by | Jan 27, 2016 | Fun Style | 0 comments
It’s been snowing here. Maybe you saw it on the news?
I refrained from going outside as much as possible.
Which brings me to one of my snowed in days…I was inspired to make a collage. Just me, the TV, some scissors, and howling kids in the background.
I decided to frame one for my “corner office”. Continue…
If you give a mom a snow day she’s going to want to take a nap. While she’s trying to take a nap chances are the kids will want their snow pants.
If you give them their snow pants they will want help. Once you wrestle the snow pants, snow boots, coats, hats and mittens on they will go outside. When they get outside they will want to come back inside.
They will probably pound on the door to let them in while yelling “MOOOOMMMMM” because they can’t supposedly open it with their mittens on.
Once they get back inside they will ask for food.
If you make them some food you will have to clean it up.
While you are cleaning it up they will probably ask if they can pull out their messiest most complicated craft project. If you say yes they will most definitely need help.
While you are reading the directions they will get bored and ask you for more food.
Once they have the food they will want to go back outside but they will need dry mittens.
While you are trying to find any f****** mitten they will get impatient and go outside without them.
Chances are they will come back crying because their hands are really, really cold.
While you are trying to warm up their hands and find any dry f***** mismatched mitten and put away the messiest most complicated craft project and clean up the kitchen they will ask for lunch.
And chances are
the mom
will need
a nap.
I pretty much have just enough time to maintain the status quo, meaning I can get what NEEDS to get done–done, but beyond that, Oy Vay. I have to remind myself that life is too short to obsess about the unfinished petty stuff–dusty baseboards, scuffed up walls, a playroom that looks like it was “tossed” by the Feds, etc… It’s all just a byproduct of a much loved home, right? I, do, however, constantly try to find ways to minimize extra angst in my life. I mean life is not always very easy. The last thing I need is my own home to bring me down, stress me out, and be a giant buzz kill when sometimes everyone and everything else is jockeying for that position.
So I keep hearing about this book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo.
Her essential question is ‘Does this spark joy?’
“Keep only the things that speak to your heart, then take the plunge and discard all the rest,” she advises. “When you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too. As a result, you can see quite clearly what you need in life and what you don’t.”
Powerful words.
Fans say her advice frees them from the guilt that often comes with discarding an object given by a loved one. She advises readers to thank their clothes for their service–or for teaching them that pink isn’t their color–before letting them go.*
She rejects all organizational products (the horror) and storage bins. “A booby trap lies within the term ‘storage'” she writes. “I can honestly declare that storage methods do not solve the problem of how to get rid of clutter. In the end, they are only a superficial answer.”
Huh. It’s food for thought.
Reading this do you think to yourself–“Self if I get rid of everything that does not spark joy in my home will my home look like an abandoned warehouse?” And the storage bins? Eek. Is she crazy? I see her point, I do. Moving all the clutter to a fancy labelled box is not cutting clutter–it’s just putting it off.
*************************************************
But let’s get back to this lack of time thing we all seem to have. Don’t go crazy–set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes, do NOT multitask, and purge. Additionally, think about these items from Amy Volk’s Simplified Living:
“Does this spark JOY?” is an amazing question to ask yourself for anything and everything.
*The Wall Street Journal The Cult of Tidying Up February 27, 2015
I told my husband he should take the Christmas inflatables down because it was going to rain. So he did, and then set them back up–only in a different place.
I wasn’t expecting to see them when I innocently opened the door to the garage–staring back at me, motors whirring, all lit up in the dark–in the garage.
It’s like the flipping Thanksgiving Day Parade. Inside. Our garage.
Everytime I open the door I forget they are there. Every single time.
Yes that is Darth Vader.
So I’m yelling at my 8 year old to stop jumping on the couch and for my 10 year old to stop telling the 8 year old to jump higher and I start giggling because I just opened the door to the garage.
***
Last night we watched the movie The Martian (awesome). The hero, Astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, gets stranded on the planet Mars, by mistake. His crew accidentally leaves him behind because they think he is dead. So much is wrong with that last statement. I mean when you think bad day you at least have, I don’t know, the human race nearby, oxygen, water… “If the oxygenator breaks down, I’ll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I’ll die of thirst. If the hab breaches, I’ll just kind of implode. If none of those things happen, I’ll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So, yeah. I’m f___.”
Somehow the movie is funny.
“Alright, let me get a few things out of the way, right off the bat. Yes, I did in fact survive on a deserted planet by farming in my own shit. Yes, it’s actually worse than it sounds. So, let’s not talk about that ever again.”
“They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially colonized it. So, technically, I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong!”
“In the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option, I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this.”
Love it.
And then he says this:
“At some point, everything’s going to go South on you. You’re going to say, ‘This is it. This is how I end.’ Now, you can either accept that, or you can get to work.” You have to solve one problem, and then solve the next problem, and then solve the next problem, and “if you solve enough problems, you get to go home.”
It’s about how to thrive and prosper and do amazing things, right? That’s what we do as humans. And oh boy, does sh*# happen. Not taking yourself so seriously is a bonus too. (Which is partly why I loved Matt Damon’s character so much. He’s hilarious in the movie. Go see it!)
***
I had a heart to heart with a girlfriend today and Doom and Gloom sat in on the conversation. They are such kill joys. We were talking about the sh*# that happens and problem solving (luckily I’m not alone on the planet) and I opened the door to the garage–
Yup.
I’m thinking about leaving those crazy inflatables up in our garage for a bit longer–
Life is just so ridiculous sometimes, if you let it;)
