As the snow lay on the ground, nice and crisp and even....

[anastasiav]

As the snow lay on the ground, nice and crisp and even....

First snow: November 23, 2005

My Schedule for the next few weeks is as follows:

Today: Work: MPA 10-3 ish; LLB 5-10
11/24: Thanksgiving: go to my mom's then Josh's parents
11/25: Work: LLB 130-10 (also hopefully go shopping in the morning)
11/26: Work: LLB 130-10 (also hopefully go shopping or clean/decorate house in the morning)
11/27: Off: Cleaning, shoppping, baking, singing carols

11/28, 11/29, 11/30: Work: MPA 830-430; LLB 5-10
Thurs 12/1: Work: MPA 830-430; off evening (Province Meeting)
Friday 12/2: Work: MPA 830-430; LLB 5-10
Sat 12/3 & Sun 12/4: MPA annual board & staff retreat - 2 full days in China, ME with sleepover (work)

Mon 12/5 - Fri 12/9: Work: MPA 830-430; LLB 5-10
Sat 12/10: Work: LLB 130-10
Sun 12/11: OFF!!!! (I think we're going to put the tree up this day)

... and that's as far as I know. In the next 18 days (not counting today) I have three full days off (Thanksgiving, 11/27, 12/11), plus two free evenings (12/1 - and that's the meeting; 12/4) and three free mornings. I hope I can get everything done in that free span that I want to get done, but somehow I doubt it.

One thing that I'd like to get done, but I don't think I will, between now and 12/23 is to get both my bedroom and the computer/sewing room really, really clean. But somehow I don't think that's going to happen. See, the rest of the house is fine -- the clutter can be managed and is, from time to time, swept up, sorted, and otherwise corraled. But the stuff I don't know what to do with and don't want to throw away all ends up in the computer/sewing room (where the problem is currently made worse by the presence of a Queen size matress and box spring that I thought we'd be able to move up to the attic, but the box spring doesn't fit through the door), and the bedroom is just ... a dark, dirty disaster. I need someone to help me go through the stuff, object by object, and figure out what to do with it all!

The bedroom problem is made worse by the fact that Josh refuses to do anything with his stuff, but flips out every time I touch his stuff, even to dust it (a holdover from being the eldest of four siblings, I think). His laundry is in baskets all over the room, giant shoes everywhere, empty dresser drawers, piles and piles of books, and dust dust dust all over everything. I hate it, but I can't seem to change it ... partly because of time, and partly because some work that needs done (like redoing the closets so they're actually useful space) is just beyond my skills. So I'm stuck sleeping in this evil dirty room every night, and as much as I want to I can't seem to do anything about it. *sigh*

So, tomorrow morning we'll get up early and drive the hour-ish up to my mom's house. Then, just about as soon as we get there, we'll turn around and go out to my Grandparent's farm (The Farm) where we'll indulge in a cool but unusual Thanksgiving tradition we've evolved.

See, outside my mom's house, she puts up this 20-foot lit tree. Not a fancy tree, but usually a kind of sparse, wild, fir tree, decorated with some white lights and a few artificial birds. Its beautiful. But we need to get the tree. So on Thanksgiving, we (Mom, Josh, Me) go out and tromp through the woods where I grew up until we find the perfect tree, then we cut it down (and perhaps cut some other greens and gather berries for other decorations) and drag it over the stream and out of the woods and bungee it onto her car and drive it the 2 miles back to her house. This, as you can imagine, takes a large part of the day. Then we'll gather around the kitchen table next to the woodstove and eat chicken pot pie and hot chocolate. This year, as a twist, we'll put the lights on the tree for her, since she's getting older and complains about having to do it every year. As a super double bonus, this year I expect it to be snowing while we're in the woods!! Yay!!

Then we leave around 4pm so my mom can go to church and have a relaxing evening, and we go to Josh's family Thanksgiving, where we have turkey and stuffing and trimmings and board games and siblings and loudness and like that.

Comments

ha! I can see ground!

[camilla-anna.livejournal.com]

Now at our house it's really even... 6 to 8 inches of even !

with 6 inches more forecast for TDay... :p

Anna

[staceyspins.livejournal.com]

For a small fee (for example, a mucking huge plate full of Josh's Alfredo) I would be happy to come to your house for three days and do what I did at Gail and Ronan's house. My methods are hardcore and I will be tough but you will love your room in the end.

In the mean time, maybe you need to sleep in the Lavender room so you feel less overwhelmed???

I feel for you, Adam hates it when I touch his stuff. So I do it when he is not around and never throw anything out without asking.

I'm here when your ready.

:o)