LOL..throw it away!

My friend Stacy, was talking on her blog about her emotional attachment to her “things”.  I wasn’t born with that gene.  I hired a dumpster last spring to make the *stuff* go away and was really heartbroken when it wasnt filled to overflowing when it got towed away!  I have my messy zones…the junk drawer from hell and surrounding landing space of a countertop.  As long as I can keep the mess there then I’m sorta okay!  I am the girl who, when my mom was living with us, labeled every closet shelf and dresser about what should go in each!   I must say though since I went back to work and back to school and do cub scouts, boy scouts, taekwondo and climbing team my boundaries have been a little more relaxed, but I know I had to run the dishwasher, bleach the toilet, scrub the bathroom sink, take out the trash, vacuum and mop the floors before she came over today!  Not that she would judge, but my freaky OCD kicked in..”MUSTHAVECANDLEBURNINGINBATHROOMDONTGOINGABESROOMHESA TEENAGERCLOSETHEFREAKINGDOOR” and I felt guilty that I didnt scoop the catbox.  Stacy would laugh because I’m like attachment to clothes…I have none!  Shoes are another story, but I culled the shoe stash because of my foot surgery to things I can wear and things I might reasonably wear in the future, but things that have no hope because they never fit went to a better place. I guess we all have our emotional hot spots…mine are places!  Bloomington Indiana, Colorado, my parents farm…but the stuff has to go!

 

Wow…I’m wordy tonight!

So, this has nothing to do with my previous post, but I’m interested in your input!  The other day, I was shopping at my local big box store when I came across a couple dressed appropriately for ohhhh, 1880 or so.  Amused, I took an anonymous picture of these two and posted it on my Facebook page.  What I didn’t expect was to be called a bully and mean and several other choice words by other FB members.  I was amused that was all.

So, my question is, as it came up by several people who don’t necessarily fit the social norm as far as how they dress etc…If you choose to look so far out of the societal norm, is it wrong for other people to be taken aback, to stop and stare or whatnot.  My belief is that if you decide to wear dessert plates in your ears or have rainbow colored hair or devil horns implanted in your forehead, you are asking for attention.  Good bad or otherwise, and if you choose to express yourself like that, then don’t be offended when people stop and stare.

I, for one, am a little quirky.  I have piercings, a tattoo, had pink hair last summer and regularly go to the grocery store in my TKD uniform, where I’m sure people question my fashion choices and I’m okay with that!  You can even take my picture and I’ll 360 back kick your cousin Bubba (after he has signed a waiver) for your YouTube video if you really want because it’s not often you run into a 40 something librarian with multiple piercings, tattoo and interesting hair wearing a taekwondo uniform at the Price Chopper!

I think the spell has been broken….

I’ve been busy!  I mean really really busy!  I went back to work 4 years ago and then decided to get my Master’s Degree in Library Science while also pursuing my taekwondo black belt and shepherding my little group of cub scouts.  Needless to say, my schedule has not allowed time for lampworking…my love!

 

It’s summer now and I finally have gotten past some blocks that have also dampened my spirit in the creative field and it’s like riding a bike, but one with training wheels.  I feel like I have lost my chops.  Things that were so easy 4 years ago are hard….remembering different techniques is somewhat slow going, but it is going.  The kiln has been fired up several days in a row.  Even though tonight was a failure in my eyes because I’m used to making beads to make money, not necessarily for the joy of it, I took some joy from my failure and am working to get over my idea that everything I make needs to be sell able.  We don’t have to depend on my lampworking for the extra income, so now I have the chance to push myself more creatively and I think that is just what I need!

 

I Run on SueTime…..

Sleeping in this morning was a wonderful thing, but it got me to thinking about how I run on a totally different time than most everyone else! Coworkers and friends will say how they slept in until 7 or 8 am and they just can’t sleep any longer and I must look at them with some bizarre and confused look as I’m happily and deeeeeeply asleep at 7 or 8 am if I don’t have to be at work!

I’m nocturnal….I always have been. I remember living on Lakeshore Drive and my room was on the third floor of our house. It was a fantastic room with windows on two sides looking out over Lake Decatur. I remember being very little like 3 or 4 and the whole house would be quiet and asleep and I’d be wide awake, watching the teenagers next door trying to sneak in without waking up their parents, watching the traffic on the William Street bridge, just simply watching the moonlight flicker over the waves on the water. It was peaceful and I could just sit there for hours while the rest of the family was soundly sleeping. Such began my foray into the night….

