Dismal

Here's what all the slop outside looks like while it rains.

And the poor snowmen from last Friday....losing it...

Kids make me laugh

Conversation tonight:

Mom: Do you know who wrote "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"?

Margaret: No. But I know who wrote "Lyle the Crocodile".

Lists of lists of lists

Yeah, there has been a break in my blog writing. Since anyone that follows my blog probably follows my Facebook, you should all know that I was laid off from Seagate that day after I wrote that last entry.

I have been working on the resume and contact list, but mostly I have been in denial and am finding other things to distract my mind.

I think the biggest thing on my to-do list (this would be the "master" to-do list) is to declutter my memorabilia stashes. I went through one box today and threw over half of it. I hate to mess up the layers too much, because like an archeological dig, I can date items by what I find around them. But to share what a mess I am (and mess is a compliment), in this same box I found...

A list of "10 things I want my Children to Know" (A nice list that I will share with you all someday.)

All my performance appraisals from a period of about 6 to 10 years ago.

Vegetarian recipes (Yeah. I went through that phase. Too hard for me to really commit to. Plus I like ham too much.)

A sheet on "Why do Yoga?"

A packet of bible studies on the Healing stories of Jesus

A note from our ex-next door neighbor that she wrote us shortly after she moved. Um...8 or 9 years ago?

A random airline ticket.

A copy of a magazine with a cover article about laughter at work.

Father's Day cards from kids to Charlie from about 4 or 5 years ago.

And the funniest thing ever... It is a list of scrapbook projects. I made the list on August 18th, 2003. I know because I dated the list. And I dated the date I made a revision..., January 27th, 2004. On it I have 16 albums listed that I wanted to complete. For each album there is an entry for each of these items:

% done, Album type, complete goal, and then an empty column where I hand wrote status. I even crossed out due dates and put in new due dates. You know...so I could see the due dates "slip". Just like a project at work. It is freakin' hilarious funny.

I remember when I ran my entire life like that. Things went smoother. I think I felt less overwhelmed. But I don't think I can go back. It just made me giggle. Giggle. Giggle.

Of the 16 albums on this list, I have completed 4. (not so bad) Four that I still haven't completed are the "missing years" of my life right after Margaret was born and I did not handle life with 2 kids so well. Two incomplete are the kid's baby books. I only have ever done a cover page for each. I may as well punt on those. Two are heritage type albums that I will still do someday. I have punted on the rest of the projects...mostly vacation albums. Those don't make much sense if you do them 6 years after the vacation is over.



OK. Back to serious job hunting, but I am vowing to get through at least one pile of this stuff every day. Hopefully I'll be starting a new job before I get all the way through them, but it would also be nice to be done with them. I just won't wish for being out of work that long, ok?

A leprechaun story

Here's a repeat story from my blog. Amelia is now in 5th grade, so this is almost 4 years old! (I know, I'm so popular I get to repeat greatest hits. Well...this is one of my favorites. I am cleaning out some files and found it again, so I thought I'd share...enjoy!)


I was getting Amelia (my 1st grader) ready for school this morning and she
asked me to help her get dressed. I picked out jeans, a white shirt
and a green cardigan (for St. Pat's day).

She proceded to tell me that she needed green EVERYTHING. So I picked
out Green pants.

"No mommy, I need a green shirt, too!"

After much searching for a green shirt...

"But mommy, I need green underwear and green socks and shoes, too"

"But honey, we don't have any green socks or shoes. (I had found the
green "days of the week" underwear by this time, that she refuses to
wear any other day because she doesn't like the way they look)"

"But mommy, if I'm not wearing all green my Leprechaun will PINCH me!"

"Pinch you? I don't think your Leprechaun will pinch you if you don't
have green socks. He won't even see them!"

"No mommy. He'll pinch my toes! I don't want Max to pinch my toes"

"Who's Max?"

(looking at me, quite exasperated by this time) "MY LEPRECHAUN!"

"Oh. I didn't know you had your own leprechaun."

By this time I am darn glad I am a resourcful mom with lots of craft items at
my fingertips. I drew shamrocks on her socks with a pigment marker
and tied green ribbons around her shoes.

So she looks at me with her big smile and asks, "There mommy, how do
I look?"

I replied "Good enough to pinch"

She sure gave me a look for that comment! (lol)



Then she started on her 4 year old sister, who was very happy that I had
let her wear a pretty dress, tights, and the shoes with the hearts on
them. "Margaret, you're not wearing green! Your leprechaun is going
to pinch you!"

I was quite distressed at this comment as we were already running
late and I had no idea how I would produce another set of green
clothes.

Margaret saved the day. Her reply? "I'm too pretty to pinch. My
leprechaun is going to DANCE with me!"


