August 21, 2014 by clumpaday

Energizers

Clump #215: Clear off batteries and magazine pile from tabletop.

To be perfectly honest, I was working on another clump today that really stumped me. Stumped by a clump. So these were done quickly to keep the momentum going. A bag of batteries of unknown origin. I’ll find out whether the Goodwill takes batteries, since there are too many of a kind we don’t often use. Did we go crazy preparing for the power outages this past winter?

Recycle this pile of magazines.

With all that’s been said about Robin Williams after the shock of his recent death, I find myself thinking of our late hairdresser, Cindy. She was never late, but a few years ago she died of lung cancer. One of the things that defined her was her love of Robin Williams. I’m sure it was mentioned at her funeral. Cindy went above and beyond the call of duty for our family, from styling theatrical hair styles and wigs for a theatrical daughter (no charge), to finding the impossible-to-get beanie babies for us, using her network of client-informants. What a gem.

It makes me feel a little better to imagine Cindy and Robin in a realm where labels of hairdresser and celebrity are meaningless. And both of them recognizing their mutual greatness, but especially Robin starstruck over Cindy.

August 20, 2014August 20, 2014 by clumpaday

Clumps Happen

Clump #214: Clear one more quarter of kitchen table. Day ten of 30-day challenge.

I almost started this post with a different photo, but thought better of it. Our mudroom is the domain of Pumpkin, our cat. Her litter boxes (yes, plural) are in there, where her rule is law. One rule is that anything falling on the floor is fair game. I had put a bag of plastic bags on a shelf in there with the intent to recycle the whole bunch, but this morning it was on the floor when I, half asleep, picked it up … too quickly to see the puddle of cat pee that immediately splashed onto my bare feet. Oh man, the wake-up call from Hell! Welcome to “one of those days.”

Okay, I just searched back for a picture of Pumpkin, and found this one … another very different morning, and offering, exactly as it was, untouched by humankind.

I guess what I’m saying is that no matter how bad a day, how many insults and disappointments, a clump can be cleared and a bit of order restored. More kitchen table clutter:

And now a full half table of usable space is available.

I feel the need to pretty-up, or freshen-up this post. Last week I saw these lovely pink flowers popping out by the roadside:

I learned they are called surprise lilies, from the amaryllis family. They bloom after their leaves die, thus, another of their names: resurrection lilies.

Hope springs eternal. Tomorrow is another day.

August 19, 2014 by clumpaday

Tabletop Tribulations

Clump #213: Start clearing kitchen table. Day nine of my 30-day challenge (has it only been nine days?!)

Now that our kitchen island is clear of clutter (yesterday’s clump), we may enjoy the abundant fruits of summer collected in its center, a changeable work of art.

Aaaand … right next to it is the kitchen table, full to bursting with the fruits of our negligence. ACK! Is it my imagination, or is Neuroscientist Richie Davidson on the cover of mindful magazine laughing at me? Or maybe it’s a grimace that says, “How can I meditate in all this clutter? Get me out of here!”

I found and payed some bills, which felt like detonating land mines, then rifled through part of the daunting task until a clear space was born. I didn’t want to make myself crazy. Just one clump … one step at a time. The less onerous the clump, the more motivated I’ll be to tackle another tomorrow.

Now the reward: two library books that seemed to be put out on display just for me:

Excuse me while I put the kettle on.

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014 by clumpaday

Whistle While You Work

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Cinderella, Decluttering, Disney, Grumpy, Life, Photos, Snow White
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Clump #212: Clear and clean kitchen island and sink; elevate mood.

I felt like a Disney princess this morning. And not in a good way.

I imagined Cinderella and Snow White cheerfully cleaning up other peoples’ messes. How did they manage that singing-with-the-birds spirit? The closest I came was thinking ‘This is for the birds.’

Actually, the Disney character I most resembled (just in attitude, I hope!) was Grumpy.

Here’s a glance at the kitchen island before, with one of my favorite books in the foreground:

I won’t identify those who might have played the roles of dwarves/evil stepmother/sisters, but a baking project had been taken on that was so big, it depleted energy and time needed for the cleanup. And now they had gone back to the salt mines (or was it coal?).

Here’s the “after,” our imitation granite (the secret is out!) formica, all shined up. Notice the darkness outside; it took a long time, what with all the grumping.

Kitchen sink before:

(I think it might be bad feng shui to have a dead bug, legs-up, inside a wishbone. Jimminy Cricket!)

And the much-better after:

With the center of our house’s universe clear, and my mood restored, I read a moving article in The New York Times called What The Sparrows Told Me, by Trish O’Kane. Ms. Kane wrote, “I tell [my students] that the birds are a gift to get them through the day.”

