The Lazy Organizer

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Things were progressing in the sun room.

One day it looked like this.

And then it looked like this because it wasn’t good enough for Stranger so he had to start over.

Back to level one.  At least that is Stranger’s goal.

Did I mention that Stranger is a perfectionist?  I’m convinced that he could accomplish a lot more in life if he could give up this insidious habit.  That is, if he wanted to accomplish more in life.  He’s really the sort of person who can be perfectly happy in any situation he is in which is what I love about him and why he is so capable of putting up with me since I’m the over achiever who creates all the problems around here.  I might feel sorry for him for having to live with me but look what a good time he’s having?

Stranger has now devised a way to get the sand perfectly level so he can install the bricks perfectly flat and perfectly straight.  Saturday he borrowed a saw from our friends to cut the bricks.  Which of course he spent hours getting perfectly clean and ready to go to work.  Which will happen any day now when the stars are perfectly aligned.

I don’t sound like I’m complaining do I?  I’m not!  I love that my sun room floor is going to be perfectly fabulous when it’s done.  I wouldn’t put up with anything less.  And did I mention that it was his idea to finish it?  You know it was because as soon as it’s finished I will have one more room to clean.  The only real reason I might want it done is so I can lock the kids out there when we have company.  Or for special occasions like every day when they are driving me crazy.

In honor of the New Year I have added dates to my Mom’s Mission Impossible list.  Never make a list without dates I always say.  I never used to say it but I do now.  Dates make anything possible!  If you look at my original list it might look like we are a year behind but that is not so.  Surviving a difficult pregnancy might have slowed us down but we are WAY ahead of where we started so we’re doing great!

This is what we’ve accomplished so far. Go us!!

Install pellet stove Nov 2008
Order and install three storm doors November 08
Finish cleaning out garage October 08
Clean out girl’s bathroom September 08
Fix plumbing on three toilets August 08
Build laundry chute door August 08
Paint bathtub skirt August 08
Paint Kitchen Island August 08
Dirt road and driveway May 08
Put up storage shelves in basement April 08
Install pantry cabinets March 08
Buy cabinets for pantry January 08 More photos, and more
Start decorating girl’s room Dec. 07
Install house numbers Oct. 07
Build chicken coop Oct. 07
Design pantry cabinets Sept. 07
Install garage sink faucet Sept. 07
Cement sidewalk and steps Sept. 07
Design and order Island for kitchen Aug. 07
Order landscaping design Aug. 07

What are your plans for the New Year?

Persistence and I have had a little power struggle going on over her room for about the last year.

We don’t really argue about it. I just want to decorate it my way and she wants to decorate it her way.

Imagine that.

My way is pretty and girlie and her way is with horses.  I don’t have a problem with horses as long as they are pretty.  And girlie.  And when I say girlie I don’t mean pink.  Because pink is for girls, you know, not for my Persistence.  Several months ago I finally figured out that she wasn’t just trying to be annoying.  She was serious.  So I took out the few things I had collected for her room and decided to think about it later.

After I made Muscles an apron for Christmas I wanted to make the girls’ pillowcases.  Last year I made them aprons and him a pillowcase.  I don’t know what it is with me and aprons and pillowcases.  I knew Persistence liked brown and lately she has been saying her favorite color is blue.  So I pictured it in my mind.  I would walk into the fabric store and find fabric that was blue and brown and exactly what she would love.

Guess what happened?

I walked into the store and the first fabric my eyes fell upon was this.

It wasn’t exactly what I had imagined but it was perfect and I knew it.  I was a little worried about the green so when I got home I asked her again what her favorite color was.  “Blue and green,” she said.  Ok!  We’re in business!

All of the fabric except the dots is from a line by Tula Pink called Flutterby.  This is the other reason it’s so perfect for my daughter that is NOT a girl.  It has bugs on it!  Persistence loves bugs and flying, creeping things.  She has been catching bees and carrying them around in jars since she was three years old.  How does a three year old catch bees?  And why?  I have no clue.  She just did.

