Look Up (a.k.a. Don't Look Down)

My house has been a busy busy hub of activity lately. Hubby is once again on a business trip and so I am with the boys trying to get everything done. All of the must do's and wanna do's plus the relax and enjoy stuff too.

So far I think I am doing pretty good. All the things that needed to get paid have been paid, I've attended all the family functions including an impromptu visit from my dad taking us to dinner for my bday and the washing is done and all the groceries and I even went to an exercise class (more on that later) and the pool is clean. The only thing that hasn't been done are the floors which brings me to the title of this post.

I'm thinking that its ok for a bit because we should be looking up and not down, right? Work with me people, looking down is always considered a bit depressing. You're down and out and told to chin up etc. If looking down doesn't bring you down then it most certainly will if you look down while visiting my home because the floors have not been cleaned everything else has and so something had to give. I actually had a bit of time and did the bathroom floors but didn't have time for the whole house because ya know it's a bigger area and takes a block of time that I just haven't had. Everything I have done has been in spurts with a little here and a little there until it all gets done.

I don't know how the floors are even going to get done because my calendar doesn't have any white space until Friday night and who the heck I ask you wants to spend their Friday night cleaning floors? Certainly, not I but I may have to because if I don't I may not only be able to look down but I may not be able to look at myself in the mirror. *sigh*

The System

Last Saturday when I made the truffles and the Marmalade Cake and went out to the family gathering to celebrate a birthday, I didn't do the dishes. Sunday morning I got up and made breakfast and then vegged a bit and watched a movie still not doing the dishes.
I was going to do them but Saturday I was busy and then tired and Sunday morning I wanted to be a bit lazy.
I started doing other things and one thing lead to another and well here comes dinner and I still haven't done the dishes. They were piling up. It's not like I have to do them all by hand or anything although there are quite a few things that are not dishwasher safe but the dishwasher was full and so that meant I had to empty that first. Well, you can see that this is leading to a very full kitchen sink.
I have a double sink and frankly both were full. Shameful I know but this isn't an everyday happening it was a one weekend happening. I am sure (read: I truly hope) it has happened to you. I feel obliged at this point to make note that I don't do all the dishes on a regular basis. I cook and hubby does the dishes. That's the deal. Well, as you know hubby isn't here and so I am cooking AND doing dishes. Have I mentioned I don't like doing the dishes. Not that I imagine anyone actually looks forward to doing the dishes but I really don't like doing the dishes. It may have something to do with all the tables I bused and dishes I washed in Freshman year as detention in boarding school but that's another story.
Back to the story, by Monday afternoon when 17 and I got home he actually commented, if dad were here he'd have a heart attack looking at that sink. He's got a system. That's his new nickname - the system. He's got a system for everything, he's always got to follow his system otherwise things go bonkers. The System.
I tried to explain to my loving son that there is something to say for spontaneity and creativity. That everything doesn't have to have a system to get done. Of course this was while I was doing the dishes so I am not sure the point came across very well. Regardless, the dishes got done (that night) and more meals have been made and their dishes have been done and frankly I find it all a bit boring. I like just creating the meal and walking away. It was much more satisfying.

Spring cleaning

I am forever spring cleaning at home. The idea is one drawer at a time, one closet at a time. I'll get there.
Yesterday it was the blog that got the spring cleaning. I'm not done. Later today I will work on my sidebar stuff. I finished that books months ago, read another one and am on yet another one. Gotta add to the blog roll and delete too. Just general organizing and culling to do.
Hope you like the fresh look for summer.
Here's wishing everyone a great long weekend and a toast to the beginning of summer.

Good News Saturday!

A woman was sitting at a bar enjoying an after-work cocktail with her girlfriends when an exceptionally tall, handsome, extremely sexy, middle-aged man entered. He was so striking that the woman could not take her eyes off him.

The young-at-heart man noticed her overly attentive stare and walked directly toward her. (As men will.) Before she could offer her apologies for staring so rudely, he leaned over and whispered to her, "I'll do anything, absolutely anything, that you want me to do, no matter how kinky, for $20.00...on one condition." Flabbergasted, the woman asked what the condition was. The man replied, "You have to tell me what you want me to do in just three words."

The woman considered his proposition for a moment, and then slowly removed a $20 bill from her purse, which she pressed into the man's hand along with her address. She looked deeply into his eyes, and slowly and meaningfully said:

"Clean my house."

(YOU GO, GIRL!)

Money well spent!!!!

Well, I didn't find mine in a bar and it's costing me more than 20 bucks but I hired the cleaning lady that came by today! Yeah for me! She's from Nicaragua and was referred by a friend. She cleans her house on Thursdays. I am so excited. She is going to come EVERY Monday! We'll see how long we can afford this but at least weekly for a few months until we can get a handle on things around here then I may change it to every other week. But she's coming MONDAY!!! YEAH!!!YIPPEE!!!

Help is coming....

I am all excited about this weekend. There's lots on my list to do. When isn't there? I ask!? But among the gajillion things is that I am meeting (I don't want to think interviewing) a cleaning lady tomorrow. She's coming to the house for us to go over what I want her to do and quote me a price. Gosh, I hope I can afford this! I need help. Maybe if someone helps me clean then we can start picking up and organizing my life and finding things and not buying thing because we don't know where the one that we own is and have the house look all put together and smell nice and fresh and look clean and crisp when I walk in and have there be a cozy retreat where I can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and a book with out feeling guilty that I should be cleaning and be able to invite people over without offering excuses for the place and and I think maybe I want too much. Anyways, I'm a little excited that help may be on the way.

