Actual Unretouched Photo

My friend, Mary, of Owlhaven, posted something that really resonated with me.  Maybe you’ll find it encouraging, too.

Today, I refrained from crawling back under the covers and instead, went to Macy’s.  They were having their One-Day Sale, which they have pretty much every other week, but I was lured by the idea of bargains and boots.  I did not find boots, but I found bargains.  Just in case you were wondering.

Tomorrow, I need to resist the urge to crawl back under the covers because I have a small load of stuff to drop off at Value Village.  Then I plan to deliver a shelf-thing to a friend who has agreed to accept it.  I just have too much stuff and a really busy weekend planned.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, an American Girl catalog came in the mail and instead of throwing it away as I have every other time it appeared, I offered to 8-year old Grace.  She spent the rest of  the afternoon and the entire evening studying the pages, marking up the most important things with check marks and circles and noting on other things, “whatever you think.”  Once she saw the Bitty Babies, she decided she’d rather have one of those instead of an American Girl doll.  She loves, loves, loves babies, just as I did at her age.

Tonight, I ordered a toilet and a kitchen sink.

Tomorrow, my three boys are getting haircuts.  Trims, really.  They are all long-haired and not parent-approved.

I really need to make dental appointments and an eye-doctor appointment.  Maybe I will remember to do so tomorrow.

The forecast calls for possible snow.

The skies are dark by 5 p.m.

Thanksgiving is next week.  NEXT WEEK!

That is all.

You would not believe the wreckage that is my family room.

This happened, apparently, while I was busy removing all the magnets from my refrigerator and cleaning out my junk drawer and delivering boxes to the storage unit.

Also?  If this feeling in my head is another cold, I will be so mad because Friday I am flying to Texas with my children to visit my in-laws (and my husband who is flying in to meet us).

That is all.

So, I’m working tonight and my twelve-year old come rushing past, muttering something about the toilet overflowing.  “I need towels!”

I said, “Wait.  The toilet is overflowing?  What does that mean?  The water is still rising?  Or . . . ?”

“The water is rising!” he said rather frantically.

I ran upstairs to find water flowing over the toilet bowl.  I splashed across the floor–vinyl now, rather than carpet–and plunged the toilet until the water stopped gushing.

My son appeared with pool towels and every bath towel in the house and I threw the towels into the puddle, the pond, the lake that had formed in the bathroom.

So.  That was fun.

At least the ceiling hasn’t yet been fixed from the last time we had a catastrophic water emergency.

I’ve lost my stickiness.

I’m like a sticker that has been stuck on and pulled off and then covered with lint.  No longer sticky.

*

I feel so unmoored, so disconnected from anything solid.

What is disheartening is that as I’m drifting to the horizon, no one seems to notice that I’m floating away.

*

In other news, today I assembled a desk, yelled at my kids, ate more than one candy bar, took a nap, worked eight hours, and considered crying but found I didn’t have the energy to do so.

Tomorrow is another day.

I have an old piano with an old decrepit bench.  The fabric had worn away and the children had picked at the deteriorating foam cushion and finally I had enough.

A few days ago I bought a slab of foam at Fred Meyer.

Today I bought a length of fabric at Value Village.

Tonight, I pried old staples and fabric from the wood.  I glued the foam on the board, then stapled on an old towel.  I topped that with the new fabric and then spent some time puzzling over the empty staple gun, retrieving more staples and then wondering why I couldn’t get the staples to discharge from the staple gun.  I did not curse or stab myself with a screwdriver or drive a staple into my eyeball.

Eventually, I prevailed.

I stapled the fabric on the board and finished the whole thing with the backing fabric.

So it looks better.

I also filled some half-filled paint cans with kitty litter so I can dispose of them.

I know!  You wish your life were this full of excitement!

The end.

I wondered this afternoon if I will ever do anything again besides pack and clean, sort and purge, organize and rearrange.

I also thought how strange it is to live in limbo.  I feel myself withdrawing emotionally from my community and I’m not sure what to do about that.  I have no energy to care very much about it because I’m too busy deciding what can be donated to Value Village and what needs to be packed into a box.

I did manage today to finally move the extra moving boxes into the storage room so my living room looks more like a living room and less like a U-Haul truck.

That makes up for yesterday which felt like one-hundred percent work and yielded paltry results.  I was at the soccer field at 8:20 a.m. and the streetlights were still on.  My daughter’s team lost badly.

We went home and I went straight back to bed which was kind of awesome.  My toes thawed by the time I got up again.  A family friend took my two youngest kids to a movie, so while they were gone I ran some errands.  When we were all home again, I had to leave to pick up my teenagers.

Anyway, so the weekend’s over.

I wish we could get an extra hour of sleep every night.

I feel so accomplished today.  Not only did I drop off a sturdy metal filing cabinet and a cheap wooden microwave stand at Value Village, but I also located a place willing to take my old dead computer and gigantic monitor.

I researched the issue online and found this particular computer shop that recycles old computers and monitors and had to laugh at the extremely geeky and young employees.  They were a sitcom stereotype of the kind of smart twentysomething nerds who understand the inner workings of computers.  And I do mean that in the nicest way possible.

