H is for The Party for J that Happened.

While cleaning the studio, it is so close! I just found the following note. It is an unparty list, or, a perfect recipe for a great party! We put everything out and let them have at it. Hordes of boys, food, sugar, sunshine are the making for a perfect party.

legos/k-nex

whackers

big balls

cardboard blocks

origami

trampoline

marbles

bubbles

hats made out of bags

TV commercials/Laugh In Skits

Making Pizza [Baking took too much time, bought them at Costco. Perfectly fine.]

theater at clothesline [Aborted. There were wasps in the poles! No matter, the costumes worked out in the house!]

> cups, napkins

> root beer

> carrots, celery, jicama

> cotton candy!

> cake!

Epi Pen -- Thankfully, didn't need it! Didn't get it, yet.

friends, this school, that school

cousins, all the out of state showed up!

sweet neighbors

girl friend(s)

S is for a Sofa in the Sunset.

The Saga of the Beloved Sofa from San Francisco

Down, down, down the stairs.

Into the sunset ...

Down, down, down the stairs.

The cushions went down, down, down the stairs.

The Beloved is in the truck.

Arrived in Lindon.

Unwrapped.

Landed in a room that seems designed for the +8 foot long, beloved, Oma Stella blue, modern, low sofa.

M & favorite pal SP playing in the sofa's shell.

Once the shell was completely kaput, the cardboard was used for tie dye. No part of the sofa and the souvenirs of its saga were wasted.

Oma Stella had great taste. She collected beautiful minerals, ancient (art) glass, rugs, stamps. She loved her friends and was amazingly open minded. She once told me about meeting the leader of a Satanic group (!?) who slept in a coffin. As hard as that is to believe I think it is true. She was familiar with the Dadaists. Everything was worth knowing about. I remember reading the encyclopedia with her, she kept them by her bed.

I wondered why she didn't have more antique furniture. She wasn't interested in collecting it. All of her furniture was new in the 40-50-60's. When she and my grandfather moved to SF they took a lot more than most from Germany, but that didn't include any furniture. She had a friend (Freilander?) who was a carpenter and I think she had him make several of her pieces. None of it was reproduction. All was very modern, streamlined. Her eye was toward the future!

I miss her a lot.

Yesterday was Grandma Ream's birthday! I miss her too! I put up pictures of her in our entry way. So vivacious. Gorgeous. Smart. Way ahead of her time. More about her another time. I have a rocker of hers... it needs to be re-reupholstered, so that it looks more the way it did when she reupholstered it with loud flowers and bright colors. Brilliant!

M is for Missing ... K & J!

K is coming home on Tuesday night! Wa-hooo! I haven't laughed once, not once! since he has been at camp! Boo hoo hoo. Well, maybe once... I miss his silliness, having his friends around, his singing, talking about the news with him and the cello! He broke his right middle finger at camp, not sure how that will affect his cello-ing. His hand is taped up like a sharp shooter.

Tonight N & M were singing a song, well, 2 songs, not at all similar to each other though sung at the same time ... for J! They miss him the Most they say. He is both of their [?] best friend and their favorite brother. I can write this because I know that tomorrow they will say that K is their favorite ... what a fickle family of favorites. I miss his sweetness, his spontaneous kisses, his imagination and believe it or not his whistling! I also miss reading to him.

We've saved a few weeks worth of the funny pages for them both to fight over!

I don't miss the extra laundry, which I am getting 100% caught up on -- now that I've rinsed my last tie dye ever. School starts Wednesday for J! (C & I are really happy for him. The new school will be fantastic!) I'll just drop J & N off and take K & J's bags from camp directly to the Soap Box Laundromat and let Joyce work her magic -- then I'll come home and incinerate the boys' shoes. :P

House Update: My goal was to have the house "landed" before school starts. Every room.

GARAGE: Getting more and more there. H Bike, huge fan, wire equipt., tie dye materials, clay etc. now have a place to call their own. The entire space is now overrun with school supplies & donations, and of course the tub/misc. stuff to sell. Tie dye and clay are neat and tidy and put away. Still need to move and sell or donate the tub, then I can park INSIDE the garage. Huge sofa-holding-cardboard boxes are gone. Donation stuff needs to go.

