Thanks to Vick for that awesome contest link! :)
So, wow, I am so glad I wrote that post on clutter. Thanks to those who left tips and suggestions; they have given me a lot to think about. And a special thank you to Wiley - who'd have thought that a simple vent post could have brought someone out of lurkerdom with such a welcome comment?? I have really enjoyed your blog and look forward to seeing what you can accomplish with the plan you are following.
I feel like I am just coming up for air here. A quick breath at the surface before diving back down again. Between now and tomorrow(it has taken me a week to write this post) I have to mass clean my house, do several more loads of laundry (after the 10 or so I've already done this week), update my website, place a few more client orders, prepare my own order for a doctor's office display and do a massive grocery shopping trip.
Anybody got any coffee???
My Starbucks gift card is almost gone. *sigh*
Anyway, I am slowly trying to declutter. Baby steps. I have pulled all the maternity clothes out of my closet with the exception of a few tops that don't look maternity and everything is stacked up by owner in my bedroom. Jill, I know you want your stuff back so I will figure out a way to get that to you. Carrie - what about your stuff? Did you want it back? I can't remember.
Getting all of that out has freed up the closet a little. I am tempted to put something else in there, but for now I am enjoying the "extra" space. I can actually see my clothes again!
Anyway, it is now Thursday, July 3rd and I am just getting back to this. I have two other half started posts in my blog that I have got to finish. I am going to get back on track with this blog if it kills me!
More to come.
Until,
D :)
Friday, June 27, 2008
Hold On Loosely
For all you baby wearers out there - check out this AWESOME contest!
[ok, don't, because I really want to win]
Seriously, go over there and sign up!
[no really, please don't - I want to win]
So click on the link below!!
[no really, just go eat a cookie. You don't want to enter]
Enter as many times as you can!
[seriously, are you listening to me!?!]
Here is the link!
Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)
Until [I win],
D :)
[ok, don't, because I really want to win]
Seriously, go over there and sign up!
[no really, please don't - I want to win]
So click on the link below!!
[no really, just go eat a cookie. You don't want to enter]
Enter as many times as you can!
[seriously, are you listening to me!?!]
Here is the link!
Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)
Until [I win],
D :)
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Fix You
Ok, another stolen moment here...
I am so incredibly tired of all the "stuff" we have in this house. Being here day in and day out is starting to suffocate me. We keep everything it seems - I simply cannot stay on top of the epic clutter problem we have.
[why is it that Kiddo will leave me alone all day (even if I am sitting at the computer) and the instant I try to blog he is up in my face??]
Anyway, the clutter. Yes, it is taking over our lives. I hate it. I loathe it. I, for some ungodly reason, cannot let go of it.
Well, I do have some reasons. Some of it is laziness. Some of it is not knowing if I need to keep it. Some of it is sentimental, and some of it is the $$ I see going in the garbage. I HATE wasting money. And that is why there is about $200 worth of unused hair product under my bathroom sink. Well, not anymore. I threw it all away yesterday.
So now there is room under the sink, but no one can tell. lol!
Our biggest issue in this house (that I can see) is paper. We have got stacks and stacks and piles and piles of paper. Bills, letters, cards, magazines, books, etc. etc. It can't be good for Hubby's allergies. We have "hot spots" all over the house. (yes, I subscribe to FlyLady - though she annoys me so it's hard to get really into it) The worst two are the kitchen counter and the dining room table. Before I can even blink those two places disappear in the rubble. It is amazing how quickly things pile up.
Another of our troubles is holding on to things. Just things in general - knicknacks and gifts and stuff that just collects dust. We hold on to old computers [cuz someday we might need a part or can build a custom computer - yeah right] and old clothes and shoes and video tapes and cassette tapes and, and, and...it goes on forever.
How I long for a minimalist life. I would love to have a home in which I can actually *see* the furniture.
So, somewhere in my head there is a reason for all this stuff. It all has a purpose. Sure, I can live without about 90% of it, but I have it, I bought it, so now what?
