the joy of owning stuff...

an essay on irony.

Stuff is sort of the bane of my existence. We need it and want it... and have to take care of it and organize it and make sure we have all million and two pieces that go with it that make it work.

I suffer from clutter. House clutter, body clutter, mental clutter. We've been de junking but frankly it seems to multiply just as quickly as we get it out of here...and I am not even going to the store very often so I do not know where it comes from.

On the plus side we've made progress on several of our closets, we have many more to go but my plan is to have them done by the time school starts (and I think we'll make it).

Recently we've had a lot of stuff break. Expensive stuff. We had two AC units that both needed repairs: cha ching. Then the fridge: which BTW, 3 trips to our house by the brilliant repair guy later and we still don't have ice at least things are being kept cold which is the more important of the two functions but ice would be nice. Cha Ching (jr). The transmission on the truck needs to be replaced. My car is in the shop with a funky AC error. While driving it will randomly switch to heat, just on the drivers side. Crazy huh? We can't drive 17 hours to Ohio next week with that problemo going on so : CHa CHing. AND S's car randomly doesn't start. We just put in a new battery but yesterday it wouldn't start and then it did and this morning when I went to take J to camp in the only working car on the property it didn't start. We waited and tried again, but nothing. Luckily Alison was able to come and save us and take her to camp. Can I hear a collective ARGH!

On the bright side... we still have food in the stores to buy, although it's expensive.

It seems like there is a lot of not depression but schlumpyness going around. I have many friends, real and imaginary who are struggling with issues some big and some just general blah's. I don't know if it's the price of gas, the lack of an exciting presidential candidate, the summer TV schedule or global warming that's causing it but I am tired of it.

So: 10 things that make me happy (right now)
let's see....

1. yesterday afternoon a HUGE wasp flew in the house when the Kings were leaving. I'm not kidding this was the size of a swallow (African). Debi and I chased it into the bathroom and locked it in. Then last night when DH came home he bravely killed it. H, E, Lu and I were outside the door shouting encouragement. At one point we heard a yell and a struggle, brother wanted to burst through the door and help but we held him back. In the end DH emerged victorious. I am very happy for some of the little known perks to being married (not that!), namely, having your own personal bug killer on call.

2. I am glad that the kids are all healthy. Not a sniffle or tumor amongst them. Yeah!! Good health is something that is underappreciated until it's gone.

3. I am glad that J gets to go to camp this week. I hope she'll have a great time. She wasn't super excited, knowing that it would not be the high adventure king of trip that she loves, however camp is always fun and I know she'll have a great time.

4. I can read.

5. Last night DH and I snuck out to Sonic and got treats when he got home from karate. Very fun.

6. DH has a job that he likes.

7. I have new soap from Bath and Body Works that smells so nice.

8. there are only 5 1/2 weeks left until school starts (just kidding)

9. the Food Network

10. I have the great blessing of spending another warm summer day with my bright and delightful children, swimming, playing, doing chores and cooking and reading together and really is there anything more important?