Spring Cleaning

Anyone else getting a little overwhelmed with the posts about spring cleaning and decluttering and feeling so great about your beautiful space in which you live?  ugh!  One or two of the posts would be great, and motivational, but I've about had it.

I think spring cleaning and decluttering are awesome.  Admirable.  Wonderful ways to simplify your life.  But in the midst of an already overwhelmed life, a tiny apartment, five people to care for, and nowhere to put the stuff I'm spring cleaning, this is absolutely making me crazy.

But I am tired of it, you know?  I'm tired of the clutter.  I'm tired of feeling like my day is ruined from the moment I wake up because there is so much crap everywhere.  I hate crap.  I also hate all the stuff that is weighing me down.  So, I decided to do something about it.  Tonight, as I was making breakfast for dinner and the spatula started falling off the counter because there was NO PLACE TO PUT IT, I "spring cleaned" one of the kitchen counters.  You can do what I did in five minutes, just like me!  :)  My one kitchen counter started out like this:

See, there's that pesky spatula I was using to flip the pancakes for dinner.  Between flips, it quickly came to look like this:

And you can do it too.  It's easy.  Just do this:

I put away a few things as I went along but mostly it all got tossed into the bag.  I'm going to quickly -- QUICKLY -- go through it and bless someone else with it, toss it, or hmm.... keep it?  That sounds totally unappealing.  :O

So what's your secret spring cleaning weapon??

Reflections on my contributions

I think it's great to understand what a contribution I am making to the blog world.  I love it that people can use google and find my blog useful for things like:

corsets
This was simply for my post about tactical corsets, nothing exciting here. Move along, folks.

diapers paralyzed
None of my three children have been paralyzed by the wearing of diapers yet.  

handcuffed and loving it
I'm definitely handcuffed to my lawman and we've thrown away the key.  I would not say I'm always "loving it" but it does have it's good moments.  :) You can also read this to find out what you should know about using handcuffs.

happy easter capitalized
Well, if you wanted it capitalized you probably should have typed it in the search box that way.

someone's novelty worn off, what does it mean?
Ok, I'm just speechless on this one folks.

I crashed the car

Ok, I didn't *exactly* crash the car but I was so distracted by other things going on in the parking garage (missing fire extinguisher boxes, for example) that as I backed out of the parking space I did a nice loud, messy, dirty scrape of the car fender on the wall.  oh dear.

Props out to my husband dearest who did not, in fact, rip me up one side and down the other when I told him about defacing his car.  It only took me two days to get up the courage to actually tell him and then when he reacted so well it was an even bigger relief.  A few days later he was recounting the story to his coworkers, and he got two differing reactions.  #1: horrified.  This from the officer who bought his wife some fancy schmancy car -- he's a car freak -- and a special bra to go over the front bumper.  #2: horrified.  This from a female officer who wanted to know how mean he was to me about it, especially after how angry he was over the last 'big thing' I did.  I then asked if he told them about how I cried.  "What?!!?  You weren't crying!!" he says.  "That's what you think.  I left the room because I knew you'd get irritated."  Well he was irritated when he found *that* out ~ and he has a point: I cry when he's mean and angry, and I cry when he's nice and calm.  "I can't win for losing!" he tells me.  I like the nice and calm crying waaay better, though.  :)   Never a dull moment and glad to know I continue to provide great coworker story fodder for DH. 

The days of the week DH works have shifted, although he's still working swings.  I realized that now there are at least two days of the week that most likely the kids will not see dad.  That's a bummer.  I don't think we really thought that one out.  I hadn't really seen DH since Monday when this morning (Wed) around 4:30 AM the baby woke up and I realized that I had a man sleeping in the bed with me.  Oh!!  That's my husband!!  So nice to see you, dear.  I rolled over and patted him on the way to get Dallas...  And that was the last I "heard" from him until this afternoon when he got up to go to work.  This swing shift stuff sucks.  That moment of patting his back (or was it his belly?  his arm?  I was so asleep I have no idea) was almost an act of desperation.  It was so very, very necessary for me to touch him and know that he was home and safe and with me.  Albeit a very, very sleepy me. 

That's the kind of thing I can't explain to some of my friends.  They just don't get it.  Intellectually they can understand what it's like, but there is no explaining the crazy thoughts and weird desperate oddities that seep out of my heart and my mind and wash over the whole of my life and our family.  To say he should "find another job" in light of the sacrifices we each make as individuals and as a family diminishes the work he does.  But there are those who think it, and say it, and may they change their mind the first time they actually, desperately need his assistance on duty.

What to do on a rainy day?

Build a fort, of course.  And finish off that pint of ice cream.  Just kidding, I've been restraining myself.

Happy Monday!

You know there's drama when...

All I will say is, how do you think I deal with my stress?  I'll give you a hint.  I'm the proud owner of a (half eaten) half-pound gourmet brownie and three cartons of ice cream.  Yeah, yeah, I know... I fell for the "buy three get $3 off" trick.  It sounded so cheap and like such a good idea at the time.  Why will my stomach and waist never, ever, ever thank me for saving that kind of money??  Thankfully they are not all half gallons.  Or is that 1.25 gallons these days?  Whatever.  (The two pints: Starbucks Java chip, Ben&Jerry's Cookies & Milk)

So, in answer to my own question: You know there's drama when this mama stocks the junk food pile.  sigh.

Update

Hello!

We had a great Easter, I hope you did as well. Yummy food, family, eggs, and stories about why we celebrate Easter. It all came to a stinky end yesterday; as such I'll be spending more time with family and working through some things for a while. Not that I've been a hugely prolific blogger of late ~ I'm just warning you, I may be even less prolific in the coming days.

Stay safe, friends!

Happy Easter!

So happy to report that we're not divorced yet!

There was a major "Discussion" yesterday and DH went off to work red in the face and steam coming out his ears. (You know when the word "Discussion" is capitalized AND put in quotes that at least one person in said "Discussion" is going to leave with the whole red face/steaming ears bit. But I digress!) I hate it when he goes off like that, especially to work ('cuz as we all know, what if he comes home in a box instead?!?!) but it was somewhat unavoidable yesterday. I did the best I could to put a patch on it, and worried prayed worried prayed stayed up all night long (also known as 1 AM to this early-night momma). When I finally came to my sense around 4:30 AM he was home safe and sound, without any steam or redness. I asked him "So do you forgive me for forgetting to do that thing you told me to do last week?" There was a bit of discussion, but that was that. So thankful. My tiny misdeed (and really, it was tiny but had far reaching complications), although really really annoying and frustrating to DH (and he was half an hour late to work because of it), provided some great water cooler report writing room fodder and many laughs and giggles for his fellow officers. Glad to be of service, folks.

Now on to the excitement. Happy Easter, one and all. If you celebrate the original meaning behind the whole shebang, He is risen! If not, go eat a chocolate bunny for me. Best of all, as Dispatcher says over at The Dispatcher and The Officer, hug your family and love on them!