The smile test is the quintessential decluttering tool to help make decision about things.

Being surrounded by friends and family during my decluttering whirl winds would be awesome. I imagine that I would hold up a pair of leopard print shoes, and like in the days of the roman gladiators, my crowd of supporters would roar; Yay or Nah! Thumbs up, keep it. Thumbs down, it goes.

After reading  Sue Kay’s book, No More Clutter, I’ve realized I have my own little decision-making Coliseum, right on my face: it’s my smile.

I’ve found this test is excellent for sentimental items. All those old childhood toys, teenage diaries, photos, cards and jewelery. When decision-making becomes difficult, like when I start thinking about how my Mother regrets burning all her teenage diaries, I just look at it and reflect on how it makes me feel. It’s then easy to tell whether you’re hanging onto things for the wrong reasons (guilt, obligation, laziness etc), because there’s no smile on your dial.

I’m currently using this technique to decide which sentimental items I’ll keep for my memory box. And using my list, rather than physically going through the items, has helped me decide more rationally which items are significant and worth treasuring and which items are things in my life but not needed for my future happiness.

The sentimental (or things not used on a daily basis) items that won the beauty pageant smile contest are:

1. Book – Frida Kahlo
2. Photo album – childhood
3. Pink crystal
4. Tiger stone
5. Jewelry – childhood unicorn
6. Jewelry – childhood silver bangle
7. Jewelry – teenage Celtic ring
8. Pile of cards and letters
9. Toy – teddy ‘roobear’
10. Toy – tiny dance skirt
11. Diary – 1997
12. First bank book
13. Race ribbons
14. Tiny shells in tiny box
15. Photo with Dad when I was 3

I still need to down size some of these things. I don’t need a whole pile of race ribbons or letters to bring a smile to my face. Just a few of the best.

Once I see how much space these things take up, I’m going to buy a special ‘memories box’ to store them in.

To accompany my decluttering journey I’m reading Sue Kay’s book; No More Clutter. Today I read about her ‘twelve point decluttering plan’. This plan is about tackling one messy cluttery problem area. Most of my challenge isn’t about mess, its about reducing the personal items I own in order to live and be happy. But I still have some problem areas; a small table with a draw which I use to hold my handbag and my bedside table which has three draws, one filled to the brim with paper.

Of course I just got stuck in and started trying to clean it up with out following Sue’s advice from previous chapters about ‘gathering your supplies’ together. She suggests getting a rubbish bin, a recycling bin, a charity bin and a relocation basket in the area before you start – once I set this up the process of decision making became so streamlined. I realised that previously I was wasting time and getting side tracked by walking in and out of the room relocating objects as I went along. Putting all those things (pens, medicine packets, bank statements, kitchen supplies, paint chips etc) in a basket to re distribute after was a great time saver.

Now I have a very zen draw with just the things I need for my handbag (keys, sunglasses, lip tint etc) plus I found two old cheques which I’ll bank this week (bonus $25). I also found a gift voucher for $30 which had a one year expiration and ran out a month ago. I was temped to put it in my purse and try and haggle with the shop keeper to use it, but I haven’t found a need to buy something from that shop in a year and I don’t really want to add more to my list right now so I just let it be and put it in the recycling bin.

This was a bit difficult for me because I’m a Frugal Horder. That’s one of No More Clutter’s eight hording types. It’s about getting perceived value from an item. She say’s;

Once you’ve spent money it’s spent. No amount of guilt will change this fact. Last year as you wandered down the high street those silver sandals called out to you. Ok, you only wore them once, they hurt your feet and don’t go with any thing in your wardrobe. But you keep them because they cost you over a $100.

Obviously I feel I wasted the gift vouchers, but I also feel bad about throwing out cosmetics if they’re not empty, or getting rid of useful art supplies even when I don’t use them.  Sue’s solution for the Frugal type is to try and cut your loses or recoup some of the cost by on-selling your things.

Collectively from the two draws I threw out a singlet top and two eye cream jars. I’ve also put a side a number of items to give away and ebay, but I’m not going to count these things until they leave the house.

Items: 492

About eight months after becoming a quadriplegic, I was enduring a particularly difficult time.  I’d been blessed, and up to that time hadn’t really gone through and depression of any kind.  But, now it seemed as though things were beginning t mount.   I was more frustrated, depressed and discouraged and down than I had ever been since the accident.

