Weekending...

This was our first view of the marchers.  We parked about a block away, and could see the crowd we would be joining.  Quite a busy day for the city's downtown, as they were also hosting the Final Four.

We had lovely cool and breezy weather.  I would not have been surprised if it had been ninety-plus degrees, so the fifties was lovely.  There was a big crowd.

This was the flipside of my sign.  Out of my sight, out of my mind.  I was surprised when the person behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hi, stranger."  It was very nice to have her respond to my sign and know I was surrounded by like-minded people.  :)

I walked a lot more than I thought I could.  When I could see down a side street that the beginning of the line was a block over and returning to the main square, I did cut across and cut the line.  I was afraid I might not be able to make the whole route, as we had inadvertently gotten in the 'long route' group, and I don't do well on uneven surfaces, so I felt like it was better to be safe than sorry.

It really lifted my spirits to take part.

Critical thoughts...

 

I'm still at it.  Today I searched out boxes in the craft room that needed to be emptied and broken down for recycling.  (You know, Rudy is looking forward to the next recycling trip!)

One of the above boxes was the large one that the Ikea shelf came in last week.  I was so proud of myself that I got the shelf picked up from the store, put together, and put into use in the craft room (as well as returning the original shelf back to my closet and put back into use there) all before Carey made it back from his same-day, round-trip to his uncle's funeral.  So it took me a few days to break down the box; I cut myself some slack.

After breaking down the boxes, I put my feet up and checked email.  In my inbox was a message from Julie Hage from whom I receive an email subscription to her website Filling the Jars.  I don't always read the whole thing, but was glad I did today as it resonated with me.

She was discussing decluttering after age 50 (exhaustion, health issues, inherited items from departed family, etc), and boy can I relate!  She suggests being clear with yourself on your reasons for decluttering by writing it into a mission statement.  

That stopped me in my tracks.  I have not been clear with myself about why I'm decluttering.  Yeah, yeah, I want things to be neater, more organized, but I want more than that as well, yet I have never put it into a clear thought.

After mulling it over while I cooked and did a few other chores, I set out to get it down in a honest and concise way that I can refer to when I need a gentle reminder as to why this is important to me and the ones I love.  I've had some experience writing and updating mission statements at work, and know that concise is important, as is clear language that states your intent.  I wasn't as concise as I could have been, but mission statements evolve, and I can declutter IT when the time comes.

My decluttering mission statement:

My critical goal is to decrease the superfluous items in our house, and to live in a home that welcomes us and others with peace;  a home that shows off the objects that are special to us, instead of having them be lost among the crowd of unimportant  possessions; and to live with the knowledge that I have done all I can to make my eventual absence as easy as possible for my loved ones to settle.

I chose the word critical, after referring to a definition to be sure that it imparted what I wanted to say.

Critical : 

• Inclined to express negative or disapproving comments
• A meticulous analysis of literary, music, or artworks
• An extremely close examination of a situation or problem having a high likelihood of becoming dire or turning into a crisis

I liked that the first definition hints at the negative talk that I too often have in my head as I declutter...why did you let this...you're just like...you wasted so much...and that negative talk should be the first thing dispatched!  The second definition reminds me to make an honest and meticulous analysis as to why or why not things should stay or go.  The third is a reminder that the time is now.

As I am focusing mostly on the office/craft room at the moment, I wrote a separate mission statement for it particularly.

My Creative Space Mission Statement:

My aim is to have a safe and peaceful place to create with joy, and where order and beauty reflect my gratitude for the blessings of space, skill, artistry, and satisfaction.

I am curious if others set down the particular reasons for personal action, and if so, in what manner...journaling, mission statement, self-reflection?

Keeping the momentum going...

 
As usual, I forgot to take the before photo till I had already started clearing out.  
Terrible photo, but the hallway is very narrow.

