The 5 Senses of Memory........

I spent almost a week visiting family in Minnesota. While there I was bombarded on every side by memories. It was almost overwhelming. I was on memory overload. Here's what I came up with:

Minnesota Memories

What does a memory taste like?
Like Tom Thumb donuts,
and Swedish Rye Bread,
and cousin Wendy's chocolate chip cookies.

What does a memory sound like?
Like my brother's laugh,

and the call of the loon,
and the train whistle on an early summer morning,

What does a memory smell like?
Like cardamom seeds,
and lilac bushes,
and my dad's aftershave.

What does a memory look like?
Like old family photos,
and Bert, the Buffalo,
and a sailboat on the lake.

What does a memory feel like?
Like my dad's whiskers,
and a hug from my sister,
and the warm summer breeze.

How about you? What do your memories taste like? Smell like. Look like. Feel like. And sound like. Share a memory with me. And let me know you remember any of the same things I do.

I'm B-a-a-a-a-ck..........

I realize that it's been quite a while since I've posted. There are a number of reasons for this.

1. I really haven't had much to say lately.....lucky you!

2. I've been busy getting the kids back into the school routine. Sam started August 10th, Peter on August 19th, and Mary on the 24th. Can we not coordinate this people??!!

3. I was out of town. I went to the lovely, air-conditioned, state of Minnesota, where I ate state fair mini-donuts, went to the Mall of America, spent a wonderful afternoon on a lake, and visited with family. Most importantly, my 85 year old father. He is doing remarkably well, thanks for asking. He has Parkinson's, so is a little shaky and moves a little slower than he used to, but all in all, I think he's doing great!! (I also spent time with two brothers, one sister, a BIL, a SIL, and and various nieces, nephews, a couple of cousins and an aunt.)

But now.....I'm back. The kids are going strong in school, vacation is over, and I may just have a thing or two to say about a variety of subjects.

So, if you're up for it.......I'll keep on writing, you keep on reading. And let's have some fun!

Call Your Mother!!!

Stop whatever you're doing right now and call your mother!

Early morning. Blog surfing.

I was catching up on some blogs that I'd missed while on vacation. In one of them, this young mom was talking about friendship. Specifically, women and the bond of friendship. It was when she said that she chatted with her mom about the topic that I unexpectedly lost it.

My mother died when I was 19. That means she's been gone more than 30 years. You'd think that I'd be over it by now, but no, when I read that line about my friend chatting with her mom about something I started bawling. Sitting at the computer, early Sunday morning, crying my eyes out because of all the missed 'mom' conversations.

I hate that I don't have a mom to talk to about things.

I hate that I can't call my mother when something important.......exciting.........tragic.........scary........mundane
happens in my life.

I hate it when other people take their mothers for granted. Mothers should NEVER be taken for granted. They are a privilege, a blessing, a gift. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but your mother WILL NOT always be there.

Your mom may not be perfect (guess what....you're not either!) But she is your mom. And she did the best she could. So, take a minute. Call your mom. Tell her your sorry for any heartache you've caused over the years. For all the gray hairs you put on her head. And tell her you love her. She deserves that much.

Note to Self.......

Because I seem to be the only one reading my blog, I am writing myself a note.

Dear Self,

Please forgive the absence of new blogs over the next week. I will be out of town. I am going to Utah to visit family and friends. The majority of my time will be spent in southern Utah, in the small, charming town of Cedar City. My time in CC will include side trips to Zion's National Park, Bryce Canyon, and wherever else I choose to go. I will be spending a day or two in the Provo/Orem/SLC area near the end of next week. After which I will return home filled with peace and a renewed energy with which to face a new school year and a house that STILL needs to be perfected and placed on the market. I will also return with stories to tell, pictures to share, and videos of my boys climbing mountains and being amazing.
Thank you, self, for your patience while I am gone.

Love,
Me

Just for a Moment.......

It was Friday. But it could have been any one of a hundred Saturdays from my childhood.

The clink of the coins in the change machine.

The swish of the water as it filled the washers.

The hum of the dryers.

The warm summer breeze flowing through the doors flung wide, front and back.

The stained, worn linoleum.

The tired vending machine.

The easy conversation of strangers.

Folding clothes.

Matching socks.

Feeding quarters into machines hungry for more.

