Dead Cats and Shaved Eyebrows

Yes, our cat died.

No, this won't be the eulogy for the cat.

The kids are setting up a separate web page for that.

But I will share that I got *excellent* advice from friends on how to break the news to the kids and on how to assist in the grieving process.

This is the best bit of advice by far, titled, "Why did Egyptians shave off their eyebrows?"

"Shaving off the eyebrows was a sign of mourning. An entire family would do so if their pet cat died. Remember, the cat was a sacred animal to the Egyptians. the cat represented Bast (Bastet), and the family would remain in mourning until their eyebrows grew back."

And now y'all are going to be anxious to see us, trying to catch a glimpse, "Do they still have eybrows? Do they? Do they?"

HA.

Best Edge #1

I have been holding on by the skin of my teeth these last few weeks. I'll post more about it later, but for now I wanted to do a short series of my favorite nuggets of wisdom that I have collected from friends.

These are things I am trying to implement and I don't want them to slip through my fingers, so I am giving them a smidge of permanence on my blog. I am calling them the "Best Edge" bits. "Best" because they have risen to the top over any other concepts I have heard and "Edge" because they are the types of concepts that slice through the fog.

Best Edge #1 -- What will I regret the least?

What an awesome tool for making choices! I heard this from a lady who lives thoughtfully and honestly so I thought I would give it a try.

You know what?

I make very different choices when I consider which choices I will regret the least later.

Example: Today was brutal, one of those days where no matter how hard I work and how well I schedule and how much I delegate, there is just now way to reach "good enough". So... I had to find another way to deal with it.

I used all my standard methods of decision making and none brought any clarity to my set of choices. It wasn't until I considered, "What task list will bring the least regret by the end of the day?" With that, I had complete clarity. I spent the day prepping the rental unit for new tenants.

Super cool bonus: The kids worked alongside me, learning all sorts of skills. The Big Boys did quite a bit of manual labor, stayed focused, exercised their persistence. My favorite bit was seeing them, when faced with a seeminly undoable task, grit their teeth and find a way to complete the task well anyway.

Another favorite was seeing my little girl using the screwdriver to resecure all the light switch plates. I didn't even have to tell her what to do, just said, "Hey, could you put these back on?"

She went at it like a seasoned construction worker.

I also noticed that "What will I regret least later?" also changes what I say and mostly what I don't say.

One comment I am hearing a lot, "You have been so quiet lately..."

Ha.

Bonding when you shouldn't

Jee has fallen in love with skateboarding. He's always on a board or a scooter or a bike or anything with wheels.

A friend told me about the X-games in LA and I should check it out.

I googled the #1 more watched video and called Jee into the room, “Com'ere, com'ere, see this skateboarder at the X-games. This is what the X-games are like. You get to watch the skateboarders do their tricks...”

Jee snuggled into my lap in front of the computer to watch. I could tell that he was really bonding with the skateboarder Jake Brown.

“Look. You could be this good someday. These guys are really physically fit and they work really hard to do what they do. Now watch... OH WOW... Oh...”

You have to see the video to really understand it.

Let's just say I learned that I should always preview the clip before I show it to my children, especially if it is something important that they might relate to personally.

For the love of laundry

I have tried very hard to make the best of it. I really have. But, my main goal has always been to minimize the time spent doing laundry, to make sure the laundry is never the focal point of a single day, because if the adage is true, “Live today as if it is your last,” then heaven forbid my last day should be spent doing laundry.

My game plan is to attack the biggest drain first: The most time consuming step is sorting, folding, and putting everything away. I have tried many methods; none have helped me quickly get through the pile of laundry that is piled up to a height of three feet, two inches. (I measured. This is typical. Several times a week.)

This week I tried something new. I washed and dried it all then dumped load after load on the couch in the living room. As I was dumping the last load, I bellowed to the children, “Come git yer clothes!”

Only one of them came so I bellowed, “You owe me $1 for every item of clothing that is yours, left on this couch after 10 minutes!”

I heard the stampede of feet and I stepped back to see what would happen.

Within seconds, they were all there, digging into the pile of clothes. Shirts were flying, pants were grabbed or thrown, and socks hit the ceiling. In a hyper-quick three minute cat-fight-like scene, ALL the laundry was sorted and toted off to it's owners room. I was left with a small pile of my own clothes, my husband's clothes, and the kitchen towels.

It was so awesome that I tried it again yesterday to see if the experiment could be duplicated.

It worked!

Glory be.