Have a Happy St. Pat's Day...no matter your background! And if your
leprechaun asks you to dance, make sure you say yes!

I voted!

Wow. I need a haircut. It's a fuzzy mess...

If you give a kid a paintbrush....

In a follow-on to my popular "If you give a kid a trophy...". They helped us put the sealant on the deck this past weekend.

Also occuring.. "If you give a kid a screwdriver". We got help putting together an 8 drawer IKEA dresser. I think the younger kid actually figured out how to put one all together by the time we got to #8. No pictures on that one, but I can tell you... after IKEA and deck staining, my arm and shoulder are sore, sore, sore...

Barns

I'm from Wisconsin. My mom grew up on a farm, but I did not. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for barns. Red barns. With a silo nearby. While driving home from Michigan last week, we drove all the way across Wisconsin (northern...not southern where I am from) on Hwy 29. We passed many wonderful barns. I didn't make Charlie stop the car...I took all of these from the car traveling at 65 miles per hour down the road.
I really love barns; I really do.

Lunchtime Adventure...

I went to Michael's at lunch today because I wanted to get scalloped scissors (Yes, my vast extension of decorative scissors did not include a basic round scallop) and some small number stamps (about 1/2" tall).

I was crabby about buying number stamps because I know I used to have some. I must have sold them during my extensive purging. But I have several calendar projects to do and really wanted stamped numbers. Well... I was able to use my 40% off coupon so they only cost me $3.50, and the scissors were only $1.99.

What else did I get for my $6 Michaels trip? Well... a check out lady named JoAnn (I loved that! Made me smile) and when I got back to work I got to park next to....get this...a Hummer.

I thought Hummers were conspicuous consumption and pretty stupid at $2/gallon. Now at $4? Wow. I think they get 2 miles to the gallon. In fact, I read once (3 or more years ago) that in a customer satisfaction survey, the #1 complaint of Hummer owners was gas mileage. Hello?!? Were you paying attention when you bought it? Anyway, I always smile when I see the Hummer in the parking lot. It just seems silly.

Signs of spring

Hopscotch drawn on the sidewalks and driveway.
Street sweepers out cleaning up the sand and winter debris.
The orange cone out in the alley. (To warn drivers that kids are playing nearby)
Bike helmets by the back door.
Walking outside at lunch.
Motorcycles.
Going to the park after supper.

Ahhhhh.

When I grow up...

I need to interrupt (what was going to be) continuing ramblings on vacation to record a great coversation I had with Amelia last night. She is in 4th grade.

A: "Mom. Did you take one of those tests to tell you want you wanted to be when you grow up?"
M: "Yes. But not until 10th grade."
A: "So that's high school, right"
M: "Yes. High School"
(By the way, smary pants Margaret interjects at this point "Aptitude test".)

A: "I can't decide if I want to be a musician, a veterinarian, a weather forecaster, an on-screen meteorologist, or a storm chaser when I grow up"
M: "Well, you have a lot of time to decide. Some people even change their minds after college."
A: "Well, I don't want to be a hurricane expert. That's scary."
M: "Maybe you can be a veterinarian in Kansas and be a storm chaser."
A: "Yeah. Maybe I can combine all of them. That would be a perfect job. I wonder what I would need to study in college."

and so on...

You know what I love about this conversation? The realization that just maybe I am giving my kids the gift my parents gave me. The expectation that going to college is just "how it's done." My Gram Shaler was a smart cookie.. she wished she had been able to go to college. So was Grandpa Anderson. He had a scholarship to go to college and had to turn it down because his father died and he needed to run the family farm. But all of Grandpa's children who wanted to go to college, did. That included my mom for 2 years (Luther College in Decorah!), My dad went two years to Rochester Junior College. Growing up, there was no talk other than.. "when I go to college". I didn't think much of it then, but now I realize what a gift that was. Not that you have to go to college to lead a great life, I realize that. But I'm glad that the seeds are growing in their little brains that college is the normal thing you do after high school. Makes me happy.

What I found today...

I was digging clothes boxes out of my closet today, getting out all the summer clothes so we can try on and pack for San Diego.

I found a box of shorts from before the girls were born. Early to mid 90s. High waisted, pleats, about 4 inches above the knee, cuffs, large diameter legs. I tried every single one of them on and they all fit. And then I put them in the donate box, because they are hopelessly out of style.

I did keep 2 pairs of blue jeans. They are a bit high waisted and narrow, narrow legs, but they are cozy and they make my butt look great.

I had cleaned out boxes of clothes several years ago and had given away all the 14s in despair that they would ever fit. I guess finding this box was a nice little gift to myself... I didn't want to keep them, but if I wanted to, I could have... and WORN them.. :-)

I took this picture a month or so ago to celebrate my purchase of size 12 pants. I can't remember if it was ever posted here on my blog, but it goes great with this subject.