Watching the wash spin....first in the washer, with suds so thick I can hardly see anything else. Then in the dryer, fresh and clean.

The dryer beeps, signaling the end of the cycle. My load is done. Still damp, but dry enough to fold and take home. Yet, the air is thick with the memories of those childhood Saturdays. I'm not ready to leave yet. So I feed another quarter into the dryer, and settle back......while the world goes on without me........just for a moment.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom Not My Own.....

"As you seek new opportunity, keep in mind that the sun does not usually reappear on the horizon where last seen."

--Robert Brault

I have to admit that I have trouble with this one. I tend to look back with fondness and longing at opportunities and experiences past.

Forgetting sometimes that new adventures lay ahead. Forgetting that the much loved times gone by were once new and frightening as well.

I hesitate to step out of my comfort zone. I cling to the past, having to be dragged into the future as a child has to be peeled off of a parent on the first day of school.

Thanks, rb, for the reminder. A reminder that adventure awaits ahead and all that's left behind me are memories.

Memory Lane.........

I've been feeling a bit melancholy lately. I've been thinking about days gone by....things that I used to have, do, etc. And indulging myself a little bit in missing those things. So, lucky you, if you choose to read this, you get to walk with me down the proverbial 'memory lane'.

One of my favorite childhood memories is waking up to the sounds of the trains passing. The train track was right behind my house. It was house, back yard (big back yard), pond, then train tracks. If I woke up early enough to hear the first train whistle then I could jump out of bed, get dressed, and run down the path to the tracks early enough to put a penny on the track before the train got there. Then I would sit back on the path and wait for the train. The train almost always stopped when it got to my part of the track. That's because the end of the train would stretch far enough down the track to reach into town where it would unload lumber at the little lumber yard in town. The train would be stopped for maybe 30 minutes. Plenty of time to climb aboard. We would climb the ladders on the side of the cars, play on, around and under the train. We always knew when it was getting ready to start up again so we had plenty of time to jump off and get to safely back on the path. When the train had gone we would gather our pennies and maybe some coal that it had dropped and wander back home for breakfast.

I miss the lake house, too. When I was about 10 my parent's bought a lake house. It was about an hour drive from our house to the lake. We would go mostly on weekends, but often stayed longer. The lake house was a different world for us. There was one phone and it was a party line (shared with someone else) so we rarely used it. My mother declared early on that there would be NO TV at the lake, so on the days that it rained we would have marathon Monopoly games, get our exercise by pumping on the player piano or do puzzles. Outside, there was swimming, fishing, canoeing, water-skiing, a rope swing over the lake, mini-bikes to ride in the field or just laying in the hammock and listening to the water lap the shore. After my mom died my dad couldn't bear to go to the lake house any more....the memories were too much. I loved going there for the same reason. I could still feel her there. My dad sold the place to my oldest brother and that was that. It wasn't my lake house anymore. It changed the feel of the place and I couldn't go there anymore either.

It was a different world when I was a kid. The world was a safer place and we had SO much freedom. From the time I was about 7 or 8 years old we would walk the train tracks into town (or ride our bikes on a VERY busy road and across a VERY 'rickety' bridge!!)

We would spend the day in town, maybe going to Excelsior Beach to swim and buy Popsicles from the little concession stand, or go to a Saturday matinee movie. We would pay $1 for a movie ticket, small drink and popcorn. And sometimes, if we stayed after the movie to help clean up the theater, the manager would give us a free candy bar!! There was always a Saturday matinee. It was usually a cartoon movie or a cowboy one, and we would come out of the theater into the bright afternoon sunlight.

There was also an amusement park in our little town. We would need about $4-5 for that. But could spend hours there with that amount of money. Tickets were about $.10 and each ride was only 2 or 3 tickets. There was one ride where you would sit in a swing and it would swing out over the lake. There was a carousel, a wooden roller coaster, a ferris wheel, bumber cars and a fun house. We didn't go there as often as it was so expensive, but we did go a couple of times a month in the summer.

There was very little adult supervision. Mom would just give us a dollar for the movie and send us on our way. We would be gone for hours. Wandering around town, checking out the library, or the bakery, or the Ben Franklin store where you could buy almost anything you could ever need/want. Then, once we were tired we would ride or walk back home, usually in time for dinner.

