Front and Center!
These two creatures who have locked up my heart will be front and center in this little corner of blogosphere!
Well, at least the final massive purge on the cleaning list for the summer. The above photo amounts to what's left after my two-day purge and two days of the alley scavengers helping themselves to whatever they might want and take to salvage. The pile is about half as big as the initial purge. What remains on Wed. will be hauled away by the city. I'm feeling very satisfied with all the cleaning and tossing I've done the past couple of months. This morning I tackled the last closet left undone and revisited my own closet for a final toss-out and rearranging. I still have the plantation shutters, wooden blinds and fan blades to clean in the next couple of weeks.
My daughter is on the third day of her new job and happily settling in. The sharp rise in her self-confidence is so evident it's like a neon sign! I like that! The boys are also adjusting nicely to Mom being back at work and Pammy once again being "the boss of them". :) There were issues the first day, but yesterday and today the waters are calm. My Equilibrium is feeling steadier already, and breathing is easier as the air clears. The stress level for all members of the household, human and fur, is back to healthy levels. For the time being. :)
Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch
This is an amazing book; read it!! I read a review in my Sunday paper last week and was so intrigued I bought it and jumped right in. It springs from a true story of 3 bothers and is the work of Jon Clinch, the wonderful author whose acclaimed first novel was FINN ( the imagined story of Pap Finn, Huck's dad). Wow! I already had several HUGE stacks of to-read books, but this one grabbed me, forced me to buy and start reading. I'm loving it!!
Wed. Mr. I've-Spent-Most-of-My-Life-Of-Six-Months-In-Confinement went in to be clipped and chipped. He is, once AGAIN, confined for 2 weeks so he will heal correctly. I just don't remember having to confine my other male pups for any length of time after neutering. Times have changed, I guess. To say he's ticked, confused and chomping at the bit is putting it mildly. Poor fella. His personality is bound to be warped by all this restraint and his inability to just be a frisky, naughty, normal puppy. I'm sure he'll make up for lost time when the new prison sentence is up. He did after the 10 weeks of apres-surgery on his leg.
Today I scratched the need-to-clean-and-purge itch and tackled several fronts. I tore through the clothes in my closet with a vengeance! When it comes to clothes, especially my massive tee shirt collection, I'm loathed to let go of anything. At least once a year I stick my toe into the tee-shirt-purge effort and toss a few. Today I got serious! I also ripped through all the DVDs, VHS and game cases in both boys' rooms. I tossed all the cases that had no corresponding game/movie and organized them neatly. No, I didn't alphabetize them or anything crazy like that. I'm hardly THAT OCD!! LOL! Besides, the boys would destroy those efforts in one fell swoop!
One major job left....the garage. The crown jewel of purging this summer! I had thought the attic would win that title, but I've change my mind. It's the garage, by far. I'm already salivating and I can't even begin until late next week. Bulky trash pickup is a week from next Wed. I've already added a few additional jobs to the to-do list, however: clean all the wooden blinds and shutters in the house. Also, clean all the fan blades in the ceiling fans.
And, on my breaks--read!! I'm over halfway through KINGS OF THE EARTH.
There's just something immensely satisfying about cleaning and cleaning out. Actually, I've always been a bit of a neat freak as well as a list maker. Over the years I've managed to relax my impossible standards, somewhat, on the size of my lists and the scope and meaning of "neat" or "clean". Although I'm not always in the mood to clean the results of my efforts never fail to bring about that satisfying feeling. I love a neat and clean home. No matter the chaos or messiness of daily living that swirls about me, clean surroundings provide a necessary calmness that keeps me sane.
Since school's been out I've been binge cleaning and purging. My to-do list on these tasks is ambitious. So far, I've made huge strides in whittling down the list. The above photo shows the result of the first of my two major projects: the attic. I've been wanting to do this for several years, but it was more than I could manage by myself as there were large items like no-longer needed baby furniture that needed discarding. When my 17-year-old grandson said he was coming to visit, I recruited him as my strong man. So, Saturday morning, between my daughter, my 3 grandsons and me, Project Attic was accomplished and crossed off the list. This coming week is my 'bulky waste' pick up by the city trash collection. We get one free bulky waste pick up per month during a predetermined week. Mine, coincidentally, is the last week of the month.
Next month I plan to tackle the second major project: the garage. Due to the amount of stuff that needs to go from there I might need to make this a 2-month project so I can get things hauled away for free. Perhaps I'll wade through one side of the garage in July, the other in August.
In the several weeks since school's been out, in addition to the attic, I've overhauled my closet floor, my bathroom as well as the boys'. Also, I've cleaned out kitchen cabinets, drawers and reorganized the laundry room. My feeling of accomplishment on the clean-sweep front is soaring!
Of course, one project leads to another and I've already added new vistas to THE list: hall closet, boys' rooms and closets, dining room....... I can keep the feeling coming the rest of the summer.
hmmm....if I run out of places to purge I can always clean the blinds, wash the outside windows, meticulously dust EVERYTHING.....
I get goose bumps just thinking about the realm of cleaning possibilities!! :)
