Medusa in the house

So, it's a new year and that means actually organizing that paperwork that has been sitting around in crates behind the 2 year old's bedroom door. I hate that stuff with a passion, especially with how volatile the last year has been, and now it's time to face it, clean it up, and move on. When it's over, it still means meeting with my tax accountant but at least everything will be in order and she only tuts over us some.

The paperwork was waiting for me, sitting in the dining room in it's crates while I was trying to sit on the couch and work on my knitting. I had moved it in there because I knew I needed to do it: New Year's Day was over and reality hath set in. There were still craft projects to do but this was the priority now. It being in the dining room made me face it every time I walked through the house and it was making me cranky. I was having a hard time dealing with it being there, even starting the process, and it was making things in the house tense. The good thing is there is still a rational part of my brain telling me quietly a better way to tend to things and thank goodness I finally listened to it. I am following the advice of a smart woman (Snakewoman, actually) and setting my timer for 15 minutes, working on the organizing really hard, and when the timer goes off I set it to another 15 minutes and do something I enjoy. As a result I have things in smaller piles: personal, bills/tax docs, to shred, office supplies; and a rainbow colored sock that is halfway through the foot. My stress levels are still elevated but not to the degree that I'm eating rocks and spewing pea soup at anyone who asks me "what's wrong?"

It's really sad because I'm going through all the stuff when things were easier financially, all the recipts of the trips, the dinners, the shopping fun, the school purchases for SuperGirl's first day of Kindergarten, everything. I remember how I loved my job, I loved the travelling I did this summer, loved the times I spent with everyone. The beginnings of the projects are there, the finishing of our quilt, the Christmas gifts, everything in it's entertwined creations. During this, I'm fishing out the not-so-nice things to remember: the surgery, the doctor's visits and emergency room visits, the larger than normal bills, the reminders of how things were going to have to change whether we wanted them to or not. We did change, and did the right thing, but there are some things in there I didn't feel like looking at. Those recipts are tax-deductible at least. The fun-time recipts are the ones being recycled. Hopefully that means so more fun times are to come because that's what we are putting back in the mix.

So that's what is going on. Knitting is going on too, but not at the pace I would like it to. I've started a new sock knitting class and I think that will help the birthday present for Ph-i-l be finished in time. I have a pattern to puzzle through and figure out the mistake for my Quilting Knitclass Lady (she's the one who quilted for me and I met through one of my knitting classes I taught; I'm now helping her with some of her knitting projects, i.e. knitting lace.), a baby blanket (the blocks are so cute! Can't wait until it's gifted and I can finally talk about it!), a baby sweater, a s-i-l cabled wrap to start, rainbow socks nearly finished, and all those other projects still sitting around enjoying each other's company. I actually took the yarn for the block baby blanket to "The Princess and the Frog" earlier today. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked (knitting in a movie theater is tricky) but I did enjoy the knitting time and really enjoyed the movie. Didn't think I would but I really did. I recommend it, especially if you have any ties to Louisiana. I also relate more to that heroine than any of the other Disney heroines but don't get me started on the subject of Disney. I'm not every nice when it comes to it.

I did have pictures to upload and talk about but... um, Hubby took them and I didn't realize that in the picture his bare torso showed up REALLY well in the mirror behind me. (he did have his pants on, at least!) Those pics have been trashed (even though he's pretty nice to look at!) and I'll be taking new ones with no possibility of reflection anywhere.