Pay No Attention to the Woman Behind the Curtain!

I realized last Wednesday that 95% of the work that I do in a day will never be noticed. I came to this revelation while cleaning out the pantry. I try to keep it organized so I can "shop" from my pantry to keep our grocery bills down. I know it's time to reorganize when I have four cans of kidney beans and 3 packs of cranberry Jell-O but do not have the most important ingredient for dinner. So today I pulled it all out, categorized and purged and put it all back in order. But first....

I also cleaned out our hutch. Which previously contained flour, corn meal, confectioner's sugar, and a million cookie cutters. You know -- those things I use once a year but keep buying more of because I forget how much I have. See "cranberry Jell-O" above. Cleaning out the hutch led to cleaning out the appliance closet....

What's an appliance closet, you ask? (Go ahead...ask) When we got married, our registry was a Who's Who of appliances. I am a gadget-lover at heart. From our ice cream maker to our waffle iron, from our dehydrator to our blessed rice steamer. I love them all. And, more importantly, I use them all frequently. What I don't love it having 8,929 appliances on my counter. So Brian built me an appliance closet when we moved here. It's right beside the kitchen and used to be a coat closet. After two years, the appliance closet needed help, too.

So at nap time (O blessed, sweet nap time) I put small appliances in the bottom of the hutch, moved flours, sugars, rice, and various nuts to the closet, and purged the pantry. It took me and hour and a half, and no one will ever see it but me. Sure, Brian will open the pantry and maybe notice that nothing falls on his head. But by and large this is one of those things I do in my day that are strictly behind-the-scenes.

A lot of my day is filled with behind-the-scenes. For some reason, we have four bathrooms. Seriously pass on this if you ever get the opportunity to have four bathrooms. That's a lot of toilets and tubs to clean! And somehow two people manage to generate 6-8 loads of laundry each week. Each spring, flowers get planted, a grill and patio set get cleaned, windows get washed, a Christmas tree and decorations go up and down, and various gatherings get planned. This is all in addition to the general housework, cooking, caring for other peoples' munchkins, and teaching 15 piano lessons weekly. Do I want a medal? No (well, sometimes I do). My point is this: We all do things every day that no one is going to notice, no matter how rockin' a job you do. The only way someone will notice is if you stop doing those behind-the-scenes things. I have to wonder how much happier would we all be if someone noticed those little (or big!) jobs we do?

Here's your chance -- what are your behind-the-scene jobs you need recognition for?

Replies to Comments

Yay! People actually commented! Okay, so it's the same two loyal lovelies (read: two of my oldest and dearest friends) that usually comment, but I feel loved now.

So, add Justme to your prayer list that she may be a little less territorial. Hang on while I speak directly to her using the forum of my very own blog: Why are you listed in Atlanta? Is your tech-savvy hubby bouncing your IP from somewhere else like mine does occasionally? I knew Chicago was you, but thought that Atlanta was probably your mom.

She didn't mention it, but add the very cool MadHat76 to your prayer list as she's feeling all cruddy since her Monday.

Want to have a laugh at my expense? Tonight I was working on sewing a book cover. Specifically a Bible cover since my favorite Bible is seriously RED and stands out like a sore thumb at church. If the prototypes go well, I'll eventually offer them in the shop. Unfortunately, I was doing up the pattern in my head, and mis-measured/mis-added/mis-cut/whatever. It's a half inch too short now. Two lovely pieces of fabric used (did I mention it's reversable!?) and an hour and a half shot. Maybe it'll work for a smaller book, but I was crushed. Then I discovered that of the three things I could possibly fix for dinner tonight, I had only half the ingredients for any of them. I was missing an ingredient or two for each one. But I pulled it out of nowhere, if I do say so myself, and redeemed myself with awesome pork chops. Now we're off to pick up Brian's car from the shop. Someday I'll tell you the story of why it was there.....

Baileys Points

10 Baileys Points to Michelle for knowing that the title to my last post was a Marvin Gaye song. Be like Michelle, and follow my blog. 3.5 points if you knew that there was a 4 Non Blondes song by the same title. I was looking for Marvin Gaye, but I'll freely admit that I loved me some 4 Non Blondes, too.

