Stuff

Busy Livin’

kanniduba7 Comments

So I could tell you how busy I’ve been around here.

I could tell you all about my organization kick that has continued over the past month…

I could tell you all about my daughter’s first high school musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Trying” that ran last weekend and how awesome it was and how proud I was of my curtain/coffee girl…

I could talk all about our weekend with family celebrating an early Easter…

I could explain to you how great I’ve been feeling and how good it feels to be normal again…

I could talk about our Renovation project and show you photos of all the cool things we have picked out for the bathrooms, and how much I like our contractor and how excited I am to get things moving…

I could fill you in on the weather and how absolutely bizarre it has been, and how we are enjoying every single gloriously sunny warm day when it comes…

I could talk about how the whole family is in the midst of reading The Hunger Games series (except Mister of course) and how much fun it is to discuss the books with the kids…

I could highlight some of the awesome recipes I’ve been messing around with and enjoying…(you just may get a peek at the peanut butter brownie trifle I am planning to make this weekend…)

I could tell you a bit about my sister and her husband finally selling their house and preparing to move into my parents’ house temporarily while they search for “The” house…  (Should make for an interesting summer!) 😉

I could also explain my newfound love of coupons and grocery sales, and how proud I am of myself for saving money toward extra incidentals that might crop up during the renovation…

I could share with you the anxiety I feel as my beautiful daughter develops a new friendship with a certain special somebody, and how holding on and letting go are opposites for a reason…

I could tell you all of this and more, but I will instead share with you a couple of photos evidencing spring and come back another day.  Too bad we couldn’t all just meet at my favorite restaurant for coffee and a chat…although I suspect coffee would become lunch, would become tea and a snack would become dinner with all there is to catch up on!  🙂

There and Back Again

kanniduba5 Comments

So much going on, and what with my early to bed routine so I can keep up, haven’t had much time to write.

I could talk about a million things…

but I won’t. Or maybe I will…we’ll see where this post takes us, shall we?

Let’s start out with a little Christmas music to set the mood. I share with you the smooth tones of a local boy who made good—our very own Tony DeSare. Tony grew up in our little town and went to school with my sister. It was always a treat to listen to this talented musician/singer at band and choir concerts, and we all had a feeling that something big would be in store for him. Be sure to check out his website for more information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0evfDGNlnw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

While I’m on the subject of Tony, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another talented young man who graduated with Tony, Ted Firth. We have some good musical genes in this town! :). Check out this video of them playing piano earlier in the year.

Our music and drama department has always had a standard of excellence that is unmatched in the region. It is truly the pride of our little town. I knew that I wanted my children to attend school here, not only because I was confident in the teachers, but because I wanted them to have our music department available to them should they express talent and desire. I had a feeling my children *might* have music in their genes…my mother-in-law is a music teacher and pianist, my own family has beautiful voices in the mix (that gene unfortunately skipped me.) As it turns out, both girls got the music genes. (Too soon to tell with Mister!) Big Girl has a beautiful voice and perfect pitch (and reluctantly plays the flute.) But desire? Not so much. Little Girl plays piano and viola and seems to learn effortlessly. Desire? She’s got it. In fact, at ten, she already thinks she wants to be a music teacher. I’m thinking we made the right choice in schools.

In other news, we’ve been busy shopping and wrapping and baking and exhausting. In between we have been dealing with an intense exasperation of Mister’s reflux caused by a stomach bug and post nasal drip from a possible tree allergy. (This is new…we may have to go artificial in the future, but I refuse to entertain that notion right now…I am “real” all the way and it gives me the weenies (damn autocorrect!) the weepies to think of ending that tradition.) What this means is that Zan and I have had a roommate for the past week since my darling boy is afraid to sleep in his own room in case “the throw ups come back.” (Remember my last post? Um, yeah…he threw up the very next night. Cruel irony, don’t you think?) His eating is off, his belly ache comes and goes, and he’s pale one moment, pink the next. Hopefully the increased meds the doctor prescribed will do the trick soon…in the meantime it’s a bit of a roller coaster ride.
While we are talking about medical situations, my back is faring well, and I’m managing the Fibro with an early bedtime, shortened shopping trips, and lots of tea breaks throughout my days. I’m finding my lack of stamina extremely frustrating, but trying to take it all in stride. It is what it is.