I miss those childhood days. I sometimes long for them. I didn't have any worries in those days. No real challenges. Life was an adventure. The dangers of the railroad tracks or the 'rickety' bridge were very real, yet we ignored the dangers and lived for the adventure. I wish I could have the same bravado that I did when I was 8.

Maybe I'll give it a try!

Incongruous........

Is it wrong that when you look in my fridge you see these.......

right next to this?............

Dreams.....

Seven words that make me want to run from the room....

"So I had this dream last night...."

I secretly HATE, (yes, HATE!) to listen to people's dreams.

When I share a dream with someone, it's usually a two or three liner: "I had this weird dream. So-and-so shot himself. I wonder where that came from." And then I'm done. I move on with my life.

When other people share dreams with me they D-R-A-G on interminably. Just the other morning my husband started to share his dream with me (I can blog about this because I know he doesn't read my blog!) Something about govenment conspiracies and death taxes. And on. And on. And on. After 20 minutes I interrupted him.......

Me: You know....my dreams are usually a lot shorter than this.
Him: Yeah, I know, it was a really long dream!

10 minutes later.....

Me: I usually don't remember much about my dreams once I'm awake.
Him: Sometimes that happens to me, too.

another 15 minutes later.......

Me: Maybe you should just write a book.

I try to be patient. I really do. But you can never accurately describe the feelings, emotions, and drama of a dream. It's one of those "you had to be there" things. Unless I happen to have the same dream I'm just not going to get it. No matter how long you drag it out.

I try to seem interested. But I'm really planning dinner menus in my head and wondering how much mulch it's going to take to do the back yard area.

I'm not sure how Joe's dream ended. I hope it ended happily, but with government conspiracies one can never be sure. He lost me when he started talking about drug lords and secret bank accounts.

I wish everyone sweet dreams. But please, don't share them with me.

Video Games.......

Okay, so I got this package in the mail yesterday. My birthday is on Sunday. I figured that it might be a birthday gift so I briefly considered not opening it until Sunday. That lasted about 15 seconds. After all, maybe it wasn't a birthday gift, maybe it was.......umm.....ummm...... something else that needed to be opened immediately.

Turns out it was a birthday gift. From my brother, Peter. He sent me a Wii Fit. I have been wanting to try one for a while now, and oh, my gosh, is it ever fun!!

I realize, of course, that I'm old, and that video games are typically for the young, but I happen to like video games. To me, video games are the great equalizer between me and my kids. I mean, really, I used to be able to run faster than my kids, beat them at arm wrestling, do more sit-ups, push ups, etc. Those days are long gone. They can outlast, outrun, outplay me anyday. Not so with video games. In video games I can actually challenge my kids on a level playing field.

I'm really good at Brain Age (a mother's day gift from two of my boys), pretty good at Mario Kart (one of my favorites!), not bad at the 'old school' Sonic games, and I've been working on my drumming skills on Rock Band (I've still got a ways to go on that one!)

Now that I (we) have Wii Fit, we have even more challenges to do together. We've had it less than 24 hours and so far Jacob has the high score on the Ski Jump and Ski Slalom, Sam is best at Soccer Heading and Tight Rope Walk, and I hold the high score in Table Tilt and Hula Hoop. Yes, we've already logged quite a bit of time on the Wii Fit.

Now if I could only find the time to get the laundry done.

Judging Books by Their Covers.......

They say that you should never judge a book by it's cover.

Then, how exactly should we judge a book?

I think we need ratings on books. I don't really care how we rate them. It can be the same rating system we have for movies: G, PG, PG-13, R. Or we can use the system used by some cable television systems: V(violence), S(sexual content), L(language).

Whatever I need a rating to tell me if the book has bad language. There is some language that I find offensive. I need a rating to tell me about sexual content. I do not need to know all the details!! Some books are almost pornographic in their descriptions. Yet we are not warned ahead of time!

I hate to spend money on a book only to find out later that it should have had an "R" rating on the cover! I have thrown away more than a few books because of their content. (I don't donate them because I don't want to subject others to things that are offensive to me!) So.....being that books don't come with ratings...how do we decide which ones are 'safe' so to speak?

I am currently looking for a 'new author'. I tend to find authors that I enjoy, and then read everything they've ever written until I run out and have to start my search again.

I like Clive Cussler, Dick Francis, David Baldacci, Robin Cook.

