Challenge: Days 25-29

Dang, sorry!  I know I haven't  posted since Monday, so here's the scoop.

Day 25:  I got my assistant a gift.  She likes to do cooking activities with our class and she was eying a cookbook at the Book Fair, so I got it for her.  She loved it.

Day 26:On Wednesday I had a good conversation with my new boss.  She is feeling a little "out of the loop" so I made sure to talk about some stuff that is coming up that she may not know about yet.  We tend to plan things, let everyone know, then not really send out reminders as things come up, so this is not really surprising, and nobody means to not let her know things, but she was not here for the start of the plans going on now, so she wasn't notified.  This is rectified now.  

Day 27:On Thursday, my new boss went to a meeting with our big boss, and I reassured her about the things she wanted to talk to him about.  This was her first meeting with him, and he's not always an open book.  

Day 28:On Friday, I gave a coworker a ride to work.  Her car is giving her a lot of problems lately, and I know how that feels!  Anyway, we had a lovely chat on the way to work.  I might try to institute an occasional ride together just for the chat.

Day 29: Today I made sure my daughter and I did something fun.  We've been financially strapped a lot lately, so we went to the bookstore and had a nice drink and looked at magazines and books.  I have really curtailed my book-buying over the last year.  Kaleigh went to the pet store and took pictures of adorable kittens and puppies.  Typical.

I also cleaned out my closet this morning.  I mean REALLY cleaned it out.  Ruthlessly.  I took everything out, and tried it on before deciding whether to keep, toss or donate.  If I haven't worn it in the last couple of months (except for cold-weather items), I donated it.  If it didn't look good or fit properly, I donated it.  As the donation pile got bigger, it got easier to do.  Anything that needed alterations went into another pile--ONLY if I was sure I would do the alteration.  Anything that was worn out went into the toss pile.  Very liberating.  If the item made the cut, I went back into the closet where it belonged.  I put my work clothes on the left (outfits together on the hanger), odd stuff in the middle with dresses, dress clothes on the right, and jackets, sweaters and winter coat on the far right.  I'm not kidding when I say I have about 1/3 of what I had hanging in there yesterday.  I immediately took the donate stuff to Goodwill, and threw out the garbage.  I even got rid (GASP!) of several pair of shoes.  While I'm not a proponent of that, I figure it makes room for new shoes.  Okay, not exactly ROOM, but you get my meaning.  

Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the sewing room.  I'm a very messy sewer (seamstress, not something to do with sewage), and I want to get the room ready for the things I want to work on for Christmas presents.  I have lots of quilt tops too, so I'd like to get some of those done.  

Tomorrow I'm also going to pull out my green bean plants, they are eaten up by something.  I have no idea what, but they look awful.  The squash never had ANY female flowers, only male flowers, so I didn't get ONE, SINGLE SQUASH!  Damn it!  Very disappointing.  Especially since I couldn't figure out why so I didn't learn anything to do differently next time.  My passion plant has caterpillars on it--this is absolutely the mark of success.  That means they will eat some leaves, but I will have more butterflies, which is a wonderful thing.   The world needs more miracles, and butterflies are miracles for sure.  

Merry Christmas to All. . .

I'm a very happy girl tonight.  It's Christmas night, and Kaleigh and I have had a perfectly LOVELY Christmas.  We ended up having our family Christmas party at our house--Mom just wasn't ready for that kind of crazy yet--and it turned out very nice. 

My big girl got married on Friday, December 21.  She looked gorgeous.  I wish I could have been there, but I can't dwell on that too much.  Brett and her dad were there, so that's good, I guess.  And Bianca, who spent the day telling her how pretty she looked.  I'm so proud of her. 

I still have a week off work, and I'm going to do some serious purging and organizing.  Maybe a room a day.  Tomorrow is my bathroom.  I really need to pare down the amount of makeup I hoard... I mean keep on my counter.  It's kind of ridick.  I also need to weed out my old yucky towels and maybe I'll go crazy and buy some nice new ones. 

I'm also going to wash my new flannel sheets that my mom (a woman after my heart) got me for Christmas and get my nice, clean, fresh-smelling new ones on my bed.  Yea! 

Last year was the year of embracing the Amie, what will next year be?  What will be different?  What do I want to keep doing?  I've been thinking about this, but the thoughts just roll around.  I can't make them gel.  I guess I still have a few days to think and process my ideas. 

Research--my new normal.

I've been reading a lot of blogs about sustainability in central Florida, and I'm actually learning a lot.  Yesterday I stopped at a couple of nurseries and bought a few tomatoes and cucumber plants for the beds.  They look really good, and the beans I planted last weekend are a couple of inches tall already thanks to some weird rain we've been having this week.  The lettuce is just starting to come up and also looks good.  I will get the tomatoes and cucumbers in later today. 

I visited my mom at the hospital yesterday, which was a little upsetting.  She is very confused and has been combative, although she wasn't yesterday while I was there.  She did introduce me as Mary Kay several times, so she has a little hospital dementia. 

