung up that she was struggling a bit to maintain sanity under adverse conditions: two rowdy active school-aged boys home for three days straight. Of course, for me, that is my normal, everyday life. Of course, also, for me, I let go of my sanity ages ago.

It’s taken me years, but I have finally perfected my filing system.

The problem I’ve found with many systems has been the need to regularly file things. That just doesn’t work for me. Instead, my systems allows me to pile things.

My system might be considered more dynamic than most. Using normal filing systems, you might expect to take a document, put it in the appropriate file and then leave it there. Such a system generally eliminates searching for a necessary receipt or tax form. But gone too is all that fun. Life, in my opinion, needs a little hair-pulling, frenetic adventure every now and then.

Instead of carefully placing each and every piece of paper neatly in a clearly marked file or folder (a somewhat time-consuming chore), I merely pile everything I consider worth keeping in my in-bin on my desk. Over the years, I have whittled down the papers I consider necessary to keep. Most things are on-line and in electronic format. Unless there is a questionable charge, there is no need to retain last month’s cell phone bill…let alone last year’s. Nonetheless, within three or four months, that in-bin manages to be quite full. Thank goodness I homeschool or the additional proliferation of forms and calendars and notices sent home by an institution might be overwhelming.

If I need to find a document, it may take me several minutes to sift through the stack. A traditional filing system may offer immediate gratification in this area but at the expense of several minutes of filing every week. Since I only need to search this pile once or twice a month, I estimate that in time-cost, my system is at worst on par and more likely superior to a traditional system.

Once this pile gets too high for the limited space on my desk top (perhaps quarterly), I will spend about 15 minutes sorting through it. Interestingly, at least three-quarters of that stack will go into the garbage can or recycling bin. The remainder will be relocated to another pile on top of my portable, important-paper keeper. This small filing bin with a carry-handle contains birth certificates, immunizations records, leases and mortgage info, insurance papers, and one or two Mass cards because you never know when you may need one. If the house were on fire, I wouldn’t remember to take it, but I like to pretend that I would.

The portable filing bin is right next to two filing boxes which contain less urgent things. The vast bulk of these files are Bill’s. And they are very important and can never be thrown out. I stay away from them. The rest are things like tax returns dating to 1987, because some day it just might be really important to prove I made $1500 working at McDonald’s when I was in high school.

Note that those papers I moved were not placed inside any of these storage containers. Remember, my system primarily makes use of piling not filing. I will add to this second pile throughout the year as I purge my desk pile. And then generally about once a year, generally about this time once a year as I need to assemble tax documents, I will decide it’s time to tackle that pile on the filing bin. And once more I will note with amazement that at least three-quarters of this already purged pile will make it’s way to the recycling bin. Once I go through that stack, it’s time to put the documents away. But in so doing, I will look at the filed documents that are now about a year old (or older) and will reconsider their value. Quite a bit of them get tossed out too.

This is the one part of my filing system where, perhaps, a traditional system saves time and energy and hair-pulling. This part of my filing system may be an all-day thing. In fact, I started yesterday and, due to multiple interruptions, will have to continue the process today. But in the end, I have the satisfaction of a clean desk and the relief that comes with shedding unwanted clutter pounds. Now, if only I could get Bill to go through his stuff…

Yesterday my husband forwarded to me a love note he received: he was on the list of “essential” personnel who needed to report to the office regardless of the weather.

…O-kaaay…he’s so essential that he needs to risk life and limb to get there? Hmmm.

Notably absent from the list were all the truly important personnel: the ones with more gold on their uniforms than I have in my wedding band. My guess is that the “essential” personnel list is really an “expendable-essential” list: those personnel who’s job is important, but who we can always replace. The “essential-essential” personnel need to stay home where it’s safe, which makes sense – interest of national security, blah blah blah.

As he headed out this morning, looking so fine in his blue uniform, only a bit of drizzle was falling, and now some white stuff is mixed in. The roads are probably slippery…and I forgot to remind him that bridges freeze before roads. With all the construction around here, those yellow signs are not as predominant as they should be! And if I don’t do my “drive-safely” routine, he might forget, right? Not too much snow is expected, but worse is the predicted half inch of ice from freezing rain beginning this afternoon. God, keep the amateurs home and give decision-makers the clear-sightedness to close shop before it gets too ugly! I’m sure everyone out there is “essential” to somebody else.

Murphy’s law, that is.

You know the law that says that if you shampoo the smelly rug and the ottoman where your daughter threw up, that someone else in your family is sure to begin vomiting in short order?

I can’t stand the smell of my family room, and as soon as everyone is up I plan to get out my Bissel.

I just hope there are no Murphy’s cops around to catch me!