Stuff, Getting It, Getting Rid of it.

It’s a strange cycle, all those years spent slowly acquiring ‘things’ only to reach this age and wish to be shed of most of them.  I’m reminded of the late George Carlin’s performance routine in which he talks about ‘stuff’.    Coming across an article in The New York Times; When Possessions Lead to Paralysis, I am reminded fondly of what George Carlin has to say about it.

We just saw our granddaughter off to college, spending that first Orientation Day with her while she set up her dorm room.  Last month another granddaughter just got herself set up at her college dorm room, so we have furnishing college dorm rooms on the mind.  With the sparity of space, yet the essentials of living for the next year all contained in a space about the size of a large walk in closet, if even that much room, I’m feeling awkward about the house we live in which contains the two of us and all our possessions.

I wonder why it seems to take a lifetime to acquire all we think we need only to wind up looking at it all wondering why we thought we had to have it in the first place.  Not so much my husband, as me, because I seem to have that collecting stuff need more than he, but I wonder, could we get by with just enough stuff to fit a dorm room?  I often wonder if we could get by with just enough stuff to fill a travel trailer and do some road travel in the years ahead.

What would we do with all our stuff?  And already I’m thinking it’s time to have an ongoing garage sale, online, and offload some of this stuff.

My mother said goodbye to her husband in 2006.  When he went on ahead to the other side, he left her alone.  I spent the first two years being as much ‘there’ for her as I could, and she often talked of selling her house, and moving closer to us.  She talked of doing so for years, it is now 2010, yet it never got much further than talk, and now she seems to be settled with the idea of remaining where she is, staying put.  It’s a financially sensible arrangement for her, yet I’ve often wondered if the idea of what to do with all her stuff was a somewhat overwhelming part of her decision to stay put.    It would certainly be overwhelming to me to be alone and along in years, left to figure out what to do with all this stuff in our home.

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The down time of Coronavirus National Emergency shut down. 2020

Well here it is, upon us all.   My husband and I had already decided to self quarantine 2 1/2 weeks earlier, as I had cold/flu already for too long this season, and we had concern about the information or lack of clarity of the information at that time.  Now it is global, and President has declared National Emergency so enough about that, now what to do during the next 3 months as we are shut in as my husband likes to say?

1)  Walking in fresh air.  First, we walk and likely every other day or daily at public park in our town where few people are out and walking.  Come spring and summer, that might well change to too many people to do the social distancing we would like.  Of course the people at the park may well want to do social distancing also, so might not be a problem.  And if the public park doesn't work, we have our 2 mile walk to the River and back. Today there is Snow for second day (March 2020) and news indicates the snow will be gone soon.

2) Writing. I thought blogging in my old blogs mght be a way to go.  Also, using the greeting cards from the time of my mother's death to send out to family and people.  Writing my and our memoirs. I have books to actually help a bit with that one, that I have ignored or not written in for years.  And I prefer to write, journal as that is my way of remembering, frequently do not refer back to former writing, although my memory is not working as well as it once did. 

3) Crochet/Knitting.  Well for me that just goes with the time, whether coronavirus or not, as I have been crocheting for years.  Recently our church prayer shawl group suspended itself due to coronavirus, and I was ahead of that one, making prayer shawls anyway to bring when husband and I decided to suspend our self-quarantine. I have a couple of grandchildren though, and it might be timely to online instruct them in this fine business of knitting/crocheting, using yarn they maybe already have.

4)  Downsizing, Clean Up, House Redecorate.  So many of us have some kind of clean up or clear up to do, ie, garage, house, spring cleaning.  For myself, it is time to turn my winter clothing in my dressing room (a bedroom I confiscated to become a dressing room ...  lol)  to spring and summer clothing.  I have much downsizing to do just now, and probably while thrift stores are not receiving much or people aren't using, I can at least separate items out.  And well, I have not redone our home in couple years, so can think about how I might do it.  I am sure that different people's juices are flowing as people think about what they can do during this down time. 

5)  Turn off the news, Facebook, media about the virus.  I know I am frightened and doing stress related constant watching the news or Facebook to learn what is going on, and I also know that I need some relax time out, as do many of us.

6) Staying in contact with loved ones, people. Part of my own reach out has more to do with my own anxiety yet staying in touch and contact helps and takes away some of the anxious feeling.  Recognizing I am among the fortunate to have a husband while many people are doing this shut down alone, I think it is more important than ever to do reach out and stay connected, in contact.  Even though Facebook is among popular media platforms, using it in productive ways right now might help some.   I like our walks, just saying hi to people seems to lift my spirits. 

