What if

How do we accumulate so much stuff? I came to America just 10 short years ago with 2 suitcases. That's it. All my belongings fit in 2 small spaces, and it was light enough to carry. Now fast forward to today. I have a big house, full of Stuff. My husband has a shop full of stuff. We have started to get sick of having all of it. Now, the question is: What do we get rid of, and how?

Moving from house to house a lot as a kid, helped me to learn not to get too emotionally attached to things/stuff. I cleaned out my room and got rid of things that I didn't use anymore. Somehow, this skill has left me. I guess when you don't practice enough, any skill will diminish.

When I look at something, debating if I can get rid of it, I ask myself: Do I need this? No. Will I need it in the future? Maybe. This maybe is what's so hard for me. I'll give you a perfect example. I have a pair of skis sitting in the shop. Will I use them here in Texas? Never. But what if we move to Colorado (our dream location), then I'll be using them all the time. So, is it better to keep them for years and years, store them, move them, so IF we relocate, I can have them? Or is it better to get rid of them, have space, and less clutter, and buy new ones IF we relocate? I don't have the answer!

Do you ask yourself the "what if?" question when you clean out your house? What can I do to help me get over that syndrome? I mean, there are obviously things that you can't just keep buying over and over, and only use a couple of times a year. Like camping gear, sewing equipment, Christmas decorations, children's clothing in all size, books. Now books is a whole other thing. I would like to donate about 80% of our books to the library. The fact is: we never read them, and probably never will. There are a few exceptions like camping guides, parenting books, and other hobby books.

Part of the problem of stuff is that we have plenty of space to store it all. If we bought a house today, that is half the size, we would HAVE to get rid of a bunch of stuff. That's when it doesn't matter that you might use that board game 10 years from now, or the 10 year old paint as touch up. Maybe the solution is to start reading lots of de-clutter books. Get me motivated. I am also open to any advice you might have. What has helped you get rid of that "what if" item?

Meatballs, twilight, and a zipper

It seems weird to me that I spend so much time reading other people's blogs, only to discover I've only written on my own blog twice this week (not counting my coupon blog)

Joe has been out of town again this week -coming home tonight--. This week has been better than last. It has helped a lot that the weather has been a lot more bearable, so the kids spend more time outside. Also, I spent all day Tuesday reading this great book: Twilight. I had read about it on Nancy's blog, as well as some other, and heard it was good. I couldn't put it down! Now I need the second book! I don't know how long it will take to get it from the library... hopefully not too long.

Joe moved his gun cabinet to our other closet, so now I have space for another shelf for food storage. Today, Anja and I went shopping (grocery mostly), and included Ikea in our route. Earl watched Ginger, so she could take a nap; Thanks Dad! Winter and Sterling had to wait for a while before they could get into the kids' play area. It didn't seem that full to me, but what do I know? So after about 20 minutes of "beeping" (the kids make beeping sounds), the buzzer on our little receiver went off, and they got to play.

Since I live close to Ikea now, I can go through the store much quicker. We stopped in at the cafeteria for a quick lunch. I love a $1.99 luch of meatballs, fries, and a drink (kids menu).
After lunch, I knew what I was looking for, and found it pretty fast. I bought a Gorm shelving unit, with 2 extra shelves. That should put the shelves close enough to each other, but not too far apart, as to waste space. I was also tempted to get those cute kids' cutlery, but then realized my silverware drawer is overflowing already.

I also found a new binder for my coupons. I had been shopping around online, to try and find one that has a zipper. I have the problem of coupons wanting to fall out. We found out that Sam's club that one that would be just perfect. After transfering all my stuff, I have to say it's pretty full! It's cool though, because it has 2, 1,5" rings, instead of 1, 3". I can have my food coupons on one side, and all the others on the opposite side. And the binder is bright green, so if someone tries to take off with it, I'll be able to track them down!

Now we are hanging out at my in-laws house, just waiting for Joe to come pick us up. I thought it would be nice to spend some time here. Liz and Earl went out to dinner with some friends, and I've been doing my blogging. Now I better get the kids in bed, so they won't be too grumpy tomorrow. (11 days until school starts)

Olympics

I wasn't able to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, but I have tried to watch as much as I can the past 2 days. Some of my favorite events are Gymnastics, diving, biking, and I can't think of others right now. The one thing that sucks though, is that I only get 1 channel that broadcasts the Olympics, so I get stuck with whatever NBC decides they want to show.
Today is women's gymnastics. It really is amazing what these girls women can do. I almost like it when they mess up, because it shows just how hard it really is. Whenever I am watching it, my kids ask: how can they do that? I don't think they can grasp the idea that these ladies probably train 6 hours a day for the past 13 years, to be able to do this stuff.
Joe hasn't found a manager in Chicago yet, so I'm settling in for another week without him. But at least it's been a little cooler here, so we have been able to do some more things outside, so that's been nice.