And now I have to run like the wind…(okay fine then, walk like the breeze) and do a little (okay, fine, a lot) of house tidying in preparation for our family Christmas gathering on Saturday. Not to mention that trip to the store because we’ve been out of garbage bags for two days (those plastic shopping bags only hold so much) and not to mention the laundry I became painfully aware that I have to do (when Little Girl was stomping around irritably looking for socks and pants this morning…oops!)
A little Johnny should get me moving. Cue Christmas music, aaaaaaand GO!

Reconnecting By Disconnecting

kanniduba10 Comments

So, last week I made a bold move.  I disconnected my consciousness from both Facebook and Twitter. *GASP*  I know!!!

I had been considering it for awhile, and suddenly one day I just did it.  I said my “see you laters” and deleted both from my iPhone and my iPad.  I didn’t go as far as deleting my accounts…I figured that was a bit drastic and I never know these days which brash emotions are real and founded in truth or hormonally induced, so I took the leap cautiously.

It was the BEST thing I have ever done.  It has been liberating!  No more constant bingbong from my phone, beckoning me to engage in media consumerism.  No more continuous stream of “social” interaction.  (Honestly, we call it “social media” but really these sites allow us to be as antisocial as we can get.)  No more emotional suckotage.  (Yes I made that up…)  No more wasted time being pulled into the internet ten times a day.  No more innane babble.  I mean, seriously…does the world really need to know that I just had the urge to make chocolate chip cookies?  Do I really need to know that someone just drank a cup of pumpkin coffee?  The answer is NO!  I was just adding to the noise.

Why did I finally make up my mind to disconnect? Well, recently I was speaking to a friend who is disturbingly like me in many respects…I say disturbingly because all the quirky little hyper controlling things she does that I have always teased her about, are actually mirrored in me on a slightly less visible level.  She was diagnosed with Fibro about a year  before I was, and I was speaking to her recently.  We were discussing her work situation and she made the statement, “I’m having a difficult bout with the Fibro because I am an Empath and all the negativity in the building is making me sick.”

I had never heard the term empathy used as a noun before.   I looked it up later.  And OH MY GOD! I’m one of those too!!  (You too can take this handy little quiz.  Three or more yes’s and you can join the club!)  😉

Some questions that are floating around to help you determine if you are an Empath:

1- Are you extremely sensitive to the emotions and thoughts of others, often confusing the emotions of others with your own?  Um, definitely yes.

2- Are you an emotional sponge, soaking up the emotions of others, absorbing and dissipating the energy and problems of others, even at a distance.  Another yes.

3- Do you instinctively know when someone is lying or fibbing, almost always keeping your suspicions to yourself?  Always…it was a wonderful gift when I was teaching.

4- Do you tend to puts others at ease, allowing them to share their inner most feelings? Do you find yourself helping others, even casual strangers, understand the world and themselves better?  Others would have to answer that question.

5- Periodically, do you need to take time out, where you can be alone to meditate, recharge and experience your own mind without the interference of others? A resounding YES!!

6- Have you known about your unique sensitivity since childhood? Have you struggled with a burden-of-perceptions that others did not share.  Yup.

7- Do you sometimes use food, sex, drugs or solitude as a means of coping with you empathic or telepathic nature? Never.

8- Do you have to a use masked personality to protect yourself from others, only sharing your true perceptions with those you trust most?  No.

9- Do you have the ability to facilitate the process of rapid growth in those around you?  I don’t know about that one…

So there it is.  Do we have anymore out there?  Raise your hand!

I’ve always just figured I’m particularly perceptive.  And I don’t buy all the New Age mumbo jumbo attributed to the term, but I know this is something I have always struggled with and have had to learn to protect myself from.  I have worked all my life to disconnect my emotions from those around me.  It has been a daily struggle since I was a little girl.  Just ask my mother.  I am hypersensitive to peoples’ emotions and attitudes and my moods often reflect those of others.  I know a good soul immediately when I meet one…I am extremely wary of others—my first read of a person has been proven true time and time again so I no longer question it.  It is not something I was taught, it is just something I have always known about myself.  I’ve learned some coping mechanisms along the way;  I don’t watch the news for a reason.  I don’t watch crime dramas.  I don’t watch hospital dramas.  They simply aren’t good for me.  And now I see that Twitter and Facebook are similar…a constant barrage on the emotions.  Not good for someone with a personality like mine.

