Land of Milk and Honey

1. Last night I was walking home from the gym and marveling at how fabulous everything is when the weather warms up. It was after 6 when I left and now I can walk home on the bike path again, instead of through the neighborhood streets, because it's still plenty light out. It was warm. I could smell the lingering scent of lilacs. Everything is blooming. The birds are loud. Everything about our little spot on the planet is just completely pleasant right now.

I know I wouldn't be enjoying it this much if I weren't contrasting it with other walks home from the gym, walks that happen in the pitch black, boots crunching on snow, hood pulled over my head, gloves on. But, is it worth it? I mean, yes, the sweetness of the warm months is all the more sweet thanks to winter, but I suspect that at this point in my life I could definitely enjoy this kind of weather year round.

2. In my continued "don't be a slob" life campaign, I'm tackling one new cleaning / organizing project a week on top of the normal maintenance stuff. Today it was the hall linen closet. Now our towels, sheets, and blankets are all organized, take that, closet! I subsequently discovered about 200 little packets of alcohol wipes and about a hundred packets of gauze. I think our alcohol wipe / gauze needs are fulfilled at least until the kids go to college.

3. This is a sign of how bad things are with my brain: I have started a "where things are" file on my computer. Every time I put something somewhere special or weird, I add it to the file. So maybe in 6 months when I can't figure out what happened to my white gloves or the Halloween decorations, I'll be able to find it thanks to the file.

4. This morning we went to the children's museum and spent 45 minutes building a giant house out of giant building materials. The kids could stand up in it. I figured out how to make a window and a door. It was definitely super fun.

5. I have an angry screed to share, but I'll save it for later since the great weather and organizing projects are making me so content. Somebody once said something about how I'm always angry, or something like that, based on this blog. Hopefully that isn't how everybody sees me, but I think my writing can skew that way at times because I use the space to work out issues or to communicate more passionately than I would actually feel allowed to do in real life. Mostly I go around pretty happy.

6. When the firefighters ask for donations I always give. I think I'll be doing this for life after what they did for all of the other state workers last year.

7. We launched rockets and played in the sand today. Welcome back, spring!