Hope for the Chronologically Challenged?

I have a looong history of being "always late, but worth the wait". In fact, I even remember arriving to elementary school late on a somewhat regular basis. It's really something that's basically ingrained into my being. I've been late to every kind of event you can imagine.

So why am I telling you all this?

Well, I want to stop. I thought when my son came along over three years ago, that I would "magically" morph into this punctual individual that would never inconvenience anyone by arriving 10 or 15 minutes late. Hmph! I was so disappointed when my son's first doctor's appointment rolled around, and there I was, on the freeway when I should have been filling out paperwork! Surely, I would stop being tardy for the sake of teaching my son good habits...right?!

I actually had a span of probably six months to a year when I did really well with arriving on time to work and other commitments. This was before marriage and children. I don't know what happened after that. I just drifted out of the habit of being punctual. I really believe that at the time, I must have been tapping into the grace of God, mainly because it wasn't really difficult to be on time during that time period. There was a "character building" series being taught at church, and suddenly I was convicted of the importance of punctuality. It worked for a little while. It was pretty rewarding too. At the time, I worked at a job where they actually kept track of your tardies and absences and you would get penalized for both. It would affect our bonusing potential if we were tardy or absent. I stayed at that job for a couple of years and left not due to being fired on account of tardiness, but because I was offered a better job...at which I was repeatedly reprimanded for my tardiness. Go figure. By the way, prior to that, I had held a plethora of other jobs where I was habitually late. Most of those employers didn't really care.

So, anyway, here I am now, a wife and mother of two...chronically late to most every appointment, church service, volunteer commitment, birthday party...whatever. Now more than ever I feel the need to stop this horrible habit...but I just feel like I don't know how! I can get things ready the night before, get up extra early, and so forth, but I just haven't discovered the (lasting) key to breaking this awful habit. It's so bad, that just recently I told someone (quite matter-of-factly, I might add) that I realize full well when I'm late; I am fully aware of what time it is. But then I completely disregard whatever information I receive from the clock on the wall...and go about my business only to get to my destination "when I get there".

I know it's irritating to other people. Even I get irritated when people are late on my clock. You would think I would be forgiving of this fault in others, right?

Anyway, hopefully someone can come along and offer some tips or something to help me get over this annoying character flaw. I'm really going to start making a diligent effort to be on time. I will probably post about my attempts in the upcoming days and weeks. Let me know if you know of anything that helps, or if you've overcome this thing in the past. Thanks in advance!

Just a Little Bit More "Green" Now

When I was growing up, I remember my mom sharing with me a memory she had of her grandmother.  She told me that her grandmother (or maybe great-grandmother???) never used shampoo on her hair (which at the time sounded repulsive!) but she said she remembered that every day her grandmother would take her very long hair out of the braid she put it in, would brush out her hair, and then cleanse her hair and scalp with witch hazel- then re-braid her hair, and wrap it up again around her head.  I don't know why that thought has stayed with me all this time, but it was brought to my remembrance again yesterday when I was thinking about my "new" hair care routine.

I had read a couple months ago about the "no poo" method of hair care. Well, I think I'm a "convert" now!  I started washing my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar the other day, and I like it!  I've been searching for some way to keep my hair clean, but not use so many harmful chemicals.  And I haven't been willing to pay $10 (or more) for a bottle of organic shampoo or conditioner (I know, I'm kinda cheap like that- I know people pay way more for hair care products...but whatever).  

There's no rhyme or reason to the products I'm using, this is just what I happen to have on hand right now.  I'm thinking I will get a different bottle of apple cider vinegar and save the organic unpasteurized stuff for the kitchen!

Anyway, I did a Google search for "no poo" and came across this article, and figured out how to get started.  I was a little skeptical, but after the apple cider vinegar rinse, I was convinced.  My hair felt soft and manageable (and not tangled!), and the results were similar to using shampoo and conditioner.  Plus, I feel really good about not dumping all those chemicals on my head, and them subsequently getting into my bloodstream, etc.  The first time I did it, there were a ton of little hairs sticking up all over my head once my hair dried (regrowth from postpartum hair loss), but the next time, I just used a little bit of coconut oil to smooth them down.  My hair feels soft, and smells like...hair.  I don't mind the absence of perfume-y scent, as I find most strong scents irritating anyway.  


So, let me know...would you consider doing this???  Have you done it?  What do you think?

Labor Day Weekend

Well, I think we are staying close to home for the holiday!  That's ok with me, though.  We actually went to start our vehicle this morning, and...nothin'.  So tomorrow we are having a friend look at it to find out what's wrong.  

We have lots of stuff to keep us busy at home though.  Hubby has offered to help out with some much needed "deep cleaning" so I am truly thankful for that!  Also, I finally got my anniversary gift the other day!  (That was oh...a month ago).  We like to stick with the traditional themes for gifts, and my husband brought home some gardening supplies to get me started.  This years theme is "fruit and flowers", though I don't plan on planting fruit or flowers...just vegetables and herbs.  Anyway, it's loosely based on this years' theme.  I'm really happy with what he got me though.  I'll get some pictures when I go out on the patio to get started.  I'm so not sentimental (usually) so I'm one of those rare women that actually appreciates practical gifts like vacuums and food processors.  Anyway, I hope to get my garden set up tomorrow...maybe.

On another note, here's a couple of blogging questions that I'm just going to "put out there" in hopes that some helpful person with point me in the right direction: First of all, I seem to have problems with Blogger as I'm typing a post, and it changes fonts on me at random...how do I fix this?  Secondly, if I need to edit something after I've already published a post, I click on "preview" to see the changes and all the formatting is gone.  It just turns into one big run-on paragraph.  Anyone know how to fix that???  It's just kind of irritating.  I'm still pretty new to all this, so I'm not really sure what to do.  I don't want to be stuck with typos and other mistakes I notice after the fact.  Or spend several minutes reformatting the post.  Know what I mean???  Thanks in advance.

Happy Labor Day to all you hard-working employed individuals!