Spring cleaning (or not)

I've been looking at a few areas in my house and the overarching thought is "Man, that needs work."

And by "Man" I do NOT mean my husband. He works hard, he helps out, and he even once offered to hire a professional organizer to help me with my "stuff." He offered to find me a professional counselor once, too, but that's only vaguely related to cleaning.

So what did I do? Well, I didn't start cleaning. Instead, I read a blog post from a woman that offered a ray of hope by admitting she doesn't spring clean.

I love people that admit when their daily realities might not match up with the expectations of others. It comforts me. And she offered much wisdom, of course. Actually, she was saying the same things my mother tried to teach me 30-some years ago but it apparently was one of those lessons that didn't stick as thoroughly as some of her other advice. 

And as is often the case when I'm avoiding doing actual work, I followed this author's links to some handy-dandy check lists to help with a regular  routine that would prevent the need for a genuine, toss-the-house, spring cleaning.

And I realized I might be in trouble.

For example, on this list (a great one), I came to Day 27 - decorative pillows. And I realized I don't have a clue what they mean by that.  Do they mean buy some? (I could do that!) Do they mean throw them in the washing machine? (Which might lead to buying some.) Vacuum them? Put them out in the sunshine to "air"?

Can you tell I don't have a lot of decorative pillows? The one I can think of has never even made it onto our bed. 

Then on this list, the way it lists the "deep clean" list has me a little baffled (and a little relieved, to be honest). Deep cleaning, to my way of thinking, involved anything that takes more than 5 minutes to accomplish. Vacuuming - that's deep cleaning. Changing the furnace filters? Not so much. Two days of laundry? That's a definite commitment. And an invitation to pick a good movie to go with it. Laundering the bath mats? Well, the washing machine does most of that, right?


For the record, I've printed both lists and will probably put them in a visible spot that might catch my eye as I race off to drive the kiddos to yet another place on the planet. Or provide me a very smug grin if I can walk past and realize that, yes, I did push the dishwasher button on the way by (deep clean - check).

Or here's a thought: Maybe they'd make great pick-your-punishment options for when said kiddos need a reminder after one of their occasional lapses in perfection.

Okay, I think I'm going to find a way to enjoy these lists. And maybe my house will be a little cleaner because of them, too.

Things that make me cry

I'm not much generally prone to tears but I've noticed that there are a few things that I simply cannot make it through without a misty moment (or even a gushing, water-spouting, snot-free-fall bawl):

Taps

Whether a military funeral or just a nightly ceremony, Taps does it to me pretty much every time.

Extreme Home Makeover

Any episode. Any week. Left to right, right to left. Ty and Paulie goofing off included. Simply cannot do it.

Baptisms

They'll never run short of water in the baptismal if I'm in the room. Although this one makes me laugh.

Proposals

Marriage ones. Generally not any other kind. (Although I have an accepted business proposal that I look back on with a tear or two ... )

Daddy/daughter dances

Yep - sentimental fool, that's me.

Happy weddings

Go figure. But at least there are occasionally tears of joy.

A trip down memory's (express) lane

I've been going through a receipts file today. It's time and, truth, be told, I'm doing it to avoid doing something else that also needs to be done. But that's neither here not there at the moment. 

What I've discovered is a thermal paper trail of my habits over the last 4 years. (See - it really needs doing!) 

There's the day I bought a pair of skinny jeans. Won't make that mistake again.

There's the year I didn't have nearly enough record of time spent with friends over coffee or lunch. Glad to say I turned a corner on that one.

There's the handwritten receipt marked "Birdie on chip" that doesn't twig even the remotest memory. Craft? Art? Lunch?

There's the school project that almost killed me as the parent but impacted a whole group of homeless teens.

There's the receipt marked "Presto" for $54.99. Happy to say there's also the receipt that says I returned "Presto" for $54.99. Whatever "Presto" is, I would think I could find it on sale somewhere.

It's been an interesting assortment of smiles, chagrin, memories and reminders.

Next up - my closet. But I'll get to work soon, I promise.

