November 9, 2013November 9, 2013 by clumpaday

Taking Control

Clump #82: Recycle old remote controls.

Recycling remote controls at Best Buy: easy. Getting rid of duvet from kids’ bunk beds: difficult. One step at a time.

My husband and I saw the movie About Time last night. I highly recommend it. Funny, touching, romantic, and profound. (“I laughed, I cried …”)

Near the end of the movie, the main character goes through two identical days, but with different results. I was reminded of a quote I had copied down from an Honest Tea bottle cap:

Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea. –Maele Moore

November 8, 2013 by clumpaday

Shade, Sun & Drinking Rainbows

Clump #81: Order window shades.

Okay, so once again, I have no shame. I can’t believe I’m posting this photo of the window in our kids’ bathroom for the world to see. I guess three kids taking showers next to it for so many years finally did in the shade’s glue. I didn’t have time to order a new blind this summer while preparing for a visit from our older daughter and a friend. Thus, my short-term solution.

Soon enough, guests leave, the window is out of sight, out of mind … until the holiday season wakes me up. It’s then I take a close look around the house and think, “I can’t believe we’re living like this!”

Today I used a groupon to order new blinds, for this room and two others. Soon not one more guest will have to suffer from (more likely laugh at) the sight of my contraption.

Outside the window yesterday it was raining as I took the photo, below. I hopped into our car and heard the Mamas & the Papas on the radio singing “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey …” from the song California Dreaming. Perfect timing.

And this morning the sun came out. I noticed the sun and the steam from my tea were making rainbows.

Now I can’t get the Carly Simon song You’re So Vain out of my head (channeling oldies), with the line, “I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee …” I’ll take rainbows in my tea any day.

November 8, 2013November 8, 2013 by clumpaday

Food for Thought

Clump #80: Wrap presents on hand.

My older sister and I have a long tradition of staying up until the wee hours of Christmas morning wrapping presents. Hear ye, Hear ye: Let it be known that this year I started wrapping Christmas presents on November seventh. Impossible, you say? Well, here’s the proof:

On many Christmas Eves of yore, my sister has bailed me out. One year I went a little haywire at garage sales, buying and stashing away so many bargains that I was shocked and overwhelmed at the volume when I finally put them all together. I couldn’t have done the wrapping without her.

Then there was the year our younger daughter was testing the magic of Santa Claus by hiding a little rolled up paper on which she had written difficult questions only Santa would know. I think “How do you say Merry Christmas in Chinese?” was one. That year my sister was in charge of research while I wrapped.

Last year we were both busy wrapping while the movie Auntie Mame played on TV, starring the incomparable Rosalind Russell.

I love Auntie Mame’s motto: “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!”

Sometimes when coming up with gift ideas, my mind is like a hamster running round and round on its wheel, never making any progress. In recent years I’ve often done this while thinking of gifts for our young nieces and nephews. The older they get, the harder it becomes to hit on a gift they might really like. Should I give similar gifts to both sisters? Will one like the other one’s gift better? Will their male cousin think it is too baby-ish?

I’m taking Auntie Mame’s advice on this now. If I have fun and enjoyment picking out and wrapping the gift, that’s the most I can expect. There are no guarantees, so why sweat it? Life is too short to get wound up about such, ultimately, trivial things.

Rather than meager worries, I choose a banquet of abundant joy.

November 6, 2013 by clumpaday

Peeling Away

Clump #79: Clean out lower, flat drawer in refrigerator; make holiday-related calls.

Day Six of my 30-day, 30-clump, 30-post challenge, No-sweat November for a Dread-free December: Project Enjoy Christmas.

Yesterday and today I tackled a job I never would have had the time and/or energy for during the frenzy of the holidays. I grossly underestimated the difficulty (and also the grossness) of performing yesterday’s refrigerator clean.

Long ago, in a universe far, far away, I put a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom of the drawer in which we store meats. I’m trying to remember why I thought this was such a good idea. Maybe because I tend to be squeamish about meat.

When I took everything out to clean yesterday, I realized the darned foil was almost fused to the plastic drawer. I didn’t think there would be a way to get it off, so I put a layer of paper towel over it, and doused it with the super-hero of the cleaning world: white vinegar.

This morning I looked into our blindingly clean fridge, and the foil came off “like buttah.” Hooray!

In the past, I would have wanted to postpone this task so that the refrigerator would be at its cleanest and clearest for company. The reality is, by the time company is about to arrive, I’m in putting-out-big-fires mode, and it wouldn’t qualify. Just stuff more and more stuff into that fridge!

Today I also started the wheels in motion to reserve space for a private dining room where my mom lives for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and started researching the timing and pricing of sending a package overseas to our son. These are two things that have been nagging at me. Instead of putting them off as usual, I’m being proactive. Who am I?