I have gotten so much done during the past few days, and I've taken great pleasure at marking each task off my list as it was completed.  Since my post last Thursday about what I got done in that one day, I have kept at it.  I swear I have done more laundry in the past few days than I have in the past few months...I stopped counting at eleven loads.  And every single load was immediately folded or hung up and put away

I've cleaned out the refrigerator, then refilled it after planning the week's menu and ordering groceries.  

I have cleaned and descaled my countertop ice maker.

Both guest rooms have fresh linen, and are somewhat guest ready...if you consider that anyone who spends the night in my house either loves me enough not to care about a little clutter or can feel free not to return.  :)

I've completed my Cologuard test and shipped it back.

I've filled up the car with gasoline.

I've emptied the linen closet.

I moved all of its content to a clean guest bed (and a chair which isn't seen in the photo above), and went through every single item and filled two large boxes with things to donate...mostly sheet sets I didn't remember having and were not needed any longer, a number of sets of pillowcases still in their packages, a factory-made quilt that I only used for a Christmas tree skirt on occasion and even then didn't love, and seasonal kitchen towels that I always forgot to put in the kitchen during those seasons.  I've dropped off the donations at Goodwill.  

While I was there, I picked up five polo shirts for Carey that have front pockets (his preference).  Ones with pockets are hard to find new, but I found five in his size (including one from LL Bean and one from Land's End) that all looked nice and only very lightly worn, and were marked $6.99, but when I got to the register they were each $3.  Yay!  

Oh, from the linen closet I also found three packages of 100% cotton cloth napkins.  When I went to Kasey's for Mother's Day dinner, I took two of them with me, and talked with my grandchildren about how earth friendly cloth is over paper.  These were very well made, can just be tossed in with a load of towels to launder, and will basically last a lifetime.  Both sets were snagged by grandchildren.  

I also found cloth diapers that both of my children wore 40+ years ago, along with a few baby washcloths, and bibs that were my favorites as a mom.  I'll wait a few years before we have another talk about eco-friendly and sustainable products for babies before I offer these up.  :)

As if these items weren't enough, I found one additional item that came as a complete surprise!

We've lived in this house for fourteen years now, and neither Carey nor I had the least memory of there being an electrical outlet at the back of one of the shelves!  As seen above, I plugged in a lamp, and there was power.  I already have a new plan for this shelf.

I only got all of this accomplished, because Carey was away from home.  These are the kinds of projects that I used to do while he was away at work for a week at a time, and so not around to see the "worse before it gets better" parts of the projects.  Though I still have some final work to do in the linen closet, he missed all the chaos.

I'll show the closet 'after' photo eventually.  This week is going to be a very busy one in other ways.

Just another manic Monday...

I actually got pretty much done today.  Sometime after midnight, I finished making my menu for the week and placing our grocery order.  Then after some sleep, I packed a box of birthday goodies for a friend.  I stopped at WalMart to pick up some potting soil, then picked up the grocery order.  I dropped off a library book and picked up two more.  I mailed the birthday package.  I stopped by my old office to pick up a plant that I wanted to repot for them.  I came home and put away all the groceries that needed refrigeration and then repotted the plant.  I returned the plant to the office.  I came home and cleaned the bathroom, and then read a chapter in one of my new library books. I put away all the rest of the groceries, started supper, then loaded the dishwasher with all the supper-prep dishes and handwashed a couple of things I don't like to put in the dishwasher.  Whew!

 

Quiche with Hashbrown Crust recipe by bellyfull.net

Apologies for the photo (actually for a lot of photos lately).  It's the dark days.

I saw this recipe on Instagram a day or two ago and thought I'd give it a try.  I made this one a little differently than the recipe that was given.  Hers had sausage, and I wanted to make it meatless.  Mine is so full of vegetables that I didn't even bother with adding a salad or separate vegetable to accompany it.  

The crust is easy.  I bought a bag of shredded potato which equaled about the 3 cups that the recipe calls for.  You just add a quarter cup (half a stick) of melted butter, the hashbrowns, and salt and pepper, then press it into a pie pan.  The author of the recipe said to grease the pie pan, but I just melted the butter in the pie plate in the microwave, so considered it greased.  Baked at 375° for 30 minutes.

