Currently: Reading, Crocheting & Enjoying Snowballs

We have arrived to my favorite season of the year! Sure, the spring breezes and rain showers are nice, and fall crispy cool air is refreshing relief from the heat of summer, and a daily excuse for hot chocolate is great in the winter but give me the season of soaking in the sun, sipping on iced sweet tea, long days of nothing, a pile of books to read, and ice cream.

The longest day of the year, also known as the summer solstice, officially begins summer.  I celebrated with an ice-cold, delicious Baltimore snowball (chocolate covered strawberry, if you were wondering.) I have been derelict in my parenting duties and my kids were under the mistaken belief that the concoction of ice and watery flavor sold on the truck that comes to school picnics was a “good” snowball. I had to rectify that. It only took one sugary flavorful spoonful of a real snowball to make them (well, three out of four) converts.

Borrowing on the idea of The Longest Day, the AlzheimersAssociation used this day to increase awareness this disease, and fundraising for research of and support for those suffering from it and their caregivers.  Participants in the day were encouraged to pick an activity to participate in all day, to “symbolize the challenging journey of those living with the disease and their caregivers.”  I chose to crochet, one of my favorite hobbies and since handcrafts are reported to help stimulate the brain, I thought was a good fit.  Continuing in the idea of charity, I made hats for women going through chemotherapy who may lose their hair. I made three during the day, taking my yarn to the kids’ swim meet, stitching in between making dinner, and while hanging out with the family celebrating Father’s Day. They were so easy, I’m thinking of making some more. Any ideas of where to donate them to – leave in the comments.

In book-nerd fashion, I have anticipated the opening of the new library in my area.  I know – it’s going to have books just like all the other ones, but I’ve still got going to check it out on my list of things to do. And I heard they have a coffee shop!

On a related note, we have signed up for the National PTA Family Reading Challenge. This new initiative encourages families to read together. Okay - we do have a fun, vested interest in the program – we were one of the families selected to be in the “Inspiration” videos. My daughter and I talk about family reading traditions.  We’ve signed up for the summer challenge because I love reading and think its very important for children to not only be literate but to enjoy reading for their own entertainment and education.  I’ve mentioned many times on here about getting kids reading, especially in the summer so their minds don’t turn to mush in the sun.  As the kids get older, the reading together thing gets harder, it doesn’t seem as cool, but in a previous post, I shared some ideas.  Another note on the family challenge –(and my kids favorite part) there’s prizes from Amazon and Kindle.

I’m making good progress in my tidying and decluttering effort. As recommended in the book I’m using as my guide for now, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I’m committing huge chunks of time – cleaning out the kids’ closets and drawers for now. We packed up bags to donate to the local clothes exchange and another pile of bags of trash. At the same time, a friend was looking for donations of old t-shirts and yarn for a summer camp – yay!! We had a pile of all those logo/camp/event t-shirts that I didn’t know what to do with and I had a bag of yarn scraps. Perfect.  I love when I can donate my old things, it seems like such a waste to throw them away. The house is feeling so much lighter, now.

Here’s to summer! Pass the sweet tea and share how you are starting off your summer!

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Please Don't Give Me Any More FREE Stuff

I’m the last to buy a book on organizing and decluttering, because I think “this will add to the stuff in my house and then I’ve got to find a place for it.”  But this book on “tidying” I thought was interesting - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I read an article about the book and this magical plan for tidying your house, with promises that if you follow this method, it will stay organized and clutter-free forever. Okay, well we’ll see about that.

How to go about "tidying" for a lifetime of decluttered & organized living

While I’m reading, I’m going through areas of my house and trying to get rid of some stuff. So let me clarify – it’s not like they could shoot an episode of Hoarders or anything around here, and it is a very civilized home, I just have lots of stuff.  And what I’ve discovered is that all this stuff is not really my fault. It’s all those corporate and event giveaways.  If places would stop giving away FREE stuff, then I wouldn’t have so much stuff. Like what, you might be wondering?

Reusable shopping bags. They are so popular now and you get them everywhere – conventions, meetings, organizations. And then you buy some cute ones at the store or the functional ones at the grocery store. I’ve got about a 247 of them, and not one is in the trunk of my car when I go back to the grocery store. So what do I have to do? Either pay a nickel for a plastic bag (yes, I live in one of those counties that has a bag tax, you know, to encourage you to bring your own bag instead of using the plastic ones) or pay $1 for a new reusable bag, feeling like surely you will use it 20 times and make your money back. They pile up in the laundry room and garage, with the intention of getting them back to the car.

Water bottles. I’m not even sure when these became the big rage, but every sports activity gives you a free water bottle. Sounds great, until I have a collection of 115 water bottles, in every hue with all kinds of team and corporate sponsor logos. I try and I can’t even lose these things! They pile up in the cabinet.

Ink Pens. Okay, keep giving me the free pens, but only the ones with good ink that don’t skip or the stylus for my phone and are kinda cute or fun. But for the count, I have about 395.

T-shirts. Like water bottles, there’s a t-shirt for every sporting event. And school event. And group/club/class/thing you or your child will get involved in. And although I donate most of our old clothes, I try to think “would someone want this?” before I put it in the bag.  And every time I pick up the kids’ team t-shirt with their teammates scribbled names on the back, I think “no.” Because if you are a kid whose mom is getting hand-me-down clothes, it’s really not helping your self-esteem to be walking around in a shirt for a team you never played on. So these pile up in the closet.

Notebooks and notepads. Some are cool – they’re a good size, they fit in your purse, they have a nice clean cover. But others – they just don’t fit what I need in a notebook – they’re too small, flimsy, some color I don’t like. And they have the conference name or corporate logo emblazoned on the front. I have 22 of these on a shelf in my office because it feels like a waste of paper and trees to get rid of them.

But I’m tidying and I’m going to find a new home for these things. A new home that is not my home.  And the key – I’m going to do it soon.  The t-shirt, I might just have to throw out, there’s only so many cotton rags I need. The notepads and water bottles, I think I can take to my neighborhood collection agency for household goods. And I’m going to put them all in some of those shopping bags. Then – no more FREE stuff!

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