I had been taught often about of the power of gratitude in the home I grew up in, and felt that if I had any chance to find a way out of the darkness my feelings had brought with them, it would be in large part because of some increase in my own gratitude.

In an effort to find a way to feel blessed, I pulled out a piece of notebook paper from my backpack and numbered it to 100.  I felt like 100 would be a lot, but nothing that couldn’t be easily handled in 15-20 minutes.

I was right—about the first 25.  They were simple and easy.  They were the big ones—stuff like family and friends, where I lived and what I had.

The second 25 took a little more thought.  The third 25 really made me think.  And, at 16, in order to finish the last 25, I wrote down anything I could see.  I was thankful for stuff like light bulbs, pencils, and the tacks that held up the posters in my room.

In fact, Number 99 on my list was the fact that I could pick my nose. (For more about that read here.)

It took the entire afternoon and most of the evening, but, when I was finished, I had my list.  Just having it in my hands made me more grateful; and by being more grateful, I began to feel the beginnings of a more positive attitude.

Through the next weeks and months, every time I felt down or depressed, frustrated or fraught with negativity, I pulled out my list—and each time I read my list, I started concentrating on what I did have and quit worrying about what I didn’t.  This new tool helped me to see the best and forget the worst.

This Thanksgiving I have been thinking about that original list more than usual.  So, in the spirit of the season and in honor of the original list, I spent some time yesterday creating a new list.

The thing that surprised me the most, was that my heart was as lifted as much this time as it was when I created the original list on that lined notebook paper all those years ago.

Here it is then.  I share it with you hoping that maybe seeing mine will inspire you to make a list of your own.  If you will, I promise a spirit filled with gladness and hope and a excellent tool in the fight to stay positive.

Remember what I’ve said before, “There’s not enough room in the human heart for depression and gratitude at the same time.”

Jh-

Jason Hall’s 100 Things To Be Thankful For

1. My Faith
2. Kolette
3. Coleman
4. Mom
5. Dad
6. Kendra
7. Clinton
8. Brandon
9. Nathan
10. Mom Coleman
11. Dad Coleman
12. Brothers & Sisters In-Law
13. Grandparents
14. Nieces
15. Nephews
16. Living in the United States
17. Chance To Have Freedom of Religion
18. Power Wheelchairs
19. Accessible Vans
20. Opportunity to get the best Healthcare
21. Powerful Friends
22. My Car
23. Our Home
24. Heat
25. Air Conditioning
26. Clothing
27. Computers
28. iPhone (and the return of the bar phone)
29. Voice Recognition Software
30. National Ability Center
31. Disabled Skiing
32. Bi-Skii’s
33. Sight
34. Hearing
35. Sense of Smell
36. Full Use of My Mental Faculties
37. Growing up in Boise
38. The Chance to live in The Eastern US
39. Interfecal Pumps
40. Graduating with my High School Class
41. Attending BYU
42. Working as BYUSA President—and all the people I worked with
43. IVF
44. I CSI
45. TESI
46. Rock Band
47. The Million Dollar Round Table
48. Mutual Of New York (and the people there)
49. Garrett Burger, Large Gems, and a Cherry Scotch and Soda
50. The Bible
51. The Book of Mormon
52. My Testimony
53. My Eternal Marriage
54. Pistachio Dessert
55. My Eagle Scout
56. The Scouting Program
57. The Chance To Serve
58. Football
59. Words Written in my Journal by my Mom When I Was a Kid
60. Baby Ruth Bars
61. Broadway Musicals
62. Cougars, Cowboys, Jazz, Celtics, Yankees, Real Salt Lake
63. My Letterman Jacket
64. The Ten Lepers by Jack Christensen
65. Electricity
66. Television
67. Ability to Move My Arms
68. Atonement
69. Repentance
70. Fasting
71. Prayer
72. Plan of Salvation
73. Miracles
74. My Boys in New Canaan
75. The YM in Syracuse
76. Optimism
77. The Ability to Speak Publically
78. Disability Insurance
79. Workmans Comp
80. The Inspiration to Go to Work on 21 November 1997
81. Great Nurses
82. Great Neighbors
83. My Cousin David
84. Love of Singing (and how it literally saved my life)
85. Family History
86. Great Music
87. Uplifting Music
88. Movies
89. Showers/Shower Chair
90. Forgiveness
91. Repentance
92. Having Kolette at My Side.
93. Good Parking
94. Straws
95. Ramps
96. Elevators
97. Family Dinners
98. Goals
99. The Fact That I Can Pick My Nose
100. Lists of Gratitude

Yes. I just checked my rules. And under the last rule (make it up as you go along), I’ve decided that hobbies will count as one thing each.

