THANKSGIVING DONE A BIT DIFFERENTLY

This Thanksgiving was different for us...we changed up our plans to go to the desert for our annual camping trip. As much as I love this tradition, we really needed to take advantage of time at home to begin working on the work written on "the lists".

So I made reservations for four and we enjoyed dinner with my parents at Marie Callender's.

But our Thanksgiving day began very early and just as busy as most everyone else's, except that we were busy in the the rest of the house, not the kitchen. We had several closets and cabinets to sort through so that we could then move out to the garage to do the same on Friday.

We stopped around 2 pm, showered and got ready to meet my parents for dinner at 4 pm. We were surprised at how many people also had reservations and we stood in the "reservation line" to be seated. But once we were seated we had a delicious meal. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and carrotts, and cranberries. We began our meal with a choice of soup or salad and finished it with a piece of apple or pumpkin pie. We took ours home to eat later. We ended up still being too full later and had it the next day!!!

Friday, we hit the garage with the same intensity as we had the day before (after running some errands) and managed to get through one section of our garage and sort a lot of things into different piles.

Today we had our carpet cleaned and so I did a deep clean on our kitchen (since I was kind of trapped in there with wet carpet everywhere else). Bruce took Kona to the groomer and then worked out in the garage on some more boxes that contained mostly his things. We have a lot of those boxes.

So tonight, we have a clean dog, (who has a clean bed) and we have clean carpet and a clean kitchen (including our refrigerator)! And more stuff got gone through!

Tomorrow...laundry, Christmas decorating, and more box sorting....

FRYDAY

I know that it is Saturday, so you are wondering why I titled my post Fryday and, you ask, didn't I mean Friday?

Nope, I meant Fryday...If you want to know more about this special post, about a special contest....just take a peek over at MckMama's blog to see what it's all about. I betcha you will fall in love, you'll be touched in a way you never expected and you'll become addicted. Don't say I didn't warn you...

IT'S A BIG DENT

This weekend was a very productive one.

I cleaned out our hall linen and bathroom cabinets and sorted though and stacked items to donate and save for the kids or sell. I made a lot of progress and felt good about my direction.

I dug into a cedar chest that, thankfully, contained a lot of things we are keeping. But then came the next chore....sorting through a tall chest of drawers in our extra room, that was full of "stuff"-- computer disks, cords, stationery supplies and two of the five drawers held stacks and stacks of documents and miscellaneous paperwork, cards, notes, pictures and manuals.

I spent most of the rest of my day sorting those papers (which included a lot of bank statements and check carbons that we moved with us AGAIN the last time) and then shredding all of the outdated bank statements and check carbons--some dating back to 1997!!! Thank goodness, I went paperless in 2005. Whew. It was a time consuming event to say the least. I am relieved that it is done.

I put a big dent in my list and now I have a clearer focus on my goal. I probably need to update my list now. You knew that was coming, didn't you?

HERE IS THE PLAN

I have formulated a plan and I am quite excited about it. I never thought I'd be excited about going through piles of boxes and cleaning out closets and drawers and cabinets. But I really am.

Of course, then I had to spend some time wondering why that was so exciting to me and I figured out that it's because I have finally embraced the stark reality that we are not moving until it's done.

Yeah. Rocket science.

I am starting with the two "other bedrooms" first. I already cleaned out a lot of clothes from my side of our closet and put them in the "give away" bag, and I know that there will be more of that to come as we get closer to our departure date, so it makes more sense to save our bedroom for last.

The disposition of a lot of our everday things is going to be determined at the last minute anyway. I am making lists for disposing of the other stuff.

I have a lot of lists. A list of things to sell. A list of things to give to the kids. A list of things to donate. A list of things to put on freecycle. Yep. Lots of lists. Can you tell that I am a tad OCD?

I realize that I spent a long time floundering in the land of Overwhelm-ment. That feeling immobilized me. I had good intentions, but where do I start? How do I decide? What will I do with everything? Keep it all? Sell it all? A little of both? Which to keep, which to sell.... STOP! (Can you taste the panic I was choking on?)

But...now I have come out on the other side.

I have a plan.

SHAZAM!!

Nope. This is not a post about Gomer Pyle.

But I am certain that is exactly what he would have said. (if he had been there, of course)

Imagine my surprise yesterday afternoon, when someone passing by our house (selling his own wares) happened to see our bedframe standing in our open garage and asked me if it was for sale. Honestly, I was shocked....I was beginning to think I would never be able to sell it.


Imagine my greater surprise when he bought it! Yep. SOLD.

I had tried three different times over the past several month to sell it on craigslist...resulting in a only a few interested inquiries. I blamed it on the economy and was starting to get discouraged.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, you'd know if you saw all the stuff I have to go through in our garage. I have my work cut out for me. I will blog more about that later.

So... SHAZAM! We have one more item out of our garage and more money in our 'Nashville Fund".

IT NEVER RAINS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA...OR SO THE SONG GOES

It's a rainy Sunday here. The sun, which shone brightly this morning when I crawled out of bed and poured my coffee, was quickly replaced with grey clouds and before noon, the temperatures dropped. Shortly after, it began raining so softly that you could not hear it. Instead it was the smell of the rain that prompted me to look outside. It's very nice to finally have a day that really does resemble Fall. I love it.

We have a big kettle of homemade vegetable beef soup cooking on the stove this afternoon and are going to heat a loaf of sourdough bread to go with it for dinner tonight. Yum!

So whadaya think about those Titans? Nail biter of a game there at the end...but my soon to be "home team" is 8-0. whoo hoo!