Return to the Land of Clean and Orderly

After an uneventful cross-country trek, we have arrived in Houston. Here's what I know:
-The older kids get, the easier it is;
-Eating McDonald's 3 times a day won't kill a child immediately;
-Coffee is a great thing;
-iPods are better;
-Loving the way our family expresses shock at how much the kids have grown never goes away.

My parents-in-law moved to a new house which they completely transformed from grungy-ugly to spotless-stylish in only 6 months. Coming home to them is always refreshing and gives me new inspiration to cut through the clutter in my own life and clean up a little. "A place for everything (and never too much stuff) and everything in its place (and if there's no place for it, get rid of it)" is my mother-in-law's practical philosophy. And I love being in her house. It is restful, orderly, precise, like a hotel with just enough stuff to be comfortable and sparse enough to allow the mind to expand and breathe.

It would be perfect, if not for the viscous hot air that invades everywhere except climate-controlled places. Shopping in the myriad of strip-malls forces one to walk across countless parking lots and, once the errand is done, brave the heat again only to suffocate in the boiling car while the air conditioning tries desperately to restore a human quality to the small environment. It doesn't help that the children unfailingly comment about the heat and beg for cold air every time we enter the car.