As promised, here is my advice for managing house cleaning, in case it helps out at your place, too.

A place for every thing, everything in its place
I’m allowing myself to use this cliché expression because it is crucial to overcoming clutter. Take some time to think about storage and the activities and chores happening in your house.

• Store things where you use them, including cleaning products, etc. (Ex. I have two bottles of bathroom cleaning product, one for each bathroom, so I don’t have to carry the same one over two floors; it’s more practical this way, and saves me time in the stairway.)
• Identify zones where clutter usually arises and plan storage accordingly. (Ex. I installed hanging shelves in my foyer wardrobe, to put away mittens, hats and scarves that inevitably found themselves in a heap on the top shelf, out of reach. I also added plastic storage for shoes… especially Xavier’s, which easily got lost through our own footwear!)
• Get rid of knicknacks you don’t feel attached to. It will save you time on dusting (no need to move them around), and will give your room a look that’s more zen. It’s just in our head but, if there’s less stuff in a room, it looks more neat. It’s also less daunting at cleaning time.

A passion for lists
I love lists. (Frank hates them, but oh well… to each his method, like I said earlier.) Noting an item on a list allows me to stop thinking about it as it assures me that I won’t forget it. It’s my preferred method of managing weekly cleaning. Here’s how my list works:

• My sheet lists every chore with, on the right, 5 columns of check boxes. I use one column per week, for a month.
• I don’t do all the chores each week, but I use the list to follow up when I alternate certain chores.
• My list is laminated and magnetized on the fridge. I use an erasable marker to check items. (Hello environment!)
• My list is quite long. I prefer separating certain chores in many items, to get chores that are quicker to finish; that way, even if I don’t have much time available, I am encouraged to get rid of a small chore. Let me explain that: instead of noting “clean up bathroom”, for example, I listed “clean up vanity and toilet”, “clean shower” and “clean bath”. It’s less daunting this way. Here’s my list:
  1. Put away clutter
  2. Clean the counters
  3. Big clean up of high chair and Xavier’s booster seat
  4. Dusting first floor
  5. Dusting basement
  6. Glass and mirrors
  7. Clean shower
  8. Clean bath
  9. Vanity/toilet first floor
  10. Vanity/toilet basement
  11. Vacuum first floor
  12. Vacuum basement
  13. Wash floor first floor
  14. Wash floor basement
  15. Mow the lawn
  16. Get out garbage
  17. Litter box Tuesday (and Thursday, and weekend)
  18. Water the plants
  19. Feed the fish (many times… mostly to remind myself, I tend to forget!)
  20. Laundry

Here was my advice. It focuses mostly on creating a good list (and planning storage). Good luck!

When I was a young professional, after I finished school and before I became a mom, I had huge amounts of free time. Long evenings and entire weekends at my complete disposal.

I have no idea what I did with all this free time.

I had some personal projects to realize, but not legions of them. I would put off many of them until later. I was doing so-so at house keeping; my house was clean enough for company, but just barely so. Frank and I avoided the kitchen often enough by eating out, or getting take out we would eat in front of the t.v. in the basement. Long story short, we were sort of lazy.

Now that Xavier, then Orléane, are born, my available time is greatly reduced. Strangely, though, I have become more efficient in cleaning and cooking. I use my free time to work on small projects. I avoid putting things off. I still watch a little t.v. during fall-winter, but not that many movies. We eat at the dinner table, and the kitchen is the brains of our home.

I recently developed some tricks to keep the house in order. (It helps that I’m on maternity leave and Xavier is spending a couple days a week at daycare, but oh well… cleanliness is even more necessary these days, with a baby crawling on the floor and two kids in diapers.) It’s nothing amazing, but it helps me a lot for keeping on top of things. I even end up doing more than I used too!

What’s crucial is finding a method that works for you, but I’ll share my little tips in tomorrow’s article, in case they might be right for you, too.