She also collects butterflies,

And caterpillars,

And snails.

And dragonflies.

This one is difficult to see but there are dragonflies there too.

Then I added the dots because I’m in love with dots.

She loves the fabric just as much as I do and we have both decided to paint her upper walls in the teal blue.

So she got her favorite colors.

And bugs.

I got girlie ruffles and bows.

And a happy Persistence.

She’s so happy with her pillows that she drags them out to the living room every time she wants to read in her big comfy chair.

Just don’t tell her how happy this makes her Mom.

I started out with big plans.  I wanted to have one of those mythical days where the older kids lay around and read all day.  And the three year old plays quietly on the floor with her Play Mobil.  And the baby takes long naps.  And nobody fights or messes up the house or gets hungry.  And I get to read and plan my life and take a nap all while never leaving my couch.

Here’s how it really went down.

I spent all morning cleaning the kitchen, making breakfast, and selfishly taking a shower while the kids watched the baby for me.

The rest of the day the kids read for three whole minutes at a time.  In between playing card games and fighting about the rules when they were losing and about who had to put the game away when the other person stomped off in a huff because they didn’t get their way.  After reading for another three minutes they were back at each other’s throats and my ears again.

Lovely could only be entertained if I was reading her the most idiotic stories ever published or playing Go Fish with her.  It’s a good thing Go Fish is my all time favorite game otherwise I might not have had any fun.  If you don’t agree, try playing Candy Land 57,000 times and then you will think Go Fish is the best thing since cranberry salsa.

I finally got the baby to take one thirty minute nap in which I put Lovely to bed in spite of her shouting, “MEANIAC,” at me for not letting her stay up to destroy whatever it was she was intent on destroying.

That’s when I passed out on the couch.  You know.  For five minutes before Sweetness woke up again.

I finally gave up on my dreams and just put everyone to work until Stranger got home and I could cry on his shoulder.  Except that there wasn’t time for that because we had to feed everyone again and put them to bed.

If I weren’t so tired in spite of my extravagant nap this afternoon I might stay up and do that reading I have been dying to do.  Ironically I’m trying get past the first chapter of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  For some reason I think this book is going to change my life and I will actually be able to start accomplishing things.  I mean in my next life where I don’t have babies and three year old’s and bossy eight and eleven year old’s and I’m sad and lonely and spending less time wondering why someone would decorate their pizza place with a urinal and spending more time getting lots of stuff done.

Hopefully you had as little time to write down your New Year’s goals today as I did.

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I know I said I wanted to go to the beach for Christmas but we have had a fabulous time at home.  Some of us did this for one afternoon. And no, that’s not my husband. That’s his friend from the railroad that’s doing all the work.

My husband did haul all the bricks and a few loads of sand though.  Apparently getting a floor for Christmas wasn’t meant to be.  It doesn’t help when you have no idea how to lay bricks and it helps even less when you are a perfectionist and want them perfectly level.  So all the bricks that did get installed are going to be pulled up.  Then put back down again by either 1- someone we hire who knows what they’re doing or 2- Stranger after I convince him that he can figure out how to do it himself and that it doesn’t have to be perfect.  I’m guessing it will be option 1.

Instead of brick laying there was a lot of this

And even more of this

And some of this.

Yes, that is my Sweetness hanging in a drying rack.  That is what happens when boys have too much time on their hands.

Now to the good stuff.  I have spent every day since Christmas working on this

One of four quilted pillowcases I’m making for the girls.  I made Muscles a manly apron which I will show after I get a photo of it. I didn’t get the pillowcases made so the girls got to open packages of fabric on Christmas morning.  Hey.  If it was good enough for me growing up then it’s good enough for them.  Right Mom??