7)  Kids at home. That is no longer my expertise, as I said we are the elderly population, no kids at home.  Better that parents speak to this one, than me, yet already I am seeing ways to keep children busy while at home.  I wouldn't mind a letter or card or two from youngsters.

8)  Music.  It is, imo, a language of it's own and goes a long way to calming people.  Already I have found two places that symphonies are willing to livestream for Free their concerts.   My husband likes music and is an accomplished pianist.  Our home is filled frequently with music, the many playlists he has developed and the piano he plays himself to a) calm his own nerves and b) to serenade me (was the Memory Care Unit weekly, they have shut down for the interim). 

9) Games, not Internet, not online, board games, cards.   We haven't done this one yet, hope to, expect to, hasn't really happened yet.  We both did this with our kids when they were kids.  Might be something we will pick up and do for this shut down period   Might be something for younger families, parents and children to do if they aren't already. 

10)  Crafting.  I had plenty to do for a long while, in fact, purchased and collected.  Didn't seem to have the heart for it after my mother passed.  Or maybe getting along in years.  I don't really know.  Even as I type this, I don't seem to have inclination to pick the therapeutic manner of crafting.  Wondering aloud who I could gift the items I might create?  There is still next year. eh?  Nonetheless others with the fortitude and inspiration may want to think about it, also an idea for useful child helpers.

11)  Gardening.  Not really an issue for me, I like to play outside with the yard.  Lots of people do, and this would be the time to give that yard an thorough upkeep, planting, cleaning, while growing the newly planted vegetable garden and flower garden.  Happy days, plus fresh air, and also that quieting of mind time. 

12)  Oil Painting, or any kind of painting.   I look forward to it warming up a bit where we live so I can get some time oil painting on the enclosed deck which also doubles as our reading area, breakfast area, painting studio, nap time. 

Other thoughts for how people might use this coronavirus down time are  welcome. 

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Daughter’s family stationed in Hawaii, 2006

KoKo Head in Hawaii, photos taken by daughter when stationed in Hawaii, 2006.

 

She did her kitchen in Coffee motif, using  Espresso painted cabinets, and coffee cup napkins pasted to kitchen backdrop

Her patio garden, Hawaii, 2006

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Grandchildren - sweetness of life!

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June 14, 2004 - Vegetable Garden - Grandchildren - Garden Journal entry

June 14, 2004

It has rained all week here and actually, I got a lot done in the yard (see previous posts). Saturday, and I tackled another section of the yard, edging and shovelling out another flower bed. My daughter came to my rescue and helped me with the heavy manual work of hauling off the sod.

I planted the rest of last year's iris bulbs and maybe they will take and maybe not as they sat in a black garbage bag through the winter. I saw green on the bulbs though, so planted those...we'll see what we get. I had made a row of iris last fall from donations and they bloomed nicely this spring. I did not have beds enough to plant all the donations, so hopefully, I "wintered" them to salvage...as I said we will see.

I'm excited about planting my new Calla Lilly (discounted plant in container that I planted in the ground) and hope it will grow well. The local hardware store had bulbs on sale 1/2 price, so I bought 2 more Calla Lillies, in pink and yellow. I was too fearful of planting them directly in the ground, so put them in pots to see if they will grow.

I also got 4 varieties of gladiola bulbs, which I did plant directly in the ground, and have my fingers crossed they will grow, looking forward to seeing gladiolas in the yard.

I put the cosmos flowers in a grouping and tossed out some baby's breath seeds. Forming a little beginning of a flower bed which I hope to expand. The foundation will be the gladiolas, then will gradually add differing heights of flowers. I realized though, I didn't know what was an annual, what was a perennial, so I went to google on internet and created a list of perennials. I want to scout for them at the nurseries around here (not too many, maybe 3 within 50 mile radius). I hope to plant perennials and create a kind of wildflower garden.

I'm staying small here and keeping with the green grassed yard, don't want to overwhelm my husband (or me for the that matter) but in years to come I'm looking forward to gradually claiming more to the beds I am creating and growing this project to have larger and larger beds of wildflowers and perennials.

The grandchildren (ages 3 and 4) helped me to plant all the vegetable seeds so we have little pots now all lined up with vegetables waiting to grow.

We have:

green peppers

tomatoes full size

cherry tomatoes

cauliflower

wax beans

watermelon

squash

lettuce

pumpkins

radishes

corn

cucumbers

oh, I've forgotten the rest.

My daughter gave me several packages of seeds this year and we made a grandmother, grandchildren project out of planting them all.

