i guess i blew my big chance…

Read Full Post »

making progress…

Read Full Post »

ambitious or a glutton for punishment…

Remember when you were in school and you let that huge project go to the last minute because you were sure that you worked better underpressure? Or was it just me that did dumb stuff like that? Well, i’m back at it…

My girlfriend Bridget is coming with her two kids and her husband Paul in a couple weeks. It’s a BIG DEAL because Paul can never get away from work. He has never been up to visit us and Bridget last came when we were building our house. Tim and I have been busy making up for last years distractions with lots of landscaping projects, so the inside of the house has been off our radar. However, earlier this year I did get about half the basement set up for the kids to play and watch VHS movies. They love having their own space and I am happy to have the majority of the toys out of the livingroom.

So Friday I got to thinking that I really needed to get the otherside, “mom’s side” of the basement cleaned up so that I could let people go down there and maybe even have my kid sleep down there so Bridget and her family could take over Anna’s room. It took the entire weekend to get myself ready for it, but today I went down to clean the basement.

For my entire childhood I remember Aunt Collen’s answer to, “what are you doing this summer?” as “cleaning the basement.” Back then I wondered what the big thing was – I mean just clean it and then keep it clean – like duh –

Yea, like I so get it now — how do you clean something and keep it clean when you have four other people working against you at all times – it’s as futile as the laundry. But alas I am up for the challenge – or at least I was this morning when I sprung out of bed and began moving EVERTHING that was on my side of the basement into the garage. I saw it done this way on one of the cable show that mom watches all the time. Of course the show has a huge team of people doing the work and I have the occasional help of three children under six, but who’s keeping track?

Needless to say it was a long day and I have muscles all over the place that hurt. I was on my fourhundreth trip up the stairs tonight when I announced that this should be doing great things for my butt. Tim agreed until he remembered that he was supposed to say, “your butt was great before you started this.” Yea – thanks. So now I have Christmas re-organized and back down there and the rest of it has to be cleaned up by Thursday so that I can start cleaning the actual house. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report when I hope to be able to open the garage door again… and no I’m not kidding, but I am still laughing for now 🙂 Ask me again when I have to pull an “all nighter” to get it done before they pull in the driveway…

Read Full Post »

the hills are alive…

Fine Mom- I’ll stop worring about it …

So perhaps you’d like to hear a couple funny thing that happened here yesterday….

First, and I will most likely have to write more about this, I am the proud owner of a clothes line. Don’t laugh. I really wanted a clothes line since Tim and I moved from 95th street in Wauwatosa. There is something so grounding about walking outside where the kids are playing to hang the clothes… I know it’s kind of quirky, but it makes me happy… Anyway yesterday there were storms that thought about blowing by my neck of the woods. I say “thought” because by the time they go here they were nothing but a few drips and an unintimidating burp of thunder – be that as it may it was enough to round up the troops and run outside to snatch our freshly dried cothes off the line. We had a very efficient assmebly line going as we worked like army ants to save our laundry. And even thought there was hardly enough rain to justify the excitment, when Tim came home from work I was all excited to report that I had my first clothes line – rain emergency.

Also yesterday I was cleaning and found a whistle left over from my early life guarding days. Pretty impressive that I still have that  – hey? So, just for fun I blew it to see what the kids would do… Grace cried – no suprise there – acting startled is one of her best talents – just ask my mom who is always careful to never yell around the baby 🙂 But here is the great part, the other three came running from all corners of the house and without saying a word lined up in front of me, in order of age, and waited for me to impart some kind of very important instruction. It was like a scene out of the sound of music and no, they have’t seen that movie since forever ago. I told them how impressed I was and suggested that they could clean up the livingroom if they really wanted something to do… Cole was not all too happy with me when he found out there was no real emergency, decided it was a good time to tell his mother about the “boy who called wolf.” Hmmm – I guess it’s the sourt of thing that’s only fun once, but I may just have to check it out again….

So today we are off for lunch in the park, a quick swim in the wading pool, and Cole has a tennis lesson. We should be home just in time to watch the afternoon storm reports. Cole will be happy about that as he loves a good weather report… can you say Cousin Katie?

Happy Day to All… 

T

Read Full Post »

gotta get happy therapy

I’m just thinking out loud here, but let’s see if there is a lesson in the events of the last few days. Why pay a doctor when blog therapy is free…

 

Think of three people that are really happy. I’ve got my three and here is what I think they each have in common:

 First they have a healthy sense of self — they know who they are. Each of my people are unique, sometimes quirky people, who embrace their right to be happy. They are the reason that happiness is associated with fresh air and sunshine. None of my people are excuse makers. They may give a reason for why something has or hasn’t happened, but it’s just that – a reason. They don’t hide behind all kinds of sad stories of woe and victimization. Alright, I’m on a roll here… each of these people are happy when the people around them are happy. They clearly live with the understanding that there is lots of happiness to go around and that they don’t have to compete with others in order to hang on to their portion of happiness.Finally, the people that I am thinking of enjoy other people. They have lots of friends that really love them. They are good listeners and they want to be of value to the people around them. Oh, and here is something else that could be important… they all expect the best from the people around them. So how does this relate to the last few days? Well… I have a person who is NOT happy. I’m not going to get into who it might be, but you will have to trust me she is just never happy. Looking at the above list I can honestly say that she is the exact opposite of all the things above. So a while back I decide that it was not healthy for me to have this person in my life, however for reasons that can’t be helped she is, to some extent, back. And of course letting her in even just a little bit has wreaked havoc on my psyche. I have had a head ach for days and it gets worse every time I have to be made aware of something that involves her. She is playing all kinds of games, telling lies, and then sending e-mails with lists of all the reason that others should feel sorry for her. Honestly it’s just too much and I am feeling forced to go back to my original plan – it’s just not healthy to have her in my life. When she is around I am just not good at being happy and I really want to be like the people that I have been thinking about above. I want to be happy. My husband, my kids, and I deserve for me to feel and be happy. However knowing that and actually doing what needs to be done are two different things. But as the therapist that I have seen on TV say, “That’s good progress for now and we will have to continue to explore this at the next visit.” Good thing I’m not paying for this – hey? 

Read Full Post »