It’s strange for me to begin tackling my holiday to-do list while it still looks like fall outside. Up until just recently it was warm enough that I could sit at my computer with a window open next to me. Late at night, a bird would always give off a screech that I found companionable, sometimes feeling as though we were the only two creatures awake in the dark world.

Last Friday I noticed that the leaves outside the window, which had been green and in abundance not long ago, had all turned yellow and fallen, except two:

And then there was one:

The rain and wind really picked up, buffeting the tree to and fro (yellow leaf in upper left):

I thought the leaf would be a goner, but it held on and the sky cleared (at this point I took down the screen and opened the window to snap the photo):

Excuse me for getting slightly obsessed with one leaf against the the changing sky and fall colors.

But, alas, one morning it was gone.

Autumn is a big, loud, blazing, flamboyant going-away party for leaves, sun, warmth, and color.

Goodbye for now.

November 6, 2013November 6, 2013 by clumpaday

Lightbulb Moments

Clump #78: Clean out refrigerator.

Today’s Baby Blues comic strip made me smile, especially since I was about to give our refrigerator lightbulb a real workout. Holy Guacamole! (And I did toss out a bunch of that.)

I must start off by saying that it is a wonderful problem to have too much food in a refrigerator. Sinful to waste so much of it. But one thing about the holidays, you can never have enough space in the fridge, and the time it takes to really clean it out is never available.

The dreadful — and I do mean full — Before:

We’re going to get a reputation with the men driving the recycling truck. Not a good one.

And the glorious After: No more stuff falling out when reaching for that one thing. It’s the little things that make you happy … like not having food fall on you every day.

I must get out of our refrigerator and close with something beautiful. I was able to attend a concert recently by the Turtle Island Quartet and Nellie McKay. It was called A Flower is a Lovesome Thing. I’ve read that the rose symbolizes the heart. Here’s one of ours, open-hearted:

November 4, 2013November 5, 2013 by clumpaday

The Wild Side

Clump #77: Order Christmas present.

In a recent post, I sent out an email plea to family members for gift ideas. As of this minute, I’ve received three replies, with one very specific idea. Instead of putting it off until, say, the item is sold out during the Christmas crush, I did something very different for me: I ordered it. So there. Done. Take that! I feel like a cowgirl, blowing off the smoke from her pistols and twirling them back into their holsters.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seeing and hearing so many tributes to the musician Lou Reed since his recent death. It’s as if everyone wants to prove a connection to him to up their cool factor. I’m no different, as I remember when Take a Walk on the Wild Side was playing on the radio, just singing with the song made me feel a little less geeky. And I needed that badly!

I read that he said of the song, “I always thought it would be fun to introduce people to characters they maybe hadn’t met before, or hadn’t wanted to meet.”

I was really moved by the letter his wife, performance artist, Laurie Anderson, made public, below.

“To our neighbors:

What a beautiful fall! Everything shimmering and golden and all that incredible soft light. Water surrounding us.

Lou and I have spent a lot of time here in the past few years, and even though we’re city people this is our spiritual home.

Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it!

Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air.

Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us.

— Laurie Anderson
his loving wife and eternal friend”

November 3, 2013November 3, 2013 by clumpaday

Time Is Money

Clump #76: Donate foreign currency and research time-consuming present idea.

One clump I had left over from clearing out my parents’ things was a box filled with foreign currency, unspent from various trips abroad. I did a little research into where to take it, but found no good answer. Most of the money was from pre-euro days, so I ended up thinking it probably wasn’t worth the trouble. But how could I throw away money? Bad Feng Shui, for sure.

Then yesterday at my younger daughter’s Family Weekend, I spotted this collection box in the study abroad office area:

Problem solved.

Today I remembered a gift idea that is not easily bought or ordered. I have considered it for the past few years, but haven’t had the time to pursue it when the idea would resurface during the fevered rush of December. “D’oh!” Let’s just say that I started the wheels in motion today … while the leaves are still on the trees …

And the pumpkin is still on the doorstep …

Which gives me a warm, happy glow inside.

November 2, 2013November 3, 2013 by clumpaday

I’ve Got a Little List

Clump #75: Make up Christmas list, check gifts on hand, and send out plea for gift ideas.

When our kids were very young and still under the magic spell of Santa Claus, I was trying to give them a sense of how lucky they were, explaining that there were many disadvantaged children in the world who didn’t get any Christmas presents. Our son looked at me with an incredulous expression and asked, “Why don’t they just write a list?” So easy … so obvious … so difficult to counter.

