Making the Bed

Personal Fact: I hate mornings.

Now that we've clarified my position of the AM hours, let me assure you that I do, in fact, make the effort to make my bed (nearly) every morning. And let's be clear that it isn't always an easy task. If I slept alone, it would be a breeze. I'd get up, smooth the wrinkles, call it a day. But no, The Mister can't sleep with the bedding tucked in at the bottom of the bed. He rips the whole bed apart even before he puts on his pajamas. He untucks everything and flings any unnecessary blankets or quilts onto the bench or onto my side of the bed. If The Mister is home, I have to literally make the bed from scratch (and I find it rather annoying...). I really wish I could train The Mister to either make the bed correctly, or sleep with everything still assembled. I wonder if my chore of making the bed has anything to do with my dislike for that time of day...?

Yesterday I was fed up with the morning sneezing and wheezing, and I decided to strip my bed to the mattress and wash everything. My theory was that maybe there was pollen and dust trapped in the bedding which was making me so miserable. I washed the mattress pad (a whole load on its own), the sheets, the blankets, the hypo-allergenic pillow covers... I washed it all.



After washing all these bedding items, it was my great pleasure to reassemble the bed. I tucked everything in smooth and tight (knowing that The Mister was out of town on business). I was looking forward to waking up this morning with an only moderately rumpled bed and a break from the daily chore of total bed reconstruction.

At some point in the middle of the night I heard a cry. One of The Buddies (I'll protect his identity to mitigate the teasing) was coughing and crying and climbed into bed with me. I soothed him and got him back to sleep... It wasn't until this morning that I realized what I should have done. What I should have done was tell him to use the potty and then tucked him back in his own bed! UGH! He wet my clean, freshly-washed, tightly-made, fully-tucked, nearly wrinkle-free bed!

Today I decided I needed to strip my bed to the mattress and wash everything...

A Rainy Day

It was a little drizzly yesterday with intermittent bursts of sunshine. Lots of heavy clouds passing through, but just a little moisture. Isn't it amazing to see what a little rain can do in a high desert? Just look at these flowers flourishing in my yard!


I'm not even sure what these flowers are... A week ago I was growing straggly looking bushy things...

These pretty blooms just seemed to burst from the leggy stems of my mystery plants over night...

The blossoms were an unexpected surprise... A pleasant surprise... I will be waiting (expectantly) for them to return next summer.

And btw--these shot are all SOOC. I'm getting better! lol

Change is in the air.

This is the view from my deck this evening. Is that smoke, roiling up from the hillside? That might be your first conclusion. It certainly looks like smoke, the kind that could chase hikers out of the foothills... But this is actually a storm cloud building up over the hill. I like to think it's the prelude to fall.

My friend Olivia refuses to accept the fact that summer is coming to an end. I'm excited about the impending change--fall just happens to be my favorite season. Olivia and I have discussed the merits of my favorite season, but all she sees is the end of another beautiful summer. But I have to wonder, after seeing these thick clouds march down the valleys, how can she continue to refuse the obvious and unstoppable change that is coming?


We argued just yesterday about whether or not summer was truly ending. I pointed out the changing colors--the oranges of the oak trees are already becoming visible on the hillside. But she doesn't want to acknowledge the truth that I can see.

The weather is cooler than it's been. In fact, we've had rain and increasing clouds throughout the day. The temperatures are falling, the winds are kicking up, the clouds no longer look light and fluffy... And the most telling sign that fall is upon us? The kids are back in school. Fall is just around the corner... Yay!

Cleaning Lady vs. Soap Dish

I have a cleaning lady. Actually, it's more of a cleaning team of 5, but I hate to say that because it makes it seem like my house is too dirty for one poor woman to handle alone... Which, now that I think of it, is actually the case... Because I'm that one poor woman who can't handle it alone.

Anyway! I have this cleaning lady who comes twice a month. The main reason I have her (them) come is to wax my floors. I have about 6000 square feet of polished concrete flooring in my house. I hate to wax it, so I have hired out the waxing chore. But, once she is (they are) here, it just makes sense for her (them) to just give the whole house a quick once-over.

I love it that twice a month my house is clean from top to bottom. It smells clean, it looks polished, the carpets are all fluffy and nice... For the most part, it's really great! The only consequence I've discovered is the ongoing destruction of my soap dish.

My soap dish wasn't particularly expensive, nor is it especially attractive... But it does perform a useful function, and I did actually purchase it for that functional reason.

For some unfathomable reason, the cleaning lady has taken issue with my soap dish. After the first cleaning, I noticed a little chip on the base of the soap dish... After I discovered the chip, I thought,

Oh, well... If that's the worst of it, I guess I can live with that...

After the second cleaning, I noticed another chip in the soap dish.

Curious.

And then there were the third and fourth cleanings...


Seriously? What's the deal!? Does the cleaning lady have something against soap dishes in general? Is it just my soap dish? Is she expressing her passive-aggressive tendencies toward me through the soap dish? Does she really hate all the waxing that my house requires--is this her manifestation of her desire to be fired? I can't quite figure it out... What do you think?