One of my favourite personal belongs is my cheese making kit. A 2008 birthday present from Mi Amor. It is filled with all sorts of goodies: baskets, cheese cloth, recipe book, sterile containers that look so professional and fun stuff like wax and mould.

This collection is perfect. No excess.

So Peaceful living (thanks for your comment) my answer is: a collection of supplies can be one item if it has already been pared done to the perfect ‘enough’ point.

*to find out about the magic ‘enough’ point you should read: Your Money or Your Life.

While one of the originators of the online ‘thing’ list, Elliot, included everything he owned in his list, I’ve decided instead to follow Dave’s footsteps and just work on reducing my personal items. This will also be easier as a person in a relationship (I can’t imagine Mi Amor being very amorous if I decided that the Xbox wasn’t really worthy of a place on The List). So my first rule is that I’ll only list the things that I have exclusive use of, just my stuff.

For clarity I have decided to list each item separately but I foresee (so far my first count is already around 200 items) the need to move away from everything being perfectly individual if I want any chance of reaching 100. For example, Dave decided to group his books into a library. I think this is great, I’ve always liked the idea of curating. Plus I don’t see any point in listing out essential items (think underwear, corporate work shirts) I know I won’t reduce.

From there, I think I’ll just make my own rules, because it is after all a personal challenge.

Elliot's 101 Things which he stores in a rucksack

It kind of bugs me to have excess stuff. I guess you could even say it overwhelms me. I don’t know if it’s from guilt or a need to be organised. But when I see a dress discarded at the back of my wardrobe, or an old Christmas card from a loved one in a draw or a pair of flippers and a tennis racket in the garage and a basket of tangled necklaces on my dresser, I feel a bit suffocated. Seeing these things day in and day out but not using them, but not being able to let them go, is becoming claustrophobic.

You know the saying: “You don’t own things, they own you”? Well I never got it, it seemed a bit stupid. But then one day I bought a car.

Not long after that I was lying on the couch at my grandparents house, staring up at the wall of books I had always admired. When it hit me that all these books in a decade would be old. Not vintage or special edition old. Just old and dusty and mostly unloved. At that time I had a growing collection, a little library of self reflection, which I carted with me on each move.

Now I have a library card. That was the beginning.

I hope this 100 days is the end.

Look out Iraq. Look out Afganistan.

There’s a new super power in town. They don’t have nuclear weapons and they don’t have a political agenda, but with a few quick folds of paper they have an endless fleet of planes to do their bidding.

Since the beginning of time (about kindergarten) I have been building paper airplanes. When it comes to constructing these paper war birds the options are endless. You can fold longways and get a sleek stealthy fighter jet, or you could go top to bottom and produce a smaller, quicker plane. Then there is always “the bomber”, a slow but powerful plane that can drop crumpled up pieces of paper on unsuspecting cats or dogs or your sleeping friends.