Please tell me some of your favorite authors. If I don't find something soon, it's going to be a L-O-N-G summer!

Desire vs. Reality......

I discovered (long ago) that wanting something does not equal having something. Wanting your children to get along will not make it so. Wanting a job will not get you hired. Wanting to be good at something will not mean that you will be good at something.

For instance, I want very much to be 'crafty'. I want to cross-stitch and quilt and sew. I want people to come into my cozy home and exclaim "Oh, did you make that?!" and be able to glance humbly at the wall-hanging, or quilt, or tapestry and say "Oh, that? It was nothing."

I want to be an amazing photographer. Oh, I've taken some good pictures in my lifetime, but I want to take the kind that people will pay hundreds of dollars for and be amazed at how I captured the light or the mood or the expression on a child's face.

I want to scrapbook. I want each of my children to have an amazing book (or several) to look at and remember all the fun times they had growing up. The vacations, the school plays, the Christmas mornings. It's not going to happen.

I also want very much to be able to play a musical instrument. I'm thinking maybe the piano....or the guitar....or maybe the drums. (Rock Band on the Wii is giving me a false sense of hope for my budding musical aspirations.)

Unfortunately, simply wanting these things will not make them happen. Procrastination is my constant companion. I am forever considering projects, dreaming of projects, even starting projects....but they never get finished.

I give you exhibit A: I started this project when I was a Beehive in MIA. MIA stood for Mutual Improvement Association. It was the youth group at my church consisting of the boys and girls between 12 an 18. The Beehives were the 12-13 year old girls. (This organization still exists today, but it's simply called 'Mutual' now) This means that I started this project sometime around 1970. I take it out every once in a while, and think how nice it will look when it's framed and hanging in a place of honor in my home.....then I pack it back up again for another 5-10 years. But I never give up hope. I still believe that 'someday' I will finish it.

Exhibit B:

Here is my quilt project. I bought this 'quilt-block-of-the-month' kit back in 1997. I was convinced that I would find time to do just one block a month! I actually started the first block, but the pieces didn't line up the way I wanted them to (ie: perfectly) so I packed it up again. It's also on the 'someday' list.

As far as the scrapbooking goes, well, let's just say it's on the back burner. When Mary was about 5 (she just turned 21) she came to me asking where she was in the scant photo albums that I had patched together. I told her that she wasn't in there because those pictures were taken before she was born. (At the time I had 6 children under 10, I barely had time to shower in those days!) She gave me her most horrified expression and replied: "You took pictures before I was born!!" I ended up buying her a 4 X 6 photo album at the dollar store, handing her a shoebox full of pictures and telling her to make her own photo book. (a testament to the fabulous mother that I am!) She did make her own, and still has it today and continues to add pictures. Maybe I should just get her the rest of the supplies and put her to work!!

I could go on and on, but it seems that blogs are about the only things that I have learned how to finish!

Delete.....

I deleted someone from my life the other day......to be honest, I deleted several someones. The relationships just weren't working for my anymore.

When I first got into 'blogging', I was on a roll. I went skipping from blog to blog looking for something interesting. I would read the blog of a friend, then the blogs belonging to friends-of-that-friend. I was insatiable. I collected blogs of interest: cooking blogs, quilting blogs, preparedness blogs, crafts-for-kids blogs.....well, you get the idea. I was a blog-a-holic. I even blogged about my budding blog addiction here.

I realized that I had a problem when I had to check my blog list every day. I would get mad at the kids for wanting to get on the computer, wanting dinner, wanting to be driven to school. Selfish children.....couldn't I have a few minutes peace to check my blogs!! I was spending more than 30 minutes of my time every day checking the blogs of people I don't even know!!

Granted, I do feel like some of these people have become my friends. I comment on their blogs, they comment on mine. We're friends on Facebook now, and even e-mail once in a while. But many of the blogs I read, too many, were just time wasters. I realized that with all the millions of blogs out there, no matter how interesting and informative they may be, they were still just time wasters.

So, it was time for them to go. Most of them, I couldn't remember why I started reading them in the first place. They'll never know they've been deleted from my life. There will be no hurt feelings. I've kept the ones that I find most interesting, and the ones where I feel like we've developed a friendship. But the list is much shorter now.

