Priorities:

When we got home from Rhode Island, we learned that a friend of the family had passed away unexpectedly while we were gone. Saturday a grave side service was held for him and then there was a small reception afterwards. We learned that the morning he passed on, he got up as usual. He did his usual morning routine before kissing his wife and heading off for work. While at work he was doing a menial task…moving some boxes from here to there when suddenly he collapsed, and fell into the boxes. An instant, and he was gone. It’s hard enough to deal with in itself, but can you imagine if perhaps they had argued before he left, or something had happened that would cause for regret afterwards. Thank heavens it did not happen in this case.

But it’s an interesting reminder. Life and death can happen in a second. Sometimes the petty things that weigh us down in the end mean absolutely nothing. Who really gives a flying flip if my couch has cracker crumbs all over it from a spur of the moment tea party with my girls. Who cares that every single pot or pan in my place is dirty because I decided to sit down and do something as simple as watch a movie with my husband one evening. In some ways, who cares that my mother in law takes charge in every single situation when really, her heart is in the right place. Who really cares that we don’t have the “best” place to live, at least it’s still a home; that we don’t wear the “best” clothes…at least they keep us warm; that we aren’t “well off” because at least we are a family who loves and cares for us.

Of course my family is not perfect. We as SO far from that and we argue and bitch at each other and we do really stupid things to each other. Friday night I was going write in my blog to complain about Honey and about how he never takes time for us anymore, how he’d rather be off with his best friend than home with his family…how he’s forgotten the little things that make our own relationship so much more intimate and connected, how he’s forgotten all about the romance and the feeling that it can bring. But at least I still have him here with me and although maybe it’s not the “best” situation between us right now, we’re still in this thing together.

Does it make sense when I say that sometimes Death is a reminder to Live? Why is it that sometimes, such a strong life lesson such as this falls by the way side a few weeks later? Why is it we get so caught up into keeping that couch clean, trying to have the best things, trying to do, well…everything!!! That we forget to remember to live for the small things in life that really, really matter??? Just my thought today….

Sincerely ~MacKenzie

You must forgive me again as I write. I have many thoughts rambling through my head. Yes, I could do several little smaller postings, but then I fear I may not get everything out of my head that I want to. Some of you I think have come to accept my wandering brain patterns. To those of you who have, congratulations. To those who haven’t, I do extend an apology. However, it is just the way I am.

So yesterday, I was working on finishing the unpacking process, doing laundry, dealing with tired kiddies and so on and so on. Stuff happened; I either dealt with it or put it aside to deal with later after Honey got home. As you know, I have complained about my multi-tasking skills being rather for the birds (Ha! That is a little joke that you won’t get for a few more sentences….). This was just one of those days where I tried to focus on one thing at a time until I could get to a point where doing two or three things were feasible. So Honey gets home late in the afternoon and I’m trying to clean up the house because Mema and Mepa were coming over for dinner again last night. There’s the usual kiss, hi, how’d you day go stuff. He gets in my way for a few minutes before heading towards the computer. Stopping short in his tracks he turns to look at me. “What the f*&k is a dead bird doing on my desk??!!??” opps!!! Well….you see, the cat brought in a little common yellow throat and I didn’t want feathers to get all over the house so I scooped it up and plopped it on MY desk (it was my desk not his, btw) and had to help the girls in the bathroom, causing me to completely forget about the bird. He was a mixture of surprise, being disgusted and thinking his wife was completely “off” for not remembering something like that. Well, he’s never really cared for birds too much anyway. I took it outside and buried it.

Mema and Mepa came over for a nice supper and after they left, Honey looks at me. “Did you see that stupid mouse come out from under the stove?” “NO! It did?” “Yes…do we have any traps?” “Uh—sorry! We used them all!” He grumbles to himself and then replies, “Actually we have three all with the names of stupid, lazy cats! You really should stop feeding them so much.” (sorry...he was a touch grumpy last night...) Yes, well, it’s me who has to deal with the cats underfoot when they are hungry, not him so usually I keep food out for them all the time.

