Stuffy Stuff

We Americans have a lot of stuffy stuff.  Some stuff is good and useful or beautiful.  Other stuff is just stuffy stuff.  I have a whole attic full of stuffy stuff to go through before we move.

Ugh!  And that's only part of it.  You know what I read in my Bible study time this morning?  "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."  (Luke 12:15).  I have an amazing opportunity right now to move and NOT to move all this stuff with me.  I have a choice.

As I see it, my stuffy stuff fits into several categories.

1.  Stuff I once needed and no longer do.

Boxes of piano music, an old area rug, aluminum lawn chairs which haven't seen a lawn in quite a few years... you get the idea.

2.  Stuff I never needed, was just a passing fancy, but that I spent money on--so it seems wasteful to get rid of it now.

 For instance, quite a few years ago, we thought we needed this space heater.  But now we haven't used it, yet there it sits in the attic.

3.  Stuff I might need one day, but haven't needed for a year or 3 or 10.

Well, see #1 and #2 above.  I still have this stuff, just in case. So, the storage boxes above contain baby things, fall decorations which are not currently decorating my house even though it is the autumn season now, and dress-up clothes/costumes. 


4.  Stuff someone else might need someday.

My attic is just full of stuff like that.  None of my kids has a permanent residence of their own yet, so they can't take their own stuff much less all the furniture that's up there just in case one of them need it.  The preceding picture is my son's section of the attic.  He'll be home to visit soon.  What are my chances of getting him to sort through it all?  Oh David-- the treasures that await you-- a Jurassic Park compound, your barn, baseball cards, legos, Cal Ripken posters... and who knows what all is up there!  Don't feel bad, your sister has an entire garbage bag full of stuffed pigs.

5.  FAMILY HEIRLOOMS.  This is the hardest group of stuffy stuff to deal with.

Yes, this is my little child-size rocker.  I loved this rocker as a little girl!  Now, this is where our kids come in.  What do we do with stuff that we can't bear to part with but don't want to keep in our own houses?  We make the kids take them.  Then the kids can never get rid of them because they are a FAMILY HEIRLOOM.  We have heirloom furniture, pictures, certificates, toys, instruments, books... and even a horse blanket.  Kids-- we're saving it ALL just for you and your attics!

6.  Stuff that's not mine to dispose of.

Notice that there a two sets of golf clubs here.  My husband uses one occasionally.  But it's not up to me to decide on the fate of either set.  To his credit, my husband does not hoard.  He's pretty good about getting rid of stuffy stuff.  Hey, he even got rid of his 1970s beer can collection this year!  Way to go!

7.  Stuff I actually currently use and/or enjoy.

 Canning jars and freezer boxes:  these are needed on an annual basis but must be stored somewhere until they're needed.

 This is a cabinet I re-organized last winter in a fit of decluttering.  Everything is in its labeled bin and I do actually use these items on a regular basis.

And here a some of my cookbooks and other books.  I recently weeded them out and only kept a few favorites.

There may be more categories of stuffy stuff, but this seems to cover what I have.  So, if life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, why would I keep anything from categories 1 & 2???  Someone else could use them. 

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions."  --Peace Pilgrim

"Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness."  --John Ruskin

"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly."
--Bertrand Russell

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."  --Epictetus

"Refrain from hoarding dusty boxes of stuff to prove who you once were, or what you once did...  Give similar thought to any heirlooms hidden here [in basements or attics]: if they’re not special enough to keep in the house, question whether they’re special enough to keep at all."  --Francine Jay in The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide.

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.  Sell your possessions and give to the poor.  Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  --Jesus Christ in Luke 12:32

If my heart is where my treasure is, then I want my treasure in the kingdom of God, and not in my attic.  I am ready to get rid of a bunch of stuffy stuff.  Anybody need an old dusty TV? 