Where do people keep things? Seriously! I was in a good friend's home a few weeks ago and it was spectacular! I mean, there was nothing but nice furniture and minimal, tasteful decorative items. Where was her stuff??? I cannot fathom that she might actually not have stuff, so where was it??
I hate stuff.
Unfortunately, I can't get away from it. I need more of it. Right now I am putting together a shopping list in my head. We need an exersaucer for Port, wet bags for the diaper pail, I am still looking for a carrier (Julia I need to email you)...it never ends.
So yesterday I, like I said, threw away about $200 in old beauty product. Bottles of gel and conditioner and just about every kind of hairspray under the sun, leave-in treatments, shampoo for red heads, old hair dye that never got used, facial scrubs, foot scrubs, goodness there was so much. There was stuff in there I don't even remember buying. I found an entire, unopened box of tampons in a brand I have never used! Where did they come from??!? [by the way I saved those thinking I could find someone who needs them. What brand do you use? Is this a ridiculous question? yes.]
I put stuff in the trash bag as fast as I could and tossed it in the garbage can before I had the time to change my mind. Then I mopped the kitchen floor and scrubbed the master bath sinks to take my mind off of what I had done.
It felt good and painful all at the same time.
I have got to figure out a way to get rid of our stuff. My biggest problem is, I am lazy.
As I also stated earlier, I subscribe to FlyLady. I have for some time now, but after about 2 weeks I started deleting the emails unopened because they got on my nerves and where so overwhelming.
And I refuse to wear shoes in the house.
Anyway, I am scouring her site once again, 4 years later, trying to pick up some helpful hints. But I think the key is going to be...
getting organized and
getting a routine.
A routine?!?!? Gah!
I am so not an organized routine person. Lord help me.
We shall see how this goes.
Anyone have any other helpful suggestions? Organizational tips? Hiding places? I am desperate here. Wanna come to my house and do it for me? Please?
Until,
D :)
Shout out to Coldplay for my title, Fix You
And my Mental Jukebox song for the day, Jewel, Love By You (Cowboy Waltz).
I am so incredibly tired of all the "stuff" we have in this house. Being here day in and day out is starting to suffocate me. We keep everything it seems - I simply cannot stay on top of the epic clutter problem we have.
[why is it that Kiddo will leave me alone all day (even if I am sitting at the computer) and the instant I try to blog he is up in my face??]
Anyway, the clutter. Yes, it is taking over our lives. I hate it. I loathe it. I, for some ungodly reason, cannot let go of it.
Well, I do have some reasons. Some of it is laziness. Some of it is not knowing if I need to keep it. Some of it is sentimental, and some of it is the $$ I see going in the garbage. I HATE wasting money. And that is why there is about $200 worth of unused hair product under my bathroom sink. Well, not anymore. I threw it all away yesterday.
So now there is room under the sink, but no one can tell. lol!
Our biggest issue in this house (that I can see) is paper. We have got stacks and stacks and piles and piles of paper. Bills, letters, cards, magazines, books, etc. etc. It can't be good for Hubby's allergies. We have "hot spots" all over the house. (yes, I subscribe to FlyLady - though she annoys me so it's hard to get really into it) The worst two are the kitchen counter and the dining room table. Before I can even blink those two places disappear in the rubble. It is amazing how quickly things pile up.
Another of our troubles is holding on to things. Just things in general - knicknacks and gifts and stuff that just collects dust. We hold on to old computers [cuz someday we might need a part or can build a custom computer - yeah right] and old clothes and shoes and video tapes and cassette tapes and, and, and...it goes on forever.
How I long for a minimalist life. I would love to have a home in which I can actually *see* the furniture.
So, somewhere in my head there is a reason for all this stuff. It all has a purpose. Sure, I can live without about 90% of it, but I have it, I bought it, so now what?
Where do people keep things? Seriously! I was in a good friend's home a few weeks ago and it was spectacular! I mean, there was nothing but nice furniture and minimal, tasteful decorative items. Where was her stuff??? I cannot fathom that she might actually not have stuff, so where was it??
I hate stuff.
