Mondays should be banned

I am embarassed that it has been so long since I visited this page. Don't know exactly what happened that caused me to neglect my blog for almost a month. It is down right humbling that I would start out with such great expectations and fumble the ball.
It's like I have had a month of Mondays. Days when either I am so busy the thought of sitting down for a few minutes and actually writing instead of pushing the mouse to check a "like" on facebook. just doesn't happen.
Then there are the nights when I create an error and sit on the loveseat or sofa, which inevitably means I will be catnapping in approximately three minutes flat, regardless of what is on the tube or what is happening around me.
It isn't just soft furniture though... I can fall asleep in an upright position in my substitute desk chair with the hard back and the pillow under my rear.
Excuses, excuses, I have a million of them .
Thing is that I just haven't been feeling very creative, and being down in the dumps is not a motivation for me. It doesn't make for a good read either.
I am sucking it up now though...still in a stinko mood, but hey life happens.
In the past month there have been appointments, and proms, and SAT reservations made.
My anniversary and Mothers Day have filled in the calendar as well.
Friend children have graduated college, and birthdays have passed.
So there has been plenty of topics to take advantage of and pass a few paragraphs on, but no excuse, just haven't raally felt like writing.
So I have made a promise to myself that I have to write something that I would like to read, at least once a week.
And I am going to put Monday back in it's place, just a day of the week that ends in Y.

Humbug....

So this will be a short but sweet note today. Spring cleaning has still not made it to the top of my list.
Several days in the high 80's has taken the umphhhh out of me.
Yes the air conditioners are running.
Window air conditioners, as my old house is not equipped with central air.

I, however, have finally completed the pamphlet for the non profit, and considering my total lack of knowledge of certain computer programs it certainly took longer than it should have. I am relatively sure there was an easier way to do it..but hey it is presentable and finished.

On the bright side, we are having a bit of much needed rain, and the nasty thunderstorms have apparently headed around us for now..so all is good. Well except for wet pups. Nothing quite smells like wet pups.

So for now, think I'll finish the evening chores, and head to the shower.
Another long day awaits. Maybe I'll actually get to my list again.

Spring Cleaning part 4

So it has been unexpectedly warm and sunny lately, certainly not the norm in this part of the country for April. Heck, still have my studded snow tires on my van.
Need to get those off before the fifteenth.

My spring cleaning has come to a screaming halt, as other tasks have taken priority as well as the Easter holiday.
I do intend to proceed with the cleaning out of the house as soon as the weather cools off or I decide to turn on the air conditioner should the weather stay warm.
Warm weather and I are no longer friends. After years of baking in the sun, my old body has opted for the fifty degree days and thirty degree nights as the optimum temperature range.
Go figure.
Laundry and making the dreaded shopping list are on today's agenda, both thankless jobs.
Maybe I'll attack a kitchen cupboard or two later on, but I have to finish a program I am doing for a non profit club first.
Bathing the two pups are also on my to do list for the day. Yep I still make lists, for everything. I don't always follow them, but for some reason they give me a bit of comfort. I guess knowing that I am at least thinking in an organized manner makes me feel better.
Lets see now...wrote a least one blog today...that's a check off my list. These lists do seem to work, well on with the day.

Spring Housecleaning part 3

So my plan to hire a cleaning service was derailed or postponed for a bit, due to lack of funds and the arrival of one of my sisters with her daughter.
Since I did have a few days notice, I did get to vacuum my floors, and put a little elbow grease into cleaning part of my bathroom.
A bit of dusting and several loads of laundry and I was as ready as I was going to be for this visit.

As I went about my chores, ugh, I noted that some type of cleaning and decluttering was absolutely going to have to be on my priority list in the very near future.
It was a sobering moment I must say.

It was always my intent to not let my home fall into such a state.
However I am nothing if not brutally honest, and it does take a visit or gathering for me to become motivated enough to do a thorough house cleaning...because I really don't like to clean. It is a flaw in my character I know and one I will absolutely admit to, but that is how it is.

So for now, I am going to approach my spring housecleaning by doing a room at a time, but not putting a time limit on it. I will be decluttering and removing all things that have not been used for a while, on the theory that if I haven't used it for a while, do I really need it.
I am going to reestablish my rule of no more stuff comes in until something goes out.

