Looking for Santa (and Some Smarter Ways)

How sweet is Stuffed, staring at the empty Christmas stocking!  ♥  Or maybe he's looking at his own.  :)  This feels like the latest I've ever put up the tree, but it likely just seems that way because so much feels so out of control lately.  Tonight, right after I hit "Publish" on this and pour myself another iced tea, will be a feverish night of Decorate-the-Tree-and-Get-All-the-Holiday-Cards Ready-to-Mail-in-the-Morning.  Because of my wacky work schedule, I usually go to bed around 2 am, but I'm determined to get all this done tonight even if it means I climb into bed later than that.  I just can't handle having More!  Big!  Things!  hanging over my head another day.  I am still (forever and always) behind on laundry.  I have to finish Christmas shopping:  My big family Christmas is next weekend, the 15th/16th, since that's when I can get home for it, so I have to get it all done this next week.  Shoot, I still have to wash tonight's supper dishes.  Double-shoot, for that matter, I still have to put away the leaf and snowflake cookie cutters and frosting bags I used making my desserts on Thanksgiving.  (Containers of sprinkles, cookie cutters, food coloring tubes, sugars, etc. all need to be rearranged and re-fit into little tins and jars for these to be put away properly, but in the time it's taken to write this sentence, I could have gotten it at least half-done.)  And make that a triple-shoot:  I still have to put together the two bookshelves I mentioned in October.  There are just So!  Many!  little tasks like that to be done, is the issue, and I'm always exhausted, and in order to accomplish anything besides all the usual everyday chores, I either have to go to bed too late or force myself to start my day too early, and that's not  sustainable for long.  (That my writing and walking--and of course, running--have fallen by the wayside lately is almost more distressing than all the rest of this combined.)  And there are bigger to-do items too, which take more energy and/or a real chunk of time carved-out, and so it all falls further apart.  There are in-person bank errands to run, and student loan nonsense to sort-out and deal with, a new photo to be taken for my driver's license. . . .The lists are all long ones.  This is the first Christmas that I think I would have happily skipped both putting up a tree and sending cards--it's all just so much extra work and feels like a hassle this year--but I don't want to ruin Christmas for Mike, and I know myself well enough to know that maybe I would feel even worse, and life would feel even more out of control, if I had to look back on December knowing I didn't manage the tree or cards.  Everything that had been stored in the corner where the newly-put-up tree is, is now scattered throughout our tiny one-bedroom apartment, and the clutter--or THE CLUTTER (CLUTTER CLUTTER CLUTTER), since I say that word in a booming echo like enraged Saruman bellowing into the snowstorm--

--is driving me crazy/even more crazy, especially since everything-that-had-been-in-the-current-tree-corner-and-that-is-now-scattered-all-over was only in the current tree-corner because I had to move it from the hall closet to the corner in May when I turned the hall closet into the spot for my work-wardrobe.  I still haven't found a new spot for any of these things--but doing so was/is ON MY LIST!  Bwah ha ha!--so the fact that everything's now been shuffled around AGAIN just makes me want to give up and live in a hotel awhile.  This one, please!  

Add a pitcher of flowers, my journal, pens, and a stack of books, and fill the mini-fridge with iced tea for me, and I'M THERE, I tell you.  I'M THERE.  I hate clutter.  I hate clutter.  I am here surrounded by it tonight, though, and I am signing off to attempt the nightly slaying of a little more of it.  I am off both Friday and Saturday, is what I am holding onto in this regard tonight, and I can spend them reading in my chair with Stuffed, content knowing my cards are already are their way to everyone while the tree lights and decorations charm me from across the (I swear, I swear, if I have to stay up ALL NIGHT TONIGHT) organized and tidy apartment.  That will make me feel better for December, but I need to figure out some new and better ways moving forward because the schedules and routines that worked for me the seven years I had my now-old job are clearly just not the right ones anymore.  Alas. 

