Thank you, Aladdin

My favorite childhood movie was Aladdin. My hero? Aladdin. My role model? Aladdin.

Instead of teaching me to become skilled at flying a carpet, or to love monkeys... I expressed this adoration through attempting to pick locks and developed a fascination for climbing on roofs.

Today it all paid off. I successfully locked myself out of my condo, with no help near enough to get me to work on time. Using McGuiver-reminiscent skills I remembered days of discovering the magic of springing a lock without a key.

25 minutes and lots of prayer later, the front door opened and I retrieved the desired artifact, just in time to get to work right on time.

Needless to say, we will be double locking our door to prevent other such vagabonds from using "key-card" entry to our home.

Mildew be-gone

It seems like once you do something multiple times you SHOULD be better at it, but often you are just more LAZY at it. Ok, admission: this applies to me, and I don't know any other people it applies to.
I have washed the curtain before. I purposely bought a thicker one so that I COULD wash it and dry it on cool for short amounts of time without melting it. Voila, easy cleaning solution.

This time, it was getting mildewy and my inner cleaning lady started to nag the lazy me. The ensuing clash of the titans resulted in my throwing the curtain into the washer, (beautiful) and then into the dryer where I promptly forgot to turn the heat down, and left it in for way too long.

Result

Please note: it has shrunk about 1.5 feet in length, and melted to become about 3 feet in width. Hence the outer curtain is also in the tub to prevent floor puddles.

No cleaning kudos for me this time. Inner cleaning lady is hiding in embarrassment.

Our home take 2

Despite this place now being easier to clean, it took me a few weeks to get around to getting it cleaned up enough to give an idea of what IT looks like, instead of what our clothes and school books look like.

View from the desk, please notice how easy it is to sit at the desk and work while watching tv. Awesome.

View from the kitchen.  To the right, the TV swivels to face the seat of all things cookery. One can watch BOTH while tasting ones kitchen creations at the stove. Note: I can see when J takes a break from schoolwork to play StarCraft while I am cleaning the kitchen. Enter Big Bride - er, Brother.

Here is the kennel, sufficiently demoted from larger than dining table to blendy with the curtains in the corner. One hardly notices it in the picture above this one. Love it! 

reaaranged, reduced, revacuumed

Drum roll pls....

We re-arranged our furniture. Oh this is more exciting than it sounds.
The place looks bigger, and the carpet will wear more evenly now. We will no longer remember what the carpet looked like fresh and new, because the areas under the large furniture have moved. (Exit Guilt stage left) We can now pretend to work at the computer and watch tv at the same time. We can watch tv OR hulu while making dinner. We don't have to drastically move our dining table when we want to use it for guests. We can even fit more than 4 at the 6-seater table.
We got a smaller kennel; it no longer battles our dining table for dominance. Our dog can no longer run laps in it, and he doesn't even mind.


 This event afforded me the opportunity to vacuum the hard-to reach places I had given up on for months. Result: decreased allergies due to dust build up. W00t! The front is now extremely easy to clean; it doesn't get messy as fast either. Love it.

epic fail, and the scent of lilac

my vow of entertainment celibacy has been ... well.. let's just say if my mind was a damsel distressing in entertainment-sludge and my self control was a knight in shining armour.. the knight failed to save her. Epically. And the palace bard wrote a ballad about the sad tale. In fact, the damsel probably turned into an evil sorceress because she felt abandoned. Which sounds a lot like a show I watched this past week. (Merlin, it is very good if you don't mind slightly cheesy sci-fi/fantasy. I love it.)

We'll see how this adventure continues, because there was once a time when I didn't have the urge to watch movies and television.

Many eons ago
in a galaxy far far away
I preferred to go on a hike
rather than to sit and watch tv.
This was before I worked.

And, boy, was it an exhausting week last week.
Relief Society re-motivated me this week to be a little better, a little less lazy. One thing I love about this church is its power of motivation by spiritual prompting and fulfilling. The teacher didn't evoke emotion and shout and make me feel guilty (my own guilt-meter was doing that all week, goodness knows it didn't work). I felt the sweet calming of the spirit, telling me I was loved and that the Lord was behind me 100% and was just waiting for me to remember the things that have eternal importance. In the eternal plan it doesn't matter if I fit someone in this week, or next week. All that matters is that I am working to my best talents and serving the Lord; the Lord will help me muddle through the rest. There are huge consequences of my actions (esp working) but the words to Be Still My Soul gave me the faith I needed. "Leave to thy God to order and provide..." Not that I plan to do nothing; I just don't have to do it all by myself when I really cannot control the outcome. They also gave us lilac potpourri and chocolate. No one knows women like the Relief Society (Backed and run, of course, by the omniscient and all loving man upstairs.) AMEN.

Day 4: Home Rules #16

Rule #16:
Taking away an addictive activity does not make you want to do other things more.

Now that I am not allowed to feed my brain junk food all day, I DO get more things done.
My mind has not remembered how to like doing them, though.

Mind: "Netflix, Zombies.." :drool, drool:.
Mind: " Study, laundry, cook, clean, soap notes, finances" :Flee in other direction:

Silver Lining: Teo is much more calm and obedient because he is getting more exercise than usual, being that I flee outside with him away from the chores inside.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! MMXI

Good-bye tew thouz-and ten! (MMX)
Did it warm the cockles of anyone else's heart to write "1.1.11" ?

My official policy is not to make New Years Resolutions, partly because of the stigma (bad karma too) attached to breaking them, and partly because I resolve to do things all year long and don't think January 1st needs to be singularly special.

However! (You knew it was coming) This year January 1st (1.1.11) coincided with a resolution. Thus it was born: a New Year Resolution in its pure form.

In this case, it probably also coincided with the time stamp: 1:11.

Destiny.

I, Lianna, hereby resolve to NOT watch any form of MOVIES, TELEVISION (hulu, netflix, youtube all inclusive), or to play COMPUTER GAMES (the zombies sleep for now..) for one week. * Also, I resolve not to perform leisure entertainment in the form of reading until at least 2 pm.
*This excludes specific date activities upon invitation by my spouse.

My hope is this will cause me to be more productive, less lazy, and all around more like Robinson Crusoe and less like the humans in Wall-E.