Prepare to dance!

      I promise this will be the best pick-me-up you've ever had. You can thank me for it later.

Dream Fairies in Overdrive

Lately, I've had more dreams than I can keep track of. Months pass without a single scene, and then-- BOOM! Non-stop visions every night. The worst was about a month ago when I dreamt in black-and-white for the first time in my life. Even while unconscious, I knew that a carnival setting without color was trouble and I forced myself awake.

But last night I had a dream about rocking chairs. I wanted to buy one, so I was looking online and visiting furniture stores. It was very real and consuming, this rocking chair need.

What is going on?! Rocking chairs?

Have the dream fairies been busy at your bedside too? Or am I alone in this dream burst?

Making the Baby Laugh

For some reason, my little monkey laughs-- a natural and spontaneous sound with a hint of almost sarcasm, not a social laugh-- when he hears the word antidisestablishmentarianism. I don't know how this happens. To me.

Here's a definition if you are not familiar with the term.

Did she mean nine? I should have said twelve.

Or you should have stopped my dumb idea to post on 2009 goals every six weeks. Six weeks? What was I thinking!

Summer hiatus for goals. We can check in during September to see where we stand before the end of the year.

Did I say six? I meant nine.

      Nine weeks, not six weeks. I don't know why we ever thought we could commit to six week check-ins for our goals. We're all busy MacStewarts. We've got lives to live. I'm pretty excited that I'm beating you all on this one though.

• Make this apartment feel like home: I have found the perfect chair, and I may be on the verge of saving the money for said perfect chair. Picture updates when all my dreams come true. In the mean time, I have begun to hang living room wall art, which I think is the people relationship equivalent to getting engaged to my apartment.


• Love my job: My CEO is the funniest, littlest man in the world, except for the fact that he's actually not little at all. But I'm still enjoying working for him, late nights and all.


• Go someplace I've never been in the US: The dates are confirmed in August and I will be going to Charleston, SC, and I am in charge of planning our day trip to Savannah, GA. Go ahead: be jealous. Better yet: meet us there!


• Write every day: I had a dry spell exacerbated by poor internet service and hectic work demands, but I am climbing back into the saddle.


• Blog once a week: I'm still really sucking at this.


• Write more letters: I'm faring better than I did at my last check-in, but still doing rather poorly with my correspondence. I'd like to borrow one hour from one work day once a week and dedicate it to writing letters and notes, and I am going to try to do that. No one should work 12 hours every day of the week anyway.


• Be a better friend, especially by communicating more through telephone and email: There was recently an uptick in this category that I was inordinately proud of.


• Be a better friend to the planet by being energy and waste conscious: I realized that I only fill one trash bag (like a normal kitchen size one) about ever month and a half, although I recycle with twice as much frequency. I think this is a good measurement of habit full adopted. I'm still turning off lights except for rooms in which I'm using them, showering briefing, using air conditioning sparingly, and using my canvas bag at the grocery store. The young girls at my neighborhood market are now fully accustomed to it and actually help me fill it at check-out. Love them.


• *Expletive, expletive* update my *expletive* iPod: I got some good updating in, but I couldn't say I have the finish line in sight yet.


• Read more books: I am a book-reading machine! And I'm so shameless about it. I would say everyone in this city right now probably knows that I'm reading "Team of Rivals" because it's all I ever talk about. It's an amazing (and amazingly long) book, and I hope to be done in the next two weeks so I can move on to my next challenge. I also loved "Thunderstruck" in case anyone's looking for a good read. It's nonfiction by the same author (Erik Larson) who wrote "Devil in the white City". You can learn all about Marconi and the wireless telegraph, and then you will be as educated as Elinor who took a social studies test on this last year.


• Spend more time outside: Check, check, check. Also importantly, I am so good about wearing sunscreen. One day I'm going to be a great mom!

      And there you have it. I still suck at a couple of these that are really important to me, but in terms of the good habits that I've started, I'm definitely pleased to see that some have stuck for good. Now if I can just get the other ones to dig their heels into me...

Elimination: Round 2

So it continues.

I completely failed at the task of ditching 5 useless pieces of kitchenware. I like my kitchenware. A lot. I seriously considered getting rid of the Hello Kitty waffle maker, just because it's not dishwasher safe. My kiddo would have been heartbroken, so I didn't.

I had quite a few things on my to-do list, mainly for work. I successfully blew off every single thing when I realized it wasn't that important.

Three chores was a bit more fun. I've convinced my favorite bonehead to help out a little more around the house. He has agreed to take over dusting and vacuuming the living room, and I asked the kiddo to start helping regularly with putting away her clothes.

I got rid of two dreaded obligations. A few people had been bugging me to go out, but thankfully, a birthday party tomorrow afternoon has relieved me of that. I'm ashamed to say so, but the other obligation of writing thank you notes for the gifts my daughter received at her last birthday party just got kicked to the curb. You know I thank all of you and my sweetie thanks all of you for the gifts. I'll do better next year.

The time-hogging habit I ditched is this...I'm no longer spending hours each week looking for jobs for my husband. I gave him the websites and he can do it himself.

I'm trying to convince my favorite bonehead to also schedule a time with me to clean up the basement since I just bought him a poker table.

I'm going to see if I can find a box of sanity at the local Target now.

Elimination: Round 1

I said I was going to do it and I am…Spring Cleaning! I’m getting dangerously close to the official start of summer, so I figured I better get myself moving. In following Sister #1’s routine, I decided to get rid of the following between June 6th and June 13th…

10 articles of clothing
9 books/magazines
8 excess bathroom items
7 unloved DVDs, CDs, etc.
6 expired fridge/pantry items
5 useless pieces of kitchenware
4 to-do list items
3 chores (delegated)
2 dreaded obligations
1 time-hogging habit

Here’s what I’ve managed so far:

The ten articles of clothing were no big deal. I got rid of the rest of the size Medium shirts I’d been hanging onto (in the unrealistic hope that my boobs would go back to their pre-baby size)—that was 4 articles gone, POOF, just like that. I got rid of 3 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of pants and 1 dress.

Nine books/magazines? Ummmm...I’d been keeping all of the old issues of Better Homes and Gardens. Those are now gone.

Eight excess bathroom items…I stopped counting after 23. I cleaned out the linen closet and cabinets. Got rid of everything that was expired and/or unneeded. I also found a Linen Closet Troll between some sheets, so I threw him away, too.

Seven DVDs, etc. I wasn’t able to accomplish this the way I wanted, simply because we sorted through all DVDs, tapes, CDs, etc. last year before the garage sale. The movies that didn’t sell were donated to the senior center and we sold a bunch of tapes and CDs to a resale shop. There are some leftover in the basement that I just realized I can donate to the day treatment program at my job.

Six expired pantry/fridge items was also difficult because I’m pretty good at maintaining that. I did do “super giant heavy duty” grocery shopping this past Sunday, so that forced me to get rid of some things. I ditched some open items (an old bag of pretzels, a long-open can of powdered lemonade, a box of stale cereal), as well as some cans of vegetables that I don’t even remember why I bought in the first place.

I’m working on the useless pieces of kitchenware this weekend and gradually working on the last four, too.

I’m feeling better already!

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was 1986"

      You didn't!? Well what have you been thinking? So far today I've not only referenced Flintstone Push Ups, but also bagel chips, Capri Suns, Ghostbusters, and the hit 80's game Battleship.

      So come, join me. Let us party like it's summer 1986...