Sunday, the midnight hour

     I am so stupid sometimes.  I really need to be locked up for my own protection.  I woke up really late this morning.  It was Saturday so I did not care.  Hubby let me sleep late as he was working on a talk for church.  This was as late as I have slept unless I was sick in a long time.  Got up and put on yard clothes.  Hubby mowed the lawn and  I continued to clean the garden.  It is completely empty now.  Hubby will winter till it next weekend.   I did a lot of cleaning and cutting around the pond area.  Trimmed I don't know how many branches off the crab apple tree.  It still needs work.  The wisteria is also a work in progress.  My really big job today was all the bamboo.  I cut and cut.  Bagged about 12 large bags and had to weed one of the rock paths.  Thanks goodness those are done.  At 3:30 we had an hour to load everything up and get to the dump.  Usually we load out the back which means we have to drag everything up a steep hill.  I asked hubby to drive the truck up to the edge of the garage roof and he and I put every thing on the roof and then I moved it across as I don't weigh that much.  I dropped everything off the roof into the truck bed.  Bags went on last to hold down the branches.  Truck was loaded in about 15 minutes.  I have done this before, but could never convince him.  Much easier, I think he will do it my way from now on.

     We got to the dump with 7 minutes to spare.  We are unloading and hubby says, "Jump up into the truck and throw down the bags."  Yeah like I jump up into a 4 wheel drive truck beds on a daily basis.  The man is so clueless.  So after lifting me into the truck and we unload he says, "Jump down", so I jumped on him.  He won't be making that request for a while.  Whew!  Now we need to go and get things for D#2's birthday dinner tomorrow.  After going to 4 places we get home and I have hubby split  a pumpkin and I roast it while I am putting away groceries and cleaning up the kitchen.  He also roasted the seeds, yum!  Then I went to make pie crust.  Well I can only find 3 pie plates.  When I make pies, I make pies.  If you are going to go to that mush work at least make it worth your while.  I am frustrated and tired and I don't want to go back to the store to get tin foil plates.  So I decide to just make 4 pie crusts.  I have small patty pan pie pans and I crust up the three pans and two patty pans.  Finish cleaning the kitchen and ask hubby to carry up a really big basket of laundry.

     We are now sorting through the laundry on an unmade bed.  I did not make the bed this morning just got out into the yard.  We go to pull up the covers and one of the animals I  am thinking the old cat has gotten sick on the bed.  Managed to hit every blanket and sheets.  I also left the bedroom door open all day so I kinda asked for this.  Animals not allowed in bedroom.  Anyway hubs and I Strip bed and I notice that the king size mattress pad is shredded on Hubs side.  It had given up the ghost.  We flipped the mattress and I went and pulled out a new king size mattress pad I had purchased on an 80% clearance.  Made the bed up with extra blankets and proceeded to do a ton of laundry.  In fact it is still going and will be going again tomorrow.  I had hubs help me change the guest room bedding also and put on the heated mattress pad so when mom comes she will be warm.

     The pumpkin is done and cool so I scrap it out and mash it.  I have enough for 5 pies, so I will just put the extra in a baking dish.  Start to put in sugar and spices and eggs, but something does not look right.  Like and Idiot I have doubled the sugar.  It is like pumpkin pie syrup.  I don't want to throw it out, so I add more canned pumpkin and eggs and milk and spices, and I now have enough for 10 pies.  But no pie pans.  I also had to get hubby out of bed because I cannot operate a can opener any more and could not get the pumpkin open.  He says," that is it, I was asleep and you are getting an electric can opener for Christmas".  Shucks I thought I was getting a tennis bracelet. I hate appliances on my cupboards, but I also realize that this has become a necessity.   I fill the pie pans and a baking dish and put the rest of the mix into plastic bags in the fridge.  I will make more crust tomorrow and get daughter to bring pie pans from boyfriends house.  I know several of my pans are over there.

