Not much happening...

I have taken a break from de-cluttering...how many ways can you express that?  I call it freeing myself of items, Or letting go or sending them to find a new home.  What term do you use?

But how crazy is this:  I found these old 'catalogs' and was happy as a clam.  Though how do people know clams are happy, anyway?   I thought I had thrown them all away a while back when I ran across them but either I stuck them back or else these are more I had saved.  On the back was this:

What a rush of memories this elicited...bringing back some of the best memories of my entire life.  I lived at what was my favorite spot on earth when we had this address.  I had to shed a tear or two.  Sort of wishing I could go back to that time, but not if I had to go through all the rest of what has happened since then.

When we lived in Tennessee for a year and a half, I got started getting these...they are maybe 6 or 8 pages long.  It is a book catalog....all I did was choose the books I wanted, mail in my choices, and they were mailed to me free of charge.  I think I could keep them as long as I wanted if I remember correctly, and then stick them back in the bag and send them back.  Free of charge.  Oh, I am sure our taxes paid for them...but we didn't have to go to the post office and pay to mail them back.

Each book only had a line or so describing what it was about.  Only a few had pictures showing the book cover and it was a very small photo.    So when the books came, it was sort of like getting a Christmas present.  I could not wait to open the bag.  (They were mailed in a zippered cloth bag.   Through these books is how I found one of my all time favorite books, Tisha, by Anne Purdy as told to Robert Specht.
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I am hoping to return to the chore of getting rid of things before the week is over, but it won't happen tomorrow as we have an appt in Carmel, Indiana, which is basically Indianapolis....just on the north side.  I shaved Roger's head, and tried to trim his beard today.  I am not good at it.  I don't know what happened but part of his beard just wants to grow so wild.  It did not used to do that. He cannot do that trimming, but he can shave, so am relieved he can do that. 

Anyway, another day will be the yard, and another day Roger has to go get allergy shot, but that doesn't take long.  Hoping that is all that we end up having to do.

I hope you have a good week and that you find time to do the things you want to do.

The fun continues.....

I spent the biggest part of yesterday afternoon and this afternoon in the basement....again....  I even mananged to find a few more empty boxes yesterday.  This will lead to a fun day of breaking down boxes in the future, but the time is not yet.

I also was working on some shelves down there.  I found this cigar box...

and a  bigger box that were full of old family photos from Roger's family...from his dad's side.  There are photos of his great-grandmother in both photos above.  She broke her finger, I don't know which one, but she was going to cut it off and Roger's mom put a stop to it and took her to the dr...she was going to cut it off because she didn't want it to heal and be stiff and crooked.

In the first photo, where she is wearing a long coat, that is a parrot on her arm.   Don't you know she had to really be a character..she lived in Montana at some point in her life...   Roger remembers her...she used to babysit him....and he remembers loving her so much.  And he said it about killed his dad when she died. 

Here she is again...Roger does not remember who the man is.  That girl on the left is his grandmother, and that is his Great Uncle Jack standing between his grandmother and the man.  I did know him...he was a little bitty guy and was a jockey when he was a young.    He did not talk about it....but had told Roger's dad that this or that jockey would come in and might find a roll of money in their locker with a note telling them to 'throw the race.'  He refused to do it, and he was beaten up pretty bad.  He quit and never raced again.  He lived in fear for his life for a long, long time...not even sure he ever got completely over it.

I thought this was Roger's dad, but Roger says it is his dad's brother.  And I guess I can see it...but was so hoping it was his dad cause his dad was a Quarter Horse jockey in the Terre Haute area.

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I have no idea who this is, and neither does Roger.  I just had to show it because of how he is dressed....and holding all those birds.  Do you reckon he was dressed like that when hunting, or did he dress up for the photo?
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I would be ashamed to tell you how much stuff I carried up out of the basement.  Some Roger took to the garbage cans for me, and other went to the garage to be donated.  A LOT of today's donation was books.  Some yesterday was books, but not near like today.  I even donated a few books that had been favorites of mine.  I figured the way they were packed away that I would never go to the trouble of hunting them out to read.   Still, I held on to more than I should have.  I wish I knew someone personal that would want them.

And guess what else I found?  An 'under the bed' storage thing FULL of VCR tapes of The Simply Quilts show that I used to tape when I worked.  I thought I had gotten rid of them, but I found out I had not.  Now they are gone!

I also have a stack of books started that were once Rachel's that she wants me to keep for her....and a couple cookbooks that she wants.  So, a bit is being done, but sure not fast enough for me.  I am just thankful I can work on it again. 

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I am reading this...The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman....it and The Far Family  got together...they happen to be two of my favorite books.

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We just had a downpour of rain, but it seems to have passed on.  It thundered just a little bit...and moved on.

Blooms and other stuff....

I would hate to have to count the blooms on this bunch of Asiatic lilies...they are the gift that keeps on giving.  And isn't that bunch of violets just simply gorgeous?  I can never pull them up...I would not mind having a whole bed of them.

Looking down on the from the top...you can also see shamrock to the side...I can pull those up, but I don't mind them growing either.  So I usually let them go a while.

Just a couple close-ups...

That is all from this lily, though I think I still have another color to bloom.  And if I can see my neighbor out, I am going to her house...she has some of the pretties, darkest Asiatic lilies I have ever seen.

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I have not been accomplishing very much.  I worked on a couple cabinet drawers yesterday at one point, plus some shelves, and threw away quite a few things.  Things I am not proud of having.  I had probably 3 dozen little packets of Taco Bell sauce...our Taco Bell has been closed for over a year.  Why did I still have them?  Just one item in a bunch odds and ends.

Also yesterday, I was thinking about mowing the yard.  Not only does mowing the yard wear me out, but also having to worry about Roger.  He won't let me just go and mow...I can mow and take a break and mow some more.  It is actually good for me.  But he thinks he has to help, and I cannot relax when he is mowing.  Afraid of him falling, afraid of him having another stroke.  He had mowed the day he has his brain bleed so for him to get out mowing always strikes a note of fear for me.

Well, l had decided to wait till Thursday to mow, and who should appear later but Sarah and Lorelei, and Sarah mowed for me.  I hate for her to come after her day at work....she generally puts in long days,  and will put in almost a full day on a lot of Saturdays.  Still, I was so thankful.

Today has been a couple loads of laundry...it rained so they dried in the dryer.  My washer and dryer are in the basement.  (You cannot believe how thankful I am to be able to go up and down the stairs on my feet.)  (I am not sure I will ever take being able to walk for granted again.)

Anyway, Roger has always saved his hunting magazines and gun magazines, plus some fishing magazines.  I have not been able to bring myself to throw them away till today.  He did not have a huge stack, because before his stroke, he had actually started trying to just keep those that had articles he might want to read again/or that showed how to do something.  Still there were more than I liked to carry up the steps...but I got them up and out on the porch and used a wheel barrow to take them to the garbage can...

And can we say 'Boxes!)  I told Roger I should open up a box store.  Literally sell boxes.  Used boxes.  I tend to always save shoe boxes or small boxes just in case I need to mail something.   Today I carried most of the ones I had saved up and out...for when I next break down boxes.  Which should happen in the not too distant future.

To finish up my day I sewed a few more 4-patches.

That is what is happening in my corner of the world...how is it in yours?