Out with the Old

One area in which Peanut and I have struggled with for oh... almost 18 years has been organization and being tidy. Once upon a time I was a crazy messy person, just ask my mother. My idea of a clean room was shoving everything I owned either under my bed or into my closet and shutting the door. Sometimes I did both. Okay, I did both quite a lot. I even went through the phase where I would put EVERYTHING on top of my bed and work to put things where they went. I will admit that a time or two I MAY have pushed everything back on the floor so that I could sleep. Hey, my sleep is very important to me.

Peanut, is much like her mother in this regard, but before I'm ready she will be out on her own trying to keep her own family from destroying her home. I only have a finite amount of time to really drive home those "when your space is clutter-free your mind is more apt to be as well" lessons. I'm sure there are health benefits to not growing science experiments in your room as well.

Side note, I once left mushrooms in my room to rot for weeks. Not from a pizza or anything, I didn't dare eat them in my youth. No, these were your found in the woods, may or may not be magical but don't try this at home kind of mushrooms. Rotting mushrooms smell most foul. Just trust me on this. My mother was furious. I haven't done that in at least 30 years though.

So after eating pizza and watching a couple of Christmas movies with Peanut I asked her if we could work on her room for an hour. Just an hour. To say she wasn't thrilled with the prospect of cleaning her room, much less with her mother, would be the understatement of the twenty first century, but agreed. We decided we would start with her dresser which was full to bursting.

This lovely 3-drawer solid wood dresser was a steal that I found at a local furniture resale shop for only $75 not long after moving to T-Town. Did I mention it's solid wood? Yeah, heavy stuff. No partical boards here. This baby was built to last. We worked for an hour deciding if she wanted to keep each item, throw it away or donate it. By the end of the hour we have a well organized dresser with room for clothes from the overflowing laundry basket- you know, whenever they get washed.

I asked her to go get a broom and dust pan, oh and since she had to go through the kitchen, why didn't take all these cups that either need to be washed or emptied and thrown away. With only an eye-roll she did as I requested. we now have a 3'x3' space with not only a dresser with drawers that close but beautiful hardwood floors too. Progress.

Tomorrow she might even clean off the top of the dresser. Now if I can just get her to keep it this way... wish me luck.

Peanut and Adulting

I started this blog 12 years ago when Peanut was just a wee little kindergartner. Life with her has not always been easy but it has been an adventure. We have both matured over the years. The older she gets the better we get along. From her early years I hoped that when she was an adult that we could have the type of friendship that I enjoy with my own mother. The years have been kind and we do have an easy rapport.

*insert the sappy orchestra music*
My little Peanut now has a job, is in the process of applying to colleges and dreaming of her future as- *abrupt end to music*
AN ADULT.

Being an adult and doing adult things is not quite what my Peanut imagined in her youth. She has a job but her hours are in consistent while her bills pretty much stay the same. She's still in school so really she's just practicing being an adult before she really has to be. She has a car, graciously given to her by her parents upon obtaining her driver's license. However she is responsible for the gas and her car insurance (which is on her parent's policy therefore is much lower than if she were on her own), and she has to pay for her cell phone- not the bill, her parents pay for her line she is only responsible for the payment of the phone itself.  A lot more of her check than she would like is spent on said bills, but she still manages to have enough to be able to buy coffee and Chick-fil-A from time to time.

The other day she asked me for a suggestion on what she could take to a Christmas party she's attending in her Drama Department. Knowing that these types of gatherings is all about the junk food I suggested a chips and cheese dip made with just Velveeta and Rotel. Simple but tasty. Last night she called me from the grocery store and asked what she needed.

"Um, chips, Velveeta and Rotel." I replied.

But she couldn't find the ingredients. So I had to try to give her directions to where she needed to look for said items even though I wasn't there and couldn't tell what she was looking at. She finally found the items on her list. I packed everything she would need in my Crockpot (including the can opener because Lord knows she wouldn't have thought of that) and told her how to make said dip. Seriously, it's hard to mess up when you only have two ingredients. 

I can say for certain that it's good that she's practicing this adulting thing while still in high school and living at home. I can't imagine her going off to college in another city without some basic survival skills.