Pandora and a bowl of chips (JUNK food!!) and a few minutes of quiet while my boys take their sweet selves to their rooms, book rest. I was thinking 'what to do? what to do?' and then I stumbled across this article about how blogging is as much as an outlet as creating or building or excersizing and I decided I still love blogging...
here I am.
Oh, and I brought some photos of our normal life with me:
We returned last night from a fun little weekendish outing. We had scheduled a camping trip, but sadly it was predicted to be super stormy so we took the easy way out and called my folks...asked if we could crash them. With another family of 4. Eleven of us, in all. They said yes and we went and had a lovely, lovely time. So very fun!
Now I'm home and thinking about the reorganization I'm doing around the house...did you know that it's a tricky thing when you have three floors? And I'm thinking about painting.... I have 5 rooms to paint (breathe) and hallways that run upstairs (breathe) and trim (breathe!!) and really could stand to do the spare bedroom (choke, die.)
No, really. Almost dead. Mostly dead. And then I just forget about it and feel fine again.
That reminds me of a new trick...
I once read about a sweet little lady who coined the phrase "standing and staring." I'm pretty sure she meant it to be used as follows: "I knew my room needed something different. I knew I must move a chair, or hang a picture, but I need a change. So I'm just standing and staring, trying to figure it out."
I stand and stare on a regular basis, but it's much more like standing and staring because I can't figure out what on earth I'm going to do to begin these unsurmountable tasks that I myself have assigned to me. I don't know where to begin (breathe) and I'm never, ever going to get this all done AND still be a mom AND make dinner, too. So now, I'm standing and staring, trying to breathe, completely overwhelmed.
(Staring in the yard is better than staring at my busy house)
So I have a new trick. It's not organized or efficient but it gets me out of the standing part and helps me move. I suppose I've developed it from my days with FlyLady and all that. It's a 20 minute trick.
I just decide to work at something for 20 minutes. One thing. Yes, I set a timer. 20 minutes gets me from staring at the dishes and gets them in the dishwasher. Then 20 minutes getting the laundry processed. 20 minutes playing a game of LuckyBoy with my Eli- 'cause he asked. 20 minutes moving furniture in the family room, 20 minutes moving office stuff up to the office. 20 minutes vacuuming then 20 back at the laundry. I can do several sets of 20 minutes without standing and staring and be pretty productive, at least for an hour.
(This is what I love...dinner at our house Thursdays usually calls for early Small Group visitors....squishing around the dinner table for tacos with friends. (Doesn't this room need paint?)
Now, mind you, you'll find me staring again in an hour or two and then I know it's time to quit, I'm tired.
BUT, my boys, they're big. I mean it's all relative....so if you saw me 4 years ago my boys would've been 2, 4 & 6 and I sat and nursed and stared, or worked in 5 minute increments and settled for a messy house and happy, sometimes dressed children and mama. Days are different now. Anyhow...
My plans for the summer, all those things on my list might get just a wee bitty bit done with this little trick I'm doing. We'll see. I'll be really pleased if I get 4 rooms painted.
Oh, and I'm looking for input. We are painting the main parts of the house a beige-boring color that goes well with the floors and couches. Then there is a dark in color, not shade green in the family and school room. Then we have the stairs. It will be some time before we cover the stairs with hardwood steps so we're planning to paint them..try and make it look decent while we wait.
So I want to know, what color would you paint these stairs?
a day out, fishing for my sweetie
Morning Reading/Snuggle...favorite!!
Laundry and Kapla
Oh! And a new garden of rocks and succulents. Want to mail me any hens & chicks? Taking donations from anywhere!!
Playing games on the squishy-lovely rug...but watch out, it eats marbles!
And I just got a text from my husband, he's coming home and the masses are getting hungry...again. Time to stop staring at this screen and wrangle up something to feed my cowboys.
I hope things are going well with y'all and thanks for tolerating my rambling. Please do comment and suggest a color for my gianormous stairs....
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