time to pull the batteries

What do you do with your time? Do you fill time with a balance of work and fun, needed activities and wanted activities? Do you live by your watch on your wrist, clock on your phone, clock in the car, or on the kitchen wall? I live by all of these... and the calendar on my phone and the calendar as big as my whole freezer door in the kitchen!!
Sometimes I watch little kids play and think about how time is nowhere on their minds. That is bliss. Why is it that when we are young we can't wait to be grown up? When we are grown up we find we are missing lots of what we left behind .... things we did not realize we had so nice!
I have a list on my refrigerator that reminds me of things I want to do.
One thing is --do watercolors. Painting.
That wish has sat on that list in just alphabet letters for far too long... time to take the batteries out of the clocks and fill the tabletop with paper and paints and water and brushes and pull up a chair!!

What have I done?

• recycled old book illustrations into craft projects
• disposed of (donated, gave away to friends) more magazines than I cared to count...only kept a stack of torn out interesting pages equal to about an inch, instead of piles and piles of mags!
• took down some collectible plates from the front hall, washed up in prep for selling
•  continue to look around at things in the house with new eyes, deciding what can go

What do I need to do?

• tackle my closet mess
• take more deep breaths and loosen my shoulders when I find myself tensing up
• make more Sunday meals that last as left overs throughout the week
• take longer walks and be more patient about waiting to ride my bike when the windchill won't freeze off my face

What do I want to do?

• watercolor
• purge more from my file cabinets
• decide on a color for my kitchen cabinets
• find out that the interview I have coming up is for full time work

on to new partying

The new year is here and the celebrating is done for the holidays... but at our house the partying continues with A.'s birthday. She will be 17. I wish I could have stayed eternally age 17.

I love this image above. It speaks to me somehow. I enjoy vintage images-- and black and white is special in photos like it was in television. I think kids now miss out a lot on using imagination. They don't need to. They don't have time to.

Watch an old movie or TV show on DVD and see how your brain turns the images into color without even trying.... that's why we were so good at using imagination. We also played outside EVERY day-- it was not an event, it was life. Playing outside meant using your imagination. The things we did and played with rarely used batteries, and never used electricity. It was all powered by imagination, an endless power supply!!

What have I finished?

• sorted more books(fiction and non-fiction) and magazines to send other places to live
• moved the TV to a new location within the family room-- it seems to be a hit with everyone
• reorganizing the pantry, and finding I am shopping even more carefully than ever before

What do I need to do?

• find the top of my desk, it is suffocating under paperwork
• use the ham bone for a batch of homemade bean soup-- I never know how to make just a small pot of soup
• make some apple crisp to use up the apples before they go bad

What do I want to do?

• paint my lamps in my bedroom to be gloss black, the lampshades will be perfect
• have lunch with a friend I have not seen in 10 years or more, it may be soon if we can mesh schedules
• hang a big mirror in a spot I have been plotting out

our first real snow of the season

How wonderful the world looks around me, in the first snow to stick for this season! 

The trees look like they are carefully frosted. 

The night time is brighter in the white glow.

THINGS I AM LIKING TODAY:

• the fireplace heating up the brick kitchen wall
• watching old vhs movie favorites under a down-filled quilt
• ham leftovers for lunch and dinner
• all the glow of the Christmas tree lights  
• planning for bowling and ice skating with the kids
• my car which gets me safely around and stops well in the snow
• a warm bed to curl up in with soft blankets and cozy flowered pillow case
• a connection to a dear friend at just the right times 
• the newly organized pantry

THINGS I WANT TO DO:

• switch to my new computer desk area set-up
• continue weeding out Christmas decor
• sort more magazines that were hand-me-downs
• hear from a long not seen friend I have reached out to
• set up some clearance sale item listings in my Etsy shop

Holiday Cheer

What Have I Been Up To?

