May 2005 | Chickens in the Road

Archive for May 2005

May
28

Three days into my “summer off” and I’m stressing, not sleeping, fretting about how to get everything done, and making lists. There is something sick about making lists for your time off, isn’t there? I wrote a book once called Tropical Heat (Kensington, 1997) in which the uptight heroine sets all sorts of rules for this pretend Hawaiian honeymoon and the laidback hero tells her, “It’s a vacation. Vacations don’t have rules.” How come I can write that down in a book but I can’t do it in real life? I AM THE UPTIGHT HEROINE.

Here is the short list of some of the good things I want to do this summer (the entire list would make your eyes glaze over and includes boring things like finding a dentist):

1. Clean up the gardens (thus the lovely rose pic from the backyard). Since we moved into this house last year, I haven’t touched a thing in the yard.
2. Finish painting/wallpapering the kitchen and front hall.
3. Go to the beach (if I would do something about making reservations, this would be more likely to happen).
4. Learn to use the scanner I got for my birthday (it’s still in the box).
5. Write proposals.

I just need to relax and remember that I don’t have to do all of this at once and on Tuesday because what I really want to do this summer while I’m off deadline is feel the grass between my toes, read some really good books, listen to my children laugh, and watch the bluebirds at my feeders.

What about you? What are the good things on your list this summer?

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Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink

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May
27

There are two things I do every single day, no matter how manic my life is. I make the bed, and I clean up the kitchen. The entire house can be falling around my ears but my God the bed is made and the granite countertops are sparkling (countertops that we got for an amazing bargain because my husband is an eBay shopper extraordinaire and yes, you can even buy granite on eBay!!). I don’t know why it makes me feel right about my world to have the bed made and the granite sparkling when everything else looks like a tsunami came through, but it does. I like to light a candle, too.

Yesterday my husband came home and the granite was NOT sparkling. I think he thought he was in the wrong house. He said, the kitchen isn’t clean. He looked so lost. He can leap hurdles over the laundry on the way to his easy chair and never say a word in complaint but he knows something is up when the granite doesn’t sparkle. I said–I FINISHED MY BOOK TODAY. Then he got it. (And he even cleaned the kitchen up!)

What do you do, bare minimum, when you’re stressed and manic and you just do the things you HAVE to do mentally to tolerate your house? Don’t tell me I’m the only one who has x and y that they can live with when the rest of the alphabet isn’t done! :shock:

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Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink