02 August 2011

Project Oriented


When I return from vacation, I am energized. I'm ready, like Five, to take on the world. Sometimes, this is a reaction to sleeping on an uncomfortable bed for two weeks. I'm so anxious to return to my familiar comforts, that I'm willing to ditch the lazy pace and head home. Other times, I'm so relaxed from the respite that I arrive at the homestead full of vim and vigor. Such is the case this year.

I have several home renovation ideas brewing, most of which require minor construction. This type of thinking makes the Captain nervous. He likes his walls to remain where God, or a project manager, put them. I've reassured him I won't be demolishing any sheetrock, but he's leery. Apparently, I damaged my credibility when I banged a hole in the kitchen wall of our last house, in a desperate attempt to get heat into our three-season porch.

Mostly, the projects are about creating new areas for the kids to hang out. Away from one another. We are at that point in age ranges where we need to unmesh, for the sake of all concerned. Plus, I am trying to create space if Mom Mom and Pappou want to stay when they are home from Florida. And the lovely Erin needs a room, too, for all the times she visits, and tries mightily to bring order to our chaos. If any of you need a place to bunk, I'm sure I can figure that out, too, because I love space planning. It's so much more fun than cleaning.

Right now, I am knee deep in laundry, which is seriously stressing my project buzz. My get-up-and-go is unhappily idling in neutral, as I wash voluminous mounds of sandy linens to be boxed and stored for future seaside vacations. I want to be sorting, and emptying, and throwing things away! I want to be unburdened of the old, and clean-swept for the new! I want to create more space, so I can fill it with more people!

And that, folks, is my own particular brand of  goggle-wearing, karate-chopping crazy.

I have a desire, deep within me, for wide open spaces. I have no use for neighbors, and I'm happy to use only one hand to count the number of my true friends. But I've acquired children and family and pets over the years like they were the last items at an auction. I can't reconcile it in my brain. It's not logical. Well, that could be the answer right there!

I am not always logical. The Captain is the linear thinker in our family. I am the messy, creative one. We aren't polar opposites, of course. Our marriage is more a series of checks and balances, with a lot of common ground in the middle. It's how we all wish our government actually worked. And it's why I know that when I go clean the garage, he'll be so happy that I got rid of all the junk, he won't mind when I throw up some walls and let Two use it as a guy-cave. Likewise, when I move the teenagers to the big room downstairs so Mom can sleep upstairs, he'll agree. Because he loves my family, as I do his.

Love isn't logical. But it does require space. So, I'm off to make some more.

What projects loom on your horizon?


8 comments:

  1. I read your post. Now I need a nap. Dear lord.

    Projects looming on my horizon? Finish the #@$#% second manuscript, then edit the #$#$%^%$ first manuscript.

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  2. Current project, teach poodles to use dog door which is a convenience not an elaborate plot to kill them with the scary scary vinyl flap.

    Current project, get classroom ready to go.

    Current project, find out how much imodium a pregnant woman can take.

    I like your project visions better than mine!

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  3. "But I've acquired children and family and pets over the years like they were the last items at an auction. "

    Laughed out loud at this line. It is so you, because I know how much you can't resist auctions. But really, I think I'm lumped into this and I'm not sure how I should take it? :)

    Can't wait to see what you come up with. A little jealous of the flexibility in your schedule to devote entire days to these project [you know, after the mountains of laundry..]

    @ lora: Laughed at the poodle training! I am also attempting to train a new puppy, and most of the time it feels that one of us is on Mars. Just not getting the point across.

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  4. @Delia: well, of course, there's the manuscript, too! Got a little done on vacation, which made me feel good. So, that's on the list, also.

    @lora: not so much Imodium that the baby won't come out.

    @chrys: Eh, you've been around so long, I've forgotten where I found you! Good luck with your dog-I think mine might be on the way out the door.

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  5. oh, this makes me feel so much better. misery loves company and all that. I'm on my third load of laundry, with at least that many more to go, and my post-vacation enthusiasm for cleaning out the pantry, painting the laundry room, and reorganizing the kitchen is disappearing FAST.

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  6. Anonymous3.8.11

    Oh I'm messy too, but "space planning?" Never even heard of such a thing. Probably WHY you do so well with five boys + assorted family and pets. Let us know how it turns out!
    Julie
    (Gawd I love that picture so very much. And I have no projects, well... maybe some miniature pillows.)

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  7. Cleaning out storage spaces to prepare for a yard sale. My sister says it's not the time of year to do it; which made me pause... but then I regained my determination to JUST DO IT, and anything that doesn't sell goes on the curb- for really real this time- unlike the two last, lame attempts at yard sales! That's my project.

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  8. Anonymous10.8.11

    Just sorting & getting rid of stuff wears me out - I admire your energy. Feel free to come and rearrange my house anytime. :)

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