Maybe those princesses were on to something!

August 17, 2014 by clumpaday

The Clumps of Another

Clump #211: Help friend move.

The photo above was taken outside our Quaker Meeting this morning. The plant belonged to a woman who recently passed away; her friend adopted it and is being richly rewarded.

My good friend is moving soon and needed help. In the fifteen years we’ve been friends, occasionally she would mention her habit of sneaking various purchases in the house, away from her husband’s eyes. As we were clearing out her kitchen today, I reached for what I thought was a pretty ceramic bread box. I lifted the top, and found a pile of receipts inside. Whoa-Ho! This was her secret hiding place. We laughed about the fact that I had found what her own husband had never noticed. I asked her permission to take this photo:

Tomorrow: back to my own clumps and guilty secrets.

August 16, 2014 by clumpaday

A Mean Paper Pile Subdued

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Life, Mean Girls, Mo'ne Davis, Paper Clutter, Photos, Tina Fey
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Clump #210: Power through paper pile — part two.

I figured I’d put a photo of a tree on this page to commemorate the trees who gave their lives to make the newspapers I scanned through today. I started timing myself to keep up the pace and sense of urgency. The photo, below, was a misfire, but it’s actually a good impression of the way the process felt: scan, scan, skim, and toss:

I dutifully cut out the sudokus for my husband …

and bagged the whole lot for recycling. Four of the bags already contained shredded paper. With any luck, the piles on top will stabilize the shreds and prevent them from escaping and turning our street into a ticker tape parade on trash day.

Oh, Mo’ne, I hope you have your head screwed on tight! Front page of The Inquirer? At age 13?

The urgency part of getting through the clump quickly was the need to get out to a screening of the movie “Mean Girls” tonight. It was a benefit for the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center, with a live interview with Tina Fey by TVGuide Magazine Writer and fellow Summer Stage Alum Damian Holbrook. Tina Fey was just as funny and down-to-earth as you would hope.

Another great female role model and Philly girl setting the bar high.

August 15, 2014 by clumpaday

Throw Out Like a Girl

Clump #209: Rake through and recycle newspaper pile — part one. Day five of 30-day challenge.

Okay, enough with the basement clumps … for now. While we were staring down monsters from the depths, our actual living space has become atrocious.

I’ve experienced a surprising behavior change since my surgery in May: a decrease in television watching (to almost none) and in newspaper reading. For anyone who knows me well, this is shocking. I find I don’t want to get wrapped up in all the negativity and brought down by the junk. I really don’t want to hear about Iraq, Gaza, the President, Congress, or any of the other cast of characters I used to closely follow as my favorite soap opera. You might accuse me of being superficial or not caring about the world’s problems, and you might be right. I can’t seem to get out of my protective bubble. In the meantime, the pile of newspapers continues to accumulate, like weeds or dust. It has been a clump I never have enough time to take care of in a day, so I started with just one stack. Why not toss them all out, sight unseen? I still have a need to scan through and find those gems that, for me, make the whole enterprise worthwhile.

Here’s a great example: today I read an article that filled me with hope. A team from Philadelphia, the Taney Dragons, is in the Little League World Series, which is exciting enough. And like the lone pansy in a field of petunias, above (sorry, I’ll do anything to include one of my flower photos), their ace pitcher is a girl in a “boy’s field.” Mo’ne Davis, below (next to a dour Meryl Streep in an unflattering wig), certainly gives lie to the taunt, “You throw like a girl.”

Excerpts from the article: “Tai Shanahan, one of the team’s outfielders, said she ‘is one of the guys that just happens to be a girl.’ Davis said her teammates’ acceptance of her as a girl player ‘makes me cry.’ ‘Just kidding,’ said Davis. ‘I don’t really feel anything.'” …

“Mo’ne has to ride an hour and 20 minutes on the bus each way to from her home in South Philadelphia to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Chestnut Hill, where she has been given a generous scholarship and received an award for academic achievement. ‘She is the leader without trying,’ Bandura [her coach] said.'”

Well … the uplifting story does not balance out the one below it about Ferguson, but it helped. Here’s the first clump (looks bigger in person–really):

Late-breaking news:

Mo’ne Davis becomes first girl to throw LLWS shutout

Go Mo’ne!!!

August 14, 2014 by clumpaday

To Put Away Childish Things

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Blazing Saddles, Decluttering, Games, Life, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks, Photos, Toys
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Clump #208: Clear out basement toys; decide what to keep. Day four of 30-day challenge. No time … no energy? No excuses!

