Ain’t No Place To Put A Sticker

I am not a food waster, not much anyway. I was always taught to eat what was on my plate and did so. I have learned over the years to put on my plate what I can eat and finish it. This has always worked, till now.

Now, I am not sure if it is the heat here in Texas or just my body, but what I could eat before I can’t eat now. I get full faster and find myself stuffing in what is left so as not to waste it. I am also finding I am not as hungry at meal times many times. I am eating because it is time and hubby is hungry. I assume I can eat what I was used to eating, so I put it on the plate.

The last few days I have eaten it and felt so stuffed after. Sickly stuffed. I have an idea that this hot weather is the reason, but today I took my normal lunch and ate about half and had no desire for the rest. I began doing my usual, keep eating because I did not want to waste it and I took a normal amount.

As I started I was thinking about how full I would feel and how it did not feel good. I looked at my plate and the thought came to my head: Waste it of Waist it!  My waist is big enough, I want to lose, so, I wasted it. Yup, threw it to the dog.

I think the phrase may stick. I will cut back, way back on food again, and then eat it or waste it.

My last few days I have spent finding picture frames that I have here. As you know from previous posts I am trying to organize. One of the things I am slowly, I repeat slowly, working on is this course:

I desiced to start with the living room and one of my big things with the living room is the fireplace wall.  I am not sure how long ago, but maybe 1 1/2 years ago, I began to put out pictures in piles to try to work the wall up to a picture wall. We have 8 kids, 19 grandkids and pictures!  My thought was to get an old pane type window and use it for a frame for some of them. I was not able to find one for ages and finally someone gave me several of them, however the bottom part is rotted so I do not feel I can hang them. As I have been taking this course I felt I wanted to get the piles up and off the mantle etc and looking nice. I gathered some frames, spray painted them and am working on getting the pictures in the frames and then organizing them on the wall.

We are a blended family.  Having only been married 4.5 years it is a challenge to gather pictured of his family, that I never met, and know how to heartfully arrange them. However, I am finding that many times pictures are the same. Like his kids when they were younger and mine when they were younger, same kinds of pictures for the collage frames.

I am  not a picture person, but my husband is. For me, since I can’t see my kids all the time now, pictures have become more important and I am trying to make this so we can see all of our family and know how blessed we are.

One thing that I am wondering how other blended families handle, pictures of former spouses. For me, my husband died and my present husband has no problem with pictures being up. I look at it that it took both our former spouses to produce these great kids and grandkids that we now have and think they should be included. However, he and his spouse divorced and I guess this would be awkward, even though I have no problem. We get along and she is the mother of my step children and grandmother to my grandkids as well.

When this project is completed I will put up pictures. Believe it or not, I had to order copies of some of the pictures to have the right size. All these pictures and wrong sizes!

Someday I will be organized. Hopefully before I die.

I get a little newsletter every morning called Mikeys Funnies. Many times the funnies are not funny but serious, thought provoking messages. I enjoy this newsletter and highly recommend it.

Today the funny was serious. Here is what it said:

today’sFUNNY===========================

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranging from 2 to 5 pounds.

The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.”

He continued, “If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it’s the same weight. But the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.

“And that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down.”

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

today’sTHOT============================

Worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due.

I am learning to be more organized. I am slow and this is discouraging to me, but my time is limited, but it will happen.

Another stress I have is financial. My husband has been caught in the employment cut backs and, while he has a job, the hours are not what they were. Some weeks it is 24 or such and this has hurt us. We had planned a vacation to be with my side of the family and now can’t go. For me this is stressful. I get to see my kids and grand kids so little, have not seen sisters and brothers in 2 years and my mom in 1 1/2.  My niece is marrying in a month and we were supposed to be there. Right now I see no way financially.

This glass of water is getting heavy. Very heavy. I ask prayer that I will be able to set it down and trust the Lord that His timing for us is better and that it will happen soon.

Dust. I think we all have it. I have only lived in one or two places where it was not much of a problem. The other day I was cleaning in my bedroom and was thinking about dust. You see there is a ton of dust here. I can dust today and by tonight there is more.

This was not the case in the bedroom. I had not dusted in there for some time, not really dusted anyway. Now some places have dust bunnies. Not here, it is dust dragons. The dust clusters together and sticks into these huge pieces, almost like lint.

Over the years I have seen that different places we lived had different kinds of dust. If I had not moved around so much I would never have thought about it or realized it, but different areas have different dust. Believe I am a dust pro!

One place had light dust. You could blow it off, it was just this light powdery feeling dust. Another had sandy dust. It was gritty feeling and brushed off. A dust rag would knock it to the floor unless you had something on it.

Not Texas.  Remember the saying about things being bigger in Texas? Well, so is the dust. It is almost oily. It clumps, and sticks together. If you run your finger over the dust you get a big clump of linty, stuck together, sticky stuff. My swiffer can’t even hold it, it just clumps together and comes off in a big wad.

Now, before you say I should dust more often, I know. However, in my living room, dining room and the “public” area, I do. In fact part of it is about daily. Still have the dust dragons! Overnight they come in and get on the lamp shades, the end tables, the bookshelf and we will not even talk about the TV with its magnetic dust catcher.

Now, I am wondering. What kind of dust does your area have? If you have been one to move around, have you found different dusts? What do you do to keep the dust down in your home?

I need to know before the Texas Dust Dragons carry me away!

Where have I been? Lost in the clutter? If you read my last post, you know I have started on a new plan for trying to get my home in order.  I began the organizing course from Christian Homemaking and it is a lot to think about!

However, even though I have been reading my lessons, this is not where I have been. We have been sick! This past weekend I finally started feeling better and by Monday was beginning to think I was going to get to some of the more practical part of the course.

Before I get to that I want to share something from the first part of the course. The first lessons are on the Biblical reason to not be cluttered out. God is a God of order. We do not function to our fullest if we do not have order. We also waste a lot! For me, I have had to go buy something I knew I had, but could not find anywhere. Now, for me most of the things I have I know the general area I had them in, the general pile, and know where to look. Most of the time. LOOK! Yup, LOOK! I spend time looking. On the desk, by the computer, on the shelf where it should  be but things are not in order, and maybe even in the right drawer, but the clutter makes it hard to see.

The Bible says to be orderly. I fail greatly in many places.

I want to get things as they should and pressed on. I read another lesson with all the reasons we clutter. Yes, there are pages of them. I printed them, highlighted where I saw myself and am still looking them over!

Then came Sunday.

First a bit about my husband, and I am glad he does not read my blog —do you dear?—

My hubby is a good guy, with a few quirks. He is a bit time clutterer. I do some, but I do not top him.  Sunday he got a call from his cousin. They talked a bit and then the cousin wanted a phone number and Rick did not have it in his phone. I KNEW where the family phone book was, but…

I tried to carefully open the drawer in the table by his chair. The table that had books, papers, mail, a can with valentine cards in it from work, yes, valentine cards,  as well as pens, pennies and who knows what else. As I did, the piles shifted. I had my arm around them while I opened the drawer, but things tumbled.

I gave him the book, sort of fixed the piles and said nothing.

Later that day he cleared off the table and very proudly came and told me. I went into the bedroom that night and there was stuff on the floor by his side of the bed, the stacks on his nightstand were about 18 inches high and there were papers and books on the bookshelf, on top of the piles already there. I just knew I was going to hear a crash during the night!

Monday I spent cleaning the piles, organizing the bookshelf and clearing up the whole thing. I left one shelf with papers for him to care for and told him this week was the deadline on that!

Poor guys has still been sick, so guess I will let him have a little slack!