1. Use your iPhone as a remote control for all media devices in your home (TV’s, stereos, DVD players) 
2. Address a crowd without using a PA system by speaking into your cell phone and letting the audience listen to you through their cell phones
3. Broadcast up-close and personal video of a speaker from a video camera to audience members through their cell phones
4. Have your car open your garage door automatically when you get home
5. Play games with other people in another car while on a road trip
6. Receive road conditions from electronic street signs that transmit data straight to your car
7. Be notified of nearby emergency vehicles that transmit a signal letting cars know that they are approaching
8. Receive a message on your cell phone when your table is ready at a restaurant
9. Your car could automatically transmit sensor data to your cell phone so you’ll always know when there is a problem
10. Make a bid at a live auction just by hitting a button on your cell phone instead of raising your sign
11. Pay at stores and gas stations with your cell phone without having to remove it from your pocket
12. Data centers could incorporate Wi-Fi Direct to query all database servers at once
13. Signal an oncoming bus that you need a ride by hitting a button on your cell phone
14. Hail a taxi by sending a signal from your phone to all nearby taxis
15. Keep a running tally of all the machines you used at the gym and how long you used them on your cell phone
16. Manage every electronic device in your home and out (HVAC, lights, sprinklers) from your computer or cell phone
17. Broadcast your shopping list to Wal-Mart when you walk in the door and receive back a map showing you the best route through the store and specials you might be interested in
18. Play quiz games, vote on the best teams, and chat live with other patrons at a sports bar on the big screen
19. Send out a distress beacon to other motorists as they approach letting them know you are having trouble
20. Interact with cool new exhibits at museums and theme parks that let you control signs, lights, and fountains from your cell phone
21. Poll a large audience while you are giving a presentation to gauge their reactions
22. Create an automated Q&A system for audience members to ask their questions into their cell phones and have them broadcast over the PA system in turn
23. Use automated security gates at private residences or public parking lots without having to even roll down your window
24. Have your lights turn on automatically when your cell phone is in range of your house
25. Have your dog’s collar automatically transmit his location to you when he is outside
26. Place an order at McDonalds without having to roll down your window by talking into your wireless ear piece instead of the intercom system
27. Request service from your table at a restaurant by hitting a button on your cell phone
28. Order drinks from a bar without having to fight the crowd to get to the front 
29. Request songs from a DJ or band without having to scream them out in front of everybody 
30. See full menus and current wait times from restaurants just by driving by the front door
31. See when movies are playing and what they cost by driving by the front door of a theater
32. Be notified of sales you might be interested on your cell phone as you walk by stores in the mall
33. Play in a band with friends just by letting your musical instruments transmit to a nearby stereo or PA system
34. Receive safety messages from buoys, dams, and other boats while you’re out on the lake
35. Mark your place in line for the pool table by sending a message to it from your cell phone and being notified when it’s your turn to play
36. Walk around a theme park and make reservations for rides without having to stand in line
37. Get information about each float in a parade as it passes by
38. Order food and drinks from the hotel bar while swaying in your hammock on the beach
39. Let management know when a theater is too cold or the projector isn’t working by sending them a message from your cell phone
40. Have your car automatically transmit crash information to emergency personnel when they arrive on the scene
41. Have your mailbox transmit a message to your TV when their is new mail
42. Give UPS a secure passcode to use to open your garage door if you are not at home when they deliver a package
43. Order a burger from Sonic without even rolling down your window 
44. Upload your pictures to Walgreens from the parking lot and use the drive-thru later to pick up your prints
45. Allow passers-by to control your Christmas lights display when they stop to take a look
46. Trains and buses could wirelessly tell you their destinations and arrival times when they pull up
47. Play in a big multiplayer game at a club or stadium on the big screen
48. See more information about products at the grocery store on the LCD screen on your shopping cart as you stroll by
49. Tip a street artist just by hitting a button on your cell phone
50. Learn more about art pieces at a gallery by interacting with guides broadcast to your cell phone
51. Your stove or microwave could notify your cell phone when your food is ready
52. Your washer and dryer could notify your cell phone when your clothes are done
53. Use your cell phone as a walkie talkie with friends when you are on the ski slopes, hiking, or at a game
54. Notify a restaurant that you’ve arrived to pick up your to-go order when you enter the parking lot
55. Ask for help in a department store by sending a message from hour cell phone
56. Do a self guided tour of an historic area by walking from one placemarker to the next and watching video being broadcast from each spot
57. Quickly splice together a video of a friend singing karaoke from multiple angles by downloading the video from your other friends cell phones
58. Find out when your coffee is ready at Starbucks by receiving an alert on your cell phone 
59. Make a presentation in a conference room without having to find the cable that connects your laptop to the projector
60. Instead of making a print-out of a screen to show to your co-worker, just transmit your display directly to his computer
61. Conduct in-office screencasts by simply broadcasting gour screen to all of your co-workers
62. Scan your own items as you take them off the shelf with your cell phone camera and then skip checkout when you leave
63. Keep a running tally of your tickets at the arcade and then redeem them wirelessly for prizes
64. Watch previews of the movies playing at a theater when you’re standing in line trying to decide what to see
65. Keep a running tally of strokes on a communal electronic scorecard when you’re playing golf with your buddies
66. Use your cell phone to run the scoreboard when you’re reffing a local game
67. Buy tickets to an event at the last minute by seeing a list of prices from everyone who is selling their tickets outside the gates
68. Use your cell phone as a sound mixer and recorder for friends playing their Wi-Fi Direct enabled instruments
69. Play songs on the jukebox while sitting at your table using your cell phone
70. Let the valet outside your restaurant know when you are about to leave so your car will be waiting when you walk out
71. See more detailed information about each animal at the zoo on your cell phone when you’re standing in front of it’s cage
72. See whether or not the bathrooms on your airplane are vacant at any given time
73. See pictures and video on your cell phone of the inside of a house that’s for sale when you drive up to the front
74. Search for hidden treasure that sends you a message when you’re nearby giving you clues to it’s location
75. Pay the check from your table wirelessly without having to wait on the server
76. See backstage footage of a concert on your cell phone when you are out in the audience
77. Allow landscapers, pest control, and other visitors to our home to leave messages for you by sending them wirelessly to a device in your house
78. Broadcast your power usage to meter readers on the street so they don’t have to drive up to each house individually 
79. Connect with other tailgaters and find where the best food and places to hang out are
80. Receive “last mile” transmissions from the cable lines on the street without having to run wires into your home
81. Let your kids be notified when the ice cream truck drives by with a message on the TV
82. Play games with other passengers wirelessly on your cell phone or laptop while riding on an airplane, train, or bus
83. Create a neighborhood watch program by wirelessly connecting your home computers together through a mesh network to exchange messages
84. Stay connected with the other residents in your building directly without having to go through a particular website 
85. Have your doorbell send a message directly to your phone in case you don’t hear the bell
86. Start watching a movie on your laptop in the kitchen and then broadcast it to the TV in your living room when you walk in
87. Talk to rescuers from inside a collapsed building in case the power is out and cell service is down 
88. Allow your car to listen for broadcasts from nearby motorcycles when you’re driving so you’ll know when they’re near
89. Let umpires and referees on the field talk to side judges and timekeepers wirelessly so the game can move more quickly
90. View more detailed information on your cell phone about each item available on the menu at your local deli while you’re standing in line
91. Broadcast a message to your childs school when you arrive to pick him up
92. Remove all the data cables in your house that connect your media players, TVs, and computers together
93. Download cached webpages from your fellow conference goers computers if the Internet goes down
94. Create a new kind of IM system for audience members and conference goers to chat with one another directly without having to use the Internet
95. Drive remote control cars with your cell phone 
96. Participate in game shows and talk shows from the audience with your cell phone
97. See the view from a nearby hot air ballon from your cell phone 
98. Receive coupons from billboards as you drive by
99. Backup all your photos and videos to your computer when you get home automatically
100. Give a presentation directly from your laptop to the participants cell phones if a projector is not available