If only it were that easy in the real world. Delete the relationships that don't work (with no hurt feelings!) Free ourselves of obligatory relationships. And only keep the ones that bring us joy.

I feel better having cleaned out my blog list. And maybe now, my kids will get to school on time!

(No.....this is NOT about you....I love you, and hope that we are friends forever!!)

Virtual Worlds...

I don't get the whole 'virtual world' of gaming that's going on today. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, though some of my 'old' friends seem to be getting into the game.

I had an invitaion on Facebook the other day to join in a game called "Yoville". It sounded a little like Dr. Suess to me, but I thought that if my friends are playing, maybe it would be fun. I was wrong!

So far, I have learned very little about how to play. I have created a character, and now I spend my time either in my virtual apartment, or I go to work.

I don't know how to interact with people on the game.

I haven't figured out how to decorate my apartment.

I can't even sit on my own couch!

My friends send me 'messages' that say nothing but 'cc'. After 15 or 20 of those, I messaged someone back and asked what it meant. "Coin Collecting" was the cryptic reply. Apparently, you get coins for messaging, but why not a real message? Why not, "Hi, how's it going?"

My virtual world has a gym.....I don't go to the gym in the real world, what makes you think I'm going to use a virtual gym?

My virtual world has a coffee shop.....I don't drink coffee. Why would I want a virtual latte?

My virtual world has a factory......all I do is punch a timeclock and I get credit for working......I know it doesn't work like that in the real world!

I know people who spend hours every day in their virtual worlds. They make virtual friends and have virtual fun. They build virtual lives in a computer world. It just makes no sense to me. I like to interact with real people and go real places. I do like games, just not virtual ones.

Monopoly anyone? I call dibs on the Top Hat!

Nothing like a relaxing walk.....

Dinner was done. Kitchen was clean. It was only 5:45 and the beautiful evening was calling me to come out and play. Here's how the next hour played out:

"I'm going for a little walk. Anyone want to come?"
(Guess which kid wanted to come. The one in a cast.)

"Peter, you're in a cast. I don't know that you can go on a walk."

"Okay, then I'll just ride a bike."
Great plan. Except that after struggling to get the bike out of the garage we discover that his bike has a broken seat.

"Maybe I could ride Eleanor's bike."
Manuvering carefully between the van, the other two bikes, and the garage wall, we finally get the other bike out. Two flat tires.

"Maybe they're not really flat. Maybe they just need to be pumped up."
By now, I'm losing my desire to take a walk, but I'm trying really hard to be patient. The kid has been cooped up in a splint or cast for a month now, he's stir crazy and just wants to get some exercise and fresh air.

So we pump up the tires. Once around the cul-de-sac tells us that, while it's not ideal, it might work. So, off we go. Me walking, him riding.

Half way down the street:
"This seat is really uncomfortable."
(I bite my tongue and keep walking.)

Down the street and around the corner.
"These pedals are spiky!"
"Well, maybe you should have worn a shoe on the other foot."
(one foot in a cast, the other with just a sock on)

Down to the next cul-de-sac.
"These gears are really messed up. I don't think I can ride this thing."

I tried to keep smiling as I asked what his plan was for getting himself and the bike back to the house.
"Maybe Mary could drive down and pick me up."

Which is how I ended up walking slowly home with a bike whose tires were steadily losing air and had crappy gears and spiky pedals.


Next time, I'm sneaking out the door and leaving the kids a note.

Breaking up is hard to do......

So I met this guy yesterday....(yes, I know I'm married, just keep reading!) He seemed nice enough, but it turned out he was very 'hands on'. He was moving W-A-Y too fast for my taste, and demanded to not only see me twice yesterday, but today as well and then wants to meet 2 - 3 times a week after this. His exact words were......'Monday is much too long to wait, I need to see you tomorrow.' So now I have to break up with him. I don't have time to meet with this guy today, much less 2 -3 times a week!! So, my question for you is.....how do you break up with a Chiropractor??

I Just Forgot........

This could SO be me. I forget everything!! (Okay, maybe not everything, but I do forget a lot of stuff!)

I was at the movie rental store the other day. I was looking over the vast selection when I came across the movie "The Bucket List". As I was looking at it, I had this conversation with myself: 'Oh, yeah, there's "The Bucket List", I wanted to see that one. Wait a minute........DID I see that one?? I think we may have rented that one already. Did I like it? Hmmmm, let me think.........'

