Break out the good dishes - everyday!

Yesterday turned out to be a very different day from my plan.

While I did clear one or two small paperwork items, I got involved in a couple of boxes of stuff that was sitting on the floor in the office. I'll share with you what happened with those boxes.

In the afternoon, I went for coffee with someone I haven't seen in a number of years. I had heard that she wasn't well. But I was totally unprepared for the fact that she has advanced lung cancer. She's not a smoker. She's a few years younger than I am. I was a bit of a basket case for the rest of the day. I can't stop thinking about her and I can't stop crying when I think about her and her family.

She was diagnosed last year so she's had some time to adjust to the situation. But it's made me think a whole lot about my life and what I do or don't do. How would you live each day with that kind of thing hanging over your head? That's why we should be living EACH and EVERY DAY to the fullest. We're the lucky ones - we have our health.

Break out the good dishes - heck, we don't even have good dishes at our house. Cut up those kits or fabrics that are too precious. DO IT. DO IT TODAY!!!

I so want to just bring out a dumpster and get rid of everything in my house that I'm not using on a daily basis and get rid of it, so I stop wasting my time managing it.

Fortunately, I'm selfish with my time and I spend a lot of time doing things that I want to do. I read tons, I quilt and I spend time with my girls. I've traveled pretty extensively within Canada and a wee bit beyond. The one thing I would like to do more of is to spend more time with friends.

Anyway - it's a sad situation. It could happen to any of us. That's why I'm very seriously evaluating how I spend my time. I won't go into all the details today.

But not to worry, I'll always blog. That's my sanity and that's why I do it every day. It takes time, but a time that I enjoy. I get up each morning and look forward to writing. It's something that I love.

Enough of that.

The flooring guy came by yesterday and of course, I wasn't here. He was supposed to be here in the morning. DH let him in the house and couldn't care less about the floor. Well, it's not his space and he hasn't been involved in the previous conversations. So I have to call Ed today and see what his recommendations are.

This is what needs to come out of the basement this week.

There's a lot of decorations. Two tubs of Christmas decorations - notice the bins are color coded! And one of Halloween decorations. All of them don't fit in the tubs so they are stacked on top. Shoot, there should be a second Halloween tub as well. Somewhere.

Boxes of decorations - to go

Three more boxes of Christmas decorations - need to go.

More Christmas decorations to go

And here's one more box of Christmas decorations

One more box of Christmas decorations

Why so many?? Well, one of the Christmas boxes contains a village. One of them is filled with nutcrackers. One has wreaths. I'm going to go through the boxes and save a couple of decorations that are special to us and the rest is going to go bye bye. There's also a nice Christmas tree with lights that will go as well, but I didn't get a picture of it yet.

Then there's this pile of stuff. FOUR boxes of gift wrap, gift bags, and wrapping paper. Why did so much accumulate? I've no idea, but we don't often give gifts so all of this is up for grabs as well. All the tissue paper is gone. Someone is using it to wrap knick knacks for a move.

Boxes of gift wrap

I might keep a few small bags but the rest of it is gone! 

There's this chair of more paper to get rid of. Most of this will go into the recycling bin.

Recycling stuff 

 I still haven't done anything with this huge bag of bags. But someone had suggested giving it to a second-hand store. And I'm going to do that. Too bad I don't live closer to Earlton as that store was looking for bags. Shoot!!!

Bag of bags that's up for grabs

As if that wasn't enough - there are more bags hanging on the wall behind a door in a small storage area of the basement.

Even more bags

Then there's this guy. He's about 6 feet tall and I don't want him anymore. He needs a bit of a repair on his red body. I also have another nutcracker that is about 3 feet tall. So I have to find homes for those.

6-foot tall nutcracker

I hope to bring all that upstairs today. It'll make a wee bit more room in the basement and I don't care how much I get rid of, but I want this space to be useable and have everything easily accessible. It's not all easily accessible at the moment and I hate that.

It's going to be a bit of work, but I want it done. I'm tired of "managing" all my stuff. It's time to get rid of as much as I can and focus on the fun things in life. I can't imagine someone telling me that I have a terminal illness. How would I spend my time as I wait to die? Would I spend it managing all the crap that I've accumulated over the years? Or would I spend it enjoying that stuff or spend it with friends? I've no idea. I hope I never find out how I would manage that scenario.

And after I met with my friend, I dropped off some stuff at a donation center and I went to a movie with Lynn and Ronda. I never touched my sewing machine all day. I'm really trying to practice what I preach. I'm trying to be well rounded and I'm trying to enjoy life! I don't want any regrets when I'm older.

Tomorrow you'll see how I'm starting to tackle this mess on a serious note - well somewhat serious note.

Have a great day. DO NOT forget to break out those good dishes for lunch! DO IT!!!

Ciao!