I crashed my friend Laurie’s house on Friday and begged her to help me figure out how to quilt them.  I quilted the above dragonfly fabric with dragonflies of course.  Do you know how long it takes to quilt dragonflies on a pillowcase?  Five hours.  Especially when you have a baby that does not believe in taking naps.  Normally when I’m away from home I stuff her in my wrap and she sleeps just fine but the quilting was difficult enough without a baby between me and the machine so she was on her own and she was not happy about it.  Finally Laurie just held her for me so I could finish the dang thing.  She is either really helpful or she just wanted me out of her house some time before midnight.  Kidding!

Laurie, from Dreaming of Quilts, was wonderful and gave me so many ideas and helpful tips.  I was using one of her regular sewing machines but she has a long arm industrial quilt machine.  She does gorgeous, award winning quilting and has quilted a couple applique quilts for me.  I wouldn’t have trusted them to anyone else.

As of today I have one pillowcase completely finished.  I can’t wait to show you the others.  They are all quilted and in different stages of progress.  I’m going to try to finish them up tomorrow.

If I don’t I will have one very sad little three year old because , like a dummy, I finished one of her big sister’s pillowcases first.

Next time I will show more photos of course and tell you about the fabrics I used.  Have a great Tuesday and a Happy New Year’s this week!

Yes, please link to your Christmas posts for TAT tomorrow if you would like.  I will be showing some of my Christmas sewing frenzy.

Lovely was at her Grandma’s for two days and Persistence went to Cedar City with the other Grandparents for three days.  It’s been very quiet around here without those two mouths!  I miss those mouths when they’re gone but they sure do like to cause trouble when they’re here.  Sometimes they have to go in time out.  The mouths I mean, not the girls.

How do you put a mouth in time out you ask?  You set a timer for one hour and the mouth has to be quiet the whole time.  The child can carry on as usual as long as the mouth stays quiet.  It’s gives all the ears in the room a nice break.  You should try it some time if you have an overactive mouth at your house.  Sometimes I put my own mouth in time out and that is just as nice.

I know there was a point to this.

Oh! Since the girls have been gone I’ve been ignoring everyone else and sewing like crazy.  In between feeding the tiniest mouth around here.  That is the mouth that is the most difficult to keep up with.

Sweetness loved her Christmas present.  And I’m not sure why her pacifier needs to be bigger than her face but apparently it does.

What else can I say? Did you want to hear about how instead of working on the sun room floor we have had almost non-stop blizzards for a week, making it difficult to haul the sand we needed for it? And how I’m wondering whose bright idea it was to stay home instead of going to the beach?  And on top of that we had some friends in town that stayed with us for the two days before Christmas? And how having company makes it difficult to do much except snow mobil and shop?  Men and children doing the former and wives doing the later? And after two kid-free (not baby-free of course) days of shopping I am completely smitten with Play Mobil and now own lots and lots of fabric?

Since I’m not the type to buy fabric that’s not useful it must be sewn up immediately.  I hope to build something fabulous with it.

It’s looking interesting so far.

Oh, and I let myself eat sugar on Christmas day.  I hoped really hard that it wouldn’t knock me off the wagon permanently but I’ve done ok today.  Except for the hand full of skittles I shoved in my mouth.  And the pumpkin, chocolate chip bread I ate for breakfast.  Yes, it sounds like I am completely on that wagon again.

Two years ago for Christmas we went to sunny California for two weeks.  (We found Santa Claus Ln by chance.)

Christmas Vacation 2006

More than you wanted to know about our vacation.

A Million Pieces of Heaven

We had so much fun that I haven’t been able to shut up about it ever since.  Can you tell we don’t go on very many vacations?

Well, which would you rather have?  Christmas in Utah?

Or Christmas on the beach?

It’s a difficult decision but after over 30 years of Utah Christmases I know which one I pick.

