Missing in Action

Yep - that's me. I've been missing in action. Has it really been a week since I posted something? Umm...no...a week plus a day. Wow. And how can it be that after this long of time I still have nothing to talk about? Nothing all that exciting has been happening around here. Just life. And sometimes there is just nothing that can be said. You know?

Here's something; the knob to the trash compactor is missing. I know! I couldn't' believe it myself and I'm sure you are equally perplexed. How does a knob just disappear into thin air? It was there last time I needed to crush stuff but then, Monday, it was gone. Poof.

The kids and I searched the area in the garage but came up with nothing. I dug through old garbage as much as I was willing to do (trust me - a line had to be drawn somewhere because well....we have dogs and Sunday Dakota scooped the yard. Enough said.) I finally reached for the phone book and looked up the Service and Parts number for Sears. A new knob is on its way as I type this so by next Monday, I will once again be crushing the trash.

See? I told you not much was going on. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another year has come and gone and the holiday season is here once again. It's crazy how fast time flies by - and I swear that with each passing month is goes faster and faster.

I remember when I was a child and my grandmother said something about time flying and I groaned and said "No it doesn't. It will take FOREVER until I'm nine!" She laughed that great grandma laugh of hers and said "Just you wait. The older you get, the faster time will move."

I didn't believe her then. I sure believe her now.

I hope that you all have many, many things to be thankful for this year when you sit down at the table. I know that I do. Yes, it's been a year of tremendous loss but I also have so much for which to be thankful. I hope you do as well.

Amazed

I'm really amazed and how many people are starting to find my blog. It's really fun to get comments from people and then track back and and their blogs. I love this blog stuff - it's like the old time neighborhoods where people knew each other and would say hello and maybe make some small talk. Or maybe hang out with each other in the morning to chat and enjoy a cup of coffee.

I know, that for me as a stay at home mom, I often feel isolated. Almost everyone in my neighborhood is gone all day long. I see them pulling into their driveways in the evening hours, coming home after their long day. A few people I wave to whenever I see them but I don't know anyone well enough to pop over visit.

It's sad, really. I think we would all be much better off if we took the time to get to know each other. Connections to other people are so important. So my point would be this; Welcome! And thank you for coming to visit me and for saying hello. I am enjoying getting to know you all through your comments and emails.

Coffee - and why is there never enough?

You would think that a 10 cup pot would be plenty of coffee. And I guess it should be but there is something about having a hot cup of coffee in my hands. It just makes everything make sense. Which probably makes no sense at all unless, like me, you are java-addicted. It's not the caffeine. Well - it is in the morning. At least two cups need to be high octane but in the afternoon I just crave holding a nice steaming cup of...well..something...in my hands. If it didn't make me so darn jittery, I'd have a cup in my hands all day long.

Sure, sure - you're right. There is decaf. But I don't want to have to make a whole other pot of coffee and to me, decaf seems like a waste of perfectly good coffee.

It's 3:43pm right now and I am enjoying my last cup of the day. *sigh* That actually makes me a bit sad. That last one of the day. But alas, tomorrow there will be a brand new pot just waiting for me. It really is the simple things in life, isn't it? :)

Weekend Movies

Believe it or not, we saw three movies this weekend. One was even in a theater. the likes of which I have not been in since December 2006. Thank heavens for a grandmother who was willing to babysit and a partner who thought to ask and set it up. :) Loved it. Must have more child free time. :)

Anyway, from Pay Per View we watched In the Land of Women and Knocked Up. Both were well...not exactly what I had hoped for.

In the Land of Women felt like it had potential but too many holes in the story. Basically this 26 year old guy goes to stay with his grandmother in the Midwest after getting his heartbroken in his hometown of Los Angeles. He ends up falling for the married neighbor across the street though that is complicated because she not only is battling breast cancer but her teen aged daughter falls for the 26 year old, too. It had its moments but overall, I'm glad I didn't pay theater prices to see it. :)

Knocked Up....well now, that one was ok but it could have been tons better if they had left out a few hundred "F" words. OY! I'm not a prude by any stretch but it was waaaaay over the top. I was so distracted at times by the language that it took away from the funny parts of the movie. It was ok but again, I'm glad I only paid $3.99 to see it. :)

Yesterday's movie was great!!! Martian Child was well worth the cost of the ticket! I loved it so much (and no, I don't think it had anything to do with getting out of the house, away from the kids and alone with the love of my life....though those things certainly didn't hurt!). Such a great, great story.

