Making My Little Corner of the World a Better Place in Day by Day

This non-profit work is turning into a full time job! It’s going well, but a million details must be addressed at once and so I find myself devoting more and more hours to fine tuning the process. We are soaring forward. Since beginning in March, we’ve helped 31 millennials find/stay on stable ground. We’ve created a smooth approach of application, vetting, mentoring, financial help, payback, and follow-up. I wrote 12 pages of by-laws and did not die, despite the mind-numbing work. I’m also busy preparing for a mid-size meeting of 50 people, light meal provided.

It’s consuming most afternoons and I’m loving every minute of it. For the first time since Nick died, I feel as if somehow everything is righting itself. It doesn’t erase the terrible wrong it is for a diligent mom to lose her boy (ESPECIALLY the one who was unabashedly a mama’s boy), but it helps bring the scales closer to balance, if that makes sense.

I’ve also been a macaroni & cheese making machine. The church needed enough for a funeral dinner of one of our members, so that was 3 pans (60 people) and then I made 6 more pans for the homeless shelter (each church in town takes one Sunday a year and provides everything from the food to the servers to the cleaning crew, giving the regular staff the day off…I love my community, have I said that recently?). Oh, and I made a mac & cheese with lobster for eldest son’s 36th birthday. Geez, I’m glad it’s over! I was glad to do it, but it took several days.

I had to pace myself because it was a lot of lifting: big pots of boiling water, big pots of cheese sauce, big pans in & out of the oven, then in & out of the freezer, then out for defrosting, then in & out of the over for rewarming. With all that weight lifting, you’d think I’d have guns, but nope, just those floppy upper arm wings…Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

The Senior Living magazine is being printed! They gave me a two page spread on Palm Island Resort (travel), a two page spread on tin can tourists (historical), and a column called “Worthy Causes”. As soon as I get a link for free online reading, I’ll be sure and announce it. I’m so excited. This is a big step for me, as big (to me) as when I had four agents interested in my book (recession…I was too much of an unknown). This is bigger than the writing for the historical society and less tedious than writing SEO pages for defense lawyers in Georgia.

Next up: bake cookies for the board meeting (dessert after the light supper), do some more side dishes for Thanksgiving now that all the macaroni and cheese is OUT of my freezer, wind up the RSVPs for the board meeting (everything else is in place…go, me!), and start thinking about Christmas cards.

Oh, and we’re renovating our bathroom, which was the first room we renovated when we moved in here thirty years ago. The tropical look is being replaced with a more masculine spa-look: lots of wood stained in mahogany/cherry, industrial drawer and door pulls, a complete shower re-do, closet renovation, built-ins, etc.
The bolder look is to contrast with the front bath which is Victorian with claw foot tub and subway tile and more feminine in décor. Not froo-froo feminine, but “soft white towels and an array of soaps and such” kind of feminine. The master bath will be more restrained.

So step one is done which was relocate and redesign the dresser. Right now, the tedious task is moving the clothes from the old built in dresser to the new built in dresser. If there is ever a shortage on ladies panties, it is because I cornered the market and bought them all, it seems. I am also moving the hanging clothing to the spare bedroom. After that, I must find a place for shoes, and hardest of all, luggage and Christmas decorations. Then we rebuild the closet: wooden slats above, organized hanging boxes, etc.

After that’s done, I must move the toiletries to the other bathroom…and THEN…demolition begins. :( Noise: jackhammering up the Mexican tile I so loved thirty years ago, boombox at full blast, compressor kicking on and off. Dust: everywhere, including the back of the toilet.

But then, the magic happens and in the end, I have an updated bathroom that works even better. All of this will not move fast, of course, just like the cobbler’s family, I must wait until my husband has time. Luckily, we’re cutting back on work, so hopefully it’ll be done before Christmas.

My hair stylist called. She’d entered my name in a drawing and I won a $140 Paul Mitchell straightening iron. I never win anything!