     So now it is 12:40 and I am still waiting for pies to be done.  I just took the patty pans out and the rest need another 15-20 minutes. Which means I have time to add to the

Saga:

     I am very close to my sisters.  My twin and I are well twins.  We don't look that much alike any more, but we are built the same.  It is obvious that we are sisters.  I am also very close to my younger sister.  Who is much taller and has big boobs.  (I secretly hate her)  If you stand my twin and I on top of each other and add our breasts together you will get my younger sister.  My younger sister was born with the neat gene.  Twin sis was and is like me, however she  did not have children and can there for devote more time to learning organization skills and teaching them to me. Sissy is a bang up decorator, a fabulous cook, and just very organized.  I'd like to throw a few three year olds at her and see how she does. I remember her coming one year to stay with me and clean me up and she cold not believe how messy Hubby and B were.  She literally followed them around with a wash rag.

    Sis some how was introduced or discovered Fly Lady.  She has a web site all about cleaning and organizing your home and life.  Sis really took this woman's philosophy to heart.  Now neither one of us is dirty, or filthy or on the hoarder level of filth,  We just did not have good habits and we (especially I) had too much stuff.  You cannot organize clutter.  I think that is one  of my favorite statements.  I just had too much stuff.  So did my kids.  It was a constant (still is) struggle to find enough space to store the clutter.  When you have someone like me with poor management skills, that never put anything away or hung anything up you soon have uncontrollable clutter.  The clutter is so constant that you get no where when you clean.  You are just moving crap from one pile to another. When every drawer and closet are bursting you have no where to put anything.

     Sis was really into this.  I had to laugh because some of the tricks flylady she used were so much like games my mother had played with us as children.  Setting a timer and seeing how much you could get done in 15 minutes.  Or moving as fast as you could to beat the clock.  What I especially loved was the 27 fling boogie.  Where she had you go into a room and throw away 27 things. ( or give away) The problem was I could go into a drawer and get rid of 27 items I no longer used or wanted and I was not even 1/4 through the drawer.
Even her techniques were overwhelming to me.  But sis insisted they would work and I started with the front hall closet.

     We have a closet right as you enter the front door.  We had lived in this house for 7 years and had yet to use this closet as a coat closet.  It was packed to the brim with crap.  I told hubby we were going to empty that closet.  We started together and by the time it was empty we realized not one thing that was in there belonged in a front hall closet.  We had a good laugh.  This closet also had bright pink shag carpet on the floor. (leftover from former pepto bismol days)  All of the floors on the main level are hardwood so why the carpet?  Hubs tore it up and under neath was particle board.  He went into the garage and got scraps of pergo left over from the Kitchen floor and trimmed out that closet.  He then took down the ugly tin trailer doors?  Why these doors in this house?  We went and purchased wooden bi-fold doors and painted them and installed them.  It took us a whole Saturday.  But I would go and stare at the closet a couple times a day.  I caught hubby doing it also.  One small space in this large house that was clean and organized and not overstuffed.  It was a start.  Because it was in the front of our house I decided to work on the living room first. I systematically cleaned every cupboard and drawer. It was amazing how much junk I threw out and how much I gave away.  I do remember it was August.  I did a room a day and by the end of August the house was brand new.

     Now to maintain it.  That was the hard part.The real areas of my home that were out of control were the kitchen, laundry and bedrooms.  Flylady's mantra was a shiny kitchen sink.  One did not go to bed without dishes done and sink shined.  New concept for me.  But it was summer and I was not teaching.  I had more time to concentrate on changing very old ingrained habits.  I did not even try to get my two younger kids involved.  I just worked on me.  You cannot teach someone to be neat if you are not neat.  When you roll your hair in the morning put your rollers away.  When you put on your make-up put your make up away.  I mean I have a make up table built right into the bathroom.  It had drawers use them.  Hang up your clothes and take dirty clothes to the laundry,everyday.  Do not leave your room in the morning until you are dressed, make-up, and your bed is made.

     I just taught myself to develop new habits.  I am uncomfortable now when my room is a mess.  I just do a round the room sweep of the bathroom as I leave in the morning.  I slide all my make-up back in a drawer, pick up the hair brush and put it away.   Eye drops, deodorant, are put back in drawers.  I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth.  I make the bed. Pick up the dirty clothes and take them to the laundry room. Now I don't clean every day. Scrubbing of toilets, dusting, mirrors, sinks and things are done some what haphazardly or as needed, but bedroom is picked up and clean.  If someone came in they would not be appalled at the sight.  It would not be spotless but picked up.  Makes all the difference.   After I learned to maintain my own living space and my kitchen, I branched out into the other areas of the house.  I started to pick up the kids baths and their rooms every day.  It did not take long because it was every day.  They can only wear so many clothes and it was easy to hang up or pick up and make a bed.  Bathrooms were shove the makeup in a drawer and wipe out the sink.