I sliced an onion, a bell pepper, mushrooms and sauteed them till tender; then I added halved cherry tomatoes and a couple of handfuls of baby spinach to the pan and removed the pan from the heat.  When the crust had baked, I added the vegetables to it, then poured on the mixture of eggs, cream, shredded cheese, salt and pepper evenly and baked at 375 for an additional 30 minutes.

I liked it.  Carey sad he preferred a traditional pastry crust, but I was trying to really ramp up the vegetable content.  I don't think he has caught on yet that we are eating more meatless meals this year...at least he hasn't said anything.  ;)  I think tonight's quiche puts us at 5 meatless meals so far this month, which beats my goal of 2 per month.  And actually probably more, because some of the leftovers we've been eating were meatless as well.

Freezer clean out...

 I cleaned out the freezer on Saturday.  I won't say there was no food waste.  But everything discarded had been way outdated and/or was freezer burnt.  Now instead of a jumble, I have an easy map to what's in there.

Top drawer left to right:  reusable ice packs, nuts (plus my little jar of garlic), frozen mashed bananas, ice cream

Bottom drawer left to right: fruit, onion rings/french fries, vegetables

Now, when meal planning, I can see what needs to be used up before buying something.  When I saw how much fruit I have, I decided that I need to have smoothies for breakfast every day this month!  I'm sipping today's as I type.  😋

Kitchen reorganization continues...

A few days ago I said I would try to live with this cupboard for awhile.  However, I decided to move the canned goods to the pantry.  I liked having them near the stove (as they have been for the last few years), because it was nice to have frequently used ingredients close at hand when cooking.  But I will get used to the change.

Once I moved them to the pantry, I realized it made room for the cooking oils to move from the lazy Susan on the counter to the newly spacious cabinet.  

Above photo is the pantry Friday afternoon.  I forgot, as usual, to take a photo before I started.  I didn't even sit down after getting home from work.  I started straight in emptying everything from the pantry (except for the jars on the top shelf), and wiping down and sweeping it out to be ready to start reloading on Saturday.

I ordered the hanging shelf for the door last week.  I put it together (easy) and hung it first thing Saturday morning.  It said to wait 24 hours before filling baskets, as it has sticky pads to help secure it to the door that I guess needed some curing before putting any strain on them.  Really I think they just keep the shelves from swinging outward when the door is opened or closed.  Since I wasn't planning on having heavy items on the door, I gave it about 8 hours, while I began reorganizing the pantry interior shelves.

One white bin on the floor is for soiled kitchen towels and fabric napkins awaiting laundering.  The other bin is to contain bags of potatoes.  Everything else is pretty much where it was before, just better contained and labeled to try to prevent 'us' from just jamming things in willy nilly.

The door shelves have powdered milk, drink powders, seasoning packets, different sizes of ziplock bags, cloth napkins, peanut butter and jams (the heaviest things on door), and crackers.  Oh, I also have a cylinder bag clipped to the shelf unit on the right that holds plastic grocery bags that we reuse for small wastebasket liners.

Carey was visiting with his mom this weekend, so it was a good time to have the kitchen torn apart and then put back together.  There is still lots to do, but these are the ones that turned things upside down for awhile.  Now Carey can make his coffee in the morning without having a mess to work around.

Kitchen reorganization, Part 3...

Eight years ago I wrote a blog post about assembling this recipe binder.  Sometime later, as I printed out and tried new recipes, I got into the bad habit of laying them in a particular place on the counter.  I always meant to go back and put them in the binder, but you know what they say about good intentions.  

I have now filed all of the quite-large stack into the binder's page protectors.  I am really happy to have this done.  As I was putting the printed recipes into the binder, I discarded ones I had tried and not loved or ones that I had never tried and didn't think I probably ever would in the future.  And as of now I can't print out new recipes (my printer is out of service), so I should be able to keep this under control (and off of my counter) now.  

 

Kitchen reorganization, part 1...

