Three Things for Thursday

Three reasons my blog has been post-less for almost two weeks:

1.  Easter.  Yes, it's crazy, but Easter has turned into the mini-Christmas around here, with all the sneaking and intrigue of playing Santa.   It literally takes weeks to pull off such a feat successfully, clandestine visits to candy stores, toy stores, etc.  By the time Easter actually rolls around, I am exhausted!  This year, I found (okay, set up) an email address for the Easter rabbit, so Ada and Esme could ask him whatever questions they wanted.   Of course, there were requests--a glow worm for Esme and a crib nest for Ada's baby.  The Easter bunny came through in the clutch.   And the girls were delighted.   If you want the Rabbit's special email address, let me know.  I just know he'll write you back!

2.  I am still plagued by the irresistible urge to clean and organize corners of the house from end to end.   I do each piece in little bites of 10 or 15 minutes, and the result is that it takes a long time.  And it makes a HUGE mess.  Invariably, 15 minutes into a project, I am interrupted, and what used to be at least hidden behind a cabinet door or stuffed into a drawer is now strewn about the room in piles.  I leave it there to attend to whatever urgency is calling me, and, well--it's not pretty.   Eventually it gets put back, hopefully in some order.   

All that noise about breaking some eggs to make an omelette is at least partially true.  I can say that over the past month I have made some good progress:  The study cabinet is clean, and so is our desk.  All of our camera equipment is organized, and I can actually find what I want quickly!  I have filed the contents of the inboxes (high five myself for that one!), and Ada's school records, drawings, and homeschool materials are sorted by subject and age range.  With all the "new" space, Esme now has her own little section.  That was the fun and gratifying part.  For more grungier work, I excavated under our family room couch and found some long-lost toys and an old, dried out lemon (don't ask--I have no idea, and I am as grossed out as you would be).  In between all this, I've sorted through Esme's old winter clothes, changed in some of her hand-me-down summer clothes, and organized her closet.  One night I pulled out the dvds, and now all of them--even the new ones that seem to rattle around the tv for months--they're are all filed away into huge albums.  I have to say it is calming to see the absence of junk lying around in all the common areas (at least non-toy junk).

The pantry is still calling to me, as is my own closet, and a stack of Ada's artwork that needs to be put into a binder.  But the current hot project is the studio closet, a monster that I'm battling with for the next few days.   To make space to store materials that are just getting into the way, I decided I needed a set of shelves to fit into the space under the eves.  Why not drop everything and build them?  Uh, lots of reasons.  But it seemed like a great idea.  In execution, it is taking so much longer than I anticipated.  That, and I'm suffering under the pressure, literally.   Yesterday I gave myself a massive blood blister on my thumb while tightening the bit into the drill.  Cringe with me, please.  And then I stuck myself with a splinter--under my nail.  Yes, there is a reason that is a technique used in torture.   Still, yea Kirie! I sucked it up and put another leg onto shelf one.   Only two more shelves and 12 more legs to go....

I promise to post pictures when I'm done.   Assuming you care.  Please say you do...I have spent altogether too much time on this.   And too much time writing (and talking) about it.  If you made it this far, thanks for being so patient!

3.  In the midst of the half-way projects and hopping around for Easter, and several other writing projects I'll share with you later....I've been prepping and creating some items for an online shop I'm opening in less than a week.  I've been intending to open an Etsy shop for a year, and I have finally assembled almost all the pieces to do so.   The shop is going to be called Spangletree Studio, and I'll tell you more about it soon.   Suffice it to say that I feel like a Santa's elf, sewing and painting and bending wires and sanding little doors....it's going to be fun. I can't wait to tell you more about it next week!  I'm holding back just so as not to jinx myself... 

I miss my blog.  I also miss reading my bloggy-friends. I promise to get back to a regular posting and blog reading schedule starting after April 23.    

Interrupting the routine

Today I forced an interruption.  It's necessary to do so every once in awhile, and this day, being one of the last warm days for some time to come, seemed the perfect time to do it.   

I took a bike ride down to the beach.

At this point, if you have even read this far, you may be thinking, "Who the #$&>@ cares about that?"  

You're right.  Who cares?  Me.  And that's the whole point.  I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in that there are not too many things I don't do for just me.   It's a problem not limited to moms, either.   So much of our life is, as Wordsworth so sagely puts it, "getting and spending," that we don't spend too much time on the now.  And the now is really the only thing we truly have.   

To be clear, I'm not talking about that "me-time," a derogatory term used to denote selfishness, and usually leveled at women(those with and without children, I might add).  Instead, I'm talking about time that is simply spent without aim for future gain, without creating pleasure for someone else, without furthering the illusion that our time is endless.   If I had to classify it, I'd think of it as "now."

I squander my now all the time, and to be truthful, I actually don't mind all the daily things I do.  I live a life that's home-centered, and that means daily effort on mundane tasks.  From laundry to dishes to cooking to picking up stuff,  it's time consuming.  And if I feel chained to it, it's sometimes irritating, too.  

But when I'm present in these tasks, with attention, I notice how nice it is to be able to do these things and have the home, and be with the people in it, making my own days.  It's a real luxury.  And I realize my "tasks" aren't tasks at all.  They are just part of being.

The problem is that I often forget that.  I get lost in the repetition, and I need to force an interruption.   Despite the poets' exhortations, despite the advice of a dying friend, it is so difficult to be present and enjoy being here.   A forced interruption can recharge me and make it possible to regain my "now."  For awhile.

This morning I did it. I tugged myself away from the pull of folding towels, mending teddy bears, stacking dishes, and chopping vegetables to do something entirely for me, entirely in the present.

Today's now included feeling the warm air whistle past my ears, pedaling up hills until I was out of breath, walking on the beach at low tide, listening to the fog horn as the last of the morning mist burned off past the bridge, watching the variegated trees whip past my bike, and finding a ridged clamshell.

  

What is your now today?