declutter eleven and twelve and...

Yes, I'm still decluttering and it's been over a week! I thought I would have given up by now. I'm just hoping that it lasts the full thirty days (and beyond?). The bags went to Goodwill la questa mattina (this morning). Also, we gave away the stroller and the learning-toilet-thingie to a friend this morning. I forgot to take pictures beforehand, so here're images I found on Google Images. (The stroller, we bought used. It didn't have the fun fabric the one pictured here does, but it worked just fine.)




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Two quick notes on our reading around here:

We just finished reading In Defense of Food. Somewhere near the end (I'm going to have to loosely paraphrase here, we've returned the book to the library), Pollan urges his readers to go to the farmer's markets. He says something about there being no processed foods there. I think he's talking about the idyllic farmer's markets I imagine when I think of what they might be like other places. Here, though? I always immediately think of the Sparks Hometowne Farmer's Market, which we've finally given up on. As for the no-processed-foods thing? I just have two words: rubber pretzels. Okay, okay, a few more words. Every time we've been, we've marvelled at the amounts of unhealthy foods (and at the non-food products) you can buy as you choose your produce.

Finally: last night, Cardo worked late. Pic waited up for him so he could read her a book, but she finally gave in to sleep before he was home. At five o'clock this morning, she called out for him and asked, 'Did you forget to read me a book?' so they sat together, read a book and then both went back to sleep. I love her priorities.

a four-year-old's humor

Ah, the jokes have begun. Soon enough, she'll have enough to put together an entire stand-up show. Actually, all of her jokes, thus far, are made on-the-fly. Before you read her joke, please note that the hilarity lies in the fact that she finds herself so entirely amusing during the telling.

Q: Why did the balloon go up and up?

A: Because it was full of air!

[Laugh hysterically, causing your parents to also laugh hysterically.]

time travel

And, just like that, an hour has suddenly been added to my life. Oh, daylight savings time, how strange you are to me.

I'm sitting here in the quiet of the apartment, in the corner of the office-library. I'm uploading photos that I might actually print out so I can start filling in photo albums. I'm writing my monthly letter to Pic, recapping the last month (good thing that I just practiced by posting more generally here). These letters started out as weekly, but that only worked for the first few months, maybe. For the last couple of years or so, I've been lucky to get in more than one letter a month. I'm also listening to shows on Netflix and catching up on my newest blog-love.

In a few moments, though, I'll sign off of my letter, make myself a cup of sleepytime tea and go burrow down into my bed.


A cozy image (from almost three-and-a-half years ago) before I go.


G'night.

october

Welcome to November, aka National Blog Posting Month, or for the more ambitious, National Novel Writing Month!

Okay, now that the welcome is out of the way, I'd like to look back on October.

What would have been a month of mainly me, on my own, beginning a new programme, securing lodging and child-schooling, ended up being very different. It ended up being a month of semi-hibernation, of sorts, and quiet adventures. I wrote about some yesterday (it doesn't take much to constitute an adventure for La Famiglia B).

Very early in the month, we had a chance encounter with a friend I haven't recently seen and who I haven't heard much from lately (yes, just what everyone else is thinking about me, I know and I apologize). Because of that encounter -- and my own hiding out -- I've been doing a lot of thinking about friendship, but I'll save that rambling for later. Let me just suffice it to say that I have amazing friends. Truly amazing. I thank you all for your patience with me while I attempt to figure things out for myself.

A bit later in the month, we took a short family trip to our western neighbor. The first part of the trip was business-related, but, after that, we made it over to Monterey. We usually go to the aquarium (of course), but we passed on it this time. We had a great (and much-less-expensive) time, nonetheless. (I still am hoping that we will be able to go to the aquarium next time though.)



Recently, we've gone to visit our capital, taking in the Halloween sights as we do every year, playing at a pumpkin patch we happened upon last year and returned to this year.



We also took that Virginia City trip, but I apparently took zero pictures, although I wore the camera so attractively attached to my hip the whole time.

Pic and I made her costume, following a great many of the instructions, ignoring others. We went trick-or-treating for the second year in a row with Coach J and her family. I can't describe how happy I am to see Pic and Destructor together. I love watching Pic grow, but it's been such a treat to also watch Destructor grow and to watch their friendship grow. I feel lucky to have the Coach J family in our lives.



There has been so much more, of course. We've caught up a bit with my godparents. We've made a new family friend who we immediately loved. There has been reading, learning, walking, growing. I've been trying to learn who I am and shape myself into who I want to be. I've been so lucky to be able to watch Pic grow into herself more and more each day.

There have definitely been some rocky times, but overall, I've been soaking up this autumn. It is, after all, my favorite season and I certainly don't want to waste it.

happy birthday to...

...Nevada! One hundred and forty five today!

