Beginning an entry stating, oh, how you would like to choke your son is just plain asking for problems so I’ll just leave it as an implication. I mean what could be more fun than three nights spent helping your cherub of a tween with one project after another when a) he doesn’t really seem to appreciate the extra brain/hands/help/spelling/creativity and b) he only brings out the actual instructions when you think you’re done, which also happens to be late the night before it’s all due. I had to keep my evil thoughts fleeting because the minute you start choking people you open up your home to strangers who discover all your secrets and THAT will always be completely embarrassing.
I had a weekend there when I got so much done in the house I was beside myself with glee. I actually broke out in song as I heaved and hoed one bag after another (18 in total) up to the garage to toss or give it away. My costume closet was so beautiful I skyped Molly and Danny so they could admire it too and I kyboshed my June target because at the rate I was going my entire life would be organized in seventeen days.
But as with most fairy tales…there comes a crash.
That weekend was the last time I made any progress. Blasted sports sent me here and there and nobody but nobody asked me if I wanted to be triple booked every minute of my life. I know you’re questioning the need to have an entire closet dedicated to costumes when none of us will ever, ever appear in a musical. But there may come a time in your life when you have to go to a party for a particular decade or decked out for a certain theme and you will thank your lucky stars that you have a friend like me. A month ago, you’d have been traipsing behind me while we pulled options out of 25 different corners of my house but now? I have them all hanging in matching garment bags and tucked in different wig, hat, jewellery and accessory bins. Frankly, I’ve got a big fat smile just writing about it…
Though that’s where I left off. What I noticed about my pattern of organizing is I start my little bursts with a purchase. In the first round I bought more bins with hinges and then there were all those clear bins and yesterday I was at Costco when I saw their plastic folding tables and geez Louise, how did I start this without them? Right now my piles that have to be delivered to this or that bin or upstairs or to a friend…it’s all kicking around in piles on the floor. Literally being kicked around. So my mission this weekend is to use those two tables to sort things into piles…and deliver them wherever the hell they have to go… to make room for more piles of course.
Remo has spent the last three weeks wainscoting our entire first floor because it looks so dull next to the dining room. OMG, I have to write about the dining room too! In May we were the pilot and premier for a new renovation show, my commercial aired twenty times a day until Christmas and…and then POOF it was all over and we had to go back to the life where if we want it done we have to do it all ourselves. The problem with being the hired help is we don’t have a crew cleaning after us. And quite honestly if I trip on the cord for the compressor one more time…I’ll…I’ll…crap, I can’t do anything about it, I’m the one who’s insisted on this.
To wrap this up with my plan (again) for de-cluttering: go through every drawer, every bin, every closet and pull everything out, putting back only that which needs to be kept. Need being the operative word.
As for Brandan? We’re imposing the Hilroy punishment on him. He’s going to have to stick a Hilroy book in every single one of his binders and we want to see a note every day, dated, with whatever instructions the teacher gives. Be who I want to be Brandan, not who I am.
Three products to gush about: I’ve been using the new Loreal Youth Code cream and love it! Someone in the know told me the cream actually does more than they’re allowed to claim. As Steven Tyler said in my favourite American Idol line of last week "Well hellfire save matches, f--k a duck and see what hatches"...Youth Code might be the bomb! For the Canadians who might one day tune in here there are two President’s Choice products that I loved…the Fig and Goat Cheese Blooms (in the appetizer section, I made them for a potluck breakfast when I got home really late from a ski trip the night before and everyone raved about them. I ate 12 and I don’t even like goat cheese). And they have a Loads of Pecan Butter Tart ice cream. It’s the chunks of crust that stole my heart.
And Jeanette? Welcome back. I actually just stayed after work to write something for today so it won’t look like I’m already off the wagon. I want to know where to find you now too! True, warm connections. The older you get, the more they mean to you.
I head over heels adore you. always have, always will.
I think you have a book in you. It would be an absolute best seller.
Posted by: Jeanetteleblanc | February 04, 2011 at 03:44 PM
But what would the title would be? How not to live your life?!?
Posted by: Allisun | February 04, 2011 at 08:58 PM
Awesome to read as always. Keep it up!
Posted by: Barb | February 05, 2011 at 09:02 PM