• Trying to secure a job that fits. (failing miserably)
• Trying to tidy (3 kids, remember) and decorate the house. (failing miserably)
• Trying to maintain a smile so everyone can see the me they want to see. (failing?)
• Trying to put myself first on the list for a change. (or anywhere on the list, number 1,001 would be even acceptable)

What Do I Need To Do?

• Prepare, serve and hostess a dinner for family and friends.
• Be a wonderful wife, mother, and all the rest.
• Make it through another holiday season.

What do I Want To Do?

• Bask in the joy of observing anyone other than me, today, clean a toilet (or anything else) around here.
• Disappear for 24 hrs and see if anyone notices.
• Relax for any amount of time, do nothing for more than 30 seconds, not look at a calendar for a day, have no appointments for 24 hours...... in other words, BE SELFISH.

another day in a string of bliss

What have I been up to?

• having to accept that some things just happen as they will, no matter how much planning you do in life (a tough realization sometimes, for me that is!)
• adjusting lifestyle to 1 paycheck after finally being pretty gosh darn comfy with 2 ( I am worth so much more, but have to be humble in securing that a paycheck is again at least steadily received)
• enjoying little moments with family and friends ( not saying I have oodles and oodles of friends more than you, but why is there never enough time for all the fun that beckons to be had with those you treasure?)

What have I completed?

• painted a thrifted desk that has been patiently awaiting my attention for FAR too long. It is now semi-gloss black with sleek silver metal drawer pulls and a decoupaged top featuring gobs of clock face images sealed off with plenty of clear coat (to protect precious "time")
• taking the 1st big step to changing a kitchen that has been asking for a make-over for nearly 58 yrs (will be a slow process... due to second point above)
• sorting through and eliminating scads of magazines (did you know that if you only save the pages you really are interested in, you can make the compressed foundation of your house rise a few inches?)

What do I need to do?

• clean my closet (what the heck is in the back anyway?)
• dig out the favorite Christmas decor and chuck the rest to the goodwill (the kids probably don't want that stuff one thinks they do when they move out some day. Someday seems a  l o n  g way off !)
• write some Thank You notes ( to show I have some upbringing, after-all)

What do I want to do?

• disassemble the dog pen before the snow flies so I can see more of the pines coated in frosty white sparkles (or at least stop looking at the eyesore as it is now)
• tackle the file cabinet so my new year will start fresh (Geez, I hate ugly paperwork build-up)
• put more photos in black frames, new and vintage (writing on the backs would be a bonus too)

day for accomplishments

Hoping to get something really done and crossed off the list(s) today !
Everyone's fridge looks like this one... IF they dress in an apron and heels (and maybe a string of pearls), that is.

What's new?
* the kids ALL woke up (and got up) early this morning
* we will not get to play with my great nephew. change of plans, last minute
* weed and feed on the front lawn is not weeding or feeding !

Things I like today:
* antique photos
* a clean floor
* throwing things out (yes, I recycle too)
* seeing my uncle's RED roses, yesterday, all aburst (made that word up, I think)
* '96 Firebird, t - top, sweet interior

Things I want to do:
* pack up a lot of kid stuffed animals that are not played with but still loved
* put some old pictures in frames
* decide what to wear for "date night", which these days functions more like a household business meeting

Things I need to do:
* buy a new sprinkler
* plan for neighborhood pot luck
* figure out when to sleep tomorrow (full calendar. SURPRISE !)
* buy daughter a new bathing suit
* buy son a new boy scout shirt

Back....finally!

[ love this photo I took of my daughter and a surprising gourd from our garden ]

My computer, it seems, is somewhat of a senior citizen in the technology world. I could no longer blog as I once did. I could not install the needed updates that Blogger required to play on my own blog. Sad, really.

I had a lot to say. I wasn't sure what to do. When in doubt, and you are of a certain middle age, what should you do?....Ask the advice of a teenage offspring, that's what!!

Now it is all fixed and well, and now I am back. With a lot to say.