I finally decided that we had rented it a couple of months back, but I couldn't remember if I had liked it or loathed it. I was hard pressed to even remember bits and pieces of the plot.

I'm like that with books, too. I have read all 7 Harry Potter books, yet when my friend called my a couple of weeks ago to tell me that she had just finished book 6 (she's a very busy lady!), then exclaimed, "Can you believe that ending!!". I had to pretend that I remembered the ending and exclaim along with her, "I know, I couldn't believe it either!", when in reality, I had no idea what she was talking about. I do know that I like the HP books, I just can't tell you what happens in any of them. I remember Harry, Hermoine, and Ron go to Hogwarts. Mayhem ensues. That's about it.

Usually, this isn't a problem. I try to remember the important stuff like dentist appointments and teacher meetings. I remember kids birthdays, and (the big) holidays. I tend to forget that my visiting teacher's are coming over (very important!) until they ring the doorbell and I look around at the mess in my living room. I forget that Mary has to be at school on Tuesday nights and that I agreed to make cookies for a ward activity.

The good news is that when I watch a movie with my kids that I've seen before, I can't tell them how it ended or even what part is coming up next. Case in point: Mary was watching 'Apollo 13' not too long ago. It was late and she wanted to go to bed so she came upstairs and asked me, "Mom, what happens at the end, do they all die?" My reply, "yes, Mary, they all die, just go to bed." (Okay, so maybe I remembered a little bit about that one, but it was late, and she did need to go to bed. So if she ever asks you about the really sad ending of that movie, just play along, okay?)

The bad news is that if there happens to be an inappropriate scene in a movie that I've already seen, I've forgotten that, too, and when it comes up I'm stuck saying, 'Oh, I forgot about THAT part! We really shouldn't even be watching this movie!'

I forget why I went upstairs. I forget that I have ground beef browning in the kitchen. I forget to rotate the laundry. I forget what I need at the store. I have even forgotten to pick kids up from school, (though I will deny that one should you bring it up and claim that I got stuck in traffic).

I guess with all this forgetting, I should go easier on my kid who forgets to make his bed, or do his homework, or unload the dishwasher, or take out the trash, or give me that important phone message. And when I say to them, 'How many times do I have to tell you to..........(whatever)' I should think about how many times I've been told. Told to get my food storage, or do my visiting teaching, or read my scriptures, or magnify my calling.

So if I have something important to do, it's best if I write it down. Really, if it's not written down it doesn't have a chance of getting done. Because I know this about myself, I tend to make a lot of lists. I lay in bed at night with the light going off, then on, then off again, then on again, as I think about things to write on my list for the next day. Which reminds me......I have quite a list of things 'to do' for today. So I guess I'd better stop blogging and get moving.

If only I could remember where I put that list!

True Confessions.....

I have a confession to make.

I......am a groupie. There, I said it.

I have recently discovered the music of Livingston Taylor, the younger brother of the legendary James Taylor. I don't recall exactly how I was first introduced to his music, but I have really come to like it. So when I heard that he was coming to Greenville to do a FREE concert, sponsored by an addiction recovery group, I was first in line. (Okay, so there really was no line, but if there had been, I would have been first.) It took some convincing to get Joe to agree to take me, but last night there we were, on the grass at the 'The Peace Center Amphitheater' in downtown Greenville. If you've never been there before, let me tell you, it's a beautiful place to sit and listen to some music.

There were estimated to be about 1,000 people there, but the casual atmosphere made it seem like a large gathering of family and friends. Livingston Taylor wandered through the crowd before the concert and shook hands, had his picture taken or just sat down next to you and talked for a bit. He made you feel like you'd known him forever and you were just friends catching up with one another. He is easy going, friendly, and puts on a great show.

Here is a pic of me and my new best friend, Liv, before the concert. Another of the Cd he signed for me, and a short video of him just playing around and doing sound checks before the concert started. (Ignore the people walking in front of me)

All in all, it was a great night with great music. Thanks for the memories, Liv.

Multi-Tasking......

I quit.

I'm done.

I'm giving up on multi-tasking.

