Several things I had to do today because my husband has one working arm:

Help put the Christmas tree into the car.
Take the Christmas tree out of the car.
Cut off the bottom of the Christmas tree and drill the hole in the bottom so that it will fit in our stand.
(this is why our tree is completely crooked on the stand)
Carry the tree into the house and put it in said stand
(this is why my house is littered with needles...I sort of carried/dragged it rather than nicely carrying it, which is what would have happened if I'd had help)
Hang the wreath on the high wall by the kitchen
(this is why we now have a ladder in the house and the table is askew. But the wreath looks nice)

Drive us home from the store in a raging snow storm with roads that were pure ice.  

I slid into the curb twice but otherwise got us home safely.  Many others did not.  So many fender benders and stranded cars on our drive home! During the drive Frank was insisting that he could drive if I wanted him to.  I declined even though he was sure he could drive in the ice and snow just as well with one arm.

I am now sitting safely at home with my crooked tree and messy house.  I just ate some home-canned stew for dinner.  All is well.

But, not gonna lie, I miss having a handy, strong, two armed husband.

Especially because the walkway and driveway still have to be shoveled...

Inanimate objects and me

I was always the type of kid who gave feeling to inanimate objects.  Maybe I've mentioned this before...
But I really gave feelings to things.
In literature it is called Anthropomorphism:  the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities.  It is apparently quite common in children, which doesn't surprise me, since I definitely did that in a big way.

I felt sorry for anything that had to get thrown away.
I would put stuffed animals in piles in certain ways on my bed or in my room because I figured the ones that sat next to each other became friends and if I moved them, they would be sad.  So they got to sit by their friends whenever I would arrange them.
If I used one pencil or pen or crayon more than another I would assume that the others were feeling left out and would try to be more fair and use them all equally.
I used to kick rocks as I walked home from school.  But when I would get a block or so away I would feel bad for kicking the rock away from his family...I just could not bring myself to leave the rock there.  So I would pick it up and return it to the spot where I started kicking it.  Yes indeed.  I did this many many times. Knowing I would later feel sorry for the rock did not stop me from kicking rocks.  I liked kicking rocks.  So I would just kick them knowing that it meant I would need to walk back to return it eventually.  I never felt bad for actually kicking the rock.  I mean, I knew rocks couldn't feel. And yet somehow, I thought they'd be sad.  It makes no sense I realize.

I have grown up and become somewhat more logical.

I know that the spoons are not lonely when I set them in the wrong or different spot in the drawer.
I know that throwing something away does not make it "sad".
I can use my favorite pen as much as I want and not worry about the other pens.

I do still find myself feeling slightly uneasy if, say, I am washing grapes and one goes down the drain.  I hate to think of that grape growing on the vine and being shipped to my store, and then purchased by me only to end up in the drain.  I will usually grab it back out and wash it off so it can live to it's potential of being food (if it's on the non-disposal side...because the disposal drain is way too gross to pick something out of there).  So, yeah, I'm still a little nuts.  I know this is a little nuts and so I sometimes force myself to let the darn grape go into the trash.

I recently read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.
This book has a lot of good advice.  And I am a tidy person in general so it spoke to my general sense of neatness and not being wasteful.
But (and I realize she is from a different culture) in some parts of the book she came across as a little bit nuts (I sure am using that word a lot in the post).  A little bit obsessive.  And, yes, I realized that we were kindred spirits in that way.

One of her pieces of advice is to take a moment as you fold and put your things away, to give thanks to the object for doing it's job properly.  I read it awhile ago so that might not be the exact way that she puts it...but that's the idea.

She believes in keeping only those things that bring joy into your life.  I like this too.  Not keeping things out of guilt or just because you've had it for x number of years or because someone gave it to you as a gift.
I didn't follow all of her advice and there are a few things I still plan to do, but one thing I did do was to organize my socks.
I have never like "matching" socks.  I don't like to fold them together so that the tops get all stretched out.  So I just kept all of my socks willy-nilly in one drawer all together.  It was never that hard to find a match and it worked fine.
But I liked the neatness of the way she folds socks together.  They are in pairs but not getting all stretched out. 
Recently I found myself folding the socks together and thinking in my head "Thank you for serving me so well and doing your job" or "Thank you for keeping my feet warm" as I put them away.

I don't know if this makes me a nut or if I am just being thankful for the good things in my life, like warm wool socks.

But it does sometimes take me back to my childhood and my love for various inanimate objects.  I assumed they loved me back.  I mean, why wouldn't they?  I was so nice to them.

So I guess I will just continue to try to be as sane as possible.  I will continue to be nice to actual humans as much as I can...and maybe sometimes I will be nice to my inanimate objects as well and to thank them for their service.

What can I say?  I'm a little nuts.  But in a nice way.

100 Things 2016

This year I tried to write a few each month but I wasn't perfect about it.  I know I could list more than 100 things because I am very blessed.  As usual the things on this list are random and sometimes little things...but I really like the view of my life that this list gives me every year.

