clear off your kitchen table or how to seize the day

I tend to think that a cleared off kitchen table (or wherever your table) is one of the best ways to feel a fresh start. When I walked by the cleared off kitchen table first thing this morning it felt so open and filled with possibilities. No matter what else is going on in the house, if I can clear off the kitchen table and have the dishes done, things seem infinitely more manageable. I know the flylady swears by a clean kitchen sink- I mean really clean. Bleached out and ready to go. There is something about having grime and crumbs lingering in the sink after all the dishes are said and done but I still don't usually get around to actually scouring it, at least not every day.

There is also the technique of setting out goodies {on the table} for the day each morning to pique your kids' interest. I have tried this and even sometimes still do this but it is not enough a part of my natural habit{itat} to keep it going for very long, plus I get bored with this kind of routine. I tend to do it until it isn't inspiring any more and then I move on to a new system (thanks again to that article in Oprah several years ago for giving me this phrase and a giggle whenever I use it). Or until the kids move onto a new system. Let's face it. Just because I think it would be nifty neat to get all creative with blocks today doesn't mean it will necessarily match up with what my kids want to do. It might. It might not.

Today, though, I have an idea that I think might go over well with all of us. My first thought about how I wanted to spend the day {How do you want to spend your day?} had me thinking about getting outside and finding some newts. Or frogs. Or suchlike. Unfortunately, Samuel has been sick and I don't think he is really quite ready for that kind of outing. Fortunately, this time at home has given me the time to take care of a few things in the yard that I hadn't gotten to yet. Just when I think it is all a bit too overwhelming to really take care of any of it, I take a few small steps, do some one-thing-at-a-time thinking and there you have it. I am all set to conquer the last of the leaves in the front yard. {Lest you think I am as leaf-delinquent as our neighbor does, let me clarify. We have an oak tree in our front yard who continues to drop leaves all winter and into part of the spring. There's no way to ever really be done with oak leaves until the new leaves come in the spring. And that's now.)

So back to the day at hand. I plan to conquer the front yard. And! start that sugar-crystal-growing-experiment I meant to do months ago {and good grief, wherever did I pick up that how-to on growing sugar crystals? No idea. How did it happen that I don't know how everything that came into this house got here?}. The directions for growing sugar crystals showed up on the kitchen table out of nowhere yesterday and I got the idea to go through with it while clearing off the table last night. We'll see how it goes. If anything, it might get some other creative juices flowing. That's how it can be. The thing that you think is the creative thing might actually be the thing that *inspires* the creative thing to get moving. Just like that. You don't know how it will happen, just that it will.

This is a bummer to me sometimes. Sometimes I would really like to see the poetry unfold and know that this is the poetry. You don't always know it's poetry until it's over. Another good reason to love what you are living while you are living it rather than waiting around for when it gets really good. This might be the really good you were waiting for. Too many cliches for this early in the morning? I say not enough. Here's another one that Samuel threw my way the other day- carpe diem. When I told him it meant seize the day he threw his head back and burst out laughing and said, "Why not? Why on earth would you not seize the day?!" I kid you not. These kids are nothing if not complete and utter inspiration for living a life of love.