Nothing much going on here. I have an ultra-light day of work so I'm making red beans and rice. The link isn't my exact recipe, just a similar one. Don't believe those times, though - it takes hours to get red beans and rice the way I like it. A simple dish, but one that is best served by making it slowly. It's a yearly tradition around our house, much anticipated by myself. I do share, though, since the recipe makes enough for an army. Dinner will be around 8, ya'll come.

Before that, Brian and I are hoping to make a set of twins the newest addition to our house. A twin set of these, that is:
Blackberry Storm is what I'm talking about. Our phones are about to kick the bucket (Brian's pretty much has, though he denies it hotly!) and we have our "new every two" credits. Plus, Blackberrys (Blackberries?) are Buy One Get One right now -- they're practically paying us to take two! That's the talk around our house right now, so I'm hoping Brian suggests making a little trip to the phone store tonight. Keep your fingers crossed! I love new gadgets!

Happy Easter, and I hope you all have wonderful weekend!

Unmotivated

I thought I would take a break from everything extracurricular in order to focus on my house in the month of January. I wanted to make sure that I deep-cleaned, purged, and organized everything in order to start the new year off right. Also, I know that I was spending way too much time on the computer, and needed to get that under control. After all, there really is no reason to check your email more than once (maybe twice?) a day. I had such a push before Christmas to get the shop in order that I needed a break from that, too. Basically, I just needed to get centered again.

So how did it go? Lousy. We still have Christmas decorations in our spare room, waiting for their trip to the attic. Merle got sick as a dog (ironic, is it not?) and has left his vomitty little mark on every floor in the house. Which means that we need to clean the carpets from top to bottom. We're working on installing shelves in our closet to maximize our unused space, but found that what we want and what Lowe's has are two drastically different things. So back to the drawing board on that one. And since I need the Christmas decorations put away and the closets ready for storage before I can start all that deep-cleaning, purging, and organizing...you see my problem.

And then, it snowed. And iced. I only had two representatives of the Munchkin Coalition here yesterday for daycare, and they left early. So I should have used that time to accomplish a lot, right? And today, so far I only have two kiddos in-house (hence the chance to blog), so I should do even more today, right? Yeah...no. I have never, in the history of the world, accomplished anything on a Snow Day. Ever. And apparently my streak will continue. I did manage to watch four episodes of Heroes on Netflix yesterday, and anticipate about three more tonight, but that hardly counts as work, does it? Granted, I've been working on crochetting washclothes for my shop, and filling an order for some for the Bum's shop, but that's just busywork while I watch....

But you know what? I've caught up on a lot of the sleep we missed over Christmas, what with Brian's crazy schedule. And I've learned that sometimes having fun, playing a game, watching some Heroes, or whatever is necessary. Brian is off this week, and we've enjoyed spending 24 hours a day together. That's one thing I love about our marriage -- we can spend an entire week together and not get tired of each other. At all. We could be happily snowed in in the middle of nowhere for a month and still want to be together for the following month. That's a blessing right there. So we've done a little bit of nothing, and enjoyed it. Sure, we're making plans to get a ladder up to the attic, and we're re-measuring and re-thinking our closet plans. And Brian brought home a huge (HUGE!) bottle of solution for the carpet cleaner yesterday in hopes of actually making the carpet puke-free. We're planning a trip to see the West Virginia Fam this weekend, weather permitting. So I guess it hasn't been a completely wasted bit of time, right? Sure, I still need to wash the floor in the laundry room, make drapes for the family room, and put my kitchen cabinets on a diet. But it'll get done before the year's up.....

Let There Be Breakfast!

Saturdays at our house tend to follow a trend.

If Brian goes to work late, or has the day off,
I take these things......


That's fresh-milled whole wheat flour (with baking soda, baking
powder, and salt), buttermilk, local honey (it's in with the buttermilk),
coconut oil, and eggs so fresh that they were laid yesterday.


I make up a great batter and heat up a
cast iron griddle with a little coconut oil.....

And I serve it the resulting pancakes,
with eggs and raw milk, to the
happiest man in the house.

