plastic cups

I did not get a book purchased yesterday. I didn't get much besides some bathroom cleaning and some laundry, dinner, running up to the school to get Reflections submissions for the PTA, played outside for an hour, went to the grocery store, took Will to skate night and while there worked on some PTA stuff, came home and worked on some PTA stuff. So maybe instead of the "find the real meaningful purpose to your life" book, I might need the family manager/planner book. Maybe I should go shopping for one right now...that is exactly what I feel like doing. Blowing off all responsibility, like vacuuming and more laundry, and SHOPPING. Doesn't that sound fun?

I threw away all the plastic cups in the house the other day because I knew if I didn't just get it over with I would hang on to them forever and ever and keep using them. Most of them didn't even have numbers on the bottom classifying them...scary! Now I need glasses, I have some but they are not very kid friendly. I need to find something for Will. Off to the meaningful vacuuming I am going to do today. Meaningful because it is a way I attempt to keep the allergies at bay...I keep reminding myself that it is bigger than cleaning...it is caring.

A Book

I think a book is in order. As a matter of fact, I think a couple of books might be in order. I am still searching for the answer. The career that will give me some financial independence, feed my soul, keep me interested and challenged...no biggie...I think I need an expert to tell me how to do this because my muddling it up is getting old.

I am going to get a book. If I don't manage to figure out what it is I want to do I will get another book. I think I have a problem. I can't decide who or what I want to be. I want to get this figured out and I will continue to work on this until I accomplish it...

I do get distracted by life, Tuesday it was the orchestral performance and finding elance...that sucked up a couple or three days of my life. I am so sorry but I am not willing to write 1000 articles for $500! There are a few legitimate leads but geez there are a bunch of people with high ratings and tons of experience getting all the good work. Maybe I can find something decent, maybe not, we'll see.

I have to stay focused, full of intent in finding the meaningful career I just know I am destined to eventually find. I feel similar to my sister. She hasn't found her meaningful match but I think she is satisfied with her career (most of the time). I am so restless career-wise but completely at peace (most of the time) with my match.

Orchestra Recital

Last night was one of those evenings. Kelsey had a recital at her school and Will took this opportunity to push my buttons and be impossible. Of course he didn't want to put on shoes, or his jacket, or go at all. We couldn't find the Nintendo DS, which I distinctly remembered returning to its case only yesterday. Will, as I was pulling his sweatshirt over his head, (he had lost his zip-up hoodie on the playground earlier) chose this moment to ask if we could go to Target to get his "reward". I owe him a small reward for remaining in control and not being sent to the "safe spot" at school for a whole month. I explained to him that the reward was not at the top of my priority list, that we were running late for Kelsey's recital and I was focused on getting there on time. I threw a book in my bag for him, filled up my water bottle, and off we went. Will was happily occupied with the Kids Almanac through the PTA meeting, through the 7th grade orchestra playing two pieces and the 8th grade orchestra's first piece-then it started to get shaky. Voice volume began rising as he said, "This book isn't really anything for me right now, you got anything else interesting in there?" I came up with the pages in my planner marked "Notes for my Novel" and a pen. I told him, as the second song began, to draw me a picture of what the song made him think of. The orchestra played and after the song was over he showed me his picture of a person in a box with notes around their head and I asked what it was and he said, "Elevator Music! It makes me think of riding in an elevator."

Halloween Junk

Plastic stuff from China all over my kitchen island is what I found Sunday morning after spending the wee hours hunched over the toilet. Regretting the velveeta and ground beef dip, the cherries covered first in a layer of coconut and crushed walnuts then coated with chocolate; definitely regretting the candy corn.

The evening started innocently enough. I had the normal Halloween day of running around frantically buying the last touches for the costumes. The clip to make the bow a hair accessory, the knee socks, a thimble so we could finish retrofitting an adult double-blaster-holster so Will could be authentic in his Jango Fett-ness. We ended up only being a couple of minutes late to the party and all was well. I did, however give myself a black eye early in the evening when my cell phone rang and I smacked myself in the head trying to answer it.

I gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted Saturday night. I normally eat pretty healthy. No hydrogenated oils at my house, no conventional apples or potatoes. You won't find macoroni and cheese, canned tomatoes, beef or anything that goes from a box to the dinner table. I endulged. I ate con queso dip and sour cream dip and candy, candy, candy. I did break from the junk long enough to eat a bowl of vegetable soup along with 2 slices of a French baguette. Then I went to bed. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. rushing to the bathroom.

I finally stopped around 6:00 a.m. then slept a little before coming downstairs to the aftermath. Just like the junk food that poisoned my digestive system, the toys were crowding my normally neat kitchen island. The piece of plastic with the circles and the hole in the middle and you try to get the tiny bee bee into the center hole. The stick with the paper wound round and round it and then you fling it at someone and make them flinch. I also found spider rings and plastic skeletons and all of it went in the bag I keep for my mom's classroom. I recycle what I can but these plastic odds and ends, the toys from McDonald's, the stuff the kids bring home with them after a birthday party, these cannot be recycled. I try to make sure these things get reused by giving them to my mom to use as prizes in her classroom. She often has students who don't get a lot in the way of material things and to them these plastic pieces are treasures. I know it will end up in the landfill eventually but at least I put it off a little while.

Of course this is coming from the same woman who stripped at least $20 worth of reworked rubber and plastic off of her son when he couldn't even walk because of all the gear he had to have, which of course we had to buy!

Let's go on a diet. I challenge parents to give consumable products as favors at parties, or just a smile and a, "thanks for coming!". We are overstuffing our mouths and our homes barely leaving room for our lives and as long as our existence thrives on things this will be our fate. Obese people in over-stuffed houses scooting to work, then the shopping center and finally the restaurant.

Don't even get me started on shopping for a costume with a 13-year-old girl!