To be continued…

A few days after turning half-a-year old, I told myself I should take the time to give out some news about my development to everyone. After all, it would be nice to read this little slice of life again when I was older!

I had already told everyone I could now crawl, however, so I had to find something else to mention. My new agility to manipulate objects, then? Or my recent attempts at raising myself on four legs? I was still missing a little muscle in the arms for it, but I had a lot of ambition already, for a little 6 months old grasshopper.

Of course, it’s easy to fix some goals, when you have an older brother to inspire you. I watched Xavier play and talk with my parents, and told myself it would be nice when I’d be able to accomplish all that too. So I put in a lot of effort on my development.

A harder trick to pull, for me, was sitting upright without help. First, because I didn’t control my back well enough yet, and also because I did not stay in place more than a few seconds… it was imperative that I see everything, move around and discover my environment.

I had seen a lot of new stuff, as a matter of fact, during recent vacation time. My family had brought me along on various activities: a day at the waterfalls, a stroll in Quebec city, the little farm, the indoor play center, the Passe-Partout exhibit [a popular Quebec children's TV program from the seventies]… we had had a lot of fun, even if it was sometimes a lot of action for a curious little baby like me.

It was true that I was already many months old, however, despite my small weight. On the day I turned 6 months old, while visiting mama’s extended family at the St-François lake, my first tooth had sliced through my gum (ouch!). That tooth would become useful, since I already enjoyed a large menu of cereal, vegetables and fruit – I loved fruit, especially banana. (It was maybe the reason why I went from one poop a week to over five poop a day. Fiber is your friend!)

I also had one feeding without mama each day: dady would give me a bottle in the evening, after bathtime – it was our little moment… but I always went to sleep at that time, and daddy placed me softly in my crib, in the room I shared with my brother Xavier. Next I slept until four in the morning, usually, then mommy fed me and I slept some more until morning.

Another aspect I was developping was sociability. Every month, I was getting more familiar with the people around me, and I was growing to trust them. I had had more time to bond with my dad during summer vacation, too, and it didn’t bother me as much when mommy left the house if dad was there, after that.

I thought of writting all of this, but I had a world to discover and a lot of experimenting to do, so I gave it up. Mama would probably jot down some stuff about it, anyway.

‘Léa xx

It happened in a moment. The pink plastic piggy she’d been chewing rolled too far for her little paw and, reaching for it, she wriggled herself forward. Hands flat on the laminate floor, pulling to tuck her elbows in – raising her buttocks in the air just a little too – my daughter made her first move away from me.

No more than a few inches, it was, but those inches opened the road toward mobility, and the longest road to independence. Already, she had started making her own way and reaching for her goals – simple though they were at first.

I was regretting those first months quickly gone by, but just a little, because the rest of my heart was filled with bursting pride for my 5.75 months old champion.

Transl. “10 facts about the Gélinas children”

