'hole digging' therapy

I spent several hours today digging holes and planting things that have been sitting around in pots, desperately wanting to be put in the ground. Some were 'rescues' as they were headed toward certain death in the dumpster at Publix, and others I actually paid money for.

The Publix foster children were hydrangeas that had gone limp, or been clipped off to have their blooms go into a big wedding order M. did over the weekend (kinda cut the wholesale order a wee bit close, huh?) and some bulbs that were well past their prime for quality sales. I've been delighted with hyacinths re-blooming after having been greenhouse forced for commercial sales, but tulips and daffodils don't perform nearly as well after having normal growing pattern altered.

I had some astilbe I bought at a plant sale a week or so ago, and was anxious to get planted. I'm really pleased with the are beginning to flower, and looking forward to seeing how they will do, in a densely shaded spot behind the house. The blooms look creamy white, but I thought I was/meant to be buying pink: we shall see. The first time I saw it blooming in NC, tall spikey stalks topped with creamy and blushing pink blooms, I thought: that's for me, and have wanted to plant some for years. So I am hoping it will do well, grow, multiply and make more!

And finally (after leaving them in a plastic trash bag for nearly a month, I ashamedly admit, when I dug them up in Quitman several weeks ago) got the agapanthus in the ground. I had no idea how to plant, but think they are so hardy they won't care, and will do well despite abusive parenting. I put them out in the side yard, near some artemisia that I neglected for months before finally planting earlier in the year, after having left it sitting in pots over the coldest winter in memory.

I still have not done the digging to get tomatoes planted, but other things growing in the garden are looking good. The miracle 'Jack-in-the-beanstalk' beans are just beginning to curl tendrils up around the wire, starting to do pull-ups headed toward the clouds, and allium are thinking about blooming. I hope the English peas will produce enough for me to pick, and carrots have finally started showing frilly, lace-y tops, so maybe we will have bunny food too.

While I was dragging the hose to water the hydrangeas, I laughed out loud: when I thought of how kids start pre-school, and every week the teacher will focus on things that start with a particular letter of the alphabet. So this week, I guess I am severly regressing, as it appears everything begins with the letter 'A'. I also noted that nearly everything blooming thing I've put out in recent weeks is: blue! After constantly telling customers at work we don't hardly never ever get in anything in cut flowers that is blue...

feels like retail 'holiday fun''

One of the floral people at another Publix was out sick, and had some business that had to be done today for highschoolers' prom orders. This other store manager called the store where I work trying to 'farm out' the corsage and boutennier work, but my co-worker was swamped with stuff he had already agreed to do, so called to offer me a job as a sub-contractor for one day. I went to the Macon Road store at about 8:30 this morning, thinking I would be done well before noon, and on my own, free to plant things I bought yesterday. But it was what PSI would call a 'hot mess' in that floral dept., and I spent my entire day: till 6:30 trying to get things in order, cleaned up, throwing away a frightening amount of unsellable old merchandise. 'Way too long on my poor tired footses all day: especially when I kept thinking about all the stuff I wanted to be doing instead!

I did not mean to devote my day to that, as I had big plans to come home and spend the afternoon digging holes for all the stuff I bought at the plant sale yesterday. I have grands landscaping schemes, but will be doing some 'sub-contracting' of my own, as I am pretty sure my ache-y back will not tolerate digging, stooping, hauling, lifting that I have in mind for creating bright cheery 'frou-frou' that will make the front of the house have eye-appeal.

Things are progressing inside: I am thankful for peace and quiet of a weekend, but will be even more thankful when it's done and I can cease the boxing, unboxing, re-boxing and recycling boxes. I have been putting things back in pantry and cupboards, and do a little jig each time I empty a box, then remember: everything in the bathrooms, and that monumental mess in the storage/shop will need boxing and moving to paint. The yard sale at the church occured in a very fortituous timely manner, but I'm not through with the paring, deleting and downsizing. I foolishly frivilously hope the church youth group will want to do it again next weekend with all the stuff I could not sneak out of the house in recent days. Most of which comes under the heading of "If you haven't used 'it' in ten years, it's probably safe to say you can part with 'it' "... even though whatever the 'it' is: could easily be considered a collectible, family treasure, or too valuable to just donate.

