My random mental processes spill out in cyberspace.....

Maddy and Daddy looking at the ducks in the park. Going to see the ducks has become a regular activity in the Fletcher household. Maddy loves watching them. She points out the "daddy duck", "the mommy duck", the "baby ducks", and the other night we even learned that there is a "meme duck" out at the pond. Lol!

This week has been a little tamer than last week, although still very busy and maybe even more tiring. I had some kind of weird sickness we'll call the flu. I woke up Thursday morning with aches all over my body and a pounding headache. This achy-ness turned into a fever Saturday evening and I pretty much stayed in bed all day Sunday. While all of this was going on, our AC broke down (Saturday morning) and the repairman couldn't get out til Monday. So we all camped downstairs as much as possible over the weekend. On Monday I woke up with a rash over my entire body, except face and feet. I still have no idea what that was about. I guess the last little present from the strange virus I got. It was an itchy rash so I had to take benedryl all day which made me even more tired than I was from being sick. The rash was gone for the most part on Tuesday and yesterday I finally felt almost like a normal person. Whew! Hope I didn't pass that on to anyone!
I was supposed to go to a workshop at DBU for the English dept. on Monday but I did not make it since I was still fighting off the virus. On Tuesday, Maddy had therapy and I did make it to that with her. She got a new walker. She is really getting good at using it. Yesterday we went to a play group at church and she walked almost all the way inside and then walked almost all the way back out to the car when we were done.

Other than that I have been very slowly trying to work on organizing our house. We have accumulated a bunch of clutter we don't need and I am trying to go through and get rid of all of it. I got this book off of Amazon called Organized Simplicity. I really like it. She takes you back to the root of the problem of clutter and craziness and has you state your families purpose and values. Then you go through all the rooms of your house and clean and organize with the family purpose statement in mind as well as using two questions 1.) Is it useful to me (family)? 2.) Is it beautiful to me (family)? Maybe this seems like a no brainer to most of you as a basis to organize but it has been kind of revolutionary thinking to me. My tendency has been to look at at something and ask: Might it come in handy some day? Bad question. Of course you can talk yourself into believing that you might be able to use anything if you keep it long enough. I laughed after I looked through the book because she has an appendix for homemade cleaner/personal care products. Yeah, I went through that phase a while back. I have to say I'm still a pretty big fan of homemade cleaners, just because they are cheap, non-toxic, and work just as good as anything I've found in the store. However, my foray into homemade personal care products was a disaster. Maybe they work for some people, they did not work out for me. I don't think making my own shampoo out of vinegar and baking soda is going to save me that much money when I can buy a bottle of Suave for a buck and that bottle lasts me 4-6 months. She also has a money chapter that cracks me up because it is basically an advertisement for Dave Ramsey, but there is a lot of good stuff in this book and as with any book you will not agree with or care about everything that is in it.  I do overall recommend it if you are feeling like you need to make a clean sweep organization in your house and you don't want too much guilt thrown on you about everything looking perfect and have to master some kind of complicated organizational system before you can succeed.
Other random thought of the day is that I need a haircut. Yes, I know this. Problem is, since I want more than a trim I am terrified to let anyone touch my hair. Last year, when I went for a "summer haircut" I told the stylist to take of about three inches and I ended up with a chin length bob that would not even fit in a ponytail! Yikes! After that experience I don't know what to do. I am also scared to cut two or three inches off my own hair. That is too much for me! So I guess for now I'll continue to have my split-end squirrel tail ponytail or wrap it all up in a messy bun and pretend I never comb my hair. Uggg. Why can't people who cut hair just listen to what you say and understand that they do not have to live with your hair or ever see it again if they don't want to but you do?!?