 

 
 

 


 
Oh, to have this cozy and tidy little home again!  Well, I had four days off every week with my old job, since all my hours were squashed into three loooong shifts before, so that made a huge difference.  And the hours themselves were quite different and allowed me to be home at times I could do noisy things like vacuuming, moving boxes and furniture around to reorganize things, clanking dishes together while washing them and putting them away, running up and down the three flights of stairs from our apartment to the basement to do laundry, etc. all without fear of waking Mike or any neighbors.  That made a difference too.  And I used to leave for work and return home from work at the same time every shift I worked, and I can no longer say that either.  Sometimes I get home from work at 6 pm now, but usually, it's 12:30 in the morning.  Other times, 11 pm.  Today's shift was supposed to have ended at 5:15 but saw me leaving at 6:05.  This is the job I had wanted for so long, though, and I am determined to make it work without letting everything else suffer.  I want some peace and organization and routine back.  I will get there again, I think, but it's going to take some real doing.  And realizing--really understanding now--that all the new jobs in my future will require that I figure out all new ways and routines to make them work too--has been eye-opening, indeed.  Ah, the constant adjustments and readjustments needed to make life run smoothly.  Onward and upward, and all that jazz, then, because I'm not climbing into bed every night of 2018 feeling like I just slid into home plate in a kick-up of dust (and to-do lists). 

This Day

'Leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast, 63° outside, Stuffed is curled up in the sun-slants along the floor, and I have the day off work.  'Time to read with Stuffed snuggled into the afghan on my lap, time to cook a proper dinner this afternoon, time to catch up on email to dear Lisa later, and time to get laundry and other chores crossed off my list for the day and rest of this week.  It's all so much of a juggling act lately--I much preferred the work-schedule I had with my previous job, it turns out--that I feel like everything I do gets done at the last minute in a rush of "Whew!" and "'Pulled it off again!" so days like this when I can catch my breath and sit awhile in late fall sunshine with pie and a good book and a cuddly cat are truly, more than ever, the sweetest days of them all. 

A Few Days Late

Thanksgiving was last night here, and a sweet one it was.  Best wishes to you all.  ♥

Home Tonight

♥

Lake Erie in November

Thanks to my mom, Saturday was a free night at an Erie hotel to enjoy the fall color around the lake.  'Rain and lightning the whole way back to Pittsburgh last night, but Saturday was gorgeous.  The foliage was mostly yellow by the shore but more colorful farther into the woods.  It was all beautiful--and a sweet break from routine after an exhausting week.  

And to marvel at when the world is soon covered in the grays, blues, and whites of winter, a video of the color around some of the swamps and ponds throughout the park:
 
Ah, fall!   ♥  

The Best-Laid Plans

Stubborn Val couldn't wait for help moving the shelves Friday night and ended up trying only to pull a muscle in her left shoulder.  See Val scream!  See Val unable to dress herself or pull up her hair or sleep on her favorite side!  See Val have to change her work-schedule!  See Val buy Tylenol and ice-packs and pain-relief cream!  See Val have to wait to assemble her bookshelves!  And now, see Val unable to do Halloween baking and settle for a slice of store-bought pumpkin roll!  But look, Val!  There is a heart!  See the heart!  Learn and rest, Val!  Learn and rest!  ♥

Home Companion

♥

Treats

Oooohh, a delightful day here.  ♥  Sweater weather this morning.  A brisk and beautiful walk to work.  I love fall, I love fall, I love fall. . . .  Strawberries, string cheese, and iced tea for lunch.  A sweet interaction with one of my on-the-job kiddos.  Laughs with one of my coworkers.  A relaxing walk home.  A grilled cheese with my mom's potato soup for supper.  Funny texts back and forth with one of my brothers.  A new book.  Blanket weather tonight.  A few books I treated myself to will arrive in the mail in the next day or two.  Library and museum visits tomorrow or Friday.  Two new bookshelves I ordered are arriving this weekend.  And the next three days off work.  Late October Bliss!  ♥

Mid-October

If you want a year to fly by, begin a new job.  Halloween will be five months in my new position.   Last year at this time, I was working so much overtime every week to pay off one of my student loans by year's end, but it feels like maybe six months ago instead of a full twelve.  Here we are, mid-October again. 

Early October Garden

A pink paper lantern on my parents' deck overlooks my little pink, white, and green garden in their yard.  Only a few flowers are still in bloom now, but my white Iceberg rose is putting on its final show for the year this week.

Fall arrives in my garden now--my favorite season.  What a world, what a world. . . .I wish us all the peace found in this tiny corner of the earth today. 

♥