1st Days

First day of school.  Busy flurry of paperwork and supplies. 

First day of seminary.  So serious.  Sleepy students.  New table arrangement (need more Church chairs if 4 more students show up).  Me nervous sweaty (but that could just be muggy Maryland).

First day of independence:  are you sober?  Living clean?  Can we trust you again?

How to Organize/CLEAN a Room?

I met Jane-Marie Sandberg, "Queen of Organization" at a party this week. She has changed people's lives by helping them come up with organizing systems, material flow in their homes. She confidently practices shameless self-promotion, declaring her talent and love for putting things together and making order out of chaos.  She is a certified professional organizer and an accredited staging professional. After talking with her for 20 minutes about my shame-cleaning (shove things in bags and hide when company coming) I want her to come help me wade through my fabric/quilting projects/craft room. It is a disaster. But I have hope.
Another friend (TiffanyR) at the party wants to invite a bunch of women over to listen to her advice and take notes. Would any of you be interested in attending a lecture from her? If we all chipped in to pay her fee?

If you are looking at her portfolio, click on the read "MORE" word to see photos of what she does.

$ How to Get RICH $

I work in an atmosphere of....affluence.  And I asked my boss "How do people get rich?"

1.  Get married, and stay married. (Tax breaks, wedding gifts, benefits, divorce=expensive...)
2.  Get a job with upward mobility, and stay in that job.  WORK!
3.  Buy a home you can afford, and stay in it.  Pay it off.  Don't upscale.  Live within your means...
4.  Contribute towards retirement, if it is employer matching funds, or something, anything!
5.  Good, clean living.  (Drugs, alcohol, and infidelity are expensive wastes.)

National Watermelon Day

If you missed it, last week was National Watermelon Day, and Mustard Day, Wiggle Your Toes Day, and Leave Zuccinni on Neighbor's Porch Day.  This Saturday is National S'more Day!

My favorite garden I discovered on my 6 am walks--get rid of ugly foundation bush plantings and put in FLOWERS!  (John pulled out a bush for me while I was gone babysitting.)

Painting makes me happy!  You should not leave me alone in your house for more than a couple of days without knowing I WILL FIND YOUR HIDDEN PAINTBRUSHES!  (Never did find tarps, so I painted everything by brush to avoid rolling splatter.)

And I will find fun fabric inspiration in your in-plain-sight fabric stash (I promise I didn't dig or disturb anything else fabric-quilt-wise...)

And maybe paint your ugly (I don't feel bad saying that, because I KNOW you would have agreed they were very, very ugly) washing room cabinets...

And play with scissors (black out curtain fabric seen in daytime, makes a HUGE difference blocking out hot sun!) and exacto knife.  (There is that great ochre fabric again, sewn as a header so 1 yard of black-out stuff would cover a window.)
And love your children with lots of hugs and try to turn every day into a party to celebrate something!