Looking back and ahead

So what else happened this week? Hmmmm, here ya go:

* Status on reducing the double-wide.I stopped buying breakfast at Starbucks. I haven't had any ice cream. I am drinking way more water. I made Jello to have as dessert on the nights when I just need a little something else. I have had salad as a side at every single dinner. I didn't eat any french fries the 2 nights I made them this week. Yeah, me!

* I got my hair but last weekend. I forgot to tell you. It was just a trim. I have it on the short side now so that it gets curly. They are big curls. It's better that just hanging straight down.

* The manager of my GM's ALF called that they were shutting down and were trying to find her a new place but that she was refusing to go. Mind you I was updated that she had moved twice since June and not told me. Granted they were houses owned by the same owner as he was downsizing trying to hold on to a house or 2 but now they are shutting down. When I told her that I had no idea because I hadn't been able to speak to her since the beginning of the summer, she was shocked because GM had told her that we speak every week. She lied. Big surprise there.

* You know those little strips they advertise to put on your nose to stop snoring. They look like butterfly band-aids. Well, THEY WORK! If you have a snorer that wakes you up, RUN don't walk to the nearest store and buy some. You need to understand I have lots of sleep issues. I don't sleep well as it is and hubby's snoring doesn't help. He snores so loud that it jolts me awake. I try to get him to roll over but he doesn't then it takes me forever to fall asleep again and repeat cycle. I think I may have to buy stock in the company because we will be buying it in bulk. He has been wearing the strips for 3 nights and OMG if he's snoring, I don't hear him. It's a godsend! Who woulda thunk it!

* I ordered more online stuff. Some scrapbook papers and a necklace. Actually I ordered a couple because I think it would make a great Xmas gift and it was on sale. I need to start thinking about Christmas cards. I was thinking about making them this year since I'm scrapping now, I should be able to make the cards. We'll see.


Weekend plans: (in no particular order)
Visit GM, now that I know where she is and take her some of her favs: chocolate covered cherries, shortbread cookies etc.
Mail some packages to a few people.
Make some color copies of newspaper articles for the football scrapbooks.
Get my mammos grammed on Saturday.
Go to son's football game Saturday night.
Clean kid's bathroom.
Go to dinner with my culinary girlfriends on Sunday!

Have a good one everyone! TGIF!

Week in review

Here's a look back and things that happened that I haven't mentioned...

* One of the things I decided after the trip was to seriously trim down this double wide body of mine. I'm no radical here. I didn't run out and join a gym or buy any exercise equipment. Why, you may ask. Quite frankly because I've done those things before and failed miserably each time. Now you need to understand I have done every diet there is. I have the knowledge, I know how to loose weight. It's quite simple: take in less calories than you burn. The problem here is will power. So, I decided. I'm gonna do it. I'll start slow, making simple lifestyle changes. First, let's start drinking the water I'm supposed to be drinking. Sounds easy enough. I can do that. Second, stop going to Starbucks and getting a latte and a donut for breakfast. Just have coffee in the office. Again, easy. Bonus here is I'll save $ too. I can do this. SO, Tuesday when hubby goes to the grocery store to buy Milk and cold cuts for the kids. I tell him bring home a surprise, something good. I do this all the time and he usually brings me back whatever veggie or fruit is on sale. A few weeks ago he brought back a beautiful eggplant and more recently a pack of zucchini- delish! So, he came home all excited. Look, I brought home something yummy and he pulls out a quart of Hagen Das Butter Pecan ice cream. We can eat it while we watch TV later! - I guess we're keeping the double wide this week!

* 15 got a brochure from Northwestern University. He got himself on their mailing list because he fell in love with the school 2 years ago when we visited Chicago and he wants to study Journalism and Broadcasting and found out they were famous for it. The kicker here isn't that he GOT the brochure, 17 gets tons of them. The kicker is he read it from cover to cover, he came out of his room explaining to us out of touch parents that he could double major, that they have work internships with out local newspapers, that they have mentor programs etc. I just sat there dumbfounded at the table while he told me all about it. I have a child who is researching, interested in and motivated all by himself to going to college. WOW! I just took in the moment and sent up a little prayer to raise his grades so that he actually have a shot at getting into the school.

* The vacuum cleaner died. It just stopped in mid-vacuum. There is only carpeting in one room but I have, I mean had one of those floor/carpet vacuums and instead of sweeping and having to pick up the dust, I vacuum the floor. I had to sweep this week- oh the agony!

* I have been ordering things online and all the boxes have been coming in. I've ordered scrapbook supplies and clothes. There was a reason I didn't order clothes online before, now I have to return half of it. It didn't fit right or I didn't like the color- it didn't look that bright on the computer. Returning the stuff is a pain in the butt!

*We have a football game tonight and we supposed to beat the pants off of this team. With any luck 17 should play well and make some fabulous plays and have something for the highlight film he has to make for Furman U. My in-laws are coming to my house so that we can drive them to the game. It should be fun.

*I balanced my checkbook. This may be normal and customary for your checkbook but for mine it was a treat. I have never spent so much time with it. I actually discovered that I had too much money. Can that be for real? But then I realized that I owed someone some $ that I hadn't paid them and poof! there it went. Ahhh, there's the low balance I know and love. The world is right again.

*I have been trying to post on blogs that I read and not be a lurker. I'm not good at that and want to do better. I will keep working on this.

So that was my week. The weekend is pretty packed but if I tell you about that now, then what will I blog about on Monday? So, I will keep you in suspense. HINT: There is a pile on the floor in front of a machine.