This is day two of my 30-day, 30-clump, 30-post Project Enjoy Christmas challenge. Normally on a day like today, I would give myself a pass from blogging. It’s Family Weekend at my younger daughter’s college and I could argue that I don’t have time.

But the force of this challenge filled me with new resolve, and I actually accomplished a meaningful clump. I made up a list of all my usual gift recipients; checked gifts already bought; wrote them down on the list; and sent an email to my sisters, husband, and kids to please send me any of their gift ideas before the end of November.

The photo below is not pretty, but it fills me with great joy! It’s my list with a few presents I had stashed away.

Usually (as silly as it sounds), I tend to put off this step so long that I’m avoiding it because I know I will have to confront the fact that my time and options have become limited. Does that make any sense at all? Probably not to the normal person.

I’m counting the warm temperature, blue sky, and fall color of today on my gratitude list.

November 1, 2013 by clumpaday

Another 30-Day Challenge

Clump #74: Start “Project Enjoy Christmas” by ordering cards.

Announcing the start of another 30-day challenge: No-Sweat November for a Dread-free December — Project Enjoy Christmas!

My history with preparing for Christmas is pretty dismal. Despite consistent vows to do better, my procrastination habit always gets the better of me. As a result, I get stressed-out, which leads to bad moods, which drive myself and my family crazy; I end up too tired to fully enjoy the holiday, which (oh, how sad to admit) leads me to feel that I just can’t wait for it to be over. Every year. Except for one year. When I was pregnant with my younger daughter, her due date was right around the 25th of December, so I knew I HAD TO get all my preparations finished early. For that one gleaming year, I proved to myself that I could do it.

This is an experiment in putting another artificial deadline upon myself, in the hope that when I turn the calendar page to December this year, I will not start to hyperventilate as I have in Decembers of yore. Join me, if you dare! Here is a little green and red (actually a fall photo) to set the mood:

Today I did the unthinkable … the unbelievable. I ordered our photo Christmas cards early! What?! It’s true. I already had the photo I wanted to use (a great advantage), one taken when all three kids were together for our son’s college graduation.

Instead of racing into Target with wild eyes and foaming mouth at the eleventh hour, I calmly googled “cards that benefit charity” (or something to that effect) and found that The American Cancer Society offers photo cards, and “100% of the net proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society’s fight against cancer.” If I didn’t have my heart set on personalized photo cards, I would have been tempted by other ones they offer featuring artwork by Tony Bennett.

Whoo-Hoo!! This is a really big deal for me! November 1st! The Mexican Day of the Dead. In the spirit of the day, here are some photos that celebrate the actual holiday.

Pumpkins in Strasburg, PA …

having a grand old time.

I love the faces pumpkins make when they begin to rot, like the one in the center:

Very creative people and pumpkins in Strasburg.

Happy Day of the Dead!

October 31, 2013 by clumpaday

Sweet Darlings

Uncategorized
Decluttering, Halloween, Lancaster County, Life, PA, Photos
Leave a comment

Clump #73: Rake through and recycle old newspapers and spent tickets.

A recent whirlwind of delightful and surprising family visits caused me to let go of my newspaper-reading habit, and, like fall leaves, the papers accumulated into ever-growing piles.

This was a bag of tickets my husband had been tabulating as the Fall Festival financial manager. It implores: “please recycle me.”

Okay, I will. With the cardboard clementine box below, it reads: “Recycling Works, Darling.”

Every time I drive through Lancaster County, PA to visit my mom, I’m buoyed by sights fascinating, beautiful, enjoyable, or all of the above. For instance:

I adore this goose, and by extension, the person (I’m guessing woman?) who dresses her up in myriad outfits to suit the seasons. Pictured, below, was today’s Halloween garb. Maybe some day I’ll have the gumption to knock on the door and thank its owner and clothier in person.

By contrast, this was the ensemble for late summer:

Of course the visit with my mom, itself, is the main attraction, but I also love the feeling of getting out into the country. Where else can you get big pumpkins for $2.00?

I bought one, and this is what you find at the front wagon: the honor system.

Last week I was snapping pictures of these adjoining houses with pumpkins over their doors.

I thought I was being inconspicuous …

when I noticed a piercing blue flower creeping over the sidewalk. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a clear image of it as it swayed to and fro in the wind …

and suddenly a woman and her husband came out of the house. To my great relief, instead of telling me to leave, the woman asked if I would like to have some of the plant.

I asked her if I could take a picture of her giving me the plant. I didn’t have the nerve to say it might end up in a blog, so I didn’t photograph her face.

I also failed to tell her that she, the goose-dresser lady, and the trusting pumpkin seller had strengthened my faith in mankind.

Clump A Day

postcards from the clogosphere

Author / clumpaday