Declutter
Current mood: tired
Category: Life

Home and hearth need decluttering. Today I tackled at least 4 things that I needed to do around here. Tomorrow I'll see what else I can get done, but for now I'm going to rest, shower and finish up the laundry and dishes before the kids get home from school and I have to start fixing supper.

I did get my shelves in the living room dusted and reorganized. Looks pretty good. I also took down the sheer/lace curtains behind it and put up some clean ones and dusted and straightened my photo shelves in the kitchen and organized and straightened all the board games and puzzles under the cabinet.

All the dusting is taking its toll on my sinuses, so I'm not going to overdo it today unless I want to wake up a mess tomorrow. But at least I've gotten something done and every little bit helps, right?

I looked for my "sparkly" pumpkins to set out for Autumn, but they aren't with my other fall decorations or my Halloween stuff, so I'm wondering if they are still in the basement in the decorations box. I will have to check later.

The rest of my list of things I need to do is mostly dusting-

The rocking chair, two bookcases, my desk needs a good straightening and dusting, the small table next to the recliner, the coffee table needs major decluttering (because everyone in my house-myself included- thinks it's a catch-all. LOL) My picture frames on the walls, the trinket shelves, the ceiling and the ceiling fan. Probably could take down the curtains and wash them too while I'm at it! LOL And that's just the living room.

There's still other things in the kitchen that need doing, our bedroom, the kids' bedrooms, the bathroom, spare room and lest I forget sweeping, mopping and vacuuming.

I'm a horrible housekeeper. I can clean someone else's house top to bottom and not have a problem with it, but here at home I prefer to spend time with my kids, my husband or writing. Aren't I awful? LOL

Something has changed though. Now that I have both kids in school, I have a lot more quiet alone time and that gives me, not just time for writing and revising, but also hours that I can use to get the house straightened up and keep it nice and neat and clean without little ones underfoot. And with them in school all day, I have less messes to pick up after.

I might actually get to the point where I can keep a cleaning schedule to work with week to week for the things that need it the most.

I'm at a point now that household productivity actually "fits" into my daily routine! haha! Who'd have thunk it?

Now that's not to say that I don't clean the house at all. I'm just lax about the whole thing until I'm being chased by dust bunnies who scurry out from under the kitchen table and latch onto my ankle as I walk past or layers of dust on the shelves that could easily pass for a fuzzy brown table or shelf runner.

Of course, I kid.
It's not really THAT bad.
Really.
It's not....
Would I fib?
No, I don't think so.

But I will say I sure could use a cleaning fairy from time to time who could sprinkle a little of her magical "dust" that would make MY dust disappear. I could handle fairy sparklies...I just don't care for this other kind. Not when it is the catalyst for sinus headaches and congestion, sore throat via drainage and the throbbing aching temples and burning watery eyes and sneezing, etc.

Here's to the start of school (though we've already been at it a month now) and the slow easy arrival of Autumn, ushering in my decluttering phase of the year and the excitement of decorating for Autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving, the kids' birthdays and Christmas. I have to say this is probably my favorite time of year- dust and all.

Currently reading : Dragon Wytch (Sisters of the Moon, Book 4) By Yasmine Galenorn

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Labor Day
Current mood: exhausted
Category: Life

Spent all day yesterday- Labor Day- Laboring...Haha!

It was a long weekend indeed. Friday I mowed the front and side of the yard so Dave wouldn't have nearly as much to do on Saturday. I trimmed back the rose bushes as well. We did our grocery shopping that evening. Dave mowed Saturday and we just chilled out and watched some movies we rented- What Happens in Vegas, Meet The Browns, Street Kings and Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.

Sunday we left out fairly early to go to Wal-Mart to get a few things we needed and then we were going to stop in and visit Dave's mom and her husband. Well, we went to Wal-Mart to find those digital converter boxes so we could go on and use our coupons we got for them. Wal-Mart didn't have them, but I went on and bought my shaving gel and a few other things I needed- I got lard so I can try to make homemade biscuits like my grandma always did.

We went by Rite-Aid and they had the converter boxes so we got them and being it was still too early to stop by Dave's mom's, we came back home so we could put up our things.

There was a message from his mom so he called her back and it turned out her husband wasn't feeling well...sick from getting out around ragweed and her shoulder was hurting her, so they didn't feel up to company. Since we had planned to eat with them, I didn't really have anything on hand for a meal and it was nearly lunchtime, so Dave went to town and got himself some Mexican food and got me and Koty some Chinese. Man those rangoons are the bomb!

