It's a new year, a new beginning, a new start. Love it, love it, love it. 2008 was filled with babysitting, babysitting and more babysitting. Some weeks a bit too much babysitting, despite how much I absolutely love my grandson's company. 2008 was the frustrating election year because I wasn't crazy about either candidate. Now we all hope the best man won. 2008 was NOT a year of quilting, but was the year of a lot of reading, writing, blogging, pondering and list making. 2008 was the year of winning GiveAways -- I won four! And it was a year of making connections through blogging - Jan, Dixie, Tipper, Tina - new friends, though I wish they lived around the corner and could drop by for coffee now and then. (Oh wait - Tina DOES live around the corner -- let's get together for coffee!) 2008 was the year my husband worked too many hours -- but then again, so was 2006 and 2007. However, at the end of 2008 a tiny light appeared at the end of that tunnel, and hopefully 2009 will see an end to his 80 and 90 hour work weeks. I'd like to have him around for another 20 or 30 years, so this is important to me. Thank you to the new boss who is making this "hope" become a reality. 2009. Who knows what it will bring? I have plans for this to be the year of updating our house. I have plans for this to be the year of sewing and quilting to "cozy up" our home. I have plans to start doing a little pre-school homeschooling with my grandson (who, at the age of 3, is quite desperate to understand what these letters and numbers are all about). I have hopes of a two week vacation, heading out to Colorado to visit my son and daughter in law, and then heading to one of the most spectacular places on earth - Utah. I have hopes of a trip to New Hampshire for a good long visit with family and friends. I also have plans to be a better, more friendly neighbor. (I made a point yesterday of visiting with several neighbors to wish them a Happy New Year. Even my tree-cutting neighbor. I believe that grudge has been buried.) I have hopes of connecting more with my family -- my sisters, Gail and Sarah; my step-mother, Barbara; my niece, Bridget; my sister-in-law Wendy. These people are important to me and I need to do a better job showing them. Same for my BFF's Tricia and Paul (and his wife Jean). I love these people. I want make an effort to spend more time with them, though all of them (ALL of them!) live so far away. I have the eternal hope of being better organized. This will be the year of the Mother of All Yard Sales (in mid-May). Junk, begone! Clutter, out! Function over form! Simplify, simplify, simplify. In light of the upcoming house transformation, I have decided to "repurpose" the room I currently use as my office because it has transformed into the landing zone for all things that do not have a home. I am going to change the room into a small sitting room/library. Paperwork will go to my husband to file (he is MUCH better at it than I am!), and I will get a wireless notebook to replace my clunky desktop PC. Simplify simplify simplify. 2008 was a good year. We have a lot to be thankful for in this family. My son and daughter-in-law have turned their finances around, and both have very positive outlooks for their careers. My daughter is an extraordinary mother to my grandson, has made her health a priority in her life, continues to hold down a job of great responsibility, and continues to be financially independent. Her divorce will be final this month and we will all celebrate having a horrible man out of our lives completely (Thank you to a court system who understands that sometimes a father does not deserve Visitation of any kind!). My grandson thrives (despite his father's malevolent actions). At almost-three, Brayden now holds extensive conversations with me that include things like discussing the fact that his belly button is a circle. He is well-behaved and shows great empathy towards others' feelings. He adds so much joy and laughter to our lives. I am blessed to have him live so close to me. We all have hopes, we all have dreams, and Lord knows, I have lists for 2009. Every day is a new day, a new beginning. We can't change what happened yesterday, but we can learn from it, and move forward. Happy happy New Year.

You can't eat happiness

You can't eat happiness. You can't buy it. You can't wear it. You can't drive it, or drink it, or sell it, or steal it. You can't lock it away. You can't negotiate for it. You can't win it, you can't marry it, you can't inherit it, you can't cheat it. You can't smoke it, or inject it, or rent it or borrow it. You can't campaign for it or beg for it, or talk other people into giving you theirs. You can live happiness. You can create it. You can be it. You can give it to others. You can enjoy it. You can share it. You can claim it. You can have as much as you wish. You can enjoy it as much as you want, at any time, under any circumstance. You can work with it, play with it, worship, travel, eat, and sleep with it. Happiness is yours to live and yours to give, if only you will. It comes from the inside, and the best way to experience it is to get it flowing out. Forget about trying and striving to get happy. Just decide to be happy, and happiness is yours. From the Daily Motivator

