Spring Fever in January

I think the temperature hit seventy this afternoon. I spent two hours outside keeping a friend company while she whacked a large bush at my front gate. Hurray! This is one of those projects that I have been wanting to see done for so long that I can't remember and I am almost ready to "cry for happy."

The sun is shining in. I am sitting here with my knitted hat off for the first time in at least two months and the knitted wristers aren't necessary to type. Sun shines in the window and music plays on the headset.

It wasn't until I was outside that I realized just how cranky I had become from being inside for so long. The days are also lengthening and a bit more sunshine helps so much.

The garage is too full, much too full. What does one do with an old "mangle" ironing machine? There was a time when I could whiz through much of our household ironing sitting in front of that machine. The beautiful mahogany cabinet that, fortunately, has been covered since Papa put it out there was so full of stuff that my friend could not budge it. It now awaits the summer when she will return from sailing. I would so like to retrofit it as a media cabinet for the living room.

There are bicycles, old wheelchairs, a cedar armoire and a blanket chest as well as a child's crib all neatly tucked away and helping to fill a space that for decades actually held a 1955 Chevy Bel Air two door sedan--slightly smashed by a falling tree limb as we drove home from Mass one Sunday. Five minutes one way or the other and the tree would have missed us. Such is life's timing!

The Chevy has moved on to a new owner who is happily restoring it. I would like to see a few more items move out this year. Maybe having the central space of the garage as a space is a goal for 2009; modest sounding but more daunting than it seems.

I am grateful for time spent outside, for that bush moving on, for my friend's help and I will be grateful when there is less stuff in my garage!

Friday too soon

This week has evaporated. I have had the magnificent blessing of helpers for hours at a time. My living room is starting to emerge from clutter. Soon it will no longer look like a gigantic sorting shed and will start to look and function like a living room again. I can hardly wait.

Two closets were cleared in one day and more things are ready to give away or sell at a yard sale and some just plain junk is gone. The "big room", aka, master bedroom, is starting to take shape as the sewing/crafts space I imagined it would be at the end of last summer.

The dining room table, a family heirloom that is at the heart of my home, is visible and clothed with a new albeit, plastic, tablecloth and stands ready for guests.

A young friend, who is about to start her college years at UC Berkeley, has been helping me by translating part of my Cafepress site into Spanish. This is so exciting and I am eager to get to work on posting her translations into a separate section, "Nuevo, en Espanol". I took one semester of Spanish in college and wish that I had never stopped! Is sixty too old to learn a new language?

I am also remembering a friend who died this week. A wonderful, beautiful woman with a voice like honey and the Tennessee accent to match it, who devoted her life to her family. She was intelligent, quick-witted, loving and full of common-sense and she lived to be ninety-seven. She will be missed by the entire community who knew her. Requiescat in Pace, dear friend. I hope that you are rejoicing in heaven.

So it has been a full week without the number of blog posts I planned, but so much is being accomplished here. Earlier in the week my sister and I came up with this little ditty (and my friend who just died would have laughed with us at it, I think)

Throw, throw, throw your junk, merrily out the door. Merrily, merrily, merrily keep on throwing more. The tune, I think, is obvious.

I am grateful for the week that is past, the week that is ahead and the life of my friend, whom I will not forget.

Of Basil and Moths

The first part, the basil is the yummy part. The basils were transplanted to new eight inch pots on Friday and seem to be happy there. Saturday I topped them by snipping a bag full from the leggy parts of each plant. One plant is now on the deck because there isn't enough room on the potting shelf. That one was tipping over in such a way that each time I wheeled up to it a lovely bunch came into my lap, like a puppy greeting me and saying hello. The snipped bunches filled my kitchen colander and looked like an amazing amount. I rummaged around and found the delightful mincing gadget that is part of the Braun "stick blender". Chop, chop, whir, whir. This too, is not a toy, even though it looks like one, but a real, useful tool. The basil whirled down to one small container that will feed me pesto for three nights.

All summer and even earlier, I had noticed an up tick in the the flitter bug population. These are small, almost translucent moths that seem to whirl and whirl just out of my reach. In fact, Friday night, I even sprained my thumb trying to whack one by clapping my hands. Instead of hitting the moth, I walloped my right (and sore) thumb by slamming the heel of my left hand against it. Pain throughout the hand. Try wheeling one handed. Doesn't work well.

Sunday I discovered the source of the bugs. A nasty infestation of cocoons in a blanket that had been left too long on the living room couch. I usually use the couch as a kind of extended shelf for holding things to be sorted. Won't be doing that any more. The blanket is past salvage and now in a trash bag. The sofa needs vacuuming--and then on a regular basis. Housekeeping clearly isn't my forte!

In fact, while I garden with passion and joy, I keep house like a geek. I have laughed about that from time to time with friends, who I suspect do the same. It is funny until it gets to the point where it is negligent, as in the couch with the moths. So I suppose that it is never too late to grow up and take responsibility even for the housekeeping. Resolve: less clutter so that the cleaning can be accomplished.

I am grateful for the basil harvest and that it was only moths and not mice infesting my couch.