Later in the evening Dave decided to hook up the converter boxes- one in our bedroom that has no cable or satellite and one in here in the living room so I can still watch our local news every morning before the kids go to school.

Our entertainment center in the living room was old and wobbly...I ain't gonna lie. If you blew on it hard enough, it could've toppled at any given moment. It was the one Dave had when I moved here and even back then- 7 years ago- it was in bad shape, barely standing up. We've been lucky so far that it hasn't collapsed. Dave got over there and was trying to hook up the box and all the shelves fell down...satellite box and shelf fell on the VCR and the VCR fell on the DVD player...it was a mess and Dave was ticked.

I suggested that we get a tall bookcase we could cut holes out in the back of the back board and run the wires through and just junk the old entertainment center.

Well, we also had to take into consideration ALL our vhs and dvds. We go up town Monday to Pamida and the bookcases I was thinking of, have very short shelves- front to back- so that wasn't going to work for the electronic components, especially our big stereo component. So we ended up getting a small television stand and a 4 shelf bookcase.

We were able to recycle 1 shelf from the old entertainment center for the new tv stand which now houses the digital converter box, VCR, Satellite box, DVD and the stereo component and the bookcase houses our OVERFLOWING movie collection along with the other 3 shelf bookcase that already did have movies on it.

I have a lot of VHS tapes I've recorded on over the years that I need to go through though. There's a lot of them I don't watch anymore or have movies on them I now have on DVD, so I will have to go through that eventually. The smaller bookcase has double rows of VHS and DVDs, so I want to clear up the clutter.

Then when Chris got home from his mom's last night, I had him go through his toybox and decide what he wanted to put away in the basement and what he wanted to keep. When he finished doing that, we took the toybox to the basement and stacked it up.

Today I took Koty's Dora castle, which she wasn't too concerned about, and put it in the basement as well and then moved her Princess folding table and chairs to her room in its place and moved MY bookcase full of my TBR books and favorites over next to the couch- right next to where I sit, so when I finish one book, I can reach over and grab the next one I plan to read.

Moving the bookcase also cleared a bit of the corner out where the Christmas tree will go in a few months. Right now the rocking chair and the gazelle are the only thing in that corner. Just a matter of figuring out where to put them when it's time to decorate.

While I was down in the basement I did pull out my fall decorating stuff...a small "broom" with a scarecrow and leaves and crinkle ribbons to hang on the front door along with more autumn leaves. A basket that I put in the kitchen on my photo shelf that has a scarecrow in it along with fall leaves and pumpkins. I need to pull out my fiber optic jack-o-lantern soon too and find a place for him along with my orange and purple lights and cobwebs and stuff.

Like I said...it was a LONG weekend. I'm tired and sleepy and drained. I haven't worked on revisions since last week it seems...just too much going on I suppose. We're moving into the shift of seasons though, so I've had a real de-cluttering attitude the past week or so.

I also noticed that at 6 a.m. it was darker than it had been other mornings...daylight and darkness are shifting along with the seasons. Strange how it seemed to change just over this past weekend....Autumn is definitely on it's way in.

Currently reading : Dragon Wytch (Sisters of the Moon, Book 4) By Yasmine Galenorn

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Autumn Closing In...
Current mood: melancholy

I'm beginning to feel Autumn closing in.

The winds of change foretell the fall of leaves, the damp, lazy days and shifting time. Daylight and darkness argue amongst themselves for stage time. Sliding in beneath the heated days of Summer, Autumn whispers on the breeze- to tell of times when the ground will be blanketed by the russet and gold and flame quilt of sleep.

Sleep, sweet Mother Earth, for you have blistered too long in the Sun's smoldering gaze. Take your rest, as we do and enjoy the harvest. Ruby apples and amber pumpkins grace the orchards and fields, glistening in the early morning dew.

Jack Frost will lay his icy fingers to the land before too long. He shall shroud the world in sparkling frozen crystals, spirals and transparent star bursts on the windowpanes, etching out his artwork upon the last remaining leaves and dressing the blades of grass in their Cinderella gowns that shimmer and welcome the approach of Winter, for it is the time of the Autumn Ball.