Make Calamari from scratch.

Learn to cook properly.

Buy land and build something on it.

Dance in a waterfall.

Scream at the top of my lungs, where nobody can hear me.

Send a message in a bottle and wait for a reply.

Paint with my brother.

Learn a card game.

Visit ground 0, NYC.

Hold a snake.

Have my portrait painted.

Plant a tree.

Build a snow man.

Meet Roland.

Learn to dive properly.

Give blood.

Change somebody’s life for the better.

Go sledging.

Eat snails.

See Cirque Du Soleil.

Write to a soldier.

Throw starfish back into the surf.

Sing to somebody without being embarrassed. 

Cook for my friends.

Grow a bonsai tree on my windowsill.

Redecorate.

Have a dog.

Find a religion.

Take a photography class.

Be enthusiastic about Halloween. Costume included.

Learn to play guitar, acoustic.

Put my thoughts down on paper.

Go junk food free for a period of time.

Make and Burn a guy on Bonfire night.

Stomp on grapes.

Ride my bike to a new place.

Sit on a roof.

Send a fire lantern.

Knock a coconut of a tree.

Make a new flavor of ice-cream.

Sleep on a trampoline.

Jump off a waterfall.

Ride a horse.

Keep chickens.

Make a recipe of my own.

Sit in a wave.

Bake my own pizza, from scratch.

Set fire to my school tie ceremoniously.

Pass at least one subject with an A+.

Sleep on a sand dune.

Make a den and stay in it.

Send a balloon to Granddad.

Have somebody name something after me.

Sit on top of a combine harvester.

Run with horses.

Master chopsticks.

Smoke a cigar.