New Week and New Beginnings

Monday again and a whole week stretches invitingly ahead. Will I use it well or will it just slip by me? The weekend was spent on household chores. How can one person have so much laundry, so many dishes and so much stuff to shovel around? How can so much paper accumulate that needs to be shredded? The whole concept, as well as the shredders, didn't exist when I was growing up. Now I waste a major amount of time on this.

I am beginning to see that there really is a dining room here. Could be a pretty room too, with the clutter pushed back. There is slightly less mess in the living room which has been a holding for sorting room for the last year. Not what it was meant for. Today a friend is coming over to help me tackle that. A professional organizer, she is giving me the gift of her time. I am also hoping to sell the piano so that a major large piece of furniture will move on. Anyone want to buy a piano?

I spent some delightful time this morning reading Linda's blog. Jim has completed the race and they have a week in Hawaii before sailing on. Fair winds, little boat. Take my friends safely on their adventure and bring them home.

Meantime, my big adventure is to finely reclaim this house for a party to celebrate with family and friends. That is something to look forward to.

More later, when more is accomplished. I am grateful for good weather and the gift of time.

Saturday and Sunflowers

I am getting ready to have an open house tomorrow for my Mary Kay business. The dining room is clearer, the dishes are washed and the bears and dolls who used to live in the living room are now in the studio. More paper clutter has been thrown out and boxes have been removed. I pull the boxes while going backward part of the way until I get to the part of the house that is wide enough to turn the wheelchair around in and then I push with my feet. This whole process reminds me that I am old and out of shape. I am getting it done though, one push/pull, pull/push at a time.

I can see the sofa for the first time in over a year. There are too many books in this house and one of my jobs this week is going to be to figure out how to post some of them on Amazon. I have too many projects, too many ideas and even, for somebody my age, too many dreams.

Somehow this has been a depressing and tiring day instead of an energizing one. Each time that I have paused and looked out the back windows the sunflowers have glowed golden and cheered me on. Just a few moments ago the top most one was translucent with the setting sun back lighting and shining through her petals. They are like elephants, so big that they are endearing. When it was windy a little while ago, they seemed to be dancing.

I must return to my setting up and then post more tomorrow.

Happy Friday!

I can now see my living room again! Hip, Hip, Hooray! More to go, more to go. Parts of the house still look like disorganization reigns, but progress is being made. I am so glad. Decluttering takes more time and energy than accumulating the clutter did in the first place.

Soon I will be working in my new studio! I am determined to organize using containers that I already have on hand. New containers are simply expensive and can become clutter eventually in their own right. Better to reuse and recycle at home with baskets, certain boxes, plastic containers that I have set aside for this purpose.

The sunflowers are heavy and rounded with seeds. They definitely have a life cycle that mirrors ours. The weather is cooler today, so they look less bedraggled. I feel less bedraggled! Each day now the sun is rising a little later and setting a little earlier. My father used to track this progress in the newspaper on the page with the weather information. Now I follow the shortening days on the net, on the weather site. Unlike the newspaper, the computer pages don't have to be hauled outside to be recycled! In some ways though, I miss the newspaper and I miss having someone to share it with.

Only a few more days of August and then it really will be fall. The countdown to Christmas can begin anew. Let's make sure that Advent doesn't get lost in the shuffle this year!

Thursday

The sun has been setting behind the row of sunflowers as I have been at the computer. First the email that has built up while I have been doing other things away from the computer had my attention. Then loading my cafepress feed into Google Base took a few minutes and now I am finally attending to my blog post.

The sunflowers are almost as big as dinner plates and absolutely lovely. Now there are half a dozen where earlier there had only been one at a time. They are rushing to flower and go to seed before the weather turns cold, thus fulfilling their destiny. I have seen this in plants before. A kind of quiet humility that humans do not have.

These majestic plants are almost too big to be humble, but as the seed heads form the plant shrinks. The seed heads bend over and the whole plant reminds me of an old, old woman with osteoporosis. There is humility and waiting in it as time goes by. Waiting for fall, and waiting for the seeds to fall to the ground.

Today I have been looking at my own life, sorting, sorting and throwing out more paper. The boxes are becoming smaller and the stacks will shrink too. My friend L, (she of the sunflowers and apple galette) took away a pile of things to be donated and now my garage sighs with a bit of relief to echo that of the house.

Soon I will go and spend a few minutes in the big room just to admire how pretty it is and then go to bed and finish reading Water for Elephants. It is quite dark in just the short time that it has taken to write this. Fall is definitely coming soon.

Monday morning again

Time to face a new week again. The last one went by so fast, I wish that I could pull the reins on this one and slow it down a bit. Five full days to write five blog posts, work on my other writing projects, continue decluttering in my house, fulfill Mary Kay orders and see what else I can do.

Tomorrow is marked by one friend's departure for college and another's return from vacation. Wednesday has two appointments and Thursday is full as well. One of these days I will sew for the first time at my new sewing station in my newly arranged studio.