The Tree Men Episode

As evidenced in a past post about a controversy with my neighbor over cutting trees down on my property without permission (he didn't -- but he would have if I hadn't been home to catch him), I do not like people cutting down my trees. Period. If you want to elevate my blood pressure, send me skitting across my yard ranting and raving and waving my hands in the air, the simplest way to accomplish this is to walk across my yard with a chainsaw in hand. I *do* understand, however, why the power company (Duke Energy) needs to cut branches away from the power lines. Every five years or so they drive in with their big trucks and their crews armed with chainsaws, hard hats and orange vests, and they butcher my trees. Although it pains me to the core, I understand it... I look the other way, turn the radio up, and ignore them. Until yesterday... I won't go into the unnecessary cutting of ENTIRE TREES when 9/10ths of the tree was growing AWAY from the power lines. (Sob) I won't embarrass myself by telling you that I was, indeed, in my yard flailing my arms around trying to get one idiot's tree cutter's attention before he completely destroyed one of the few full shade trees we have on the south side of the yard. What was once a 30 foot beauty is now a 12 foot stump. And suffice to say he completely ignored me and destroyed the tree anyway. MY tree. Now MY ridiculous, branchless 12 foot stump. In the back of our yard, we have a creek. If you're from New England, it's called a stream. In Ohio, it's a creek. The creek is not much more than a foot deep in it's deepest spots, but does have some wonderful little rock-formed waterfalls that make pleasant little creek-like sounds. So we built a little sitting area next to the creek, complete with a little deck and benches. From the deck there is about a 9 or 10 foot drop down to the creek. It's not so pretty in the winter months, but in the Spring, Summer and Fall when the leaves are lush and green, it is a rather nice, peaceful place to sit and read a book or watch Brayden throw rocks in the water. Now my restful little place looks like this: If you look in the far right hand corner of the deck, follow that tree up -- see? No branches left anywhere. It's a 12 foot stump. That group of neanderthals tree trimmers pulled the benches off the deck, then proceeded to butcher my trees, letting everything land in the creek and on my deck... and left it there. The branches you see on the deck are the entire top of the tree that used to stand to the right of the deck. Branches and trees fill the entire space from the deck across the entire creek.. a distance of about 15 to 20 feet. I'm not a happy camper today. It was a bit of relief to hear from two other neighbors that they are not happy campers either. Both are complaining about trees taken down that were not in any way growing towards the power lines. They, however, did get the trees that were cut cleaned up. My To Do List for today looks like this: 1. Call Duke Energy. Duke Energy's Tree Trimming Class Update: I called, they came back, the trees and limbs are gone (oh, and they cut down a few more while they were here just for giggles and grins, I guess), though the benches remain in the yard. That's OK, I can put the benches back myself.

The world's best job

I'm babysitting today -- well, for the afternoon. Since I spent most of my morning yelling at the tree guys (I'll save that for another post), I don't have time to blog today. But I know you, like me, need a smile. So here's a video for you. This is Matt. He gets PAID to go around the world -- yes, the WORLD -- to do this. I love it. I think I need to find a sponsor. Do you think someone would pay to have me make the bed, cook dinner, or clean the toilets...hmmm.... Probably not. Too bad I can't dance like Matt. Well, I can - but that job's already taken. Lucky Matt!

Freebies (or nearly free) for you

Some lovely new freebies out on the 'net. 1 year subscription to TRADITIONAL HOME magazine. No kidding - free! A sample of Don Francisco Coffee $9.00 rebate on Beck's Beer (purchase by 01/05/09) 1 year subscription to Field & Stream magazine (watch ads for credits for subscription) A free sample of Total Cranberry Crunch cereal. A sample of lens cleaning cloths for your glasses from Bausch & Lomb. MomAdvice.com is offering a free printable calender/planner that gives as much room to Saturday and Sunday as it does to the other days of the week. Grab a 3-hole punch and make yourself a nice (free) planner! A sample of Kleenex Facial Tissue with Lotion. Good size to keep in your purse for emergencies -- aaaahhhh chooooooo! Free sample of Gain Detergent. If that link doesn't work for you, just click here and look for the next link to the Gain offer. A different free Mp3 download every day from CNet! I can't recommend this enough -- My Simpler Life's Free 2009 Declutter Calendar (look in right hand column of blog). Well worth downloading -- you know you want to be organized and clutter free! That's it for today!

