Funny How Things Work Out

Still busy, but I'm able to see things falling into place around here. The mold has lost the battle and the dust is slowly subsiding. The library is busy sorting the two carload donation and the local thrift shop is busy pricing their new items. Soon I will be able to sit and write in my home with no distractions, um well, that was until I received a phone call today. Things are changing again.

I was doing all of this extra cleaning and organizing, first because I let some of the regular chores go too long, and second because I knew there were changes ahead for me. We have an empty nest and the economy is bad. I was looking forward to a move and a new job. I wanted a new state and new opportunities.

My son asked to come home for a few months so he cold save towards getting his own apartment. We told him we'd be glad to have him and he has been dropping by before or after work to clean and move his stuff into the extra bedroom little by little. He bought new curtains yesterday, and tomorrow he will help me clean the carpets.

My eldest daughter has asked before if she could stay with us but has always changed her mind. This time her lease was up and she hadn't found work and she finally had enough. Ten minutes after I spoke with her my brother called me for a recipe. When I told him the news he immediately volunteered to drive up to get her. He was able to take a few days off on short notice and leaves in four days.

Now on top of completing all of my cleaning projects I have to get the house baby proofed in a few days. My daughter has to pick through an entire house of belongings and pick just a few bags and boxes of the most important bits that she can shove in the back of a small hatchback car and leave all the rest. We have our work cut out for us.

I have to rearrange my house and my thinking. I just bought two big office chairs. I was going to just keep them at the kitchen table since I usually do my writing there. Sticky fingers however, will ruin them, so I have to move them to the bedroom if I can fit them. I also have to clear the bottom book shelves, place the knife block out of reach, and make sure no cleaning supplies are on lower shelves anywhere.

Goodbye empty nest and hello recession style living. There will soon be four adults and a baby in a two bedroom home. There is a possibility that the youngest may have to come back as well. We can make it work, we just have to be organized and thrifty. We also have to communicate often and well.

Stuck in Scrubbing Mode

I'm tackling all those big chores that have piled up. To be honest at the end of the day I just can't think of anything to write. Work, come home and scrub, or, wake up then scrub and then get ready for work. They wanted me to work a sixth day again this week and I asked them to please find someone else. I'm exhausted.

Today is closet scrubbing day. It's really gross but mold collects along one wall of our closet. I removed all the clothes the other day. In a few minutes I will scrub the entire closet clean. Tomorrow I will wash the clothes and put them back when everything is dry. This is one of the big annoying chores that I put off for too long. I did convince my husband to get rid of a lot of clothing, so there will be a lot less to put back. I got rid of a huge pile of shirts and skirts that I haven't worn in a long time too.

We made forty dollars by recycling some aluminum that had been taking up space in our garage. We still have a few more bags as we couldn't fit everything into the car. Next time we drive that way we can make another ten to twenty dollars.

In the midst of my cleaning a few days ago I received a phone call from an old friend. She had called me the month before to offer me a part time job in the store where she works. It is in the next county so I declined for the time being but I did consider moving and working there if my husband could find employment. She called me this time to vent her frustrations because she just found out her store will be closing and April will be her last month. She told me it was the hardest thing to gather her employees and tell them they would not have jobs after April. It's still very difficult to find employment here. I'm glad I didn't rush to move now. I'm saving for a bigger move this Spring or Summer. I still have no idea where, but not knowing is half the fun.

On technical notes, there is a lot I need to learn about blogging. I plan to get the pesky household chores out of the way, so I don't think about them all the time. I must quiet my guilt over the extreme dust in the bookshelves, the stained carpeting, and the pile of laundry. I want to fix the blog, learn a bit more about how to do things properly, and buy a camera that will work well with it so I can glam it up a bit. To be honest, I just slapped it together without learning much and ran with it. I hear others are patient and have a cue of articles waiting so they never have a long silence. I want to put more into it. I enjoy being here.

Now your turn. What big projects are you working on? And, are jobs still just as hard to find in your area?

Back on Track?

Add a six day workweek, family drama, one messy house full of incomplete chores, work horror stories, and one frazzled blogger and you get no posts for a loooong time. Sorry about that. I am continually behind.

I owe two bloggers an award acceptance post. I am working on that and it will be coming soon. Michele and Connie, please be patient. It will hopefully be done this weekend.

I haven't checked my e-mail or logged into my site for a week. I've missed reading some terrific posts at the blogs I usually read. As I've said before, it's why I don't have a blog list. If I don't keep up with everything regularly I feel intense guilt. Silly, I know, but that is how my mind works.

Thank you to all of you who stop and read and comment, or lurk, or follow, or subscribe. I am thankful for each and every one of you. Sometimes I am amazed by the number of comments on a post that I didn't see the value in myself. Occasionally I will moan to myself over a teeny typo, making much too big a deal out of it. No-one has popped in yet with a scathing correction, and for that I am grateful too.

This is my first effort at getting back on track today. Hopefully, there won't be as long an absence in the near future but you never know what life throws at you.