Unfortunately, I can't get away from it. I need more of it. Right now I am putting together a shopping list in my head. We need an exersaucer for Port, wet bags for the diaper pail, I am still looking for a carrier (Julia I need to email you)...it never ends.
So yesterday I, like I said, threw away about $200 in old beauty product. Bottles of gel and conditioner and just about every kind of hairspray under the sun, leave-in treatments, shampoo for red heads, old hair dye that never got used, facial scrubs, foot scrubs, goodness there was so much. There was stuff in there I don't even remember buying. I found an entire, unopened box of tampons in a brand I have never used! Where did they come from??!? [by the way I saved those thinking I could find someone who needs them. What brand do you use? Is this a ridiculous question? yes.]
I put stuff in the trash bag as fast as I could and tossed it in the garbage can before I had the time to change my mind. Then I mopped the kitchen floor and scrubbed the master bath sinks to take my mind off of what I had done.
It felt good and painful all at the same time.
I have got to figure out a way to get rid of our stuff. My biggest problem is, I am lazy.
As I also stated earlier, I subscribe to FlyLady. I have for some time now, but after about 2 weeks I started deleting the emails unopened because they got on my nerves and where so overwhelming.
And I refuse to wear shoes in the house.
Anyway, I am scouring her site once again, 4 years later, trying to pick up some helpful hints. But I think the key is going to be...
getting organized and
getting a routine.
A routine?!?!? Gah!
I am so not an organized routine person. Lord help me.
We shall see how this goes.
Anyone have any other helpful suggestions? Organizational tips? Hiding places? I am desperate here. Wanna come to my house and do it for me? Please?
Until,
D :)
Shout out to Coldplay for my title, Fix You
And my Mental Jukebox song for the day, Jewel, Love By You (Cowboy Waltz).
Friday, June 20, 2008
Don't Fence Me In
I am taking a few stolen moments here to peck out a quick blog. Port is taking his morning nap in the swing [EARLY] because he woke up EARLY instead of doing his usual eat and fall back asleep routine. Kiddo is still sleeping. The cat is howling outside the front door. I would let her in, but it is a cool 72 degrees out right now and she can deal with it for a few more minutes. If I let her in she would just eat a bit then go down the hall to Kiddo's door and howl there till he got up anyway, and I am so not ready for the whole house to be awake yet.
I am sorry I haven't been posting much. I have been lost in the land of editing; computer strapped to my hip. I've been slaying drool and snot and playing with light. I've cured rashes, cuts and bruises, swapped heads and even performed a mouth transplant. It has been one heck of an adventure. And it's not over yet, I still have two more shoots to edit before rest will come.
But it's all good. I love being busy like this.
Though my house is really suffering the consequences.
Have you ever met someone that no matter how much you tried or how much you didn't, you just never could seem to get on their good side - and every time you encountered this person something strange would happen to make you look like an idiot or at the very least rude when in reality you are not a rude person?? (I know that was a terribly long run-on sentence)
A few days ago I was sitting in the living room pumping when the doorbell rang. I don't typically answer the door during the day anyway, so I just ignored it. Besides, I was uh, well, topless and couldn't exactly stop what I was doing to get the door anyway. It had been a long afternoon of trying to get Port down for a nap. He had finally crashed and Kiddo was quietly playing with a puzzle. I didn't want to mess with the delicate balance I had going.
Anyway, a few minutes later I was almost finished pumping and the doorbell rang again. Frustrated, I shut down the pump, unhooked and threw my shirt on haphazardly. I looked out the window at the top of our front door and could only see the poodle curls of quintessential old lady. She was right up at the door, unlike most people who would stand back, and it appeared she wasn't going anywhere until I answered my door. I hastily buttoned up my shirt and after checking to make sure the dog was out in the back yard I opened the door.
She was quite old, a bit shaky and frail, and she clutched her handbag in front of her. With a half smile she introduced herself as one of my back yard neighbors. (I'm sure I've mentioned on here before that we have a ginormous back yard that backs up to about 5 or 6 different houses - so I had no clue which one she lived in. ) She told me that she was about to replace her fence, and that she was wondering about the condition of ours. The last time her fence was replaced they brought the fence line in a few inches and built a new fence next to the old, instead of replacing the shared fence that was in our yard.