Blow glass.

Grow and make a meal.

Go fly fishing.

Write a poem.

Have a strong stance in politics.

Record a song.

See the salmon run.

Visit the Church of Bones.

Go clamming.

Live in another country, just for a little while.

| Attend La Tomatina in Spain.

Make music.

Try 100 different fruits.

Trace my family tree.

Be a good person.

Go camping with my brothers.

Ride an elephant.

Build a tree house.

Ride a bike around a house.

Build a bonfire.

Sleep in a hammock.

Play twister seriously.

Ride an ostrich.

Eat an obscure meat.

Read a whole newspaper.

Give to charity.

Swim with a monkey.

Rescue a stray.

Go deep sea fishing.

Sleep on a beach.

Find a cave, and spend the day in it.

Play like a kid again.

Give a busker money.

Have a meaningful conversation with a beggar.

Shake hands with an ape.

Go on a speed boat.

Ride a camel.

Hug the angel of the North.

Make somebody cry with happiness.

Stand on the equator.

Stand up for somebody.

Audition for something.

Assist a blind man.

Vollunteer.

Get into college.

Skydive

Eat at a sushi resteraunt

Learn how to make paper cranes.

Read into the Wild, Again.

Have a conversation in a different language.

Stop drinking. For ever. Pass my art GCSE. Be happy with the way i look.Publish something. Write my biography, even if nobody ever reads it. Take a photograph that i’m really proud of. Read Tolstoy’s War and Peace. & try to understand it. Make somebody proud. Get stupidly silly and ridiculously drunk.

]]> http://lindsaymeyer.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/100-things-part-1/ Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:44:58 +0000 lindsaymeyer http://lindsaymeyer.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/100-things-part-1/ http://audreyteo.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/100-things-i-want-to-do/ Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:58:13 +0000 audreyteo http://audreyteo.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/100-things-i-want-to-do/

After watching the late Randy Pausch’s video on time management, I’ve decided to start on a list of 100 things I want to do. This list will be updated periodically coz I can’t think of all 100 now. Here goes:

1. Learn scrapbooking
2. Have another baby
3. Have a great body
4. Take part in a run
5. Organise a fundraiser for a charity event
6. Eat a durian all by myself (and not feel guilty about the calories after that)
7. Go Japan with Ben & the kids
8. Revisit to Maldives with Ben
9. Learn to dance
10. Complete ALL my marking and keep a short account thereafter
11. Work as a gift-wrapper
12. Be a librarian
13. Give away a lot of money!
14. Supply jobs to people
15. Help out in a humanitarian aid project <–think Padang, Sumatra
16. Learn another language and speak it fluently – can't decide which one now
17. Own the iPhone 3GS
18. Build a sandcastle
19. Pick up photography and take great photos of my kids
20. Conduct/Organise a photoshoot for my family
21. Fly to Australia to visit my brother and Jac
22. Earn a six-figure salary (per annum)
23. Work not more than 20 hours a week
24. Be 55kg
25. Join a local Toastmaster's Club
26. Average 200 in bowling
27. Own a bowling set (LOL!)
28. Have 4 kids
29. Have nice hair, face body and nails
30. Do art & craft weekly with my kids (add in the language, math, music and everything else)
31. Catch aurora borealis at the north pole
32. Visit Taiwan with ben & the kids
33. Own a yellow samsonite
34. Pluck strawberries
35. Go on a farmsray preferably on a vineyard in australia
36. Complete an 18,000 piece jigsaw puzzle
37. Own a piece of private property
38. Grow plants
39. Start and maintain a profitable business with Ben
40. See a hurricane upclose
41. Run an online Christian bookstore
42. Understand how the financial system works
43. Play netball well
44. Read through the whole bible
45. Be a friend to kids who are disengaged

Obviously, I don’t expect a person to display ALL these qualities but maybe 15% would be nice.  99% would mean that person is pretty much exactly like me which, while it sounds great in theory, is a bad idea.  I already have me.  If you are 100%, you know who you are and I’m sure we can work it out.

So I wouldn’t mind is she…

…no, not another random-things-about-me meme, which I haven’t done in probably a year or more, partly because I continue to be a horrible citizen of the blog world and have not been reading a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g lately. Next week, once Jacob starts school and I’m rattling alone around the apartment for seven hours a day, then I’ll start clicking again. Honest. Or, at least, I’ll try.

