Today turned out better than expected. I was the Calm Cleaner. I think it has to do with Swiffer WetJet, Zwipes Folding Super Duster and the new longer brush attachment for the vacuum. All three of these are making gruesome chores less gruesome. Even kinda fun...did I just say fun??

Well, it's true, the Zwipes Folding Super Duster is the end all, let me tell you. Just try to find a particle of dust left behind after you Zwipe. You will not, dat is da twuth. I am so Super Impressed that I emailed my compliments for a superior product that actually does what it says. I was pleasantly surprised to get an immediate reply, personally written by Steve. He thanked me for my kind words about Zwipes Folding Super Duster and said to have a good weekend. Honest, I could stand on the street corner and shout to passers-by, Get a Zwipe and start living! TODAY!

I was also pleasantly surprised to get a precious thank-you note in the mail. It was from DTD'S best friend growing up, the one we went to her graduation party a couple of weeks ago. So few young people write thank-you's anymore that not only was I pleased she took the time, but what she said was so sweet and loving that I think I will get it framed for my bedroom. It was heartfelt and validating for Mike and me. Mike just about choked up. It will serve as a reminder of that period in our lives, when the children were young. I long for those days. At the party they flashed pictures on a screen of all her growing up days. Good way to get me to cry.

Then we went to the ice cream shop, a little Mom and Pop number, and I had the best malt ever. Not only that, it took my headache clean away. This has happened once before, so I'm glad the little golden nugget popped up in my brain.

Oh, and the Rays won.

And tomorrow all I have to do after church is clean the downstairs bathroom. Oh yeah, and change out the tablecloth. My Dollar Store very think plastic tablecloth served me well, but we might get stuck up and employ cloth this time. And my house is cleaner than the last time MIL came. And with less effort (which Mike predicted since a month ago we did this same exact routine). Now if I can utilize all my free time I want to work on a project while MIL is here. And finish some cleaning I didn't get to. I had a friend who said something doesn't need to be cleaned unless it's REALLY DIRTY. Then I read about a poor woman in the newspaper who was brutally murdered in her own house. She was 80 years old and had been sort of an icon in Brookesville, had taught school her whole career, beloved by all except the person who slew her, or maybe it was random. SO SAD. Anyway, she was known for her cleanliness, both in personal appearance and with her home. Her friend said she cleaned things that were all ready clean. Not a pebble strayed from her pebbly pathway. In fact, cleaning was her hobby.

Then I had a friend who said intelligent people don't clean their houses. I also have a friend who is not particular whose husband said that he heard a clean house is a wasted life. Of course, I think he was saying that in resignation or desperation or something.

Interesting, isn't it? All the different views on housework. Personally, I like a clean house. A dirty house does nothing for me, when it's mine, that is. My non-particular friend has the warmest personality. She always has people over on Thursday night or the weekend, after her cleaning woman has been there. A lady told me once, I love going to C's house, it's so inviting and relaxed. Well, that's hard to beat, isn't it. Her MIL lived in the house behind her and she was from the old Southern school where you didn't invite company over until your house was in perfect shape. That DIL and MIL couldn't have been more diametrically opposed, but you loved them both, they are (were, the MIL passed away and she is greatly missed) both perfect in their own spheres. But can you guess who entertained more?

I read in my Food Network Magazine (that a friend was kind enough to give me a gift subscription) that Paula Deen, when asked, said her favorite late-night snack after a long day of work is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, can't be beat. Since I just had a long day of work and am ready to keel over, I think I will go have a PB&J, my white bread is thawed on the counter. With milk.

Zwipes Spokeswoman,
KEM

Who invented housework? Whoever it was must have been having a bad day. A VERY BAD day. Housework is not for the faint of heart. After my mini-marathon tonight cleaning the living room, I'm ready to sit down...permanently and take up crochet...permanently. Yikes, I think I just discovered why emailing and reading the newspaper is so appealing. Well, the thought had taken hold and is advancing at a steady trot.

Tomorrow is another cleaning marathon, as MIL comes the next day. Too bad I'm toying with a migraine, which started in the night. I'm already weighing shortcuts and we'll see what goes to the chopping block.

Okay, a blueberry Poptart to soothe the nerves and stay the headache. We hope. Oops, forgot to practice the pieces I have to play for a wedding in two weeks. The Rays bombed tonight. Kind of a ratty day. But Paul says to give thanks in all things. So, I shall recite those words and call it a night.

Sick-sick,
KEM

This is the countdown. 100 blogs left.

