controlled by sweaters (for 2 years)

Some days I just feel fat and itchy and gross and old. I think it's allergies.

On the bright side, I have recently begun typing while looking at the screen instead of the keyboard! This is a huge step, and I didn't even try, it just happened one day!

Actually, today was one of my best days this whole summer. Yesterday was too. I read. I napped. I practiced. I made our bed. I worked out. I cooked dinner. I enjoyed clean floors. Both days I did all that. None of those are things that I usually get to do. Never in a normal semester, and most of the time not even in the summer! And today, Steve bought me the first season of The Road to Avonlea! It was a big surprise! I think this is my first summer where I am actually relaxed and organized enough to enjoy a little time off. I mean, I've had time off before, but either spent it worrying about something, or putting off cleaning my house. Usually both.

A few days ago, I put my sweaters in the attic, and that changed everything. It freed up a shelf in my closet, (which then got to hold all my extra bath stuff, which made my bathroom use-able again, which made the downstairs bathroom not full of my makeup and toothbrush) AND freed up the floor of my other closet, which means my shoes are no longer all over the house, which means my hanging clothes are accessible, which means the important clothes are no longer on the living room banister waiting to be worn. I now have a living room that does not look like a closet, which makes it much easier to clean up the pet hair every other hour when it gets bad. (Okay, not really, but almost.) And since all that is done now, I have time to practice, read, and nap, like a normal person who doesn't have kids yet.

One shelf, one box of coats and sweaters in the attic, and my entire life has changed. It's wonderful. And my cherry tomato plant has three bunches of little green tomatoes on it now.

Anyway, I am perfectly content, but still rather itchy and bloated and old-looking today. I need to go take an allergy pill, and perhaps a glass of wine.

leaving Dallas for a while

We are leaving for London and Paris tomorrow. Even though I am super excited, the exhaustion still continues, but is not as bad since I remembered that God is God. I talked to my mom and sister about it, and they both said that they have thought I was over-exhausted for some years now, but that I always said, "Oh, it's just because I'm in college!" Or "It's because I'm stressed." Or "It's because I just got married and we never have down time."

It turns out I might need more than down time, even though some of that would be nice! Mom and Kristin both told me separately that they think I need to go to a doctor about this tiredness. Being tired beyond your years is I guess not natural. Steve says I need to read books about boundaries and saying no and not stressing. I really thought I was a normal, not stressed person, but maybe not. I thought my job of teaching piano just took more energy than other peoples' jobs, and that's how I justify being tireder than everyone else. Sometimes though, I just think this town is sucking the life out of me.

Anyway, boring...but I just had to blog about it because, since other people think that I need to go to the doctor, it is a relief to think that maybe I am not a lazy hypochondriac after all. It turns out that if I want to stay at home for three months and not see anyone, maybe that's alright. I think I will do that after we get back.

But I am SO excited to leave for Europe tomorrow! I mean, I will be. This post seems like a strange mix of complaining and trying to get excited. My intellect knows that this is exciting, but the rest of me is just tired. I am sure I will feel differently when we actually are going. :)

Support Corn~Kits!!

I love corn-kits. I had never heard of them until we decided to switch churches and found a new one. There is a factory in Denton on the way to church. Just after you round a corner covered in beautiful trees, it rises above you with no other sign but great big red light-up letters on top that say,

morrison's
CORN-KITS

I love it. At first I just thought it was a kind of random factory, and what's a corn-kit?? But seeing it every Sunday, I have started to love it, and I think about it a lot because it's funny, if you think about it. Here is a picture of it that Steve made into my desktop wallpaper without being asked. (Isn't he so sweet?)



The name "corn-kits" does not offer much of an explanation as to what the product might be, which is my favorite thing about it. Is it a kit to grow corn? A just-add-water type of thing that makes actual corn, like canned corn or something? How about one of those capsules you can put in water, and it turns into a sponge shaped like corn? Or maybe one of those cast iron muffin tin sort of dishes that you can bake corn muffins in and they come out shaped like little corns-on-the-cob! (I tried to buy one of those pans at Walmart today, but I guess they're only on walmart.com...I got a sparkly gold folder instead. I'm sure I'll find something to put in it...) But I don't suppose that the factory cares whether or not the name on top of it explains the product. It's not like someone will see it and think, "Lets go in and buy one of those." (Well, I did of course, but the building is obviously a factory, so you wouldn't think to shop there.)

Anyway, Corn-Kits are actually little packets of cornbread/corn muffin mix. Steve and I got some from Kroger and made them for dinner tonight. And I'm not really sure why I say "support corn-kits" except that I really, really like the phonetic sound of the word support when it's next to the corn-kits combination. So, support Corn-Kits! Incidentally, when you go around the corner coming up to the corn-kits factory, it would be fun to say, "one, Two, thrEE, CORN-KITS!!!!" Not that I ever do that. :)