Excess

September 12, 2017 themoonseesmeLeave a comment

It happens so fast-so slowly-one item at a time. One bag of hand-me-down clothes at a time. This toy, that kitchen gadget, a tool here and a project supply there. Why is a used book sale so hard to resist? From depression era grandparents to recycling era us, the urge to save something in case you might need it or to re-purpose later is SO STRONG.

You start out from your parents nests with a few pieces of furniture and some boxes of mementos and clothes. A few trips through the thrift store, some lovely wedding presents and a whole bunch of random items later you look around and think where did all this stuff come from??? How did we get so much?

Contrast four years ago with today “It’s not that we own that much stuff yet folks, and certainly not much furniture” wow has that changed! Our living room is emptied for remodeling so all that furniture is stuffed into the dining room and bedrooms and you can barely move around here! (I’m looking at you two couches in the dining room.)

A serious case of Rearrangeritis has set in and I’m rearranging things again to try and make more room for Little Roo’s kitchen set, train table and general running around space. In the process I’m sorting through the contents of every thing we move around. I feel like someone has ransacked my house and exploded the contents of every cupboard and drawer all over everything.

Our wardrobes went into the spare room after we bought the house because we were going to remodel our bedroom before putting them in there. We’re finally moving them into the bedroom to free up the spare room to become a media and music room while the living room is out of commission.

2017 Sep 02 wardrobe move (2 of 7) — When you have to disassemble your wardrobe in the hallway because there isn’t enough turning radius. >.<

As I listen to friends and family go through belongings of loved ones, or prepare for their retirements, or to move to new cities I hear it over and over, how did we get so much stuff? I decided earlier this summer that I just don’t want to be responsible for taking care of this much stuff! There are boxes we haven’t unpacked since moving here 5 years ago.

How did we wind up with FOUR coffee makers? Yes luv, I know they all do different things but do we really need to make single cups of basic coffee, lattes, espresso and french press coffee at home? I don’t mind having several kinds of toddler toothpaste if that gets the job done with less fussing. I myself prefer different flavors at different times of the day-not a fan of a strong mint just before my breakfast thank you. Extra mixing bowls, colanders, plates, cups and mugs? Off to the Church free room you go. I do use all five dozen silicone muffin cups so they can stay. That chair I was going to reupholster is someone else’s dream now. And so it goes with each room, cupboard and drawer.

Clothing is off the charts crazy excess around here. I have an Ikea wardrobe with 11! drawers in it and still can’t put away all my clothes. So sort them out, try them on and pass them on I must. I have real wool sweaters and a fear of bugs. I’d like to own enough clothes not to be bored every week but still few enough that once or twice a year I can dump them all out to send them through a short hot tumble in the dryer and vacuum the wardrobe out without feeling like I’m folding enough clothes for an army.

2017 Sep 10 wardrobe move (7 of 7).jpg — Reassembled in their new location and all vacuumed out. We managed to move it without removing the ties from the rack-I was irrationally happy about this.

Giving thanks for all we’ve been blessed with and that we can now fill up boxes and bags with which to bless others.

my life · observations · real life

I thought I’d have enough time

September 1, 2017 themoonseesmeLeave a comment

I can apply that statement to everything.

I thought I’d have enough time to do XYZ before:

growing up

getting married

the baby is a toddler/preschooler/graduate/flying the nest

a loved one passes away

the season changes

the next holiday

my birthday

vacation begins

vacation ends

the next month starts

this month ends

So many little markers throughout the year, and life really. They’re like a million opportunities for New Year’s like resolutions. This month I’m going to buckle down and get this project finished. Next month I’m going to sit down and write some real actionable goals. I’m not really a big New Year’s resolution-y person but I think there can be great value in sitting down and taking stock of your life-where you are, where you want to be, how to get there-and trying to make changes that move you toward who you want to be. I also think that often the biggest life movements actually happen in the tiniest steps.

This post was drafted the day before my birthday as I sat looking out at another year of life and another summer to try and do all the things outside and in and home remodeling. It’s jarring to say but four years ago when I put the first (and only published) post on this blog we had just purchased new flooring for our home. It has been installed in 50% of the intended rooms. To quote myself in the DIY version of Give A Mouse A Cookie ” while we’re working on this, we really ought to do that as well since we’re tearing apart this room anyway.” In case you’re curious, we did refinish the bedroom walls before we put down the flooring. This has happened in each of the rooms-this before that before flooring. Anyway, I sat at the beginning of this summer thinking up all the things that need to get wrapped up or started around here and now I find myself at the end of summer watching everyone lose their minds (good or bad) about spiced everything once again. I thought we’d have enough time. Where did it go?

Time and I we have wrestled for as long as I can remember anything. Rarely do I come out on top. Mostly I fight to stay down but not out of the game. Time management is a thing all the rage-from schedules and planners to some absolutely glorious Bullet Journals we as a people seem to devote quite a lot of our life energy to the management of the invisible. You can’t go anywhere online without bumping into an article on how to use your time wisely, cram more in less or simplify your days. This is not one of those posts. Simply an acknowledgement that most of us seem to struggle in this area and think that time marches on a bit faster than any of us would like.

While it seems that not a fraction of what we wanted to do this summer even got started, a healthy look back does reveal we got quite a bit worked on. I may not have succeeded in keeping up with a time management plan and fancy planner every week, but I did procrastinate less, focus more (Rachel I hear you laughing at me, stop it) and was generally more productive more days than the previous few months. So while it is a work in progress, it is progress.

Since I don’t yet have any photos of the planner I designed, I’ll leave you with one photo of the living room remodel. Here is my husband preparing the ceiling for the new boards and insulation. Maybe I’ll make a new post with some of the other photos and details of that project.

Working on the ceiling

Giving thanks for the skill and strength to do these projects mostly on our own as well as for the enormous resources available to us through the family members who do construction as their profession.