2006 – Page 9 – a hippie with a minivan

Thanksgiving weekend…

Well we had a great Thankgiving Weekend… we got some house work done and on Sunday I made a big Thankgiving supper with all the fixings… I roasted my first Turkey, made roasted Garlic mashed Potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, maple glazed carrots, Roasted acorn squash, homemade bread and made butter for the first time and then of course a few desserts… Apple pie, pumpkin pie and raisin butter tarts.

Everyting turned out so yummy and though it was a lot of work it actually wasn’t too bad…

My mom came for supper on Sunday and then stayed until early yesterday afternoon… it wasn’t too bad but there is still tention there and I really don’t enjoy having her around much… After supper, My next door neighbor invited me and Simon to go have a little dip in the spa… again she had it at a perfect temperature so I could stay in there for as long as I wanted without the risk of raising my temp…. it was great… It wasn’t too cold out for an October night, just perfect and the moon was still quite full and the stars were bright… it was so nice… (I brought her some apple pie)

On Monday, Simon’s mom and sister came by with sis’ new boyfriend…it was really nice to meet him and they make such a cute couple… he is really nice too… It was a gorgeous day… Simon got help getting the steps out of the pool and he put some of the summer furniture away and raked some leaves… The smokers (MIL & SIL) were pretty good and stayed in the front of the house near the end of the driveway so besides the stink that was on them I didn’t have to smell or look at people smoking in my yard or especially near the kids…My mom, who smokes something other than cigs went in her car…

Since it was such a gorgeous day we all stayed outside as much as we could and the boys helped Simon bring the leaves next to the fire using a tractor I bought for Xavier last year for his birthday… (for 5$)… It was great to see both boys work and play so well together…

Anyways… here are some pics…

Colin in the leaves

on the trike

filling and emptying the tractor

making a fire

Simon’s Mom, Sister and sis’s boyfriend

our pumpkin and a butterfly Simon saved from drowning

There are more pics on Flickr 😉

Roger…

Today would have been Roger‘s birthday.

I miss him everyday. I don’t think that there is a day that goes by that he doesn’t pop into my head. Somedays it is just in passing, others it makes tear come.

This weekend is Thanksgiving and I am making a traditional supper again, just like the one I made a few weeks before he left us. I just wish that he was here to share with us. He woud have been so much in love with Xavier and Colin. It makes me sad that Colin will never have any memories of his Pops, Xavier however still has many, which is so surprising to me and makes me feel so happy.

I miss him so much.

Colin napping…

He was just too cute, I had to take a pic…

and here is a belly pic that Xavier took of me about a little more than 2 weeks ago… (so about 31 weeks)

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more about decluttering…

Well, this weekend went quite well with my decluttering and purging.

3 bags of clothes and shoes went to the Recyclo-Centre and so did the bed base.

They didn’t take the mattress because of a small hole but it will be going into the garbage this week.

I cleaned and took away things in my closet and drawers and though I would like to make more stuff dissapear eventually and there are still two drawers in my room that need to be done it makes such a huge difference already. But I now no longer have sock with holes or sock that slide down. I no longer have underwear that I ashamed of and no longer have any bras that don’t fit or are from my teen years.
I also tackled the bathroom. Cleaning out old old makeup that I never use and would never use again, the hundreds of extra elastics, hair clips etc that are so old that they break if you use them… old meds, soaps, bath oils etc and even a few perfume bottles… 2 of them made me a bit sad since they were given to me by Miguel many years ago. But I would never use them and they have just been collecting dust for years…. besides I still have the tin box that they came in that holds a few pictures and a few other souvenirs from my childhood.

2-3 weeks ago I had also started in the kitchen. and though it is not finished yet, it is pretty much half done and already makes things so much easier…

With the MDC thread I am keeping a running tally of the number of items that have permenantly left my home. A few things have been rounded off to a smaller number because I just stopped counting at one point… but the numbers are great and I hope to get a lot more… so to share and keep thing going… I have added the running tally to the sidebar here too…

Tired of Clutter

I am really tired of clutter… I want to get rid of stuff and I think I am really ready to do it… mentally of course since energy is a bit lacking at the moment…

I have listed two items on Kijiji (like Craiglist)

A high chair that is way too bulky and I don’t want to deal with anymore and a Excersaucer that we don’t use…

I called the recyclo-centre, (a local community buisness that sells items that people donate (really cheap) and then hires adults that have never had a job and have not been in school for a few years to give them experience.) and asked them to come pick up a double bed that is just taking up space in the play room.

Now what I would love to do is go though each room and take everything away that we don’t and will not use. It is a bit of a daunting job but I really need to do this… it is so hard for us to keep the house clean because of the clutter. So many things don’t have a place of their own and just gather up on surfaces…

Two weekends ago I attacked a few Kitchen cubards and really cleaned them up… it feels great!!

I joined a challenge on MDC for the month of October… get rid of 500 items. It may be a lot but I think that it will be easy also…

I am just tired of having stuff… stuff that I never use. Stuf that I don’t think that we will ever use, or we can replace one day if we really need it again…

So my goal is to get rid of things, big and small. To have a place for everything. To be able to keep the house clean easily. To change my bad habits of leaving things hanging around.

So at the top of my head:

I have Linens that I no longer need… (we had quite a few sets of sheets for our old double bed that is in the guest room and since the bed is rarely used we don’t need as many anymore since we have a King)
a recumbant excersise bicycle that is never used
Put the remaining sheets etc (after I got rid of the extras) in the cubards in the laundry room
Put away all of the toddler size sheets and blankets that we will not be using until the next babe is a toddler (and we don’t need as many as we have)
Get rid of kids clothes that I don’t like and that I do not want to hand down.
Get rid of the ugly dresser that is in the guest room and that is housing the linens and wrapping stuff.
Try to repair of get rid of our old TV
Get rid of clothes that I no longer wear
Get rid of toys that I don’t like and that the kids do not play with
Clean up the bathroom cubards, throw out anything that is expired or that I don’t use anymore.
Get rid of a few cloth dipes that we never use…

There are so many more things… but at least that is a start…