Le mieux blog dans le monde!

Anyone I've ever lived with (gave a ride home, worked with, shared a hotel room with, etc) can and will tell you how messy I am. I don't dabble in organized messes--you know the kind where other people think the room is cluttered but you actually know where everything is. No sir! I am beyond organization--it doesn't describe me one bit. I tend to put belongings on every available surface and then forget where I put them (keys, bills, stapler, Muse concert tickets, glasses, greeting cards, etc). My car, house, and drawer at work are all messy. [See spare room photo to the left.]

This isn't something I am proud of. In fact, I find it terribly embarrassing and have been known to ignore the doorbell due to a messy front room. It is also embarrassing to have to clean out the front passenger seat just to give someone a ride in my car. While dating, my husband announced he had a gift for me prior to taking a road trip to visit my family using my car. I was not amused when it was Febreze because, "Your car smells weird--like fast food," he explained.

With a baby on the way I feel it is time to get my house and life in order. Rusty probably senses this as well because he actually agreed to help me rather than tell me, "It's your mess so deal with it." I checked out a book on organization from the library and read to him parts that explained my psyche. He immediately stopped what he was doing and started googling closet storage and storage supplies and we came up with a game plan. I need to go through my junk and purge. Then we'll survey what is left and purchase storage mechanisms that fit our needs, rather than going out and purchasing random storage bins, etc and then finding they don't really work with our needs.



I started purging last night. I consolidated our office supplies and crafts--getting rid of reams of scrap booking paper, card making material, beads, and other craft paraphernalia for projects I thought could be fun (like the scrap booking and card making--yeah fun for a day or two!). Our spare room is even messier than before but it is step one in cleaning house. I'm happy to report I found my digital camera--in a really odd place in the bedroom closet--so I can easily post pics of my progress. Hopefully this will serve as added incentive to make good on this goal. I have until the end of March when I hope to have purchased baby furniture and supplies for the room.


Wish me luck!

I missed posting on Martin Luther King Jr Day/Human Rights Day but still have some thoughts to throw out there.

When people complain or criticize this holiday I cringe. At first, I think the person making the complaint is just plain racist. Then I think maybe the person is just plain ignorant--ahem...ignorant white person. I was reading a book the other day about Emmett Till, who I had heard reference to only because of my job. I'd heard of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., and young African Americans who died because of the color of their skin. But Emmett Till wasn't a name I was familiar with. The author, Chris Crowe, makes mention that even though he was from the same state as Emmett and not far in age, he nor his parents had heard of him. The African American community on the other hand saw him as a martyr and a catalyst to the events that made the Civil Rights Movement really take off.

This got me thinking further. I myself am ignorant of many historical events and people who have made huge sacrifices for the best of causes. Maybe the point of the holiday is not just to remember a single figurehead of the Civil Rights Movement but to remember all the individuals who have fought for the rights of all mankind--just like Martin Luther King, Jr. He not only wanted his fellow African Americans to be treated with respect and equality, but also other minorities, women, and those who suffered.

Maybe "Human Rights Day" is a better name for the holiday because it encompasses all the people who have worked, died, and sacrificed for the sake of human rights throughout the world.

I hope I never live to see the day when society forgets or sits in just plain ignorance of violations of human rights and how these violations affect a People and a society as a whole. We see segments of the world population refuting the Holocaust, the failure of governments to recognize genocide for what it is and take action, we see people who complain about the "riffraff" in poverty but do nothing to try to fix it, and so on and so on.

May we remember and hold dear in our hearts our freedoms and blessings. Remember the pain of others and make what little or big steps we can to do our part to help alleviate this pain. May we respect people for being humanity and not for their outward appearances. May we remember and teach our posterity.