My Aunt...........

Today is my Aunts birthday. Except she died in May of 2004. She is the aunt that took care of my Grandma. (see August 15 post)
We were very close all throughout my life. We had a lot in common too. Crocheting was one of our common interests and she is the aunt who got me started on making my own wood crochet hooks. We passed books back and forth too.
Ever since Grandma moved out to be with my aunt, I would fly out to visit them every 3 months. I would stay for 6 days. We always had fun and I got to see my Grandma too.
Then in April of 2003 my aunt broke her knee and I drove out with my two puppies and stayed a month to take care of Grandma and my Aunt.
I am greatful for that month.
The last time I saw my aunt and grandma I flew out when I was 18 weeks pregnant with my son. I had a good visit not knowing it would be the last time I ever saw my aunt.
I miss her everyday. Everyday I think about her. Wishing she were here again, knowing it's not possible. I just still feel an empty spot in my life without my aunt.
I wonder if it will ever go away???
I have some stuff from my aunt that I brought home when I stayed the month. These are items I don't need, they are more knicknack type things. But with the Seven things project, I am finding them hard to let go.
Maybe one day I can...................

Seven Things Week 16

I'm early this week. My seven things this week come from the closet again!
* 3 sweatshirts
* 3 denim shirts
* 1 pair jean capris
* 1 pair white shorts
* 1 pink/white stripped shirt
* 1 gray sports bra
* 1 navy blue with flowers skirt

These are all things I haven't worn in ages and that don't fit me anymore. Again--it's time to find a new home for them all. And I am glad to be rid of them.

Seven Things Week 15

Nothing too exciting this week.
*Analon Pots and pans.
*2 fry pans
*3 pots
*3 covers
These were husbands pots when we got married and we used them for a while along with my Revereware. We bought new pots and pans about a year ago and we found these when we were cleaning out the garage.
So off they go to a new home.

Happy Veterans Day!

Today is Veterans Day. I am thankful to the men and women who serve and have served in the armed forces.
I am former Army and my Husband is former Navy. He is a vet of the first Gulf war. Our experiences were vastly different serving for many reasons. He went to the Naval Academy and I was enlisted. He served longer than me. He is a Veteran of a war, I am not. He was Navy, I was Army. It makes for an interesting day when Army and Navy play their annual football game!
So, thankyou Veterans.

Seven Things Week 14

This weeks seven is from the bins in the shed that I recently went through!
* TWELVE pair of jeans.
These are jeans of all sizes. Skinny jeans and not so skinny jeans that I know I will never wear again--ever.
As it is each week, I am glad to get these out of my house so that maybe someone else can get some use out of them now.
I have also been thinking about my new clothes purchases. I need absolutely nothing and I won't need any new clothes for quite a while. I have several pair of jeans and some dress pants and plenty of sweaters and blouses. And I won't even get started on shoes, I am so embarrased. I am trying not to buy anymore new things now. And for a while to come. I need nothing as far as the house is concerned either. No new dishes, towels, furnishings, candles, knickknacks, rugs, sheets, BOOKS, clothes, toys, paper, pens, music, etc. I need nothing new to add to my house or self. Yes, it is possible to have too much, way too much.
I need absolutely nothing...............

Reddy Kilowatt is back!!

Well, I received my November bill for my Electricity.
WOW!! It is 1010---down from 1210 of last month. I know part of that is still the airconditioner usage. But I have been making an effort to not consume so much. I wonder if it's really helping??
It will be interesting to track this for a year.

Curbside Recycling!! Another bonus.

I love that we can put usable stuff out by the end of our driveway! Today we did some more yard cleaning and I went through more bins.
Husband put these three toys out there and within one hour someone came to the door and asked about them. They have a day care and these items would be perfect for that they said!! Yay. I said take them please! And the family did.
I like the feeling of giving someone else a chance to use my sons outgrown toys.

Seven Things Week 13.

The Hip Hammock. What can I say about it. I didn't use it much but I really liked it and I am finding it difficult to give it up. I wonder if that is because I have to face the fact that my little boy is growing up? He is no longer that little baby who depended on me for everything. I am sad about this item leaving my house.
The rest of the stuff going is clothes. Nothing exciting at all. Nothing I want to keep anymore and glad it can maybe be useful to someone else. Plus it means I have another empty bin!!
* My Hip Hammock.
* 8 sweatshirts.
* 4 pair of sweatpants.
* Red Wind breaker.
* Green winter jacket.
* Blue fall jacket. This one is hard to give up too. It is from my Aunt but it is just too big for me.
That's it for this week. I am happy to see the clothing go to someone else who can use it and then I have more space in my house!

Doe a deer, a female deer.