DINING ROOM: Almost useable for working in. Will have Project party to celebrate the landed room. Sewing projects are in boxes, fabric is folded and tidy, do-dads are in boxes. To mend pile needs attention and to be done, at night.

LAUNDRY ROOM: So close! The floor is visible (a flood helped). Must iron all the wadded up stuff and fabric for quilt edges. Moved it into the family room, which violates a new rule: All laundry stays in Laundry Room -- didn't want to get dye on it as I rinsed out the tie dye. Amazing amount of clothes, table cloths, towels, getting rid of lots of it actually.

MASTER BEDROOM: Perfection. Simple. Empty. Clean.

ENTRY WAY: Clean. Counter useable for the "don't forget as you go out the door" spot! L------ville is up and looks fun, complete with new architecture, touched up buildings, stars and N's new fort. :)

D is for Dolls -- 1880's Victorian Paper Dolls

http://www.victorianornaments.com/Dresden%20pictures/MakeOrnament%20pix/3dollsheetlargeAcrobat.pdf

Wish I could show the picture...

Click on the link, print the page, cut out, fashion clothes, assemble and marvel that you took time away from your yicky dirty dishes, grocery buying/putting away/cooking, laundry washing, kid totting, podcast listening, FB reading/writing day to make something so lovely.

I've been cleaning up the entry way. Cleaning out the house. What a huge job. Found all sorts of important things that I've stashed away on those shelves since February. Lovely new discoveries.

More loud music and Boner of the Day (x96 radio) podcasts to help make it fun and get it (all) done.

Chores? Plan? Organized routine?

• Sunday: Journal, meal planning, couple & family council, personal study

• Monday: Clean bathrooms, water plants

• Tuesday: Create shopping list

• Wednesday: Mend, clean stove and microwave

• Thursday: Sweep and mop all hard floor surfaces

• Friday: Balance checkbook, dust

• Saturday: Vacuum, clean cars

Found the above at a sickening blog via Googling: family fun daily chores... I've had the slip of paper for ages and just finally looked it up. The post is from 2007 -- Vanilla something.

My children do things, just not really chores. I've tried. They are nice sweet young people. Our house is kinda messy, but clean. That is all ok. As I have more time at home, not homeschooling or running people about to 5 differnet schools and not digging out from under business/family/personal papers the house is getting neater and tidier. In the meantime my therapist Vanda visits every other week, with a crew, and washes everything down.

My recent favorite is listening to Radio From Hell x96's podcast of the Boner of the Day. I recommend passing out laughing while washing the dishes, or sorting laundry.

L is for Landing.

Made this pen and gave it to C's scout leader who was in the hospital. I keep visiting the craft outlet for more birds but Noelle probably beat me to them! Sigh.

√ = LANDED/DONE. Marie Ricks says that projects have 3 parts: Launching, Doing and LANDING. Most people forget to land. They make a list, go to the grocery store and then don't get around to putting all the groceries away, all the way. {I'm guilty.} Since I finished the tops of the iSpy quilts I have been concentrating on Landing all the unfinished, uncleaned up piles around this house -- creative & business relics. Soon I hope to remove the Project List on the sidebar. Summer is a great time to Land.

√ Fix huge pile of clothes on chair. Marie Ricks says this is a good evening project: wind down/boring. Don't waste good daytime hours.

√ I Spy quilts for SKJNM. Assemble.

√ The New bathtub is ordered and installed, well, almost installed. Need to order a tub filler.

√ Garden tilled

[] Garden 100% planted

√ Home-y garden for a Gnomie planted. Used clay remnants &

√ Bunny pen! Complete with lovely new floppy eared Coco, seen here with M & M, her adorable KV friend. Thanks C! It is perfect!

[] Photo albums!

√ Clean/organize up toys/fabric/quilt scraps in guest room, music room, dining room. Oh please, just make them "tidy."

