Opposing perspectives – sometimes the glass is half empty

There’s definitely two ways to look at things and I usually choose the positive viewpoint. Yesterday, however, I was just not feelin’ it. I wasn’t feeling 100% physically and I desperately needed some me time.  Being tired and irritated is the first sign that I need rest, so I tried to give that to myself.  And yes, today I’m back to normal again. I know the world does not revolve around me and I’m able to feel gratitude for the many gifts I have in life.

Gemini are the twins, right? So here are my opposing faces.

The negative:

Everywhere I glance in this new house, there are lots of things out of place. I can’t find all my clothes. The living room’s perimeter is lined with books and bowls and pictures waiting for a shelf unit that’s been ordered.  The windows are dirty, waiting for me to stop by our house garage and bring over the hose.

The office is a conglomeration of half-unpacked boxes and piles of projects… book fair posters and fliers and food truck menus, bank loan forms and disclosures and required documents, new house contracts and torn magazine pages and lists.  The IKEA book case that I ordered never arrived and there are piles of stationary, computer cords, files, camera equipment, and office supplies piling up along the walls.  There’s no system for bills or incoming mail just yet because I can’t see the surface of my desk. I hate that. I would use the dining room table but that’s full of SG’s school work, a box of electronic parts, pictures, placemats,  dining room “stuff,” and family scrapbooks waiting to be looked through and put away.

Should I take that enormous cardboard box in front of the laundry room to the garage recycling pile or keep stepping over it 5 times a day? Usually my hands are full and it stays exactly where it is. Where did I put the scissors? And the measuring tape? Why am I the only one unpacking around here??? It’s a real wonder I haven’t fallen down the stairs yet.

The laundry is halfway done and that itself is a process.  Gathering all our clothes from various parts of the house and getting them all the way to the laundry room is practically an agenda item.  I don’t like these machines the house came with.  The drier is possessed… when it’s on, we have to either close the door or run for our lives… it’s very loud and sounds like it’s walking toward us, coming for us whether we’re ready or not.  I try to turn it on when I’m leaving the house so I don’t have to hear it.  Also, as many times as I’ve told (and showed) SG how to please stop giving me every single item inside out, so far it continues.  I guess I’m going to start giving them back to her that way.

This place was built by giants.  The ceilings and doors in this place are 12 or 14′. The other day, a smoke alarm started beeping to ask for a new battery. I was so proud of myself that remembered on moving day to grab our ladder from our old house, so I got it from the garage, climbed up it, and still couldn’t reach the ceiling! And all the tops of the doors are far too high to hang any hooks or my usual items from them.  If I put my over-the-door jewelry mirror thing up, I wouldn’t be able to reach anything but the very bottom items.  Who can do this???

Just walking through the house, I see a box with our new kitchen table base in it (since ours came out of storage growing things from the storm water disgustingness!) and another box with new chairs for it. I see special-order cat food because Mo has pancreatitis and arthritis.  There’s a piece of furniture to be built, another shelf unit to put together, boxes to put in the attic, lots of things to still unpack, and what are all these cords for?

I keep forgetting to take “before” pictures until I’m halfway done!

It was bothering me that my craft stuff was going to be the last to be unpacked, so I broke away from the norm and started opening those boxes. I got overwhelmed. I have no furniture to put it all and it’s a lot of stuff.  Working on that, folks. But I feel proud of myself for starting to put that toward the top of the list.

I’m about to put in our Girl Scout troop cookie order and this year it has stumped me.  Usually I don’t make it through the webinars they offer to explain how to enter what number and where because it’s all fairly obvious, but this year I watched the whole thing and I still don’t understand.  There are a number of reports I can run and each one gives me different numbers.  There isn’t one way to find a girl’s complete order since there’s a mobile app, the paper card, direct ship orders via e-card, and all 3 of those give the option to donate boxes of cookies, but some are paid for and some are not yet.  Some of those are girl-delivered, meaning I need to order those boxes.  Some of those are paid for and some are not yet.  Each way of doing the full order comes out with different numbers.  Come on Girl Scouts!

That’s all I care to bore you with. On to the positive angle:

Broken by the movers, but the message remains.

I have made so much happen in such a short amount of time, I really need to think about that more often. I’ve been given challenges and been knocked about a little, but I’m still moving forward positively and happily. I’m taking care of my family and still volunteering for the school.

How fortunate are we that we can live in this nice house for a year? We have ample room and there’s nobody keeping track of my unpacking progress with a timeline.  We have heat and a/c, water, a new vacuum cleaner, and I’ve been cooking dinner every night.  There’s lots of room to spread out and we don’t hear each other’s every breath and get on each other’s nerves. It’s very nice to be in a house again. I feel like all 3 of us plus the kitties have exhaled finally.

It has been fun to dream up a house and to shop for what we want to be inside.  It’s not often you get to decide where the walls go and how you envision living there.  Mr. B sent me the photo above the other day… does he know me or what??? Anyway, the demo is taking a little longer than we thought to begin because of the “snowmageddon” or whatever they decided to call it.  Basically, all the plumbers are busy with broken pipes and have not disconnected the water line yet.  Today I heard the best idea: when they finally do tear it down, we are going to celebrate with champagne.

CoCo helping me request cookie booths

Selling cookies this year was difficult for my daughter. She was excited to walk the neighborhood and nobody is living there anymore! We found a few people here and there, but most of our requests were via video or phone. Family bought some and the new e-cards took care of the rest.  Ultimately, given the strangeness of the year, our troop did a fantastic job on this initial order and sold more than I thought we would.  And I figured out the order system eventually. 🙂

So the book fair is in about 10 days and it’ll be awesome. 13 hours of standing and dealing with people is definitely a little much, but I can do it for one day! Looking through my files from last year, I have no idea how I did so much… author visits, story hours, a coin contest the week prior, special book talks on the morning announcements, evening hours.  It was a lot! This year is simple in comparison.

I am going to try to catch up with myself and take things a tad slower.  I have been reading a great book and I’m excited to tell you about it. I will do a book report very soon! Thank you for reading.