What If Leonard Nimoy was Your Dad?

I've played this before. But it's a delightful little tune and a delightful little video and I feel delightful today.

This week I've been getting up earlier and it's really changing my outlook on things. It's amazing the difference that extra half hour can make. I'm getting done more of the home related things, which allows me to fully focus on work because I'm not feeling as guilty and overwhelmed and it's making the evenings more mellow because I don't feel like I'm scrambling around until bedtime. You can't have it all and it's true that working wives/moms are often caught in a place between guilt and frustration. But each person has to figure out what's going to work for her and I think I'm onto a strategy for myself. Even if it means falling asleep before "30 Rock" is over.

I'm looking forward to a delightful weekend, possibly doin' nothing. Hope yours is the same.




The Bangels "Goin' Down to Liverpool"

Could it be a Trend?

Day 2. The Child made her bed again.

There were a few comments yesterday from parents who had the "pick your battles" strategy relative to room cleanliness. And I get that. Which is why we haven't actually had tons of battles about her room. Usually I just keep my mouth shut until it's looking like a hazmet site and then insist that she at least clear a path to the door in case of fire.

But the other side of the equation is, well, two-fold. And since I've been getting math lessons from her I know there are only 2 sides to an equation so suggesting that the other side is two-fold sounds like algebra or maybe even calculus. Which I don't do. Yet. I digress.

Let's start again.

I don't want her to kill herself should she have to negotiate her way out of her room in the dark. That's one.

I don't want mice and other creatures inhabiting her room. That's 2.

I also know that one of these days she's going to go live with other people. I don't want her to be the one whose personal habits are such that the other people are the ones asking, "Were you raised in a barn?" Because she wasn't, dammit.

But the other thing that I think is really important, though far less tangible, is the sense of peace you have in a room that isn't cluttered. A bedroom, especially, should be a respite, a place to get away from what's crazy and just be. A place to dream and create and play. The Child never wanted to clean her room, but she also didn't want to be in it. Or couldn't.

A few weeks ago I suggested that part of her afternoon routine be 15 minutes of "housekeeping" in her room, just picking up a few things, clearing one area, no big deal. And I suggested that if she managed to do it every day, she probably wouldn't have to do any cleaning come the weekend. She thought that would be groovy so she tried it. And it worked. Then she realized that if your bed is made, even if there is some stuff on the floor, your room still looks more clean than not. Plus it's yummier to get into at night. Add to that the fact that she's now doing her own laundry and necessarily can't have half her wardrobe moldering on the floor and it amounts to a pretty, calm, restful little spot. Which she is starting to use and enjoy in a way she hasn't since she was 3 and we first moved in.

And I think that is superfantastic.

I've been quite a productive little peanut today and I'm going to continue in that vain. Appropos of nothing, I'm going to leave you with this little tune which I just discovered last weekend while vjing at Here's the 80s. It's now my favorite Bangles song ever. Plus, both JP and I find this video to be brilliantly hilarious, for a couple of reasons. And since not all of you come to the club (as we like to calal it) on the weekends, thought you might enjoy a little musical interlude. (And yes, Rosie; I know you can't play videos on your archaic computer that is powered by gerbils. And all I can say is, hello darling? it's called the 21st century. Maybe you can watch it at Gina's).



"Going Down to Liverpool"