Petunia rambles on and on….

Spent another day with Kate and children, including visits to Target and the Commissary on the base down here. I tend to forget the extra time everything takes when there is a baby involved! (Is this another advantage of getting old?)

And during a quiet moment I was blog-reading. There are some blogs that I’ve been following for years. Many are craft-related, knitting, spinning, fiber work of various sorts. A few are about photography or cooking. After reading these folks’ work for years, you almost feel like you know them personally.

So I’m catching up on old blogs because I got behind and saw one that especially appealed to me. I’ve always enjoyed Knitorious’ blog and admired her skill with a camera. She put up a post about 10 things she wanted to accomplish during 2012. The post that I was reading is here, and every idea of hers is great, but one grabbed me.

8.  Simplify and De-Crapify.

I really need to have this tattoo’d someplace where I’ll see it many times each and every day. There are things and issues in my life that I need to simplify, and DE-CRAPIFY has to be my mantra for the coming decade year. I need to have a yarn toss, that “party” that should be held every year in lieu of birthdays, where all the current stash is brought out, sorted according to some system (weight, fiber content, color?) and decisions made  if any should be tossed, donated, given away to friends. You buy stuff that seems like a great idea at the time, and well, later, hey, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all and maybe I really don’t want to make anything out of it any more. At least, the space will then overfull with stuff I want!!

There’s a whole lot of other areas and things in my life that I should de-crapify, too. I have stuff in my kitchen that hasn’t been used in years. Tools bought – Oh, doesn’t this look like it’s be handy.  Handy, HELL, it just takes up space. I don’t need 1200 little plastic storage containers with lids and twice that amount with the lids lost. For Heaven’s sake, I couldn’t fit that many in the refrigerator at one time!

Just heard from upstairs: “Nick, pause the game, I have to poop!”

Back to the story

Gonna have to come up with some specific areas that need work, and some sort of plan to accomplish those chores. I think that’ll help me get things done, and it’ll have a better chance of working than just jumping in. Break it down into “do-able” tasks, so progress can be seen early on. That’ll help me keep going. Wonder if Himself at home can be bribed somehow into helping out on some of the household tasks.

Have spent the day with daughter and baby. Twins went off to school and left us by ourselves, husband arrived by mid-afternoon, with my suitcase full of clothes. (Dog will sleep alone tonight instead of me!) He’s had the baby in his arms every since he got here, except for the few minutes when he walked up to the bus stop to get the twins, and while he ate dinner.

Alex covered Pop in stuffed animals.

There is just no reason why Pop should put this fellow down! Busy day, and I know why Kate is tired most of the time – I leaned against Pop and fell asleep on his shoulder by late afternoon!

Kate showed me a book she had gotten before Christmas. One Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus. Not an odd choice at all. I have the same book at home, sitting on my coffee table, waiting it’s turn in the long list of books that I want to read! And I immediately remembered doing the same thing with my mother, one of us would buy a book that the other one had just bought! Countless times! Finally, we either shopped for books together or got on the phone as soon as we got home with a new book, advising the other one what not to buy!

Pop will go back home tomorrow, as he has to work on Wednesday, and the dog is at home; I’ll stay for a few more days. He should have some interesting tales to tell when I get home.

It started well. Had just about everything ready to go last night before I went to bed. Always a few last-minute things that can’t be packed up until morning, cosmetics and such out of the bathroom, medicines, items that are on a charger all night. After getting something to eat, a cup of coffee, taking a shower, getting dressed, I gathered what I needed and put it all in the car. Ran up to Sam’s Club and filled the tank and headed south.

Saw one odd thing that tickled me – there’s new housing developments sprouting up everywhere with clever little names for them. I glance at some of the names but not all of them, because I really don’t care that much and I know I won’t remember them anyway. There’s just too many of them. Until I saw one. And looked again. And blinked to make sure. And it really wasn’t what I first thought it was. Perhaps it was just the way my mind works. The name of the new section of housing was The Farthing Woods. Otherwise an uneventful trip, went over the bridge over the Chesapeake Bay and then on down south to daughter’s house.

I stopped in a shopping center in Prince Frederick on my way down, looking for a store that I’ve been in many times before. I couldn’t find it!!! While I admit that I didn’t get out of the car and walk past every storefront, it’s a small shopping center, the shop was always clearly marked before and I’ve never had difficulty finding it or spending lots of money there. Feeling rather stupid, I pulled into a parking spot that faced the fronts of the stores and looked from left to right again, hoping that maybe I just missed it while safely concentrating on my driving rather than sign-reading. Nope. Still no luck finding it. With so many small businesses failing lately, so many places going “Tango Uniform” as the military would say, I was saddened. Still hoping that I’m wrong and this is all just my stupidity, I’m not naming the business here. I had been concerned, when I pulled in off the highway that they might be closed on Sunday? Many small businesses are. I’ll call them tomorrow, with my fingers crossed.

Arrived safely at daughter’s to find the 2 boys outside playing and just wearing shirts, no coats! This is a Mid-Atlantic state, it is the 29th of January and it was warm enough to send children out to play in long-sleeved cotton shirts – or did I oversleep last night and it’s really May??? Greetings all around, lots of baby-holding and twin-talking, bragging, and one remembered that Mommy promised they could go to the museum to see the otters. They meant the Calvert Marine Museum on Solomon’s Island.

So off we all went down to the very end of the peninsula, near but not over that ghastly bridge. I’m OK with most bridges, dealing rather well with my long-standing fear of heights, but some still get to me, ones that are very high, or very narrow, or have very low side rails or ones that seem to go very quickly from going up one side to going down the other. This damn bridge scores on all points.

But we stayed north of the bridge and the Marine Museum was very interesting. For the kids and for us older ones.

A boat to play in, with real sails! And it looked like you were really out to sea, Alex!

A lighthouse to keep, or at least, to climb up in. That’s handsome Nick, posing for me!

Sea turtles to pet – this one appeared to be posing for the camera, too!

Want to pet a horseshoe crab?

Fossils found in the cliffs near the Bay.  Handsome, isn’t he?

This is the original Drum Point Lighthouse, which was moved here for display at the Museum in 1975. It is open for inspection, but requires climbing up two flights of open stairs to get into the “house” and more climbing to go farther up. I might have been able to do the open stairs, would have done better if Paul was very nearby, but Kate had baby Josh in a stroller, and would have had to sit and wait while I did so, and try to corral the twins. Maybe another time.  But the light was good and the sky was beautiful, and I took lots of pictures.

Can you tell I like lighthouses? Perhaps it comes from being raised in the shadow of “Old Barney.” Would love to be able to travel and see many more!

On the way home, we stopped for some quick take-out meals, brought them home to eat.

Oh, while bringing in all my stuff from the car, a make-up case, a tote bag with fiber, my Ladybug spinning wheel, laptop, a bag of sweaters, a pair of sneakers, I suddenly realized that I didn’t have my suitcase with my clothes inside.