:: just 10 minutes ::

i have a confession to make.

I AM A MESSY PERSON.

I AM A VERY MESSY PERSON.

whew, im glad i got that off my chest! now, if being a messy person wasn't enough...i just have to complicate it a little.

I AM A VERY MESSY PERSON AND I HATE MESSES!!!!!

yup thats me. messy while despising messes. leaves me in a conundrum.

there are many (many) times i have talked to my sweet husband about hating how messy our house can get. but i look around and realize ~ the mess is mostly mine!
the 6 pairs of shoes under the couches and kitchen table ~ yup mine
the opened mail fanned out across the table ~ you guessed it mine
the magic bullet parts on the counter ~ again mine
the sink of dirty dishes ~ ours (finally something thats not all my fault)
the onion skin and potato peelings on the floor and counter ~ i blame it on me attempting to cook
the dirty clothes on the bedroom floor ~ hey i may be able to wear them again

i think you get the point. im messy. but it drives. me. crazy. beyond. crazy. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (i had to get that off my chest).

this summer i did a little bit better controlling the mess. life was pretty relaxed and i found some pleasure in keeping the house straightened (gasp, its true). but school started a little over three weeks ago for us. school = work, i teach, sweet husband does campus ministry. so three weeks of full time work plus about a week of prep...that being said...our house has gotten a bit cluttery...well messy honestly.

and again it drives. me. crazy.

so i came up with a plan. a 10 minute plan. just 10 minutes monday through friday.

it boils down to this:
as soon as i get home (immediately after walking though the door...immediately!)
set the microwave timer for 10 mins (and only 10)
straighten, wipe-down, wash, put away the 6 pairs of shoes, you get the point
when the timer goes off ~ stop..sit down, prop my feet up, eat a snack, rest

it only adds 10 minutes to my work day but makes my evening so much less stressful and more relaxed. i no longer have to be overwhelmed by the clutter...oh happy day :)

i tried out the 10 minutes today for the first time...and look at all i got accomplished:
shoes put away
floor in living room, kitchen, and bedroom picked up
counters, stove, and kitchen table straightened and wiped down
dishwasher unloaded
sweet hubby's work stuff organized
tools put back
laundry started

i say it was a very successful 10 minutes.

and i came away with only two rules...and both of them have to do with the dishwasher
1 ~ start working on dishwasher tasks LAST
2 ~ if you start unloading and loading and the timer goes off...finish before you stop

thats it success in 10 minutes :)

now for me to feel caught up on housework i just have to fold laundry, ill tackle that after my rest...

:: glaucoma and me ::

this summer i went for my yearly exam...eye exam that is.
having been in glasses since 4th grade, this is of significant importance to me.

everything was going just "run of the mill" when near the end of my appointment my eye dr (lets call him dr h) goes "do you have a family history of glaucoma."

me being the naive silly one that i am said "well i think my grandfather had to have surgery to remove it"
silly girl...he had surgery to remove his cateracts....

that being said...no i was not aware of any history of glaucoma. "WHY?!?"
and dr h says..."the hole in your optic nerve (which everyone has) is much larger than it should be. lets run some more tests. oh and medical insurance will now cover your eye doctor exams and tests because you are a "glaucoma suspect". someone who one day MAY develop glaucoma."

...ill be honest...i freaked out a little. but he said one day i MAY develop it...so breathe joy, breathe.

i was to return for some "baseline tests" so "we can monitor your eyes to see if there are any changes through the years"

so tests...pictures of my optic nerve, peripheral vision flashy light test, heat picture of my eyes, touch my eyes with the plastic thingy....tests.

i survived each and every one of them. "you'll be getting a phone call in a week or so to review your test."