 

I really should have taken a before shot of the kitchen, but when the mood strikes to get going I'd better not get distracted.  I am tired of the cluttered countertops.  The cooking utensils above have been on the countertop in containers, and this drawer was previously used for spices.  (But the knife holder on the right has always been in this drawer.  I hate leaving knives visible on the countertops.  I watch too much scary television.)

Can I just say that the bamboo spring-loaded adjustable dividers above are ones I got from the Container Store years ago.  They are absolutely my favorite things; so easy to use and easy to reconfigure.  When the spices were in this drawer, I had a fifth divider in there.  I will use it in another drawer now.  I also got a new set of spring loaded dividers that can have perpendicular dividers that fit in slots.

I really liked this cupboard as I had been using it before, but since I had to make room for the spices, I had to change things up.  I may redo it again after living with it for a little while.

The upper shelf seen here is quite a stretch, and there's one above it that is unreachable without a step stool.  I should donate everything that is out of reach, because I haven't used any of them in years.  

Carey walked in the kitchen for supper, and said, "Uh-oh."  He is really good about unloading the dishwasher, so now he has to get used to new locations for things.  :)

I'll share updates as they come...

Kitchen reorganization, Part 2...

                             

Two more drawers today.  These are just to the right of the sink, and are the most accessible with wet hands, but are really too small for kitchen towels.  Hence, I previously had the towels in a container on the island.  But again, I am so tired of too much stuff on the counters that I decided that the one nearest the sink could hold at least a few towels.  I guess I'll keep the extra towels in the pantry or laundry room.

These two drawers both previously held a bit of a mishmash.  The one on the left had dishcloths and sponges along with matches and a couple of other things.  The one on the right had the kitchen scissors, tape, Sharpies & pencils, the lids to cover cans of dog food.  With the dividers, I managed to combine both drawers' contents into this one.

When I finished these, I took a minute to take a before photo of what I want to tackle next.  :)

If this is boring, I'm really sorry.  Sharing my progress gives me something to look back on later and kind of analyze the success (or lack thereof).

Weekend goal...

In yesterday's 7 Random Thoughts on the 7th post, I stated that my goal for this weekend was to get rid of all the cardboard boxes that have accumulated.  First thing I did was gather ALL of them from their hiding places around the house into one place.  Shame on me for letting it get this out of hand! 

Okay, as you can see, I do a lot of online shopping.  In my defense, these are probably from the past year...of course it's not much of a defense that I've let them pile up instead of disposing of them immediately...but it's a lot of work.

'

What takes the longest is redacting private information (call me paranoid, it's a compulsion)...

...and letting the air out of packing materials so they take up as little space as possible...

...and tending injuries.  Man, I hate cardboard-caused paper cuts.

Ta-Da!  I kept two boxes to use for putting donations in.  Donations will be taken to Goodwill, and all of this cardboard will be dropped off at recycling this week!

Whew!  Patting myself on the back for completing this goal.

Making it Monday...

Today I have:

...made TEN thousand trips to the back door to let Rudy in and out.

...contacted NINE companies to update our payment method.

...checked the pockets of EIGHT pair of jeans before tossing them in the washer.

...walked SEVEN hundred steps to the mailbox and back.

...made SIX cards.

...paid FIVE bills.

...washed, folded, and put away FOUR loads of clothes

...shredded THREE bins full of old bills, bank and employment documents.

...eaten TWO pieces of peanut butter toast.

...talked ONE grandson, home from college, into coming over to exhaust train Rudy.  I'll bet the boy is more exhausted than Rudy is.

Yesterday...

Yesterday was one of my busy days that are necessitated by my procrastinating ways.

I started early getting onions in the slow cooker to cook for 13 hours.  The Beef & Winter Vegetable Stew (which I'm making at the quilt retreat on Sunday) calls for 2 cans of condensed French Onion Soup.  But since one of our group has a pretty severe gluten allergy, and since the canned/condensed isn't one that Campbell's certifies as gluten free, I decided to make my own.  The onions are now cooked and stored.  I didn't add the broth, as I figured it would be easier to transport it packaged from the store and add once we get to the retreat location.