Not that I'm a movie critic or anything but I say two thumbs up! It's heartwarming and sappy - just the right amount for me. :)

Two Weeks

We hit the movie rental store on Saturday and I happened across the movie Two Weeks starring Sally Field who plays a mother whose children rush to her bedside for her final days. I was immediately drawn to it because it seemed to parallel my life. I showed it to the love of my life and she said something to the effect of "Seriously? Didn't we just live through this? Why do we want to watch it happen to other people?"

I didn't really have an answer for her but if I did I think it would have been something along the lines of "So I can see what it looked like from the outside looking in instead of from the inside." What I did say was "Well - I want to see it. You don't have to watch it with me but I want to see it." Bless her buttons, she did watch it with me. :)

It was really well done. The siblings were faced with working out their relationships with each other (though it could have used a follow up type scene at the end instead of just ending it the day of the funeral) as well as dealing with the complicated mother/child relationship. It wasn't all neat and tidy and tied up with a bow because well - I don't think having a parent die can ever be neat and tidy when it comes to the relationships within a family.

I loved how the death of the mother was supposed to be imminent but then a week and a half into it, when the mother was still alive (though unconscious), the hospice nurse took the grown children aside and said she had no idea how their mother was still alive. That particular scenario took five weeks to play out when my mom died this past spring and two solid weeks of "We have no idea how or why she is still with us. It could be any time or it could be days longer. We just don't know."

It was a good movie. Very well done. Very real.

Clearing it out.....still

Eight bags. Yes, you read that correctly. We removed a grand total of eight bags of clothing from our closet this week. In addition I managed to clear out a few other bags and boxes of stuff we no longer need, want or use. It feels so darn good! I need to start working in the kitchen next as I know there are several things that can be removed from cabinets. We bought a 4 slice toaster two years ago but that didn't inspire us to get rid of the small 2 slice one we had. Oh no - we just shoved it back in the cabinet to keep "just in case". Sure, it made sense to keep it for a week to be sure the new toaster worked out and all but after that? Hello??? Can you say "donate"? It still works - it just isn't what we need anymore.

And what is it about those plastic kid cups that they give kids in restaurants? How many does one family need? I keep trying to explain to the love of my life that we don't need to take them home with us and, if by chance we do take them because they are still holding a child's unfinished drink, we certainly do not need to go to the trouble of washing them and storing them. I kid you not, we have about 20 of those cups taking up space in a cabinet. Yes, they are stacked but they are *still* taking up space. It would be one thing if we used them but honestly? Don't you think two would be enough to hold onto?

I'm trying so hard to move out the stuff we don't need/want/use so that we have space in our life for things we do need.

I have a quote on the fridge (never mind it's been hanging there for ummm...6 years? I know we moved it from our last house to this one at least 5 years ago) that I love and it is so true: "The space for what you want is filled with what you settled for instead."

Personally, I take that to mean I have settled into having things I no longer want or need and it's cluttering up my life and making it impossible for there to be room for things I do want and need. Take my closet, for instance; it had clothes in it from the early 90's. I've had two kids since then and well....they sure as heck don't fit now. And even if they did, do you really think I should be wearing them? Yeah - me either. So by clearing them out of my closet, I have made room for a new, updated shirt that I may (or may not) one day run across. But if I don't clear out that old stuff, there will never be room for new. And to go a step further, I think holding on to some stuff just holds you back in other ways. Keeps you tied to the past...the person you used to be.

I used to be 130lbs and 30 years old. I'm no longer either but holding on to those size 8 pants held me back and, frankly, made me feel pretty crappy about myself. So the mission continues. I'm clearing out, cleaning up, decluttering and organizing.

And I have never been so happy to see the donation truck pull up, load up and drive off as I was today.