The “perfect” holiday season

Thanksgiving is in a few days and I’m officially excited for Christmas.

Around here that means higher electricity bills (hello, AC!) and less clothes. It means more sweat and more swimming. It means uglier hair and more beautiful evening walks.

Every year we long for our holidays to be “the best ever” and it’s easy to make ourselves crazy with wanting our homes and tables and gifts and trees to look like something out of Martha Stewart. (And don’t get me wrong, I love prettiness all around.)

But I refuse to pursue “pretty” at the expense of “perfect”.

Because perfect holidays don’t come looking like a magazine spread.

Perfect holidays come when there is enough time and space and energy to enjoy the ones we love.

Sometimes that comes with a gorgeous party spread laid out around a pinterest-worthy centerpiece and other times that comes with a backyard BBQ and impromptu game of cricket while dining on picnic wear.

Either way, perfect is achievable. As long as we have the right idea of perfect. 

 

Q for you: Do you stress about having the “perfect” holidays?

 

Love,
A

 

Stupid smart phone

I love technology.

Except when I don’t.

I have my husband’s old iPhone. (Lucky me.) And unless I’m comparing the camera quality on mine compared to his (4S), I absolutely love it.

But things keep going wrong with it.

A month ago we had to get the home button replaced. $70.

And now the touch screen is going wonky.

For the last several days parts of the screen have stopped working meaning I can’t type certain letters in texts, emails, or anything else.

Just this morning the phone made three phone calls on it’s own while I was already on the phone to the doctors office. (Not good.)

I tried to send a text message. My converter was opened.

I tried to open Notes. The Pinterest ap opened.

I tried to use the timer. The phone started barking and ringing and chiming at me (as it scrolled through and chose different notification sounds for itself).

This is not good.

Really, really not good.

I could go back to using a regular old phone, but do you have any idea how prehistoric that would feel after being accustomed to my camera/phone/diary/note-keeper/emailer/googler/meal-planner/entertainer/calculator/converter/timer/weather-checker/Bible/GPS/calendar all-in-one hand-held device that has changed my life? *gaspforair*

It would kinda be torture.

The other options are forking out for yet another fix. (Blah.)

Or forking out for a new phone. (BLAH.)

Or maybe just remembering the days where I didn’t have immediate answers and solutions at a tap and a swipe.

What to do?

Technology is driving me mad. A love-hate relationship for sure.

STOP.

 

Q for you: Do you have a smart phone? Have you become highly reliant on it like I am?

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited. 

For the love of jars

I’ve had some new subscribers since my posts yesterday. I’m sorry if this disappoints you–and I sincerely hope you can handle it–but tonight I have another extremely complex and weighty topic to address:

Mason jars.

Why, oh why, have jars become this year’s hot item?

Since I discovered Pinterest a couple of months ago, it’s no secret that I became a fast and furious pinner. (Username adrielbooker – I know you were wondering.)

I love all the DIY inspiration, household tricks, and pretty “stuff”.

But there are things that baffle me about this year’s trends:

Pallets. For everything.

Jars. (Mason, if you’re really cool.)

T-shirts upcycled into “styles” that make them even more sloppy and ugly.

I don’t really know what to think of this information. But I’m really hoping that Pinterest will last.

Because think of the fun we’ll have in ten years time looking back at all of our pins of JARS and wondering, what the heck?

That is all.

Just some more deep thoughts for you to ponder today.

STOP.

 

Q for you: Are you a jar-lover? Chevron? Pallets? Old t-shirts? Art made out of plastic spoons? Chandeliers made out of twigs? Mustaches???

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited.

The loop (And staying in it)

My favorite newsy show moved from 7pm to 6pm and I haven’t seen it in weeks. Maybe months.

By the time we get the kids both into bed it’s 7:00 or 7:30pm and by the time I do my rounds picking up the house, changing over the laundry, or whatever else needs to be done, I’m often not sitting down until at least 8:00.

The last thing I want to do at 8:00 at night is to “read the paper” so to speak. I want to browse pinterest, check out facebook or instagram, and maybe watch some “compelling” television. (My favorite right now is the Voice – Australia’s edition just started.)

