Wow! 2011

2011 seems a very long way away from lots of years I remember, such as 1979, the year I married, or 1981, the year the first baby came. Hmm, guess that means one thing- I am old.

I'm not much of a resolution maker, but I do sort of like that "clean start" idea.

"Clean." I sure do a lot of cleaning to never even come close to covering all the areas that need to be cleaned. I spent from 9 to 4 yesterday, back at school, cleaning my classroom. I was born and remain Charlie Brown's Pig Pen. Mess just follows me around, surrounds me and routinely overwhelms me. Somehow my brain is wired wrong for neatness. To me, when things are put away, they are gone. If I need it, I want it out where I can see it. We do a lot of projects in my fourth grade classroom and at home, which requires a lot of stuff. Our last school week ended abruptly in the middle of the week due to snow, and project residue was in serious abundance. More on classroom projects later.

In addition to the messy monster being my constant companion, we seem to have more than our share of unusual happenings here at my house. I have friends who live in these amazingly beautiful, modernly designed and decorated homes. I refer to our very old, pieced together farm house as "The Munster's." Remember that show? Well, that pretty much explains things.

Well, the ice maker leaked under the cabinet next door. Being as said cabinet was constructed of pressed board, it rapidly sucked up the water, making it difficult for homeowners to be aware of problem (ice continued to spit out on schedule), that is until black mold started covering everything in the cabinet. So, in addition to classroom cleaning, I spent another day of my break finding a home for everything in that cabinet, until other options could be explored. This, of course, meant cleaning every other cabinet. Ugghhhhhhh.

In addition to my messy affliction, I suffer emotionally when parting with things. Rest assured the stuff from that live and growing cabinet was going nowhere else in my kitchen without some serious pitching.

I often wonder what other people do who always seem to have it altogether. I am the family fudge maker. When the fudge is done you have to have tupperware to put it in-big tupperware. Where does it go when you aren't using it? I make molded chocolates for Easter. Where do the molds go the fifty weeks of the year they aren't in use? And where, where are lids to the plasticware and where are the containers that go with the five hundred and thirty lids I have?Do you have them?

Okay, so first we drag out all lids and all containers and do a K-Harmony match-up. No match, you are out first. Next, review all candy molds. If melted chocolate hasn't crossed your path in recent Easters-out! Old food-history. How many platters can conceivably fit on a table at Christmas? Only the most memorable, or most beautiful make the cut. Seriously, I have never made more than one angel food cake at a time, so one cake pan bites the dust. The list was long and dirty and it literally took hours and a few tears.

Also involved was a trip to the Home Depot to find the stuff holders you see on the pantry door. A piece of the old wood organizer is still across the top. The rest of the old one didn't have large enough pockets to hold much, so it had to go as well. Ah, since confession is good for the soul, I will continue to embarrass myself by telling you that I don't like parting with old pieces of the house either. I like old. It's like I'm messing with things that were here before me and would remain after me if left alone. It's so yuckky to replace handmade wood craft with plastic coated junk. The original hand crafter, however missed the mark with what all was going in my pantry.

The result, a clean pantry, a big naked spot by the refrigerator, and busy workers at the local Good Will type store.

In addition to only using them once a year, some stuff is so hard to store. I ended up putting the candy molds in gallon zip bags and lining them up on a high shelf with other items used

infrequently.

The door has remained opened all week. I will mess it up, of course, but it will take me awhile. Until then, I'll just stop and visit it for a moment and sigh. My classroom won't last past the first day the kids are back. Well, here's to starting well!