A Project Completed

I CLEANED MY SCRAPBOOK TABLE!!!

This is news of monumental proportions.

This task has been on my to do list for about 9 months. It's too low a priority to ever get to the top of the list.

I am so lucky to have a desk for my scrapbooking supplies. I found it at an estate sale for only $40. I was so excited to have a place to leave a project out, so I could work on it a little at a time in spare moments, instead of having to put everything away and get it back out again every time I had a moment to work on it.

The problem is, I don't have any spare moments. So the incomplete project I had sitting out on the desk never got worked on. Instead, the desk gradually became the receptacle for all things crafty that needed to find a home, as well as the location to dump any unfinished craft projects, paper pieces, photos, ribbons, cards, letters, and other memorabilia. We have been adding stuff to the pile on the desk for ages without ever putting any of it away. When housecleaning, we always ignored this particular mess. For almost a year.

I can hardly believe I had enough free time to spend an afternoon working on it, interruption-free. When I finally got to the end of the task, after about 5 hours of sorting, filing and purging, I was filled with the desire to scrapbook. I'd better resist the temptation, since that's how the last mess got started.

Reality Check

Looking back over my past blog posts, I can detect when I'm feeling crowded and when I have room to do my own thing by the frequency of my posts. I think I'm crowded more often than not these days.

But not today. I am hopeful that my weekend is going to be filled with room to do my own thing.

Alterations are done; payroll, job costing, invoicing, check balancing, and bill paying are all done; mending is done(I started working on that one in between alterations); inputting my financial data from the three weeks that my data was lost is done; 75% of the weeding is done.

My house, on the other hand, is a complete and total disaster. Dust everywhere, clutter overflowing every room, and shoes, socks, books, toys, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia from 6 different individuals left here, there, and everywhere.

I'll probably clean this weekend.

That's ok. I like to clean. But I wish I had this month's book on tape.

Alterations

I volunteered to help with alterations at my girls' dance class. I thought I was giving myself an out by telling them I can't do much more than sew a hem or tack up a strap. But inevitably, I was in over my head. Since I was already there at class waiting for kids so many days a week, I thought it would be no big deal to offer to do alterations at that time. I envisioned sewing hems at a leisurely pace while chatting with friends.

Not so. Every Wednesday I've arrived at class to find a line of girls waiting and ready, costumes on inside out. Far too many of the girls have costumes that are too large; I've had to take in several waistbands, and many of the hems have drawstrings that have to be moved and replaced. The first couple of weeks I thought I was going to lose it. I was bringing home piles of costumes to alter at home, when I don't even have time to cook dinner or play with my kids anymore. I felt so stressed about those stupid costumes! That was around the same time that my computer crashed and I lost all my data.

I'm feeling a little more relaxed about it now; the pace has slowed down, and I'm not taking home 5 or 6 costumes each week anymore. I enjoy being able to help, and while I don't agree with many aspects of the studio's operating procedures, I do think that if this is what the girls want to do, it makes sense for me to be involved if there is a need. So, in spite of my stressed state that first few weeks, I'm not sorry I offered to do the alterations. I do, however, wish I didn't always find life so frighteningly busy... and volunteering for once more thing certainly never helps with that.

Gardens Here and There

Last month, while in Portland for dance competition, we spent an afternoon visiting the Japanese Gardens. It was so beautiful, restful and serene. I wish my garden looked like that! I had hoped it would give me some ideas, but so much of what they had created related to the climate of the area, with mosses and other wet loving plants everywhere. I would love to view a Japanese style garden created in a dry, arid climate.

In the meantime, I am finding a bit of time here and there to do a little weeding and pruning in my garden. Things could use a bit of a face lift and some shifting around, but I haven't found the time for that. I think my next project will be to eliminate the grass(weed) path and replace it with shredded bark. The tough part will be moving a mountain of rocks I've unearthed and left laying in a pile on the path. I thought it would be great to create a dry stream bed with the rocks, but have no idea where to put them. It would be so much better to move them only once!

The front yard is still bare dirt. Sometimes I'm afraid it will always be that way. With our bathroom remodel project done, next on the list is a sprinkler system. The estimate we got was way out of our price range, but we just don't have the time or know-how to do it ourselves. Clint has a friend with some experience in irrigation systems; maybe I'll get lucky and we can hire him to install them for us. It would be so lovely to have a front yard again.

Nothing to Show

I can't seem to get anything done these days. My list is unchanging; I don't ever seem to get anything crossed off. Thinking productively, what have I done lately?

