Need a Smart Mama Head

It's a real skill to know how to manage your children's stuff.  And by stuff I mean the craft products, school projects and toys both big and small.  For years my friends have told me they just get rid of it when their kids are asleep.  And this is what I have done. Do you think they noticed the other day when their shrinky dinks were gone? 

But it's not easy and I continue to feel I am failing in this department. I don't want to get rid of the good stuff, but I don't think there is too much good stuff. But my children do. 

My kids seem to have a ridiculous amount of creations. More than the average suburban kids.   They dwell. They think a lot.  They value their junk. I can't stand it!  I want a clutter free home.  I don't like seeing nubby pencil stubs, pieces of yarn, scraps of paper, foam balls collecting lint balls.

And in true form of life mimicking art, when I look at my own possessions I see a lot of extra junk hanging around.  I have a whole box of photos from 2003. I have old journals, oodles of CDs that need to be burned, my high school and college papers I still haven't recycled.  

As I mentioned recently I try so hard to stay ontop of all this.  I am mindful of decluttering and have the right intentions.  I have been this way my whole life:  I recall being so proud of my clean desk drawers before Passover when I wax 9 or 10. I wanted my mom to see how good of a job I did.  

And yet it never seems to be enough.  I have friends who are much neater, tidier, on top of their stuff.  

Ever grateful for my own uniqueness I am grateful for what I have.  

I have friends who are huge slobs, packrats who can't part with a 20 year old sweater (or 5), leave their candy wrappers strewn about, don't use their garages because they are filled with their junk.  

I go through this exercise often:  at least I am not *that.*. I think the trick is to surrender to the flow and stop comparing.  Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.  Be in the moment and still be mindful of your stuff. And remember to always take care of your shoes. 

(John Lennon wheels video)

Levi Gravy

How's By You?

My Sparkling Sister

Just because I can...

 

These are my dear friends who live in LA.

Dude, what is the deal with your blue face!?

xoxo love and miss you Adam and Ashira!

More from The Land of Purge

They make everything look neat, tidy, and current.

But do they know of the Whole Phamily? Nope. In the land of nod it's the whole family.  In the land of purge we are the Whole Phamily. 

A few weeks ago I got rid of 10 bags of unnecessary stuff, and yet the stuff keeps coming.  Aside from the fact that we might move later this year, I prefer to keep things minimal. I loathe when things pile up. I learned well from my mom  get rid of stuff you don't use.  I wish I could do better.  I admire friends who really do live minimally.  Less is more is powerful  Extra stuff isn't good for one's feng shui (wow, now that's a blast from the past!)

A tip of the hat to my blog title post

Goodbye to the following:  

I tried teaching Nistar how to make these classic barrettes from my childhood.  Ixnay on that one.

This is a kippah Nistar made at camp. Nice effort.  Stango wore it a few times.  She agreed to get rid of it. 

This is a wallhanging Nistar made for me.  Complete with an original baby picture of me she cut!  No, she didn't ask!  Don't have the heart to throw away yet.

This silly hat was sitting in the boy's kippa box for years.  It is now relegated to its proper spot:  the dress up box.  Which only gets used these days when we have preschoolers over.  

The hat maker is some famous company.   It is from my husband's youth.  Note the old school handwriting inside the hat, identifying my DH as its rightful owner.  As if other kids brought this type of thing to camp.  I guess Stango was long-outside the box.  

This isn't my house but our friend's where we recently visited.  Love this minimal, clutter-free room.  An

inspiration.  

Totally inspired now to finally get rid of my high school and college papers.  Over the years I have been whittling them down but it is finally the time to recycle it all.  Considering I was a poor writer in college, there is zero reason to save that junk.  Maybe I will keep one or two papers.  That is it!  

Boy that's gonna be an awesome feeling! 

Thank you Mrs Hollinger! And belated Happy Hanukkah

The best art teacher ever.  Hands down. My mom saved this for years.  And now I have saved it for years.  And now I put my 2nd or 1st or 3rd grade project in the garbage.  Wait wait. Maybe my children will say, "why don't I have some of mama's original artwork from when she was a kid,"

Nope.  Just asked the 10 year old.  "Yeah mama, put it on your blog. Perfect solution."

We Built This City...

On rock and roll, you hum?  No!  On compost.  Kudos, congrats, kol hakavod to New York City for running a pilot city compost program.

While visiting my sister Reba this week I saw the bins along her street.  Naturally the neighborhood is the perfect place to try it out:  she lives in a part of Brooklyn where you have a lot of organic food pushers.  So glad NYC is moving along with this.

