Don’t Give Up
Via Ann Shen at Annplified
Rally Cry:
I’m serving notice to my soul. And to IZ’s. Because right now, we need to remember that giving up is not an option.
I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been crazy lady painting and getting out the last orders for Christmas from Mireio and dreading. Maybe it’s self-fullfilling prophecy, but I’ve been waiting for another shoe to drop and it finally did in the form of an email demanding more money. Much more money. Money we never heard about, never agreed to, wasn’t allotted by the insurance, and far beyond our means. Money we asked about over and over and were told, “Oh, no, we’re square.”
Which meant work stopped on our home. I have doors placed, but frames are missing. Wood floors laid, but no trim to hide the poor job done cutting. (I’m told that’s how all wood floors are done.) Lots of unpainted surfaces. Tons of trim just waiting to be cut with no means to do so.
We’ve been patient and forgiving. The marble floors that were marred. The 12″ scar in my brand new tub. The work-arounds, late starts, non starts, bad attitudes, garbage piled on my porch for weeks. (so bad, that a rat found one of the vats of left-over drywall mixture and drowned and then proceeded to rot.)
I’ll admit that I’ve lost my faith in anyone who wears a tool belt. And I’m heartbroken to see the state of my home. Which, should have been done with just enough time to bake a few cookies and decorate a tree. Restore some semblance of normalcy to our lives after 6 months of this state of chaos.
Instead, I’m sitting with that feeling. Beating despair back.
So, I’m serving notice to my soul. And to IZ’s as well. Don’t give up. We don’t know what the future holds. What the remedy will be or if there will even be one.
But giving up is not an option. Until it is. And then we will wait for grace.
Warm Hands
Day Five: I gave him a set of hand warmers and a note that said, “Take a brisk walk with mom.”
Bam!:
I gave these hand warmers to the boy this morning and he said, “I have no idea what they are, but they sure smell nice.” Of course they smell nice, I’m not sure I can make anything unscented. It’s a bit of a compulsion, really.
I buy all my herbs wholesale in bulk because of Mireio—but if you don’t have access to a store that will sell peppermint in bulk, you can always use peppermint tea! My guess is you’d just need the contents of one tea bag to split between two hand warmers. If peppermint isn’t your thing, you can use lavender or balsam or maybe something spicy like cinnamon and nutmeg. Hand warmers are super easy to make (google is your friend here!) and the addition of a spice or herb just kicks the project up a notch.
And now I feel a bit like Emeril Legasse. BAM, it’s peppermint.
Little Gifts
I’ve been giving our son little gifts each day as we countdown Christmas. Just small tokens of my affection. Today, I found the little handmade butterfly he left for me on my sewing machine.
The Christmas Spirit
Tiny vintage floral pick—Santa is hanging out in the packaging area of Mireio reminding me of the Christmas Spirit all year long.
December 1, 2011
It’s brisk and bright—classic late autumn weather to usher in December. A month of season changes and celebrations. An ending to a year.
How did we get to December? This year has been a whirlwind.
We are encamped in our living room—and I’m sitting in our bed (where our sofa should be) writing this and wondering, “Where in the heck am I going to put a Christmas Tree?” No, seriously, I’m asking. The living room and the contents of my closet are now in the dining room. To complicate matters new carpets are scheduled to be installed on the main floor right before New Years. So, I’m trying to figure out how I’m supposed to get all this put back together, put up a tree, only to take it right back down again.
I’m going to pitch the idea of a bathroom tree to the boys later today, but you know that’s not going to fly.
Which Are You?
Via Visual Complexity and Amira Skomorowska. Click the Visual Complexity link for the text… it’s so worth reading!
Beautiful.
I had a fabulous blog post planned for today—and then, it disappeared, as blog posts often do. Something about sunshine makes last night’s brilliant idea seem ridiculous. It’s the blogging walk of shame.
Anyhow, my day is jam packed with moving. Moving more of my “crap” from one space to another to make way for the plaster artists (he really is amazing, this guy doing the walls and ceiling!) to work. On today’s list is our bedroom and my walk-in closet. Both the contents of my closet and our King sized bed will be going down a flight of stairs and into our living room for the next three days. Camping! Without the open fire. Good times.
So, busy. But I wanted to share this graphic with you before I forgot. Because it really is amazing. I think it was originally a Mercedes ad, but I thought the text was moving. So often, an author’s bias shows when describing either the right or left brain way of thinking. But in this case, the artist graphically captures the beauty of both ways of being.
Which begs the question. . . which are you? Team Right? Team Left? Either way, you’re beautiful.
Words That Inspire Me
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” ~ Mary Anne Radmacher
***
What words inspire you?
Domesticate Me
Together in the kitchen.
Domesticate Me
One of the ways I stayed sane living in a hotel this summer was to imagine us back in our renovated home. I kept a Pinterest board of all our design ideas because it kept me focused on the outcome, not the destruction! When the process became overwhelming, I would go pin something inspirational. Click, click, breathe, breathe.
Early in the process I found myself imagining cooking in our new kitchen. Um, yeah, you heard correctly. Me cooking. (no it’s not the 8th sign of the apocalypse, yes it’s a bit delusional) So I started a board of recipe ideas that looked both accessible to the uninitiated cook and appetizing. I labeled the board, “Domesticate Me.” And, well. . . the idea snowballed.
Posted in From the Kitchen | 
Tags: cooking, domesticate me, mothering, recipes, teenagers | 
4 Comments »
Anger Management
Someone needs to take some Anger Management courses.
IZ and I talking over our decor scheme over coffee:
Me: “Sigh. You realize our bedroom is the only feminine spot in the house? The entire thing is just so. . . masculine.”
IZ: “That’s not true. Besides, you’re little miss modern. It’s not like you LIKE girly country things.”
Me: “What? Your argument doesn’t hold water. Just because I don’t do calico or chintz doesn’t mean I don’t like feminine things. I adore Hollywood Regency, and that’s like the ultra fem side of modern. We don’t have any chandeliers or leopard print or mirrored furniture anywhere in this house!”
IZ: “Because we can’t afford them.”
Me: “That’s not the point, really. Our house doesn’t look like a girl lives in it. Our house screams MEN live here.”
IZ: “I think our house screams compromise.”
Me: “Uh, more like it screams BUDGET!”
Me: “Actually, our house screams ‘These two idiots were completely enamored by the charm and nostalgia of buying their first home they didn’t think about what an old house costs to fix and are now too house poor to buy real furniture.’”
I think our house might have a yelling problem. What does your house scream about you?
