tidbits

Hello all. I've been meaning to blog for so long. Life just feels so busy and crazy, even though I can't really say with what. I guess working full time and trying to hold things together around here. I haven't been doing such a great job at the latter, but did make some progress this week. I'm finding that Dave and I are both pack rats (duh, I've known that for a long time) but I also hate clutter and it stresses me out. I've been very stressed lately over how fast things can be clean, at least on the surface, and then disintegrate into complete chaos in no time flat. So I've been pondering the book that Sabrina gave us as a wedding gift and that she posted about awhile back - "Simplify Your Life: Get organized and stay that way!" I read the chapter on cleaning and clutter this week and it was just what I needed. Consider this quote (with somewhat flaky modifiers), "A good 50% of housework is not just cleany-clean, scrubby-scrubbing, but shuffling clutter, litter, and junk from place to place. Getting rid of junk is the easiest way to free yourself from household imprisonment." HOW TRUE! I think I'm finding that a part of the reason I can never really get a handle on things is because there's just too much stuff and clutter around and lack of organization beneath the surface mess. So this week I tackled the kitchen. The fridge is cleaned out and spotless, the food cupboard (yep, that's singular, I've only really got one, to speak of) is finally organized and user friendly, and all the unnecessary clutter from the very limited counter tops is gone. Beautiful feeling! And now I'm finding it's much easier to just maintain it like that. Plus it's a great motivation for wanting to keep it that way. Next project is our room, including our bathroom. I want to thoroughly go through the closet, drawers, cupboards, piles of junk, and just get everything de-cluttered. Anyway, this is probably boring all of you to tears. It's just so hard for me to let my junk go and hard to know what to keep for sentimental reasons. Our guest room has a rather ample dresser FULL of all my junk. The sad thing is, probably 99% of the stuff in there, I will never have out, never use, or never read through. I'll just continue to move it from place to place unless I work up the nerve to get rid of a bunch of it. Do I really need my sticker collection from when I was 7, my eraser collection from when I was 10, some pretty rocks, an old antique lunch pail... ahhhh... I could go on and on.

Our living room has been pretty good in the clutter department, but now some things need to go because.... drum roll please... we just got a "new" love seat from someone on Craigslist. So now things are looking a bit crowded. I'm started to really like Craigslist. Last week I got a bunch of Mary Kay for half price because someone was going out of business. Then we found the couch about 15 minutes after it was posted and happened to be the first one to respond. The guy got so many requests for it but he held it for us. It's leather and reclining and so insanely comfortable. It does have a few holes and issues that we're hoping to repair with a leather repair kit. I'll let you know how it works out. For the price, I think it was worth it. It's like disappearing into clouds of leathery softness when you sit on it.

My job continues to provide many opportunities to grow in upright character. I'm not sure I succeed at many of them... sigh... anyhoo... today I was at a "Grandparents Raising Grandchildren" conference all day. I'm not really a grandparent, nor do I work with any who are raising children, so I'm not really sure why I was there, but oh well. The thing was SO SO SO long and boring. None of it was really helpful information for this stage in life. And in regards to all the above rambling on clutter, I go to so many conferences for work and every time I come home with a bag full of junk. Every time. arg! If anyone is in need of cheap tote bags, just let me know and I can fix you up. Anyhoo... the day had some interesting moments including a woman in the crowd who, um, well something was not right there. But it was sorta nice to have a distraction. She was very loud, strange, and very socially inappropriate. And then there were people there doing this big survey of grandparents raising grandchildren. So lots of people in blue t-shirts doing surveys with grandparents all over the place. Wouldn't you know, a lady in a blue t-shirt came up to me and said, "Have you taken your survey yet?" EX ca USE ME???!!!!??? I just started at her and blurted out, "Lady, that's a really quick way to get a black eye!" Okay, so I didn't say that, but I felt like it. I politely snarled something about NOT being a grandparent, not even being a parent, and how the hairy old to I look????? She felt sort of bad, but in her defense, she was a grandmother at 36. And if I would have had a baby at the age of the girls I work with, I suppose I easily could be a grandma right now. oh my! moving right along....

Well, I guess I don't have a lot of interesting news. I have to work part of the day tomorrow which I'm thrilled about. I guess we're putting on a brunch-like doo hickie. so long for now. Enjoy the pics of the last few months.