Baking together

Yesterday the kids were getting restless, and there was way too much contention between them. I decided they must be bored, so we made sugar cookies together. As part of my coupon shopping, I had gotten free cookie mix, so all you have to add was eggs and butter. We pulled the cookie shapes out of the deep recesses of the cupboards and started creating. Winter wanted to make some Christmas cookies, so we pulled those out too. I haven't baked sugar cookies in a long time, so they ended up too brown, and crispy. But I guess they still served their purpose (keep the kids occupied).
I have been feeling the baking itch the past few days, so today I decided to try out a new bread recipe. Even though I usually prefer to make the kind of wheat bread that you only have to let rise once, I decided to try out the triple rise variety. Supposedly the most rises, the better the taste. I grabbed some whole wheat from our food storage, and got to grinding. Both Winter and Ginger were very interested in the grinding process. We ground the wheat about 3 times, and they enjoyed seeing the wheat turn from berries, to flour. The first mixture (yeast, flour, water) is rising right now, and almost ready for additional ingredients. I hope the bread turns out!

Water and Air flow

It sure was nice to have Joe back home. WAS. Yes, he just left again! He hasn't been able to find a competent manager for his Chicago office, so he has to go back yet again. Anyways, I took full advantage of his time here. He got home kind of late Friday (8pm), with my mother-in-law and nephew Levi. I gave him a break that night, and we watched a nice movie together. When I had gotten home on Friday morning, I noticed a lot of water on our driveway. It had stormed while I was gone, so I didn't know if it was just runoff from that, or what. When I checked several hours later however, there was still a steady flow of water. The water was coming out of the ground in the same spot as our last leak, so I worried the fix had broken. I turned off the water at the bottom of our property, and started rationing water. I filled up some pitchers for hand washing, and drinking water. We also brought a bucket of pool water in for flushing the toilets. It is amazing how little water you really need. For example, when I wash my hands, I just let the water run while I am lathering. I could turn on the water, get my hands wet, turn off the water, lather, turn on the water, rinse, and turn off the water. You can see why I don't do this. Too much work! This got me reflecting on our last months $300 water bill. Maybe I could cut it down, if I didn't waste so much (and stopped running the 20-zone sprinkler system). So Joe dug up a big whole, and we figured out it wasn't the old fix that broke, but another part broke. Saturday was one of the hottest days of the year at 105 degrees (feeling like 110), but that didn't stop my super husband! We brought water out to him about every 10 minutes. It was amazing how much water he drank, and he needed that much!
After he was done fixing the water pipes, he moved right onto working on our Geo metro. He is pulling the whole engine apart, and thinks we need to get new head gaskets. What can this man, NOT do?? He was on a role, so after dinner we worked for several hours together hanging 2 ceiling fans that we bought like 2 months ago. I love having a fan in my bedroom, so I can keep the AC a little higher, and still feel cool. We didn't finish until 11.30pm, at which time we just crashed! Poor Joe had to be at his church meeting at 7.15am, and now is off to another week in Chicago. I don't know where he gets all his energy!

Special Visit

We have had a special visitor since last night. Grandma A came over for a sleepover. This was the first time she has spent the night at our house. The kids loved getting individual attention from her. She played the game of Life twice, once with Winter, and once with Sterling and Levi. She also read spooky stories out of Winter's encyclopedia, painted pictures with the Girls, and played with Sterling's new Pirate ship.
All the kids participated in the library's summer reading program. They earned their circus tickets that way, and yesterday there was a big celebration at the elementary school. There was food (hot dogs, cotton candy, cookies, chips, popcorn, soda), games, and LOTS of prizes. I think there were about 40 kids, and they all got a prize, and some 2. These were good prizes too! The average cost was probably about $10. Somehow, each of my kids got to have 2 prizes! They have been having a lot of fun playing with their new toys.

Circus

The Ringling Bros circus is awesome! I have to admit I wasn't expecting too much. It's been so long since I last went, so I really couldn't remember anything.
We arrived an hour before the show. They let everyone go into the arena, and look at some of the animals and performers up close. The kids even got to try out some costumes!One of the elephants painted a picture with a brush and paint. This is where I was a little disappointed. I have seen videos on youtube, when the elephants made paintings that were awesome, trees etc. These were just smears, really.My favorite parts of the show were the tigers, although I have to admit I was secretly hoping the 10 tigers would decide they had enough and eat their trainer. No such thing happened, but there still was plenty of adrenaline involved.
I guess I am cruel, because the other part I enjoyed a lot was when 2 guys were on this spinning wheel, and they were on the outside of it, up 50 feet in the air, and the thing spun faster, and faster. At one point it looked like there was no way they could run fast enough to stay on it. They did though, so that was good.
We had a late night, because Joe didn't come in from Chicago until midnight. We slept at his parents house, so we wouldn't have to drive quite as far. It's nice to have him back!