My Home Among The Hills

A friend of mine mentioned on facebook that he was getting rid of 75% of all of his personal possessions. There must be something in the air because we have been cleaning out this weekend in our house as well. Sometimes I get stressed out just looking around at all of the stuff that we seem to accumulate. Actually, I blame it on school as the kids seems to bring stuff home every single day. We recycle about everything and paper is one of our biggest loads each week as we haul it out.

So, anyhow, the junk-induced stress hit a peak on Friday night so I started piles…a pile to donate, a pile to keep and a pile to throw in the can. I am honestly not sure which pile was bigger. It was excellent therapy at any rate. The kids sort of avoided the whole process until, in my hoeing-out frenzy, I strongly urged them to make piles with their stuff. Isaac fussed a little until I started into his stuff making the piles for him. His ideas did not match mine and I think he caught on.

I remember a family in my home town when I was growing up. They seemed to let things just completely go for awhile and then they would clean in a frenzy, pitching every thing in sight. It was pretty hilarious but their place went from one extreme to the other in the course of a day. I remember the mother of the house saying that she was going to “red up the house” Is that Pennsylvania phrase? I think most people know what I mean when I say we are hoeing out so that must be pretty common…but redding up the place?

Things are calmer at our house and my blood pressure is much better. I know most people like the therapy of redding up the house. I am not sure why collecting stuff is so easy yet causes so much stress. You would think that we would be better at avoiding the stress of junk but it just doesn’t seem natural. Maybe it’s called redding up because when your face finally gets red with stress, you gotta de-junk!

I get these streams of consciousness in my head sometimes so it may be tough to stitch my thought pattern together but I was listening to XM radio the other day. The WWI-Snoopy-Red-Barron song came on and it made me think about time.

I got to thinking about how time flies and the Snoopy song made me realize that my Grandpa, who is 97, was alive during WWI. My paternal Grandpa fought in WWI. I suppose it doesn’t seem quite like yesterday, but with the rate at which time is flying for me, I can imagine it might not seem like such a distant past to my Grandpa.

This scene was quickly followed by a headlock and noogie!

Isaac turned 12 and Abigail is going on 9. Where did that time all go? Why am I spending time at work? Wouldn’t it be nice to just enjoy every minute of their fleeting childhood? Hmmm…well, maybe not every moment. Isaac is a pre-teen now and showing his colors very well.

Spring is in the air? Really?

Anyhow, I got to thinking about why time flies so fast and it is all about retail, I am convinced! I was in the local grocery store the other day and noticed that they have Easter candy out already! It’s not even Christmas! I get building up for a holiday but really? Easter in December? Time flies though so it will be here soon enough.

Easter candy is almost gone...in December?

We received a catalog in the mail from a big outdoor clothing place. They were advertising their end of Winter sale…it wasn’t even Winter yet but it’s over already?!

I don’t want time to fly as a general rule.  I do enjoy (almost) every moment with the kids and with Emily and I want those times to slow down.  But Winter?  Nope…come on Spring!

I turned 40 last week.  Holy CRAP!  I am 40!  Oh, I know, you can’t believe it since I look so incredibly young and fit, but it’s true.  I am 40!  The night before my birthday, one of my friends texted me wanting me to meet him for breakfast.  I didn’t think anything of it so I agreed and we had a good feed at Panera.  I wandered into the office around 9 and found my office fully…uh…decorated.  It didn’t occur to me that I was being stalled at breakfast, honestly.  I texted pics to Emily and she said, “you idiot, what did you think he was doing?”

I took off  the day before my birthday and my…uh..friends in the office spent a good deal of time…uh…decorating.  They didn’t quite finish so breakfast was for the final touches.  Anyhow, they did an awesome job and it was a great start to my day!  I pretty much walked around in circles all day and admired myself in the mirror as well as the decorations in my office.

4 rolls of toilet paper went into the making of this surprise!

They were so generous!  They even got me Geritol and Ensure!

This was my favorite part - on my chair pad

After work, Emily had set up a big party with some family and friends at a local bowling alley.  A few months ago she was talking about a more formal dinner party and I said that it wasn’t really my style.  I am more bowling alley than sit down dinner, you see.  So, we switched gears and I had a great party in the bowling alley!

I guess most people stress out about turning 40.  They feel old and out of touch and sloppy and all of that but I just don’t feel any of that stuff.  I still act like a 13 year old most days actually.  I don’t know, I like turning 40 and I am pretty proud to cross over into a new demographic on all of the forms and surveys from now on.  Someday I may be tempted to buy a Buick, but for now, I am not ready to grow up!

When Emily and I lived in Nashville, we used to go to bed at 10:00.  We were on Central time so prime-time TV started at 7 and the news came on at 10pm.  It seemed natural, you know…turn on the news, ignore it…brush your teeth…then off to bed.  I don’t know about you, but I am asleep before my head even hits the pillow.  So, in Nashville, we were asleep by 10:30 and we got up at 5:30.

Here in WV, things are a little different.  We still ignore the news when we bother to turn it on and we still brush our teeth, but it seems like the only consistent thing in our nighttime routine is the fact that we don’t go to bed until 11:30.  We still get up early at 5:45 so I have no other option but to blame our lack of sleep on the Eastern time zone.

I know that getting six and a quarter hours of sleep isn’t really ideal.  It may shorten our lives a bit even.  The only way I see to handle it is to leave the Eastern time zone or to start paying attention to the news.  I am not sure that I like the taste of either option so I will just have to live on the edge in the Eastern time zone.  EDT/EST baby!