I have read all the books about good sleep and good sleep hygiene. I know one’s body needs a certain amount of sleep to repair and refresh itself. It’s just that my normal sleep cycle is way different than most everyone else. My perfect time to sleep is somewhere between 2 am and 10 am. I’m forced by the constraints of my job and well quite frankly my children to conform to a different more conventional schedule, but my body doesn’t like it! In a perfect world, I would work from 12 until 7 or 8, but the school system doesn’t really care about what’s best for me! My family, who all have the amazing ability to go to bed at 9 or 10 at night and be asleep within seconds, don’t understand my need for solitude and time for reflection at night. My best thinking happens after 9 at night. I’m most creative after 9 at night, but that gives me few precious hours to think, to create, to ponder, before I have to force myself to go to bed and get up for work the next day! I’ve tried dialing back when I go to bed and I’ve set a schedule to get up in the morning and still…it is what it is….I’m a night owl and it’s okay with me! Now if only I could get my children to stop poking me in the shoulder on the few days I get to run on SueTime and remind me that “Mom, it’s 8:30….mom, it’s 9….mom, it’s 10:15” I’ll get up when I’m ready!

Springtime in Blue Springs

So a little bit about my adopted city…it isn’t blue and there are no springs.  Well there is that weird sculpture by the interstate that is supposed to represent “blue springs”, but I digress….

One of the wonderful things about where I live are the parks and outdoor activities that are available.  We have a wonderful bike trails, a new lake with hiking trails that is about a 5 minute walk from my home, parks galore!  The parks and rec department really does a stellar job at providing opportunities for children and adults alike to experience new sports and activities!  It is also a 20 minute drive from downtown Kansas City when I need to get out of the suburbs and visit an art museum or the river market.  The best of both worlds really!

The downside of this great place to live…the trees.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not like the Onceler.  I love trees.  They give us shade and clean our air.  Wonderfully majestic things…the trees.  However, my nose feels differently about the trees this time of year!  All at once every tree sprung forth with beautiful flowers and leaves and one day I could breathe and now I cannot.

 

Nice isn’t it?  Pollen galore…mulberry pollen to be specific…what am I allergic to?  Why, yes among many other types of trees, but mulberry happens to be one of the worst!

Achoo!  Now could someone pass the tissues????

Beef…it’s what’s for dinner!

Beef stroganoff that is!  I have been super lax about writing, so one of my resolutions was to try and write more frequently this year.  Not just homework writing, but writing for fun!

So let’s talk about dinner!  It’s beef stroganoff night and I can’t wait!  I don’t really follow a traditional recipe, but I do brown up some lean ground beef, an onion, and big package of button mushrooms and boil up some noodles.  I mix a little half and half and some sour cream into the beef with a ton of cracked black pepper.  None of that preground crap from a can either!  It must be fresh cracked black pepper and some freshly ground sea salt.  I’m currently in love with this pink salt from the Himalaya’s.  It’s pink and yummy!  Oh and I toss in a splash of worcestershire sauce too!

 

Now if King, James would get home…we could all eat!

Scout Camp…it’s not for the faint of heart!

I’m sure that I must have been somehow impaired when I thought it would be fun to go to Cub Scout day camp with my two boys and 7 other scouts from our pack.  I’m not sure where the wires went crossed, or I drove that bus off in the ditch, but I managed to not only volunteer myself for 5 days, but also my DH.  Fortunately for him, work has prevailed and I’ve been on my own with 2 other parents.  While they are nice and are doing a good job of keeping the kiddos in line, what I was not prepared for was the OTHER people at camp.  Our kids are fairly well behaved, polite, well mannered kids!  Some are not and the real kicker is the other leaders, leaders who are responsible and in charge of these kids do not correct or instruct their charges in any way whatsoever.  For example, today I helped about 20 kids tie-dye t-shirts, I read the story of William Tell to 24 other kids, I played kickball with 30 kids, helped fold the US flag with another 15 and called home for one child who needed Mom to bring a fresh change of clothes.

Now remember…I and two other people are in charge of 9 children.  Where may you ask are the other pack leaders?  Why, they are sitting in their fold out chairs under sun umbrellas while complaining about the heat!  I’ll tell you about the heat….I stood in the middle of a kickball field for over an hour cheering on YOUR kids!  In 90 degree heat at NOON!  That, I tell you is HOT!  Just like the temperature under my collar!

My Mama Came to Visit, but She Didn’t Ever Leave

So, my mom is here for the winter.

