DROP IN---DROP BACK OUT!!

Anyone who knows me, knows I am one of the most social people they will ever meet. I have finally realized that being so social can also be a very irritating trait.

The words, "stop by anytime" spoken in haste can sometimes be the sword upon which a person has to fall. Usually the words are my signature line after running into people on the street.

Yesterday, the first person arrive at 9:00 A.M. with the famous words, "you told me to stop by anytime, and I'm on break for a little while so I thought I'd stop by for coffee."

11:30 another "friend" stopped by with the famous words, "you told me to stop by anytime so since I had nothing else to do, here I am."

Silent tears of frustration are welling up in my eyes at 1:30P.M., as I realize all my plans for MY day are slowly waning. I have mentioned everything from a headache to the dog needed walking and all the response given, was that they'd go walking with me as I took the dog and they had great pain medication for my headache.

3:00 and I smile as "friend number 2" leaves my driveway.  There is still a chance for a couple of loads of laundry, gardening and starting dinner. Breathing a sigh of relief, I merrily make my way to the laundry room and then, a knock on the front door.  Holding tight to the basket of clothes, I slowly make my way to the door and lo and behold, "friend number three" is standing there with a bucket of chicken and the famous words, " You told me to stop by anytime so I picked up some chicken, thought we could have dinner and play cards."

The last time I saw  "friend number three" was when, after hearing a blood curdling scream, she ran to her car and beat a hasty retreat with her chicken.

So a word of advice to all my "friends". If I want to see you, I'll call and INVITE you over. If you don't hear from me, don't take it personally. I just realized I would like to have a life without visiting all the time.

Be warned that if you drop in, I will be asking you to drop right back out.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

Sometimes I feel guilty because I had a happy childhood. I try to use what I learned from  an early age to benefit other people.

StepFather is sometimes a dirty word but I had the most wonderful Assistant Father in the world.

I got my sense of humor from him and many of my moral values. He insisted on the family having dinner together every night, bought groceries before paying bills to make sure we were never hungry, wore the same pair of shoes for 12 years because we needed them more.

 Great Father! 

 Now don't think he was perfect..We had rules-bedtime 8:00 (he needed me time for MaMa) A and B on Report card or we stayed home till next report card,good manners, Mother better be respected., clean room and do your chore list, strict boundaries but I ended up using most of the rules on my children and God rewarded me with good children.

Woke us up every morning by pinching our toes and singing,"you are my sunshine" (Hated that,lol) Never was late to work and never missed one day of work from age 16 to late 70's. Treated my Mother like she was a Queen and treated us like Princesses. We never had a lot of money but every Friday night, grocery shopping and the drive-in, every holiday and birthday a party. I never knew we were poor.

 Still  don't!!! ·

Twitter World

I finally figured it out.

Twitter is just Facebook on wheels. I have a twitter page @mbthingsiknow. So far, I have found many new friends  that are part of the plan to sell me every upgrade to every device I own.

I know what every movie star, television star, recording star and politician is doing at any given time of the day.  If you reply to these people, make sure you are on their list or they will never see your twitter.  They'll ask for your votes, your money and your time but never seem to say Thank you.

Why is that?  They don't care anything about you personally. They just need you to follow them so they can show their friends that they are so loved.

I don't mean to sound bitter but this has been the biggest waste of my time. I am addicted to checking to see if I have more followers, to see if anyone retweeted what I tweeted or if anyone mentioned me in a message.

 Help.

FLYING AIRPLANES

Most of my readers are aware of my helping my son out with cleaning windows or wherever I can help him with his company. I lamented my tale of woe of cleaning windows on my blog.  I now have a new adventure with him but this time it was staining wood floors and shellacking them.

How simple it looked. Just apply the stain, let it dry, sand it, and reapply.  When the floor thoroughly dried was where I got to come in.

The floors were now ready to shellac.  My son put a handle with a Lamb's wool attached at the bottom. He had applied the first coat of shellac by a paintbrush and when it dried, he sanded it.

He said, “Mother, pretend this handle is an airplane and you have to land the Lamb's wool. Bring the wool gently to the floor as landing, then real fast in a straight line down to the other end of the room then bring the wool up as if the plane is taking off again. Go to the next row, gently overlap, and land the airplane, run down the runway, and take off again.”

