Still Kickin'

I don't know if anybody actually reads my rambling thoughts, but if you do, you are aware that I took a hiatus for the month of June. It wasn't planned.

June was kind of an allergy filled blur of chaos and confusion and family obligations that ended in an overall feeling of exhaustion, but definitely relief that we made it through to July.

I'm still not quite sure exactly what happened. Nevertheless, as it eventually does, I think the light is finally starting to shine once again, the clouds are starting to burn off and feel like my brain is clearing a little.

Contributing to the chaos and confusion, was the decision of where Seamus would be going to school in the fall. We thought we had made our final decision in April, but we were coaxed to change our minds when another program was "strongly recommended". After much debate, we decided to take a look at the other program. In some ways I wish we hadn't! But we want to make the right decision and do the very best for our child. Unfortunately, it usually just creates more chaos, confusion and limbo to a situation and decision, that in my mind, had already been made. Subject ended. Case closed.

Well, fast forward 3 months, and although a decision has been made, we are still a little bit in limbo because paperwork hasn't been filled out and phone calls have still not been returned. So as I type this, I sit and wait to hear from the powers that be and twiddle my thumbs in wait for the red tape and (more) headaches to come.

But at the very least, a decision has been made. Subject ended. Case closed. (I hope.)

This is why I sometime feel that I need to stop listening to all the people who know best and want to help. I just want to trust my gut, but I guess the unsolicited advise and concern is given with the best intentions. I guess you can't fault people for that.

Another contributing factor:
My mother-in-law, for the first time in about two years, came for a visit. Though always lovely to see her, it sent me into an emotional tailspin upon the news of her visit.

Where would she sleep? The place was/is/always is a mess.

The couch had big holes in it and Sea-monster has removed half the stuffing.
How do you fix that? Or at least cover it up? Can one cover up a big crater-sized hole? Do I even bother?

Do I bother cleaning out the spare room that looked like a tornado hit it? How long would it take? At least the room doesn't leak like a sieve anymore. And the hole where the raccoon decided to, literally, drop in for a visit had been fixed.

What would we do when she got here? Did I need to plan activities?

And so on and so forth. The multitudinous details, dilemmas and quandaries from my already overly confused and stressed brain poured forth. Using some one as a sounding board seemed like it might be helpful, but, of course, all of these musings were met with a blank stare by my darling husband when I inquired with him about my issues.

So, I took a deep breath and realized that he would be useless to aide me in my plight and moved on to dealing with it myself.

It was only his mother visiting after all. Why bother cleaning up and trying to make our chaos of a home a little more orderly? Why fret over "minor" details?

If he had it his way, he would have sat down next to the giant, gaping hole in the couch, possibly covering it with some newspaper, if he had it on hand, offered her a beer from the cooler at his feet and told to have a seat, on the side with the gaping hole.

This, of course, is the scenario that would occur if he lived alone. In fact, he probably wouldn't even have a couch, let alone furniture. Seriously, no joke, he told me once that the only reason why he had furniture was because I liked having it. So, basically he's been humoring me all these years because I like the creature comforts, like furniture.

Gee, that's nice of him.

So instead of doing it his way and ignoring the impending visit by avoiding house work at all costs, I decided to spend 3 days cleaning out the spare bedroom and trying to bring order to our home. I tossed an amazing amount of garbage, moved furniture, hung curtains and tried to detract from the fact that I really needed to paint, but time wouldn't allow it.

One nice thing about having a reason to clean, is that, well, you have a reason to clean. And purge all the unnecessary items that have accumulated while you were doing who knows what.

After days of cleaning and purging and sweating and feeling like it was never going to be over, it finally was and I am very proud of all my hard work. In cleaning out the room I was also able to clean out the closet and create a nice craft space for myself.

My mother in law was also quite happy with the room! She said that it was so peaceful to wake up and look out the window at the water all the trees. For us, we see that view everyday, and though I try not to take it for granted, for her it is a special treat because she lives in New York City. And though she does have a "water view" from her apartment, it is certainly an entirely different atmosphere!

There were other contributing factors to my hiatus, but those were the major reasons. Hopefully, the rest of the summer will be calmer and I can return to my periodic bursts of random and crazy thoughts.