Housework

My theory of housework is, if the item doesn't multiply,
smell, catch fire or block refrigerator door, let it be.
No one else cares, why should you? Erma Bombeck

Amen Sister Erma!!

When we had our house on the market it was a chore to keep it up every day. A chore to keep the house ready for prospective buyers. And they always wanted to come at dinner time which makes sense because that was when they were off work and out house hunting.

So I cleaned up, maybe twice a day. We had to vamoose during the dinner hours. Ate a lot of take out. Even got to the point of parking in the car a few doors down from our house, running the AC of course and eating our Sonic burgers watching and waiting.

I LOVED HAVING THE HOUSE SO CLEAN ALL THE TIME. A whole summer of clear counters, swept up cat hair, newspapers going right in the trash, dishes instantly washed and put away.

But that was then, this is now. Now I live in a constant state of disarray. I do not take the time or the energy to keep my house in SUPER GREAT order, just regular order. Clean enough that the health department would not shut us down were they to visit.

But here is the kicker. If I am just a little bit emotionally off my game, a little bit stressed, worried or depressed, my regular house cleaning goes out the window and the clutter takes over.

So I am so pleased to find Erma Bombeck's quote at the beginning of this post. What freedom.

When I was a young mother I went to my Aunt Mary's house to visit. My Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill had 8 children, lived on a working dairy farm, and held part time jobs. And I noticed the dust bunnies frolicking around the edges of the formal dining room floor.

They made me love my Aunt all the more. Here was a women that was always emotionally there for me. Always celebrated me. Always laughed at my jokes, a rip roaring laugh. She would tell it like it was and keep on smiling. And she had dust bunnies.

I asked my mother if the dust bunnies were new or if they were always there. Mom said they were always there, I was just too young to notice.

Wow.

The freedom those bunnies granted me.
To live to love people, to drop everything when they arrived and put on a pot of coffee.
To NOT CARE about the condition of my house, but to care about the condition of heart of whomever was sitting with me.
To open my heart as well as my home.



My Aunt Mary. She is deceased but her love- lives on.

Just To Keep My Chin Up

I said in my last blog that I was overwhelmed by the daunting task in front of me. So I went back to a scrapbook I did for my wonderful daughter Megan. I gave it to her after she graduated high school. It gives me courage. Yes I can plow through these boxes of photos and memorabilia and make pretty pages. I am able. I will do it. Here are some of the pages from Megan's scrapbook.

A Daunting Task

Well I have taken on the overwhelming project of getting all my photos, memorabilia, kids school papers, souvenirs, greeting cards and the like put in an orderly fashion in anticipation of scrapbooking it all!!! Yikes. It felt like a good idea when I started in January. Well it has taken a few months to empty closets, drawers, old photo albums and coat pockets to get everything out so I could organize it. Here are the pictures of what I have organized it into. Actually it is all this plus 2 more boxes and my computer file of about 1500 images. Am I crazy or what? ;-) Don't answer that.

You get a little peak of my scraproom too. I promise to add more of my scraproom when I figure out where I am going to store all these boxes while I am working on the project. You can see that the craft table is bowing from the weight of the boxes so I am headed back in there to unload the table before it crumbles and undoes all my hard work.

Be The Match

I just joined 'Be The Match' online for bone marrow donation. It is FREE now until June 23rd, 2009 or when the funding for the freebies runs out. You fill out the form online and they send you a kit so you can swab the inside of your cheek. Swab your cheek- you could save a life!!!

http://www.marrow.org/

Worry

Oh how I can worry.

When I was growing up I convinced myself that the more I worried about something the better it would turn out for me. It only took a couple of things working out, for me to be CONVINCED that I had hit on the secret to life!!

I exercised my worry and turned it into an art form. All the while turning myself into an anxious mess.

I am in the throws of worry today. I have worries swirling around and compounding each other.

So I turn to Bible Gateway.com to get a dose of the Word of God. Which is my healer.

Matthew Henry's commentary on the verse in Matthew 6:28-30 on the lillies of the field.

"There is scarcely any sin against which our Lord Jesus more warns his disciples, than disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life. This often insnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich. But there is a carefulness about temporal things which is a duty, though we must not carry these lawful cares too far. Take no thought for your life. Not about the length of it; but refer it to God to lengthen or shorten it as he pleases; our times are in his hand, and they are in a good hand.

Not about the comforts of this life; but leave it to God to make it bitter or sweet as he pleases. Food and raiment God has promised, therefore we may expect them. Take no thought for the morrow, for the time to come. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you. As we must not boast of tomorrow, so we must not care for to-morrow, or the events of it. God has given us life, and has given us the body. And what can he not do for us, who did that? If we take care about our souls and for eternity, which are more than the body and its life, we may leave it to God to provide for us food and raiment, which are less.

Improve this as an encouragement to trust in God. We must reconcile ourselves to our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. We cannot alter the disposals of Providence, therefore we must submit and resign ourselves to them. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure of thoughtfulness for the world.

Seek first the kingdom of God, and make religion your business: say not that this is the way to starve; no, it is the way to be well provided for, even in this world. The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none of these things move us.

Happy are those who take the Lord for their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves wholly to his wise disposal. Let thy Spirit convince us of sin in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness of our hearts."

Doesn't that bring you peace. He will care for the big and little things. He loves us. He put me in the relationships which I cherish and He will see to it that they are taken care of if my focus is on His provision.

Thank you Lord for moving ahead of me and providing me with all that you say I need. Which is enough to live a life for Your glory and for the good of others.

Thoughtfulness of the soul will replace thoughtfulness of the heart. In other words, when worrying- get to the word. Feed the soul.

Peace out.

That's 3 1/2 hours of my life I won't ever get back.

George and I went to a 'vacation ownership' presentation Sunday. We actually went because they promised that once we sat through the presentation we would get a free trip to Vegas, 2 Rangers tickets, a $25 gift card to Salt Grass and a $40 American Express gift card.

To be fair, we did get all that. And the girl who told us about the resorts was nice, young and quite a talker, but nice. You could tell that she was quite 'goth' in her day to day life but had toned it down for work. The resorts were almost all in Texas, and I don't know about you, but sometimes you just gotta party outside of Texas, know what I mean?

Any way, the first price we were quoted was like $3800 down and $450 a month for 3 years. But we were not biting, after all, we still have one in college and a leaky roof waiting repair. So the second guy comes along and he has sympathy for us and he is going to work with us. The price comes down to $1250 down payment and $300 a month. What a pal. Can you believe they dropped it that much the first go round? Like, excuse me, would we have been stupid for buying in at the first price or what?

Then, once we firmly but ever so politely turn him down, we get the 'closer', the third guy. He tries to get us to sign to $85 a month for a year for a two night stay at one of their local resorts. The $85 being put in a escrow so we could apply it to a down payment next year when things are looking brighter and we are ready to purchase. The third guy was mean. Practically calling us stupid for not handing over our credit card. Finally I put my foot down and he stormed off telling us to follow him.

We got our prizes and headed off to Walmart for groceries. But, seriously, we were grumpy. We felt like we had been beaten up. And we missed lunch.

I had never heard of 'vacation ownership.' I googled it when we got home and it seems there are several companies out there. And lo and behold, they have resorts OUTSIDE the state of Texas. Ha. A friend tells me tonight that her parents had purchased one once and they eventually gave it up because they couldn't get the weeks they wanted at the resorts they wanted. That would be a nightmare.

Oh, the next nightmare waiting to happen - I have jury duty tomorrow. But I am taking a book and packing snacks.

Peace, out.