Friday Favorites: Once a Month

Just once a month, in just one room of my house, I get THIS:

A nice clean room.

We're talking floor swept, bed made, clothes put up, no paper piles, things dusted, everything just-so clean. I wish I could claim it as my room, but it's not.

It's my son's.

Poor kid, MLB has been afflicted with ADHD and Asperger's, so he has a hard time concentrating long enough to play with one toy or.... he obsessively fixates on one thing. He doesn't have the focus to clean up without someone riding his hiney, nor a clue why it's necessary to clean up. On top of that, he is loved by a pair of grandmothers and a bunch of aunts who find all sorts of gifts to show it. (Paw-paw & the uncles wisely stay out of it.) So my kid has a ton of stuff!

I know, I know, I know....

To help him & my sanity, I clean up his room completely once a month while he's at school or at my mother's. I'm not just talking the pick-up he's (supposed) to do before bed. I'm talking that get the broom & duster, use-it/lose-it overhaul. Once a month I swap out toys. (Cool lamp, huh? Got it at my church's rummage sale.)

The day my son took 6 different puzzle boxes and dumped all the pieces in a big pile on the floor, putting together none of them & leaving me to sort through them during a power-outage? That was the day I decided he had TOO much & it must be hurting his brain to decide which to play with. In between stuffed animals, toys, crafts, books & geegaws, I was able to fill up twelve (12!) 50 qt. bins, and still leave him 2 snugglies, 60 of his treasured books, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Play-Doh, musical instruments, Thomas the Tank, and a dozen other things little & big. The rest get rotated out every month. Keeps his room cleaner and keeps me saner. Gives him something to look forward to and gives me an easy (sneaky) way to cull out toys he's outgrown. (Bless them, my folks let me store all 12 in their basement. I need a basement.)

Yeah for just 1 day a month! 'Cause the rest of the time it's THIS:

Now head back over to The Other Mama to see more "neat" things in today's Friday Favorites.

Friday Favorites-Firsties

My friend Hillary over at The Other Mama started a "Friday Favorites" carnival, so, being true to my Irish roots (A day late & a dollar short), I'm joining up TWO weeks late. But, luckily for me, the party happens every Friday. Woot! (I'm going to use this as a way to get better at inserting pictures and links, so this might not be done until Sunday.)

My favorite for today......... Daffodils!

I ADORE daffodils. Here in the South, they are, I think, the first flowers of spring. Not flowering tree or shrub, but a realio, trulio poesy. Even if the calendar still says winter, and for once the weather agrees (like this year,) they start pushing their leaves up the end of January to start blooming no later than March. I've had daffodils for Valentine's Day once. As a little girl in Georgia, I'd get excited when my mom's daffodils came up, even if there was ice on the puddles. As a teen in Germantown, I'd often walk through an old farmstead, and where the house once stood, was a naturalized profusion of daffodils there under the oak grove-- golden ones, pale ones with apricot cups, double-doubles so frilly they looked like pompoms. It was very much what I believe heaven might look like. I only picked one out of every four, but I still came home with my arms over-flowing. Even my parents have memories of seeing walk into the house covered in daffodils; we had flowers in every room. I even dug some bulbs to plant. I wish I'd dug more, picked more.

The old farm is now a luxury golf-course and millionaires' row, with all the top soil stripped away. The daffodils are gone, except for the ones the gardeners plant every year, and then dig up for the next month's display. My parents sold the house, and I do not know if the new owner changed the flower beds. But I have my own daffodils! On my wall hangs a Gayle Strider print of daffodils in a vase, and in my kitchen vase are some I gathered from my own growing beds-- some from the previous owners, some thinned from other's gardens. To my beds, I have added jonquils, narcissus, hyacinth, star of Bethlehem, Easter lilies and spider lilies. But of all these, my daffodils are my first, my favorites.

"And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils."

The Daffodils W. Wordsworth

I'm gonna press 2

I KNOW that considering what I have to work with, I'm doing pretty well. I KNOW that we are relatively blessed. I KNOW that things can always be worse. I get it. I'm actually good at finding the silver-lining, and even being sincere, if not earnest about it (although being snarky & sarcastic about it can be amusing.) Yes, I get it.

But sometimes I just want to complain, you know?

It gets really tiring trying to keep everyone else's spirits up. To keep making lemonade. To put others' feelings first. What about me? Why do I have to feel like I have to suck it up & hold back what I feel sometimes? Is it because politeness counts? Is it because I'm a woman? A mother? The dutiful daughter? The rah-rah friend? The supportive wife? That other people just don't want to deal with it?

I know what advantages I had in my life before, and I'm impatient for them to return. Yes, I'm a bit envious, jealous, of other's good circumstances, even though I know that other's have their "long, dark tea-times of the soul" or at least mounding piles of housework & despair, and they hide it away as well.

Couldn't we have some toll-free hot line somewhere that we can call to complain? And to do so in a comfortable way, with the results & feedback that we crave?

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1-8700-GRIPE ME

"Hey. Thanks from calling the "Gripe Me Hotline," serving all of your disgruntled needs. Please listen careful for the menu options have changed.

To just kvetch & get it off your chest, while just knowing you're being heard, press 1.

To rant & rave and have someone sympathize that yes, it is all just as bad as it seems, press 2.

To moan & despair over your woes and have a kindly soul remind you that you're strong & it will be better, press 3.

To worry & fret, so you may be forgiven and offered guided suggestions, press 4.

For general stress that's caused by suppressing the natural violent urge to choke some idiot that needs it, and all other aggravations, please press the star key as hard and as often as you can to activate an assortment of sound effects designed to annihilate the treacly hold music.

Thanks for calling "Gripe Me Hotline." Have a better day, and if not, call back. We'll be here."