1. A wonderful trip to Alaska to visit Branden, Amber, Isabelle and Kaylee!
2. KSL-for selling stuff.  Like Craigslist for Utah.  Works great!
3. Monthly birthday parties with the family
4. Frank's pies
5. Smoothies for breakfast.  I feel so much better drinking a smoothie than eating toast or cereal.  Too bad I waited so long to figure this out!
6. Being close to my parents
7. Blurb.com-- I use them to make my blog books every year and made one for my mom too.  I love having these things in print!
8. A warm home
9. Lazy mornings
10. Cool old books owned by my grandparents
11. Spring-like days in the middle of winter
12. Texting
13. Netflix
14. Siblings
15. Being able to go to lunch with friends
16. Getting a new job
17. Friday night games with neighborhood friends.  Yay, we are making friends!
18. Little flowers springing up in the yard! Spring!
19. Headache-free days (rare lately)...so, yes, I am complaining in my thankful post! haa!
20. Organizing at my parents house with my siblings.  Fun and work at the same time. Plus, the finished product (an organized home) is very fulfilling. Hope Mom and Dad feel the same way!
21. Game nights with the boys. We've really been having fun together!
22. Days off of work! (ha)
23. Good recipes on the internet
24. Canned chicken and stew on lazy nights
25. Opportunities to help neighbors
26. Nice people at work
27. Living near Mom and Dad
28. 5% off with the Lowes card
29. Disneyland with friends!
30. Fastpass
31. Warm stew in a bread bowl when it's raining
32. Eagle Scout Carter Hill!
33. My peonies that are coming up.
34. When the weekly grade report for Carter is good.
35. Chocolate
36. Sweet texts from hubby when he's out of town
37. Movies with Carter (even on school nights)
38. The ceiling fan in my bedroom.
39. Sweet Potato Fries
40. Making new friends
41. The neighbor's pretty yellow roses
42. Getting to go to Hawaii
43. Seeing Sea Turtles up close. What is it about Sea Turtles? I never get tired of them.
44. A good meal and a nice view
45. Peonies!
46. Fresh strawberries from my own garden
47. Being in the temple with my family
48. Cute videos of the grandkids
49. Airline miles that make it possible for me to travel
50. Frank's good job
51. A handy husband
52. Solar panels (that I can't see from the front of my house)
53. All the flowers in my neighborhood.
54. Flags around the neighborhood on holidays
55. My Missionary son
56. Weekly emails
57. A trip to Alaska! Again!
58. Slightly green bananas. yum.
59. My pressure canner
60. A flexible boss
61. A good book
62. Raspberry Crisp
63. Raspberry freezer jam!
64. Friends with a boat
65. advil
66. gravy
67. a sister who can tile
68. yellow paint
69. my own computer
70. when I drop my phone and it doesn't break!
71. lunch with cousins!
72. lunch with mom and dad (yes, I like going out to lunch)
73. going to a movie by myself occasionally
74. popcorn and milk duds
75. rebates
76. hot showers
77. flat rate shipping boxes
78. calls from kids and grandkids
79. A preparedness minded hubby
80. peaches
81. Movies on my iPad
82. my pressure canner
83. internet shopping
84. power tools
85. a good pen that works and doesn't leak
86. eating out and not cooking!
87. seeing friends from far away
88. family at thanksgiving!
89. games with family
90. keeping up with nieces, nephews, old friends and new, close and long distance family on Facebook.  I love it for the most part.  During election time...possibly not as much. ha!
91. football games with family
92. fall foliage
93. gorgeous sunsets
94. quiet days with not much to do
95. house projects
96. a reliable car
97. comfy pillows
98. warm blankets while watching tv
99. when the kids who I teach Sunday school to actually talk and participate.
100. the Gospel of Jesus Christ

beige

Tomorrow I am working at the polls.  Yep, I'm an election worker.
I start work at 6 a.m. and will get off sometime after the polls close and we clean the place up and take down the voting machines...so maybe 8:30 or 9:00?  I actually have no idea how long the cleanup will take.
This all means that I have to get up very early and I have to pack breakfast, lunch and dinner for myself since we don't get to leave the building.
And so, I should be sleeping now.
But instead I'm blogging.
I've been working on a bathroom remodel as anyone who is my friend on Facebook knows.
This is the first time I've gutted and remodeled a bathroom.
We have changed out old linoleum before.  I've put in a new vanity a couple of times.
But this time I tore the whole sucker out.
Removed tile (lots and lots of tile), tore out a big old nasty jacuzzi tub, removed the toilet and vanity.
I'll be repainting and retiling the whole thing.
(Well, I'll be repainting and helping my sister do the tiling because she is awesome and knows how to tile while I am totally afraid of it)

Today my dad stopped by and commented on how I always have so many projects going on...he could see that I have my sewing machine set up as well as the whole bathroom thing going on.
(and I've still got tomatoes that need to be dealt with)

It's true.  I've been sewing this week.  Want to know why?
Because I find it relaxing to sew pretend food for my granddaughters to use in their pretend kitchen.

I was so stressed out last week over this stupid bathroom that I was manically sewing felt food to calm myself down.

I know that being stressed over the bathroom is ridiculous.  I know this.

It's beige.  Beige is the cause of my stress.
My whole house is beige.  Beige is like the worst color (non-color?) in existence in my opinion.
I have beige walls, beige carpeting, beige tile... beige beige beige!
And the trim and doors in my house give the appearance of white up against all this beige but guess what?
The trim and doors in my house are just a lighter shade of beige!

And so I try to imagine putting together a bathroom and I can't figure out how to work around the beige trim.
I also can't imagine painting all the trim and doors in my house just so that I can be rid of the beige but, man oh man, I would love that.

I did finally decide to paint the trim in the bathroom rather that work around the beige.
And the painting hasn't been bad...it almost makes me think that I could do the whole house after all.
Until I start looking around at how many doors there really are in my house.
And thinking about the fact that all my ceilings are also beige.  I hate painting ceilings.

My husband has never even noticed the trim in the house and so when I complained about it, he was dumbfounded.  He stared at it for awhile and said,"I never would have noticed that"
It drives me batty and he doesn't even see it.

He knows me though.  And he is assuming that one day I will just start painting it.  Once I realize that something is bugging me, I have a hard time letting it go.
I'm trying to let this one go.  Really I am.  Because not letting it go will mean SO MUCH work for me.

If you needed more proof that I'm a bit nutty, well, now you have it.
But if you know me at all, none of this is news to you.