Anyway, I was happy to fork over $17 to be rid of the electronics.  Some Facebook friends informed me that there are easier and free (!) ways to unburden yourself of dead computers and monitors, but who knew?  I didn’t find any other way while consulting Google.  I was very close to just tucking them into my trash can and covering them with kitchen garbage to fool the trashman, so I felt quite responsible disposing of them properly.

Then I managed a quick trip to Target before I returned home at noon to work.

I worked until five–with a quick interruption to drive the neighbor girl to her volleyball practice and to pick up my own daughter from school.  The rain began as I ventured out at 3:30 p.m.  Great.  Because that is exactly what we need for Saturday morning’s soccer game.

A little after five, I drove my teens to meet their friend and his mom.  They are spending the night at their friend’s house.   So it’s quiet and no one will be eating a snack at 2:00 a.m.

I’m living a life crammed full with tedium.

In seven hours and twelve minutes, I need to be showered and dressed for rain and ready to leave the house for Grace’s soccer game.  She has team pictures first and we have to arrive by 8:20 a.m., which is a crime, if you ask me.

But no one asked me.

I spent three hours tonight in my storage room puzzling over the random belongings that have been taking up space.

My task seems simple enough:  pack up what we’re keeping and gather what we’re giving away and get rid of it.

I have done this over and over again and every time I go back into the room, I am faced with more stuff.  I promise I am not a hoarder but I cannot give up my piano books or the framed pictures or my box of thread.  For one thing, I’ve been meaning (for years) to paint those frames black and hang up those pictures again.  And what if I get my sewing machine fixed and begin to sew again one day?  What if?

The back of my van is once again full of stuff to drop off at Value Village, including a lovely sturdy metal filing cabinet and a particle board microwave stand.  I found a place that will take an old dead computer and gigantic broken monitor.  Tomorrow morning I must resist the lure of my cozy bed and drop off all that stuff.

I hope that Saturday will be the day I triumph over the storage room.

However, I may not survive Saturday morning.  We have to arrive at the soccer field at 8:20 a.m. for team pictures before the 9 a.m. game.

That is just unkind.

Hooray!  My favorite weekend of the year is approaching.  Daylight Savings Time, that glorious Saturday night when the clocks magically turn back one hour and I get an extra hour of sleep.  Or I would if I went to bed at the normal time instead of staying up late to revel in the extra hour of time.

Anyway, I was asked to write this post about time-related challenges and believe me, I have time-related challenges.  For instance, how can you find time to take care of your body and your mind while keeping the family clad in clean clothes and socks without holes?  How can you work full-time and still cook dinner every night?  How do you spend enough time with the kids (growing at supersonic speed) while tending to every other demand and not missing an episode of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”?

I can sum up my time-saving tips in a short list:

1)  Use a Crock-Pot several times a week.  Somehow getting dinner prepared in the morning makes dinner-time less stressful.

2)  Do laundry every day and fold each load as soon as it comes out.

3)  Let non-essential things go.  Yes, I’m talking about dusting.

Now, let me turn this post over to the professionals.  (They provided this information.  How thoughtful!)

Recently, HealthyWomen conducted a survey of over 1000 women to uncover their busiest hours as well as tips to help cope with the crunch.  Their survey revealed that most women feel most pressed for time in the early morning hours of their day, from 6am to 9am and many report the biggest time pressures during early evening, from 5pm to 8pm., when many families are preparing for and eating dinner, as well as finishing up tasks from the day.

With the help of survey respondents, HealthyWomen compiled a list of the top  12 time- saving tips that that we ask you share with your readers.  They include:

Domestic Duties
1.  Make Fridays left over night – you will clean out the fridge and save time and money.
2.  We know you want to be watching TV, but how about making that personal time a bit more productive? Use commercial breaks to squeeze in some of the end-of-day chores – sort laundry, start the washer, vacuum a room, unload the dishwasher, organize the kitchen counter.
3.  Sign up for free automatic bill-paying services for all recurring bills such as utility bills, etc. Then set up an online bank account for free, one-click payment of all other bills – saves time, postage, and gas!

Running Errands
4.  Combine as many errands as you can into one outing – grouping them by location and reducing travel time.
5.  Ask for help!  Keep a list of your errands and an ear open in case your spouse, relative or friend is headed to the same place.
6.  Ride your bike, walk or run to run local errands – eliminating the need to take time to exercise later.

Communicating with Others
7.  Set a schedule and establish boundaries throughout the day. For example, at the beginning of each conversation, tell others how much time you have available.  It’s as easy as saying, “I’m glad you called, but I’ve only got about 10 minutes to chat…”
8.  Make email more efficient – spending the time to unsubscribe for all the junk emails will give you an inbox with just the information you want, and less time deleting the stuff you don’t.
9.  Take public transportation to work, and use that time to read, update your to-do list, or answer personal emails.

Health and Beauty

10.  Reconsider your definition of clean and don’t shampoo every day – your hair will be healthier and shinier and your shower will be shorter.
11.   Keep your period light – at least packing for it.  Wear a menstrual cup all day and save time packing up other protection.
12.   Tried and true – set your clothes out the night before. Women who don’t can waste time trying on different outfits or having to iron at the busiest time of the day.

Do you have any time-saving tips you’d like to share?

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of HealthyWomen and Softcup and received a $30 gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.”