We’re playing with the girls when we hear a commotion in the kitchen. Ringlet comes prancing into the living room where we are with the little mouse from under the stove. “Quick! Open the door, maybe she’ll take it outside!” I yell to Honey. He opens the door and she begins to retreat towards our room. “DO NOT let her take it into our room! We’ll never find it!” he claims. Fortunately, Ringlet is the type of cat who gets right down to business and within a few minutes, the mouse is pretty much dead, but she doesn’t want to give it up and I refuse to step in mouse guts in the middle of the night so Honey was forced to catch her and the mouse before she completely destroyed it. Not even 15 minutes later, I’m sitting in our comfy green chair reading when she dives in between my feet and pulls out.....another mouse!!!!!! Ewwww!!!! But, Honey and I take up our posts, him at the front door and me blocking the way towards our bedroom. And the same things happens, but this time she really is not willing to give it up and gets ticked at Honey for taking it away from her (she hissed and squawked at him). Sorry kitty!!! She was soon over it though because she began hunting around for more!!!

So I have to say, I think I’m rather thankful for the whole episode because when I lifted up my toaster oven the other day to find all that mouse poop, I was feeling rather horrible that I was such a bad house keeper as to let the mouse poop all over the counters (true, it was hidden, but still). Knowing that there was more than one mouse (and we still probably have one or more to catch based on the way the cats were huddled around the stove the rest of the evening as well as this morning) made me feel better about the whole situation.

Last night, things calm down and the girls are tucked in bed sound asleep. Honey and I are lying on the couch when we shift just so and… CRACK! One of the supports on the couch broke! Now, I have to tell you...we bought that couch about 8 years ago at a second hand store. It’s been on it’s last leg for awhile…but oh my goodness. What a time to break! I laughed, and laughed and laughed some more!!! Truly, I swear, cross my heart, I did my best to be sympathetic and sensitive when Honey showed me the nasty scratch he received from the couch... but the whole thing caught my humor and I could not stop laughing! Honey was able to work on the couch today so it is perhaps not as comfortable as before, but it will do. Hopefully next year we will be able to afford to get a new one.

Actually, I’m rather nervous this afternoon. Honey is going up to Ellsworth today to look for a new car. There goes our savings!!! (Boo-hoo!!!) Fortunately, with work increasing at his job, he needs to travel more but unfortunately that requires a really reliable vehicle, especially with the upcoming winter months. The van he was using died…completely…. I think I may have mentioned that Sept. 5th, Pumpkin goes back to school. Because we felt she would be better at a neighboring school not the one in town, we have to transport her to and from school. Schedules do not allow for enough movement so that he can drop her off and pick her up. We really need two vehicles! Which, by the way, really sucks!!! Oh sure, we have a down payment for a car: It’s the savings for our maybe, some day, house! So now, we are back to square one. (big, drawn out long sigh of sadness and frustration)

So he is shopping on his own for a car while I wait for Pumpkin to get home with her grandparents from Rhode Island. They invited her to stay for the whole week and seeing as she really appeared to be enjoying herself, we said sure. It will be so nice to have everyone back under the same roof. They are expected back late in the afternoon/ early evening. Well, this was a nice run. The girls let me get these thoughts out. Now if they will settle down again for the rest!!! (I don’t think so!!!)

Cheers! ~MacKenzie

Good afternoon!!!! We had a nice time in Rhode Island this weekend. Driving was absolutely horrid, though. But, not everything can go perfectly. The best part of the vacation though? Little Brother got engaged! Ah, young love.... they were so sweet together all weekend long. Actually, towards the end I was starting to get envious. It was like....Hey! I remember when we used to do that....what the hell happened that we don't do that any more?!? And from there to ....Oh, they suck!!! I do hope things work out well for them. This will be marriage #2 for Little Brother. He is younger than I and has gone though enough heartache.

I must admit, I was very surprised to feel how much warmer it was in Rhode Island compared to here. We are having nice 60-70 degree weather with somewhat mild humidity. There it was 80 and above and the first day was horribly humid. Not fun at all. At night though, there was one heck of a thunder storm which lowered the humidity some what, thank goodness. At the beach itself, it was really nice. Unfortunately, we tried to get so many things in, we did not have too much time there. Often we'd run around crazy during the day and about an hour before sunset, we'd go to the beach to play in the waves. After sunset, we'd come back, clean off, get into pj's and then head out again to a little ice cream shop just down the road. Monkey and Parrot now think that bed time is around 9:30 or so.... I'm actually not going to worry too much about setting them straight because next weekend we are off to Honey's parent's beach cottage for one lasy hurrah on Labor Day weekend before fall and winter set in. There, again, it will be late nights for them. Pumpkin starting school this year (Sept. 5) is going to be a bumpy ride for all of us. I do hope we will settle into a routine quickly.