Awesome Artistry

God is an amazing artist.  I am constantly awed by the splendor he puts in my path.  He doesn't lock it up behind vaulted doors and 3 inches of bullet-proof glass.  He puts me right in the middle of it where I can see it, smell it, touch it and hear it.  And yes, even taste it sometimes!  Scroll through these pictures and you will see Him at work:

Psalm 104.  ¹ Praise the LORD, my soul.
   LORD my God, you are very great;
   you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

 ³ and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
   and rides on the wings of the wind.

 ⁴ He makes winds his messengers,
   flames of fire his servants.

 ²⁴ How many are your works, LORD!
   In wisdom you made them all;

Don't these first three pictures make you think of Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre (after they make you think of God & his wonders first, of course).  While I was out walking on this striking windy/cloudy/sunny day, I thought I caught a far echo of a plaintive "Ja-a-a-a-a-n-e!" being carried on the wind across the moors.   If you haven't read or seen Jane Eyre, you won't get this reference.  And I know we don't have moors around here, but it's close enough.  If you haven't read Jane Eyre, you really should.  It's one of the best books of all time and I'm not even kidding.  The movies are good (there's been quite a few of them made over the years), but you HAVE to read the book.

Those pictures were all from nearby our house.  Sometimes we like to get farther (further?  I always get confused about that) out into God's creation.  The other week we made it the whole way to Hanover (it's about 40 whole minutes away from home).

 the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, vast and spacious,
   teeming with creatures beyond number—
   living things both large and small.
²⁶ There the ships go to and fro,
   and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

³¹ May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
   may the LORD rejoice in his works—
³² he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
   who touches the mountains, and they smoke. 

  ²⁷ All creatures look to you
   to give them their food at the proper time.
²⁸ When you give it to them,
   they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
   they are satisfied with good things.

We did stop to pick up ice cream on the way home.  We were satisfied with good things.

And then there's Ozzie.  I don't know if you recognize God's amazing artistry in him, but you must admit that he is an amazing mixture of approximately a dozen different breeds.

He's posing in front of a tulip tree we just planted at our soon-to-be new house in the old neighborhood. (see previous blog post for clarification).

Last and least is this strange spider Bekah spied with her little eye...  it's quite artistic, don'chathink?

 ³³ I will sing to the LORD all my life;
   I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him,
   as I rejoice in the LORD.
³⁵ But may sinners vanish from the earth
   and the wicked be no more.

I don't normally sing praises about spiders, but...

Praise the LORD, my soul.
   Praise the LORD.

Rejoice today!  Go find Psalm 104 in your Bible, take it outside into the sun and read it out loud.  Then go to the library and find Jane Eyre (or download it for free into your Kindle or other personal reading device), grab a mug of hot cider and start reading!

That's my best advice for today.  Enjoy.

Moving

Some of you know this and some of you don't.  We are going to move!  Don't worry, we're not going far...

See, that's the view of the house we're moving to-- from the perspective of the house we're moving from.

Yep.  From this one...

...to this one.

Rear view.

 Why?  you might be asking.  Is it because we want to change all our mail from 175 to 185?  (No, that'll probably create some headaches of its own).   Is it because we want to live uphill from somebody instead of downhill from somebody?  (We will finally have a view of the sunset-- that's why we're doing this!  Haha-- not.  That's just a bonus).  Is it because we can sift through all our belongings and finally get rid of some of the 20 years of accumulation from this house?  (I love to declutter, so this is another bonus). 

Here's the real reason...  We are buying Wayne's parents' house.  They have decided to down-size and move to a cottage in a retirement village and we are ready to down-size a little, plus take advantage of a house with a garage and a huge family room.  The huge family room will be nice for future large family gatherings, assuming our family will continue to grow over the next number of years (No hint there, kids. No hurry. We just believe in preparedness). 

AND we want to keep our old house.  It's sort of an antique or family heirloom, if you will.  We'd like to keep the adjoining properties together for a bit yet, so we plan to rent out the old house (that is, our current house).  Is all of this perfectly confusing?  Probably so-- and we realize that a lot of people probably think we should have our heads examined for doing this.  That's okay.  We know that this is right for us for now.  So, to anyone who asks why, I'd probably have to answer, "We just want to have our cake and eat it too."