This has been one of those days I found myself wishing I had never declared a 30-day challenge. “Let’s face it, I’m tired.” (Thank you Mel Brooks and Madeline Kahn.) I pushed myself through a pile of toys and games from the basement (I’m barely able to hold the camera steady, I’m so pooped):

All except the two below will be donated to our annual Fall Festival at Meeting.

I couldn’t let go of the Party Bingo. It doesn’t matter that I can’t remember the last time we played this game. I’m just happy (not as happy as the girl on the box on the right, certainly) to own one of those spinny-things (does it have a name?) that randomly selects the number balls.

I also kept the magnet blocks. I’m pretty sure my mother-in-law gave them to us, and I remember thinking they were the greatest thing since sliced bread: somewhat open-ended for creativity, but satisfyingly easy for very little hands to snap together. Oh, yes, and I managed to keep all the pieces through three children and many years. A miracle!

It was a day of fanciful, childlike things, from the goose of Strasburg, PA (at top) looking like Mother Goose, to a tiny fairy home at a garden store:

…to a woman, where my mom lives, who offered to teach me her clay art. I promise to get photos of her amazing creations. This was just a very primitive example:

Oh that nostalgia, the bane of the de-clumper. The framed polaroid photo below stays, also. Our kids made it together when we were in the gigundo Lego store in The Mall of America of Minnesota on a Father’s Day long ago. <Sniff>

Of course, the real issue with this clump was feeling like I was letting go of pieces of our kids’ childhood. Plus, I hope we’ll be lucky enough to have grandchildren someday, probably traveling in by jet pack, and that they might enjoy the old favorite toys. The Magnet Blocks and Bingo game are at the ready.

August 13, 2014August 13, 2014 by clumpaday

Pumpkins and Penance

Clump #207: Clear out kids’ activities container; take basement clump to Goodwill.

I saw this roadside display today!! Not. At. All. Ready.

Here’s one payoff for confronting clumps of long forgotten stuff. I looked into the box below, and — lo and behold — alongside pumpkin-decorating materials, there was the Santana “Supernatural” CD we’ve been missing for years! Hooray! The contents of the box dated from the time I was in charge of kids’ activities for our Quaker Meeting’s Fall Festival. Santana and Rob Thomas’s song “Smooth” was my choice for a cake walk song no one could resist moving to. “Man, it’s a hot one…”

This magazine photo (Martha Stewart Living?) had been my pumpkin decorating inspiration:

I loaded up the car again for another trip to the Goodwill. Along with the non-yard-waste contents of the box were three cleaning devices I had bought in hopes that they’d charm our house into spotlessness. Like Cinderella’s coach after midnight, they ended up, not pumpkins, but more clutter in our house.

I felt so much lighter after depositing this stuff at the Goodwill. It reminded me of my Catholic upbringing and the way I’d feel after going to confession, even though I usually made up my sin list (is that in itself a sin?). “Take these, brother, for I have over-bought. It has been two months since my last donation.”

The grace I seek now is forgiveness of myself … with God’s help.

August 12, 2014August 13, 2014 by clumpaday

Record Setting

Clump #206: Sort basement clumps and take vinyl records to Goodwill.

Today was a day my younger daughter and I switched parent and child roles a few times. Recently she heroically dove into the vast, dark abyss of our basement storage area and sorted out piles. Now my husband and I have to make the tough decisions about what to keep, throw away, or give away. Too hard! She wouldn’t let me off the hook, no matter how many lame reasons I might have had to run back upstairs. We got the vinyl albums sorted and a whole bunch into the car to bring to Goodwill. (Sorry Perry, you didn’t make the cut.)

No matter how bad we might feel about our cluttered basement, this article from The New York Times, about a Brazilian man driven to own all the vinyl records in the world, is proof that it could be much, much, worse. It’s all a matter of perspective.

As I was marveling at the spirit and drive of my daughter, it dawned on me that she might have been avoiding a few important items she needed to cross off her own to-do list to get ready for a year studying abroad. My turn to crack the whip. The Art of Procrastination by John Perry spells out this phenomenon whereby “The procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely, and important tasks … as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.” He calls it “Structured Procrastination.”

As loyal readers know, I often include photos of what I’ve called “the goose of Strasburg, PA,” which I see on the way to visits with my mom. I’m now wondering whether she is actually a duck … a very dapper duck. The most recent of her snappy ensembles was this green and white check, with matching sunglasses. Tucked into her collar was a postcard (has she been on vacation?) from Long Island, with a photo of The Big Duck in Flanders, NY.

Happy tails … er… trails!

Clump A Day

postcards from the clogosphere

Month / August 2014