This morning I woke up a few minutes before my son did. One of the dogs started barking very loudly. Not her normal "there's the neighbors dog" type of bark. It was light enough out that I could see this huge Doe in the yard, just outside the fence. It was beautiful and I quickly tried to take a picture but the deer moved too fast to snap one.
We used to get a lot of deer in the yard before we got all the dogs and fenced in a lot of the yard. They used to sleep in the pines out back and sometimes eat the apples off our trees.
We see a lot of wildlife around here and it's pretty cool. Several times I have seen wild turkeys. Of course we have the usual animals as well. Racoons, fox (that eat hapless chickens)and a ton of birds, lots of rabbits and squirrels.
I am thankful I live where I live.

Starry skies..............

I think one of the advantages I like most about living out in the country is being able to see the stars in the sky at night. On a crisp fall night with a clear sky and no city lights to interfere. It is magnificient. It is so peaceful and beautiful. Hubby even bought me a telescope a few years ago to search the skies at night.
It is one of the most enjoyable activities for me.

Rabbits!!

Another Saturday of yard work. This time it was fun. Husband decided he needed to trim yet more branches off the trees, to make it easier for him to mow. Mowing takes quite a while on the hilly, holey land. It's almost three acres! (more on that in a minute)
So with all the branches, we created a habitat for the Rabbits that live around us. There are a lot of Rabbits. I like them, hubby not so much. It will be interesting trying to protect my garden next year.
Now, as we were tidying up all the branches, I ask hubby if we can finally fence in the rest of the land. he says "sure", then we proceed to walk the property line!! WOW! We have almost 2/3rds of an acre that is just sitting there. The only catch is, the soil is CLAY. Not too good for much of anything. So hubby thought a pond might be fitting for that part of our property. I am in agreement, along with some more trees if we can find some that will grow there. We had apple trees in that area and they didn't do so well. They were moved 2 years ago and are thriving now.
Another fun and interesting morning, and I learned something new about our land and property lines.

Seven Things Week 12

Nothing overly exciting this week. I'm cleaning out the laundry room and found a few things. And back to the closets, actually it was bins I have clothes in. I am finally going through some of them as time permits.
* Mouse pad, with Bunnies on it. Brand new, I didn't like it.
* Green dresser skirt, a cloth doily type thing to put on top of the dresser.
* One beige dress blouse.
* Two white turtlenecks. How many do I really need?
* Black and white dress slacks--don't fit anymore.
* One box of powder bleach, never opened.
* Two bottles of Clorox 2--never used
* Two Downy balls--pictured.
The clothes I am glad to be passing on. I'm weary of holding on to all of them.
The laundry stuff? Well, lets just say that I cannot use them in my front load washer. On July 4 of this year I had a bad laundry "incident" with adding too much Clorox 2 along with a bit too much HE laundry soap. It was very unfortunate and yet comical at the same time. It was just like on TV where soap is exploding out of the washer. Yes, it really was that bad. I had to go to the laundromat and wash my towels several times to get all of the soap out and that was after spraying them with the hose outside! So, I am giving away the laundry products that are not compatable with HE washers.
I'm finding it a bit difficult to let go of some useless, yet sentimental items that are cluttering up my space. I'm sure I will find a way in the coming months to let most of it go. I know I am not the only one with this issue, otherwise our homes wouldn't be so cluttered!!!

The swing

Today is yard cleaning day. We have already made a trip to the dump--the part of the dump that takes demolition/redecorating stuff.
We also have a swing like this one except ours is much, much more weathered.
Since we now have a play yard where the swing used to be, and we haven't used the swing in years, we decided to let someone else have it. So, we put it to the curb. One couple already stopped and I thought they were going to take it, but alas, they didn't.
I will update when the swing has found anew home.
UPDATE: The swing is GONE! I think it took less than three hours. We love the curbside recycling. We have put shelves, cabinets desks, chairs and bed frames out there and people have always taken it all. Most everything we put out there is in very good shape.

Seven Things Week 11

Wow, it's been Eleven weeks already!! The VietNam vets came yesterday to pick up a load of stuff. It felt good to say goodbye to it all.
Lots of household stuff this time.
*Two pictures shown here. I have had these forever and haven't hung them in at least 12 years. They are kinda neat pictures, with different textures and they are done in browns. I always liked them.
*A hummingbird candle that I never used.
*A matching set of green bathroom rugs in very good condition.
*Muffin Pan that I never used anymore.
*Four burner covers I never used. They have hummingbirds on them.
*Box of unopened stationary.
*Package of 8 baby shower Thank you's. I never used them.
*Cannon 35 mm camera.
I find myself wondering what and where I can declutter next. My closets look reasonably good. The kitchen drawers are looking less cluttered as well as the shelves above my cupboards.
I need to tackle my rolltop desk and a "bar" storage cabinet my husband made. I still need to go through a bunch of clothes bins as well. Clothes I haven't worn in ages. You know the clothes, the ones where you keep because someday they will eventually fit again!! Well, I've decided that they need to go too. Let someone else get some use out of them instead of taking up space in my home.