Wrinkles

OK. I have never characterized myself as an incredibly vain person. Not high maintenance. Don't even bother with make-up most days. But wow, the wrinkles around my eyes are quite prominent. I think the glasses are magnifying them. Yeah. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

No more close up shots of the face for me. and I think I'm going to go moisturize..

Layout a Day. The end.

Page 50 for the month...right here...



OK, I have officially uploaded #31 in the Big Picture Gallery (and here). I did a total of 50 pages this month. I am almost embarrassed to say that the page I uploaded each day was actually done on that day. A few may have been started the day before, but the bulk of the page and the completion of each page was done on the day it was uploaded. I have indeed scrapped every day for 31 days straight.

What did I learn?

I am a little OCD about things like goals. Once I got in my head that I was doing this, I couldn't stop.

"You are Perfect Just the way you Create!" Well...you know how I create? Chronologically. Acid-Free. Mostly Non-lumpy. Non-whimsically. And that's the way I am. I don't think that is going to change. And I don't have to be artsy or eccentric or wild to be "perfect". I can be old-fashioned and boring and still be great at scrapbooking!

I use a lot of brown and distressed papers. Brown layouts don't look as nice online as bright ones. 'Tis the truth. And brown layouts got me very, very down. You will notice I ended the month with several bright, non-distressed, real white on them, pages. I needed that. I will go back to brown eventually.

I have a lot of great stuff in my stash. I was guilty about having so much. Well, you know what? I reach into all corners of it. I may never use it all, but I will use all types of it. Nothing is sitting idle, lonely in a corner collecting spiderwebs. If it does, I will get rid of it. If I love it and even might use it? I will keep it. Heck. I already own it and have room for it.

To scrapbook every day you need to ignore your family some. My kids watched too much TV this month. That is why I won't do this again. I am not happy with the amount of time I spent scrapping instead of with my kids. There was some coolness in saying right after dinner, "OK. I have to go make my page now." They expect it now. Even more than ever now, I want to carve out 6:30- 8:00 each evening as family time. No TV. No computer. No scrapping (unless we are all doing it together). Read together, play together.

And one should ever underestimate the power of a community with support, prayers, cyberhugs, ideas to scraplift, and praise. (Oh... and a store) I have really enjoyed being a part of TallyScrapper for the past 7 months and I love it there. Come join us if you haven't already!!!

An Ordinary Life

I don't think I ever posted this before. This is the text of a speech I delivered at my Toastmaster's club back in July of 2007. I won "best speech of the quarter" for this speech. I have edited it a bit to make sense for this blog.

I am sharing it now because I have been thinking about a word to choose for this year... for an Art Journal and just for meditation in general. I have chosen the word "Today", and the text below explains the reason for this word.


____________________________


I remember visiting my Grandma once when she was about, oh I would guess, 98 years old. She invited me to join her in Butter Brickle Ice Cream and Dad’s Root Beer. We sat around and watched the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour, eating our ice cream. I remember her commenting on how she was sad that other people in the apartment gave up on current events, and how they made her “so mad” because she was sure they were “liberals”. And I remember thinking it odd that a 98 year old woman would keep Ice Cream and Root Beer in her kitchen. But looking back, I remember that my Grandma was an extraordinary person.

Sure, living to 103 is pretty extraordinary, as is living in your own place until you’re 99. But what was so extraordinary about my gram was how ordinary she was. She wasn’t the first woman to fly a plane or find a cure for cancer. She didn’t lobby against societal wrongs or volunteer to teach kids to read. What Gram did was teach me (and all her Grandchildren) to knit and fry eggs. She taught me how to do laundry and play Canasta. I remember her telling me that she would not play Canasta with me any longer if I kept getting upset when I lost. Gram was a pretty normal down to earth person, just what you would expect for someone born in 1895. Yet she was extra ordinary.

I have an extraordinary friend struggling with Cancer. Yet she strives to live every day as normally as possible. Her cancer is part of her life right now. Last Hallowe’en when she had no hair, she dressed up like Uncle Fester. Complete with the light bulb. When she was re-diagnosed for the second time recently, she said “Some people say to live every day like it is your last. I say, Live every day like it is the first one in the rest of your life.” I thought many months about what she meant, other than the obvious thought that she didn’t want today to be her last.

I now realize that what she was saying was that it’s not the extraordinary things we do that make our lives what they are, it is the ordinary things.

Some of you may have noticed I have lost some weight over the last year. I get a lot of questions about how I did it. I have trouble answering that question. Yeah, I go to WeightWatchers, but anything extraordinary? Nope. It wasn’t Thanksgiving dinner that did me in; I had put the weight on through ordinary, day to day eating. So the best way to take it off? Day-in day-out eating better and moving more. The actual means to weight loss was nothing extraordinary in itself, but overall I’d say the results are extraordinary.