I thought y'all should know about this if you don't already.  I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been sorting and packing, painting stuff in the old house, picking out flooring, paint, faucets, etc. for the new house, and generally having my head in a whirl over the whole thing.  Now that I've gotten this off my chest, maybe future blogging will start to flow again.  ;)

View of the old house from the driveway of the new house.

As a matter of fact, I may do another one right after this one because I took a few amazing pictures yesterday (my skill isn't amazing, but the scenery is!)  So, sometime in January, stop in at our new digs and say Hi.  We'd love to see you!  Probably.  Maybe not all of you.  Just kidding.  Do stop by-- after you call first.  ;) 

Hotta Chocolatta

The weather is getting cool.  The leaves have changed a lot just within the last couple days.  Of course, that means it's time to put aside your iced tea and fix yourself some COCOA!  When I was growing up, we didn't drink hot chocolate at my house, we drank cocoa.  We generally made it with milk heated in a pan on the stove (before the days of our first microwave oven which came to our kitchen in the late 70s I believe), with Nestle's Quik powder stirred in.  We put marshmallows in sometimes, I'm sure.  The milk would have been whole or 2%, depending what decade we were in at the time.  Yes, I remember the milkman delivering milk in glass bottles with a layer of cream on top when I was a wee girl.  The 2% plastic 2-gallon jugs with spouts from High's and the plastic bags of milk from Martin's came later.

I just had a cup of cocoa with marshmallows.  Thanks to Pandora introducing me to new old music all the time, what went through my head was "Hotta hotta chocolatta, flip a dippa da da dada da da."  Unfortunately, I don't have a good memory for lyrics.  Fortunately, the internet has an excellent memory for lyrics.  This fun and not so famous ditty was recorded by the DeJohn Sisters (who?) in 1956 and by Ella Fitzgerald sometime.  Don't the DeJohn Sisters look like they had fun together?

Looking at the picture, I had to wonder what their first names were.  They were Julie and Dux De John (born DiGiovanni).  Dux?  C'mon, what was it really?  No one names their baby girl Dux.

The song was written by Milton Drake and Vic Mizzy. I think it's fun that it took two guys to write these lyrics.  Can you just picture the conversation that brought this about?  Read the lyrics and tell me what you think:

Hotta hotta chocolatta

Flip a dip a whippa cream in the middle of a

Hotta hotta chocolatta; pick ‘er up and drink ‘er down

Square cake, round cake,  piece of pound cake;

Grab a chunk and dunk a hunk in the middle of a

hotta, hotta chocolatta; pick ‘er up and drink ‘er down

When you’re going loco; you’re out of your cocoa

Go down to the old jukery spot, and you gotta drink a lotta

hotta hotta chocolatta

Flip a dip a whippa cream in the middle of a

Hotta hotta chocolatta; pick ‘er up and drink ‘er down

Either they really liked their cocoa, or they had added a little something extra to their hotta chocolatta that I don't put in mine. They must have been sitting at a diner with a red checkered tablecloth when they got their inspiration.  I'm thinking those lyrics got written down on a napkin.

I like cocoa because it's chocolate, it's warm, it's chocolate, it's creamy, it's chocolate, it's pretty and it's chocolate.  

So, right now, go fix yourself a hotta chocolatta-- whether it's Swiss Miss, skim milk with Hershey's syrup & marshmallows (my usual version these days) or something fancy with a dip a whippa cream.  I like the idea of adding a piece of cake to the experience, although I'm not personally a dunker.  While you're sipping, click on this link and listen to the perkiest (and maybe only) hot chocolate song of all time!

Hotta Chocolatta on youtube

This is a lovely hot chocolate & bagel I had at the Wellsboro Diner.  Mmmm.