I also browned the stew meat, vacuum sealed it, and put it in the freezer to keep till needed.  I froze it pretty much in a single layer so it will thaw quickly.

I chopped the vegetables for the retreat soup and vacuum sealed those as well.  Now MOST everything is ready to just assemble in the slow cooker once there.

I did laundry.

I changed the bed.

I decided on what projects to work on at retreat, and all the individual project boxes are stacked and ready to put in the car.  I decided to work almost solely on WIPs (works in progress) and will  hopefully come home with several ready to take to be machine quilted.  Finishing that last little bit to make them ready to quilt is another thing I procrastinate on...therefore I have a lot of WIPs to take with me.  All should be fairly quick things, like putting on borders and piecing the backing fabrics.

I went to the city to drop off Goodwill donations that have been in the back of my car waiting to be dropped off for far too long.  I wasn't about to take the several boxes and bags of donations back into the house, and really needed my car empty so I could pack it with sewing machine, projects, and groceries.

While I was in the city, I purchased a few things I needed for the weekend...bobbins and needles and threads...oh my!  I want to have lots of bobbins already filled so I can just change them out as I empty one without having to stop and refill one at a time.

Today I am working, so I won't be doing much prep work at all today.  Maybe run to the grocery on my lunch hour to pick up some apples.  And then maybe I'll get those bobbins filled this evening.

No time for reading Wednesday...

There's been a little bit of this...a very little bit...just trying to learn how to use the new machine which I finally took out of the box!  It's the new version of the Singer Featherweight.  I haven't heard great things about modern Singers for years, but a very talented friend who teaches sewing techniques purchased this model within the past year, and she has been pleased.  Since I wanted it to be portable enough to pack around for quilting group and retreats, I went for this one.  (Plus my very talented friend will be available for any questions.  LOL)

There's been a lot of this...on a couple of different projects.

A little progress shown here...you probably can't tell what it is yet.  I'll show you...eventually.  :)

 

Then there's been some of this.  The white beads are seed beads.  I have no idea what fresh hell those teeny-tiny red beads are named for...poppy seeds maybe...or celery seeds...so very tiny.  And when I finished separating those...

...there were more...so very many more.  And these are the kinds of things I choose to undertake at 3 a.m....the dark of night...on black background.  Yes.  I'm crazy that way.

Ah!  All sorted and contained.  

And that is why I haven't been reading much.  It's hard to read when your eyes are strained!

Before and after...

Before

After

It looks very white, and I know the distressing doesn't show up much in the photograph above, but it actually shows up very well looking at it in person.

Sometimes there is a fine line with distressing, and I didn't want to go overboard.  Here are some closeups.  

The handle on the right is the original.  Its original mate broke (as in irreparable metal-fatigue broke) a long time ago, so we had to replace knobs.  I found the bronze flower knob on the left at Hobby Lobby yesterday, and they were half price.  It never happens that the thing I want is actually on sale when I need it, so that was awesome...$2 each.

I tried just the knobs, but that looked a little too bare, and somewhat juvenile, to me.

So I put the original ornamental knob backing back on with the new knobs, and I like it a lot better.

And there you go.  Before and after.  I haven't had Carey seal the chalk paint yet.  It is pretty resistant to scratches as is (we tried scratching, and it resisted, LOL).  And in case the white continues to look too bright to me, I wanted to be able to do some sort of a lightly tinted wash before we put on a coat of polycrylic to seal it.

I have to say that even though people say how easy chalk painting is, it wasn't Carey's favorite foray into experimentation.  That could have just been user error.  

Wait till I tell him that the big brown wall looks too big and brown now and needs to be repainted another color.  ROTFLOL!  Oy vey, that wall requires scaffolding.  He's going to flip.

Making it Monday...

I had to go in to work for awhile today in preparation for jumping in next Monday.  I left Carey at home with one chore.  This is all he got done.  :)  I have been cracking the whip since returning.  Funny...that doesn't speed him up any.  LOL  I'm starting to worry that it won't be done as soon as I was hoping.