Dag Hammarskjold wrote the following in his book “Markers”. "The great commitment is so much easier than the ordinary, every day one”. Mr. Hammarskjold was the secretary general of the UN from 1953 to 1961. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961. One could dare say he lead an extraordinary life. Yet he knew the importance of the ordinary.

And I’m glad that ordinary can be extra ordinary. I strive for ordinary experiences for my family. This past week I have been to the wading pool 3 or 4 times. I have played Monopoly with my kids. I had to tell my daughter I wouldn’t play with her anymore if she pouted when she lost. I read them books and told them stories. I have eaten Ice Cream and drank Root Beer. I have charged my girls to clean off the table and make their beds. My charge to you? Infuse your life with a sense of extraordinary in the ordinary.

And maybe even teach your kids to play Canasta tonight.

Please don't say five minutes...

Yesterday my daughter asked me, "Mom, how long until supper is ready? And please DON'T say 5 minutes." (She was really hungry).

Methinks I use the term "5 minutes" a bit too liberally around her, and she has figured out that 5 minutes is not 5 minutes.

Reminds me of the discussion between her and Margaret about the answer "maybe".

"When mom says "maybe" that means yes. When dad says "maybe" that means no."

Our kids know us better than we know ourselves sometimes.

Now where did Linda put that?

I have been blessed to be able to afford and to find a house cleaner. We do try to pick up before she comes so she can focus on cleaning and not neatening. But she obviously does need to move some stuff around.

As a result of this, we have a new tagline in the house. That line is "Now where did Linda put that?" Instead of blaming our own laziness, memory, or messiness when we can't find something, we just "blame" the housecleaner.

Of course none of this is actually due to her (and I remind the kids of that), but it's kind of funny to say so. (We did have one thing the first week we couldn't find that I had to call her up to find it. That was the ONLY time, but I guess they remember that time.) And that item was part of my daughter's Halloween costume. That she LOST when she went trick or treating. How ironic.

Parenting Chicken

I have coined what I think is a new term... "Parenting Chicken". I discovered it because my husband has been out of town a few times this fall. I have discovered I seem to have evenings that are in more control when he is gone. I think I have discovered the reason.

I think we play parenting chicken sometimes. You know, you have done it I'm sure. You hear the kids do something they shouldn't. Or you see toys that have been left out. When home alone, you know YOU have to deal with it. So you do.

When the spouse is home? Hmmm. Maybe he'll deal with it. I'll just ignore that for now. Of course, he is dong the same thing. And things spiral out of control.

Yep. Chicken. I usually lose.

(Oh, and if you don't have kids, you can do the same with household chores. I always lose the bathroom battle on that one.)

My computer knows more about me than I do

Sunday I had a bit of a mishap with my computer. I'm not sure who pushed which buttons when or in what order, but my computer decided to "restore" itself to the factory shipped state. Which is thankfully different than having the hard drive re-formatted. But a pain nonetheless.

I am having to re-install most of the programs I installed since getting my computer. And I have had to un-install most of the crap and trial programs that came with the computer.

For many software packages, this means checking your account on their website, or checking your e-mail for some key, since there are very few install CDs sent out anymore.

Do you know how many different passwords you have? I don't. I have had to request so many new passwords, and change so many passwords, and rifle through papers for information to restore everything to its previous state (which wasn't perfect, but at least I knew where everything was).

When I think about that too much, I worry. How many websites know how many things about me that I don't even remember anymore? It's mind boggling.

I'm lucky that at work we have single-use sign-on (or whatever it's called). I sign into my account and every program that is web-based uses that same password. It works nicely at work because of firewalls and security and all that. I hope the outside world never comes to that, because then surely my computer would know more about me than I do.

Which I fear may already be the case.

You do enough of these and eventually one of them pegs you straight on.

Here's my "color" profile. Thanks to Nicole for the link. If you don't know me, I can tell you I think this describes me pretty well. As for the color? Love it.

you are seagreen #2E8B57

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

This makes me happy...

Here are my new ribbon jars and pink clock from IKEA. I do have more ribbons than shown in these jars, but I hope having them on the shelf above my desk will encourage me to use them!!




Also, I missed out on posting Halloween pictures. Here are a few...
Margaret is (obviously) a witch. I called her my princess witch, because she had PLANNED to be a princess for the FOURTH year in a row. Until she saw this costume. It's kind of pretty like a princess costume...but black. Hence, princess witch.


Amelia is Betsy Ross. She really loves to pretend to be characters from books she has read and is all over non-fiction (i.e. real people) so she was drawn to this costume right away.



And here's one from Margaret's Brownie Halloween party. She is doing the eat the donut off the string thing.