Just a peek at where I've been lately ...

On a personal note (because that's what I typically use this blog for), I'm pretty pleased with how this area has turned out. If you want more detailed pics, visit my "business" blog here OR my Facebook album here. This is the promo vid that was put together to introduce the changes to this area.



May never do it again but ...

:o)

P.s. Music is by the Go Fish Guys. Found it very funny that this was chosen because they are one of my FAVORITE groups!

Martin Luther King

For Martin Luther King Day, a lighter moment from his story ...

The other side of the fence

This video, you might say, was put together by old neighbors of mine. I won't say it's an entirely accurate view of the life I watched them lead but it's definitely part of it. And the footage is absolutely breathtaking.



Happy New Year!!

(And don't forget to plan time to breathe.)

Biscotti and my boiling point

I have a package of biscotti sitting on my desk. Yes, you foodies, in a package. And it's been there for about a month. It's airplane biscotti. Small, tasteless and roughly resembling a cardboard cutout of Planter's Mr. Peanut.

Here's the thing - I don't care for the biscotti on an airplane. ("I will not eat it in a plane, I will not eat it on a train ... "). Because dry, it's some of the nastiest stuff on earth. But on the particular flight where they handed out this biscotti, the gentleman beside me was a daring soul and ate his biscotti after dipping it into his coffee. (In fact, he ate two packages after informing the stewardess that I stole his first set. Not true.) And it stirred a memory. I actually like the things (cheap, nasty, crumbly little things) dipped into a hot, creamy drink. Never having been a coffee drinker though, I decided to take them home and have them with a cup of hot chocolate.

The catch is that they came home with me in August. And since it's been roughly 100 degrees every day since coming home, I haven't really felt motivated to drink hot chocolate. (Call me crazy ... ) So they sit on my desk, making me question my sanity for having them there, and yet promising a taste down memory lane.

Any day now I may just have to crank the AC and put the kettle on ...


(Photo courtesy of annienothi)

Something to make me laugh

This totally cracks me up!!



Happy September!

Retail fads

It's probably a sign of my age that I've begun to notice the fads that sweep through towns, stores and shelves around me. And I'm not even going to talk about clothes. Really. Don't get me started.

I think I really started noticing it with the scrap booking market. Suddenly, people that had dutifully recorded every step little Johnny took were encouraged to turn those each blurry 4 x 6 into a work of art that little Johnny would treasure for ever. FYI, I recorded the steps. But the blurry photos are in a box somewhere. And there's another box of blurry negatives that I just can't bring myself to deal with. Papers, trimmers, albums with posts, albums without posts, stencils, glitter, glue, corner mounts, punches, oh my! Little boutique shops popped up with racks after skinny rack of scrapbook supplies. My favorite craft store (and it's not small) devoted a full 1/4 of their store to scrapbooking. Now as an artist I appreciate that the scrapbooking industry made archival supplies incredibly affordable, but as a mom, the guilt factor became a little overwhelming. "My children won't have tastefully arranged 12-inch thick albums of every grade and every day at the beach!" I watched weekend conventions of scrapbooking women haul in their LUGGAGE of supplies (with slots and compartments to safely store 12 x 12 papers and sorted brads and double-sided tape at $129.99 a pop) and shuddered.

Then came the beading industry. At the risk of sounding a little crusty, I've been making my own jewelry since I was 7. Suddenly, every magazine cover, craft store and hardware store sprouted shelves and shelves of beaded creations and supplies. Even the sporting section was not immune as crafters raided the fish line racks for their creations. Another quarter of the craft store disappeared under rows and rows of glittering cards sporting every type of rock and stone that could be safely mined for the purpose. More little shops popped up around town, with the express intent of helping you create masterpieces of wire and seed beads. (While the other little shops started to fade away like nonarchival newsprint images.)