I tried to talk Stranger into doing it again last year but since it wasn’t his idea he couldn’t get excited about it.  This year the kids and I started the begging early in hopes of breaking him down.  It worked!  We were all set to go again.  Except that we had no idea where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do or when we were going to leave.  That doesn’t usually stop us and I’m used to planning and packing at the last minute.

The problem was that Stranger and I weren’t that excited to go.  Then I got a brilliant idea.  You know how Stranger just got our pellet stove installed?  He said his next project was going to be laying the brick for the floor in our sun room.  So my brilliant idea was to stay home so I could have a new sun room for Christmas!!  When I say brilliant, do I mean brilliant???

A sun room is almost as good as the beach, right?  All I had to do was convince Stranger that this was a brilliant idea but lucky for me he fell for my scheme right away.  We paid for the brick two days ago and today he and the kids hauled 4 tons of it home and stacked it in the garage.  Tomorrow he has a friend coming over to help him lay it.  Anyone who has nothing better to do is welcome to stop by and help.

I’m going to be busy doing some Christmas sewing so if you’d rather you can hang out with me and sew.  We’ll make something fabulously useful, you can be sure of it.

It just occurred to me that this could be so exciting you might want hourly updates.

“They have two rows of bricks laid.”

“They have 10 rows of bricks laid.”

“They are stopping for a water break.”

“They are working again.”

“Oh no!  Stranger just broke a finger nail on a brick!”

Yes, I will definitely be Twittering this big event.  And yes I will post pictures as soon as I have them.

What exciting thing are you doing for the holidays?  Staying home?  Going out of town?  Forcing your husband and children into slave labor?

You know I’m kidding about the Twitter thing, right?  Kind of.

I heard it over and over.  “Are you crazy???  Don’t you know the holidays are coming up?”

What better time to stop eating sugar than when you will be eating pounds and pounds of it?

I was embarrassed to tell people that I was off sugar again. For the sixth time. I hate admitting to being such a failure. I don’t know why that is so difficult. Everyone fails. That’s life! But it doesn’t feel good to fail over and over again.

I remember talking to a woman almost two years ago who was off sugar. I admitted to her that I had tried four times and failed. She told me it took her 8 tries. That gave me hope! In fact now I am embarrassed that I haven’t tried 50 times or 1,000 times! The last time was in January so it’s been almost a year. How pathetic! If I had had more courage I would have been trying and failing every single day instead of waiting an entire year!

Luckily I finally had the courage to try again because I have been off of sugar for a whole month and I am not looking back. In the past I have always done really well until I start telling myself that one little brownie won’t hurt me. One cookie isn’t a big deal. And then pretty soon I’m back to eating the entire pan of brownies. I am not doing that this time. This time I am never eating sugar. Never!

Ok, well not really never. Here are the arbitrary rules I have made up for myself.

What

• I don’t drink anything but water, milk occasionally and plain herbal tea. I know some people who will drink 100% natural juice because they say it is like eating an apple. I say it is squeezing the sugar out of an apple and drinking it. If you want to eat an apple. Eat an apple.
• I eat lots of fruit.
• I don’t eat things that have huge amounts of processed sugar in them like candy, chocolate, desserts or ice cream.
• I don’t eat artificial sweeteners. I think they are scarier than the real thing. I did just buy a bottle of Stevia to try in my green smoothies but I am still a little leary of it.
• I don’t eat anything that I might be tempted to overeat. A serving of chicken teriyaki might have as much sugar in it as a piece of cake but I have never overdosed on chicken teriyaki. I have, however, been known to try and eat an entire cake before so I stay away from cake.
• I will also eat jam on whole wheat bread. Of course it has sugar in it but I don’t eat jam every day and I’ve never binged on it.
• I try to always eat real food. I don’t like to buy processed crap full of artificial ingredients. Just cutting out processed foods gets rid of a lot of sugar. Although I do have a bottle of ketchup in my house and I’m not afraid to use it.