That about wraps up this week in the yard. Got so much done this year. I'm taking a break from the garden and yard for a bit. This week we will be doing some errands and driving around for my daughter's family trying to get to Germany to be with her husband. Now that is another very long story of a different topic altogether.

see more photos here



The Harvest - August 2004.



The harvest in August. Now it's September and the chill is in the morning air. Not sure how much more of my garden is going to grow to maturation...but, hey, the pumpkins are growing, and the cucumbers are producing, and some late squash are growing.






Ahhh, more produce from the garden. Look at that, I've got corn, eh! Not so easy to get a full season to grow corn where I live.

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June 2004 - Vegetable garden Year 2 - Garden Journal entry

June 10, 2004

I'm a frugal gardener, by that I mean whatever I can do on the cheap, by innovation, as close to free as possible. We reduced last year by choice to one income living and of necessity now, I look for the most inexpensive ways to enhance my yard and garden.

Got late start this year. But that didn't stop me, no I bought some starter vegetables and reclaimed 1/3rd of my garden space from the grandkidlets who had homesteaded the space for a sandbox.

My husband, not much for the outdoor work, but very willing when I ask him had hand dug out the sod and lined out the space with railroad ties that he hauled from the neighbors yard across the street (it's okay, they gifted them to us). I was sooo pleased and proud of him so couldn't possibly let this garden space go to waste after his hard work.

I let my grandson have ownership of the tomato plants. I staked them using the aluminum prongs on an old antennae that came with the house when we bought it. My husband took that down last fall, and we figured if we saved it, the prongs might be useful as stakes in the garden. I used my mother's tip for tying the tomato plants using old discarded pantyhose. Well it's not very pretty, but hey, I'm practicing to be a "real" gardener so following wise gardening tips that I learn along the way.

To get the garden space ready, I put down newspapers, let the little ones hose them down (we have that breeze here ya know) so they wouldn't blow away until I could take the next step. I went and collected all my old container pots that didn't offer up any return plants after last year, dumped the used soil on the newspapers and that was the beginning.

I asked my husband, who I call Sweetie, to purchase some potting soil, (10 bags worth), then dumped that all into the space, bordered it off with concrete blocks and topped it with some top soil (only 3 bags, so thin layering). The concrete blocks are recycled from Sweetie's brick and board bookcases. We got him a new bookcase for Fathers Day and I had said at 57 he was a little too old for bricks and boards concept of bookcases, that was better left to college students and aging hippies (lol).

So the little garden space has begun. I hope to claim another 1/3rd of it from the grandkidlets and convert them to caring for the garden plants, but I'm not real sure they are ready for that, as the corn plant already got stepped on.

see photos here

The garden, begun in June when the plantings were just buds is growing and growing and growing. Lots of leafy plants, but few vegetables...yet! There will be vegetables, and I'm watching now daily for the plants that grew, produced flowering buds to now transform the buds to vegetables. Ah, the chance to examine how faith works, when not being scientific about the process of gardening, it boils down to trusting, following obediently the seasons' and natures' cues, and acting, in faith, that if you act (plant, nurture, water, protect, fertilize) the garden will grow.

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Holiday Season, got to get some stuff done...

So, here it is the holiday season and I don't have a thing done yet. It's been heavy, pouring rain for several days now, no snow here. And Ash has snow, and Rans has snow. Chris does not have holiday plans, so he may come to my house, but if I don't decorate, it won't be very festive. So maybe we will meet up with him midway and have a different kind of celebration this year.

Not sure if Lica's family will be making the drive over the mountains this year, so we could wind up with just the two of us for Christmas this year. Neither of us have had the happy holiday spirit yet, we are both still working hard in blogosphere land on internet trying to help with the vote fraud of this election.

Guess we will take a break though, and try to get more into the family and the season. I better haul myself away from the computer then and get some stuff done.

I have lots of blogs, but they are all serious ones, and so I made this one to just post about my days and that way Ash and Rans can read it if they want and see what Grams is up to or not up to...lol. I hope Ash will make a blog too so I can visit her blog. I visit Randa's blog and Bree's blog and I want to visit Ashley's blog too.

Gonna go make some chicken dinner now, it's time for Sweetie to come home and I haven't started cooking yet. Jake is depressed these days, rainy and I haven't taken him for a Ride for couple weeks now, and he's not happy about it.

Okey dokey then, I'll try to make an entry in this blog often to say what's going on in my daily life.....which is not too much these days. I miss my grandchildren, every one of them and new baby Aislee will be not such a newborn next time I see her.

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