A bonus Seven Things

Really only two things though.
* Childs shopping cart--son kept using this for a chair/ladder/climbing cart. Time for it to go
* Leap Frog learning table-- son has outgrown this long ago. He had lots of fun with it. Time for some other child to get some use out of it.
We gave both of these items to the church nursery.

Seven Things week 10

Sorry for the crappy picture. You can even see the Border collie on the floor!! That's Maddie. She is almost 12 now. Great dog too!
Back to the closet for this weeks seven. I went through two bins and two shelves.
This weeks stuff is all things that I haven't used in ages that was just taking up precious space in my closet.
* One set of burgundy Flannel sheets. Too hot for me and DH. They are almost brand new.
* Brown leather purse
* Black canvas type shoulder back pack. Too small for me since having my son and I have a bigger one I like better. This is very gently used.
* Small, very small white canvas bag. The very small says it all.
* Jean skirt-- wore it a few times, it's too short for me.
* Long sleeve blue shirt, sorta dressy/casual
* Blue hoodie shirt--never wore it
* One pair of jeans--too small
* Three VHS tapes--cartoon type
My closet looks a little neater. My husband wonders why he doesn't have more room though!!
Next project before it gets too cold are my clothes bins out in the shed. I have a habit of hanging on to clothes for some reason. No more!! It's time to let the clothes go now. And I am excited to do it!!

Seven Things week 9

Nothing too exciting this week.
*Safety kit for blinds, pictured
*Green polo shirt
*Pair of leather sandals
*Four Veggie tales placemats
*Eleven (yes eleven!!) Dog bowls
*Eight leather and various other dog leashes and collars
The safety kit I just happened across and I have never used it, maybe someone else can.
The dog stuff--let me explain. Two years ago, we inherited THREE dogs. That is on top of the THREE dogs we already had! But this was a special circumstance. These were my Dear Aunts dogs and she had died suddenly. So my dear husband drove from Minnesota to Maryland in one weekend to pick up these special dogs. Luckily the dogs knew all of us. They came with dog bowls, toys and lots of collars and leashes. We weeded through what was going to work for us and put the rest in the closet in a bag. I am finally getting around to finding a new home for them all. The bowls--well, they came with bowls too, but a lot of the bowls were from me too. But, now they each have two Stainless bowls . And we only have one of the dogs with us now. Sadly, two of them nipped at my son and we found new homes for them.

The dreaded Kilowatt update

The picture is Reddy Kilowatt, from the electric company. He's been around for a while.
I received the dreaded Electric bill today. Again I was absolutely stumped. We used a whopping 1210 kWh!! Down from the 1981 of last month. Granted we only used the air conditioner a couple of times during the billing period, but that's a huge drop in usage IMO.
It was however, up 10 kWh from last year at the same time.
I'm still going to watch my usage and continue to track and post about the dreaded electric bill!!
I think this might be something I continue to track throughout the year. I can make it a companion journal along with my Seven things project!

Seven Things week 8

My seven things this week is a bunch of different stuff. I was looking for a specific needlepoint to work on and found some other stuff to find a new home for! Yay!
So, the picture is of two of my needlepoints that I bought about 8 years ago and never worked on them. They are unopened.
*Two needlepoints, a Sun Signs and Moon Signs
* One Crewel picture, "Trading post" that I never worked on but thought I might like to try Crewel
* Six sippy cups of various types. Trying to find one that my son would like.
*Black Cardigan sweater
*Brand new Diaper bag. I bought it and thought I liked it but didn't really like it and never used it
*One crochet book--Making Scarves. I have a scarf pattern or two that I really like. Hopefully someone else will find this book useful
*One crochet booklet--Doilies--need I say more??
I know I say it almost every week, but this has been a wonderful project for me. I haven't had too many problems finding stuff and parting with it so far. As the months go by, I may find it more difficult to part with stuff--I'm hoping not though.
I have cleaned out a few places in the house that haven't been touched in years and that has been good too. Surprising sometimes what I have found.
Occassionally I've taken a trip down memory lane too, which is always fun!
So, thanks again Jenny, for steering me toward this project and helping me along the way. It's just been the perfect project for me right now in my life!!

Seven Things week 7

The seven for this week come from the kitchen.

*Cheeseboard/dome--in 12 years we have never used this, time for it to have a new home.
* Nacho plate--again never used.
* 2 plastic measuring cups
* 3 spatulas
* pastry sandwhich maker
* melon baller
* honey spoon--never used
* Stir Fry book--I used it once.
Daughter brought 3 pair of pants and 5 shirts over, but I am not counting those. She is happy to declutter too and I think she will be bringing more stuff over periodically, which is good, because she has clutter too.
I like that this stuff can be used by people who need it. That is my hope anyway.