Monday Miscellany #2

Somehow Mondays seem to be a good time to catch up, recap, and just write randomly. So buckle up, hang on, and be prepared to be bored updated with the thrill that is my life.

SORTING & PURGING - This has become my mantra of late.

For many (way too many) years, I've been a packrat, always keeping things that I thought might be useful someday. Ha! Needless to say, the illustrious someday has never come. So I don't really care anymore. I'm so tired of being burdened with clutter. At long last, I'm in the right mental frame of mind to really, truly get rid of the excess. The Stuff Diet began a few weeks months ago, and is in full swing.

I'd love nothing more than to move (hopefully soon!) with about a third to maybe half of what we currently own. I'm planning to have a yard sale in another week and a half, so hopefully we can unload some of it and make a little money while we're at it.

While I haven't kept record, I've emptied the shredder basket probably 5-6 times. I've taken 3-4 large bags of trash out. I have an entire corner of the family room containing yard sale products. In addition, I've already mailed off 5-6 flat rate boxes of office ephemera to bloggy friends. I now have a full tote with stuff on top of paper to pass along to some homeschool moms here in town. Not only that, but the disastrous black hole that is our family room is looking tons better. You can actually walk through it, without zigzagging all over the place.

Oh, it also applies to my inbox. Yesterday, I managed to delete or file my way through some 700 emails. I had 700+ in my inbox and happily went to bed with a paltry 53 left! Whew.

HOUSE HUNTING/BUYING
We still have our offer sort of hanging out there (#7). At least preliminarily it has been accepted, but there were a couple of small things they countered with. We've agreed, verbally, but are still awaiting an official contract to sign.

PHOTOGRAPHY
I'm still participating in Hallie's class, but as ever, am behind in posting. She just put up assignment #3, and I haven't gotten #2 posted yet. Tried to work on it yesterday (while doing 15 other things at the same time), but just never got it done. Maybe today. If so, it will be up at my photoblog.

Along those lines, Carmi is on week 7 or 8 of Thematic Photographic. I'm so loving this, but haven't managed to get more than one shot (or less) per week. Sigh. Sometimes it's not even that I'm not taking pictures. But they get lost somewhere between there and the blog.

And then there's Wordless Wednesday and PhotoHunt on Saturday. Oh yeah, there's also PhotoStory Friday. I really love, love, love taking pix. I just have so much other stuff going on. Oh well, I just do my best to squeeze it all in.

HOMESCHOOL
Yep - it's nearly that time of year. Time to be planning and organizing and planning. It's definitely on my mind, somewhere in the dark recesses. I've been perusing some information and curriculum, not entirely sure what we'll be using this year. Of course, I know what I want to use, but that's not always in the budget, nor is it always in God's plans. So I'm praying. And praying. And researching. And realizing that we may be starting school right in the middle of moving. