Clearing out my pantry inevitably creates more projects that I don’t need at the time (or ever, right?)

When I “clean” the house, it ALWAYS (I’m not kidding) turns out messier than I started.

Piles are formed and left for days (until I find the perfect place for the treasures; and everything in my house IS a treasure… pfft), laundry gets put aside for yet another week (thus the very reason I invested in more socks and underwear for my family), food is tossed with the promise we will buy responsibly and eat it before it’s been expired for two years (no joke; reminds me of that Hoarder episode with the elderly lady who had 10+ yogurt containers in her extra fridge from TWO YEARS AGO… at least my expired is random cans (beets, pears, Dinty Moore beef soup) that got shoved back in the depths of the cupboard) and dusting (which rarely happens)/vacuuming is put off until right before we have guests coming over.

Today’s case-in-point… The pantry goods are covering every square inch of my kitchen counters so I forfeit making school lunches for hot lunch (which is something that doesn’t happen often… I make healthy lunches they like for less than the $2.50 school lunch). Begin the hunt for ca$h: in couch cushions (no, if I don’t ever have money in my pockets, how can it fall out?), secret hiding spots (which I forget about and don’t have money in any way), jeans pockets, purses, wallets and junk drawers*.

Ah! JUNK DRAWER! Found a bowl with some change (plus old keys, a jelly bean, 3 swirl paper clips, a twist tie, ear buds, a broken seashell, penciless eraser and Nickel Arcade tokens from 3+ years ago in another state). Sent the children off with $2.50 each in quarters (“MOM! You’re making us pay with QUARTERS?!?”)

Counted out the rest of the change to the tune of $42 and change. You’d think I’d be sooo excited about FORTY-TWO ‘FREE’ DOLLARS; which I am, deep inside); but more exciting is that I now have a stash of pennies for a necklace project I wanted to try… but the pennies are filthy (nobody wants to wear filthy money, right?) Disregard the fact that my kitchen counters are covered in pantry food (bonus: empty pantry!); I have a garage full of items to Craig’s List (pink wooden play kitchen, vintage shabby twin bed frame), donate (more clothes and toys) and refurbish (coffee table and two lazy Suzan’s); family reunion photos to download, edit and distribute; my desk to organize; the family file cabinet to sift through; and whatever else I’m behind on.

So out comes a cutting board, paper towels, Tabasco Sauce, tweezers and cotton swabs for me to play scientist. My 7yo came home a while back with a school project of testing different cleansers on dirty pennies and Tabasco worked the best. Some of the pennies were so filthy that I couldn’t tell the date (don’t imagine all those germs). The oldest I’ve uncovered so far is from 1969!

“Sixty-nine, dude!” Name that movie…

*Those two words should NOT BE plural.

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You know the saying, “Put your foot in your mouth,” right? Well, I’d like to emphasise No Hands in Mouth instead. I can see this idea spreading like wildfire; just about as fast as the latest germ-infested illness.

Yes, wah wah wah, I was sick so I’m whining. Now that I’m at the absolute tail end of the sick (cold, cough, sore throat, flu, fever, crud in my chest) but now my neck is cricked. CRICKED! Ugh. Before the three weeks of sick I had a stomach ache for a couple of weeks (and to the tune of $125 found out it was just heartburn; yet I’m pleased to find it wasn’t worse, just wish it was a cheaper visit), and now my neck is busted.

You’d think three plus weeks of lying around I would’ve exhausted all Netflix, Hulu and DVD options but I found some more Cake Boss to watch today while I rested my neck. I’ve never felt so useless. Maybe I should be reading educational material and getting smarter (which means I think I’m pretty smart in the first place or I would’ve just said “smart.”) But I didn’t think of that until AFTER I was done being sick. I also didn’t think to pull out the laptop and catch up on reading blogs (boy howdy do I have a lot of blogs to catch up on).

So my goal is No Hands in Mouth (or eyes; I rub my eyes too much) to steer clear of illnesses so I can stop feeling like a loser (I also realized I got this same sickness last year at the same time). Or, whenever I AM sickly, I shall remember this post and catch up on my blog reading…

…maybe.

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Remember the days when midnight felt like 9pm? Well, these days 9pm feels like midnight. I don’t know what it is about aging, but I’m worn OUT. Next you’ll see me in orthopedic shoes (hope not). Night, all. I want to blog daily, but this sleep is coming on heavy.

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Not really, but I played one yesterday for an out-of-town friend.

We started with a REALLY good Thai dinner at a white house converted restaurant on W 45th just off I-5, Djan’s. Their tableware is lovely (hefty silverware) and ambiance cozy. Reminds me of Thai Village in American Fork, UT (same layout). He had Cashew Chicken; said it was extremely delicious but I didn’t try it (because he said he doesn’t share). My Panang with chicken was the best I’ve had; silky, creamy, right blend of seasoning with a mini kick of spice (I’ve succumbed to the fact that I am not able to eat more than 2 star spicy… nor toasted sandwiches or Capt’n Crunch).

Molly Moon’s Gourmet Ice Cream (down further on 45th in Wallingford) didn’t have too bad of a wait (usually the line is at least 15 people out the door; there were 4ish) so I finally got to go. I tried the Salted Caramel and Honey Lavendar, was in heaven with the latter. It. Was. Scrumptious.

Cruised down to Freemont to unveil the legendary Freemont Troll. At night the thing is quite awesome, especially if you come UP the road to it instead of from the side. The grafitti has been covered with cement, finally.

Next was a swing by Golden Gardens Beach before dropping him off at his hwy 99 hotel (that was in the boondocks; next time he’s checking with me on location). There was NO wind, it was dark with enough light by the full moon filtering through the night fog and a handful of groups were huddled around their fires, thankfully behaving.

{written from my iPhone in bed}

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Plans changed today, so it worked out that My Lisa could come over with her yummy baby, Jordan.

Usually, I’m not a fan of babies (or kids, I’m very finicky). They are too demanding, can’t take care of themselves, won’t just say what they need and cry like babies. Hmph. Buuuuuut, sometimes I find myself liking one or two, here or there. And this one is a keeper.

Even though I made her think we were having lunch (brie, foccacia, grapes, roasted turkey), I spent my time snacking on her son. A little nibble here and there and voila! He’s gone. Except then she reminded me that he doesn’t sleep through the night, meaning a max of two hours of sleep at one time, and I don’t have breast milk to keep him alive.

So I gave him back.

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Woah.

I just spent some time going into detail about last night’s local photographer get together and realized I was saying too much. I want to get straight to the point so I deleted it all.

If you want something done,
you have to DO IT.

It won’t do itself. Waiting/procrastinating makes things worse: you feel bad for taking so long, someone else may be waiting on you so you make them wait, someone else may beat you to it and you’ll do less things because they take so long.

That kicked me into gear and I finally hung some wall stuff (wasn’t so much the actual hanging that I was putting off, it was deciding what and where… for THREE years). My 7-year-old’s room got moved around and stuff on the walls, my 10-year-old now has a mini-shelf for a few mini-things, and our bedroom finally gets the collage of my hubby that was at our wedding 12 years ago.

P.S. I also vacuumed the dust bunnies, pine needles and, oops, that little black rubber thing that came off the hanger the other day.

P.S.S. Can you spy the witch and skeleton in the wall hangings picture? Happy Halloween :)

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