[] Clean up toys, guest room, music room, dining room. Does this kind of job ever land?

[] Studio, make it work. Work in it.

[] Clean up & USE clay area. Magnet board stands, more small sculptures. Play.

√ M's Stick Horse!!! Her's is the one with the big white mane. Each child has one and there is one for a friend, made by a friend.

√ Messed with some BEEs! (reference to favorite movie the Point) We have a lovely bee hive. Now I have to land registering with the state.

o is for o wow.

• clothes washer broke. 13+ gallons of water on the floor, again. SOAKING clothes, on the floor. C put them on the clothes line (now up) and they froze.
• the fix-it man fixed the dryer door too.
• s left at 4:45 this morning for CA. i'm already missing her.
• on the way home got a flat -- found out on the driveway. C replaced it. {Hero award is at the shop too, will be back soon)
• subaru needed fixin' and pickin' upin' -- a mysterios metal bar was hanging of of it. Thanks Terrific Uncle Doug for the car collection tour! wow o wow.
• worked in the garden. our yard is waaaaay too big.
• cello A string went north.
• s's shoe broke, in the shoe shop. her shirt had a hole. her vest had a hole in the back. it apears she chipped her front tooth?
• ever have one of those seasons where all sorts of things go bonkers at once?
--> Yes, as a mattter of fact my life is a comic strip.

L is for Lucky!

http://www.uvmag.com/novdec08/54_55.htm

N saw this and said, "MAAAAAAHHHHHMMMMM, [Mom] you are so lucky!"
I said, "Ya know... the harder you work the luckier you are."
S (16) said, "Whoa. You are amazing." Meaning... where do you keep all these corny sayings?

This is from Utah Valley Magazine. Last year when the home tour was canceled I called UV Mag and told them that our house was kinda decked out, might be good in a future Christmas issue. Jeanette Bennett and her husband came by and took lots of pictures. Fun! Doesn't quite capture all the glitter though. ;)

H is for House.

Tough jobs... Make It Fun & Get It Done.

There are some things in life that just seem hard to do. Of course they aren't, and yet... finding the courage to actually clean the fridge can seem monumental.
A pal, who is not reading blogs, along with her mother, is focusing on living... GREAT point. Her mother told her, " Just to go out and play with your kids, AND DON'T TAKE PICTURES OF IT!"

Again, agreed. I'd love to print a copy of this wacky journal of sorts, that robs my real journal. So I must record the cleaning of the fridge. It is a rare chore done about this place. These pics don't show the true story, in all its grime.

a settle

F is for FINI.

Last Wednesday C turned over the business to the general manager, who was chomping at the bit to be known as "Mr. President." Often feelings of respect, and the lack of it, are reciprocal. A deal was struck and we are now 100% outta there. There is some financial baggage (less than what it could have been) and there is (a lot) of physical baggage. 14 years of work, collecting, saving, creating, receiving is difficult for one house to digest.

My feelings are torn between elation that we are out of there, dismay over the state of our affairs (Our house is not a house of order at the moment. Grrr. And it was so close!!! My studio! Sniffle sniffle.). I am happy that I personally am not responsible for anyone else's poor financial judgments and arrogantly hoping the future of the company continues on its grim path. Quotes, scriptures and sayings about pride, revenge, the natural man race through my thoughts. Not knowing who reads this blog, I need to leave it at that.

While thinking about all of this I was struck with the fact that a "natural man" is a very different thing from a "natural woman." Hmmm.

B is for Bonnes Vacances.

As with so many things, I'm closing shop for the month of August. Hope to see you here, so to speak, in September. I might post a few random pictures now and then. LIKE OF THE WHOPSY COOL TUNNEL IN MY TOWN!!! I can ride my bike from my house to my gym (spin class of course) SAFELY! Whoa. I'm thrilled even though some of my neighbors have actually aged because of it. Wouldn't a surrey be grand?! (See photos below.)