Over the last two weekends, I cleaned the garage. It was truly a nightmare. Clint hauled the ruined piano and lots of other junk off to the dumps. What a relief!!! That piano has been bugging me for ages. Of course, there's still a big pile of Clint's work tools in the middle of one bay, so I can only park one car inside. But at least I can move around in there now. I have a terrible habit, once the garage starts getting disheveled, of just stepping in the door and flinging, instead of trying to find an actual spot to put something away. So, it's my own fault really. But I really, really hate cleaning the garage.

I took the girls to the mall. They've been asking for months, and I just haven't had time. I realized I was never going to have time, so I just did it anyway. Now they want to go to Wal-Mart.

I tried out Entrees Made Easy. It's taken a month to get over the guilt and become comfortable with what semms like a lot of money for a meal, but I'm pretty sold on it now. My family loves the home-cooked meals and trying different menus. I'm so grateful about the time it's saving me I could just cry. Funny thing is, even with half our dinners taking half the time, I still don't seem to be getting to the stuff I'm supposed to be doing.

I caught up on job costing for all Clint's work since January. Oh, and I'm still doing payroll every week, although that's about it for me and business work lately.

Homeschooling. Tamzin just finished with her math for this year, and she is so excited. She also just finished her first grade reader. She is so proud of herself. We're now reading the Spiderwick Chronicles, recommended by Chelee. She loves them. It's her first foray into chapter books, which she had always been to impatient for before. I'm working with the older girls on writing and history a few times a week, and now Shelby wants me to read her Environmental Science book so we can discuss the concepts together. It's fascinating, but it takes time! I do the same thing with history, and we have great conversations together, but it means I have 'homework', too.

Gave the girls their annual "test", required for homeschooling. It's a pain in the neck, but at least it's done now, and the girls are happy with their scores. They feel they accurately reflect where they are at, for the most part.

Cleaned the house a few times, with help from the girls.

Went to the park a few times. Hosted a play date.

Took the girls to Portland for Dance Competition. Definitely a worthwhile experience. Went to OMSI, too. The girls had a great time there.

Nursed the family through a round of the flu, and then a bout of colds.

Threw a birthday party for Gillian at BounceArena. Definitely a fun way to go.

So what am I not getting to?

The taxes. I'm 80% done, and stuck. Knowing I'm going to owe a fortune, since I underpaid my estimated taxes last year, makes it hard to feel motivated to get it done. But I've got 3 birthdays and another out of town dance competition to think about in April, so I shouldn't be putting it off like this.

Fashion Revue. If I don't get the girls started soon, we will be so crowded later. It's not so easy to "help" 3 girls sew cool outfits. It's harder than doing it myself.

My Blog. My Photos. My Scrapbook Table, which seriously has not been cleaned off in a year, and has papers and photos piled high (another fling spot). The dishes, which is what I should be doing right now. Gotta go!

Happy Valentine's Day

My Valentine's Day gift to Clint. Flowers, candy, Emmets (he loves a dash in his coffee in the morning) and a handmade card. I decided to go traditional this year. I don't think I've ever given him candy before. I'm pretty sure I've given him flowers before, but he doesn't remember it. After he was asleep last night, I brought in the flowers and arranged them in the beautiful vase I got for Christmas, and left everything artfully arranged by the coffee machine, so he would see it all first thing in the morning, while I was still sleeping.

I gave each of the girls a heart shaped box of See's candy. I've never done that before; it felt decadent. I gave them roses, too, three peach roses each. I bought a dozen roses and arranged them in four vases after they went to bed last night, then made valentines to go with them. I was rushing, so they were quite uninspired. I love homemade valentines. Usually I put a lot of creative effort into valentines for the girls, but this year I just didn't get to it until the last minute.

My Valentine's Day booty...so far. Beautiful handmade cards from all the girls, a sweet card from Clint with the perfect sentiment, and a box of dark chocolate pecan turtles(my favorite, yum!) and chocolate covered strawberries from Clint. Last night he gave me the candy, saying it wouldn't keep until today.

Today is our anniversary. We probably wouldn't make such a thing of Valentine's Day otherwise. It makes sense to reaffirm our attachment to each other. It feels good to know I wouldn't have chosen any differently if I had it to do over again.

I don't have a "real" gift for him. I couldn't think of anything. I bought him a thermometer with lots of fancy settings on it, but I think I'm going to return it. It's kind of boring.

I don't think we're going to make it out on a date this year. The kids have been sick for days, plus they have dance class most evenings, and he leaves for Lake Mead on Saturday. So we'll celebrate with romantic traditional stuff, and it will be just right.

The Eggs Our Birds Laid for Us While We Were Gone

19 eggs in 3 days. Can't complain about that!

The View from our Hotel

We went to Bremerton to see Clint's dad last weekend. He was in the hospital recently and had just returned home. Thankfully there was nothing seriously wrong with him. He's not been taking great care of himself, and was weak and malnourished. He had a stroke last year and has been depressed and anxious ever since.