Pic and I have been doing a small bit of learning about this thirty-sixth state, known as Battleborn. We've been reading S is for Silver: A Nevada Alphabet, which I love. I think we'll be trying to add this book to our library (once buying new books is in the budget). Actually, I'd like all the books in this series so far -- not all of the states have yet been covered, and I think I saw a Canada book also.

This book has a quatrain on each page, focusing on a letter of the alphabet and a Nevada-related noun. A = animal (bighorn sheep, our state animal). S = sagebrush (our state flower). V = Virginia City (home of the Comstock Lode). The illustrations are also nice. On the sides of the pages are a couple of paragraphs pertaining to each topic. For this year, Pic and I just focused on the pictures and the quatrains. When she's a bit more ready for it, we'll also read the side information. We did read about Virginia City today. When she's ready to move past that, we can do some more thorough research, using the information presented in the book.

I had big plans for Halloween/harvestime/Nevada Day this year, and most of them were cut back. I had planned out all of these pumpkin patches and harvest festivals we could visit, but we ended up only visiting one. It was great and perfect for Pic. I was thinking we might go trick-or-treating both yesterday and today, but we ended up only going today. I had been planning on us going to Carson for the parade today, but we didn't make it out. I'm okay with that.

Yesterday, we did manage to get in an impromptu trip to the above-mentioned Virginia City. We drove past the more modern parts of it to get downtown. We haven't been in a while, but I love to go. I love to read the historical markers, look at the buildings, walk on the boardwalk sidewalks and imagine what life might have been like when Virginia City was born in 1860. While I really try not to idealize the time (I'm sure that I can't even imagine the hardships of life then and there), I do like to think about the history, about what this part of Nevada was founded on.

So, now, I've rambled on and on. I'll share more on this night of the living dead later, except to say that pretty much as soon as we got home, Cardo pretty much passed out asleep in bed and Pic has also been asleep for quite a while now.

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Before I go, of course, I have one more item of clutter needing to move out of my home. I bought this at Costco quite some time ago, and even wore it quite a few times, although it isn't at all my style.



We now have four bags in Cardo's trunk waiting to be dropped off at Goodwill tomorrow. I'll be starting a new bag and hunting out new treasures to add to the outflow.

exhaustion and decluttering

Pic has been taking daytime naps* lately, which means her nighttime sleep is wonky. Yesterday, she took a pretty late nap and then...she and I were up until almost three o'clock this morning. Suffice it to say that I didn't want to get out of bed for pictures (of Pic, not me) this morning and Cardo did not want to wake Pic up. However, we all finally dragged ourselves out of bed, grabbed everything we needed and got ourselves to the studio. I'm glad we got the pictures done, but I've been in a funk for the rest of the day. Everything has felt a little weird, I've been a bit dizzy with exhaustion.

I'm heading to bed in a moment, but first, I have to post my decluttering item. And, oh my, I have run out of things to give away. Feel free to come over to my apartment and disagree with me, but, really, I can't seem to find anything. So, today, I cheat. Or not. It's not like I really have rules for myself, other than get rid of one piece of clutter every day for thirty days. Today, I'm getting rid of an almost empty can of shaving gel that's moved to several new homes with us.

I stopped using shaving gel so long ago, that I can't even remember the last time I did use it. For a while, I was just wetting the areas to be shaved and going with that. Then, I saw this commercial basically counseling against the use of bar soap for shaving lather. The commercial was for some kind of shaving gel, but all I got from it was, 'Oh, I could be using my soap on my legs.' So, yeah. Go shaving gel ads...you're incredibly convincing (please note the ironic tone). Getting rid of this useless can is decluttering my life, so...it works. Especially because I'm tired and I want to go lay in bed, read my book and fall asleep.



STOP THE PRESSES. (Or, hesitate in clicking on the 'publish post' button.)

I have found something donate-able. Not the paper plates, we'll be using those for crafts. The sign, however. Yeah, that. This came into our home after some redecorating at Cardo's work. It has since lived in our bathroom cupboard. We're apparently not so into the welcoming of others to our home, as everyone who knows me knows. So, yea, we can get rid of this and I can feel a bit better about having something for Goodwill. However, I will start referring to this project as decluttering and not donating. This frees me up to get rid of so much more (like that grey toothbrush from my first post on this).

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*It is possible to take nighttime naps. 'Nighttime nap' is actually a pretty good descriptor for how I usually sleep.

aha! (but only kind of)

I knew that we had Arthur's Nose by Marc Brown. I knew that, at some point, Arthur had a long, long nose. After all, he is an aardvark, no?


[Google Images]

So, where is his perfectly-fine nose? Apparently, I need the 25th anniversary edition which explains this? Possibly?

Anyhow, every time I think of/read Arthur books now, I think of this Bringing Up Ben & Birdy post. I never did find out if Catherine Newman received a response.