Anyway, I’ve had several fairly momentous events lately, some of which have been posted and others – just because they got edged out or because I was too tired/sick/distracted to think of them at the time I sat down to post – have not yet gotten any pixel space here. And I feel bad about that, because they are important to me, and if I continue to try to find time to give each item its own day then they might well not get published, at all.

So, instead, I’ll tie them all together in one package, as I go through and revisit my “100 Things” list… I can fully check off 12 things, and move seven others from the “someday” to the “started” category. (This is one of those posts that just ended up stretching far too long, and now I lack the energy to properly edit or partition it… so if you just read to the separator bar, you’ll hit the biggest, most important stuff, and the rest is really more for my own reference…)

• Have a third baby …and maybe a fourth
I decidedly seem to have started on this one. I’m having a distinct suspicion that I won’t be able to convince Willem to get back on this particular roller-coaster for another ride, so three is likely to be the magic number for us. Which I can live with; one of the hardest things for me was wrapping my brain around the idea that my pregnancy with Jacob – which was just so hard and scary and overwhelming – was going to be my last-ever. Both because it seemed like a down-note to end the experience on, and because I didn’t know it was the last at the time. Somehow that matters.

• Be in a wedding party
It turns out, this technically shouldn’t have even found its way onto my 100-things list, because it’s already been done. When I thought about it before, all I remembered was that, when my father’s youngest sister was married, every one of the cousins found a place in the wedding party except me. I still don’t know why (I got the impression it was just not being able to figure out a role for a 14-year-old in a wedding, not a hard-feelings sort of thing), and am distant enough from that branch of the family for it not to matter anymore, but I was left with a vague sense of “hey, no fair.” Since then, I have remembered that, when I was around 7, I was the flower girl in a very small, backyard ceremony between two of my parents’ friends. That was an official wedding, in which I was an official member of the wedding party, and the fact that I forgot all about it shouldn’t entirely disqualify it…

But now it doesn’t matter anyway, because last month (which, yeah, I feel horrible about letting this much time go by without saying anything here, and I blame that firmly on the baby-to-be) Gretchen asked if I would be a bridesmaid in her wedding, next August. I was properly surprised – I had just finished talking to Willem about how it sounded like it was going to be a smallish, intimate family-and-friends kind of event, and I would try hard not to hold a grudge if there just wasn’t space to invite me to attend. I was kidding, of course – I would totally hold a grudge if we weren’t invited, because Gretchen and I have become so close over the past three years, but I never expected to be asked to stand up in the ceremony. Still makes me a little weepy to think of it, which is another thing I blame on the baby.

So I could, I suppose, draw a line right through that item and call it done because of the 25-years-ago wedding, but I won’t because this one will count more.

• Get less-rare massages (2 per year)
Two per year… hah! I’ve had one already this year, in July with Jenny… and now Jordanna and I are planning monthly massages with a woman here in Salem, whose prices are very reasonable and whose studio is on the beach. Cannot wait.

• Retrain and volunteer at rape crisis center
I just, this very minute, made the call to the local hotline, to leave my name and number for someone to contact me about volunteer opportunities. See, this list is more than just a way to fill up a page with words, no?

• Have professional, artistic pregnancy photos taken
All signed up… my friend Lisa has done the lovely-family-photographs thing as long as I’ve known her (five years, now? Six?), and has accumulated the proper high-end toys to go with a proper high-end camera, and has recently started branching out to actual, paid-for, professional photography, weddings and such. I’ll be her first pregnancy-pose sort of client, unless some brat sneaks in before me, and will likely drag the kids along for some family photos, too. I won’t have bare-belly photos taken, but still, those backlit silhouette, black-and-white, artsy sorts of things, I’ve always wanted to get them taken at the point of my life when I am most pleased with my body, and just never got around to it before. Late January or early February, just need to nail down a date…

• See a live-audience taped show (Letterman, John Stewart, etc.)
September 24, baby! Jenny got tickets, and she, Carolyn and I are heading down to New York City for the night. Cannot wait!

• Lose 20 pounds before next pregnancy
I did, indeed. Was comfortably into size-12 jeans, which may not sound petite to many of you but I’m 5′9″ and hadn’t worn that size since 2002. This morning, I couldn’t button the size-14s I’d saved as a just-in-case, so they’re all getting bundled up into the attic until after the birth.

