I Win the Award For Worst Project Keeper

At any given time, I might have five or six lists going. One for work, one for home, one for knitting, one in the car, one on the laptop, one on the bathroom mirror, one on the phone . . . and there are very rarely any duplicates. If I have something that I really must remember for the morning, I'll write it on the bathroom mirror in dry-erase marker. I usually have things that I need to buy written in the phone: printer cartridge, cat food, box of red pens, tampons, new book. So you would think that tackling a few projects at the beginning of the year would be easy-peasy.

Wrong . . . dead wrong. I signed up for Ali Edward's One Little Word class on Big Picture. I've loved her work from the years when I scrap booked. So it seemed like the perfect fit. Sadly, I haven't completed a single month. Not from lack of want, mind you, but I haven't taken the time to figure out Photoshop yet, so I'm putting it off until this summer. I also signed up for Tracey Clark's Picture Inspiration, and I was keeping up with it pretty regularly but having a student teacher and trips to Philadelphia and a billion other things got in the way. And I'm putting that off until this summer, too.

Two projects that I've kept up with are Project 365 and Project 333. You can click on over to the Flickr stream for the Project 365 updates. But Project 333 takes on its own life. Originally, the rules ask you to take a daily photo of your outfit . . . but that didn't sit well with me. Seriously, sometimes it's hard enough to get a good BAM, but every damn day in grey or black pants? Ummm, no. So I posted my original list and stuck to it for three months. But come April, when I was supposed to post a new list, I didn't partially because I was pressed for time but also because the weather here was shit.

But a project is a project . . . and here's my list for the next phase of Project 333:

1. black 3/4 sleeve shirt from LL Bean
2. black 3/4 sleeve shirt from Tee Street
3. green 3/4 sleeve shirt from LL Bean
4. white 3/4 sleeve shirt from Tee Street
5. green linen sweater from Gap
6. teal short sleeve sweater from Old Navy
7. teal short sleeve t-shirt from Old Navy
8. green short sleeve shirt from Apartment 9 (Kohl's)
9. ivory sheer sweater from Old Navy
10. green sheer sweater from Old Navy
11. green short sleeve cardi from Lane Bryant
12. black cropped 3/4 sleeve cardi from Torid
13. green 3/4 sleeve butterfly top fro Old Navy
14. grey swing cardi from Old Navy
15. black swing cardi from Macy's
16. black capris from Daisy Fuentes (Kohl's)
17. black capris from Apartment 9 (Kohl's)
18. black capris from Dockers
19. khaki capris from Old Navy
20. boyfriend jeans (can be cuffed and are quickly becoming my favorite)
21. capri jeans
22. Mossimo jeans
23. denim skirt from Lane Bryant*
24. teal dot skirt from Target*
25. white Old Navy tank
26. pink Old Navy tank
27. white Lane Bryant cami
28. TOMS in natural
29. black Clarks pumps
30. black Clarks sandals
31. brown Bjorn sandals
32. black t-shirt dress from Target
33. Chamila bracelet

For my three mix-in-and-mix-out pieces, I've chosen a Temple t-shirt, Old Navy's Love Proudly t-shirt (coming out tomorrow), and grey pants. You can probably tell by looking at the list that green is the color of the season. And until today, the two items with the asterisk weren't even out of the attic. I had a lovely teal 3/4 length shirt from LL Bean, but sadly I spilled gunk on it . . . so now it's a beautiful teal rag.

I spent most of today updating my laptop's operating system (pain-in-my-ass) and cleaning out the attic. At this point in time, I've kept one tall tower of shelves - that I've had since 1988 when I started college - to store my seasonal clothes, and I have one clear storage container of clothes that didn't work for phase one or two but might for phase three or four.

So, there you have it . . . two projects I've kept up with. Two projects I plan on catching up in the summer. And one project that I've abandoned all together. A while back I said I wasn't going to eat out for three months. Lasted about one week if you really must know.

- Jill

PS - And yes, I know I've left bags off my list. I'm down to just three: an everyday purse by Kelly Moore, a work bag by Emera*, and a knitting bag by Namaste. Seriously . . . getting down to just three was a feat that anybody who knows me would be shocked by. 

Surprising News

No.  I'm not pregnant.  The blog would go dark if that news was ever typed out.
Yesterday Mark came into the family room and said he was going to do the dishes forever.  He then flipped it and said, "for the next four months."  Truth be told, I could give a shit if he does it forever or for months. I just love that he's going to do it.

{I've also given up buying cheap detergent.  It doesn't work}

Other news?  I signed up for Mondo Beyondo.  A few reasons why.  One, she said it was life-changing and I listen to my friends.  Two, I'm supposed to take a class this year and I'm thinking this will give me a push to take another one. Three, they were running a buy one get one free deal.  Why not?  I'll blog about it over here.  There's a post up, so please update your feeds.

Oh yeah...  I'm having a contest!  Head over & help me out.

-Erika

A Certain Amount of Apathy

I picked the Girls up from school on Friday; finals are over, there's a week between now and graduation, and they needed a small break from the campus. Some how, on the way back on the Turnpike, we got on the topic of the Magic Bullet. Jordan commented that she wanted one for next year so that they could make sauces (cough, cough - mixed drinks) and such.

"You know, they make that now specifically marketed to people who want to make their own baby food," I said. "I kind of think making your own baby food is the way to go," Jordan said (at least I think it was Jordan . . . it's kind of hard to get the players right when you are going 75 mph on a road designed for cars in the 1950s). "I made most of your baby food because it was easier and cheaper than buying it," I added. "I think I'm too apathetic to ever have a baby," Shelby said.

When I thought about it a little bit later, I think I probably had a certain amount of apathy when they were little. Not that I ever looked at them and thought, "Whatevs . . . just sit there and do something with each other. I can't be bothered." But the whole baby-proof-your-house-within-an-inch-of-sanity was catching on, and truth be told, I couldn't be bothered with that. Outlet covers - that's about it. I've been in bathrooms before where I've had to ask people how to get their toilet seat up because it was either figure out how to use the baby-proofed lock or pee in the sink, which might have been easier.

A couple of weeks ago, their friend's mom had her second child, and that still takes me aback a little. First child: in college with them; second child: newborn. When I think about how much things have changed since the Girls were born as far as the gadgets and gizmos, I'd like to think that I wouldn't really alter how I approached motherhood . . . but I'm not sure if that would be true. Would I still sleep them on their stomachs? Yup. Would I still use an Infa-feeder? Probably not. No baby gate? Maybe. How about limiting television? Oh, my god, yes. A lot of what I did with the Girls I based on what my mom did with us. Is that pan hot? Here's a novel concept . . . teach your child that the pan is hot and will burn you. Don't want your kid to touch the shit on your table? Use the word no over and over and over again. Want your kid to read? Read to them and have books every where even if you don't like to read or consider yourself to be a reader. I know this might not work for every kid, but being slightly apathetic sure was a lot cheaper than buying the monitors that had video screens and heat sensors or covering every corner with foam rubber.

Even if your mom isn't a teacher as a profession, she was your first teacher. You probably learned all sorts of stuff that she never intended: how to let you win without making it appear so, how to cheat at cards, how to make something very mundane look incredible, how to stretch a dollar to an inch of breaking, how to make trips in a car fun, how to do a lot with a little. How do I know all this? I had a fucking brilliant teacher. If the Girls ever decide to have children, I hope they feel the same way.

Happy Mother's Day . . . to all the moms out there,
- Jill