...no phone call. wait another week (me calling them would mean that i would have to take some initiative..and well i didnt) still no call. wait another week...get a voicemail "we have the results of your tests, call us so we can review them. i call them back, "oh wait, i can't go over them on the phone, dr h wants you to come in and go over them with you as soon as possible."

that was definitely not was what supposed to happen, so i conned sweet hubby into going with me.

we arrive to go over my tests. i passed the peripheral flashy light test with flying colors (dr h even showed me where i cheated). the other tests were ok too...my pressure was not too high...the picture just showed what the doctor saw. but the heated picture...that is where the problem was. apparently, you should have fan like heat coming from the optic nerve going out to the edges of your eyes...i do not.

so the official diagnosis was glaucoma...at 27...i have glaucoma.
...or a major injury to my optic nerves...but dr h feels pretty confident that it is glaucoma.

so what does that mean for me?
i have the pleasure of taking an eye drop a day. thats it. simple as that.
the eye drop Lumigan, should keep my pressure from spiking and therefore prevent further injury or enlargement to the hole in my optic nerve.

if it doesnt, then i could start to lose my peripheral vision, and if we dont do something about it, i could slowly lose my vision. if i lose any of it, i cant get it back. thats is why dr h is so glad we "caught it" so early.

so side effects of Lumigan:
~ my eyelashes will become longer *reversible with discontinuance of drop

~ my eyelashes will become fuller *reversible with discontinuance of drop

~ my eyelashes will become darker *reversible with discontinuance of drop

~ my beautiful brown eyes will become browner (no matter what color your eyes are the drops make them browner)*non-reversible

~ my eyelids may become darker *reversible with discontinuance of drop

~ dry eye, scratchy eye, eye fatigue (these are the side effects i am actually experiencing)

i have decided that i can handle this...and i can conquer this..."it aint nothin but a thang" (i cant believe i just said that)

so i have been on the drops for two weeks now (no i havent noticed any difference in my eye lashes).
i went for a follow-up appt to test my pressure and look at my optic nerve again. so they touched my eye with the icare tonometer (anyone that says they cant feel it...is lying...and i wear contacts) and my pressure had gone up (gasp). definitely not supposed to happen. so they retested...it was a little bit better, but not what dr h wanted to see. what to do what to do?
im to continue with the Lumigan, and hopefully my pressure will drop a little bit more. dr h also added another drop to help with my eye fatigue, scratchy-ness, and dryness.

but like i said, i can handle this...im not going to let it conquer me. its just a lable, and believe me, i know that anyone can overcome lables :)

Things I Can Make

so i have been into craft blogs this summer...so i've decided to do something about it! my goal is to make something at least once a month (which i think is completely achievable).

so for the month of august (it's actually one of my summer goals which you can see here) my goal was to make the skirt seen here.

this was a pretty lofty goal being that we didn't own a handy dandy sewing machine UNTIL hubby came to the rescue. he decided he was tired of having to ask people to hem our pants, and there was no reason we couldn't do it ourselves, so we bit the bullet, and bought a sewing machine.

the machine sat around, hemmed some pants, sat around, sat around, got put away, hemmed some more pants...you get the picture. so i decided to get over my anxiety and try it...i mean the project wasn't costing me anything (the shirt was from hubby's goodwill pile)...so what did i have to lose.

of course every good craft blogger has great before and after pics...well mine aren't so hot...but hey...let's look at before...

i started with an XL men's dress shirt and then i removed the pocket and sleeves

then i cut it to pieces literally...because i didn't know what to do next honestly.
so i cut the collar off to try to decide where to do the top seam..then i just cut straight across where the armpit of the shirt was.
after buttoning the shirt, i folded over where i cut, ironed the fold to make sure it was straight and sewed. this was my first time sewing so it was pretty interesting but i did it...and even used a backstich or two :)

the skirt was too wide...not even touching my sides...so i turned the skirt inside out, lined up the bottom and sewed up the side about 2 inches in. well im not THAT small so it was too much and i got to pick out my seam...

i then remembered that i wanted ties on my skirt...so i took a break from the skirt to work on the ties.
i ironed the sleeves, putting one inside out so they matched exactly. then cut what i wanted the tie to look like. next i sewed up the open edge, then turned it inside out to hide the seam. tada ~ two ties

then i kinda measured where i needed to sew the sides of the skirt to fit better, and pinned the ties where i wanted them to be so they would be sewed inside the side seam. and again i sewed up the sides.

this time the results were much better and the skirt pretty much fit. but i needed to taper the top to fit my hips better...so i just put the needle about an inch below where i wanted the taper to start...and i sewed up again at an angle...and there once again was success :)

:: see ::

TADA!