I promise you, this was the exact conversation. He also included not letting it drip, take some of the shellac out of the wool, and move fast as it dries fast.

I dipped the wool into the shellac, rolled it onto the rim to lose some of the shellac, turned around to fly the airplane, stuck my foot into the shellac, spilled it over his newly sanded floor, moved quickly out of the way, got my sock wet with the shellac, got my footprints on the floor as I was making a very fast exit out the door.

There will be no helping my son on his jobs.

Mom's big Mouth!

Sometimes in life, we have to learn to say no to our children. My amazing son seems to be one person that when you say no he thinks you mean that you will think about it.

As an amazing wood craftsman, he is in the restoring and remodeling business. Last week one of his workers was not able to work and he was trying to replace him.  I asked how much he paid the guy who was suppose to clean the windows on the house they were getting ready to paint. When I found out the amount, I said, "are you insane?"  I then volunteered to do the job.

An eight foot ladder, 22 windows to do, the sun beating down and at sixty six years of age, I decide to be Super Woman.  My mind was thinking I could do it but somehow that information got lost on the way to the rest of the body. He found this cleaner at the Dollar store called "LA'S Totally Awesome" and believe me it was. The paint with a scraper came right off but then the window had to be cleaned. Up and down the ladder gave me all the exercise I will ever need.

I did a very good job but my son mentioned he never has to mix his crews cleaning liquids, he never has to move the ladder for them, he never has to keep running to McDonald's to get sweet tea for them and he never has to hear them say,"TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT!"

I love him but I am now out of the cleaning business.

 His final words to me, "Here Mom, eat a Snicker's, you always turn into a Diva when you are hungry....lol..It was like working with Dame Shirley Bassey all day.."

Set The Eggtimer!!!!

Get The Egg Timer

Get me the egg timer!" The shouting of these words means it's time to clean. Children, animals and friends run to escape the madness of "Cleaning Woman." I have loaded my cloth bag with all the cleaning supplies I will need and set the egg timer for twenty minutes. First, the bathroom because I dread it the most. I open the shower, spray with my tile cleaner or vinegar and water, spray the tub, sink and commode and let it all sit as I move to the kitchen. I spray the oven, put a garbage bag next to the refrigerator and the egg timer goes off. I stop and relax for 15 minutes.

After my brief rest, I set the egg timer for 30 minutes and go back to the bathroom and wipe everything down. Mop over the floor as I pick up the throw rugs to toss them into the washer. I use dish washing soap on a rag to wash the mirrors and windows in the bathroom and then dry them with a paper towel...Perfect every time! The bathroom is starting to look great but what is taking that timer so long?

I move on to the kitchen, open the refrigerator and start tossing everything that needs to go. I empty the dishes and put them into the sink or  dishwasher and start wiping the refrigerator out. What has happened to the timer? I start to take the racks out of the refrigerator and the wonderful sound of the timer bell rings. I stop.

As you can tell by now, I try to make my cleaning into a game. I play against the timer and that makes cleaning more interesting. I set the timer for 30 minutes and when it goes off I rest for 15 minutes. I can do my house with an hour off for lunch in 7 to 8 hours and that is from ceiling fan, windows, carpets, clean linens and everything that needs to be done. It's a hard 8 hours but more rewarding than working outside the same 8 hours because it is for me and my family.

One more note. Do the jobs you hate the most first, toss everything you haven't used for awhile and fill a basket with future garage sale wares.

Controlling Companions

I cannot believe how you treat me after all I have done for you.  I try not to complain how some of your annoying habits are causing me stress.

Your snoring at night is driving me up a wall and your taking over my pillow and my side of the bed is just rude.

I'm sorry if you didn't like the dinner I made for you and I'm sorry that peanut butter is no longer your favorite.

Why do you have to wake me up every morning at the crack of dawn? I'm really sorry that you can't sleep but no one told you to lay around all day napping.

When the telephone rings, I should have the option of having over a minute conversation without you whining.

I am going to set some rules for this house and they will be followed. Do not look at me with that smirk.

Don't come over here trying to make up. Do not do that funny sighing thing you do. Allright, I forgive you but will you be terribly hurt if I say one thing?

You are a dog! I am the Master.  Well, at least I got to say it.