Am I old?

Am I? You can be honest.
I know that in ten years I will look back in disgust at my poor attitude towards the end of my 20's, but STILL. Do I look like this?

I said, be honest.
Do I have a perm and white hair and am just unaware?

Do I watch Wheel of Fortune with the volume turned way up and I just don't realize it?

This deep introspection regarding age probably has something to do with my birthday coming up this week. I used to love birthdays, reader. And I still do, as long as the specific age/number is not mentioned, a fact which is totally RETARDED and don't I know it!

I am hoping that as I get farther and farther away from my 20's, I will just accept it and move on.
I will NOT get botox and plastic surgery (as if I even had the funds) and start to look like some weird alien creature.

Such as:

I'd rather grow older with grace, like Meryl Streep or Helen Mirran or Diane Lane. Granted, those women all have good genes and beautiful faces to begin with, but one can dream. So shut up.

Love, Carolyn

Winter Optimism

Today begins my Winter Cleaning Tour '10.
This past summer my sister and I became so frustrated with the state of our homes (with seven children between us) that we came up with a new idea. A revolutionary idea. We would come up with a cleaning schedule for our houses and send it to the other. Then for each room, we'd take a dreaded, horrible, embarrassing BEFORE photo and also send that to the other.
The we'd clean said room.
Thoroughly.
Exhaustingly.
Every nook, every cranny, every drawer, every surface, under every object.
When we were done (and we had to be done by the deadline we had agreed to) we would take an AFTER photo and send that via email to the other.
The motivation? IF for some reason we procrastinated and didn't finish the room by the scheduled and promised time, the other dastardly sister would post the dreaded BEFORE picture online. Or worse yet, send it to our mother, who assuredly would come over right away and roll up her sleeves and dig into the mess herself.

I am going to go out on a ledge and post one of my BEFORE (gulp) and AFTER photos for you to see.

I have decided on a kids' room BEFORE photo, because at least then I can blame the mess on my unsuspecting child, rather than on myself.   (This is what happens when my children dump all their clothes out of their dressers. On a daily basis. Oh, how embarrassing. But I'm keeping it real, ya'll.)
 

AFTER! Whew. So much less embarrassing.    

And it gives me a calm feeling in my soul.

It's time for that feeling again, starting today!