Sometimes I write at night, or edit photos.

And if I’m up for it, I might get some “work” done like answering emails or making lists for whatever it is I’m working on at the time.

But this “disappearing” program (and my lack of ambition to find my news online) means that I’m woefully behind on current events.

This is all very strange for me.

Normally I love keeping up-to-date. I love following the politics (hello, it’s an election year!!). I love being abreast of the latest breaking story.

But I don’t like to use my online time to read the news. I’d much prefer social networks or reading blogs or just researching stuff that I’m learning about. (Like googling “what to do with your lucky bamboo when it grows too tall”. True story. Mine’s grown way too tall and I have no idea what to do with it.)

So since I’m not reading much news online and I’m missing out on my favorite news show, I’m totally out of the loop.

And being out of hte loop makes me feel ignorant. And lazy.

I guess I’d better get in the loop again.

STOP.

 

Q for you: How do you stay current on world events? Is it important to you?

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited. 

Pinterest please. Oh yes please.

For months (MONTHS) I had friends telling me to get on Pinterest.

You’ll love it,

it’s right up your ally,

It’s so yooooooou. they all said.

I resisted knowing that I already have a mild (major?) facebook addiction.

Add to that my time emailing, blogging, writing, doing family newsletters, updating our family website, skyping, tweeting, my birth club forum, instagraming, and googling everything i want to know about everything… and that makes for a lot of time online.

Last thing i needed was another social network.

Two weeks ago I caved.

Signed up for Pinterest.

Hello, yes. I am completely hooked.

I’m already having to limit my time on it.

No more than once–maybe twice–a day. And mostly I do it on my while I’m breastfeeding so it’s not like I’m really “wasting” time.

Right? Right??

But that’s also when I check facebook, read blogs, scroll through instagram.

*sigh* When will I ever have time for all my social networking when I finish breastfeeding?

For now I won’t worry about it. No doubt by then there will be another social networking site and i’ll have to shuffle my online time once again.

So many time wasters to decide between. What’s a girl to do?

STOP.

 

Q for you: Are you on Pinterest? (Here’s me.) Do you love it as much as I do?

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five is a blog by Adriel Booker. | Five minutes a day, unedited. | 2012 All rights reserved. | Adriel also writes on parenting and motherhood at The Mommyhood Memos.

The juices are flowing

I’m a creative person. Always have been. And when my creative juices get flowing, I can’t sleep at night.

Literally.

I toss and turn and ideas swim in my head and it takes everything within me not to get out of bed and start activating them

RIGHT NOW.

I’ve never been one who’s good at being patient.

I’ve always been an activator, a do-er.

I don’t like pondering. I don’t really like considering. It geos against my grain to “weigh the options.”

As an adult I’ve had to learn how to do some of those things of course. (And I do, htough I still someitmes struggle.)

But the “make it happen now” part of me is just that – part of me.

As I’ve realized that it’s helped me to see my weakness, but also see the strength in it.

Some of the absolute best things in my life have been done on a whim.

But it’s more than a whim – it’s an instinct.

My blog (both my blogs ctually) were started that way – with about… oh, three minutes of deliberation before just DOING it.

One of the best years of my life (spent backpacking in Europe) was a string of spontaneity, one instinctual decision after another.

And even bigger, more significant things too – Judah was conceived like that. I won’t go into details, because that’s just too much information – ha! – but I will say it was a very specific divine moment of decision.

Then BOOM here he was (and I’ve never looked back, we’ve never looked back). One of the best decisions of my entire life.

Needless to say my creative juices are flowing lately. (Thank you blogging and thank you Pinterest.)

It’s making it very, very hard for me to keep to my goal of a 10:30pm bedtime. *sigh*

Why do I feel so much more creative after dark?

STOP. (Totally went over time on this post!! By almost a minute!! Bah!)

 

Q for you: When’s the last time you made a gut decision on a “whim” and it turned out beautifully?

Love,
A

Click Clink Five is a blog by Adriel Booker. | Five minutes a day, unedited. | 2012 All rights reserved. | Adriel also writes on parenting and motherhood at The Mommyhood Memos.