too busy for words

words on the blog that is. this is kind of ridiculous: blogging takes next-to-no-time to do, I enjoy doing it but my number of posts has totally tanked lately. this is bull.

another thing i love and has totally gone the way of the dodo: my THING is to decorate the day after thanksgiving. i love it. Friday morning and i'm blasting Burl Ives through the house and am decking the halls. anything that doesn't move gets holly, ornaments or those cute little PB cranberry wreaths. not this year. not yet this year, either.

it's like i'm in some weird kind of twilight zone where thanksgiving has already passed, Christmas-y things are going on and i'm not cursing them for being too early... but there is no sign of the event hitting my home.

sure we were out of town on for turkey day- but we came home that night and had entirely too much wine at my brother's house.... which left me extremely useless the next day.

while i'm griping about my own shortcomings: my midyear's resolutions... may as well get it this all out and over with now:
junk in the...

1. ...inbox: unopened emails has ballooned from 3,020 to 4,679. no credit on that one.
2. ...trunk: haven't worked out.
3. ...attic: haven't made any progress there, either
4. ...fridge: um..... (searching for something to qualify here....) i did clean out the fridge! but that wasn't the issue, it was being more organized about menus and i started the effort, but nope. no credit. big red "X."

So i guess i'm glad i don't 'do' new year's resolutions, because i clearly bombed my mid-year attempt.

In closing, I make this commitment: Tomorrow night, Me, a cup of hot chocolate (spiked with peppermint schnapps), and a ridonkulous amount of decorations.

It's on.

Mid-Years' Resolutions

I never really make New Years' Resolutions, but I feel like a lot is going on right now and we're making some substantial changes in our day-to-day life so maybe this is the ideal time to institute some changes for the better.

1. email shortcomings
At this moment have exactly 3,020 unopened emails in my gmail account (yikes). To be sure, this is not something I'm particularly proud of. But where does one start at this point? I hate that there are email trails just hanging out there that I essentially killed by not being on top of my email. A quite clever friend started titling emails with things like "URGENT, Life or Death, HOT COFFEE!!!" to get attention in my inbox. Nice approach.

I totally remember a time when I was on totally on top of my emails and couldn't understand when people weren't. Note, I wrote "remember" because it is certainly not anything of recent history.

My goal is to get better at immediately organizing/filing/deleting emails as necessary and logging into my personal account on a more regular basis. Granted I've got some things working against me on that last part (gmail blocked from work) but nonetheless- I want to log to email at least 3 times a week AND respond to the emails I read/open... not just save them for later.

2. junk in the trunk
That's right - sister's derriere is, um, growing disproporiate to the rest of my frame -shall we say? I recognize that I lead a sedentary life and for quite some time now I had simply accepted that fact. Again, nothing I was particularly proud of-- it just is what it is.

Well, my plan is to start *gasp* horror of horrors... start ...exercising. Yep. Pam, my incredible physical therapist, has recommended several different activities for me and I want to start excercising 3 times a week. Or maybe 2 to start out with. They are all low impact of course and my back feels so much better the next day, not to mention the seemingly endless benefits.

Benefits such as my heart's health or saving the embarassment of gasping for breath after simply walking up a flight of stairs at work or the avoidance of being called lovingly referred to as 'thunda thighs' (or equivalent junior high slur) during sunday night family dinner.

3. junk in the attic
For the longest time, I postponed cleaning out all our junk and extra boxes "until the remodel was finished" Wouldn't you know, all the extra junk and boxes have actually played a part in postponing the completion of the remodel.

My goal is to get rid of a boat load of old clothes I never wear, books I'll never read and papers that simply collect dust.

This one is gonna be a tough one because clearly I come by the "pack rat" gene honestly (if you've ever been to my parents' or grandparents' houses - I KNOW you've got my back on this one). So this will be a true paradigm shift for me.

So dear friends, I call on you for help. Anyone who is particularly good at purging 'stuff' ...I will bake you a cake, organize your blog links, format recipe cards for you, (geez, my list of things to offer is pretty pathetic here) ...be forever indebted and share a few glasses of wine (bingo!) if you would be so kind to help me out on this one. I don't really know where to start.


4. menus
I haven't done it in over a year.... but when I did make a weekly 'menu' --or a couple weeks at a time-- it was INCREDIBLE how much effort and energy it saved. Yes, that's right. Between each night trying to figure out what to eat, if have the stuff for it, yada yada... or making trips to the grocery store and aimlessly wandering the isles with a general list in hand... it adds up.

When I would take the 20 minutes to sit down and write out a meal a night for a week (with maybe even some leftovers for lunch the next day)... it would save me 10-15 minutes per night. If you do the math... it's quite the time saver. Goal is to start this back up again.



