So I’ve got a couple of note worthy new house “firsts” to mention today.

1. Run the recycling bin out the curb barefoot and in my too-thin-for-29-degrees pajamas at 7:35 AM

Oh sure, I’ve done this plenty of times before at the old house, but yesterday was the first time I did this at our new house.

It’s a classic tale really, it goes a little something like this:

I don’t put the trash and recycling out the night before garbage pick up because I swear to myself I’ll remember to do it first thing in the morning.  The new day dawns and of course taking the trash out is the last thing on my mind.  Cue early morning garbage truck noises from the street, enter Alison running outside with no shoes and lugging an overflowing recycle bin down the driveway, leaving behind a wake of flattened almond milk cartons and construction paper scraps in preparation to flag down garbage men.

And the plot twist?  It wasn’t the garbage truck that I heard.  It was a school bus.  It gets even better when I remembered that Monday was a holiday and the trash schedule is therefore a day behind this week.  After nearly breaking my neck in a race to get everything thing out to the curb first thing Friday morning, they didn’t even come until Saturday.

2.  Yoga in my pajamas

Again, nothing new under the sun.  But today is the first time I’ve done yoga at the new house which is a cold, hard reminder that it’s been well over a month since I’ve gotten my downward dog on.  45 minutes of gentle hatha yoga in a peacefully quiet house while my children slept and I’m starting my day feeling all groovy and centered.

3.  Stove Top Oats

I’m not even sure the last time I had regular oatmeal cooked on the stove instead of overnight oat form (geez, if only I had a blog where I documented what I ate for breakfast every day for the last 8 months…) but I decided today was the day to bust out the rolled oats and cook’em up on the stove, old-fashioned oat style.

About a 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 sliced banana brought to a boil.  Add 1/3+ cup rolled oats, cooked on medium for about 5 minutes, remove from heat and cover for another 2 – 3  minutes.

Topped with the other half of the banana, a tablespoon of almond butter and ground flax seed.

And of course with some firsts, I should throw in a few yet-to-happen in the new house items that seem worth mentioning too.  So what haven’t I done in the new house yet?

4.  Turn on the television

Sounds crazy, no?  Well, it’s true.  When we moved in we purposefully failed to set up the TV and thought we’d see how long we could live without it.  It helps that we haven’t had cable television in five years and therefore don’t know all the good shows we’re surely missing.  But yup, no TV here, at least not one that’s plugged in or even on a floor that we spend any serious amount of time on.

Freshmen year in college I had a lesbian English professor (I point out that she was a lesbian only because this was huge to me at that time, I came from a small town – what can I say) who told us she never watched TV.  She claimed television was a major time waster, she didn’t even have a TV in her house and then went on to suggest we consider throwing a blanket over our TV’s for a week to see what it was like.

Wait.  NO Television?  Blasphemy!  You are cRaZy, lady.  Capital R.  Capital Z.

But here I am, more than 10 years later, thinking about what wise woman she was.  Even though I gave her the evil eye more than once for tearing apart my papers, I like to think she taught me a little something about writing and a little something about how I can choose to spend my scads of free time too.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad things like YouTube and Hulu exist so I can keep up with my homegirls Jillian Michaels and Tina Fey as time allows.  I’m also glad that DVD players in laptop computers exist, as well as movies from the library so I can get my kids out of my hair long enough to write a blog post in peace on a Saturday morning.  But I have to say, I’m starting to think my lesbian English professor was on to something.  Well, one thing anyway.

Alright, I’ll kill my television…  Just don’t kill my laptop or YouTube and everything will be alright.

5.  Eaten Meat.

Oh wait, we’re vegetarians.  Never mind.

6. Broken up fights over “The Fun Cup”

Something else we didn’t unpack when we moved in?  All those damn kids dishes that they were constantly bickering over at every meal.  I told them I couldn’t find the box they were packed up in when they asked for the My Little Pony bowl and Strawberry Shortcake plate.  This is true too, I don’t know exactly where that box is.  I’m fairly sure it’s down in the basement, but I haven’t made much of an effort to look for it.

What an evil mother I am! Wicked or not, we’re living in complete peace and harmony (hahahhaha yeah right) without those character melamine plates and bowls.  No more plastic straw cups that never seemed to come totally clean.  With the exception of two renegade sippy cups that made their way over here before our official moving day, the little people in this house are now eating off of mismatched ceramics and drinking out of mason jars just like the rest of us.

So there you have it.  A few new house firsts and a few new house yet-to-happens.  Time to hit publish and go fetch my recycle bin and trash toter from the curb.