Further to my music reference above, I am happy to report that my end of year visit to Manhattan was wonderful all around.  It was fueled by the music that I love best.  I saw friends and family both at the shows and in the times in between. We went to museums, consumed many a brunch, walked through Central Park with the kinderlach, and hung with the cousins. Levi did well with his mama out two nights in a row and I was grateful to my sister and brother in law for facilitating that.  Sadly I didn't allow my children to watch a movie on New Year's Eve, and that was a break with their tradition.  My children were acting way overtired so I just made them to to bed by 10.   Why I couldn't get it together for them to be sitting at a movie by 8 I don't know why.  Oh right I have a baby.  But what about my Stango help?  Obviously I failed in delegating and giving him some guidance.  Gotta work on that. 

While I would love to wax poetic about how Madison Square Garden is the most festive, fun, youthful, for-kids-of-all-ages-perhaps-15-and-over celebration in all of New York City, I gotta get dressed and make school lunches.

And just because you should see the greatness of what New Year's Eve could look like


 And here's to 30 years of Phish (didn't see it yet as I didn't go to the New Year's show)



If it was the secular New Year that means that Chinese New Year is coming up which means it's time to make Marci's "chinese New Year's cookies!"  I have had the ingredients for a while now.

Oh, so much to do...
And just because

Blues Brothers On New Year's Eve Would be Fun!

So many people were disappointed that Phish didn't cover a whole album, as has been their custom for the past many years, on Halloween this year in Atlantic City.   Well, why not stay broken from tradition and make up for this on New Year's Eve as part of their annual "prank?"

And do a cover of the Blues Brothers soundtrack?




At the gym today I listened to it, and yep, it could totally fly!

Maybe they should do an abridged format.

But I can just picture it:  bring out the Giant Country Horns



Who would cover Aretha, though?





If Clapton and Jeff Beck already covered Shake Your Moneymaker, why can't Phish?





And how about Shake a Tail Feather...the ultimate!



I mean, pulease!  Isn't that just custom-made for Fish?

Phish is My Church, With Some Sweat To Boot!

That's a line I have heard so many times over at shows.
Said mostly by people who don't go to church.
At least regularly.

Not the choice of words I would use, but I like to be provocative.
You actually thought I would say that?

But you could fill in other words, too.

Phish is My Zen.
Phish is My Temple.
Phish is My Services.
Phish is My Child's Pose.
Phish is My Creme Brulee.
Phish is My Monastery.
Phish is My 30 Foot Yacht.
Phish is My Minaret.
Phish is My Delicious Dish.

For those who go or don't go to houses of worship, one thing that those who see Phish repeatedly over the years have in common with prayer services is a set liturgy.  We know the songs, we love the music, we know the words (or don't, and just hum along).  It is a familiar feeling of coming home, a sense of happiness and elevation to a more meaningful level of life that draws us again and again to see this great band.

And for the newbies, the uninitiated among us, that first show can also be a sense of homeyness, comfort, joy.

And this is one of many reasons why I am so grateful for Phish.  I plan to run the Midnight Run (um...Just learned the fee is $65!  Fer realz!?!?  I could get to a show for just a little bit more $!  Alas, I really am looking forward to running in Central Park.  It's been a long time)  next week on New Year's eve (no NYE Phish show for me; but I'll be there for some shows earlier in the NYE run).

I haven't run a 5K in a while.  So at the gym just now I gave it a test run.  I played some Live Bait and I was set.  All I needed was a Wilson, Tweezer and YEM and I got there with minimal pain, and maximum gain.  So happy to listen to my favorite music and do a leisurely 5k on the treadmill.

And if you caught my SNL reference above, check out Mr. Alec Baldwin.  'Tis the season, after all.





I imagine that link won't last long. Lorne, I hear ya on protecting your Intellectual Property, but can you give this mama a break?

My Husband Finally Watched Netflix!

There is limited time to devote to a show or movie, but I enjoy kicking back and watching something good.  Lately, it is "Freaks and Geeks."  How embarrased would I be if I met Judd Apatow and Paul Feig, the creators of that show, and was like, um yeah 14 years later I am watching your show and it's totally rad; you guys are da bomb; I wanna be from Lake Winnipesaukee and tell you that you're wicked cool.  Good thing I have no meeting set in the near future at my local Coffee Bean to chat with Judd. 

 My husband is more selective. He rarely watches anything. He misses the good old Eddie Murphy comedies, he says. Most evenings he is at the computer reading a research article on the brain.  I guess I have it ok.  Better that then action movies or ball games.  Stango loves his work in the field of Neurology and doesn't stop learning after-hours.

So you might imagine my excitement when I saw the Netflix screen opened to something new!  Here's what I saw:

Seriously?  A brain talk?

I hope my husband enjoyed what he saw, and I hope it not only contributed towards his bettering the world but also, ultimately, our bank account!