I think I will stop here because i already feel a bit like a wet cat and wondering how the hell I'm gonna tackle all these things. One day at a time, right? Keep me on track.

And you? Any mid-year resolutions?

Mid-year resolutions, revisited

Thanks to Mimi for her clever input, my goals have been renamed for tracking purposes. Feel free to ask me 'So! How you doin with all that...

1. junk in the inbox (f/k/a 'email shortcomings ')
2. junk in the trunk
3. junk in the attic
4. junk in the fridge (f/k/a 'menus')
...anyway?"

Encouragement (or chastising, however you work best...) is appreciated!

The Garage Apartment Chapter

Kids,

For a little over six months now, the four of us have lived in a whopping 570 square feet space above the garage, with no accessible yard space for the last three months.

It looks like tomorrow we will actually move into the house. Albeit, only the *upstairs* of the house because the downstairs still needs major work including an all new air conditioning system. Oy.

However, we are moving on to the next phase of our -ahem- move. Another transition. I would have really liked for this transition to be into a complete phase and not one with more renovation 'miles' ahead of us. But alas, things don't always work out the way we'd like. Certainly where home renovations are concerned. Those details aside, we are finally moving in and definitely getting closer to completion and living in a more 'normal' home and yard situation with space for y'all to run and play and be kids. One of the major driving forces of this whole effort.

As we are about to make this transition and as I have suspected would be the case since about two months into living here, I am sad to leave this teeny space we have shared. Your Dad and I joked (quietly) late at night about three months ago:

Him "You think we'll be lonely when we move in?"
Me "Ha! I've been wondering that for about a week now! Think we'll all huddle in one corner of one room?"
Him "Maybe!"

And so - to commemorate our time here, I've decided to form a list of the top things I'll miss the most about living in The Treehouse followed by a list of the things I'll miss the least.


THE TOP THINGS I'LL MISS ABOUT LIVING IN THE TREEHOUSE
#1 Always being around you guys - seeing what you're doing, hearing what you're saying. Sure, it's nice to have a few moments to myself (I mean, I think it is. Actually, I'm not sure I remember what that is like), but the togetherness has been really sweet and I'm grateful for it.

#2 Clean up is wicked easy. I mean, we can have this whole place spotless and glistening, top to bottom, in under an hour flat. Of course, you guys can destroy it again in a matter of minutes, but that's just toys - we can sort that out in no time.

#3 Quick getting ready for school, church etc. Everything is so efficient and accessible. I can pluck everyone's clothes, shoes, bags and other accoutrements into their piles as quickly and seamlessly as you might expect from a cartoon. Bam.

#4 Having so much less STUFF has been really great. Sure, there have been plenty of things we have needed/wanted that are boxed up, but for the most part, this light living thing has been eye-opening and refreshing.

#5 Hearing y'all talk in your sleep or breathe/snore/purr/ whistle in the middle of the night. That is, when you're not waking me up. Even if it's a quick "Mama!" I don't mind so much if I've gotten some level of decent sleep in the prior week.



TOP THINGS I WILL BE HAPPY TO LEAVE BEHIND
#1 The constant middle of the night waking! ah - sleep. mildly uninterrupted sleep. Sleep for consecutive nights where someone doesn't scream and wake the whole 'house' until I spring out of bed at 1:45AM and scoop you out of your crib before your brother is in a mid-night-meltdown hollering "Mowy, stop it! I'm sweeping! I'm gonna be willy cwanky tomorrow if you don't be quiet!!!"

#2 The tiny kitchen. I miss a 'real' kitchen. I welcome with open arms a proper dishwasher. And food disposal. And central heat and air (as we close out the summer of the window unit cooling). Thankfully we at least learned about and got the countertop dishwasher in late July. That was seriously life changing for me with all the sippy cups and their little parts, I was gonna lose my mind.

#3 Having to leave the Treehouse for laundry or meeting with contractors. The monitor and speaker combo has been life saving, but only because we have been stuck with a crummy situation. Y'all have been troopers about it but it's been stressful.

#4 The lack of a door between us. Nap time (or lack thereof) has been BRUTAL for all of us.

#5 I cannot wait to be able to open a door and let y'all run in the yard. Not needing to load up to head to the park each day or the daily play dates. Don't get me wrong, we had a fantastic and busy summer - staying on our toes to keep from stagnating in our little space. But a little down time where we don't immediately go stir crazy or get cabin fever will be really nice.

I love you both so much and I hope you carry with you at least some faint memories of the summer (er, make that half year!) that we spent 'camping out' in our own garage apartment. I wonder if we'll ever do it again just for fun. Even at this very exhausted point I can honestly say: I kind of hope we do.