There is a line in the song For The Beauty Of The Earth that says "For the beauty of each hour." That is so true. Not too long ago on a beautiful afternoon I was driving down a homely little street and saw a child walking home from school. Right then and there I decided that three o'clock in the afternoon was an exceptionally beautiful hour...coming home from school. Aaaah. The light was cozy, the day was well on it's way and maybe molasses muffins were waiting on the kitchen table.

But really, it's so true, each hour is an exquisite creation from the hand of God. I'm going to start studying each hour. Each hour has a personality. The sun is in a different position (or, rather, the earth is) and casts shadows unique to that hour. The light changes ever so slightly, but if you compare a morning hour to late afternoon, the cumulative effect renders impressive results. And each hour tells you what you should be doing and marches you through the day -- a gentle and steadfast string of friends, these hours.

Well, I'm waxing eloquent. And, of course, my favorite hour is bedtime, whichever dark or darker or dawn-ish hour that may be.

Today I'm still finding dark spots. I'm beginning to believe I took that sack of garbage and swung it over my head like a lasso. It's just crazy.

I have a Jazzizm for you. Jazzi is smart. I was playing with her the other day and I said, Go get your Shake-It-Baby. And she ran right for her raggedy stuffed bear. When she holds it in her mouth and shakes it, the arms and legs flop around and it rattles. She shakes it violently. Whenever she messes with that thing I say Shake It Baby! But I had never given the bear that name specifically, it was more the action of shaking that had the name. Anyway, Jazz put it all together. I hope DTD isn't reading this.

Mike got an "F" as husband today because he didn't notice my new smart glasses, even after he had been home for 20 minutes. I said, You are getting an "F". So he leaned over and kissed me. Which means he got "FF". My new glasses prescription is STRONG. Hope it work out.

My sister called and asked, How do you make kale? So I told her how I made it. Later I asked her, How did it turn out? She said, Sweet. I always put a pinch or two of sugar in my vegetables. She didn't feel like getting a spoon so she tipped the sugar bowl and a whole ton of sugar dumped in. Maybe she could make Kale Muffins.

Oh, speaking of food, I think I will have an activity for my mother-in-law. I have all these old TASTE sections saved from the newspaper...it's totally out of control. I think each day we will close our eyes and pick a paper. And then we will read the whole section and pick out a recipe and make a list and then go to the store and come home and make it. Does that sound entertaining? It sounds like it will help me get through 14 sections of TASTE.

It's THAT hour,
KEM

Hi. The blogging well is dry. Sorry, try again tomorrow. This might have something to do with a bedtime of 5 AM yesterday and getting up at 8 AM. More like a nap.

But tomorrow I get to pick up my new eyeglasses. I was sauntering through the mall a couple of weeks ago and saw LensCrafters and thought, Why not take a quick peak just for kicks? The 30 second peak resulted in my trying on frames that were so perfect it was unreal. They were the third pair I touched. Third is the charm. You know how it is, you could search the world over and not find anything this good (which I did last year, search the world and not find anything that good). Then, when you're not even trying, Wa-lah, they fall in your lap. A little God gift for sure.

When I took Jinny to TJMaxx today I saw a neat recipe scrapbook type thing, it had recipes and then room to add your own favorites and little pockets for stuffing. Except, I don't need more recipes, I want that book all blank pages.

Don't know why I signed up for Netflix since it takes me 2 months to watch one movie. Will have to kiss that good-bye.

Sick, fainting-tired KEM

Oh brother, I am not real pleased to see that my blog from yesterday didn't post somehow. Lost forever?

Maybe it's sorta like how the pictures I took of the car we have to sell didn't register either. I asked DTD if I could use her digital camera. So she brought it over and I asked, How do I use it? She said she would do me a favor and let me figure it out for myself. After examining each button I found the ON/OFF. It took a while. I said, How do you save the pictures? She said they save automatically.

I took lots of great pictures of the car from every angle, oops, I forgot a picture of the engine. But I got the interior, the beautiful dash and all that. This was my big assignment from Mike, to get these pictures done today. So I was very proud that I had the car washed and got DTD to lend the camera and I actually took all the pictures. Mission accomplished.

Except there are no pictures. Just like there is no blog from yesterday. I wonder if I can recompose the blog. But it's been so long ago now. Well, just plain old SUPER RATS. It was one I liked, and trust me, I do not like all of my blogs.

DTD said she has to buy new sheets. I wanted to know, Why? Because she watched a remake of some horror flick and the woman who was stabbed in her bed, I presume, had the same sheets as DTD. Not so hot.

Well, I'll go over my brain with a fine tooth comb and see if I can get that MIA blog back up on the screen. I remember part of it, but not how it started or anything. This means it looks like I didn't blog every day for a whole year. I think this is the first time this has happened. Modern technology, you can depend on it.

