The week between Christmas and New Year's can be a bit of a downer, especially after the all excitement and anticipation leading up to the 25th. Thankfully though, if you call the Phoenix Area home or are visiting our diverse and expansive Valley of the Sun, you will find that there are plenty of things to keep you and yours busy in the final countdown to 2012. Here are multiple ideas ranging from free to a little past pricey but worth the payout.
Free
Climb Camelback Mountain
Visit the Zelma Basha Salmeri Gallery of Western American and Native American Art, Chandler
Take the kids to Playtopia at Tumbleweed Park in Chandler
$
Burn out some energy with the kids at Jumpstreet in Chandler
Tour Shamrock Farms and get a free ice cream coupon if you "like" them on Facebook
Tour Cerretta's Candy Factory, Glendale
Take a night ride under the Christmas Lights at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, Scottsdale
Attend a Puppet Show at the Great Arizona Puppet Theater, Phoenix
Enjoy a class of wine at the new Vintage 95 restaurant and wine bar at 95 W. Boston St., Chandler
$$
See the Real Pirates exhibit at the Arizona Science Center
Tour the Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum
Experience Las Noches De Las Luminarias at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens
$$$
Go see Daddy Long Legs at the Herberger Theater
Have fun keeping busy and have a Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Tidy and Bright
I've discovered that life is far more cheerful when things are tidy, though they never seem tidy enough. Alexander Pope said "order is heaven's first law," but I find that hard to achieve in the home.
The bathrooms and the kitchen may be clean but the living room is a menagerie of toys, socks, clothes, jackets, and rumpled pillows, not to mention crushed graham crackers, dust bunnies, and enough sand for an indoor beach. When that is remedied, I am still faced with heaps of laundry and envelopes full of decisions- read, pay, save, shred? It never ends.
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project offered some very practical tips on keeping clutter under control in her article from the January 2012 issue of Good Housekeeping. She has a "one-minute rule" and does whatever tasks she can in one minute- pick up shoes, put something back in a drawer, wipe off the counter.
"With the one-minute rule, I can choose to do anything that needs doing, without delay, as long as I can do it within a minute," she wrote.
Her second suggestion is to tidy up the house before going to bed. She suggests doing a quick pick up of toys, coats, pillows, etc. so that the next day begins in an orderly fashion. I think this is especially helpful as a mom of young children. The house may look like mayhem by dinner, but once the little lambs are in bed, I can do a quick pick up and my world is sane once more.
A 10 item pick-up is another wonderful idea for keeping things orderly. Diana Smith, mother of nine and grandmother of seven, uses this technique when toys are strewn pell-mell around the room. Calling the children, she asks each of them to pick up 10 items- blocks, cars, puzzle pieces, or a combination of them all. By the time everyone picks up their 10 items, the mess has disappeared. Poof!
After the clutter is gone and you can finally see your furniture, try using 19th Century British textile designer William Morris' paradigm for a tidy home: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
It's also important to realize that a house will never be in perfect order and that's o.k. Mary Lou Smith, a native Arizonan, farm wife of over 50 years, mother of six, grandmother of 22, and great-grandmother of seven offered a very wise nugget of housekeeping wisdom- Keep a house clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.
I'll raise my glass to that one and to keeping our homes beautiful, useful, tidy, and happy this Christmas season.
Cheers!
The bathrooms and the kitchen may be clean but the living room is a menagerie of toys, socks, clothes, jackets, and rumpled pillows, not to mention crushed graham crackers, dust bunnies, and enough sand for an indoor beach. When that is remedied, I am still faced with heaps of laundry and envelopes full of decisions- read, pay, save, shred? It never ends.
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project offered some very practical tips on keeping clutter under control in her article from the January 2012 issue of Good Housekeeping. She has a "one-minute rule" and does whatever tasks she can in one minute- pick up shoes, put something back in a drawer, wipe off the counter.
"With the one-minute rule, I can choose to do anything that needs doing, without delay, as long as I can do it within a minute," she wrote.
Her second suggestion is to tidy up the house before going to bed. She suggests doing a quick pick up of toys, coats, pillows, etc. so that the next day begins in an orderly fashion. I think this is especially helpful as a mom of young children. The house may look like mayhem by dinner, but once the little lambs are in bed, I can do a quick pick up and my world is sane once more.
A 10 item pick-up is another wonderful idea for keeping things orderly. Diana Smith, mother of nine and grandmother of seven, uses this technique when toys are strewn pell-mell around the room. Calling the children, she asks each of them to pick up 10 items- blocks, cars, puzzle pieces, or a combination of them all. By the time everyone picks up their 10 items, the mess has disappeared. Poof!
After the clutter is gone and you can finally see your furniture, try using 19th Century British textile designer William Morris' paradigm for a tidy home: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
It's also important to realize that a house will never be in perfect order and that's o.k. Mary Lou Smith, a native Arizonan, farm wife of over 50 years, mother of six, grandmother of 22, and great-grandmother of seven offered a very wise nugget of housekeeping wisdom- Keep a house clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.
I'll raise my glass to that one and to keeping our homes beautiful, useful, tidy, and happy this Christmas season.
Cheers!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Listen Softly to the Night
Every year the little white house gets dressed for Christmas quite early. She spends the blazing summer afternoons dreaming of how lovely she will look in her Christmas sparkles and breezes through autumn with hopes of new apparel for the most glorious season of the year.
As soon as the last bite of Thanksgiving turkey disappears, her Christmas finery is unwrapped. There are boxes of garlands and barrels of wreaths. Yards of ribbon and dozens of ornaments. Best of all is her box of jewels- strand after strand of colorful, sparkling lights, collars and cuffs of gold stars, and reindeer and elves that shimmer like diamonds.
Just opening the lid makes her smile. She shivers with excitement as each piece is carefully taken out and gently put in its place. Sometimes things need polished or repaired, so that is done too.
With each strand, the little house feels a bit prettier and a trifle more brave. She is a happy little house, though not excessively bold. But when everything is done and her jewels burn against the dark coldness of the night, she finds her voice and boldly sings the song all things beautiful and bright sing at Christmas- a birthday anthem for the King.
You can hear them singing if you listen softly to the night.
S.L. Perrault
As soon as the last bite of Thanksgiving turkey disappears, her Christmas finery is unwrapped. There are boxes of garlands and barrels of wreaths. Yards of ribbon and dozens of ornaments. Best of all is her box of jewels- strand after strand of colorful, sparkling lights, collars and cuffs of gold stars, and reindeer and elves that shimmer like diamonds.
Just opening the lid makes her smile. She shivers with excitement as each piece is carefully taken out and gently put in its place. Sometimes things need polished or repaired, so that is done too.
With each strand, the little house feels a bit prettier and a trifle more brave. She is a happy little house, though not excessively bold. But when everything is done and her jewels burn against the dark coldness of the night, she finds her voice and boldly sings the song all things beautiful and bright sing at Christmas- a birthday anthem for the King.
You can hear them singing if you listen softly to the night.
S.L. Perrault
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)