     I was able to get through my house (I call it a run through) in 30 minutes.  That was making three beds, wiping up three bathrooms.  The kitchen was clean except for breakfast dishes.  The front room really is not used except for music and company.  I learned to pick up the family room at night before I went to bed.  None of these things is hard or time consuming.  It is just a quick run- through and I am done.  Now cleaning is a different story.  It is something I still struggle with.  Finding the time.  Wanting to do it.  Things can still get pretty dusty and hairy.  But when I look at pictures of say the oldest daughters room when she was a little girl, I marvel at the amount of stuff she had crammed say on the computer table.  Too many decorations.  Too much stuff means too much work. It is hard to keep clean.

     I now try to do a thorough clean out of every closet and drawer, room by room at least once a year.  I did not do that this year and believe me it is starting to show.  I swear things just accumulate or the junk has sex.   I do know that there is a correlation between people who have too many things and who have a hard time with neatness also having a hard time with financial things and debt.  If I find someone who is really crafty and into scrap booking, and things of that nature, they also have money problems and organization/cleaning problems.  Not always.  I am not saying if you like to scrapbook you are a pig.  Just that there is a strong correlation.  Too much stuff.  Oh let's buy that, oh that is cute, oh I can use that on this...... it goes on and on into chaos.  Now if you are born with the neat gene this may not be so.  But it is so for me.  The more I have the messier I am.  It is a constant battle of the junk and clutter.  I must be very firm with myself to keep from becoming my father. 

   Sis and I e-mailed and checked each other progress on developing new habits for about a year.  Not all of Fly lady's things worked for me.  But the constant reminders and many of her ideas worked.  Sis came out to my house and stayed a few weeks and helped me with my Fly lady routines.  She could see a huge difference in the house.  Now the habits  just had to stay.  We took a trip just the two of us with my youngest daughter B back to Dads that summer.  I remember how much fun we had.  I think it was the last time sis saw dad.

     The summer dad had the stroke, I went out  to check on him.  He seemed to be fine and I left him ready to go fishing. We were in front of Richard's house and the girls were in the car loaded.  Richard asked me to stop and let him take a picture of me a dad.  Richard was a camera hound, it drove us crazy..  But I stood for a minute and Dad took off his fishing cap.  Richard snapped the picture.  A shrunken older man with snow white hair, glasses with his arm around a small reddish blonde haired woman, both smiling into the sun.  It is a picture I will always treasure.  As we were backing out of the driveway I started to rear up.  I turned and looked at D#2 and she asked me what was wrong.  I did not know, but I made the remark that I felt  that the next time I drove into Richard's drive way it would be for my dad's funeral.  

     That fall I was teaching Dance for the University, sewing very little, cleaning, subbing, etc.  I had an adult celtic class that was a blast.  Eight women all close to my age all learning to do Irish step dance.   It was a hoot. We would laugh so hard all of us racing for the bathroom when we had over done the laughing and jumping.  I came home in such a good mood and as I came up stairs hubby asked me to sit down at the kitchen table he had something to tell me.  Richard had called and dad had taken a boat out on the the canal.  The boat was Richard's and dad was supposed to meet him at a certain bridge and trade out.  As Richard waited for dad to come around a bend he saw the boat and no one was in it.  Dad's hat was by the boat floating and so was the the boat chair.  Hubby said.  Kim, "your father is dead"  I would not believe him.. I called Richard and he was beside himself.  He could hardly talk he was so upset.  I called the sheriff and told him not to take dad's truck away as I knew he was in the weeds some where with a broken leg or he had crawled out and was at a bar visiting and had lost track of time.  Just leave his truck over night that way he can get home I pleaded.  He told me they would find him.  I called my mother, I was hysterical.  It was about 10 at night when I realize we still had to clean the police station and I needed to call my sisters.  It would be 12 and 1 at there places of residence and I decided to call in the morning as they would be in bed.  Let them have a decent nights sleep.  I knew I would not get any shut eye until he was found.

saga cont:

     Well the pies are out of the oven and I used a new recipe and am not to fond of it but with whip cream it will be fine.  Last load of laundry is in.  I have to go to bed.

Have sweet dreams.

Kim