Trying to reign things in

The theme for this spring is getting stuff under control. As most of my friends know, I have brief moments of clarity where I'm organized, calm, and on top of things. And then there's the rest of my life- swirling around in chaos because I've been lazy for a week... then two... then three...

You get the idea.

I admit that I do tend to thrive on chaos. If I've solved one stress point in my life, I instinctively try to grasp another one.

This year, I really don't need to look for any new ones. I have plenty of issues to deal with stress-wise. I need to start grabbing at a couple of the minor ones to resolve them so I can focus on the big looming one that starts with "W" which is now just over five months away.

Said "W" planning is going okay. We've reserved the DJ - he played one of our friends' weddings last year, and we loved both his music style and his Master of Ceremonies style. Plus our friends praised him highly. (and the price is quite reasonable). So yay! One more big thing off the list.

Miracle of miracles, I have all of the addresses for our invitees at this point. I have four Save the Dates left to send- those will go out this weekend and I can cross THAT off my list.

On Saturday I'm going to head over to the local lingerie shop to get fitted for whatever contraption of wires and bindings I need for my (cough) "foundation garments." Also known as a long-line strapless bra and goddess knows what other contraptions they'll try to squeeze my body into. As with any clothes-related shopping, I'm a bit insecure about all of this. My awareness of being so overweight screams out at times like this. There's a stupid part of me that is convinced that the shopkeeps will recoil in horror or something. (like I said.. stupid). But honestly, I'm looking forward to getting it done-- partially for the wedding, and partially in the hopes of finding a comfortable, supportive bra for the first time in years.

What I desperately need to reign in is our house. It needs a thorough scrub-down, partially for the yearly incentive that is Spring Cleaning, and partially because it's quickly reaching disgusting proportions (to my mind). With five cats shedding winter coats... it's just... ew. We have boxes of stuff that have come down from Erich's mom's house to sort through which are taking over places in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Plus I have a ton of magazines & mail to sort through (most of which will be happily making its way to the recycling bin). We're getting seriously clutterfied and just need to beat the piles back down.

I'm hoping to get some serious work done this weekend, since it is a three-day weekend (yay... Patriot's Day!). My big project for the weekend is my office. I finally have a vision for how I want to create the space (to combine both computer stuff and stitching), and I'm excited to get started on it. I just need to get everything out of there so I can start from scratch to place furniture and storage.

The other big project for the weekend is the kitchen - it needs a good scrubdown (especially the floor), but I need to sort the pots and pans and get stuff back into the places they're supposed to be. Over the past year, things have just scattered around the kitchen to available spaces. We have some very nice cookware to bring down from Erich's mom's place (lots of wonderful Le Cruset cast iron), and I need to organize the cabinets to make sure we have room for things. We have stuff to throw out, too - abused old pans from my college years that really are worthless at this point. So with a bit of time and patience, I can whip this kitchen back into shape.

We're not doing everything ourselves, either. Erich has been getting estimates from landscapers this week to get our yard under control. We have a couple of ragged, overgrown evergreen bushes on the sides of the driveway that look ugly and just need to be pulled. Plus there's a arborvitae shrub-turned-tree in front of our house that became a VERY active yellowjacket nest last year that we want to get rid of. Our maple trees need some cleanup- dead branches, branches too close to power lines, etc. And we have a LOT of yard waste due to wind storms. So... thanks to the nice federal refund for owning a house, we're investing in some professional assistance with all of that. That way we can focus on reseeding the grass in the yard (ourselves... and let the rainy forcast help it grow) and planting some flowers to make it all pretty for when everyone shows up in September. :)

Busy busy busy... but it will feel so good to get this stuff done.