Kaleigh and I have started the massive organizing project of our house.  I am doing SOMETHING towards this every day.  This weekend I'm going to get in the sewing room and try to get it together.  I'm trying to find a way to sell the antique bedroom set--I adore it, but nobody else likes it and if I'm not going to use the spare room as a guest room, there is no good place to put it.  My next big project is going to be organizing the laundry closet.  There's a lot of stuff in there that could go, and I want it to look nicer.  Reinforcing the shelves is going to be important too.

More later.  Gotta go have lunch with two of my favorite people in the world.

Holiday Weekends. . .

Holiday weekends--who doesn't love them?  There is just nothing like having an extra day to do whatever you want.  Kaleigh has been at a friends for two nights, so I've had some really quiet "me time".  I think I needed it.  I ran a few errands, and worked on my quilt, made some plans,and just generally sat with my thoughts for awhile.  Very nice.  I've been thinking about some changes I want to make in my life, and this is difficult for me.  Last night I made some roasted vegetables for my dinner, they were really good, I think I should eat that kind of thing more often. 

I've decided to move some things around the house, mainly in my bedroom.  I need to clean out my closet, and move a chair in there.  Get rid of some clothes, and generally organize stuff.  Wow, I'm even boring myself. 

I think I'll cook a nice meatloaf and mashed potatoes today for Kaleigh and me.  Also, I need to go to the fabric store and get some yellow 30's reproduction fabric for my quilt.  Kaleigh will want to go with me to get that, and maybe we can stop at the bookstore for a frappe. 

The Flu Kind of Sucks. . .

Thank goodness, I'm feeling almost like a human today.  I've had the flu since Tuesday, and I have been in bed sleeping almost all of that time.  Today I actually got up and accomplished a few things.  Just a very few, but at least something!

While I've been sick, I've had some weird dreams, probably due to antibiotics, but they have been weird.  Like crazy chickens running around.  Weird.

Today Kaleigh is babysitting so I've been able to do a little laundry and clean and sort out my sewing area in peace.  K. and I are soon to make some changes around here as far as responsibilities go.  She doesn't know this yet, I'm still working out some details, but I'm tired of doing most of the work around here while she and her boyfriend sit on the couch, watching Psych, or whatever the heck they watch.  As teenagers go, K. is very low-maintenance, but it's time for some growing up.  She's not going to love it.  I have to do my job as a parent, which is to teach her to be independent, and I don't think I've done that recently. 

My sewing area looks awesome.  I can't wait until I can get in there and start sewing something.  Maybe tonight, if I don't run out of steam.

Tonight for dinner I'm going to roast some chicken, and make rice and peas.  A real dinner.  Since I've been sick, I haven't cooked a thing, and I'm looking forward to real food.  I love soup and all, but I'm over it.  Maybe I'll go crazy and make gravy.  Yummy.

Simple Sunday...actually, it's Monday.

I have renamed Sunday to be Simple Sunday.  I forgot that this was a long weekend, so it's actually Monday, but I did have a simple Sunday yesterday.  I plan on having a simple Monday too.  Then it's back to work. . . and kids . . . and worms. 

I got up early today so I thought I would write a little before the day really begins.  Today is my baby girl's birthday.  I can't believe that she's been in the world for seventeen years.  That seems just crazy.  So seventeen years ago, I was in the military hospital that she was born in, and a midwife had delivered my 10 1/2 pound baby girl.  I highly recommend a midwife, by the way.  She's been high maintenance ever since, but I love the heck out of her.  Today she has an appointment, then we are going to Lake Eola and walk around the lake.  The replica of the Vietnam Memorial is going to be there, which is not birthday celebration material, but we've never seen it and want to.  We already had her celebration anyway, over the weekend.  She's pretty easy to please.

I've been doing a lot of reading--as per my New Year's Wish List (not sure if I put that on the list I posted here, but it's on the list in my journal).  I'm on my fourth book of the year, and it's only January 16.  Pretty pleased about that.  The book I'm reading now is basically a list of projects to do around the house.  Pretty interesting.  Everything from making homemade mead (fermented alcoholic honey), to canning, to gardening, and anything else you can think of.  Even how to make your own composting toilet, which I will never do, but I know how in case anyone else needs one now.  Not sure why I find this stuff so interesting, but I sure am enjoying this book.  It's called "Making It--Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World" by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen.  They are homesteaders in Los Angeles.  I find that an interesting concept.

Yesterday I worked on organizing my sewing area a little bit.  I think I have a LOT of extraneous stuff that could go live somewhere else, so I'm sorting and trying to edit.  NOT easy.  But I know that if I want to spend time sewing, I need to have a pleasant place to go to do it.  And my sewing area is not very pleasant right now.  It's too crowded.  So I will continue working on that this afternoon when we get home. 

The house is cleaned up, and I think I'm going to go make myself a cup of coffee.  I hope my "fans" (all two of you) have a great day.