The sky, powder blue, shall brighten most days, but will also be cast in steely gray from time to time, as the rains pit-pat out a rhythm of solitude and calm. Go indoors and huddle, stay warm and dry! Leaves scatter on the winds as they whip round to haunt and dance their final waltz. Surround yourselves with the comforts of hearth and home, while the chilled breath of Autumn stirs the leaves upon the ground~ rustling, hurrying, swirling them into Winter's cold embrace.

An ethereal sense of quiet washes over me as days change with the passing weeks. No longer will the sun's warm caress wake me. Instead I will be greeted by the cold fingertips of the morning light, a distant pale beam that neither warms nor shines as brightly as before.

We turn inward to wax poetic about days gone by and reminisce of youthful times and activities. How quickly time does fly as the knowledge that another year is journeying toward its end. Time tells the tales of days of old, and I am wrapped in the melancholy, to ponder on the past, to savor old beloved memories and reminded of the changes in my life thus far.

Autumn is upon us~ I feel it closing in...

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That’s Just Ugly...(crosspost)
Current mood: inspired
Category: Writing and Poetry

I got through the first round of revisions on my four book series...not too shabby, but these are, after all my most recent endeavors and therefore written quite a bit differently than the ones prior. I decided to move on to a different story than those so I can come back and go through them again later.

So I went through my historical paranormal romance...a bit tougher, but I made it through with only a few minor abrasions. (mind you this was the 3rd novel I completed so the writing wasn't as tight as the four book series, which I finished this year) I mean sure, I had tension in my shoulders from staring at the pages for hours with little breaks in between, but it wasn't too hard to alter it and fix this and that....So I moved on again-

This one I'm doing now? It's a train wreck- more tension in my shoulders and neck, headaches and eye strain. I feel like this story has chewed me up and spit me out.

Yesterday I went through about 30 pages, then backtracked to the beginning again and only got through 13 pages before I shut it down for the evening. I had a busting headache when I went to bed. This was the 2nd book I finished, my first NaNovel, and my writing was/is CRAP. The sentence structure, the tense, the grammar...when I started going through it again I realized just how much my writing has changed in the past two years that I've been hard at work on these.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday evening as well as today, scrutinizing over the same sentence until I had it written in a way that made sense and fit the tense. I've reworked so many sentences it's not even a laughing matter.

I've been told by so many authors that writing's the easy part, its the revisions that are hard and I can absolutely agree. As I go through these revisions, I see the striking changes in my form, my voice, the manner with which I handle getting the thoughts out into written word.

I'm actually dreading the moment I go back and start working on the revisions of my very first novel. Mind you, I have revised it before. I had written it in 1st person to begin with, so I went back and changed that. Changing POV is pretty difficult in and of itself, because you can't just change I, me, my, mine, we to he, she, it, them, etc. You also have to take into account your verbs and tense yet again to make sure the sentences flow.

Let it be known I'm not discouraged...just exhausted. I want to make sure these are all polished to the best of my ability before I start sending them in for submissions. Of course, it's amazing just how much a writer's vision and style changes as they go along. I have 8 completed, and the first four, in my opinion are not nearly as good as the last four. I don't mean the stories. I love the stories.

It's my writing that's changed and in a way, perhaps I have changed a bit as well. I know I've grown a lot with each story and that makes a huge difference in how I perceive myself as a writer. That's a really good thing.

I'm not disappointed in my previous misconceptions about "how" I write. In fact, I'm even more determined to improve them, polish them, wrap them in pretty paper and a bow. They'll shine eventually and it will be well worth the painstaking revisions and hours of stress and devotion to them.

I'm getting a late start at this, but I think I'm catching on quick. Now won't that be pretty?

Currently listening : 98 Degrees By 98 Degrees Release date: 1998-03-10

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Are Remakes Necessary?
Current mood: irritated
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Are they really? I don't think so.

I don't particularly care for remakes for the most part. There are some movies that are too classic to be messed with, too iconic. It just seems to be the new craze in Hollywood to remake everything they can get their hands on.

Gene Wilder is Willy Wonka. Audrey Hepburn is Sabrina. Judy Garland is Dorthy. James Stewart is George Bailey.

Now I can handle 3 versions of Little Women, though I know there were many others, but my favorite would have to be the one with June Allyson, followed closely by Katherine Hepburn and Winona Ryder. I enjoy You've Got Mail just as much as The Shop Around The Corner (with James Stewart). I love Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride and Father's Little Dividend and I also love Steve Martin in the Father of the Bride movies. I will watch My Favorite Wife and Move Over, Darling. These are just a few that I feel weren't made worse for wear or wore out their welcome simply because they were remade.