I'm loving the lighter walls and cabinet facings inthe kitchen, and excited about new floors and a re-do in the bathroom. When he asks: how will we ever get all this mess cleaned up (the 'we' part meaning ME!) I am thinking: the same way you eat an elephant?

the painter is back

EVERYthing is out of the cuboards and the pantry in the kitchen. I am now wondering who has been bringing stuff into my house.

I was so ready to feel like I was making progress (having heard from a very reliable source that 'it will get worse before it gets better!), I told them when I finally found enough boxes to put all that stuff into, they needed to go to the paint store and bring me a bucket of: Any color. So I could help things along, and start painting all the shelving, drawer and cabinet insides, thinking that the sooner we start painting, the sooner it will dry and I can begin to put things back and regain control.

We are making progress.

temporarily: 'living in chaos'

I mistook my efforts at boxing, packing, deleting, diminishing, discarding as effective: but when I left home for a couple of days, the guys came to start re-doing the entire interior of our house while I was gone. Mess was not unexpected, but I somehow was unprepared for the way I feel when it appears 'everything got stirred with a stick'. It is reminiscent of what a child would do to a mudpuddle or anthill, just to see the resulting swirling, troubled waters or bedlam of insects in random retreat.

I've discovered I have a pitifully low tolerance for the State of Confusion we are currently residing in. I even told the guys when I came in on Thursday night to find all the doors off the kitchen cupboards and EVERYthing exposed: I feel like I got caught with my pants down. There are so many boxes of stuff awaiting a truck to be hauled away for the yard sale at church, you can't walk through the doorway into the kitchen from the front door. And more empty boxes came in from Publix today to load and disperse... but I continue to be horry-fied at the amount of flotsam and jetsam we have allowed to accumulate in our lives.

All the furniture in the living-dining area is clumped up in the middle of the room, like wagons circled out on the plains, defending the innocents from attack. The guys will be back next week: to start the actual work of painting ceilings and walls before replacing floor. And completely re-doing a bathroom, so I will be emptying closets, cupboards and pantry. And moving enough junk to fill a dumpster out of the workshop to paint in there.

My current mantra is based on reminding myself what the 'experts' say about how you should go through your closet once a year and dispose of what you don't use/wear, while knowing some of our stuff, junk, jetsam has been collecting dust and rust for a quarter of a century or more. We have been in this house since late 1981: wow!

I've been telling myself Everything in the house has to be moved: either for painting or floor. But right now, I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed: probably because everything is so 'exposed'. With boxes stacked all over, and more boxes to fill. Where did my orderly little life go? Where did all this stuff come from?

I know this 'bedlam' part won't last forever, and look forward to living in a fresh new house, with neatly painted interior, new tile floors in kitchen and bath, hardwood in living area. And especially Much Less Stuff when all the superfulous is given, donated, hauled away. The running commentary here is "we will like it so much, we will want to stay!"

A Fortituous Beginning!! on April Fool's Day?

I hope starting a new job on April One is not a 'bad omen'. As one who does not believe in 'luck' or 'fate', I don't expect there will be any problems for my girl as she makes a major change. She has a level of confidence about her capabilities and positive outlook to ensure she will experience continuing success.

I will admit I am amongst those who have enjoyed a mildly amusing April First prank or two within the confines of my home and family... that will go unexplained here.

For the readers of these musings, today is the day you and I have diligently prayed for: P. is starting her new employment. I hope you were among the recepients of the 'Thanks to the Prayer Warriors' e-mail several weeks ago, after she completed the interview process and was made the offer by the Girl Scouts. She will be working out of the office there, covering one-quarter of the 'pie', as one of four Membership Managers for that area.

When she turned in her notice at HL, she found herself with a week of being (what we at our house have found so much pleasure from describing as): cheerfully unemployed.

Today is the First Day of the Rest of Her Life. I know that she is both excited and anxious about what will happen in the coming weeks as she begins to get her feet wet in this new endeavor. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Along with great optimism I am sure there will be anxiety about performance: matching names with faces, learning the ropes of something so completely different, yet so very similar to the 'Service' aspect of what her personable self was so good at doing with the customers at HL.