For some reason, every time I look at it now I see this...

Yesterday...

This armoire was my 16th birthday present; the armoire plus the rest of a matching bedroom suite to be precise.  Yes, being the last child at home had its advantages, but I vaguely remember that my mother had credit at the furniture store that she needed to use or forfeit, so I lucked out.  Over the years, I've sold the headboard, nightstand, and dresser, but I've always liked the armoire and hesitated to part with it.  

I like the smaller compartments that it has as opposed to a lot of similar pieces.  When we lived in a one-room hunting cabin for eight months (when we moved to the ranch, and before we put a house on it) it went with us.  Carey thought it was a waste of space, but it added a lot more vertical storage than it took up floor space, so was priceless to me during that time.

I planned a wedding while in that cabin, and this piece held so many of the things I was working on: decorations, invitations, lists, receipts.  It was my command center.  I taped all the receipts to the insides of the doors, and then once the wedding was over, I put them all in an envelope.  Today I found that envelope still tucked inside a drawer.  I've never totaled up the receipts.  :)  

The armoire hasn't really been in use for years, so it was kind of like opening a time capsule.  Lately I've been thinking about how to better use this furniture piece by consolidating storage for some like items.  I was just going to fill it as is, but I happened to ask Carey if he felt like painting it before he went back to work, and surprisingly, his response was a definite maybe.  :)  I hope to get it done and filled before I have to start my month of work (only one more week to go!).  I'll show 'after' photos...eventually.

It was oddly coincidental that I decided on yesterday (St. Patrick's Day) to clean it out, as I came across maps and souvenirs from my trip to Ireland.  :)

The armoire wasn't stuffed full of things, thank goodness, but I did fill a box with books, and crafts, etc. to donate, and will drop it off next time I go to the city.

Giving things up for the 40 days of Lent...

I began reading a couple of new (to me) frugal blogs since the beginning of the year.  This week Happy Simple Living mentioned Uncluttering for Lent which really caught my attention.

I'm not Catholic, but over the years I have many times made Lenten sacrifices...usually things that are unhealthy and/or overindulgences...the years I gave up soda, ice cream, and the Internet come to mind.  I try not to be frivolous about my sacrifice, but choose things that the absence of which will challenge me, and will remind me that God is more important than worldly things.

I'm a few days late getting started this year (Lent is Feb 14 thru Mar 29 this year)...but that's okay...it's never too late to decide to do good things.  

Possessions are something that are hard for me to let go of, so I think the solemnity of a religious fast mindset will help me progress.  I know it won't be easy.  The Happy Simple Living post suggests giving away a box or bag of usable items every day.  I made the calendar page above to track what I do daily.  I will post updates, perhaps during Lent, but for sure at the conclusion.

I'm a smooth(ie) operator...

My number one goal for the year is to have breakfast every day...extra points if it's healthy.  :)  I figured smoothies were something I could manage, and would add more fruits and vegetables to my day.  I've been buying fresh fruit as well as frozen and using fresh vegetables.

I just noticed that my piece of ginger root looks like a little lobster.  :)

I love the Rubbermaid Brilliance containers for keeping the fruit in the freezer.  With the lid as well as the container being clear, I can tell easily what is in each one, and the way the lid is designed they stack easily and don't tumble around every time I open the freezer drawer.  (This opinion is not sponsored, I just really like them.)  I bought these specifically for this purpose, because I didn't want my fruit in the freezer confused with Carey's work meals.  

This one has a banana, a small orange, a few slices of frozen peach, some frozen blueberries, a handful of spinach, and a piece of sliced ginger.  I pour some coconut milk and some Just Black Cherry juice (100% juice good for inflammation from arthritis) over the top as well as a scoop of organic egg white protein powder, and blend.  If it's too thick, I add some ice cubes and/or a little water and blend again.

So far I have been really good at getting this made and consumed first thing every morning, even on the mornings that I've had to be out of the house by 7 a.m. for work.