Lesson 128: Feel the Love

Just like love never fails, Eloise came through with another blog post despite a busy weekend.  I'm cleaning.  Not Operation Clean Sweep level cleaning, but the Hoe Out Meter is reading somewhere between yellow and orange.  When it's Operation Clean Sweep time, the meter blinks red.  When I tried to open the "pencil and pen drawer" aka "the junk drawer" on Friday, it wouldn't open.  I pulled it out an inch or two and something was stuck on the lip.  I wriggled my skinny hand in the space, scraping the skin off of my knuckles and almost damaging my costume jewelry Will & Kate replica ring.  This made me crabby.  However, when I discovered the object that had been jamming the junk drawer up was a FRISBEE, I screamed "THAT'S IT!" It was time to clean the house.

We who reside in the north live inside for months straight during the long winter.  Even though this winter has been mild across the nation, still there's not much to do outside on a "warm" 40 degree and rain day versus 10 degrees and partly cloudy.  In some cases, I think the snow is almost better.  While we're inside, we tend to make lots of messes.  I've been cleaning out little misplaced items shoved everywhere:  missing marker caps under the couch, goldfish crackers beneath it's cushions, and two overdue library books in the toy box.  I worked most of the day yesterday on just a couple of rooms and the place looks like it had a fresh shower.

I kept myself motivated yesterday with my tunes.  I'm on an Adele kick lately since her big Grammy wins two weeks ago.  I decided to share her version of Make You Feel My Love with you.  Wow is it great.  I've just added another thing to my list of things I always want, but will never have (like a size 6 body)--Adele's voice.  On the slide show I put a few things I love, including some older pictures of my children.  How fast the time goes.  When their hands spell L-O-V-E, I am the L, Ellen is the O, Natalie is the V, and Sam is the E.  We got a light dusting of snow, so I was able to write LOVE in it.  That is my boot print.

I was reviewing the movie this morning and I heard footsteps above my head.  Sam was up.  He's usually the first one up every day after me.  He bumped down the steps on his butt one at a time, dragging his blankey.  He stood, puffy-eyed in the middle of the living room, looked around and inhaled.  He has the nose of a bloodhound like his momma and his sister Natalie.  "It smells clean in here," Sam commented about the lingering aromas of Murphy's Oil Soap and Spic and Span.  I smiled at him.  "I love my house."  I tipped my head slightly, Awwwww.  "This is MY house," stated Sam to no one in particular.  I choked back a snicker.  Sam looks at me and says, "I'm so glad that I let you live here, Mommy."  Record scratch.  Back to this thing called My Reality.  My eyebrows are now furrowed like the Angry Birds.

 So, just for that Sam, I am sharing my new cover suggestion for the book I just finished (twice) called Raising Your Spirited Child, by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka.  It gives me tips on how not to drink all of those Rolling Rocks in one sitting after dealing with you all day.  It should be written by Eloise Hawking.  I seriously could have written this book.

Sticking heads of people on things is my thumbprint in this life, my calling card so to speak. It helps me combat the winter boredom that I get every year.   I get so many school pictures every year (I am a staff member in five buildings and have ID tags in all of them), I always have more pictures of me than I know what to do with.  My head looks great on Faith Hill's body, by the way.   Because this book is really written about Sam, I thought I'd see how his head looked pasted onto this cover.  If he catches sight of himself in a pink shirt and pigtail braids my life is going to be a nightmare, so keep this to yourselves, Readers.

Can you feel the love from The Lamp Post?

Love you,
Eloise