A few of my favorite thing

I love parties. I love getting dressed up and fixing my home to appear perfect. I love spending days getting ready, and laying out all my favorite dishes, and inviting everyone I know and getting them all together to have a good time. I love fancy! I love friends and family nearby. The first big party I had was when I lived in a 4-plex apartment in South Minneapolis, and had over 60 people come over. I had musical performers, and a dj for dancing in the basement. I had an amazing spread of foods that I had prepared and purchased some great glass pieces for the occasion. It is now a party I have every year about the same time, and the collection of gowns I have from those events now fills my trunk and makes my nieces ask to play dress-up almost the minute they step into my house. It is one of the few occasions I wear make up. (The Olympic ice dancing was just on and I was wishing I had the funds to find something like the gorgeous red dress worn by one of the skaters.) The party has scaled down through the years, but besides the collection of gowns, I have photos, and menus, and lists, and...

I enjoy art. I like taking discovered objects and using them to create shapes. I like using windows or clothes instead of canvas. I love color, and variety, and making people think. I have a degree in graphic design, and I love interesting ads and printed work that makes me stop. Lately I have been all about photography. Except for the "quilt" I am painting for my husband and I to use in our room. I have stacks of artwork, and photos in boxes and bins and cupboards all over my home, and just a few on the walls. I also have bins of paints, and wires, and shiny objects, and...

I treasure physical memories. Those things that remind me of the event. The pamphlet from the play. A note I wrote to my hubby. The first suit and tie my baby boy wore for Easter. The sweetest shirt my baby girl wore her first summer. The school photos from my step son, his artwork, his event programs. Photos and cards received at Christmas and birthdays. Lists, colored sheets, ideas for someday, and...

As a family we love books, and movies, and music, and stuffed animals, and cars. When I tried sorting through the kids room, I came across things I did not want them to give up, and things they did not want to give up, not much actually left their room, or the book shelves, or the movie shelves, or...

Sorting through my home has brought all of these loves back to the front of my mind. I am reminded of what I once enjoyed most, and what I used to be, and who I try to be, and who I thought I would be. In it all I found a bin full of Animaniacs memorabilia and stuffed monkeys. I found a bag of rocks, next to a box of rocks, with a few other rocks nearby. I discovered several bins full of framed photos and several bins full of art and craft supplies. I even found bins that had unopened mail from the many times I needed the house to appear neat, and stuffed things in corners and cupboards and then never saw them again - until now. I have cupboards full of items I do not use, of things I had forgotten about. My china hutch was stuffed full of pretty things, most of which I had found at garage sales or thrift stores. Eclectic assortments of lovely shinny things that I really do not need, nor do I have any strong memory attached to them, but I still try to use them at parties...

There are two ideas I am currently trying to implement in my life. One idea - the simplicity of keeping only what you truly love and treasure - is fueled by a blog called "Simple Mom" and the other idea - debt freedom and financial stability - is from the Financial Peace University CDs with Dave Ramsey. I am implementing both right now. I am trying to make a little money by selling all the stuff that I really do not need or want in my life. Getting rid of things to make time for what I really love. I am trying to do this, but I keep being caught up in the past, and looking in these bins, I'm torn between wanting to remember, and wanting to have less. How many of these things will anyone care about besides me? Could these things be as easily categorized, and remembered with a journal or scrapbook page? I would love to have the time to pause and think these things over with every bin, but I really need to get most of the stuff out for this sale I am holding, this weekend - eeek.

It all leads to the overwhelming fact that I like things. I have so many things, that I have been tangled in the past these last few weeks, and unable to focus on the present.


I really was hoping for something more inspired to blog about the last two weeks. Something to make all of you come back again, but this is me after all. I attack with intensity and then pick up something new, and forget what the last thing was, until I discover it in a box, in the back of my closet.

My many hats

Accountant Hat:
I am an accounting assistant for this year's conference. I am working with FilemakerPro. It is our database. We have in the past sent out invoices from it, but generally we send them out one person at a time. Well, having learned a little more about reporting this year, I included a grand total at the bottom of my invoices! Invoice 6000 has 3 attendees on it referenced with a school district PO#123456. The invoice itself lists one attendee's detail, with a subtotal at the bottom, I think included a sheet listing all the people included with that invoice. Well, I had one schools district who sent 10 attendees on 5 POs, and two without PO numbers. Their invoice says one invoice per PO. So I wrote up Invoice 6001 on PO 123457 with one attendee at $10, and invoice 6002 on PO 123458 with three attendees at $30, etc. I sent the 6 invoices, with their 5 POs and a list of all their attendees which included that PO number and Invoice number. Well, they sent back a check with their own PO numbers listed, but only paid for one attendee on each PO/invoice. When I called to clarify, she said it was because my invoices listed two amounts, and I didn't include a po number. sigh. They are not my only payee, yet so far, no one else has been confused with my system. Despite this set back I have managed to so far collect on 1/3 of my invoicees!

Photography, renaissance, mama hat:
In today's photo is Lily during the 2007 season playing with the wood blocks provided by the lovely panini's after parade. This will be her last year with this dress. Actually, it might not even make it - it just fits her now. So we are seeking out the next phase of her costume. We have to find some way to keep her in a hoop (as long as she'll allow it). She is my hoop baby after all!

Mama hat:
Since we first moved into our new home Vincente has periodically mentioned wanting the phone port in his room removed. I pulled the port itself, but kept the small white wire curled against itself in the hole in the baseboard. Vincente wasn't quite satisfied with it, and I kept forgetting to check with Seth to see if we needed it. The other night I discovered why he keeps bringing up the silly cord that sticks out of the wall. It is a "scary". (The kids don't usually have monsters that scare them, they have Scaries. Monsters we generally like! Well, as Lily puts it, we like the little monsters, not the big ones, because the little ones sleep with us, but the big ones don't always want to go to sleep.) Seth got to be the hero this time, and remembered to ask Vincente about it, and removed it! Now all is well in Vincetne's room!