crazy, busy and good

those three words pretty much sum up the way i feel about life right now.

crazy - i've hit a new motivated stride lately. it's time to get things back in order. larry worked on the deck and has it ready for a new round of paint. i just have to figure out what color i want this time. i've started reading on flylady. for those that don't know, it's basically a series of routines that you start and maintain to keep your house clean without spending all of your life scrubbing away. you make it work for you and with your schedule. now, my house is not messy, but there is no real routine to my cleaning anymore. i used to devote saturday mornings to cleaning the entire house top to bottom. i've gotten away from that. i used to do the dishes right after dinner. some days, they are still sitting there the next night. you get the idea, right? on top of that, every other weekend or every third weekend is now spent at the farm getting it back in order and taking care of projects that the in-laws either don't have time for or don't want to tackle. so that jacks with the little bit of order i attempt to maintain.

busy - busy rolls with crazy, in part. my work day seems to have extended itself to about 9 1/2 hours a day. then its home to the kids, homework, dinner (which in itself has become a bit of an issue...most nights i have no desire to cook), baths, bedtime for the kids, larry gets home, we talk, he goes to bed, and i spend about 15-20 minutes just enjoying the solitude. then it's back up and do it all over again. i hate to see what's going to happen when we add baseball and softball back into the schedule. our weekends seem to be a neverending run of house projects, quick cleans, errands and trying to relax a teeny bit.

good - thanks in part to my dad, i've reconnected a bit with a couple of family members that i haven't spoken to in several years. one is a cousin who i loved dearly and looked up to when i was growing up. he's 10 years older than me and was always ... perfect. or so it seems. in truth, he's much more real and normal than i ever thought possible. he has his problems and share of hard times, too. and it seems we've renewed a friendship when he (and maybe even me) needed it most. dad's reconnecting with the family, too, which is a huge step for him in the recovery process. i'm so proud of him. the move to florida seems to have been the next best step for him, even if i was scared and angry for a bit. larry and i have made attempts at spending more time together doing 'fun stuff' that we used to do and that sort of fell by the wayside because we were too tired, didn't have any money or whatever the excuse of the week was. the kids are doing good, too. no real complaints about either of them for the moment. they are even getting along (for the most part) and doing their chores (with a lot of prodding).

all in all, the title says it best. it's been a long time since i've felt this good about changes that i'm slowly incorporating into my little corner of the world. i just hope and pray i can maintain.