I’m a work in progress so these rules might change. Some day I will probably give up chicken teriyaki and jam. Today is not that day.

Some people can eat sugar once in a while and don’t have a problem.  That doesn’t work for me because I am an addict.

Sugar Can Be Addictive: Animal Studies Show Sugar Dependence

How

Two years ago I wrote a post called How to Stop Eating Sugar.  It is full of wonderful advice.  Especially coming from someone who doesn’t know what their doing and has gone off sugar so many times!  It gets a lot of hits and has several interesting comments from people who are struggling the same way I am.

There a a couple things I have changed my mind about though.  The first is that you only have one shot at this because it gets harder and harder every time you try.  Like I said above.  If you fail the first time try again, over and over again.  I dare you to fail and keep on failing, just don’t give up!

The second thing I was wrong about is getting sugar out of the house (unless you live by yourself of course and then it’s a wonderful idea) and trying to get your family to do it with you.  It would be great if they would but this is your struggle and it’s up to you to conquer it alone.  No one else is going to do it for you.  Almost every day you will be confronted with people eating sugar so you might as well get used to it now.  If you want your kids to get off sugar then you have to do it first.  Yes, the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

The amazing thing to me is how easy it’s been this time.  I have had absolutely no sugar cravings or withdrawals.  I don’t really know why but I suspect it’s because I have been drinking green smoothies for the last seven months because that’s the only thing I’m doing diferently.  Since drinking them I have actually felt sugar free even though I wasn’t.  I make them with fresh spinach, frozen fruit, flax seed and water.

Why

This is something I have to do for my health.  Eating sugar makes me sick.  It makes me anxious and moody.  It makes me overeat.  It makes me want to sleep all the time.  It makes me yell at my kids.  It keeps me from accomplishing my goals in life.  I’m hoping that getting off sugar will boost my immune system.  I get sick far too often.  I have been sick for the last four months and I am SICK of it!!!

146 Reasons Why Sugar is Ruining Your Health

I did not go off sugar to lose weight but it is definitely an added bonus.  Every time I go off sugar I lose ten pounds.  Sweet!!!

I really feel like this is it for me.  This is the time that I am going to go off sugar for good.  If I get weak (which I won’t) and I start eating sugar again (not going to happen) then I will just try again.  And again and again.

If you want to do this you can.  Just do it!  No matter how long it takes or how many times you have to try.  Do it!!!

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I’m feeling really guilty that I have neglected to pester everyone this Christmas Holiday to Stop Buying Stuff.  I know!  How are you going to control yourselves if I’m not here nagging you about it?

It helps that the economy is crashing down around us at this very moment but still…

I’ll get on that right now.  The nagging I mean.

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert has got to be one of the best books I have Never read.  I meant to read it but instead of reserving the book at the library I reserved the audio by mistake.  It was fabulous in spite of the fact that I only ever listened to it in bed and almost instantly fell asleep every time.  So although I had very little idea of what I was listening to night after night, I could tell that my subconscious was really enjoying it.

Finally, months later I checked the actual book out from the library. As soon as I started reading it my subconscious remembered how good it was and I had to stop.  That’s when I got online and ordered it because I can’t stand to read a good book unless I can take notes and underline things willy nilly.  In the process of ordering I had a moment of confusion over whether I should get the paperback version or the hardcover.  I finally decided on the paperback so it would be more portable, and placed my order.  Apparently my subconscious wanted the hardcover because both of them arrived in my mailbox a few days later.  I’m going to have to talk to my subconscious about that because I really don’t like wasting money and space on Stuff I don’t need.

I’ve only gotten as far as the forward and I’m already quoting it to everyone I talk to.

“We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy.”

“They may recognize our good intentions and begrudgingly acknowledge that we did the best we could, but they will inevitably whine to their therapists about how our best just wasn’t good enough for them.”

“So why do they end up with attics and lives that are full of stuff that we considered indispensable and that they consider painful, embarrassing, or useless?”