But.....

I won't watch any version of Miracle on 34th Street except the one with Maureen O'Hara. I won't watch the remake of The Fog, though I love Tom Welling and in a way, he's the reason I won't watch the remake of Superman. He should have had the role and filled the shoes of Christopher Reeve. Without Tom, the movie came off looking cheesy in the trailers and I can't bear to watch it.

Could you see remakes of these great films?

Gone With The Wind
It's A Wonderful Life
The Wizard of Oz
The Quiet Man
Rebel Without A Cause
A Streetcar Named Desire
American Graffiti

Now I've heard rumors over the years of a remake of Grease & Grease 2. I love both movies, but I won't watch any new one, whether it be another sequel or a remake. There had been talk of Jessica Simpson filling Olivia Newton-John's shoes as Sandy...excuse me?!?!? I don't think so.

They've done sequels to The Cutting Edge, but I can't sit through them- In the 2nd one, the girl is supposed to be the daughter of D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly's characters, but they weren't the ones playing her parents. Ugh!

And now there's rumors of a remake of Rock and Roll High School (Gotta love The Ramones). Yeah, sure, there was a Rock and Roll High School Forever that starred Corey Feldman, but I just can't stand the idea of this remake.

Who's got the idea for that? Howard Stern... And sadly, Alex Winter (best know from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) has been hired to write the script.

And on top of that, MTV is planning to remake The Rocky Horror Picture Show. No one, and I mean NO ONE can replace Tim Curry as the ever warped, twisted hilarious Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Sure- Let's Do the Time Warp again...just not with new characters and supposedly the possibility of *new* songs. Say What? The writer hasn't given them a thumbs up and he's PO'd about it. And so am I.

Needless to say, my panties are in a bunch over that. I'm ticked off.

Where are all the original movie ideas? Why do they have to rip off classics and remake them. Why not leave well enough alone? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I'm sure I have just as long a list of remakes that I actually enjoy BETTER than the originals, but it's just a thorn in my side when I see remakes of movies that are still just as good now as they were 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.

Stop messing with classics people. Get creative and stop leaching off iconic films you think need to be remade.

Sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason for an awkward, ill-timed copy that greatly pales in comparison to the original. There are just some movies that break the mold and you can't recapture that magic on screen again- no matter how hard you try.

You don't just waste your time, but ours as well.

Currently watching : No Reservations Release date: 2008-02-12

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Attack of A Rotten Tomato
Current mood: drained
Category: Food and Restaurants

My stomach has been messed up since the middle of the night. I was up at midnight with it hurting and then again this morning until just a few minutes ago. It crossed my mind...maybe it was an attack of a rotten tomato.

See, yesterday we had tacos and burritos for lunch and the leftovers for supper. Friday when we got groceries, I decided I'd take a risk on the tomatoes, which I haven't done since that fiasco with the bad ones months ago. The ones at our grocery are supposedly FDA approved to be okay.

Well...I picked one out and it looked nice on the outside- good color and firm. When I sliced it yesterday it still looked okay, but after I'd already fixed my tacos and burritos and took a bite, I realized the tomato tasted ROTTEN...

I mean seriously- it tasted like it had sat in a garbage bin and someone just pulled it out and put it on the shelf. Nasty.

Mind you, after I got a taste of it, I picked the rest of them off, but I'm wondering if the juice left behind on my food gave me a stomach upset...I will NOT be buying anymore tomatoes again from the grocery for a while.

Hubby suggested that maybe one weekend soon we could go buy some veggies from the Mennonites. At least then I could trust that the food has been grown around here and wouldn't be nasty or contaminated...ugh...if we do, I'm going to see about getting some cucumbers, squash and zucchini as well as tomatoes. Hubby wants a watermelon. LOL I might check for a cantaloupe and apples if they have any yet.

I just hope that the bad tomato was just that...rotten, not contaminiated with some bacteria to give me food poisoning. That would totally suck!

Well, I'm off to start working on revisions this morning. Didn't work on it yesterday because I had a sinus headache ALL day.

Have a great day! (Oh and check out Leona Lewis's new song...beautiful!)

Currently listening : Better in Time By Leona Lewis Release date: 2008-05-27

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Art of My Body
Category: Life

Thanks, in part to Maura Anderson's blog today on the Witchy Chicks Blog it got me to thinking about my own body art, and the significance it has in my life, to me personally, so I thought I would share a little back story.