Top them with REAL maple syrup,
harvested from REAL Virginia sugar maples,
as seen here, and you can't do better!

Seriously, it's the 15th already?!

So, where has September gone?! And what have I been doing with it? It's been busy, I can tell you that. No time has gone to waste, rest assured. We celebrated my birthday for about a week straight, which I personally think is a wonderful idea. We started to see Little Bro and Sweet Lizzy a little more often, as they have emerged from Newlywedville for a peek around. The Godson started running, and not just because his mama is chasing him with a bar of soap for that mouth. Allie and Matt got all hitched up, but that happened before September. But we're still recovering. I've had laid back weeks at work, thanks to parents that are taking late vacations.

This past week, I fall cleaned Baileys Castle. Which includes way too many bathrooms, just for the record. Brian was a huge help, and we even steamed all the carpets and put goodies up on the attic. The house looks amazing, I have to say. I do so love a clean house, complete with vacuum tracks and shiny fixtures in the bathrooms. This led up to a Pampered Chef kitchen show this weekend, and the Hill Reunion yesterday. So, needless to say, I'm exhausted, sore, and content in my clean abode.

So, why haven't I written about any of this, or posted any pictures? Because something much, much bigger has been looming in my mind. Namely, that tomorrow is our appointment with the Fertility Gurus. I am absolutely terrified. I'm not sure why; it's probably just a "get to know you" appointment, and nothing great and powerful will be revealed. But I'm scared nonetheless. Scared of what we might hear, scared that there will be some hideously concrete finding about our lack of fertility, scared that Brian is going to run screaming away when he hears that dreaded number of my weight, equally scared we will both run screaming away when we hear the cost of this little endeavor. I do not give up control easily, so this is obviously a big, horrid deal for me. Appointments dealing with our fertility so far have been horribly emotional. We've decided to counteract this by having dinner with Bro and Liz afterwards, since they live remarkably near our Gurus. I am sooooo looking forward to that, so I'm ignoring what happens at 2:00.

So, forgive me if I haven't been the blogger extrodinaire as of late (or ever?). I hereby promise to do better. I'll certainly keep you updated after tomorrow's appointment, too.

If it's not too much to ask, please pray for us tomorrow. We really covet them, and know you'll be there with us!

Official Outcome

Originally posted to Livejournal on March 4, 2007 at 6:31 PM

Well, it's official. I have a diagnosis for this nastiness. Side effects. No baby. One early period ensues. Which does answer some questions. Poses a few more, though. I have a lot to think about. No big decisions will be made before our previous TTC-deadline of June. If I get pregnant before that, so be it; God's will. If not, then we jump on the TTC bandwagon. Until then, I'll keep monitoring my body and trying to figure out what the hell it's doing.

Meanwhile, in addition to the Evil Red Witch, I get to have a cold. Fabulous. I sneezed all evening last evening, felt all nasty before bed and then couldn't possibly sleep last night. Woke up this morning feeling like death warmed up. Theoretically this evening I need to get my house cleaned and the laundry finished. I deeply want a nap. So, peppermint tea spiked with honey will have to do for incentive to stay awake, while providing a bit of space to breathe :)

In addition to my general lack of sleep last night, my darling hubby got called back to work at 5:00 AM. What!? I mean, seriously. Apparently the motion sensor had gone off, and as second on the call list hubby had to go in. The girl who lives closer didn't answer her phone. Probably asleep. Go figure. So at 5:30 he dashes off to the store to reactivate the alarm and then crawls back into bed to put his cold feet on me. I had been asleep for roughly an hour when the call came, and slept the 25 minutes he was gone. If I got any more sleep than that is anyone's guess. Luckily hubby could sleep until around 11 this AM before working a 12 hour shift. I hate the Unnamed Moderate-Sized Electronics Retail Empire. Sucks.

But you have to love kitty snuggles!!! Belle is all curled up on me. I'm going to go enjoy this! In response to Sealgair's post with adorable pictures of her cats, I'll eventually put some here of ours. Tiny has doubled in size lately, so I need some recent ones. She's almost caught up to both her ears, and to Merle. :) Off to drink copious amounts of peppermint and snuggle my kitties.