Well, I discovered today that this weekend while we were gone, a little tiny deer mouse decided that our stove was the perfect place to make a home!!! This morning, I heard scratching around the stove, but could not find anything. Then, a little later while I was cleaning off the counters after breakfast, I heard it again and I noticed movement from under the burners. No, not very impressed. I was distracted by God-daughter's arrival and later, she helped me lift the stove top to discover the little thing eating goodness knows what. It looked at us like WE were the ones disturbing IT!!!! As God-daughter tried to find a cup or something to catch it, it decided that the staring game was getting boring and crept out the back of the stove and disappeared behind it. Great! That's all I need...the smell of roasting mouse meat that won't go away..... Ewwwhhhhh....... So, in the midst of trying to unpack, clean up after supper and breakfast, deal with the non-stop phone calls, I also scrubbed down the underside of my stove and bleach all the counters because, well, who knows where the darn thing has been!

Still, it's nice to be home. It's also nice to be able to sleep with my hips firmly on the bed!!!! There were only double beds down there and to keep the twinadoes settled for the night, we pushed one side of the bed against the wall and I slept on the other side, but the girls kept kicking and poking and rolling so much that each night I would wake up to find myself clinging with all my might to the bed so I wouldn't fall off!!! I fell asleep with them, would wake up around 1 or so, get up and get a drink, then brush my teeth, then I'd read for an hour or two before settling down to sleepiness once again. It was actaully quite nice!!!! I'll keep that possible routine for future vacations.... And saying that, I really do need to try and finish unpacking.

Honey's grandfather called tonight and sort of invited himself and Mema to supper tonight. I guess he's been lonely without the family around. I don't mind as it will be nice to catch up with them. However.... I would like to get this place back into some sort of order before they arrive.

Do hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. I hope I will be able to catch up with you all very soon!!!
Cheers! ~MacKenzie

Well, first of all, I decided to hop on the computer this morning, only to discover that Honey has changed everything around on me (again!). In the grand scheme of things, I'll get used to it. We have a new background on the computer and he decided to change the internet browser (that may take a few moments to get used to) so it's just little things...however...Honey, Go play with your own computer and leave mine alone!!!!

Stress. It really is absolutely AMAZING how it can mess with your body. Yesterday while God-daughter was here, I asked how comfortable she felt to take the girls next door swimming (I knew they had a pool themselves) and she said she had watched young children and felt comfortable. Okay! That would give me an hour or so alone to start packing and such. GREAT! So we walked over only to have trouble getting the cover off. Well, my grandfather in law saw us and came out to help, but then started with the grandparent "an adult has to be out here all the time to watch the kids, etc". I didn't want to cause waves so I said I did have to come home for a few minutes, but I'd be back. Well, when all was said and done, I spent an hour or two by the pool reading and relaxing. It really wasn't what I wanted to do because it didn't help cross to do items off the list. I was actually feeling a little more stressed by the time Honey got home (overwhelmed, actually) but Honey had a surprise. He talked to his boss and was able to "work at home today!!!!" Yes, there's some phone calls and paperwork he has to complete, but he'll be able to pitch in most of the time to help me pack and deal with the girls!!!!!! Wow. I was going to have to do everything myself. I am so relieved to be having this help!!!!!

So anyway, apparently my body was able to realign itself and get back into the cycle of things. I woke this morning with crampiness that only other women can relate to, but that's okay!!!!! Right, ladies! I guess there will be no sex on the beach for me this weekend, unless it's in drink form....but seeing as I'm not a real big drinker....well... Hey...I have to try and bring a little excitement to my blog these days.... it can't all be complaints and ramdom rants!!!

And with that, the girls are up, the coffee is made and I guess I have got to start my day. We are leaving for Rhode Island tomorrow and are driving home on the 23rd. The place where we are staying I believe has internet connection and we are bringing our lap top. But if I am unable to get on again, I do hope you all have an absolutely wonderful weekend. I shall send you all wonderful warm wishes while relaxing on the beach.

