Monday, February 1, 2010

Delays and Progress

It's been almost 2 weeks since the last update and of course I have MANY excuses and a couple of valid reasons for the quietness.
1. The weather improved and life went back to what we call normal. School/work five days a week with dinner and baths and homework and bedtime stories, not to mention a little cleaning, leaving no time for blogging.
2. It was my birthday and that entire weekend, the only time I get time to myself (without help from the snow clouds) was spent being part of the Mullins woman tandem my husband fears so much. So much in fact that he cleaned our bedroom and found the missing shoe that started this whole endeavor. So much in fact that he made omelets on Saturday and Sunday morning for all of us. I really have to work on getting Deborah down here more often.
and probably most importantly . .
3. WALT started sensory OT on the 14th. It was rough and the second session started better but when we came back out I was just a mess. It's a helpless feeling sitting in a sterile cramped waiting room not knowing what they are doing to your child. I think I know just enough to really panic. They have to push his buttons, so to speak, so that they know what they need to work on, I get that, it is part of my job to do the same thing to other people's children. And yet this is my child and I have spent countless hours identifying those "buttons" and making sure they are not pushed because it seems so physically painful for him. In essence it is hard to take off the mommy pants. And as a result I sunk into a bout of the "mean reds" so aptly defined by Holly Golightly as:
"The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of."
So I drove and cried for a couple of days (my favorite coping method) and fought off the urge to just burn down the house and head to some far off place and start over. The omelets helped. I also cut my own hair, just my bangs, but enough to create some internal purification. And we plowed through last week. And of course, as is his way, he came out of the therapy session smiling and eager to show me a large stuffed snake, with the OT marveling at the progress. It is 0%, 0%, 0%, 0%, and then bam 95%, but I wouldn't have him any other way.
Any who, about my progress . . .
As mentioned before, I had my birthday. There is really no greater feeling in the world, especially when suffering with the mean reds, then coming home from work to find a package attached to your gate. Tammy, the goddess divine of a clutter free existence, had sent me the decluttering bible. Apparently it had my name all over it. And of course it does.
So I switched up my previous plan of going room by room, which was still stalled in the overwhelmingness that is my kitchen, and went with the book.
There are a few things I must say about the writer's plan's to declutter in 7 days.
1. It is obvious that she does not have children or a small menagerie of animals because she assumes that the reader has time to herself throughout the day.
2. Either she is a speed junkie who has abandoned sleep for the righteous feeling of unstopability that comes with 22 stay alerts a day, or she has a job that is only about 3 hours of her day because there are tasks to complete both BEFORE and AFTER work. (as if)
3. Obviously she was wise enough to marry someone who did not have an opinion on what should stay and what should go and who also does not bring home new things without approval. Good for her.

As I have none of the above attributes it is going to take a bit longer than 7 days. Indeed it has taken 7 days to do 1 day in the book (minus the at work part because I am a roamer at work and have a desk I never use and leave nothing on) but I am what about 15% finished??? I'll take it.

I have photographic evidence and some feelings to blog out about those first two major steps, my closet, just mine---Robert is on his own, and the "reception station." Soon, I promise, soon. The next step -- the bathroom--- begins right after my second cup of coffee and my brownie.

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