Then there was the time suckage!  Let’s just assume 4-5 minutes spent on these sites ten times a day.  That’s 40-50 wasted minutes a day!!

So I stepped away.

I have had so much more time and energy to devote to things that matter.  I miss Facebook and will go back to it soon…I enjoy connecting there with friends and family regularly, but I don’t think I will return to Twitter.  And I am making  rules for myself.  Desktop only…The sites will stay off my iPhone and iPad permanently.  I will deliberately check in when I want to, not when I am dragged in by tempting notifications.

No more time or emotional suckotage!  I’m FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next post on the docket: Scott’s Challenge.  (Did I actually take any photos this year???)

 

 

Pull Up a Chair…Let’s Chat Awhile

kanniduba7 Comments

So, I’ve been busy.  (And so have you I see.)

Well, let’s take a minute to catch up a bit, shall we?

We’re back to a routine of sorts in the Zanduba household which is a welcome change from the summer chaos.  The girls have adjusted well to their new school year, and the evenings find us running to and from Big Girl’s volleyball practice and games, and Little Girl’s gymnastics and in-house piano lessons.  Mister LOVES LOVES LOVES Preschool even more than I hoped he would, and cries in disappointment the three mornings a week that he can’t go.  It is great fun to see the world through his eyes as he learns new things that we at home didn’t teach him.  Case in point…one afternoon he was wandering in the kitchen, and picked up an apple off the counter.

“Mommy, will you cut it like that (as he made cutting motions with his hand) so I can see the star inside?  My teacher telled me about it.”

And here is what we discovered when we cut into that apple.

 

 

My kids are happy, so Mom is happy.  🙂

Which leads me to productivity.  The happier I am, the more productive I am, which is likely true of  most of us.  So, when fall began, I was determined to get my house back to decluttered and organized.  You see, I am a great organizer.  However, I am a terrible maintainer.  I cannot stay organized to save my life.  This is what my desk looked like two weeks ago…the absolute bane of my existence.  I couldn’t find anything, I was missing deadlines, I was frustrated and had no idea where to even begin.  (Not to mention the number of times I knocked my shins on that accursed train table.)

So here’s a lesson for all of you interested in saving money.  Do not, I repeat, do not go furniture shopping for a new big boy bed when your desk space looks like this.  It is the equivalent of going grocery shopping when you are hungry.  This is what happens when you go furniture shopping on an “empty stomach”:

This piece of furniture called to me from across the store and made me take it home.  It begged…what else could I do?  So NOW I am organized, AND have a decent chance to stay that way.  Six baskets of paperwork  sorted and put away/thrown away.  Attic playspace/storage cleaned out, organized, and made roomy enough for the relocation of the train table.  Old toys donated or tossed away.  Even my camera has a home in a cabinet, instead of collecting dust buried under paperwork on top of the table.  LOVE IT!

So, what else?  Ah, yes, the weather.  We’ve had some incredible dark rainy days, followed by the most beautiful, sunny, warm fall days I can remember in quite awhile.  It has been glorious.  I was able to capture a couple of water photos during a rainstorm which I will save for Shrew’s Shutter Challenge, (due October 15th by the way) but here is a photo of a gorgeous sunset looking out of my upstairs hall window.

I should have some time this week to get out to some of my favorite locales to capture some foliage shots…we are entering peak up here and the colors are lovely.  Stay tuned.

And in the midst of running our busy lives, I am reminded in every moment of everyday to be thankful for these glorious days and the ability to keep up, as I am surrounded by family and friends who are struggling with some serious illnesses.  My Uncle (Dad’s brother,) my Aunt (Mom’s sister,) and a dear friend, all facing recent diagnoses of cancer, and another dear friend facing surgery on Friday for a brain aneurism.  They all face their trials with strength, hope, and a brightness of spirit that are amazing to me.  The one thing I can do for them is pray, so pray I do.  And I used what little skill I have to make my Aunt a Rosary bracelet in the hopes that it will bring a teeny bit of comfort to her in the days ahead.

 

I am yet again reminded of “The Gift of an Ordinary Day” and am taking pleasure in the little things that make a life worth living…

So here’s hoping all of your trials of the moment are trivial, and I leave you with  two videos…

The first is my new favorite song, and the latter is the thing I am most looking forward to next.  🙂  Enjoy!