And now it's cupcakes. I find it ironic (and a little unfair) that in a nation besieged with weight issues and messages of healthy living, the latest fad is edible. I also find it a little puzzling. It's like the Food Network reached in and has infiltrated the minds of my little town. People buy mini cupcake makers and cupcake trees. Little bakeries devoted entirely to cupcakes are appearing. My church women's group is even planning a "cupcake paloosa". (I did realize that if I get on this bandwagon, I won't have boxes and boxes of supplies sitting around in my closet for the next decade. Just the extra sitting under my back pockets to carry around for the next decade.) What's the deal with cupcakes?





Oh.

(Woolen) Hats off!

I realized I haven't done a "Hat's off!" blog for far, far too long. Probably because I've been a bad blogger lately. I envy people that can be consistently funny or interesting or irritating or whatever it is they regularly share with their readers. (Hats off to you.)

And hats off to these guys for making me feel better about how I spend my time ...



(Is that fantastic, or what!?)

Driving a rental

Several weeks ago, my computer died a horrible death. The kind of horrible death that has me screaming like the guy in the Apple spoof. (Don't know it? I'll try to track it down by the end of the post. But be warned - he swears a bit about his computer. Like I was SO tempted to do at mine.)

So SG stepped up (or stepped in) and over many laborious evenings, got it working again. I couldn't even tell you everything that was involved because it all takes the shape of a Victor Frankenstein effort to me. All I know is that the monster lived again.

But not quite like it was. Certain things are in different places, the icons have changed and even some of the sounds are different. It's like driving a rental car and reaching for the headlight switch - only to realize you don't actually know where it is. Or figuring out how the radio works. Or if there even is a radio.

Some things, I will admit, work better. But some still leave me baffled, wondering if it's really supposed to be that way or can we get it back? And I'll keep wondering as I get on with the business at hand. And flick my windshield wipers at the occasional passerby.

Thumb envy

Okay - it's two videos in a row - but this one is TOO funny!

Something (very) different

I played flute in junior high. I'm not sure if my fascination with this guy is musical, creative or technical. Haven't figured out how he does it yet but in the meantime, see what you think.

I've been doodled!

I got some exceptionally fun gifts this year for Christmas but none more so than the totally out of the blue gift SG gave me this year. He's getting better at hiding his surprises.

An on-line friend of mine has a talent for what he calls "doodles". And my sneaky husband got in touch with him behind my proverbial back and arranged for Rick to do a doodle of me. Check this out!


I'm not sure which I enjoy more - the caricature, or the idea of these two guys sneaking messages back and forth, and planning generic envelopes to get this done and under our tree without giving away the surprise. Either way, it was a great surprise and SG gets mega points for this one!! And thanks to Rick, too!


(You can see more of Rick's work over at Organized Doodles.)

Coffee list

I managed to "drop in" on a friend's time at a local coffeehouse this week, and was once again blessed beyond measure at the friends I have. It's probably no surprise that we don't see each other as often as we'd like but when we do manage, it always ends too soon with these words:

"We need to do this more often."

It still doesn't happen often enough, but just like my coat carries the scent of roasting coffee and lets me stretch out that cozy conversation just a little longer, I can linger over the sense of connection even those brief moments bring.

There are a lot of extra people that I'd love to have the chance to sit down with and just have a chat for a few hours. Sometimes out of curiosity, sometimes for purely selfish reasons and sometimes because I think there would be much to be learned. Here's my short list:

My dad. It's been a fairly longstanding tradition now that when we visit with my parents, no matter what town we're in, my dad and I find a local donut shop and get to talk for a time. I love my donuts, but I love those conversations with my dad even more. They don't happen as often as we live farther apart, but they're just as important to me.

Patti the Awesome Cousin. Like all the women in our family, she is smart, talented, funny and beautiful. Unlike all the women in our family, she has what some may call an non-traditional life and does it with flair and style and graciousness and a tolerance for stupidity that I could never achieve. I am so thankful for her and for the ways we have to stay connected across a continent. But the in-person moments are definitely the best.

Lisa Leonard. I don't know Lisa except through her blog and her creative work, but she, too, strikes me as a woman that is facing life with style and enthusiasm and a perspective that is fresh and unique and totally charming. I'm sure she faces challenges the rest of us will never face, but she also faces some that I have faced and I think we'd either be fast friends or else be too much alike to really ever get along well :). (And I harbor a secret hope that her studio isn't really usually that clean.)

