LEGO bricks … Tiny LEGO bricks … Everywhere

A couple times each month my living room seems to magically transform into a small version of LEGO Land after having been hit by a small red-headed tornado.  I love that my son likes to create things with LEGO bricks and, as long as they are not on the floor, I typically do not notice that his organized chaos has been left out for days on end.

Last week, however, I did notice that LEGO Land had spread and now covered a large card table and two TV trays.  We have a rather small living room and the LEGO invasion was taking up a pretty large chunk of prime real estate!  I decided that we, and by "we" I realize I mean "I", need to create a dedicated LEGO work and play area with cool storage.

I had attempted to do this in our basement several years ago.  At the time we had a very large salt water tank in the basement and my office was also in the basement, so we spent quite a bit of time downstairs.  When our marriage ended the salt water tank went to a new owner and I moved my office upstairs so I could hear the doorbell and keep an eye on my son and his friends a little easier.  Shortly after I noticed that my son stopped going downstairs alone.  The basement is no longer a suitable LEGO solution for us.

 

I found this idea in this thread eurobricks.com forum

It seems that the living room offers the best space for both storage and play - so I started looking for ideas on Pinterest.  After hours of searching I found an idea I really liked, using plastic food storage containers.  The containers are clear, so you can see what color is in each one and they are stackable so I can make it pretty.  In my head I was already playing Tetris with these containers of LEGO bricks!

I went to the store and stocked up on the 3 for $1.00 containers … then I started sorting LEGO bricks.  If you have never really build with LEGO bricks using LEGO building instructions before, when you start to build it is MUCH easier to have all of your LEGO bricks sorted into color piles first.  After a couple hours I was surrounded by a bunch of LEGO bricks which had been sorted, by color, into the storage containers.  And then it happened … I stood up … forgetting that I had a tote, still half full of LEGO bricks, on my lap.  (No, I don't know how I could forget that I had a tote on my lap … well, I have a theory about it, another story for another day.)  It is hard for me to describe the sound that hundreds of LEGO bricks make when they hit a hardwood floor, but it was a kind of cool sound.  There were tiny LEGO bricks everywhere - LEGO Land had become LEGO Lake!  I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry, so I laughed as I scooped them all back into the tote.

What I thought would be a "two hour" project has turned into a "multiple days" project … and now I'm not sure I still like my original plan.  While the storage containers look cool, the lids are a pain in the a$$ to pry off - and I learned that the lids also crack easily if you try to pry them off wrong.  I wouldn't want to play with my LEGO bricks if I had to fight with these lids every time I wanted to play… and my son was blessed with a lower frustration tolerance level than me … so  Anyone need slightly used food storage containers??

My latest obsession

My current obsession is my bullet journal (BuJo).  The Bullet Journal is, essentially, a highly customizable time management/planning organization system.  I fell in love with the fact that I can create whatever format of a monthly, weekly and/or daily planner and change it around until I figure out what is going to work for me … or when I get bored with it.  I can incorporate both my work and personal meetings and appointments into one place and stand a better chance of remembering those appointments because I am physically writing them down.  I can also dedicate pages for doodling so I am not scribbling all over my planner pages.  I can even dedicate pages to sketching to try to improve my free-hand skills (or not).  OH, and I don’t have to give up sticky notes either!!  (((My work laptop is covered in sticky notes that I should probably go through and make sure I addressed whatever I wrote down … not the best system in the world.)))

As I was trying to find the stencils and colored pencils I knew I had stashed somewhere I started to question my decision to take on another form of artistic expression.  I went through 3 large storage boxes, filled with rubber stamps from when I was into making my own greeting cards, to find the colored pencils.  I went through a storage closet, filled with photographs and scrapbooking materials, to find the stencils.  During this treasure hunt I took mental inventory of the number of random projects (honestly too many to count) that I was utterly obsessed with, spent lots of money on and then lost interest in, so they are at various stages of completion.  Card making, scrapbooking, calligraphy, paper making, beading, sewing, guitar playing, embroidery, cross-stitch, crocheting, knitting (need I continue?)  … will my BuJo eventually go by the wayside as well?  Only time will tell.

I have tried using a multitude of planners and, except for the Franklin Covey daily planner, only used them for a of months before losing interest or deciding that it was just too complicated to use long term.  I’m excited about the bullet journal because I can make changes on the fly, have everything in one book and because I can make it pretty.  AND, it provides the satisfaction of looking back and seeing a bunch of completed tasks.  It also makes me happy to that I can jot down writing prompts when they come to me on a dedicated page and not have to try to remember which stick note or what notebook it is in!  Creativity and happiness between two covers!

Laundry...To Sort or Not To Sort

Do people still sort laundry by color before washing clothes?  I don’t … I take the time to wash my hand wash only clothes using the “hand wash” setting on my washing machine ~ everything else gets shoved into one load and washed together on the “normal” setting.

