Up at the crack of dawn. . .

I wish I could switch off my internal alarm the way I switched off the digital one.

The writing isn't flowing yet, and by the time it starts, Elizabeth will probably be awake. But I'll get some writing done during nap time. I actually hope she doesn't sleep too late this morning, so she'll take a good nap later on!

On the schedule for the day: play with Elizabeth all morning, probably including a trip to the schoolyard or the park; write during nap time; consider watching a bit of General Hospital, which I used to watch faithfully every day and haven't seen an entire episode of since the summer; then go out shopping with my sisters. One of them works as a nanny and is off most of the week, so not only does she have time to go shopping, she also has a car seat in her car that is the right size for Elizabeth. I'm going to see about getting Elizabeth's hair trimmed properly while we're out. It's a real mess at the moment.

My mother bought her birthday present last week. It's a pretty, formal, floral dress that she says would be perfect for a flower-girl dress. I can't wait to see it - we didn't get time to look when we were there last night, but I'll visit again on Wednesday.

Tomorrow is my whole day for writing. Elizabeth can take two weeks off from daycare per year without paying for them, and we decided we'd need to save the money more in August than we do in March, so she's going tomorrow. Piet's going to drop me at Curves on their way to daycare, and then I'm going to come home and write, write, write.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Connections in a toddler brain

Elizabeth just picked up a bookend we have in the office with the railroad track from a toy train set on it. She put it down on my lap and looked at me expectantly.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" asked I.

"Piano! Piano! Joue, Mommy, joue piano!" And she started moving her fingers on it and doo-dooing, to the tune of "Bicycle Built for Two."

We're going downstairs to play the real thing now. It's nearly St. Patrick's Day. I have to teach her a few Irish songs.

Organization maeven

This morning I was emptying the dishwasher when I reached up into the storage-container storage cupboard in order to put away a bowl. I pulled down the stack of bowls in which the clean one belonged - and about six assorted types of plastic dishware fell on my head.

So, like any disorganized person on a holiday with nothing in particular planned for the day, I decided it was time to do something about my frustration and reorganize my storage-container storage cupboard.

First, some history.

My great-aunt, my maternal grandmother's elder sister, has sold tupperware for as long as I can remember. The very first items in my hope chest, after I started collecting fine china for it, was overflow from her stock. It was usually given to my grandmother, who had not the heart to refuse it (nor the desire for the recriminations that would follow - her sister is an expert guilt-tripper)and she started passing it on to her children and grandchildren. My mother decided she couldn't use a lot of it, so it made its way to me.

I never got any complete, stackable sets of tupperware from this deal. Aunty Fufi (childspeak for Ruthie) doesn't work like that. No, she passed on isolated pieces and their lids, and nothing else. I have individual bowls, each about a two-cup size, in a total of seven different, mutually unstackable styles. Several of these have more than one lid for the same bowl.

In addition to mismatched tupperware, I have remnants of three different sets of mixing bowls, only one of which was new when I got it. There are the ziploc, gladware, and no-name brand storage containers in four sizes and styles each, many of which are stained from being put in the microwave with tomatoey stuff in them. (Male readers take note: spaghetti sauce stains plastic containers.) Last but not least are the tupperware containers designed for specific uses: a butter tray, a cheese storage box, a shaker for parmesan, small spice containers - you get the idea.

I got up on a dining-room chair and took everything off even the highest shelf. Elizabeth decided she wanted to see what mommy was doing, and dragged her folding camp chair that says, "Tot spot" on it, out to the sink so she could stand on it. I gave her two containers I knew had no lids and let her play in the sink. I spread this bounty on top of the stove. (For those of you unfamiliar with my kitchen, there is so little counter space that the stove doubles as a counter most of the time.) I organized the stuff I knew I had lids for, then moved on to the stuff I wasn't sure of.

I sorted every last container, and I streamlined. If it didn't have a lid, I threw it in the recycling bin. If it did, I found a way to stack it and a place to store the lid that would be obvious even to the husband in a hurry to empty the dishwasher.

At the end of an hour, I had a neatly-organized cupboard, with one stack of ziploc etc. containers that fit exactly right on the middle shelf, and other containers organized by frequency of use.

I surveyed my handiwork, and found it good. Then I looked around at the rest of the kitchen. I figured out that there were three, expensive plastic storage containers being used to store - you guessed it - cheap plastic storage containers or their lids. Also, there were several ziploc etc. containers in the sink waiting to be washed, which would ensure that the neat stack would be too high to fit on its shelf. I had organized the container of lids, but there were a number of lids in behind where it was, beyond where I'd looked, that were still to be dealt with. Some of these no longer had containers - I'd thrown them out, thinking I had no lids.

So what does the queen of vacation organization decide to do about these new challenges to her title?

She gives up and decides that dancing around the living room to the music of Cole Porter, with a series of different stuffed animals as chosen by the resident toddler, is a much better way to spend the morning.

I'm finally a bridesmaid!

My sister is getting married. The middle sister, that is - the one five years younger than myself. She had been planning a resort elopement, to save money and to avoid the dad/stepdad problem. Now, she's looking at a simple church ceremony followed by a backyard, self-catered, informal reception in the backyard of the house they're going to buy before that. She has asked me and my other sister to be her attendants, and Elizabeth will be flower girl.

So what started out as a shoe-shopping expedition for Sister the Youngest turned into a dress-hunting expedition for all three of us. Alanna doesn't want to go to a bridal shop for her gown, because you can get the type of dress she wants, as a prom dress, for half the price. So she tried on a series of white dresses that all looked fabulous and not one of them cost more than two hundred dollars. For Heather and myself, we looked at a bunch of prom dresses, the best of which was $110 from Sears, though they didn't have it in my size. I'm to check the other Sears in town later this week.

Nice side benefits: I can buy a dress to wear to sassy_fae's and etherlad's wedding! Whatever we choose for a bridesmaid dress for Alanna will double as the dress for that wedding. I like that kind of economy. Ditto for shoes. Elizabeth, however, will require a new dress, because Alanna wants her in blue and her dress for sassy_fae's wedding is not blue.

Also, I get to shop for wedding presents, and possibly make one. I like doing that. I'll host a shower for them, probably in early July. This is going to be fun. And it's no more expensive to be a bridesmaid at a family wedding than it is to simply attend one. Either way, I'd be participating in every shower and buying a nice dress. This way, I'm in all the pictures, too.

This is an excellent reason to work out harder and watch what I eat better. Also, it's a good reason not to get pregnant in May.

Yay, weddings!