Blue-Footed Musings

Present-Day Me is tired and struggling to keep up and only realized today that tomorrow is December 1, which means it’s time to start the Advent calendar. Uh-oh! Luckily, Former Me was thinking ahead when she put the Advent Calendar away in January. She said,

I will . . . be putting away the Advent calendar today. I’m going to put a list of Christmas ticket ideas into the box with it. Next year, when I open it up, I’ll find that half my work has already been done. That’s what I call “a love letter through time.”

Me, in January

I’m rarely so considerate of my future self, but I sure picked a good time to start. Today when I opened up the envelope I’d left for myself, not only were there ideas in there, but also leftover tickets from last year. The tickets for Mad Libs and a Snowflake-Making Contest will be perfect if the weather forecast holds true and we end up being stuck inside for a few days. Thanks, Me!

• Survive Thanksgiving
• Finish and order photo album
• Finish and order holiday card
• Make an Advent schedule (12/14 update: winging it.)
• Make and print Advent tickets (12/14 update: winging it.)
• Buy Advent gifts
• Set up tree
• Decorate tree
• Plan Christmas menu
• Buy Christmas food
• Haircut (12/20 update: it’s not going to happen. Oh, well.)
• Prep office for parents’ visit
• Clean house
• Buy ornament for niece
• Buy presents
• Watch a lot of Christmas movies

List updated 12/26: most things accomplished!

Dear Retailers: If your “Black Friday Deals start today,” they’re not Black Friday Deals, because it’s Wednesday. You don’t get to erase entire days of the year. I know you really want my Christmas dollars, but Friday is literally just a couple of days away, so calm down already.

Things never to buy again: crayons, markers, colored pencils, gel pens, and erasers. Today I found so many of these things that I doubt we’ll ever be able to use them all up. The kids must have been hiding them in various places around the house for years!

This morning I woke up in my new bed. I looked up at the shelves behind my head and reached up to touch them. It must have seemed like a strange thing to do, because my husband asked what I was doing. I was admiring the shelves and feeling happy to be “living in a bookcase.” If I had known earlier in life that there was such a thing as a bookcase bed, I would have bought one years ago.

I slept in my own bedroom last night for the first time in weeks. It had been so long since we used the room that I felt as if I were in a completely new place as I was getting ready for bed. It was like staying at a hotel. I wonder how long it will take before the room feels like home again.

Probably longer than I’d like. The room still isn’t quite done. Even the things that are done are not done. Everything needs a little tweaking. The drapes, for example, are lovely, but their claim of 99% light reduction turns out to be sheer nonsense (pun intended). We’re going to need to install shades, too. The glass lamps we bought at IKEA are also lovely, but they’re so sharp on the bottom that we’re going to need to attach some sort of nonslip, nonscratch base to each of them. Currently they’re sitting atop coasters. The rugs curl up at the corners, still trying to conform to shape of the roll they were once in. Something will have to be done about that. We still need a hamper, a small chair, and closet doors, and perhaps some additional lighting and artwork.

But what I love is the feeling of harmony and purpose that the room exudes. The things in this room are not castoffs or leftovers or clutter. Most of them are new things, high-quality things, that we bought to go together. At random points in the day, I sometimes walk into the room, just to feel the calmness of it. Livia’s room has the same effect on me. It is also clean and new and intentionally arranged, so it feels good to be in. All the rooms should feel like this. So now I’m itching to fix up Marshall’s room, and the bathrooms, and the dining room, and . . . .

We have so much more work to do!