Laundering technology has seen many advancements since I was a kid helping Mom sort clothes into Lord only knows how many piles (growing up on a farm meant a lot more sorting than just by color … degree and type of filth had to be factored into the process).  If I still had to deal with farm clothes, then I would likely take the time to sort … BUT, I don’t.  I live in town and only deal with the laundry generated between me and my son.  I have had recent conversations with other folks around town and it seems that there are, indeed, still people out there that take the time to separate clothes by color.

To be perfectly candid, I consider it a significant win when I remember to take the clothes out of the dryer … so I won’t say much about the folding and putting away of said clothes.  I probably should take the time to complete this process because I’m not sure that I am saving myself any time by pawing through the basket of clean clothes to find the shirt I could have sworn I had just washed … and even when I do get clothes folded, I get distracted by other projects so the piles of folded clothes sit on my bed and then get transferred back into the laundry basket, or set in front of the dresser because I’m too tired to take the time to figure out what is supposed to go in which drawer … and I’m still wondering what happened to that shirt I was looking for.  The next morning, I remember I have a similar colored shirt that might be hanging in the closet … I cautiously open the closet door so nothing falls out on top of me and run my fingers over the shoulders of each of the shirts that have been packed like sardines into my overstuffed closet.  ((( Sad when I remember that 3 years earlier I had cleaned it out and donated over half of what I had at that time. )))  Finally, I find the other shirt and pull it out, letting out a huge sigh because it is horribly wrinkled.  I know I own an iron and might even be able to find it, but by the time I realize how badly wrinkled the shirt is I have less than 30 minutes to make it to the doctor appointment I completely forgot about until my calendar alert popped up.  I know, I’ll just throw on a cardigan and call it covered – problem solved, sort of.  For the record, I found the missing shirt in the dryer a week later – on the plus side, it wasn’t still in the washer!!

The wrinkled shirt incident was annoying, funny, but annoying … … back to sorting laundry … … no, just no … … If my son wears pink socks because I forgot to wash the new red shirt separately, well, it builds character.  He’s lucky to have clean socks to wear and even more lucky because they just became one of a kind designer “socks by Mom”!!

Which is worse - emotional pain or physical pain?

I wasn't really looking for a writing prompt, however I couldn't pass this one up.  I couldn't even tell you any more what led me to find it…  Some thoughts, once they enter my brain space, take up residence.  This one slapped on a fresh coat of paint and bought new curtains, apparently intent on staying for some time.  I was going to write about the fine line between introspection and rumination … until the dam holding memories of my past sprung a leak again.  I'm sure we have all suffered both deep emotional pain and excruciating physical pain … for some it is brief, for others it is something we live with daily.  As I was trying to repair the dam it occurred to me that maybe there was a glimmer of positivity to be found in those memories.

Having just experienced a bout of severe physical pain as well as deep emotional pain, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say neither is worse.  They both hurt.  Much like "hard is hard" I think "pain is pain" … they both hurt.  Here is the difference, in my experience at any rate, physical injuries heal more quickly than emotional injuries.  Emotional pain may start by the words or actions from an external source, however once in my brain, interesting things start to spin up.  Instead of sticking to the "facts" I start to rehash everything I did or said that may have caused the other person to say or do whatever it was that they said or did that sent me into a tailspin.

I often feel overlooked and forgotten.  I realize that sometimes it actually happens however there many more times when it is all in the way I am perceiving it.  I received a gentle reminder today that, very often, the people I "think" are ignoring me are often going through something in their lives that is just really hard for them and they are dealing with their own turmoil the best way they know how.  The reminder came when I had no desire to talk, to anyone about anything.  I knew I was in a foul mood and didn't want to inflict it on anyone else.  When I am in these phases it is hard for me to pretend that I'm ok.  Sometimes I muster a smile and respond with "I'm fabulous!" when people ask how I'm doing.  Maybe I do it to try to convince myself that I really am fine and that I just need to get over my shit OR, maybe I do it because if I start to talk about what is going on in my head I'll wind up on Dr. Phil with a year supply of Kleenex.  This afternoon, when I was confronted with the "Why are you ignoring me?" type question, it made me feel bad, which made them feel worse.  It is a vicious cycle, really.  When the roles are reversed, the emotional pain this brings, whether my feeling ignored was due to something real or something imagined, can take a long time for me to sort out.

This past summer was marred severe physical pain, a story for another book.  As I battled my way back to “normal”, I was encouraged by the number of people who rallied around me.  The pain gradually decreased and people still ask how my recovery is going.  Since I am, for the most part, back to normal, it is easy to not really give that physical pain much thought.  Well, until I step wrong or bang my knee into the door, then I am reminded of the pain.  Still, it is short lived.  I can take a pain pill and go about my day.  Emotional pain is not as easily remedied for me.

Bottom line:  pain is pain.  Just because we can't see it or we don't understand it doesn't mean that it isn't painful for the one working through it.  Be kind, always.  The smile you give to another might change their day in a positive way.  As I was surfing the web, I came across a verse that feels like it is speaking directly to my feeling overlooked or forgotten:  “Never will I leave you, Never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5).  It is such an incredible promise, and one that I frequently forget.  Being human is hard sometimes.  Then I find verses like this and am reminded that I am not alone.  God’s promise is forever.