Hale Kilinahe: The Journal

November 30, 1999 AT HEART I'm actually a pretty lousy housekeeper. If it weren't for Katie, Ryan and I would be slobs. It's only a pure nesting instinct that forces me to clean the bathroom once a month. I'm gradually finding it harder and harder to stand living in a dirty house, however, so I'm getting better. I'm discovering one thing that frustrates me more than I ever imagined, though, and the urge to say "screw it" is only outweighed by my obsessive compulsion to categorize and keep certain things in one place. Katie's room is never tidy. She has dozens of books. We have a very nice bookshelf in which I try to keep said books. It's pretty silly, because the purpose of a bookshelf is totally lost on a toddler and she pulls all the books off the shelf at least once a day. I actually had a sort of a system where the heavy, hardcover books were stacked neatly upright, and all the small board books and flimsy paper books sat on a pile on another shelf. The trouble is, she hasn't discovered that she only needs one book at a time, so they all come down. I am grateful that she likes to read, though. She's so smart that I worry that when she starts school, she'll be bored. I found a recipe in a magazine today for a really neat gingerbread house. I've never done much baking and my neighbor, Tina, has infected me with the creativity bug. Tina is the pie queen. She once made six pies in two days. She inspired me, and I've also been on the lookout for something special to do for the holidays. I also have a recipe for play-doh. I'm hoping I can make a set of ornaments out of a batch. < BACK | TOP | NEXT >