Some of the random bits floating around in my brain

- Although I'm not a very orderly person, I love order. I love it when all the pieces are lined up and fitted into their designated slots. I spent a little bit of time finding order in our lives this weekend - lining up the budget, cleaning house, doing laundry. I get a burst of pleasure when the pieces line up. It makes me wish I could convince myself on a daily basis that the pleasure is worth the pain of maintaining order. But I'm way too lazy for that.

- I'm not very fond of our backyard. By this time of year, it shows. It's gotten overgrown and unkempt and looks nearly abandoned. In the Spring, before the bugs arrive, we spend a fair bit of time back there, eating suppers on the deck, etc. But as the summer heats up and the bugs arrive, we spend less and less time there. It feels much too closed in (the only way to get there is through the garage or through a narrow pathway beside the garage, and it's surrounded by fences and overgrown shrubs), and therefore kind of claustrophobic and bug-infested. This year we inherited a wooden bench seat from a neighbour who moved away and we placed it in the front yard. We spend quite alot of time out there now, watching the world go by. A neighbour walked by yesterday as I was sipping my iced tea and said "you look relaxed", and indeed I was. I've decided that I much prefer front yard living. It makes me feel more connected to the world. Maybe that's the extrovert in me coming out.

- I don't particularly like doing laundry, but I like folding towels. I learned the "right" way of folding towels when I spent a summer working as a chambermaid at a resort in Banff. It was a horrible job, cleaning the messes people left behind when their vacation ended. Vacationing people tend to be more sloppy than at-home people, because they aren't responsible for their own messes (do you know how hard it is to scrape dried-on Cheerios off the floor?) Once in awhile, when we'd check our day's duties in the morning, Allison-the-mean-boss would have selected one of us to be the "spare" person which meant you didn't have to clean rooms, but instead spent most of the day in the large laundry room, folding towels and doing other odd jobs. I learned to fold a perfect towel (anything less than perfect risked the wrath of Allison), and I still take pride in my stack of neatly folded towels. The last weekend of that summer was the best because Allison-the-mean-boss learned that I was good at sewing, so I got to spend the busiest weekend of the year mending laundry bags, sheets, and towels. She wasn't mean to me once all weekend. Instead, she raved to everyone about how well I sewed. It was a good way to end an otherwise horrible summer.

- It's not a bad gig when your children grow old enough to be contributing members of the household. Yesterday, when Marcel was out, the living room and bathroom got cleaned without me having to set foot in either room! And they were an acceptable level of clean, not the kind you have to re-do when they're done. And one daughter taught the other daughter how to clean the toilet! What's not to like?

- Right now, Maddie is dancing around the basement with butterfly wings strapped to her back. She just said "I wish I was a REAL butterfly." And then she thought about it for awhile, reconsidered the permanence of her wish, and said, "I wish I was a person who could turn into a butterfly whenever she wanted." Me too. Wouldn't it be fun to float around and watch people?