• Join a gym (whole family)
Just never got around to it in the last house; none of the places that were within a reasonable drive had kid-stuff, or a pool. But we’ve started making the requisite phone calls to join Salem’s YMCA, and with a little luck I’ll get on the ball and have us signed up – and attending – soon.

• Find those shoes – the black ones with the strap and heel
Oh, but I did. Just last week, actually. We were taking the kids – and Willem – school shopping, and stopped at a Payless for new sneakers. And, given their buy-one-get-one-half-off deal, and my own unbreakable optimism (hah), I wandered through the women’s shoes, even though I wear a size 11 and am quite used to my only in-store options ranging from bland to hideous. And instead, I found these, and they fit, so even though I have no plans to dress up anytime soon, I pounced on them. (And, for $20? Damn right.)

• Knit items to donate (12 per year)
I did this in 2007 and 2008, and will likely continue to do so, but for the moment my charity knitting is on hold. Beside myself, I know of six women who are pregnant or have newborns, and so I have a bunch of gift-knitting to do, not to mention the stockings another friend has requested, and the hats and mittens yet another friend wants… the needles will be busy for a while, but still for a good cause, I think.

• Knit a sweater that I would wear any day
I haven’t gotten around to photographing or posting it yet, but in June I finished a sweater that makes me quite happy. That’s next on my bad-blogger to-do list, to catch up with displaying some of my knitting projects.

• Update kids’ journals (3-4 times per year)
Ever since I started blogging, I’ve fallen off the journal-writing, though I still make an effort to write personal notes to each of the kids in their own, private journals. My point in starting them in the first place was to have a way to speak directly to them, and only them, and to let them get to know me more, as a person in my own right instead of always in relation to them as Mom. That first reason is still valid, and is why I still write once in a while, but the second has effectively been addressed by this blog. They’ll find it and read it someday, and then they’ll know more about me, for better or worse.

• Mosaic
I helped Mary with her shell table, which is actually almost all beach glass and very few shells… we had a cheap, Target-purchased microwave stand, and she completely covered the top in the summer of 2005. But my input was minimal, and it’s really her project (and, happily, the top will come off for easy wall-mounting when we have a mantle or somewhere similar to mount it, because the rest of the piece is really not worth saving forever but I won’t give up the decorated side).

Instead, I have a project coming up, which I won’t write about for now because it’s meant to be a surprise. But it involves a mosaic project of my own, and will make for a sweet little story, I think.

• Sleep in a castle
This one has been modified… it used to be, “sleep in an ice castle,” but for a number of reasons – chronic back pain, Reynaud’s disorder, increasing disinterest – I’m altering it to something I’m more likely to actually do.

• Join any sort of team/regular event with Willem
Another alteration… I’m not sure my health would allow me to be a decent member of a team sport, but perhaps regular racquetball once we join the gym, having him teach me to golf (thereby addressing another list item), or even a regular trivia night… just something that’s for us, and happens more often than, well, never. (And, for the record, it is a big deal that I’m willing to even consider playing racquetball with him… back in the bad old days, he would tell me he was “going to play racquetball,” which turned out to be a euphemism for “going to cheat on you.” That particular bitterness took a good long while to wear off, but enough time has passed, and I’m secure enough in where we’re at now that I can’t even imagine him thinking about cheating, so…)

(The end is in sight, honest! Is anyone still reading this far in??)

• Sort out bookshelves – minimize, organize
Done, thanks to the move. I wouldn’t consider myself to have truly minimized the collection, just sorted out what I want to be able to read within the next year and what can safely wait in storage until we have a B&B and guests that might want to spend an evening with a book.

• Read 50 of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Novels
Still not great, but I’m up to 10… Animal Farm, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lolita, Never Let Me Go, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and To Kill a Mockingbird. That reminds me, I need to join the Salem Public Library.

• Redo bathroom (NH house) [completed 10/7/07]
• Paint living room (NH house) Thanks, Willem!: August 2008
• Paint/touch-up exterior (NH house) July 2009
• Reclaim Dad’s room, recreate a playroom/guest room (NH house)
• Assemble a craft room
All completed over time, and especially recently, courtesy of the move. Even though the apartment we’re in now is much smaller than the house, I finally have my very own craft room. It’s about 6′x10′ and I loves it.

Phew.