Three Stairs

I read Dear Abby every day via e-mail. Here’s one of the reasons why:

National Women’s Health Week is May 11-17, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Women’s Health is offering a free Health and Beauty Kit. It includes “tools for making informed choices about the cosmetics and other products women use every day.” The fact sheets are available in English and Spanish. The FDA signed a landmark Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in 1938 that focuses on promoting the safe use of health and beauty products.

The information will be sent without charge, since this effort has already been paid for with taxpayer dollars, including postage and handling. For the quickest service, order online at www.pueblo.gsa.gov. If you do not have online access, send your name and address to Health/Beauty Information Kit, Pueblo, CO 81009, or call toll-free: (888) 878-3256, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, and ask for the Health and Beauty Information Kit. Quantities are limited!

Here’s to your health - because you’re worth it.

My dad called at 7:30 am to tell me Happy Mother’s Day. Then Michael asked me what I wanted him to do for Mother’s Day, so I got brave and told him what I wanted:
1. to go back to sleep and sleep until I wake up on my own
2. have him fix all the meals for the day

Can you believe he agreed?! I am one happy Mama!

Hope yours was half as good as mine…

Yes, I know it’s been almost a month since I posted (okay, I didn’t realize it had been quite that long, but I knew it had been a while), and yes, I know a lot of you have begun to wonder if I fell off the face of the earth. Well, I did - kind of…I just landed in my house…

Those that know me personally know that I am admittedly a very bad housekeeper and a pack-rat to boot. To put it mathematically:

I’ve hated living this way, especially when I remember the days BC (Before Children, for you non-parental units out there) of a clean house where I could entertain on a whim. I yearn for the day I can have friends over for dinner, or host a Women’s Ministries meeting in my home. I’m by nature a very hospitable, sanguine person, so not being able to invite people into my home is torture for me. Sadly, children, volunteering, and mental hang-ups have left me…well, tortured.

NO MORE!!!

One of the moms at the kids’ school that I’ve worked with on the Parent Teacher Partnership is a professional organizer. She found out that I sew. Do I really need to spell it out for you???

T-R-A-D-E

She’s doing my entire house (1200 square feet with 2 adults, 3 children, 1 cat, and 12 years of accumulation), then I’ll make her some dresses; probably some pillows; put together a new website; design and print business cards; and probably redesign/tweak her logo…and be grateful for the absolute rest of my life.

It took two weeks to hit the halfway mark. We have literally touched everything we’ve approached. Nothing is left undecided-upon. It is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting. We are entering week three and hope to be finished with the entire project by the end of next week.

As tiring as it’s been though, it’s also been exhilarating and freeing for me. There was a noticeable difference by the end of the first week, and after the second week, you wouldn’t think the same family lived in the house. We’ve worked only two days this week so far, and walking into my living room (a large 20×20 or so room with a 14-foot ceiling that housed everything) is like suddenly finding yourself atop a mountain with panoramic views. You just take a deep breath and feel so incredibly free and light. It is So. Much. Better. than before when I subconsciously dreaded walking into my house and felt like it was attacking me.

So anyway, stay tuned, Dear Readers, and know that before and after pictures will be forthcoming!

I print cute graphics with my kids’ names on brown paper lunch bags whenever they need to take their lunch somewhere. They think it’s cool; their lunch stands out so they never miss it; and I get to play with graphics. It’s a win-win-win!