[ my stack of antiques travel cases filled with special keepsakes, I have since this photo ditched the one in the middle with no handle. ]

Things I have Been Up To:

* I lost 50 lbs in 5 months, my first goal, and so far a total of 54lbs

* loving my new job of about 7 months!!

* not getting much of anything done around the house

* learning to say "no" to things and people

* severing the umbilical cords to my children so they can become more independent

* surviving somehow on less than 5 hours of sleep every 24

* enjoying my new car

* trying to enjoy every minute of every day, as life seems to be racing past

* reading an interesting book

* celebrating another birthday

* feeding a bit of shoe lust with some purchases, I was very long overdue for a turn (life of a mom)...usually the kids get all the new shoes!

Things I want To Do:

* work in my gardens

* rearrange the furniture in my bedroom

* paint in watercolors

* draw my favorite birds in colored pencils

* achieve my next weight loss goal by August

* get rid of "material things" around the house with emotional guilt attachments

Things I Need To Do:

* sort through stuff around the house

* redo my filing cabinet

* detail the inside of my cars

* clean out my closet, lots of things are WAY too big to fit anymore!

* take stuff to the Goodwill

* take donations of books and videos to school

Random, Unnecessary, Facts about me

1. my kids like the music from back when I was in school, I promise I don't MAKE them listen

2. I like to slice a banana in my Rice Krispies cereal

3. the movie Uncle Buck with John Candy always makes me laugh, no matter how many times I watch it

4. I am only cold when it is lower than 20 degrees outside- I often don't wear a coat until then

5. I love playing Chinese checkers, but I dislike playing regular checkers




6. my mom couldn't swim, I was on the swim team and earned a varsity letter in school

7. I once wrote reports on President Lincoln and President Polk. The teacher made me do Polk

8. I love casseroles and the way they are usually lots of weird things thrown together

9. nightmares fill my sleep every night--been that way as long as I can remember














10. climbing into a blanket fort under a table is just as fun for me as an adult as when I was a kid


11. late night trips to the grocery store are the best ever, a different world



12. while I listen to someone talk to me I always focus on just 
one of their eyes

10 Things I Like To Do Outside During Summer

Note: These two little pictures are my own drawings that I did in colored pencil. I matted them this morning with card stock.

1. I really enjoy digging in the compost pile in the backyard and finding lots of wiggly worms busy at work. I have wonderful rich soil under the surface of the compost and the worms are the reason!!

2. This kind of goes with the first one...I think it is fun to get really, really dirty while gardening and then shower all clean with some yummy smelling shower gel.

3. Have you ever just reclined in the grass and looked up into the tree tops? I think it is a very peaceful, almost meditation type, thing to do.

4. Can anyone ever grow out of the fun that is riding a bike? I hope not! It brings so much to your senses.

5. I get a thrill out of finding interesting dead wood branches that fall from our tall trees. Some of them are truly nature's art.

6. I like the smell of the wet dirt after a summer rain. I adore going out to jump in puddles with the kids.  (I just noticed that a lot of these thoughts include "dirt"!!)

7. On rare occasions I get the chance to sit in the shade and read. When I do get the chance, I wish I could change my name temporarily to something other than "MOM!". Sometimes in my lap it's decorating magazines or papercrafting/scrapbooking magazines. Sometimes a non-fiction book.

8. We go to the cemetery and feed the ducks in the big pond. It is a perfect way to clean out all the stale bits and crumbs of crackers, cereal and the like from the pantry. I also like to hang out in cemeteries cuz it's in my blood (read more cemetery posts for that info!)

9. Strangely enough, I like to wash windows. I don't do it as often as I should - but the sparkling satisfaction of clean glass makes me happy and seems to make the house almost smile!

10. The kids and I build "fairy houses" in the front yard in an area where the grass never grows. We use sticks, leaves, moss, ferns, pine needles, shells, stones and other nature things. We have done this for about 10 years. It is like a whole village!! Their friends love to come over and build too.