Why do I spend so much time trying to please myself tomorrow when I’m so ungrateful for the things I gave myself yesterday???  It’s definitely a puzzle and I can’t wait to read the rest of the story to find out Gilbert’s answer.

In the mean time let’s stop buying stuff that our future selves aren’t going to appreciate anyway.  And while we’re at it let’s stop buying stuff that our children’s, husband’s, friend’s and neighbor’s future selves are going to waste time despising, and disposing of tomorrow.

Speaking of stuff…  My friend practically forced me to buy fabric and make aprons for Christmas presents.  I said I wasn’t going to do it but I was weak.  And seriously?  This is not your average stuff.  These are aprons!  Made by me!!!  I dare you to despise them!

Here’s the one I stayed up till after midnight last night sewing.  It was actually really easy to put together.  I just should have started it before 11:00 p.m.

I have two more to go.

I’m in love with all of these fabrics.  Which combo would you pick for yourself?  Black/pink, blue/pink, or green/brown?

I’m going to try to get them finished so I can start on some other projects I have in mind.  I know I’m the absolutely last person in the country to start her Christmas sewing but it just seems to be a tradition around here so I’m sticking with it.

I have a friend who wanted to sew some Christmas presents for her family but she is living with her husband and six kids in a tiny three bedroom, one bathroom, the kitchen is smaller than my front entry, rental while her house is being remodeled and there is no room for sewing.  Seeing how I have four sewing machines and plenty of space I figured I could share.

We went shopping for fabric together and then she asked when I would be available to sew.  “I’m busy on Monday and Wednesday.  Is Tuesday or Thursday good for you?”

“Yes.  Either one is fine.”

“Morning or evening?”

“Both would work.”

“How about Friday?  Are you going to be around on Friday?”

“Yes, Friday is good too.”

“And Saturday?  Do you have anything going on Saturday night?”

“Nope.  I’m free on Saturday.”

For a few minutes I was feeling bad about my pathetic, unexciting life but then I remembered that’s how I like it.  Nice and unscheduled.  And available to help out a friend in need.  She came over Tuesday evening and made arrangements for her kids so she could sew all day on Thursday.

After we had worked for a couple hours the power went out.  Why does that keep happening?  Could cars stop running into power poles and inconveniencing my life please?  She kept on working and then from her cutting induced fog shouted, “It’s all cut out!  Now I can finally get sewing!!!!”

“Um, except the power is out so you can’t,” I replied. “Bummer!”  “Ya, bummer.”  She would have to come back on Friday afternoon between this appointment and that event and again Saturday evening after something probably equally exciting like dinner at the White House.

i decided that enough was enough and I was going to be busy this time.  I called her at 3:00 and cried, “I’m sick!!”

“Oh no!  What’s wrong with you?”

“I don’t know! I think I have the flu!”

“Well I shouldn’t come then.”

“Yes, you should. You should definitely come over and risk getting this because it feels awesome and can you stop and get me some medicine and bring dinner for my kids while you’re at it because I have no idea if or when Stranger is coming home?”

She did. And in between puking and feeling sorry for myself I helped her figure out the sewing directions.  Because what are friends for if they can’t be there for you when they’re on their death bed? And what are they for if they can’t ask you why in the world you would decide to make 9 hand made Christmas gifts when you clearly have next to no sewing skills.  And when you argue and say you’re a great seamstress and you sew all the time your true friend will ask you how that could be possible because you are clearly terrible at it and she has no idea how you will ever finish them in time and then she will get off her sick couch and start sewing them for you because you are so incapable.

I’m really helpful like that.

Eventually I left her to her own demise, told her she could stay and sew all night if she wanted, and went to bed.  When I woke up at midnight throwing up again I found that she was gone and that she had washed my dishes and cleaned my house before she left.  Because good friends are like that when they have nothing better to do.  Thank Heaven for good friends.