Why I've been Married for 30 Years

My husband "gets" me. He understands that, while I may not be the most organized person in the world, I do love to be organized, and I "think" like an organized person. I am an "every thing in it's place and a place for every thing" kind of girl in spirit, though not necessarily in practice. I am a list-maker extraordinaire. So, among the many wonderful presents my husband gave me for Christmas, he bought me this: It's called SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer -- that's right - it's a voice-activated grocery and shopping list organizer! How cool is that! I normally have a shopping list and pencil on the door of my refrigerator and keep a running list of what I need to buy at the store. But now - but now! - I simply push a button and say the item I need and POOF! it's recorded. When I'm ready to go grocery shopping, I hit the PRINT button, and hi ho hi ho... off to Krogers I go! Organized! The list even groups items together -- dairy products, vegetables, canned goods, beverages, etc. -- which is something I never did (though dreamed about) with my hand written list. I placed a little box on top of my refrigerator for freebie and "must use soon" coupons. I input those (by just talking) into the Smart Shopper to include them on my grocery shopping list so I don't miss out on the coupon savings. Love it, love it. Not only that, but you can make more than one list at a time -- so if I buy cleaning and paper products at one store, and general grocery items at another -- this little goohidget will make more than one list! No printer cartridges are required -- it uses thermofax type paper. It does take 4 double-A batteries. Just one more little corner of my life that will be more organized now!

It's not over until...

Do you hate that expression? "It's not over 'til the fat lady sings." But when it comes to Christmas this year -- I'm singing! It's O-V-A-H! We had a great Christmas -- despite the fact my daughter for four days had the worst case of stomach flu I have ever witnessed, my grandson had an asthma attack at 11pm on Christmas Eve and my daughter (who was really sick, so has an excuse) forgot to bring his nebulizer so had to drive him back to her house (with her head pounding and a 102 temperature) to treat him. All's well that ends well. It ended well. We had a terrific Christmas. My husband went over our agreed upon budget by so much that I'm wondering if he needs to go get a second job to pay for it all. (Don't even ask if I need to go get a FIRST job to pay for it all -- he's the one who went over budget, not me! Consequences of your actions, my dear.) My grandson never quite got with the whole "yippy, Santa brought me presents" program. If he gets any more unique, I may have to rent him out to families with obnoxious children, or put him on the David Letterman Show. Three years old, off-the-wall hyper, Santa, presents, stockings, gift wrapping everywhere -- that's how it's supposed to be, right? He opened maybe three presents. He loved them. He stacked them up in a pile and sat watching what we opened. I handed him another present. "Here, Brayden, this is for you from Santa." No reaction. "Brayden? Do you want to open this present now?" His response. "Noooooo, maybe in a little while." OK. I left him alone. Came back later and repeated my question and got "Nooooo... I think maybe in a few minutes." There are still six or seven unwrapped presents under my tree, and as far as I know, he never did open his stocking. From an early age, my kids practically had to be tranquilized on Christmas Eve. My husband and I normally had to stay up until 2 or 3am to wait for the kids to go to sleep so we could bring in Santa's goodies. We had to set a rule -- no getting up before 5am. OK, I had to set that rule because my husband wanted to get the kids up, but still... The good news? I apparently have my shopping done for Brayden's third birthday in March. The bad news? Apparently my daughter is a better mother than I was. No wait, that's good news, too. She's instilling something in this little guy that I totally missed with mine -- patience? lack of greed? the ability to want things to remain on an even keel even on Christmas morning? Watching others open gifts is as much fun as opening your own? See? I can't define it because I must have been playing hooky that day of Mothering School. Whatever it is, she gets an A+ for it! And now it's over. Presents, both wrapped and unwrapped, have been played with, admired, and put away. Cookies have been eaten or left out unwrapped to go stale and thrown away. Leftover foods are boxed up, shared, or frozen. All the trash was taken to the garage, then taken to the curb, then whisked away first thing this morning. Non-stop "A Christmas Story" on the television has been replaced with.. well, silence for now. (Ahhhhhhhhh....) Joey the Killer Cat is happiest of all because he got a new rubber alligator for Christmas and it's his new best friend. They are inseparable. Joey carries the alligator around in his mouth and has it within six inches of him at all times. Unfortunate for the cat's sanity, my husband received a mini-remote control car for Christmas, and he is this very second upstairs taping the alligator to the top of the car...