Of course, it could be yours truly. I'm still finding sticky dots (courtesy of yours truly) on the tiles. By now they have been walked on so they are dark with dirt, easier to spot.

God is giving me lots of great gifts lately. I am poised to enjoy His favor. Favor completely unearned and undeserved, of course. Which makes it all the more appreciated.

Okay, it's extra late. I got in the piano playing mood tonight (this morning) and pulled out old music from 20 years ago. Hope the neighbors didn't hear it. We'll see if our trees are TP'd in the morning.

KEM P.S. Hey guess what? I'm all mixed up. My blog from yesterday is there. When I posted this blog I noticed the date, and that yesterday's date was there, too, right below. I don't know what day it is, that's all. Very happy, all is well...except it makes the bulk of today's blog just this side of meaningless...

When I came home from helping Jinny today I wondered who had visited the house. Because there were big sticky drip spots here and there and everywhere all over the floor. The size of quarters. I kept stepping in them and had to keep wiping them up with damp paper towels. Couldn't believe how many drips, in the kitchen, piano area and living room. It was rather irritating.

My first thought was, Who would do such a thing? Maybe it was DTD. But I know better than to blame her for anything. Then I wondered if they were leftover from having company. Well, that held no water because as far as I knew the stickies hadn't been there three hours ago, before I left for Jinny's. Then I wondered how Jazzi could have done it. But I didn't want to go there.

Well, my goodness, what a mystery.

So way later in the day, it hit me. I did it. Who, little ol' innocent I-would-never-do-such-a-thing me? How did I do it? I'll tell you how. With Mike out of town, I have to do his little jobs, like getting the trash to the curb. Yep, my bag of trash from the kitchen must have had a leak. And of course, I didn't take my bag directly outside, I roamed the house with it in because I was in a hurry and I wanted Jazzi to either come out front with me while I dumped the trash or go out back first, anything to avoid a doggy accident. And I just happened to already have the bag in my hand. This is why these drops went everywhere, because I was asking Jazzi what she wanted to do. Here, Jazz, want to go out to the deck? No? Want to go out front with Mom? No? Okay, let's go out back then. And I'm moving all around while I speak, trying to get her to pick something. Honestly.

I like it when it's my fault. It shows me to be generous when other people make messy mistakes.

Here's a good question: Are you a receiving vessel of love?

That idea was brought to my attention once by my doctor. I thought it was very perceptive of her. I was having some depression we were discussing.

And then once a counselor told me that people who have been through some junk (that would most likely be all of us) tend to look at everything through these smudged glasses, or whatever. Everything that comes our way is kind of distorted because it's filtered through past hurtful events. So, maybe people with these sort of glasses do have trouble being a receiving vessel of love -- we rebuff the kindnesses of others as an act of self-protection. We have to learn to trust again, knock down our walls of fear and believe in pure motives. It all tied together for me.

I'm glad there are people who say things that penetrate. And I know God places them in our lives at just the right time, so we have these Aha! moments. Then we can work at overcoming our weak spots because at least we now have clarity as to why they are our weak spots.

This morning we had lots of rain storms, it was luscious. Then when Jinny and I came out of the grocery store, the sky to the west had big spots (word of the blog) of gorgeous blue that had broken open (whoa, that's so bad I've gotta leave it) through the white glazed clouds. To the east, over the bay, the sky was black and lowering with lightening bolts. And these two totally different skies met flush with each other. It was stunning and I hope some photographer took advantage of the situation. It was like being in two different places at once, or something -- like a riddle.

Well, my thoughts are flying every which-a-way and it's time to wrap.

SPOT the KEM

Do you ever read something or hear something, even just one sentence, maybe especially just one sentence, that sticks with you forever? Here's one I mull over:

When you criticize someone it says a lot more about you than the person you're criticizing.

Ouch.

The next three weeks are crazy for me, and probably for everyone, what with graduations, weddings, company, etc. I'll do my best to post, but all expectations should be drastically lowered.

I quit Facebook today...again. Got to rope in my time and objectives. I'll see what else I can kiss good-bye. It's sorta fun to start shaving off extraneous elements in your life. I hope it's addictively (not a word) fun...within reason, but of course. I won't mention that I just spent 20 minutes watching Lip Sync videos from Bloomingdale High School (a student production, and a teacher one, too). Got curious after reading a newspaper article. Oh, brother. So, you can see, I need to tweak. What would it feel like to live a life composed of the most basic necessities, especially in this modern world where new tech and info is hurled at us faster than a runaway comet? They say more new info comes out every single hour than a person could absorb in a lifetime. How's that for amazing? Well, I'm nothing but a broken record on this weary subject of an over clogged life.

Think I'll go startle my sinuses with some Wickles.

On to new things,
KEM