After ruling out other options, we decided to bring Chico, our chihuahua, with us. This meant staying in a motel instead of with Clint's dad and stepmom. We found a great hotel close to Clint's dad's place, but it was unavailable Friday night. We decided it would be worth it to switch lodgings after one night if we could stay in this hotel, which had an excersise and game room, indoor pool, an ocean view, and a killer rate. For Friday night, we made reservations at a nearby motel that would take dogs, but when we got there, the room was unacceptable. Linoleum flooring and only 6 inches of clearance around the two queen beds. With 6 of us in a room, 2 have to sleep on the floor, so it just wouldn't work. We sat in the parking lot calling places, trying to find someone that could accomodate all of us and the dog.

We did, and things worked out great, but it was stressful in the meantime. Rhiannon had been feeling poorly prior leaving on the trip. I had suggested it might be better for the two of us to stay home and let Clint and the other girls go without us. We couldn't expose an 83 year old man in poor health to a virus. But Clint and Rhiannon felt it was possible that her looming sick feelings were temporary, so off we went. It was clear by the time we reached Ellensburg that Rhiannon was pretty sick. She was feverish and dazed. She doesn't travel well anyway, so she felt pretty awful. Waiting in the car while we struggled to find accomodations after a 4 1/2 hour drive was agony.

In the end, we got a great deal on two rooms at a Comfort Inn in Port Orchard. We've never stayed in two rooms before, so for Clint and I it was like a mini holiday. We haven't been in a hotel room without a child since our wedding night. We all ate out at a really nice Mexican Restaurant, trying to make the best of an uncomfortable situation. Rhiannon was like the walking dead the whole time, but had vetoed the idea of ordering a pizza in our room. In the morning we ate their continental breakfast with homemade waffles, and then Clint and the girls went to see grandpa while Rhiannon and I spent an incredibly boring morning watching motel TV.

At checkout time Clint returned to the motel and moved us to the other hotel, which had allowed us to check in early due to Rhiannon's illness. After unpacking and getting the girls settled, we left them there at the hotel, and Clint and I went to visit Clint's dad. Then, I came back to the hotel to watch over Rhiannon, and he and the girls went back for dinner with his dad. After they got back I went out and picked up some dinner for Rhiannon. In the morning I swam and had breakfast in the hotel with the girls while Clint went to visit his dad on his own.

Tamzin had a great time collecting shells on the beach outside our room. We had a first floor room with a sliding door and a fireplace; the girls had an adjoining room with it's own sliding door looking out on Puget Sound. Gillian and Tamzin loved the pool, although we didn't have much time to swim with all that was going on.

Clint's dad was grumpy and uncommunicative. He would often interrupt the conversation to say "I don't want to talk about that". Clint was tense and worried after seeing his used-to-be-genial dad. I was concerned about Rhiannon, whose fever was very high and who was having difficulty getting rest under the circumstances. We ended up arguing our last night and morning, which was a bummer since we were staying in such a nice place, and it should have been great.

The last time we visited Clint's dad we stayed with them, which was great because we could help with the cooking, and had lots of time for visiting. While staying in a hotel had the potential to be fun, it made it harder to have a meaningful visit. I don't think Clint felt better after seeing his dad, and I'm not sure his dad did either. He seemed to be aware that Clint was struggling to manage his family and his sick daughter, and so insisted that Clint not return after his Sunday morning visit, but instead take Rhiannon home. I had wanted to make this trip with Clint so I could help keep his stepmom entertained, so he could have one-on-one time with his dad. But I ended up being no help at all.

Clint worked so hard to make the trip comfortable for me and the girls, when he should have been focusing on his dad. But he's a problem solver, and making things nice for his family was something he could DO, while I think at his dad's he felt quite helpless. It's been 9 months, and no one has been able to figure out how to cheer up his dad, and they understandably worry about his unhappiness sending his health into a downward spin.

I think we will all have pleasant memories of this trip (except sick Rhiannon) but we didn't really accomplish what we had hoped to with Clint's dad. At least we got to visit.

F in Blogging

I'm not very good at blogging, I guess.

I think I'm losing interest, too. I had envisoned my blog as a way for me to keep in touch with friends and family that I don't talk to all the time, people who might want to know what I'm up to. It hasn't worked out that way, though. My faithful blog readers are people who already know what I'm up to on a regular basis, more or less. And those I thought would be interested in knowing my day to day activities? Not interested, I guess.

So, given the always overwhelmed state of my to-do list, blogging has become less and less and less of a priority, until now I wonder what the point is at all.

I was going to post a half dozen pictures detailing how I've spent the last month, but I can't get blogger to upload them. Must be a temporary glitch.