So on to deciding which room should receive my attention.
That should take at least a day or two...and maybe the weather will be more spring like to motivate me. Or not.

Spring Cleaning Part 2 - the list

The dreaded Spring cleaning is still on my mind as I look around at the piles of magazines, old coupon books that need to be sorted and tossed, and clothes that should be carried up to their appointed rooms, but I need a plan, and a list.
I'm also going to have to employ the help of some family members.
After all they all shared in creating the need, so they should all help in some part of this venture. This may require another list.

So, as I was having the aforementioned cup of coffee, light and sweet by the way, I put pen to pad and started the list. Notice the word, started. I am a list maker and none of my lists ever actually reach completion as I am constantly adding or editing as I proceed with the task at hand. Then there are the interuptions, letting the dogs in and out and in and out, laundry and errands.
Phones ringing, and general daily chores that keep the house running, all serve to keep me from finishing the list, I mean, someone has to order the pizza and pick it up.

The list of supplies are on my list, but I need a plan. Without the PLAN, well I will just bounce around without direction. Events will distract me, the occasional movie left on the television, that book I never finished, those phone chats with old friends, and the daily and weekly stuff.
With the amount of work that will be involved, I will have to be efficient and cut-throat in my clearing and pitching. I will have to be a virtual cleaning machine.

Okay, so now that I have quit laughing, virtual cleaning machine? Who am I trying to fool, myself?
For I am the woman who when surprised by unexpected visitors in the driveway, will pull boxes out, scatter them around, proclaiming to be in the midst of sorting for a yard sale. I am the woman who will have time to plug a vacuum in, and spray lemon smelling cleaner around, and state without a pause, that I am indeed in the middle of cleaning and "please excuse the mess".

Now where did I put that number for the cleaning service I used last year...
I know I put it on a list last year.

What is spring housecleaning ? part 1

Year after year, on covers of magazines by the checkout aisle, those dreaded printed words scream out at me. It is time for the ritual of spring housecleaning.
What is spring housecleaning?
I am sure my mother did spring housecleaning, and my grandmother wrote her chores down on her calendar.
There may be a reason I have blocked out these specific memories.
Okay, I'll say it. I hate cleaning. I hate spring cleaning, holiday cleaning and the "shit" I am having company cleaning.
It's not that I like dust and dirt...I appreciate a nice clean house as much as anyone. It just is not high on my priority list.
In past years, I've actually hired someone to do my cleaning for me. Those were the good old days.

When I was a single woman, no husband, no kids, no pets, I was actually very tidy. Easy to pick up after yourself. Dirty clothes hit the hamper, clean clothes were placed neatly in drawers or hung up, and dishes were done every night. Dusting and vacuuming once a week along with the mandatory bathroom cleaning, and boom. I was done. I also didn't have as much STUFF.

Now, I have way too much stuff. A husband who covers every flat surface with his stuff, and two kids who I make keep their doors closed. Oh, and we have pets. Currently three cats, two which are still basically kittens, and three dogs, two which are puppies and all their assorted stuff.

Two of my aunts were certified clean-a-holics. Their spring cleaning lasted all year long. I have friends who actually paint their interiors once a year.
They give me their tips and I dutifully write them down, but something happens to the follow through.

Maybe because cleaning is such a thankless job. We clean, and then a week later, we have to clean again.
So for right now, I'm going to go get a fresh cup of coffee, and make my cleaning list. Every one needs a list before they start such a project.
Stayed tuned tomorrow for part two of the Spring cleaning saga...

Does it count as volunteering if your hand isn't raised.

I had planned on writing about another topic today, but the last few days have caused me to muse about volunteering.
My definition of volunteering was the act of giving time, money, or skills without need of compensation. Okay so maybe that isn't the Webster definition, but it's close enough.

Over the years, well at least since my children were of school age, volunteering seemed to be a major part of my life. Leading a committee, offering to bake or make large amounts of food, even becoming an officer in a parent organization, all these were just the way it was. That was fine, after all "if I dont' do it...who will?"
Most of the time I did raise the proverbial hand, gleefully calling out.."I'll do it!" Most of these times it seems as though the task was manageable, so of course I continued to volunteer.

