Skip to main content

motivation

It never fails. Anytime I help a person move, I feel like I need to go home and immediately start cleaning/purging the house. Or I start thinking about an unknown time in the future when for some unknown reason we might need/want to move, and where we might go and what that would look like.
I know that most likely, if we ever move, we will be down-sizing considerably, and this time I actually walked through the house and pondered what we would keep/get rid off.

I don't know if this train of thoughts come about from moving some growing up, or being a semi-vagabond during my young adult years, or if anyone who's never moved ever thinks these kind of thoughts.

But since these thoughts started last fall (when my friend Mary moved), I've been even more adamant that I read the books we have instead of checking out any from the library, and if it's not a book that I'll read again or share with someone, then it has to go. In January I actually took a box of books to the thrift store, and I have five more on my dresser that I'm debating whether to swap at a used store (which defeats the whole purpose of purging) or to simply donate them to the thrift store again.

But in the midst of all these thoughts, life (nor the clock) doesn't stop. There's grass to cut and a garden and animals to tend and projects to work on. So maybe by the year 2020 I'll have read a good chunk of the books in our house (provided I don't restock every year at the library sale).

Considering that when I helped my sister move (about five moves ago), she had as many books as I do now and I saw very few boxes of book when I helped her move last week, there may be hope for me.

When the time does come for us to downsize, I do think we'll have one huge consolation (or two so we can each have one): kindles. :)

Comments

Lydia said…
NOOOOOOOoooooooo.......don't give in!!! Keep your books! Just kidding. With all the traveling I have been doing this year, I am finally understanding the appeal of a Kindle.

Popular posts from this blog

things we do for love

Saturday we had a baby shower for Bobby's niece. As I was making the mints, Bobby asked what else was on the menu. After I recited off the litany of items, he responded with "No peanut butter?! This shower is for Hannah! What's she going to eat?" (Hannah has had stomach problems over the years and has been unable to tolerate many foods, but peanut butter has been her staple.) Despite my assurances that she would enjoy the foods we were having, he was adamant that I needed to make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the shower. Even though I protested that NOBODY took that to a shower, he persisted, and informed me I could make them dainty with my little cutter. And so I did. To my surprise all but 3 were eaten. Who'd a thunk it?

get your house in order

My grandmothers were very clean people. My mother thoroughly enjoys cleaning, though she doesn't quite hit the same level my grandmothers were on. I don't enjoy cleaning, but I do like things to be clean. I've almost given up on neatness. One thing that they all instilled in me is the crazy concept that your house must be in order before you go somewhere big - like a vacation or something. After all, you could die in a car crash or have to go to the hospital, and then people would go into your house and find it in a terrible mess. Who wants to be remembered by that? So up until this past year, I would sometimes be up almost all night not only trying to get things packed up, but also trying to totally clean house as well. Or should I say, make the house presentable? The Chinese had a horrible superstition that my mother and grandparents would have enjoyed. Spring Festival (the Chinese New Year based on the lunar calendar) required EVERYTHING to be cleaned top to

Wait...it's almost March?!?

 10 more months 'til Christmas. This last month has been an absolute blur. Cleaning at Mrs. Bryan's house, cleaning at our house, lots of thinking and brainstorming and rearranging, appointments upon appointments, sinus infection/allergies, Bobby's surgery, meeting with surgeon and finally agreeing to future outpatient surgery for me, ongoing updates from my parents, garden tilled and snow peas, potatoes and beets planted (and yes I left several rows empty between the potatoes and beets for something else to go later as a buffer), chickens are laying, we may have a broody hen..in FEBRUARY!!!, we have two roosters that need to disappear, lots of family have been in from out of town to assist with the sorting and cleaning at Mrs. Bryan's house, and somewhere in the midst of it all I've found time to pay bills and catch up on a few emails. While I no longer feel like our house is a disaster zone, it is still overwhelming. Years ago a friend posted a quote by Martin Lut