Up way too late...

...but sleep's for chumps, right? Actually, I need to have one of these late night solitude things every once in awhile to clear my head. The older I get, the loss of sleep isn't worth the clarity of mind, but I live dangerously.

It's been a frustrating day. I hate to say it like the entire day was a loss, because that's not it. It's just it would have been another perfect day, minus the frustration. The sprinkler service stopped by this morning to officially initiate spring and its water bills, but after two hours of waiting for him to finish doing whatever it was he had to do to make the water run, the morning was over. I think he was new...

I was expecting Mom and Dad around lunchtime, so I called to make sure their arrival was still pending before heading over to Home Depot with Ben. Just random things, like T-cranks to replace the traditional eye-pokers on Ben's windows and some picture hangers. Hung up the cute little wooden plate painted bright red, blue and yellow and decorated with the phrase "tack så mycket". I had a hunch that might be Norwegian for something, so not only would my find look cute hanging by the backdoor, but it would allude to Joel's Norwegian heritage. Too bad he's not Swedish. It turns out "tack så mycket" translates to "thanks so much" in Swedish.

Still, the plate's cute. And I'm still jealous of Joel's Norwegian-icity. Being generally German is sorta dull.

Then computer stuff came raining down just before Mom and Dad appeared. But I was determined to spend my time with them and away from the blasted computer. The last time I visited them at Thanksgiving (YIKES...someone's ungrateful daughter needs to do the driving more often!), I spent much of it on their computer. Same for Christmas here at the homestead. I vowed (and they strongly encouraged) to never let that happen again. So I didn't. And it disappointed people who are not Mom and Dad.

But I don't regret it. Too much. I am, after all, sleepless at this point. What the heck for? It's a thing I love and hate about me, all at the same time. I want everyone to be happy, I feel I have the capacity to do it, but I know I don't have a bit of influence over anybody's happiness but my own. Still, when I feel I've got something worth sharing and someone finds value in it, I tend to overdo it. I need to draw a line somewhere between jerk and pushover.

Anybody got a Sharpie?

I felt INCREDIBLE on Monday, grooving with my garbage. While Sprinkler Man was here this morning, Ben and I mixed up vinegar, water and dish soap, grabbed a squeegee, and polished our windows to the best of our ladder-less ability. It felt GOOD to take care of things immediate to me and see instant results. It felt GOOD to spend time with Ben, not stressing over what I need to get done. It felt FREE. It felt like I should have pulled out the ladder and cleaned every single window on the house, but then it felt like I should wait for my weekend backup (Joel, that's you, honey).

And, selfishly, I want more FREE. Especially over the summer. Now that the kids are all old enough, I plan on taking little mini-adventures with them. Elizabeth and I thought that the kids could point at a place on the map, close to Des Moines, we'll learn what we can about that place and then go and visit, cameras in hand. Iowa has so many offbeat places that we need to take the time to experience. So that's what we'll do. I don't think the kids share my creepy yet genealogical fascination with cemeteries, but we'll have to hit some of those on our way, too, for historical purposes.

I inherited a bit of wanderlust, just the slightest, from my Grandpa Ross, I like to think. He would hop in the car and ask whichever offspring was nearby, "Hey, you wanna go for a ride?" And before you know it, they would be in Oklahoma City or Davenport or some various locale hundreds of miles from home to visit obscure relatives. If I were around, and if I were wise enough to figure out his game, I'd have made sure I was always the Rice kid closest to the car when he made his appearance.

One last salvage item: I repurposed one of my windows and set up a new gallery display in the living room yesterday. I basically just scrubbed one of my heavily painted white windows and screwed on a cute little iron bird's nest doodad I picked up at Jo-Ann's this weekend. I hung it by the front door. The iron doodad has three hooks on it and the nest itself, so I need to hang and stash things there, but what? And I plan on prying the Dremel, the tool I just had to have so many years ago, out of it's nearly intact box and etching something on the glass. I think I want to see a little Bible inspiration when I come downstairs in the morning, so I'm leaning towards Psalm 118:24. Check it out. You'll recognize it. Wouldn't that be a good thing to read when you start your day?

And "gallery display" sounds so high-falutin'. But it's basically a triple frame of each kiddo's newborn portrait with a matching triple frame hung above that containing more recent photos in the same order. Right now, the recent photos are all from a trip to Dairy Queen when Futsal season ended in early March. (Reminder: take more pictures of your kids, you sorry excuse for a mother!) I flanked the two triple frames with portraits of the kids' great-great-great-great-great grandparents. Totally random, but I love those pictures of Hugh and Sarah McGee, Sarah looking all business and Hugh looking all henpecked. I moved my little thrifted sewing table under the frames and placed the double frame of Mom and Grandma Mary on top. And I finally found a place for my Grandma Mary collage. I made an easel out of an old fork, believe it or not, and it's completely appropriate. Even Joel thinks it's cool, so I've really hit on something. Literally. With, like, a hammer and stuff.

Joel says I have to get rid of the bookcase in the living room since it's the only piece of purchased case goods there. Note "case goods". I mentioned before, and it's worth mentioning again: I DO NOT, as a rule, thrift upholstery. I saw something on "Dateline NBC" about the resurgence of bedbugs, and I don't want to send out an invitation.

Bedbugs would most certainly make a day most frustrating, I imagine. I'll stick to bugs of the technical kind and leave the blood-sucking ones on someone else's sofa.