For reasons I don't know (something about gluten-free Cheerios, maybe?), Cheerios are in the news as of late. This amuses me, as I recently polished off the box of Honey-Nut Cheerios with the boys, and thought, meh, too sugary.

Me.

Too sugary.

Did you ever expect that day to happen?

(No? Me, neither.)

Today's grocery run included an unfamiliar store layout, an argument with Dad, a slight compromise of principles, a moment of being lost, and seven bags of groceries that cost really more than I expected. In the end, I was able to have this:

I have to say, this was the most delicious bowl of Cheerios I've had in a while. Plain Cheerios and unsweetened almond milk. Yum.

That whole "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" thing?

Totally applies to a house remodel.

What the designers and architects and magazines and builders and showrooms don't tell you, however, is how things will look and work day to day.

Take stainless steel appliances, for example. Wow, they look great on the showroom floor. They look AMAZING in the pictures.

They look like ass with little kid and big kid and small adult and large adult handprints all over them. And those thing are a pain to keep polished sparkling clean, and who would want to keep them that clean anyway?

And that sink? That stainless steel, double sink with the deep bowl on one side? As far as sinks go, those are gorgeous. I love them. I want one in every house I own.

And you know what?

They are impossible to keep clean.

That deep bowl? Try washing a full sink full of dishes. Leaning over into the deep sink puts a strain on the lower back. Oh, boy, after a day of cooking, I'll be happy for the "I cook, you clean" rule for all the non-dishwasher pots and pans I might use.

Which is not to say, I don't totally love the stainless sink I have in the house. I totally do. It's lovely and beautiful and great given it's only me in the house so I have few dishes to wash. The water splotches and general non-perfect surfaces tell me I'm using the sink. It's being used for its purpose and, you know what, I *get* to use this lovely sink. I think that's awesome.

So, while the grass is greener where you water it, the stainless steel is perfect where you use it, even when it has smudges on it.

I'm reading a book about life and how the brain works. In it, one of the lines reads, "... think about or 'creatively visualize' your front door..."

The door that came to mind was not my own front door. It wasn't even a front door.

The door that came to mind first was and is the back door of Dad's house. The red door, lined in white, with a tan background of aluminum siding, a red porch before it.

Which is odd, in that that door wasn't the front door for the longest in my life, nor the most recent.

And, yet, it may be front door of the house at the last time I felt safe and comforted and loved and rooted and home, all at the same time.

If only I knew the future, maybe I wouldn't have felt that way. It still feels a bit like coming home, though, visiting Dad.

Last year was the first year I recall picking a theme word for the year. I don't recall if I've done it before, I might have. Last year's theme word was Embrace, which made it about a month before it faded from my awareness. Lots of people asking me about it, flak from, well, Arnaud the A-- pretty much dampened my enthusiasm for it, and I stopped with the theme word as I concentrated more on not jumping off the roof at work.

Despite the spectacular failure of last year's theme word to guide me through the year, I'm going to try again with a theme word this year. This year's theme word is

Now, I completely recognize the irony of this word as this year's theme word. You would, too, if you realized I'm about 80% deaf in one of my ears. Newly deaf, no less. So newly deaf that I still don't turn my head the correct way to hear people out of my good ear, I hold the phone up to the deaf ear, and I don't know how to read lips yet. I expect all of these will come with time.

So, to have Listen as my theme word may be odd.

And, yet, it is perfect.

I'm listening more to what other people have to say. Not only just hearing what other people have to say, but listening to what they say. I think this is a good thing. Finding the good parts from the words of people I like and respect is easy. Finding the good parts in the words of people who speak eloquently and well is easy (they summarize what they're saying). Finding the good parts from ignorant or disagreeable or stupid or frustrating people is much, much harder, and requires listening.

And that's my goal for this year, despite my newly acquired handicap.

To listen.