I have become a devoted follower of c jane enjoy it. She is witty, she is funny, she's a wife and mother, and frankly, I'm a little jealous of her sibling relationships (many and close).
Today she posted about having a brain full of thoughts and a current inability to appropriately channel those thoughts.
It's a familiar feeling but for me, it's not so much that I don't have the tools to express myself. I just never seem to have the thoughts at the same time as the tools are present. I have great ideas for my blog while I'm making dinner or driving to a park day or sitting in church or . . . you get the idea. I sit down at the computer for a few minutes and suddenly the well is dry, the mind is blank and I can't even remember why I sat down, let alone that great idea I had while I was dumping the beans into the pan.
(I also have trouble with interruptions at the computer from one little man in particular whose current test of strength these days is learning to put on his own pants - oh, the joys.)
Someday I might figure out a way to mesh the timing of my ideas with the time I am at the computer.
It's not today, though. :)
Random bits of unschooling, traveling, and trying to notice life's moments with my Italian hubby, our two crazy kids, and more often than not, a glass of wine.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
And the housekeeping award goes to . . .
I enjoy having a clean house.
I do not necessarily enjoy the process of getting it clean. I especially hate bathroom cleaning and moving everything on book shelves to dust them. I do not mind doing laundry. I do not enjoy folding and I detest putting it all away.
I prefer activities that bring me *joy* (who doesn't?) and vacuuming my carpet doesn't bring JOY. Satisfaction yes. For a brief period of time (until the next crumb explosion or dirty-shoe-tracking incident).
All of that said, I spent a good two hours today cleaning. The boys' bathroom was getting pretty grotty around the edges and our bathoom mirror was a study in splatter marks (courtesy of my children - everyone prefers our bathroom when it's time to brush teeth and fling water around). I dusted last week but had failed to vacuum so that was becoming a necessity as well.
Generally speaking, I think I am a decent housekeeper. Not stellar but I am definitely not a house of squalor and no one's ever going to come to my house and then whisper in a horrified voice to another friend about how she was too afraid to touch anything or sit anyhere but the edge of a hard kitchen chair because of the disgusting condition of the home. That would not be my house.
Usually, I'm pretty good. I hate little bits of cr*p on my kitchen floor so I'm pretty diligent about sweeping that. I cannot function in clutter so we pick up a little bit almost every day.
But today, I was vacuuming my bedroom and found little white bits of drywall along the wall under my window. Like the kind of debris that comes from drilling holes to install, say, a new curtain rod. Which my husband did. IN DECEMBER. Yikes. How did it get to be June and I'm just now finding this stuff on my bedroom floor?
Hmmmm.
I'm going to blame it on the lovely curtains that are now hanging from that curtain rod since they come almost all the way to the floor. Yeah, that's it. The dirt was hiding from me.
Heads up to dirt in my house - you want to hang out for a while, find a place to hide.
I do not necessarily enjoy the process of getting it clean. I especially hate bathroom cleaning and moving everything on book shelves to dust them. I do not mind doing laundry. I do not enjoy folding and I detest putting it all away.
I prefer activities that bring me *joy* (who doesn't?) and vacuuming my carpet doesn't bring JOY. Satisfaction yes. For a brief period of time (until the next crumb explosion or dirty-shoe-tracking incident).
All of that said, I spent a good two hours today cleaning. The boys' bathroom was getting pretty grotty around the edges and our bathoom mirror was a study in splatter marks (courtesy of my children - everyone prefers our bathroom when it's time to brush teeth and fling water around). I dusted last week but had failed to vacuum so that was becoming a necessity as well.
Generally speaking, I think I am a decent housekeeper. Not stellar but I am definitely not a house of squalor and no one's ever going to come to my house and then whisper in a horrified voice to another friend about how she was too afraid to touch anything or sit anyhere but the edge of a hard kitchen chair because of the disgusting condition of the home. That would not be my house.
Usually, I'm pretty good. I hate little bits of cr*p on my kitchen floor so I'm pretty diligent about sweeping that. I cannot function in clutter so we pick up a little bit almost every day.
But today, I was vacuuming my bedroom and found little white bits of drywall along the wall under my window. Like the kind of debris that comes from drilling holes to install, say, a new curtain rod. Which my husband did. IN DECEMBER. Yikes. How did it get to be June and I'm just now finding this stuff on my bedroom floor?
Hmmmm.
I'm going to blame it on the lovely curtains that are now hanging from that curtain rod since they come almost all the way to the floor. Yeah, that's it. The dirt was hiding from me.
Heads up to dirt in my house - you want to hang out for a while, find a place to hide.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Random things for today
I had forgotten that the last time I posted before today I was still a bit obsessed with lists a la Facebook style.
More random things from me (v. 4/09):
* I attended 3 different high schools in 4 years. No two consecutive years at the same one.
* I chased a rabbit out of my yard last night with my 3yo, completely oblivious to how I might appear to random strangers. The random strangers I met were my new neighbors. That was a little embarrassing. They seem very nice.