Wrote and sent letter to Utah State Office of Education regarding USDB's inept administration. Also wrote to Deputy of Education at the Governor's office. Received thoughtful replies. (I'll post those on the Journey to Hear blog.) Received a reply from BYU, not so thoughtful, not such a surprise... saying he is glad that I have found great services at the U of U. Hope to step away from the computer and possibly pick up a paint brush, organize photos ( a speech necessity, not a hobby) and read to my children. How odd!

Perhaps you have noticed my desk is clean. It is staying that way too! I will leave you with a few shots of my studio, recently spiffed.


Margo took this picture. I love it:

H is for House of Order.

http://houseoforder.blogspot.com/
by Marie Ricks
Check this out. The post I read about pesky neighbor kids is really fitting for our summer chaos. Love the idea of a sign on the door: CAN'T PLAY UNTIL 11:00. Marie has a nice way of saying things. My sign would have said, just under the skull and crossbones, GO AWAY! Now.

D is for Dale Peel Furniture.

This is in the works... a close and lockable TV cabinet for our main room. Dale Peel is designing and building it. He also built our banisters. Here is his site: http://www.peelfurniture.com/our_history.html

S is for Spectacular Sofa.

Ohhh, what a sad sofa. Stuffing hanging out. Cotton was stained, ripped and worn out. Cushions skushed to flat. Sniffle. It actually looked worse in person, or in sofa. We bought it about 9 years ago for the other *$3£%#5^!7*?¡ house. My recent purge almost included this. The question was should it stay or should it go...

As EB White might have said, "That is some sofa."


It is staying. This is not the most comfy couch, but it is worth something. Also, there really isn't a place for it, perhaps someday it will be in one of the children's homes.

When the upholsterer gave me a bid he forgot to mention the $48/yard charge for using fabric not from them (bought some place else.) It wound up costing much less than a new one. Wound up a pretty (to some) custom couch.

FYI: What is the difference anyway? Couch & Sofa? Wikipedia, the trusted, says, "None."

A couch is an upholstered item of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person and typically has an armrest on either side.

A sofa is a piece of furniture also called a couch or Davenport

G is for GARAGE SALE!

Hey WOW. I'm cleaning stuff out and have filled up our Garage! Also stuff from our office... come check it out. Saturday 26 April 2008 7:00-1:00

That is Hailey O'harrah~the Dummy. Ugh. My mum bought her for me about 25 years ago and she has been haunting me ever since. I might just keep her just to keep her haunting my kids. She freaks S out.
Charming.

I hired Marie Ricks to help me organize my home/family. (see earlier posts for more details about that.) Perhaps we really need counseling but this is a start. She is really fantastic and pointed out a lot of interesting things. One of the many things she suggested I do is get rid of half my stuff. Go to DI twice a week. Less stuff means less to clean. AMEN to that.

I was going once a week and was about to give away some nice things. I didn't grow up having garage sales. I've never had one before. Then it occurred to me that this is a great exercise for the kids. Now we are all into it. Suddenly I could throw our that 25 year old creap-o-rific doll that happens to share my first name! (I have no clue why else my mom bought me that thing. I have no NO interest in ventriloquism. When I moved out it didn't move with me. EVER.)

With new eyes I saw all the extra winter hats, lunch boxes, clothes etc. that we have stashed away. Antique things, old doors. Baby blankets that need to be (crochet) edged, that I'm not going to do. Expensive gifts that I've never wanted yet had to keep. A lot is new and I could get some money for it. In the past I medicated myself with toys, and too many toys for my children Ugh... hopefully I am growing out of that a bit.

W is for Wrap. Wrapity wrap wrap.

Getting things done, wrapping long over-due gifts. This was a wedding gift for a couple that was married a long while ago (6 months.) This afternoon I 'm wrapping 2 baby gifts. Drives me nuts that I procrastinate/forget about gift wrapping/giving/mailing. What is the point? As with everything else in life: JUST DO IT, damn it.

This was a package I sent to my brilliant art-school pal Jillian. Groan... she is married and now has 2 children in the time it has taken me to send one, (multiple) gifts. And these are people I care a lot about! Jilly especially. M helped me decorate the package for Roman, Jilly's son.