Skip to main content

Getting it done, part 12

I'm back from a fantastic trip to Bangladesh, where I witnessed the everyday life my friend has been living for the past year and a half.  I had the pleasure of celebrating Bengali new year with my friend and her family.  I visited the kids' school, went to church with my friend, met her coworkers, ate at the cafes and restaurants she likes to eat at, and so on....it was truly a vacation for me, being away from the responsibilities of taking care of my own family, and an adventure, since I do not speak Bangla.



Since my return, the things I have been getting done have mostly been mundane, and less craft-project oriented, although I intend to get back to the crafting/sewing/completing in earnest tomorrow.

But I have been getting the terribly boring-but-necessary tasks taken care of, slowly slowly slowly, over the past couple of days:
1. sorting through the Easter debris/treasure and re-locating it to a more functional location, i.e. putting the candy where we keep all other candy, band-aids where all other band-aids are kept, sequestering the empty plastic eggs, etc.
2. meal planning and grocery shopping
3. floor and rug care: sweeping, vacuuming, washing small mats, etc.
4. laundry: folding the 3 or 4 loads that sweet hubby washed before I returned; washing and folding the 3 or 4 loads I've washed since I returned....Sweet hubby mentioned that we could have a "folding party" after the kids are in bed tonight.  So that one should be crossed off the list (for the week!) tonight.  (Laundry....unless you go nude, it never really ends, does it?)
5. planting all the things: mums, left over from the fall, a new hydrangea....taking care of the hibiscus that seem to be volunteering from the remains of last summer's potted hibiscus....we'll see if they survive/thrive/bloom again, pulling all the weeds (oh, so many weeds!), admiring sweet hubby's work to set up an irrigation system for our two raised beds, new roses, and hanging petunias.
6. clearing off the radio table: next to the front door, it has become the dumping ground for all things: diaper bag, keys, papers from the kids schools, baby items, books, and on and on and on.  I have re-homed most of these items and the table is once again visible
7. sorting through the kitchen counter pile of papers: All of the kids papers get stashed in the same pile, along with papers that I think I might need to follow up on later.  I sorted through it and "relocated" some of their wonderful artwork (to the trash), got rid of papers that I no longer need to follow up on, and did the following up on a few papers that were still pending.
8. I took the "baby" to his 18 month well visit
9. I unpacked my suitcases, and they are very nearly put away.  My friend will be moving home from Bangladesh in June, so I packed up a bunch of her things in my suitcase, brought them home, and put them in a box to store until I see her again stateside.
10. I'm sure there is more.  There is always more, I just can't think of it at the moment.
And on the sort of crafty list:
11. The mending pile, again. I re-claimed a shirt for myself, that has a cross-over V neck that tended to gape open by sewing it shut, all the way down the wrap-around/flapping-open bit.  I mended the holes in Peanut's pants, re-hemmed her dress, and sewed up the side of a reusable shopping bag.
12. I dyed and then bleached a pair of shorts that had bleach spots on them.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to fully bleach the shorts before I dyed them -- so even though the color was really beautiful, the bleach spots were still apparent.  So now I've bleached them, a bit more evenly, and I'll try again to dye them. I wouldn't have worn them with the bleach spots, and the first dye was left-over tie dye from February....so up to this point, I still haven't gone out of pocket on them....Though I will purchase a new dye color to re-dye them.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

so far away

Linking up to the Gypsy Mama's five minute Friday.... Chile is so far away. My husband's homeland, the place where he most wants to be. His mama is there, his daddy is there, his brothers and cousins and grandmas and the people who mattered most to him for so so so long are there, and we are here. Here in the very different US, with values thrown at us everyday that seem to say that his childhood was inferior and that returning to a life like that would be the most unwise choice. Here, where the only way to get from one place to another is by car. Here, where without a college degree a "real job" is impossible to come by. Here, where being a legal resident costs thousands of dollars, time, and ridiculous interviews where people question whether you are actually married. Distance is what happens when it is time for the holidays, time to remember family traditions, and the people who are still celebrating them, even though he is far away, thrust into the midst of...

five minute friday

Linking up for Five Minute Friday hosted by the gypsy mama. It's Friday morning, there is no school today, and I am wide awake. I have been since about 20 minutes after my alarm usually goes off. I grabbed the cat, shoved her under the covers, and told sweet hubby "Merry Christmas". He wasn't very amused, starting scratching my head to get me to go back to sleep...but I am awake. Awake, and awakening, and growing in awareness. Last weekend was a wake-up call to me. We had a couple of friends over to watch movies on Saturday night, and by Sunday, sweet hubby and I were not on speaking terms. When we finally spoke again, late on Tuesday, I said painful words to sweet hubby.... If you are the person who was in my living room on Saturday night, then I don't want to know you. --I'm not.-- Then you will have to show me. And so we are both awakening to the task of rediscovering how to be good to one another, kind, respectful, building one another up as we r...

if you met me...

Linking up at the Gypsy Mama . If you met me.... I'd be happy to chat for a little while, unless I was watching the clock and trying to manage my time. Sometimes I try, sometimes I don't. If you met me at school, I'd only speak to you in Spanish. For real. Unless there were no kids around, in which case I could speak to you in English. If you met me at the beach, I'd be running around in my pjs or a bikini. All the time. I think I even forgot to pack shorts for the current beach trip. Who needs shorts when there are bikinis and sunshine? If you met me, you might think I'm ridiculous about how much I love my husband and our cat. And please don't ask me, after you hear that we've been married for five years, if we have any kids. If I didn't mention any, I probably don't have any. And if I didn't mention on my own that I one day want to have kids, don't ask me when I'm planning to. I think it is rude, and personal, and you never kn...