For years now (too many to count) I have been making myself crazy trying to do too many things at once. I'm taking a break. I don't want to cook dinner, watch the kids, help with homework, do laundry, bake cookies, clean out the car and check my e-mail all at the same time. Not anymore. I want to simplify......I want to do just one thing at a time. It's a new concept, I know, and for years I was like the Cat in the Hat....balancing kids, chores, husband, church, friends, etc., never having time for me, and if you've read the Cat in the Hat lately, you'll remember that it ended badly for him.

Look at me!

Look at me!

Look at me NOW!

It is fun to have fun

But you have to know how!

I can hold up the cup

And the milk and the cake!

I can hold up these books!
And the fish on a rake!

I can hold the toy ship

And a little toy man!

And look!

With my tail, I can hold a red fan!

I can fan with the fan,

As I hop on the ball!

But that is not all.

Oh, no.That is not all...

That is what the cat said...

Then he fell on his head!

He came down with a bump

From up there on the ball

And Sally and I
We saw all the things fall!

I don't want to fall on my head!! I haven't dropped everything yet, but I have dropped a couple of things, and lately it seems like some things are more precariously balanced. So, I've decided that I'm not taking any chances.

Starting today I will do ONE THING AT A TIME! I will carefully and thoughtfully put everything down. (we don't want to break anything, you know!) Then I will carefully and thoughtfully pick up one thing, deal with it (clean it, cook it, wash it, answer it, help it, read it, etc.), put it down, then pick up another.

Who knows, maybe I'll be more relaxed, maybe I'll be more productive, maybe some things won't get done at all (the horror!), or maybe someone else will do them. Maybe, just maybe, some things don't even need doing! I'm more relaxed just thinking about it!

I realize that it won't be easy. It is, after all, an untested theory.....I don't honestly know if it's possible to do only one thing at a time. I may have to organize my time better. I may have to delegate some tasks, I may even have to say 'no' sometimes. But I'm willing to do whatever it takes. (I wonder if I could call it a study and get a government grant for research. Say, maybe a 10 year study of productivity?)

Please feel free to pick up my slack.....if you'd like to make dinner for my family one night a week so I can finish the latest Robin Cook novel, or if you'd like to paint my bathroom while I play Candyland with Sabian.....any and all help will be accepted and appreciated.

So, here's to the new me....next time you call, be assured that you will have my undivided attention. Unless someone else already has it.

Alright, already!!

Okay, so Diane tagged me. Apparently, I've been too slow to respond because now she has had to reminded me that she tagged me. You have to understand, Diane, I'm old and slow. Besides, I'd already blogged on Tuesday, and I needed to do my Wednesday Words of Wisdom blog so I was sort of saving the 'tag' blog for Thursday, but if you're going to get pushy about it......here goes....

The 3 things tag:

3 current goals:

1) Make Diane happy by responding to her 'tag' (I guess I should really be happy about it since I'm too old to play real tag anymore..I can't even outrun the 3 year old at my house! Of course, it could have something to do with the terrible accident I had at my brother's house in February where I fell down his stupid stairs and rolled my ankle! At least I can still play 'blog tag'!)

2) Transfer responsibility for chores/homework to my children (where it belongs!!) I'm tired of asking about chores/homework. There are certain things that you know you need to do and you should do them without your mother reminding you!!

3) Keep getting up when life knocks me down. It would be so easy to stay down, and sometimes it's hard to get back up.

3 current obsessions:

1) Blogging!!
2) NCIS (It's been months since I discovered it, and I still can't get enough!)

3) Blogging.

3 fears:

1) That I will never have an empty nest. At least 5 out of the 9 people currently living in my house should be out on their own. (I love you all, but you know it's true!)

2) spiders!! I hate them, they have way to many legs and when they look at me like that it gives me the chills!3) That I will someday NOT get up when life knocks me down.

3 random facts:
1) I used to date Diane's brother, Scott, when we were in high school.
2) I once got my finger stuck in a custom steering wheel and had to go to the emergency room to have it removed. (I am NOT kidding and would be glad to tell you the whole story if you buy me lunch!)
3) I secretly hope that I will never have an empty nest. (It would be so boring!)

So, there you go, Diane, I hope you're happy now. I may have exceeded my blog quota for the week by blogging twice in one day, but at least I'm not 'it' anymore.

I hereby tag: Jenna, Cherie, and Marcie (but I don't think she'll play--surprise me, Marcie, play tag with me!)