1. Orléane only rarely lets out a big laugh. The sound she uses to express glee, instead, is a weird noisy inhale of the “whee!” type. Combine this with a big open mouthed grin, and you’ve got the only type of gold I’ll ever need.
2. Orléane doesn’t coo, she caws. She’s my lovable little crow bird.
3. Xavier loves his baby sis. He’ll take her little hand and wave at us with it, going “hello mommy, hello daddy”, or he’ll drop on his knees in front of her and use his deepest voice to intone “coucou bébé” (hallo baby). He often laughs when they are exchanging smiles and chatting baby-talk, like they are telling jokes. Xavier also makes a point to remind us to bring the baby whenever we’re going out of the house.
4. Phenomenons Xavier likes to observe:
   • when something is a little stuck, or seems a little stuck ["it (s)tuck, it (s)tuck!"];
   • when something is flying;
   • when we are cutting stuff.
5. Xavier always had his behind in Huggies, but every Huggies Orléane ever wore ended up leaking. Unfortunately, she’s a Pampers baby.
6. Xavier’s favourite videos, sort of in order, right now: “Cars”, Pigloo (all the videoclips), Baby Lilly (all the clips except for the new one in space, but mostly the jungle and the pirates), “Toy Story”, “Monsters inc.”, Diego, Dora (poor Dora is starting to loose in popularity).
7. Orléane can be tough to breast-feed sometimes, because she’s wriggling a lot and she’s quite curious about what is going on around her. If I hold her hand to try calming her, it’s her leg that will start shaking.
8. Xavier used to sleep as soon as the car moved, but Léa is often awake in the car, especially if Xavier is there to chat with her. We have taught Xavier to inform us if his sister is sleeping or awake, since her car seat is rear-facing and we can’t see her face from the front.
9. Orly’s favourite food, in order: bananas, squash, sweet potato, oat, pears, rice, carrots. It is also the list of all the food she has tasted so far. Xavier always preferred cereal, rice especially, and still today, he prefers food that tastes more bland (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice). I was surprised that Orly took a fast liking to the acid taste of fruit, and that she has less interest for the sweet taste of rice cereal.
10. Xavier rarely sings, so far. The only song he’ll sometimes sing is an air François did not remember correctly, so Xavier sings a mixed up version of the chorus (and sometimes accompanies himself by dancing).
    The song? Les pirates from Baby Lilly [V'là les pirates, Ho ho! À l'abordage, Ho ho!].
    The mixed up version? [La la la lah, les pirates! La la la lah, les pirates!]

I would not have picked up Glen Cook’s “The Black Company” without a recommendation. I would not have even CONSIDERED picking it up. So much for judging a book by its medieval-Darth-Vader-looking cover.

This book is like sushi: at the onset, it does not seem quite appalling – because of the cover art(s), yes, and even the story blurb sounds simplistic, and the universe a little ‘blah’. Raw fish, eww; evil empire and tough mercenaries, bleh.

Then you have a taste, and you have to get the hang of it, because this is not the type of food you are used to. Personally, I had some trouble initially with the military notions of what the company was and how it worked. The all-men cast of rough mercenaries weren’t my type of characters, either, and the way they jumped into the story with nothing but a name made it hard to care about them.

By the time you’ve finished the first plate, however, you’re getting familiar with the dish and you’re ready to appreciate the flavours and construction involved. The Company is hired by a new employer in the first chapters and moves to a new land (this is not a big spoiler, don’t worry), which helps out the reader, because he discovers the land and politics along with the narrator. It is also logical for the men to appear in the story with no real identity as they do, because that is how they would begin their service with the Company, burying their past and often assuming a new name. Plus, these characters are supposed to be hard men, who avoid letting emotions show, so it makes sense that we would only get to know them through their actions at first.

Before you know it, you find out you’re enjoying the story, just like you started to like sushi a lot. The narrator’s ironic pessimism is fresh and smart (and funny), and I liked his “voice”, his way of narrating the events. I also appreciated the exploration of the distinction between evil and good, how there is not necessarily a clear line between the two, or even that one side being evil does not automatically make his opposition the good guy. Another thing I liked was that the characters were not bigger than life; when confronted to moral dilemnas, they don’t rush to declare themselves heroes and initiate great actions: they think on it a little, but all is not black or white, and the job at hand is less abstract than philosophical questions. Then there are the fantasy elements, which are more low-key in the beginning, but are amplified and craftily worked in as the story progresses.

By the time your second plate comes in, your warm up is done and you’re ready for some real flavour. The second book does not deceive, and pushes some of the initial themes further with interesting twists and characters. I’m really enjoying this series.

I saved myself from buying novels two and three with their equally horrible covers by getting the omnibus for the first three books, which I finished recently. The rest of the series will be in my Amazon shopping cart on a future order.

Meanwhile, I’ve got the rest of the Hyperion Cantos waiting on me (once I finish the cute book of mom/daughter essays my mother lent me).