Cheers! ~MacKenzie

Procrastination 101

Sitting down to work, I get my report info out and place it in front of me, computer on? Okay! Humm….. do I need a pen? I do have to sign and date it when I’m finished. Where’s that pen? Blue? No, I’d rather sign it in black. Oh…there’s the gold glitter one! I wondered what happened to it. And the pink…I remember when I wrote Honey that letter using this pen. It had very nice results. I should try that again. Dear Honey…. NO! NO! Work…I must work! Pen…pen… Oh, here it is! (sigh…now I really have to work…).

The Word document is now in place and I actually get three sentences ahead. YES! Progress! Hey….what’s that on the floor? Yuck! Is that cat puke??? EEWwwwwww!!! I need to clean it up…I can’t work with that staring at me out of the corner of my eye. After the entire floor has been swept and washed by hand…. There! Much better. Now I can get back to work.

Gee, the girls are awfully quiet. What are they up to? No, I should work—they must be giving me a bit of a break so I can work. Surely they are playing quietly…. Another sentence typed….or are they? Maybe they’ve wrapped their dress up jewelry around their necks and are choking to death! Or have found a pair of scissors…or…. I’d better check. Then I KNOW I can sit and focus on work.

What a surprise! There were fine and playing quietly just as I thought. It’s a miracle. Now, I can finally focus on typing up this report for work. Wait a minute! Isn’t the car payment due soon? I’d hate to have a late fee. I’d better check. No, not due for another two weeks. But wouldn’t it be nice to have it in early and not worry about it? Sure would!!!!! (so after I “search” for the checkbook, “search” for the pen, again, write the check, get the envelope ready, “search” for a stamp, I take it down to the mailbox noticing every pebble’s shape and color along the way, how the wind is blowing in the trees…is the wind making a smiley face in the leaves? Hummmmm, listening for cars—I must be ready to wave after all…don’t want to be rude, and eventually, making my back to the house, back up the steps, back through the door and finally to plop my be-hind once again in the office chair in front of the computer.)

Kitty! Don’t dig your claws into my leg (I say as I begin to pet her) Oh, you really shouldn’t hop up here. I have no time for you! No, get off my books you silly cat! What? You need food, yes, yes you do, little cutie. Let’s get you a special treat. Where’s the can opener. No not the electric one. I hate that one. Here it is, and there you go, Kitty cat! Now, I can get back to typing. Except, my tummy is grumbling. Look at that! It’s lunch time. Gotta get the girls some lunch.

After the process of attempting a five course meal for lunch, and, of course all the clean up involved.., And potty time for the girls….and cleaning up after that, and finding a movie for them to watch, and getting them extra drinks, just in case….finally, I return to my computer…and my report. Lo and behold, another sentence written. Whew! This work stuff is hard work.

Gee, I feel a little chilly. I have the perfect thing…my shawl is just right for this occasion. I come back some time later with my completely delinted and ironed shawl wrapped ever so delicately (don’t want to get wrinkles after all that) around my shoulders. Finding my place, I realize, now I’m too warm! And, there’s a spot on my pants from lunch. Well, that’s annoying. 45 minutes later after trying to find just the right thing to wear, I face the computer screen again. That’s it! I’m finished. I swear, I will glue my ass to this seat in order to get this done. Except…crap! These are the pants I was planning to wear next week to that appointment! So I change again and then throw the other ones in the wash! I don’t want to wear them dirty…

But before I get back to the computer, the movie the girls are now watching is over and it’s late afternoon and they are getting grumpy. And now I am getting grumpy because I was really hoping to have that report done by now. So we make chocolate chip cookies from scratch for a late afternoon snack and then again during the clean up process, Honey gets home from work. And new he needs the computer for a while. “But I’m trying to work, “I whine. True, I HAVE been on the computer ALL DAY!!! Yes, I can finish after the girls go to bed. So dinner goes well, the kids get tucked into bed, I drag myself out to the comfy big green chair where I can curl up into a ball and promptly fall asleep. This procrastination this really is hard work!!!!

Cheers! ~MacKenzie