* I am claustrophic to a degree not easily expressible. I am learning that non-claustrophobic people don't seem to get it. At all. Knowing it's in my head doesn't mean I can control the awful fear I have of suffocating.
* I have been known to say that my worst fear is something happening to my kids but that's not quite true. I won't even entertain those thoughts long enough to allow them to become fears. My worst fears involve terrible injuries to myself.
* My husband has spent part of every March for the last 14 years in Springfield, IL, with me, working with YMCA Youth & Government. He has never been to a single Lincoln site. I am racked with guilt over this. I am hoping to rectify that this summer.
More random things from me (v. 4/09):
* I attended 3 different high schools in 4 years. No two consecutive years at the same one.
* I chased a rabbit out of my yard last night with my 3yo, completely oblivious to how I might appear to random strangers. The random strangers I met were my new neighbors. That was a little embarrassing. They seem very nice.
* I am claustrophic to a degree not easily expressible. I am learning that non-claustrophobic people don't seem to get it. At all. Knowing it's in my head doesn't mean I can control the awful fear I have of suffocating.
* I have been known to say that my worst fear is something happening to my kids but that's not quite true. I won't even entertain those thoughts long enough to allow them to become fears. My worst fears involve terrible injuries to myself.
* My husband has spent part of every March for the last 14 years in Springfield, IL, with me, working with YMCA Youth & Government. He has never been to a single Lincoln site. I am racked with guilt over this. I am hoping to rectify that this summer.
Otis at 36
P received a copy of Beverly Cleary's _Otis Spofford_ from the Easter Bunny. A mischievous 8yo boy for a mischievous 8yo boy. Seemed a good fit.
I realized while reading it with him that I have read it before. Years ago. I was a big Beverly Cleary fan - Ralph the Mouse (which is what reminded me to introduce BC to my big kid), Ramona Quimby, Ellen Tebbits, and Otis.
P loved Otis. Otis, years after reading him for the first time, simply made me sad. Otis has no father, his mother is constantly working and has little time for him, and the lady who is supposed to watch him after school is mean. He likes to stir things up and as a mom (or maybe just as a grown-up?) it seems clear that all he wants is a little attention. And lacking positive attention, he'll take it any old way he can get it. It's not a book about friends and it made me sad to read. I hope P doesn't ask me to read it again anytime soon.
I realized while reading it with him that I have read it before. Years ago. I was a big Beverly Cleary fan - Ralph the Mouse (which is what reminded me to introduce BC to my big kid), Ramona Quimby, Ellen Tebbits, and Otis.
P loved Otis. Otis, years after reading him for the first time, simply made me sad. Otis has no father, his mother is constantly working and has little time for him, and the lady who is supposed to watch him after school is mean. He likes to stir things up and as a mom (or maybe just as a grown-up?) it seems clear that all he wants is a little attention. And lacking positive attention, he'll take it any old way he can get it. It's not a book about friends and it made me sad to read. I hope P doesn't ask me to read it again anytime soon.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Lists of random things
I've found that I've become one of those annoying people who forward the "getting to know you" e-mails. I love them. I adore reading about my friends, what they're thinking "RIGHT NOW!" whether they like Mondays or Fridays, summer or winter, whatever. I think they're really fun and I will continue to forward them around.
And on the same topic, I have discovered Notes on Facebook. I'm already a bit of a FB addict and the notes section is sucking me in like a whirlpool. I recently got tagged in a "25 Random Things About Me" list so I was obligated to post my own. Now I keep thinking of random things about me during the day and I have no place to post them. Or maybe I do?
Random things about me, v. 1/20/09:
* I used to hate broccoli. Now it's one of my very favorite foods (when cooked properly). My mouth waters for Roasted Broccoli with Garlic. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
* I buy almost all my groceries at the same grocery store because I know where everything is; I can't function in a grocery store with a different layout - it's too confusing and gives me a headache.
* When I was growing up, I thought the only toothpaste that worked was Crest and all other brands were some sort of weird hoax that would give you cavities.
* I would bake every day if I could.
* I still have no feeling in the skin underneath my c-section scar. I don't think about it because it makes me really mad and I can't change it.
* I think my hands and knees are ugly.
* I once lived out of a suitcase for 4 months.
And on the same topic, I have discovered Notes on Facebook. I'm already a bit of a FB addict and the notes section is sucking me in like a whirlpool. I recently got tagged in a "25 Random Things About Me" list so I was obligated to post my own. Now I keep thinking of random things about me during the day and I have no place to post them. Or maybe I do?
Random things about me, v. 1/20/09:
* I used to hate broccoli. Now it's one of my very favorite foods (when cooked properly). My mouth waters for Roasted Broccoli with Garlic. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
* I buy almost all my groceries at the same grocery store because I know where everything is; I can't function in a grocery store with a different layout - it's too confusing and gives me a headache.
* When I was growing up, I thought the only toothpaste that worked was Crest and all other brands were some sort of weird hoax that would give you cavities.
* I would bake every day if I could.
* I still have no feeling in the skin underneath my c-section scar. I don't think about it because it makes me really mad and I can't change it.
* I think my hands and knees are ugly.
* I once lived out of a suitcase for 4 months.