Anybody who knows me, knows that I care deeply about my house, home & role as Mother/Warrior/Goddess.Or as my daughter Lulu so delicately puts it — “You’re totally OCD, Mom.”

Which means that the last year when I was blogging 24/7 (and that is not a metaphor) there were a lot of projects around the house that were subject to (as my husband, the college president, delicately puts it) “deferred maintenance.”

House is painted (shutters are coming)!

Well, it’s 2011. The blog party is over. And so are all the deferred maintenance projects: crappy lawn, dead flowers, broken jewelry, unrepaired cars, semi-forgotten children, neglected friends, and just a whole bunch of shiny happy things that I didn’t pay nearly enough attention to while I was writing.

My '67 Buick -- back in running condition!

So now, after doing a whole bunch of writing work, I’m all over my To Do list .. but not today, because I’ll be going to Montgomery, Alabama on a bus to work at the Food Bank, sorting food for the victims of the big tornadoes that ripped through there last week and created total mayhem. But then another big twister wreaked havoc on Joplin, Missouri a few days ago — making Alabama seem like old news.

I don’t know what is happening with the weather, but it seems that all we can do is figure out what is needed, pull together, and do what we can (if you’re close), or send what we can (if you’re far away).

Despite all the desperation and daunting news, I find something beautiful in the idea of maintenance .. the steady, careful attending to what is necessary and essential.  It’s where I want to put my energy, whether it’s in my back yard, a state away, or continent away.

It’s my next best hope for the future. You do what you can do … and you hope for the best.