Sake of Sanity

This post is going to be complicated. I have a few things to address and none of them are simple.

First I spoke with my mother yesterday. Yes I spoke with the Anti Christ. It started as the last few of our conversations (with me being closed off and pissy because its her calling) and ended up in our agreeing that she needs to start acting right and I’ll start giving her a chance to treat the kids right. Obviously I can’t and won’t revisit the entire conversation here but needless to say it was a good conversation and we are on trial basis to see if she can act like she is supposed to.

Then there is my personal struggle with a friend this week. I’ve been under some stress and a friend of mine is having some issues with real life lately. Unfortunately, there is little I can do but be a good friend and watch this person try to make sense of the 3 things that are causing them pain. I want to be there in the way I know they need me to be but they have to go through all this on their own. I have to just stand back and offer my hand if they stumble and my arms for an embrace if they need it.  Never mind, the person doesn’t need me at all. They proved that.

The drama from my former employer has calmed. I had a talk with someone regarding some of the “she said/she said” and straightened a few things out. Let me start by saying that supposedly copies of my blog (and myspace) were posted some place for public consumption, and supposedly if I didn’t stop being angry about the situation and posting about it, there was going to be charges pressed. Guess what? I can go on all I like. I’ve mentioned NO names of anyone and never once used the store name. I have done nothing wrong and if the person that is complaining (and crying from what I’ve heard) doesn’t like my posting about it then quite frankly, stop reading it. No one forces you to read it or come here. (My Myspace has since been set to private so that has curtailed the problem there) Get over it chica. I can say what I like and there’s little you can do about it.

Not working has left me with time to get my house in order. I am slowly organizing things in a better and neater fashion. With Lauren being home, I have some help with it all. I’ve missed her a bunch and glad to see she enjoyed herself but I’m glad she’s back. I don’t like sending her away for even a short time. She belongs here with me.

She came home with a huge bag full of clothes and we’ve washed and folded them all. Now we just need to hang them up and have her go through all the jeans in her dresser to see what fits. Everything that both kids have outgrown will go to my church in Kalamazoo and get donated to the reservation.

Now I gotta get my ass in gear. I have to get the kitchen tidy again, get the last of the laundry done and go tackle cleaning out my car. I have a doctors appointment to move (I double booked myself on Monday) and I have to get my bloody brace on. I’ve been diagnosed with carpal tunnel on Tuesday. Lovely. So I have this huge brace to wear that goes to my freakin elbow (almost) and I scheduled my follow up for Monday but I have court Monday to clear up the mess about child support for my oldest.

UGH! Too much to do and not enough time to do it.

I was THE Domestic Goddess this weekend.

I got motivated and tackled the litter box right away. It was getting kind of gross. I dumped the whole thing and then took it outside and hosed it out and cleaned it completely, lid included.

I cleaned up around my craft area. I tend to get messy with my stitching goodies so I opted to get that area tidy.

Once I finally got around to having breakfast and getting Logan settled for the day, I decided it was time to tackle his room. His closet wasn’t set up well for him to dress himself. So his small amish style dresser was moved out, all the clothes were sorted to what fit and what we were going to donate and everything was re hung and seperated properly. We cleaned out the entire small dresser and dumped anything that didn’t fit. We even desleeved some tshirts so he had sleeveless just like his dad. His room is SOOO nice now and way more organized.

I knew Lauren’s room was a hot mess still from her leaving so I thought well I’m on a roll so let’s go. I opened door and delved in. Shawn took on the dresser (with help of course on what to toss out and keep) while I set to the closet and weeding out clothes that didn’t fit and cleaning out the corners where things were just crammed and stuffed.

After completing both rooms, we ended up with 3 garbage bags of trash, and 2 HUGE bags of clothes. The fun part is, I’m not done yet. I had 2 loads of laundry between the 2 of them and I decided I will tackle my own dresser and closet.

I am on a cleaning spree. We moved clothes around, tossed out tons of things and I am just starting. I will get my closet and front closet cleaned out, my dresser cleaned out and vacuum my entire house. I am going to clean both my bathrooms from top to bottom and I may even do my windows. At the very least, I do need to clean the slider glass. Little hands and wet dog noses have left lovely prints all over the glass.

I have almost completed the Breast Cancer Mandala. I am at about 80% done. I’m trying to sort out colors for doing another. I am also still working on M Designs “Sunny Summer” and actively looking for the charm for it. The Christmas projects are still in my head to get started but admittedly I am putting them off. I have 5 to do and I’ve not settled on a thing yet.

For the time being, I am happy with doing the cleaning and making my home beautiful. Lauren comes home Wednesday and I want it to look nice. I want to start things off on a good note with her. Her room is clean and ready and with school rapidly approaching, the less we have to worry about the better. I’ve decided that chores will go by the wayside for now. With me not working, I can do 95% of the hous ework and I want her to worry about school first. She can do her room cleaning on the weekends, same for Logan. This is a huge transitional year for them and I want the stress to be off so they can focus on the more important things. A clean room won’t get them into college but good grades will.

Time to tackle the bathrooms, start the dishwasher and finally get some breakfast. Gosh, I was so busy I forgot to eat!

I’ve spent a great deal of time off the pc, in case you didn’t notice. I’ve been happily stitching the last few days and making beautiful progress on M-Designs “Sunny Summer”. I’m happy with the pattern and content to stitch on it daily.

I will be doing a rotation with another Breast Cancer Mandala (courtesy of Ink Circles) to work on to donate to the West Michigan Cancer Center in Kalamazoo. I’d like to do other colors for other forms of cancer to stitch and donate as well. If anyone has a site that shows the different colors of cancer ribbons, I’d appreciate it.

I got my threads from Carries Creations recently. I love her use of color. She is fearless in her dyes and finds beautiful color combinations.

Just in case it doesn’t show, I’m going to start adding some cross stitch related links. I’ve happily re embraced my stitching. I spent a handful of hours with Deb and she has found me tons of beautiful freebies (free patterns) and I’ve been on a downloading frenzy. I’m considering a trip to Stitching Bits & Bobs soon to finally see the store front and pick through all her goods. I told Shawn I’d like to go up for my birthday and see what kinds of new scissors I can find. (My lil gold stork scissors are dying fast)

For those that wanted to see a review this week, sorry. I’m not feeling so hot today and not going to do the review today. Expect it tomorrow. I’m trying to decide which item to review. I’m clueless and that doesn’t help much but I will get it done tomorrow and share it with you all.

For the time being, I am liking being distanced from the computer. I’m reconnecting with the most important person, myself. I have finding the small things inside myself that I forgot I liked so much and discovering old things that brought me joy.

Time to get around, feed animals and Logan and then settle in to watch some tv and stitch. I may scan my work and show it off later. :)