What a fabulous Halloween! Happy November >^..^<
Archive for the 'home' Category
Cooking and canning 50+ pounds of tomatoes-turned-tomato sauce; reading, replying and then filing or deleting ALL of my work emails; ordering customized hammers and name tags; being kept company by not one, but two cewtie pooches; filling out the stack of back-to-school forms AC brought home last week; mapping out Vegan Treats for Jase who just so happens to be a mere mile from the shop; watching television (I’m not at home); ordering brochures for Guidance for Growing; finishing posters for a work event; and trying to figure out why the hell I haven’t gone to the gym in… five days (yipes!).
Yeah. So it’s like four hundred fucking degrees outside, and has been for the past several days. We don’t have air conditioning, so I am acutely aware of this heatwave, scheduled to finally break tomorrow after four days of consistently disgusting hot and humid weather. It’s not so bad when I sit directly under the ceiling fan in my living room, but clearly it’s unreasonable to think that I’ve been able to stay in that spot since Saturday. Today, there’s been several occasions when I’ve had to move into other rooms, go out front to take phone calls and leave the house to shuttle the monster around. Also there’s a kind of stressful situation at work that needs my attention. And my feet hurt. All this combined means I’m pretty much Miss Cranky Pants.
This is all a set-up, you realize.
I finally found some consolation in writing, and spent over an hour composing a blog post centered around sustainability; woven with tid-bits about my mom and dad, becoming vegetarian and holding oneself accountable. It was sweet, and I felt good for sitting down and actually writing. I may have even forgot about the heat. At least for a second or two. Just as I was wrapping thing up, I deleted it. Something funky happened with the laptop touch pad thingie and I somehow highlighted and then typed over the entire post with an “er.” I right-clicked undo, which got rid of the “r.” Right-clicked undo again which… did nothing.
Mother. Fucker.
I actually cussed out loud at the computer. Then I stomped around the (hot as hell) house. And then I decided to remove myself from the situation. My camera was out and my daily photo not yet taken. I snapped a few pics of the sidewalk garden, during which I was invited to play a game of Disney Bingo. One thing led to another, I played some games, got some more photos, bought a bottle of wine to ease the tension collecting in my shoulders and settled down a bit. Settled down enough to write all this, anyway. Maybe I’ll try to recreate that original post tomorrow.
So. I’ve officially been telecommuting and homeschooling for two weeks. My mission has been to be prepared, not planned. It appears as though this simple approach was the best choice I could have made.
On the work front, I’m keeping track of all my projects diligently with a neat to-do list, arranging schedules so that I can get to meetings and communicating efficiently with all my awesome coworkers. On the homeschooling front, we’re enjoying a decompressing “de-schooling” period, stumbled onto a fun homeschoolers gym class at the Y and are realizing just how many in-real-life learning opportunities happen every single day.
We’re also still struggling a bit to find that work/school/home and family/alone time balance, we’ve gotten on each other’s nerves once or 30 times and we’re a little bit more disorganized that I’d like us to be.
But, overall, the good keeps getting gooder and the bad is so far straightening itself out. I feel incredibly blessed that I was able to do this for my family. Especially for Sir Azrielle McPurrsons, aka Tubby, Tub, Tubblies. How did he LIVE WITHOUT ME during the days?!
My sister and I had a birthday brunch for our dad. It was fun, stress-free (thanks to The List and Jase), colorful, yummy and filled my house with love. If only all Sundays could be so lovely :)
The details, menu list and more photos are on the flick’r album. Happy birthday, Daddy-O! <3 <3 <3
Due to an unusual series of events, I’ve recently found myself in the company of three lovely credenzas. Actually, I suppose they’re dressers, but I’m re-purposing them as credenzas. Specifically, I plan on re-purposing *one* of them as a credenza for the dining room in my small rowhome, but I’m not sure which one.
Ironically, this all started as a decluttering challenge at MotheringDotCommune. Yet somehow, I’ve managed to clutter my living space like never before.
