Ban on blogging

I banned myself from blogging until the Christmas decorations that are cluttering the living room (not decorating, but cluttering in piles, awaiting their boxes) are put away. I tried to get Sage to repack the decorations for one of her chores, but she didn’t want to. Like mother like child. February 1^st seems like a logical day for cleaning up from December, right? I had a hard time getting rid of our tree, so around mid-January I propped it up outside in our yard. It was gone the next week. Go figure. I wonder if our next door neighbors from England took it (the neighbor who blow torched his and our steps to “melt the ice.” My dad would flip out if he knew.)

Unfortunately, my self-imposed ban has only kept me from blogging, and hasn’t necessarily enacted any changes in the problematic lack of empty chairs and abundance of half-filled boxes in the living room. So, I am resorting to Plan B, which involves blogging about my unfinished chores in an attempt to spur enthusiasm and action by means of self-embarrassment. Let’s see if it works.

Other tasks I’ve been busy with this past week:

--finishing Wild Swans: 3 daughters of China (An incredible book! I’d recommend it to anyone.)

--reading Wicked (A disappointment, unfortunately. I’m anxious to hear the soundtrack, though.)

--laughing my head off at this

--shoveling our driveway 300 times

--exercising regularly (This takes SO much time! But I am on my 9^th consecutive day of running, not counting Sunday. Forrest Gump is a fun treadmill movie.)

--apologizing to people who Sage and Eliza called on my phone without me knowing (including, but not limited to, family members and renters!)

--testing out two delicious new bread recipes (Cinnamon Raisin and Banana-Pumpkin) in an attempt to avoid eating sweets by binging on carbs.

I get hungry every time I see this picture. It makes me think of cinnamon, and Christmas smells and Christmas decorations.....oh man...