It All Fell Down

I had constructed this grandiose idea in my mind of a wonderful, witty December, full of intelligent, positive, and heartwarming posts all wrapped in twine and marshmallows bouncing around the blogsphere and showing everyone in cyberspace what fun my life and work were.... that it didn't feel like work at all and that I would never let crazy things like horrific run-on sentences past my editor's eye and into the great unknown.

And you can all tell how great that went!

Life happened and my grand idea came crashing down.  Not only did most of my blog posts suck (I know, negative self talk=bad), but they all felt like work and were rarely more than a blip.

We lost our neighbor and two elders from my work community  in less than three weeks' time, and  we found ourselves hurting and helping and hoping for better days.  Comforting friends and neighbors, hugging coworkers, writing cards and praying incessantly won out over being a cheerful and positive Elf 4 Health.  I failed my newly appointed Internet elves to make time for those I wave to and talk to every day.  All of my encouraging words and sympathetic hugs were done in person and rarely through a keyboard.

We made cookies and cards for giving.  I chose a chat with our postmaster and impromptu stops to deliver goods to friends and relatives over Facebook messages and emails.  I stuck over 50 stamps and licked a hundred envelopes instead of pinkying and commenting on Facebook posts.  

We were blessed with wonderful family visits and lots of gifts to wrap for giving and lots of food for eating.  It all involved a lot of assembly and cleaning.  I chose clean dishes and laundry over a blog post, and a visit with my cousin and finishing a long-anticipated beading project that was a gift for someone special over Twitter and Instagram. I haven't posted Christmas photos, and I just may never.  It's not as important right now.

The visits wound down, but we were outside, taking advantage of no rain to fill potholes and our neighbor's woodbox, to clean up outside, and to go on family runs.  I chose that over updating my widgets and reading my favorite blogs.  My son's hands and feet are bigger than mine... holding onto growing hands and kissing frozen cherub cheeks got in the way of cyber relationships and commenting on blog posts.

We spend days "deep cleaning".  Sorting through drawers and cupboards and nooks and crannies to find outgrown toys and clothes to donate.  Spiders and dustbunnies were vacuumed up.  Random bits of paper and rubber bands and mystery items were thrown away.  My freezer is cleaned and organized.  There is no dust on my fridge.  Our bathroom drawers and cupboards make sense, for the first time since we moved in 5 years ago!  Our kids' rooms hold only toys and clothes they will use.  Goodwill boxes are full to the brim, and I'll probably add even more in the next two days.  Sorting my immediate chaos and getting ready for a clean, new year won out over cleaning up my favorites bar and Google reader and Pinterest boards.

December isn't over yet.  I have a couple more precious days of vacation with my kids.  I want to say I will post tomorrow, on the last day of December NaBloPoMo, but I can't make any promises.  I have other work to do.  Tangible work that has won out almost every time.  I've lost some coveted page views and possible followers, but I've gained many memories and precious, stolen moments with my family.  And it didn't feel like work at all.