I Pledge. . .

I saw this video the other day on msn.com, and I thought it was pretty cool. I don't usually talk about politics in public much, but after hearing that Rush Limbaugh told his listeners to do everything they could to make our new president fail, I thought that was extremely unamerican and unpatriotic of him. Does he want this country to fail or does he want this country to succeed? Anyway, I thought this video spoke volumes. . . whether or not you voted for President Obama, I feel it is every citizens duty to do what they can to help out--even if it is in a small way. Check it out. . .

I Pledge

My New Addiction

It should be organizing, or playing with my new iPod, or scanning my negatives, or doing laundry (now THAT's funny!), but it's not. It's called Facebook. I love it. It is so fun! I go a little overboard at times--I now have 40 friends. Most of them are people I went to high school with, but some of them are people Kory went to high school with (they're the ones that found me on there), some are just old friends, and some a co-workers. It lets me know what they've been up to, and every week I have new friends that I don't talk to often enough. LOVE IT!! If you haven't joined yet, you should--then I can kidnap you! You'll never know until you join!

Organization/Organizing/Organized. . . whatever

I was reading my sister's and cousin's cool blogs trying to think of something to write about. I could not get my thoughts organized. I had their blogs stuck in my head. My sister writes about something she holds very near and dear to her heart. It affects her whole life every day, and her words are profound. My cousin writes about her photography, which is an amazing talent, and the words she uses to describe the photographs are passionate and have so much heart. I sit here, logged into my blog, trying to organize my thoughts, and I am critical of myself as I don't have the talents they have. Their blogs have a purpose, a meaning. Mine is a bunch of gobbledy-gook that I type when I feel like it. "BUT," I say to myself, "It's MY gobbledy-gook, so OWN IT!" It's at this point that I happen to look up at the hanging light above my table--gross--I can see bugs in it. The kitchen table I am sitting at has glue and tape and school papers from Morgan's school project, along with catalogs and mail, and Morgan's new American Girl doll. Errr--it frustrates me, as just last weekend I had the table completely cleared and I cleaned and shined it all up. "A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place." That is DEFINITELY NOT the quote that describes this household. Now that my thoughts are organized because of my frustration, maybe I can actually write something interesting like the other blogs I read. . . or not. . .

I told myself today I was going to do some organizing. Whether I get very much done doesn't matter--just do something I tell myself. Instead, I got on the computer. Bad idea. Then I don't want to get off. You see, I'm overwhelmed by all the organizing I need to do. Believe me, I have had the best of intentions for YEARS (I'm ashamed to say how many years). Because I have so much to do, I set my goals too high. So, today, my goal is not high--anything I get done will help me feel good about it. In the past, I would buy all these cool plastic organization thingies--boxes, shelving units, etc, etc, and I would have all the cool 'stuff' to get it done, and I would start, and get overwhelmed, and then I would quit and be disappointed because I didn't reach my unobtainable goal of getting everything done in one day, weekend, month, etc. and to top it all off I have wasted money on "thingies". More disappointment. I love watching the shows on TV like Clean Sweep where a whole team comes in and makes you go through your stuff and either keep, toss or sell things. Then the team re-does 2 rooms and magically transforms them and organizes your stuff. I think to myself, "Hey I could do that!" (Who do I think I am, "Magic Organizer Woman" with no kids and nothing to do? More like "Delusional Woman".) You see, I am really good at setting myself up for failure. Granted, it's not life threatening, and I won't lose my job over it or my family, but it does take me down a few notches, and I get upset, frustrated, depressed, you name it. Dumb huh? Plus, there's this other issue, of which I get REALLY cranky about--I can go about organizing and do a great job and feel good about myself, but there are 3 other people in this household who don't feel the accomplishment about it like I do, and quite frankly they don't really care about my organizing. They have other priorities. So, when I get things organized, they very quickly (and maddeningly--to me) undo everything I've completed in a matter of days. I'm not saying it's intentional, but they just don't really think about it. When I went through and organized the toy room, I put labels on the cool clear plastic drawer sets that were in there so they knew that one drawer was for Polly Pockets, one drawer was for Barbie's and Bratz dolls and the other drawer was for their clothes. Well, you should see it now. Most everything has been thrown into bins, and forget about trying to find something down there. I guess at least it's picked up, right? But, I feel that all my hard work was just washed down the drain. Why organize? That's the attitude I have after leaving that room trying to find something. And then I'm cranky.

So, I've decided, in this moment, this day, the best I can do is try to keep MY own stuff organized and not sweat about the stuff over which I have no control. How's that for a New Year's Resolution? Maybe I'm setting myself up for failure yet again. . . .

P.S. Please note the sarcasm in this post--it's not all serious! Some of it is meant to be humorous. I came back and re-read and thought it sounded kinda, well really, negative, and that is not my intention. :-)

Something So Small. . .

. . . can really snap you out of your fog. This morning, as we were leaving for day care, Syd spotted my dad's bowling trophy. She said, "Mama, what's that trophy for?" I said, "My dad won it--it's a bowling trophy." "How did he win it?" she asked. I said, "He was in a bowling tournament and did really good and so he got a trophy." She then said, "Did he get a lot of strikes?" I wondered to myself how she would know that you have to get a lot of strikes to win at bowling, but then I remembered she likes the bowling game on our Wii. "Yes Sydney, he did get a lot of strikes," I said. "Was he a good bowler?" Yes Syd, he was. . . Ahhh-that little moment made my whole day. Just a simple little question from her turned into a little sweet moment.