We have since replaced several sections of our fence, so I told her that I thought her section was in pretty good shape, but I couldn't be sure because I didn't know which house was hers.
And this is where it all went down hill.
She took a step forward.
And motioned as if she was going to come into my house.
She wanted to go in the back yard and point out her section of fence.
Now, you may be thinking, she's just a little old lady Dawn, what's the big deal??
I know. But here is the deal. Here are the rapid fire thoughts that scorched my brain in about 2 seconds...
While my shirt *is* buttoned, my bra is not fastened.
The house is an absolute disaster. I am seriously afraid she might trip over something and break a hip.
Port has JUST fallen asleep. Sleep people! You know how precious that is!
The dog is out in the back yard. I do not want to be responsible for an excited pit bull jumping up on a frail old lady.
Who the heck invites themselves into a total stranger's house?
Who the heck was this total stranger anyway? And why did she have her purse?
[hanging head in shame]
As she motioned toward the opening of the door, I pushed it toward her, shrinking the opening.
I know, RUDE!
I could not let her in. It didn't matter if she replaced the fence or not. I told her that I had two small children and a dog and the baby was napping. It wasn't a good time, but if she wanted to replace the fence that was fine and if it was in decent shape she could just attach her new section to ours.
The look on her face was well, indescribable.
I could tell she was shocked to be denied entrance to my home. I saw a flash of anger, and confusion; she was insulted.
She shuffled away, muttering something I couldn't decipher, and she encountered Hubby in the driveway on her way out.
I think she only waved.
She came back to the house a couple of nights ago when I was out running an errand. Hubby was much nicer to her than I was. He gave her our phone number, because she wanted to call us when the fence guys arrived, so we could make sure to keep the dog in the house.
They were supposed to come yesterday, but by 4pm they hadn't arrived and she called me.
I tried my darnedest to be overly nice; I used all my good southern manners. Yes Ma'am!
The brief conversation was great; she just wanted to tell me the fence would not be done this week and the guys would call me themselves when they were ready to open up the yard next week.
Then she said "and I am sorry..."
and it sounded like she was going to say something else so I did not respond. There was a long, awkward silence. She was waiting for me to say something like "oh it's no big deal, don't worry about it" you know; all that nice stuff.
And I didn't.
Because my sleep deprived, Photoshop overloaded, screaming kid distracted brain could not decipher what she had just said, and the way it was said led me to think there was more to the statement; so I said nothing.
After the long, awkward silence (did I mention it was long and awkward?) she hastily said goodbye and hung up.
*sigh*
I had done it again! How boneheaded can one person be?!?
I have a feeling I will never win with this woman.
Until,
D :)
I am sorry I haven't been posting much. I have been lost in the land of editing; computer strapped to my hip. I've been slaying drool and snot and playing with light. I've cured rashes, cuts and bruises, swapped heads and even performed a mouth transplant. It has been one heck of an adventure. And it's not over yet, I still have two more shoots to edit before rest will come.
But it's all good. I love being busy like this.
Though my house is really suffering the consequences.
Have you ever met someone that no matter how much you tried or how much you didn't, you just never could seem to get on their good side - and every time you encountered this person something strange would happen to make you look like an idiot or at the very least rude when in reality you are not a rude person?? (I know that was a terribly long run-on sentence)
A few days ago I was sitting in the living room pumping when the doorbell rang. I don't typically answer the door during the day anyway, so I just ignored it. Besides, I was uh, well, topless and couldn't exactly stop what I was doing to get the door anyway. It had been a long afternoon of trying to get Port down for a nap. He had finally crashed and Kiddo was quietly playing with a puzzle. I didn't want to mess with the delicate balance I had going.
