This and That...

My thoughts, as usual, are scattered, so why not let this be scattered too?  Here's a sampling of what's on my mind, occupying my time lately.

So?  My brand new laptop?  It's history.  When it was two weeks old I took my aggravation with it in hand and called tech support for help.  They assured me I wasn't crazy, it was broken, in, not one, but two different ways, and the technician candidly told me she'd dump it.  The store has a 30 day return policy, she encouraged me to take advantage of it, so I did.  I didn't have a good feeling about that brand/model of laptop anymore, so I bought a different one.  A slightly fancier, slightly more expensive one, and somehow, we ended up getting money back on the deal.  Yeah, didn't make sense to me or the cashier either, but they knew at that point I had been there forever, they knew I was tired of dealing with it, remember, I had been without a laptop since Dec. 19, when I took my laptop in for what was supposed to be a simple repair and ended up having it declared a lemon a month later.  Anywho, they decided not to fight the computerized cash register and just give us the money back the system kept insisting we deserved and who was I to argue?  I love my newest new laptop, by the way.

Work's going pretty well.  I'm absolutely smitten with the new little one I'm watching and happy that his brother is adjusting awesomely.  It's amazing how much time a little one takes though!  Or, maybe that's just me.  Who am I to pass up lots of cuddles and snuggles?  Nope, it will pass too quickly as it is, that's for sure.  Still, it does make it challenging to find time to get all the other things that need done, done.  A challenge right now I feel like I'm failing at.  I'm so far behind on laundry it's hard to believe I will ever catch up, but I will, eventually.  We bit the bullet and hired someone to clean the house.  That was semi-successful.  She's a wonderful person, very hard working, very warm, very kind.  I understood the first time she came it was going to be a huge task and she did a great job.  I was a little disappointed that she didn't get the whole house done, but I also appreciated everything she did do, so we had her come back two weeks later.  Well, unfortunately, that was  bit disappointing too.  She did a fabulous job, in the kitchen.  The kids bath was great.  Our bath was good.  The dining room was great.  The living room was rushed, lots of misses.  The bedrooms were rushed with even more misses.  The stairs, entries and landing weren't touched, neither was the downstairs bath and family room.  I don't think it's going to work out.  It's very hard for me to take be out of the house all day long with the kids I watch and to come home and not have it done was demoralizing.  I like her and I'm feeling incredibly torn and guilty, but I need someone with better time management skills.  Very sad.  I still haven't completely decided, but I'm leaning toward going with my gut and waving the white flag of surrender.  I just can not figure out how to be a full-time crazy busy working mom and still keep my house clean.  I can keep my house straightened, I can run a cleaning wipe through the bathroom once in a while, but clean?  I can't seem to swing that.  I've even taking to pinning all kinds of cleaning schedules on Pinterest about how to keep your house clean in 15-30 minutes a day.  You know what?  They're insane!  Or I am, but there's no way I can clean my kitchen & dining room in 30 minutes--sweep and mop, wipe down wall, doors, baseboards, wipe down cabinets, clean out fridge, organize cabinets, clean out pantry, clean oven and microwave, dust ledges, dust blinds clear cobwebs, wash windows.  In 30 minutes?  Are you kidding me?  Then, there was the site that promised me a clean house in 15 minutes--dust entire house in 15 minutes.  Maybe it's just me, but that's not possible.  I'm also good at finding the sites that promise a clean house, but what they're really helping you accomplish is a straightened house.  I enjoy a straightened house, but I need to figure out how/when to get the cleaning done.  Moving on...

What a twisted world we live in.  I was doing a Beth Moore Bible study and enjoying it.  It had only been a couple of weeks but it was going well.  Then...  Then I got an email informing me that there had been an incident at our dance studio where someone called and threatened to hurt kids and that they had had to go on lockdown.  Fortunately it was not a night that Julianna had dance, but it left me feeling shaken.  Can you imagine how scary that would be for the kids.  I had been dropping Julianna off at dance and going back and getting her three hours later when her classes were over, after my Bible study.  Now, I feel like I need to hang out at the studio.  She has an hour class, then an hour break, then an hour class.  You guys, sitting at that dance studio for three hours every week is killing me!  SOOOOO boring!  There are only two chairs in the area of the studio we're at, so if I'm not lucky enough to get one of them, it's the floor.  I guess I'm getting old, but sitting on the floor for hours kills me.  I love my daughter dearly, but there's only so long I want to stand at a window and watch her dance.  Yes, I can take my iPad or whatever, but still, boring.  It's fine the hour I'm hanging out with her, though she loves to bring a book and read for a good part of it, and I am beginning to really, really dread dance nights.  What would you do?  I'm leaning closer and closer to going back to dropping her off and praying no nutcase decides to pull such a prank again.  I'm not really worried about something actually happening, just that there could be a threat and she could be in a really scary lockdown situation.

Speaking of screwed up worlds, Jacob asked me the other day if I thought there could be a school shooting at their school.  It broke my heart that I couldn't tell him it would never happen.  I told him it wasn't likely, that it statistically "shouldn't" happen here, but that I could not tell him it wouldn't.  So sad.

Well, this has gotten much longer than I planned.  Just a little peek into what's happening in my world.  If you have any advice on how to make this working mom thing work more effectively let me know, I need all the help I can get.  Hope all's well in your world.  Hopefully I'll be back soon...