KALEIDOSCOPE

Melding two households and two home décor tastes can become a formidable task.  In today’s society the task of redecorating is also complicated by time restraints and the price of gas.  With this in mind, I have adapted one of the ideas I used as a theater teacher to the task of redecorating our home.

The concept is simple.  As you page through catalogs, the Sunday paper advertisements, and magazines, clip pictures of items that spark your interests and pictures of rooms that look appealing.  Using a three ring notebook and a set or two of dividers, paste your clippings on pages under your chosen categories.  For example, the category of living room might begin with pictures of various room arrangements followed by pages devoted to drapes and drapery hardware, sectional furniture, couches, chairs, tables, and lamps.

Before you venture out to shop for items for your room, take out the book and discuss your options with your partner.  Your personalized redecorating notebook can then be carried with you when you shop online or at local businesses.

If you have the technology, you can even create a notebook with your computer’s picture manager or on power point.  Since this would be difficult to take with you, you could print out pictures of what you are looking for.

When you go to local businesses knowing what you want, it is much more difficult to be swayed into purchasing something you don’t want or need.

This week I came face to face with another could-a, should-a, would-a event in my life.  Since I don’t subscribe to the local paper, my mother keeps me informed about the contents of the daily obituary pages.  She called Wednesday to ask if I knew that an uncle of my ex-husband’s had died.  Although he was 92, I was not expecting his death.  Three months earlier, his wife had passed away, and at the visitation, I told this uncle that I would bring my boys out and we would visit sometime.

As the funeral proceeded, I began to think about, and regret, all the could-a, should-a, would-a letters, visits, and activities that I have planned into my schedule but never accomplished.   As the holiday season commences this year, it is time to put an end to the could-a, should-a, would-a excuses that stand in the way of accomplishing the little tasks that other people appreciate.

Here is the could-a, should-a, would-a.  The last three months have been extremely chaotic and we hadn’t gotten out to see him; so as Thanksgiving approached, I thought that I would take the Friday after the holiday to visit relatives in nursing homes.  At the visitation and funeral today, I had the “I could-a made, should-a made, and I would-a made time in my schedule to have gone to visit him.  But…?”  It was the “but” that I couldn’t finish.  I really couldn’t find a “but” for a reason.

According to dictionary.com, one of the definitions for kaleidoscope is “a continually shifting pattern or scene.  Life, for many people, is a continually shifting of attitudes, interests, lifestyles, habits, and needs as life changes.  Life changing events (loss of job, change of career, pregnancy, marriage, divorce, health issues, caring for an elderly person, loss of someone important to you) generally force people to change how they deal with day to day life.  Because my life is in continual flux, I have named my blog Kaleidoscope.

I also found, as I sat down to brainstorm about topics, that I have a varied set topics about which I am knowledgeable and a varied set of interests and experiences.

So, here begins my blog and my knowledge and insight.