Updates on my updates

If you follow this blog or just check in now and then, I apologize for being absent for so long. Between the holidays, being diligently aggressive in my job search, and suffering from occasional bouts of minor depression - I just didn't have much to say.

I kept up on my sabbatical activities however.  I spent time trying to sell things on eBay.  I am "opening" an Etsy store for vintage treasures hold sentimental value and I don't want to just give away but  don't have room for them now.  Remember?  I am downsizing and simplifying.

I have learned a lot in the last few months also.  I spent several days with my Mom helping her downsize.  We are ending "Phase 1". Phase one is the step of trying to psych yourself up for the journey you are about to embark on - parting with things you have that you really don';t need but still think you might "someday", or reflecting on which beloved treasures you want to give away or keep to take to your next home, which could be sizable smaller than the one you are in now.  It can be a very emotional process. And one that takes lots of time.  I found that I am quite a bit like her.

Like my Mom, I am a keeper of things that I find value in but others think are pointless to keep and simply rob the spirit from you by taking up energy in your life.  Like magazines.

I think I mentioned this in another post in the beginning.  I was once considered a magazine hoarder. My Mom is too. I had boxes upon boxes of magazines in my basement that dated back to the early 80′s. I also had magazine files and binders of “important” and “inspirational” articles, recipes, craft ideas, and who knows what else. 

I had a three inch binder filled with exercise routines to do someday. Seriously? 

That does not include the organizers and stacks upon stacks of “current” magazines I had readily available (in piles stacked in every room) for someday when I had time. I was a busy professional who worked 50 - 60 hours a week and even though I traveled and carried with me some of those articles I clipped, I was always reading work related material on the trips and would always find a more interesting magazine I couldn't find in my local Walgreen's so I always bought another one - which ultimately found its way to one of the piles for "later"...........

In May of 2011 I was unemployed and suddenly I had time. What did I do? For the entire summer I de-cluttered and I started with the magazines. What did I learn? Most of it was outdated material. (Really?  Parenting changes THAT much in 30 years? 

Some of the crafts I really didn’t want to do anymore. I had way too many recipes that if I cooked it all I would need 4 binders of exercise routines to get rid of the extra weight. And those exercise routines? I figured that if I haven’t used the information in the 10 years since I had started “organizing it,” I doubted I ever would. 

So I recycled it all! I set a new rule that only VERY special magazines (collectors, special editions, etc) would be kept in the magazine organizers. I also vowed to read one magazine until it was done, cook the recipes and keep those that the family liked, and then recycle by donating the magazine by sending it along to a single mom who can’t afford to buy them. 

I also found Pinterest!!!!!! That is my new inspiration go-to place now and it provides me with the same joy I would receive from magazines with a lot more diversity. I only subscribe to one or two magazines now that provide meaningful and useful information, or whose pictures are so good, and evoke such feelings, that it requires me to snuggle up under a blanket or in my Adirondack chair in my yard to truly enjoy. 

Now my family says I hoard Pinterest boards. At least I don’t have to dust them or move them when I clean!!!!

It's been a long time comin'

Wow, has it really been this long since I have posted?  I have been busy but still full of so much to say.  I really don't know why I haven't posted on here.  It has been a long couple of months doing things like running to my parents over an hour away to help them, sick with asthmatic bronchitis for several weeks, planning Christmas with very little money (that challenge has been more fun that you can imagine). And of course, looking for a job.

It's amazing how resourceful and creative you can be when you have no income.  Thank God my husband still has his job. But right now I am in a "forced retirement" without social security coming in. It is giving me a glimpse into the future and a chance to practice.  At least I know how comfortable I can be with very little. Just give me my grandchild, good health, my computer and internet, and some books and I am a happy camper!

The only thing that would make it better is living in a very small, quiet town or out in the country (even better). I long for peace and quiet as I age.

I crave being in the country right now. I write better then. Especially if I am by the water. Maybe because I can think more clearly.  I don't know how many pictures I have shared on Facebook lately of my ideal living environment.  Here is just one of many you would find on my Facebook page.

"My" writing cabin

So it is time to return to my writing.  Once the holidays are over I know it will naturally happen again. Look for more adventures of Grandma's Sabbatical in the coming months.