I’ve set each of them up, snapped photos, asked the boyfriend and the son their opinions and considered each piece’s pros and cons. And what do I have to show for all this effort? Confusion and doubt. At this point, I’m at credenza saturation.
Whine.
Update Feb. 28: Check out the opinions at Apartment Therapy!
The ginormous hibiscus in my white flower garden finally bloomed. I saw the other white flowers taking bets as to whether it was going to bloom before it was being devoured by Japanese beetles. Fuckers. (The beetles, I mean, not the other white flowers.)
This photo and some others have been added to my flick’r album. I especially like this little guy:
Reminds me of fireworks :) Pretty, pretty, pretty!
Ah ha ha hahahaaha! :D
Hey, did I tell you about the other weekend when Jase ripped down part of the porch to get to a creature that had been chewing at the wood facade?
And how maybe I might have encouraged him to do so, you know, before irreversible damage was done and the entire row was infested with warrior carpenter ants! or bees! or mice! all because of us!
And how actually, ha, ha! there wasn’t even one single creature up there after all! Huh, who knew?
And then how he got to spend the next six hours rebuilding the torn up porch? The porch that didn’t need to be torn up in the first place. And all ON HIS DAY OFF?
No? I didn’t mention that? Huh…
I guess I didn’t tell you about the slippers, either then.
I have a thing for white flowers. I love them for their contrast against their greens, for their crisp style, for their starkness and honesty, for their simple elegance, for their light.
It’s interesting because elsewhere in my life, white does not play much of a role. I’m inclined to wear black and earth tones, I’ve painted my home in bold colors and I famously inject brightly-colored veggies into my (already vibrant green) guacamole.
But white flowers, especially little ones, just get to me. And it hasn’t always been that way; only in the past year or so. I seek them out, and one of my three gardens is white flowers only. Is that peculiar? It wasn’t planned, it just kind of happened, almost without my knowing.
I mean, who knew I was such an elitist?
Looking back, I think it may have begun with the purchase and subsequent repainting of the house. Black had always been my favorite, but it’s certainly not useful when considering room and trim colors. With the bright color palate I chose, and trim and baseboards well beyond refinishing to original wood, white seemed to be the solitary paint chip left. Maybe that’s where white began worming its way into my visions?
I suppose it started slowly, this favoritism with white flowers, as most habits and crushes do. This seems different though, as I am a very conscious person. I combat my inner Virgo perfectionist by deliberately, but slyly making a decision, then quietly integrating new priorities into my daily life. Otherwise, I get so caught up in the organizing and planning and plotting and mapping, that I never actually do what I had intended in the first place, as it all gets too overwhelming and seemingly impossible.
Oddly, I didn’t make an aware decision to plant white flowers, I just found myself doing it, and on trips to nurseries, dismissing suggestions of plants that produced other-colored petals. The two plants at the top of my list? A white rhododendron and a white bleeding heart.
(I know moms aren’t supposed to have a favorite, the obviously, the bleeding heart has a special place in my - er, heart.)
Which brings me here, now. Clearly with an objective to surround myself with pretty white flowers, but also with a “how did I get here” question on my face. And what does any clever do when pondering the meanings and subtleties of life? Turn to the internet, of course!
In my searches, I found this insanely creative and fun website about colors, http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/#. Please do investigate :)
Other tidbits upon which I stumbled:
White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity. –http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html
Strictly speaking, white is not a color, but the manifestation of the presence of all color - the complete energy of light. It stands for wholeness and completion. In many cultures it represents openness and truth. White has a cold quality. It can provide clarity as its energy is complete.
White has purification vibrations and can be used to clear blocks from your path. It holds the potential to move toward every other color and this makes it a good choice for new beginnings, and development in any direction.
Put some white in your life when you want: * to clear clutter and obstacles away * to start a fresh beginning * to bring about mental clarity * purification of thoughts or actions
– http://crystal-cure.com/white.htmlMeaning of the color white:
How the color white effects us mentally and physically * aids mental clarity * encourages us to clear clutter or obstacles * evokes purification of thoughts or actions * enables fresh beginnings – http://www.sensationalcolor.com/content/view/1063/144/
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