As a teenager I was overweight (I still am, but I can blame having a child and not getting enough exercise now..haha)...but I digress---

As a teen I hated my body. When I blossomed, I blossomed in a lot of the wrong places along with the right ones. I was ashamed and covered myself in oversize clothes and hid myself away because I didn't want others to look at me.

I got older, I lost weight and began to accept myself. I had various relationships and was once engaged (well- a few times to the same guy), but it wasn't until I was 25, freshly out of a relationship with a man I had thought was my soulmate, when I realized I was happy with just being me.

I had finally come to accept myself, my own inner and outer beauty and it had nothing to do with being IN a relationship, like I thought it did. I had grown a lot from the catapillar of a girl I had once been, feeling ugly and defeated and unworthy of love, ashamed of attention.

I felt like a butterfly, finally shedding my cocoon, spreading my wings, which I realized were beautiful, graceful and colorful. There was more to me and I had finally come into my own, in a way. When a friend from work got her first tattoo, she asked me to go with her when she got her second one, and encouraged me to get one. Perhaps as a birthday gift to myself, I thought. I was going to be 26 in a matter of days and I had reached a turning point in my life...

And so I did. In honor of my newfound self-awareness and acceptance, I got a butterfly on top of my right breast- one part of my body I had been ashamed of for far too long. Since the pattern was very popular, the tattoo artist added a touch of white in the wing to make it unique to me. Below is a picture, hazy as it is.

There was a freeing aspect to getting my tat. I looked at myself differently and owned myself for the first time in my life, it seemed. And it inspired me to get two more before another month had passed. I went back and got 2 more tats- also butterflies-

A larger one on my left shoulder-

And a smaller one on my right ankle.  (Not a great photo- had my ankles crossed just before I took the photo- so my skin was rather flushed)

I have still been contemplating another tat, or two or three- perhaps on my right shoulder of a blue morpho butterfly, but I'm waiting. Waiting for another major milestone in my life. I was going to get it when I had my daughter, but the timing wasn't right, though the significance would have been there.

I have an idea what I want though- a large blue and black morpho and then smaller ones to follow, trailing in spirals down across my shoulder and down my upper arm. I want them for a specific reason, but I intend to keep that to myself so as not to jinx it. X Fingers crossed X.

But anyway..there's a glimpse into the "art of my body."

Have a good evening.

Currently watching : No Reservations Release date: 2008-02-12

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End of the First Full Week
Category: Life

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Just Bunches and Revisions
Category: Writing and Poetry

I'm eating some of those new "Just Bunches" and let me tell you....I think I'd rather have Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds. Not that these don't taste good, but they are a hard workout on the jaws. It's simply "just bunches" of the honey roasted oat clusters- no flakes or anything else. It's all right, but if you don't want to feel like a cow chewing cud, you might want to stick to the orginal with flakes.

So anyway...that's my little "rant" about the cereal.

As for revisions- I'm working on 4 now in my series. I did a lot of revisions in the midst of writing each of these four, so right now I'm just rereading and checking for typos and grammar issues. I think I'll do revisions on the other 4 too, once I finish this one..

I know the first 4 I wrote are an absolute mess and need a LOT of revision, I'm certain. I was still feeling my way around when I wrote the first four and I think there came a turning point once I reached the next four. I was a lot more aware of how I wrote, how I use grammar and punctuation, though I still keep my voice in it.

In a way I feel I've grown more since writing the last 4 than the first 4, but that gives me ample opportunity and a better eye for what doesn't work and what does. I'm learning...constantly and I feel like I'm getting better. Always a good thing.

Well, I'm off to work on revisions. Have a wonderful day!

1:27 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Much Better
Current mood: thankful
Category: Life

Koty was much better this afternoon...Happy, smiling. Chris held her hand as they crossed the road and she had "homework." A very short page where she had to find all the "R"s and color them in to take back to school tomorrow.

The bus driver also had Chris and Koty move to the seat directly behind him just in case Koty got sick again today. Very thoughtful of him, since I never got a chance to talk to him about it.

Otherwise it was a good day for both...they were chipper and talking over each other to tell me about their day and show me their papers and such. It was almost surreal to hear Koty tell Chris "I'm doing my homework right now" instead of the other way around like it used to be when she would bug him while he had work to do. LOL

Currently listening : Greatest Hits By Journey Release date: 2006-08-01

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