Thursday, May 31, 2007

A Boogie or a Ciggie?

My bed-time conversation with my 10 year-old son went something like this tonight. Let's set the stage by saying that he's a nose-picker. I've made it clear that this is a disgusting thing to do in front of people, but it doesn't dissuade him in the least. Perhaps an intervention is needed, or so I thought...


L: picking his nose

Me: Bud, please stop picking your nose.

L: But I can't.

Me: It's gross...please don't do it in front of me.

L: It's a habit

Me: It's a bad habit

L: Well so is smoking. At least I'm not doing that.


Touche little buddy. I guess an intervention is not that necessary after all.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Unintentional Pack Rat

On July 13th I will settle on my first home. It's quite a good thing that I'm not superstitious in the least, because after looking over the calendar last weekend I realized that this particular 13th is a Friday. I'll just have to make a point to walk under a ladder and cross paths with a black cat on that day as well.

With the move just weeks away I started sorting through things today so I can rid my house of the junk that I neither want nor use nor have even laid eyes on in the last six years. See, I'm not a pack rat intentionally. But I'm not very organized and my life as a single mom has made it increasingly difficult to get to a state of organization and order. So when my desk piles high and dad's coming to stay for a week over Christmas, instead of weeding through the piles and piles of papers on my desk, I put them in a box or a bag and they are banished to the basement. Why not just throw them away you ask? Because somewhere in the piles I'm certain that there is at least one document, card, school paper, or piece of kiddie art that I must relish for all eternity. So I keep it all until I have time to go through it. Of course...it's never gone through. And so the piles and piles of crap and needless junk grow.

Every time I clean off the desk or the counter I promise myself the clutter and chaos won't happen again. But it does. And I'm pretty certain it's because I don't have a system. So if you have a good system - one that works to keep the clutter of paper at bay - please let me know!

So today, instead of tackling papers I tackled bedroom closets and dressers. It's remarkable all the clothing that just sits around not being worn. I ended up with one bag of clothes for my friend's son and seven bags of clothes and other accessories that will be donated. I'm grateful to have plenty and grateful to be able to give. I'm also grateful that when it's time to actually pack my home up for the move I'll have a lot less stuff to shuffle around.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Three Times is a Winner!

After a week of negotiating, I have signed a contract for my very first house! It took three offers for them to accept, but they did, and I'm glad. I'm both terrified and elated about this new step. But when I look to the future for me and my boys in this new place, I can see us at peace there, growing into our new home together.

If all goes well with the inspection, I should move in at the end of July. It's hard to believe.

Thank you guys for your excitement and support!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

No Longer a Dream

Sometimes you dream of something for so long that you believe it's too far out of reach to ever become reality. Until it is reality.

Today I put an offer in on a house...for the very first time.

I'm waiting with a knot in my stomach and butterflies of excitement and anticipation.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Five Questions

The lovely Katie asked me these 5 questions:

1) You are an exercise machine - tell me about yourself....
I'd have to say dumb-bells. Enough said.

2) If you were describing your monsters, what would you have to say about them?
My monsters, huh? Some of them are dark and sneaky and hideous. They lurk in corners and pounce when I am at my weakest. They are insidious and manipulative. And there are some, far fewer, that are like sheep in wolves clothing. They look scary and wild, but if I'm patient and kind and dare to befriend them...they reciprocate.

3) Pete talks about the 7 stages of man, in your eyes, what are the seven stages of a woman?
This is a challenge for me, but I'll give it a shot. In all honesty, I don't know that I believe this mumbo-jumbo that i just let roll from my fingertips.

1. Infant - dependant and vulnerable
2. Child - imaginative and creative, investigating her world
3. Dreamer of possibilities - forming her dreams and longings as a young girl in the secret places of her heart.
4. Equalizer - determined to prove herself...as strong and valuable and worthy of wanting. Or in some cases, as equal to the male species. Dreams and longings are often tucked away here.
5. Contented - she stops proving and finds peace in who she is.
6. Princess - fully accepting herself and where she is in life, she is beautiful inside and out...she decides to relish in the present, letting unrealized dreams and desires go, which let her be truly free and unbound.
7. Child - being fully in the present, she can be who she was meant to be - unhindered.

If you believe any of that, please send payment using my paypal account.

4) Compare yourself to your favorite food... then compare an aspect of yourself to the food you dislike most and explain your choices.
I don't have one favorite food, so let's go with olives. Olives are zesty and pungent. Most people either love them or hate them. But like some other foods, they can also be an acquired taste. Sometimes they have a pit in the middle...which needs to be spit out...and other times they are stuffed with a little surprise.

I'm a big seafood lover, but when it comes to scallops. Ick. Scallops are somewhat gritty. I mean, they're a muscle from a mollusk. Not just any muscle, but the muscle that clamps the two halves of the shell together. But I digress...it's the grit that I dislike. In a way, I can be a little gritty, or abrasive if you will. I'm not afraid to say no or make my boundary clear. Some don't like that.


5) List 3 people that you admire from different medias (literature , movie , singer etc) and share with us their qualities that you admire most.

Terry Gross - she's the host of NPR's Fresh Air. I love her airy, soothing voice and her ability to gently interview a person with grace and dignity even while asking tough questions. I especially admire her for the research she has to do in order to know her interviewee, their history, their story, their situation, inside and out. She is a lover of people of art and of history. I would love to meet her some day.

Wayne Brady - okay, i know this is ridiculous, but I so admire his ability to be spontaneous. Plus, he cracks me up. When someone can make me laugh out loud, that's something to admire.

Keith Green - although he's no longer alive, he was a huge inspiration to me. I admire him for his immense musical and lyrical talent, but more so for his bold message which he shared through song, but also in his book, No Compromise. He lived what he believed. That's admirable.


* Leave a comment at my blog saying, “Interview me.” Include your blog URL.

* I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

* You will update your web blog with the answers to the questions.

* You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

* When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Haiku

There are a few new haiku on my Artsy Things page. Not sure why i didn't put them here too. But I didn't. Feel free to go and visit if you'd like.