I am grateful that I have no commute and that I can take breaks when I need to. There are pitfalls to working at home. The dishes call; the laundry would like to be done; the birds and squirrels invite me to watch them play in my yard. There are always more domestic projects that could claim my attention and at this time of the year it is also nice to be outdoors. With the days becoming shorter there is the reality that being outdoors will be curtailed in a few months time when rain (we hope) and cold supersede sunshine and perfect dryness.

I will make more yogurt cheese today and sort my yarn stash which has become a jumble over too many boxes and plastic tubs. Before it can take its place in the studio it needs to be organized and labeled.

Labeling is so important to the process of organizing. I will try to put the boxes labels in my inventory notebook, too--if I remember, if I can find the inventory notebook.

I am using one of my Fred is Peace journals as my household inventory notebook. It is a nice size and has a good feel in my hand. Cafepress has chosen a quality product here, as they have throughout their product line. I recommend it. (Beginning and end of shameless plug for the day!)

Have a great Monday. Before we know it Friday will be here again!

Friday, decluttering

It is Friday again! TGIF! The whole week seemed super short. Yesterday I could actually see my whole dining room table! Wow. A sea of clean and people gathered round eating. The house is so pretty and spacious when it is decluttered.

Why do we clutter? Why do we hang on to things? Why do I clutter? Why do I have such a hard time letting go?

Some of the answer is inertia. Time goes by. I am busy, preoccupied, tired or spending so much time knitting (with the tv on) or at the computer that I don't notice the clutter. I don't notice the dishes piled unwashed in the sink until something begins to smell in the sink. Then I have a great washing up day and get it all clean. (In between these events, I wash items as I need them.) I do the laundry when it is time for my housecleaner to come and I know that I will need to have clean sheets so that she can change the bed for me, something that, in my wheelchair and with the spaces in my house, I cannot do.

I could say that I am disabled and it is harder for me to keep things free of clutter, but I don't even want to begin to use that as an excuse! Ok, sometimes I need to keep some things within easy reach. That need could be solved by better organization.

I tend to clutter more when I am feeling overwhelmed or depressed and then the clutter is confusing and depressing, so it seems that it is important to keep things straightened up to some extent.

Not having enough time is an excuse I use all of the time, but then I waste time looking for things that have been in my hand just recently! It would save time to be organized. Take time to do the things at hand. (My father always used to say, "Do the five minute jobs when they first come up." That way they wouldn't become thirty minute jobs while one back tracks and figures out where everything is, who needs to be contacted, etc.)

A friend suggested looking at the house and thinking about what I want to use the spaces for. That approach is working and I will continue to do so.

My "big room" or studio is also my "happiness room" because it so pretty. I hope to finish putting everything away in the next week. it is a space to retreat to and will soon be a space to use for creative projects.

Now I need to find the one thing that I really need that I can't find from decluttering the dining room table yesterday!

When a Tree Falls--what to do in a Power Outage

Late yesterday afternoon a tree fell in my neighborhood, disrupting power for nearly 1000 homes. While we didn't actually hear the tree fall, it's effect was certainly felt. We did hear the peculiar booms that transformers make when they close, not sounds one wants to hear.

My dear friend L came over to check on me and caught me on the phone to the power company, so we were able to learn a bit more and give the power people a bit more information. She pulled the plug on my computer. She came back when she said she would and replugged my computer. I had power, but she did not. As it turned out she lives on the street where the tree fell.

I was one of the most fortunate people for my power was restored in a little under two hours. I found myself knitting without the accompaniment of television news, not my usual mode and I was reminded that knitting is, after all, a beautifully solitary and silent activity. Solitude and silence are rare in our lives. While I have, perhaps, too much solitude, I can never overestimate the beauty of silence.

Once I realized that the power was out, I wanted a cold drink from the refrigerator more than anything else! In the interest of keeping the food cold, I settled for lukewarm bottled water and waited. The cold diet Vernor's ginger ale tasted wonderful when the power was restored and the refrigerator had been running for a bit. Never open the refrigerator in a power outage.

In this summer outage, I didn't need to worry about lights, but in the winter that is an issue. So I am reminded to check the flashlight batteries before winter sets in. I also have a camping lantern and need to find its battery set. Candles are a traditional resource, but must be used carefully around piles of paper and should not be left burning if one leaves the room. Placing the candle on a metal tray is a good idea.

Going out for a walk to meet the neighbors and find out where the power outage is and where the power company trucks are, is one way to while away the time. I can't do this, but from the emails on our neighborhood list this morning, I could see that quite a few people did.

Keeping one's sense of humor is useful. It always is!

Having a stock of blankets ready for a winter outage is survival oriented. Having games or cards or a puzzle that can be done in minimal light is a good idea too. I wonder if anyone has come up with a battery powered craft light for people who embroider?

After I assured myself that the computer was fine, I went to bed early and read some more of Harry Potter. Am I the only person in the universe, reading Deathly Hallows this late? Quite a few people that I know haven't read these books at all. They seem to be doing just fine. I do wish that I had a magic bag like the one that Hermione is using though. It would be so useful for just cleaning up the clutter quickly. Imagine, you could just make a pass through the house, stuffing in all the items you wanted out of the way, and presto clean house!

Overall I am grateful and looking forward to having company for dinner tonight. More decluttering first!