Yes I was the parent volunteer who manned the fire dept. safe house, and the mom on the list as the emergency chaperone, ( how long will we be gone?), and the ( cringe) brownie cookie mom.
As the kids got older, so did the tasks that came from putting my old hand up in the air.
Selling advertisements in programs, arranging entire celebratory events, and ordering the correct amounts of mongrammed clothing for young athletes, even going so far as to meet the supplier. This may have been the time period when I stopped in my tracks and tried to remember, how I volunteered for these tasks.
It was then that I realized that technically I didn't really volunteer in the truest sense of the word.

I always attended the meetings firm in the belief that maybe someone else should step up. I would shake my head no, but always cave when the giver of the tasks would look at me and with that colgate smile say ever so sweetly "but this job was made for you..who else could pull it off?" Or when no one else would volunteer and the leader of the group would look me directly in the eye, and give me THAT LOOK...
So I would bite the bullet, and take on the request.

Recently my daughter was given a task that for all the world should have been one that she had volunteered to do. It had grown in proportion from the intial handoff.
So being mom, I ageed to help.
After all should I let my daughter have all the fun, drinking large sums of coffee, going on little sleep, doing a lot of grumbling, or struggling with the unfamiliar computer program? So I helped. After a lot of sniping, and stugging and snacking, and a bit of procrasination along the way we finished the chore at hand, kinda.

A job that neither of us volunteered to do, and a less than wonderful reaction from the giver of the job.
We will "do a bit of touching up" over the next week or so, but I will be spending some time looking in the mirror, saying "no thanks I have too much on my plate right now." Right after I get those ten photos printed out and framed...

Random thoughts

So I thought for my first official blog, we aren't counting the introductory special that preceded this one, I figured I would give a sample of what to expect when by some quirk of fate you find yourself reading my blog

First, I decided that since random thoughts make their way through my brain all day, I should blog like that as well, random topics, whatever has caused me to laugh, cry or shake my head in disbelief over the course of the day. If it stuck with me long enough to remember by the time I write this, then that is the topic for the day.

So if you were hoping for any continuity, then maybe you should find something else to read. Of course since I am a woman and by virtue of being such, I can change my mind. Wow, I can't believe I used that but hey if it works. If a topic requires more coverage than one blog can afford, then yes readers we may have a part one and a part two. It will have to be a pretty important topic to take up two posts.

I am of a liberal nature, and will never intend to offend my readers, but if I do, I apologize in advance, and will give you the advice I give others when they are offended by tv, or news, which is change the channel, or turn it off. In the blogging world, I guess the comment would be if you don't like what you are reading, just take your mouse and log off.

I won' t start by boring you with my childhood, at least not yet. This is not going to be an autobiography in any form, though I may reference my past as it does affect how I see things at times, and believe me when I tell you that I often see things a bit differently than others do.

Please offer your comments, I look forward to hearing from readers, and you can be as kind or as critical as you wish. I am an objective woman, and although I would love to only get triple A raves on my writings, I am not a foolish woman to believe this will happen. Mine has not been a fairy tale ride, and rainbows do not color my memories, but I do have a unique sense of humor, which at times seems to go right over others heads.

So I have now managed to write an entire blog on absolutely nothing of any value except to me.
For this is my blog, and it is what it is.

and so it begins...

I am taking a deep breath as I begin my journey into the world of blogging.
The concept of being able to jot down whatever is on my mind, in a format that others can read and hopefully at times enjoy is something that I have been considering doing for a while now.

So let me introduce myself first.
I am a mother, friend, and for the time being a wife. I am and have been the co-owner of a variety of pets. I do not like housecleaning, decorating, or laundry, though at times all are necessary evils.

There are very few times when I don't have an opinion, whether popular or not, on a variety of subjects and this blog will spare my friends and family from some of them.

My generation did not grow up with the networking tools that our children have always known, but I am doing my best to keep up in this age of instant access. I actually rather enjoy it.

What I am hoping is that some of you will enjoy this journey with me....if you don't that is okay.
I am always open to comments, whether they be good or bad, as age has provided me with a thick skin.

So here we go, and here is hoping you come along for the ride.