Hootie ..

... and the Blowfish!
Where have they been? How come I'm just appreciating them now?

How was your long weekend?
Mine was OK. But the longing to be camping never did go away. Even on Saturday (especially on Saturday) when the rain fell like a fully opened water faucet. I don't know if it actually happened, but somehow hearing that rain fall through the open windows in my family room, I imagined sitting at the table in dad and mom's Vanguard camper, playing cards (probably Rummy) with the gas-stove on, heating up water (to wash our faces with) and the interior of the camper at the same time.

Jul? Mom? Did we ever do that?

Anyway, my camping days are over and I had to suck it up this weekend because all three of my kids had plans of their own. Are they old enough to plan long weekend stuff that doesn't involve me? I'm not ready for that.

So I had a whole lot of time to myself this weekend.

I wasted most of it.

And totally blew that no flour, no sugar thing I was supposed to be taking seriously this time.

By noon today, I forced myself to get my act together. My bathroom? Half of it sparkles. And my hands smell like bleach.

The laundry? All done. Washed, dried, folded and put away.

The dishes? All washed, dried and put away.

My front hall 'seasonal display' (I was in retail too long) table? Floral-y now. Bouncy balls are bagged and put away.

My truck? Full of gas and washed.

Propane tanks for BBQ? Filled and reconnected to BBQ. Spare is in shed. Bring on summer cooking.

Tutors for Max? Two of them, both hired. He even had a Chem lesson this morning.

Motorhome for Creation? Totally dropped the ball on that one and forgot to confirm a booking. Fingers crossed that I'll be able to nail one down this week.

Larder? Groceries bought. Put away.

Diet crap? Re-stocked all those supplements.

New make-up? Ordered enough to transform an elephant to a rhino at the beginning of May and IT STILL HASN'T ARRIVIED. Have used up all my little jars from Sandra, so I'm back to wearing my old makes-my-face-shiny stuff.

The garage? Half done. We have access to the fridge and freezer out there now. All that's left to do is get rid of another one of Clint's youth event prizes (an old bookshelf), 25 chairs (borrowed from the church for that shower last month), 8 benches (from the cabin, borrowed for a youth event), a ping-pong table (one of Drew's birthday gifts from when he turned 9) 8 HUGE bags of pop cans and bottles, a pile (a BIG PILE) of cardboard packaging and a couple bags of clothes.

At least it's all sorted and organized now.

The bills? All paid. The paperwork that came with all those bills? Stacked precariously on my desk. Sad, really. Because that's what I really wanted to clean up. I hate paper piles.

The yard? Was ignored. So the weeds flourished.

And my bedroom? Oh yeah, my semi-annual cleaning went well. Clothes all hung, rug vacuumed, furniture dusted, books put back into bookshelf, and little slips of paper notes to myself re-read. And that's where I saw a note I wrote to myself: Cracked Rear View Mirror - Hold My Hand.

So I googled that phrase to see what it meant. And it's a song. By Hootie and the Blowfish. It's my favorite song today.

And somehow just listening to that song has made the weekend managable.

Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Despite blowing a long weekend by wishing for something that wasn't going to happen, I ended up checking a bunch of things off my to-do list. And we all know how important that list is to me.

2. Power Point has its own cropping tool. Man that feature came in handy. So did the re-sizing tool. What an awesome program.

3. Lots of good chick flicks going to released this summer. Yep. This is just how shallow I am.

Shalom,