I should win an award for Best Daughter Evah!

I shouldn’t feel guilty for not being:

1. smarter

2. neater

3. more of a go getter

4. a better mom

5. a better wife

6. a better cook

7. a better housekeeper

8. a better driver

9. a better cook

10. a better person

I love my mother dearly, but we are like oil and water, like Felix and Oscar, like night and day!

She loves all things traditional.  McDonalds, spaghetti from a box, frozen pizza, Walmart, American made cars

I and the rest of my family loves, Chinese food, meatless days,  salad with free range chicken, recycling, Target and Hyundai.

For God’s sake, I keep over 1000 earthworms in the laundry room to eat all of our vegetable waste.

My mom’s idea of a veg is mashed potatoes with butter  and cream cheese EVERY NIGHT!

I think I am need to find a good therapist because the day we return to work/school is very far away!

Karate Mom

Last spring a local Tae Kwan Do gym came to one of the schools that I work at and for 3 days the kids jumped and kicked and punched and blocked.  An unexpected side effect of supervising (and participating) the kids for 6 classes a day was that I secretly wanted to take Tae Kwan Do also!  So, in an effort to live vicariously through my kids, I signed them up for the 8 week summer program and at the end of the 8 weeks they begged to continue and I secretly smiled to myself!

I enrolled the kids for 6 months of classes and to my delight, if you have two students enrolled then the rest of the family can attend at no extra charge!  Of course I signed James and myself up and proudly carried out sparkling white uniforms and belts to the car!

This leads us all to lesson number one!  I am the first to admit that I need to get in shape.  I need to lose 40 lbs and get my cholesterol down, but since I was able to jog 3-4 miles on the treadmill at the gym and lift pretty heavy weights, I felt like class wouldn’t be too bad .  Until, our instructor ( an Olympic silver medalist) said “okay for warm ups, I want you to do 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, 10 jumping  jacks and 10 squats…do that 10 times”.  My mind boggled, my head spun, my jaw hit the floor.  Was she aware that that was 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 jumping  jacks and 100 squats?  Surely I must have heard incorrectly,  until the rest of the class got to work and were now on the floor yelling 1 ma’am, 2 ma’am, 3 ma’am and so on through the whole rotation and the THEY STARTED ALL OVER!!!!!

I don’t remember the rest of the class, just that it was a sweaty, hot and painful blur!  However, I lived, I went back and maybe I’ll one day tell the story about the jumping round kick that has given me a fairly painful limp!  I’m not giving up though….just slather on some Ben Gay and I’m going to keep on kicking and punching my way to a higher belt level!

Crunchy Granola or Just Crunchy?

Okay okay, I know I’ve been a slacker, but seriously I’ve had a lot on my plate!  Now that summer school has ended and the regular school year has yet to start, I thought it the perfect time to once again strive for better health,  and a more efficient, less wasteful, more green household!

Now, this is an ongoing goal of mine…ever since I was nine and discovered both Little House on the Prairie and swiped my mom’s copy of Practical Homesteading, I have envisioned myself as a crunchy granola earth mama who makes her own soap, grows all of the family vegetables in her wonderfully fruitful and organic garden, while conserving water, raising chickens and baking all of the family bread in a solar oven.  That’s about where my organic daydream ends.  In reality, this is my garden:

Not so productive is it?  Here is my soap:

Okay fine, it ‘s not handmade, but I did have to drive all the way to the health food store to buy it.  I guess on second thought that wasn’t very environmentally friendly now was it?  Here is my organic chicken:

Wow, I’m really off base aren’t I?  He may not be a chicken, but he is quite kind and friendly, that should count for something!

I won’t even go into the times I’ve been determined to bake my own bread only to wind up baking something more suitable for building a barn or hut in the backyard.  I probably shouldn’t mention how just this morning, I couldn’t locate a funk in my kitchen only to find on deeper inspection that I had forgotten about the sprouts I was sprouting in the cabinet.  Do you know what overcooked broccoli smells like?  Sulfurous and rotten,  well that’s what broccoli sprouts smell like after you have forgotten them for 3 or 4 days.  Mmmmmmm tasty!  I suppose I shouldn’t really discuss last night’s dinner of baked teriyaki tofu with cauliflower rice and steamed veggies.  My children ran screaming from the table and even the cat hmmmmphed at me in disgust!

Some days I think it is all for naught, but then my new issue of Mother Earth News arrives in the mail and I settle down to read it with a glass of sun tea with agave juice in my hand it all is well and good in the world again!