Landsmania

Organizing a household is enough of a challenge for a person, but when you add in kids and all the stuff that they come with, then the task can seem overwhelming. It can also genuinely be overwhelming. I’ve got three kids, and much of the time it looks like a fleet of evil elves have taken armloads of clutter and thrown them up in the air — then held a hypercaffeinated zumba class while entertaining Shiva the Destroyer. And if that weren’t bad enough, whatever’s landed on the table, the cat has knocked onto the floor so the dog can chew it. If I clean one room, the others immediately fall into conspicuous decay, and it seems like I’m always picking up other people’s stuff. Socks, an entire library, the sadly abandoned end of a pickle.

I’ve tried Flylady and other plans, and read numerous books on how to organize my house. I’ve got all those books nicely organized on a shelf, but other than that, my implementation fell short in the hurry to drive people places, bury dead pets, and cook dinner. I’ve dressed to the shoes in the morning, bought way too many nice baskets, and made all sorts of lists for zone cleaning. Yet too often I can’t find simple things like my hairbrush, yesterday’s mail, or anybody’s underwear. Maybe it’s because I’m homeschooling, or maybe this is my karmic task for this life because I was an incarnation of Martha Stewart in another life or just someone who lorded it over others with my super-organized undergarments and total lack of dustbunnies. Read More

These are pics of a new journal I just made myself. I covered an 8-inch black 3-ring binder with juicy-looking green paper striped liked watermelon. I cut five sheets of decorative cardstock in the shape of little folders, then folded and hole-punched them. Then I cut and punched a bunch of regular off-white paper to go in the folders. I’m not sure what I’ll use this for, but it’s a happy little journal.

The other night I made chicken tikka masala, which called for two pounds of cubed chicken. Of course, when I went grocery shopping I forgot just how much to get so I got extra, and after I cut the chicken I had a good portion left. While dinner was cooking, I dumped the extra chicken into a ziplock bag with some Wildtree garlic oil and a good portion of Chipotle Lime Rub.

Today, all I had to do was dump it in a pan. I added some spinach, just because I’m evil. It was excellent.

I could have pretty much picked a Wildtree jar at random from the cabinet (with the exception of the mulling spices, which would have been interesting) and dumped it in the bag with the oil and had a great lunch. It’s that easy. It’s pretty exciting to get two meals out of one that everyone will eat.

…and a professional cleaner and organizer, I think. This is a picture of my craft room last January. It doesn’t look much different right now, with the exception that it appears the cats have been using it to deposit their fresh kill. Yay.

Honestly, I haven’t worked in there for two years. At least. Somewhat coincidentally, I haven’t blogged in two years. At least. Why? There’s so much to do. Homeschool. Write. Cook. Drive. Read. Learn Mandarin. Fling dead mice outside. It never stops.

Virginia Woolf needed a room of her own. Who knows how she kept it clean. I guess if you’re writing, you don’t make much of a mess, except for the coffee and blood stains. That’s just not my style, though, much to my dismay. I collect…stuff. Old dolls without heads, miscellaneous instrument parts, papers, colored pencils, yarn, you name it. And I’m organized, really: I’ve even got a bin labeled “rusty nails.” But there just isn’t enough room, and not enough time to declutter.

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At the moment I’m experimenting with collage and assemblage made out of a special origami paper technique. I’m working with both pre-made birch boards and shaped figures, and assemblage.
You can see some of my work in the Flikr gallery at: