Decluttering has been an ongoing project around here for a while. That’s because I’m moving at an absolute glacial pace without any real hope for improvement in this lifetime.
While motivated to not suffocate under the weight of my own stuff, I’m stymied by two things:
The phrase “but it’s really nice” often slows down the process. I have to constantly remind myself that if I don’t need a thing, it doesn’t matter how nice the thing is. Do you know that until about two weeks ago, I owned five colanders? I cannot begin to explain the reasons behind this.
I collect things with potential and I hate to let go of potential. Vintage items that will someday be rotated in to my home decor, random craft projects, and scraps of ribbon and fabric (because you never know when you might need precisely five inches of a beautiful blue ribbon) are particular weaknesses.
I realized this week that I own so many black socks there is no reason to ever again wear an uncomfortable pair of socks. Slidey socks are unwelcome here.
Scout isn’t all that helpful. I emptied this fabric box earlier this week and he has laid claim to it. He seems to believe it’s the nicest box he’s ever set paw in and hasn’t been receptive to my suggestions that we move it. We certainly can’t give it away since he’s discovered the creature comforts of having a fabric box of one’s own!
I did drop off a carload of donations a couple of weeks ago and have another bag started already. Progress is progress, I guess. Even if it is slow!
In the original 1964 Adams Family television show, daughter Wednesday Adams uttered one of my all-time favorite lines. It’s so nice and gloomy.
I thought about that statement a lot yesterday as rain settled in across southern Ohio. As the sky darkened, folks scurried down the street, pulling their jackets tighter from beneath their umbrellas.
It was a perfect rainy November day and I was all for it. My only complaint was that it wasn’t a weekend when I could be home to enjoy the whole thing.
So I went skipping home after work, lit the Christmas tree and put on warm pajamas before doing a few chores. A hot dinner plus cuddle time with Scout while I watched the Ken Burns documentary made for a delightful ending to a delightful rainy day.
It’s sometimes a little surprising to me how different I am from other people. Dark, gloomy days are invigorating to me. I breathe better. I work harder. I’m happier. The small comforts last night – warm pjs, a good baked potato, some twinkle lights, time with my cat – were like a big ole dollop of whipped cream atop my proverbial mug of hot chocolate.
I’m fortunate to be a weirdo who welcomes the rainy days. I’m also lucky to understand the value of making the best of things and of having a place of one’s own to feather a nest and to rest and recharge.
Enjoy your day, friends. I hope it brings something that will make you happy.
Introduce the topic of Christmas decorating to any conversation and you will quickly find that people are unexpectedly passionate. Early decorators typically are just happy doing their thing and others can like it nor not. They’re doing it for themselves and are satisfied with their life choices. The Not-Before-Thanksgiving folks can be pretty passionate about their belief that we should give that holiday its own space and wait till December.
When I was a kid, we always decorated the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was tradition. First, we would give thanks on Thursday for all we had before heading out to forget gratitude and bargain hunt on Friday. Then on Saturday we would embrace Christmas as we had finally crossed some imaginary line on the calendar.
When I was the marketing director for my county, I was responsible for the Christmas event in our county seat. That meant organizing businesses, nonprofits and crafters for an afternoon of fun on the first Saturday in December.
It was a lot of work in addition to my regular job and I typically started planning in July or August. Friends, it is hard to think about Christmas trees and hot chocolate on a sweltering summer day so I would often begin listening to Christmas music just to make those planning days more enjoyable, By fall I was watching Christmas movies and by Veterans Day I was decorating at home.
This year, I started decorating last week and put up one of my trees yesterday.
I typically don’t host for Thanksgiving so I’m not ruining anyone’s holiday with the greenery and lights on my mantle. The tree I put up yesterday celebrates winter more than Christmas as it’s loaded with berries, pine cones, wooden mushrooms, little primitive churches and birds.
Before that I spent some time adding small festive touches to bookshelves and corners of the house that could use some brightening up.
Personally, I don’t mean to rush Christmas so much as I want to have more time with the beautiful decorations and white lights that I enjoy so much. Christmas can wait while you all eat your turkeys. Personally I’m thankful to be vegetarian so I don’t have a bird’s demise on my conscience. That’s one of many things I’m thankful for as I enjoy the warmth and light of my fortunate life.
Besides, it is a lot of work so it’s nice to stretch out the enjoyment as much as possible.
Friends, I hope you will do what works best for you. Cover everything in tinsel and baubles as early as you like or….wait till the week of Christmas. Whatever makes you happy works for me.
Life has felt dark and uncertain lately. Personally, I’m happy for the comfort and joy I feel in the presence of the warm glow of Christmas lights
Around here, I am freshly back from vacation and barely acclimating. I’m not one to rest well when I travel nor do I allow myself a lot of time to just breathe. If I’m going to the trouble of traveling someplace, I want to enjoy that place and see as much as possible. Then I was in hurry up and wait mode as air travel felt like more like a chore than a luxury this time.
So I came home tired, jet lagged and possibly fighting off a cold or something worse.
I slept about fifteen hours last night. While I regret missing so much of this day, I am glad to wake up feeling much better and less like knocking on death’s door.
Around here, the colors are muted, the sky is dull and it is chilly. It’s the perfect day to lollygag with a book and cat and to piddle around the house, putting things back in order. Dishes are done, the bedsheets are drying, and the bed is airing out while it waits to be made up.
It’s also a good day for soup. I found a recipe to try but I’m going to Brandify it so wish me luck. This could go well or be terrible.
Around here, I broke down and turned on the heat today. Overnight temperatures outside have been in the thirties since I got home. I play this game to see how long I can hold out before turning on the furnace. My goal is November 1. It’s October 25 and was 50 degrees inside when I got up.
I’m choosing comfort over valor this year.
Around here, I am five books behind on my annual reading goal with little hope of catching up by December 31. Thats ok. The reading goal is really designed to keep me pushing forward rather than to make me feel bad for missing the mark. In the end, I will still have read a ton of truly good books this year.
Around here I am contemplating what travel stories to tell you in the coming weeks. This trip to Cody was exactly what I needed – some museums, some outdoors, some shopping and some time with my friend who I miss very much.
There wasn’t any hiking though as my knee continues to be an issue. Instead, we did some sightseeing and even some off-roading in her Jeep. Cody isn’t especially friendly to those of us who don’t eat meat so I came home excited for vegetables and with few restaurant recommendations to share.
And much of what we learned in museums wasn’t especially cheerful. The most meaningful place we went was Heart Mountain, the site of an internment camp where Japanese Americans were held during World War II. Their interpretive center is a place I believe every American should experience at least once. Yet, I notice that people I have tried to talk to about it completely check out of the conversation because they don’t want to hear it.
Because ignoring it will certainly make it go away, right?
Around here I’m thinking a lot about the stories we tell ourselves, the ones we choose to hear, and how our ability to only be exposed to what we like or agree with is killing our nation.
Around here, I have a lot on my mind. But for now, I’ll cuddle my kitty cat who is desperately glad to have me here and I’ll make my soup and read my book and be glad to be back home.
Like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, around here is a pretty cool place to be.
You see, the electric company had to turn off my power while they replaced a pole in front of my house and it was off longer than I would have liked.
But I was able to run water.
For those of you who have never relied on a well, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is. You turn on your faucet and water comes flowing from some municipal water source just as it should.
The thing is, until this summer, I lived my entire life reliant on a well for water. Since well pumps require electricity to work, there was no water access during an outage.
I do live in a forest after all and dense woods can lead to trees on power lines at any time.
It’s inconvenient but you learn to manage. I have always kept plastic jugs filled with water for flushing. Gallon jugs of water from the store could be used for washing or drinking. If we knew a winter storm was on the way, I would fill pans of water of water too. Just in case.
But all that changed this summer when county water finally found its way up my road. It came part way several years ago and the end of the line was a hydrant less than a mile from my home. Now there’s a shiny new water tower on the hill behind my house and lines going on to several more households beyond my own.
My dad recalls a petition to bring water here back in the seventies so it had been a long time coming. I was the first on my road to sign up for a new tap this summer and have been enjoying the delights of county water since July.
I am grateful every day that I turn on a faucet and clean water comes out. It is plentiful. It tastes ok. It isn’t hard like my well water which the health department told us wasn’t even safe to drink. In fact, I now understand the lifetime of dental problems that have haunted me. There is no water filtration system that would make my well water healthy to drink.
I belong to some frugal living and nonconsumer groups on Facebook and am always shocked by the arrogance of people who announce to the world the easiest and smartest way to save money is to stop buying bottled water. “It’s wasteful,” they say. “There’s no excuse for it,” they say.
It’s just their lack of experience talking but they sound so tone deaf and so out of touch when they continue to argue with people like me who have essentially no choice. There are places in this country including on my own road where there is no water to be had. People have to haul in water by the truck full if they’re lucky or by the jug if they don’t have a way to haul large amounts. I once saw a news story about an Indian Reservation in this country where the government helped fund new house trailers for seniors but they’re on land without water. The kitchen faucet may be pretty but it’s useless for those folks who have to carry in gallon jugs and heat their water in a pan on the stove.
While I had running water, we lived in fear of a drought or that the pump might go bad. These things never happened at two in the afternoon either. It was always late at night or on the coldest or hottest day of the year and parts aren’t always easy to come by. The local well drilling company is wonderful but they can’t always come at a moment’s notice.
I still keep water on hand because a line break is always possible and I’ve experienced a few days of pressure issues as they’ve been extending the new lines. So I still have to be prepared but not at the level I did this time last year.
Again, I am grateful.
I hope the novelty of running water on a day without electricity is never lost on me because it sparked true and powerful joy when I could wash my hands and fill a water bottle without thought or labor!
In my world, weekdays are for work, weeknights are for home, Saturdays are for adventure and Sunday is for home. I find this a nice balance and one where I get a powerful mix of rest and chores at home with something fun to do on the weekend.
That has not been the mix lately. Last week left me so busy and sick of the world that I actually took a nap on Friday after work. A nap!
This is not who I am.
So yesterday, after lecturing all do you dear readers about the importance of getting out in the world for adventures, I did the unexpected.
I stayed home.
It was nice to sleep in, rest the knee, fix a good dinner, do a few chores, and finish the book I was reading. I even had two meals on the porch! All the same, I was super annoyed to squander what was a great road trip day.
Oh, the fun I could have had!
I’ve been jonesing for a trip to the big antique mall at Springfield and a morning roaming around Yellow Springs. A day roaming downtown Marietta is always fun and a boxed lunch on the Valley Gem would be delightful. I’ve been wanting to visit Hawthorne Hill in Dayton. That was the home of Orville Wright and it’s open for tours. It was a little warm for a hike but I could have managed.
I’m still babying the knee a little so rest is good but a gal can dream.
Sigh.
The good news is that I got some rest and saved my money for adventures ahead. There’s fun on the calendar next weekend and I have plans for my annual October vacation. I’ll need my energy and money for all of that!