She is a young adult who has been blessed with a 'servant's heart', seeking ways that she could demonstrate her desires to be a blessing to others within her circle of influence. As she starts this new work, that circle will surely widen, and create opportunities for even greater impact on the girls and families she encounters, as well as co-workers and others in the community. What a marvelous opportunity!

I know the problem, but can't guess a solution...

Whaaaaaaaat in the world are we going to do to change the direction our society is going in?

How can we reverse the course that the young adults in their 30's and the teenagers and the kids coming behind them are headed in?

What can we do to save all our forefathers held dear and generations of Americans have died for: this way of life that seems to be making a beeline for hell in a handbasket?

I have been taking a sort-of continuing ed. course the school district offers teachers who need credits for renewing certification. (I won't go into the aggravating story of why I am not certified: another tale for another time.)
The subject of the two week study is Diversity, with discussion focus on what we as teachers (and parents) can and should be doing to become more aware of factors that have an impact on our lack of tolerance for anyone who acts, appears, learns, differently from ourselves. I've mostly been a 'fly on the wall', as one with very limited classroom time, perversely fascinated (in the manner of observing a train wreck) by the teachers and para-pros as they share their stories and experiences from the 'front lines'.

Someone today talked about a first grade kid who cussed at his teacher. How can a child who is suspended for three days learn while he is not in school? How can a teacher teach the rest of the students when they hear and see such disrespectful behavior? How can parents who appear to be indifferent, absent, focused on self-gratification expect teachers in public schools to instill qualities that are not found or reinforced in the home? When you call in parents for conferences and see the kids being combative and failing to respect their parents or guardians, how can you think they are going to be learning anything they will need to become self-sufficient adults? When the kid receives any type of disciplining punishment at school, and the parents' response is combative, defensive and threatening to teachers and administrators, how can you expect the child will not end up incarcerated, being supported by taxpayers? How horrifying is it to think that 'behind bars' is what the future holds for an elementary school-age child? What is going on in the life of a parent that is so overwhelming and consuming they do not have the time to invest in their children?

I can still recall the last time my dad pulled his belt through the beltloops to use it on my backside. I believe that children and young people need and desire to have limits set, and benefit from being told 'No'. I think having rules enforced by caring, compassionate, nurturing, supportive adults is the first step toward learning self-control and self-discipline. I fear we are seeing a society so wrapped up in self-gratification and permissive behavior they will become adults, our nation's leaders, with no 'moral compass', and will not have a sense of responsibility for anyone or anything greater than the "it's all about me" individual.

What can we do to alter this path we are headed down? How can we change the direction of this seemingly 'run-away' train we are traveling on? Where is that sense of living and serving for the 'greater good'? What happened to Character?

Looking back and ahead...

Within a week of returning from the trip I made last fall with the WWII veterans on the Honor Flight to Washington DC, I sent in my application to go again. The experience last September with that group of nearly 100 vets, flying to DC and touring the war monuments in the Mall area was remarkably gratifying. I am sure it brought back many bittersweet memories for those men and women who traveled to Washington that day. I find I cannot go to places that honor fallen service men and women, and not feel a sense of loss, and overwhelming gratitude for their sacrifice.

When I got home, I started recruiting everyone I know, to persuade them to send in paperwork to go on future trips. I knew there would be more Flights organzied for the spring, especially with so many military retirees here near Ft. Benning, who would hear about the experience. The first Flight in late September got a huge amount of media attention, and there was much flag-waving, with a welcoming crowd and military band when we returned after a long day of sight-seeing. All the publicity has been so good the foundation that provides the funding and planning for the flights is sending two seperate groups next month. There has been such a wonderful community response to support the program, and so many veterans applying to go on these one-day trips, there is even a wait list for a fourth Honor Flight.

The second flight is April 16. I will be going with the third Flight, on April 23rd. The organizers had a meeting over the weekend for all the people who will be going on the these trips, to provide information, and give the veterans an opportunity to meet with the people who are going as the support team. There is a group of veterans from the Albany area who will be going, and another group from east Alabama, in the Opelika-Auturn area. I met Mr. Anderson, the man I have been paired up with, and his family. I plan to contact him this week, set up a time for me to go and visit him, in Cusseta, below Ft. Benning. I did not get a chance to talk with him on Saturday, but know he will have an interesting story to tell.