Anyway, a few minutes later I was almost finished pumping and the doorbell rang again. Frustrated, I shut down the pump, unhooked and threw my shirt on haphazardly. I looked out the window at the top of our front door and could only see the poodle curls of quintessential old lady. She was right up at the door, unlike most people who would stand back, and it appeared she wasn't going anywhere until I answered my door. I hastily buttoned up my shirt and after checking to make sure the dog was out in the back yard I opened the door.
She was quite old, a bit shaky and frail, and she clutched her handbag in front of her. With a half smile she introduced herself as one of my back yard neighbors. (I'm sure I've mentioned on here before that we have a ginormous back yard that backs up to about 5 or 6 different houses - so I had no clue which one she lived in. ) She told me that she was about to replace her fence, and that she was wondering about the condition of ours. The last time her fence was replaced they brought the fence line in a few inches and built a new fence next to the old, instead of replacing the shared fence that was in our yard.
We have since replaced several sections of our fence, so I told her that I thought her section was in pretty good shape, but I couldn't be sure because I didn't know which house was hers.
And this is where it all went down hill.
She took a step forward.
And motioned as if she was going to come into my house.
She wanted to go in the back yard and point out her section of fence.
Now, you may be thinking, she's just a little old lady Dawn, what's the big deal??
I know. But here is the deal. Here are the rapid fire thoughts that scorched my brain in about 2 seconds...
While my shirt *is* buttoned, my bra is not fastened.
The house is an absolute disaster. I am seriously afraid she might trip over something and break a hip.
Port has JUST fallen asleep. Sleep people! You know how precious that is!
The dog is out in the back yard. I do not want to be responsible for an excited pit bull jumping up on a frail old lady.
Who the heck invites themselves into a total stranger's house?
Who the heck was this total stranger anyway? And why did she have her purse?
[hanging head in shame]
As she motioned toward the opening of the door, I pushed it toward her, shrinking the opening.
I know, RUDE!
I could not let her in. It didn't matter if she replaced the fence or not. I told her that I had two small children and a dog and the baby was napping. It wasn't a good time, but if she wanted to replace the fence that was fine and if it was in decent shape she could just attach her new section to ours.
The look on her face was well, indescribable.
I could tell she was shocked to be denied entrance to my home. I saw a flash of anger, and confusion; she was insulted.
She shuffled away, muttering something I couldn't decipher, and she encountered Hubby in the driveway on her way out.
I think she only waved.
She came back to the house a couple of nights ago when I was out running an errand. Hubby was much nicer to her than I was. He gave her our phone number, because she wanted to call us when the fence guys arrived, so we could make sure to keep the dog in the house.
They were supposed to come yesterday, but by 4pm they hadn't arrived and she called me.
I tried my darnedest to be overly nice; I used all my good southern manners. Yes Ma'am!
The brief conversation was great; she just wanted to tell me the fence would not be done this week and the guys would call me themselves when they were ready to open up the yard next week.
Then she said "and I am sorry..."
and it sounded like she was going to say something else so I did not respond. There was a long, awkward silence. She was waiting for me to say something like "oh it's no big deal, don't worry about it" you know; all that nice stuff.
And I didn't.
Because my sleep deprived, Photoshop overloaded, screaming kid distracted brain could not decipher what she had just said, and the way it was said led me to think there was more to the statement; so I said nothing.
After the long, awkward silence (did I mention it was long and awkward?) she hastily said goodbye and hung up.
*sigh*
I had done it again! How boneheaded can one person be?!?
I have a feeling I will never win with this woman.
Until,
D :)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Amazing Grace
This was passed to me via an email from my mother in law.
It is a beautiful piece of history and praise of God's glory. I encourage you to watch and listen to an amazing performance of Amazing Grace. The video quality is not that great, but the point comes across just the same.
Amazing Grace History/"Amazing Grace" By Wintley Phipps
Until,
D :)
It is a beautiful piece of history and praise of God's glory. I encourage you to watch and listen to an amazing performance of Amazing Grace. The video quality is not that great, but the point comes across just the same.
Amazing Grace History/"Amazing Grace" By Wintley Phipps
Until,
D :)
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