Jay Williams. So this one might be tricky because he's dead. But Jay Williams is among my top three favorite ever writers for children. I think just some time to pick his brains would be fascinating. It also might confirm a few suspicions that maybe we'd disagree on some pretty big issues, but who knows? I think it'd take at least two hot chocolates to figure that out.

Wendy Lawton. Okay, so I've already had one mocha with this remarkable lady, but another one would be a real treat. She is a fabulous blend of creativity and clearsightedness that gives her a delightful perspective on a variety of topics. I strongly suspect that conversation with Wendy is very rarely dull.

Then there's Queen Latifah, Beatrix Potter, and Ken Dryden. Edith Head, Carol Burnett, and the guy that ran the snake and gator show at Reptile Gardens. But I'm afraid they'll have to wait for another time.

Who's on your list?

How to use a mug

This came with a gift mug that SG got for Christmas this year - guess it's always good to review the basics.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's a new year and that means a blank page. I like blank pages - so much so that I've only ever journaled once in my life. It made me unhappy to ruin a blank page so I quit.

I think it's about potential. A blank page, a roll of uncut fabric, a small child - they all have so many possibilities! A new year is like that too. But while I may be able to leave my journal blank, the year will go on whether I make my mark on it or not. And I do like looking back and seeing what happened. So let's get to it and see what 2011 will be!

It's full of potential, I'm sure.

P.s. For New Year's Eve, here's how I ruined a page in my sketch book ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ... TO YOU!

Talking to yourself?

I remember a commercial years back where a gorgeous brunette is sitting at a restaurant table, with her head lightly resting on one hand. She is saying things like "Would you like to come over tonight?", "How about 7?", "It would just be us." and words to that effect. The (slightly nerdy) guy at the next table thinks she is talking to him. Of course, the point of the commercial was how small cell phones are becoming.

Since then, they have become even smaller. And with "hands free" headsets, etc, it can be hard to know who a person is talking to. It's become very common place to see someone walking down an aisle, talking and waving both hands to emphasis their point. Or marching down the street doing the same. So much so that it really doesn't occur to me to suspect anything unusual. (Except a possible lack of manners. Which may not be entirely unusual either.)

So imagine the shock when a fairly nicely dressed woman was carrying on a conversation in front of me while shopping the other day, and I realized SHE HAD NO PHONE.

[cue creepy music]

Christmas is coming, eh?

It's the bizarrest thing. We just finished Thanksgiving in America yesterday and as I was talking on the phone with a friend this morning, I kept hearing Canadian coming out of my mouth!

I've lived here long enough that I felt pretty confident that many of the "Canadianisms" I've lived with had pretty much receded into the background. I don't tack on too many "ehs", and I think my "outs" and "abouts" are changing shape to a more local pattern. I'm teased about "bits" but I've hung onto that one deliberately and I still spell "cheques" with a "q" just because I like it better. Looks classier or something.

I mean, really, doesn't it sound better to say the "cheque" is in the mail rather than the "check" is in the mail? Or maybe that's just the Canadian reaction I have that links "checks" with slamming into rink boards.

Anyway, as I was saying, I have been noticing that fewer people are looking at me with that curious look that invariable ends with "Where exactly are you from?" Not that I sound particularly American (except to that one dear man in the senior's home in Saskatoon) but I think of it as sounding rather more generic. Like the Midwestern accent they reportedly try to teach to Indian people working for HP customer support.

The challenge is - I now HEAR a Canadian accent. Not just the distinct tones of the eastern "a" vowel, but the nuances that mark one as distinctly north-of-the-49th. And I HEARD it coming out of my mouth!!

I'm not sure whether to consider it nostalgic or alarming. But I'm looking forward to Christmas and to calls from family and friends that sound like home. And with Thanksgiving out of the way, I can be vocal about looking forward to it, too.

So Merry Christmas, eh? And here's a taste of Canadian for you:



This cracks me up!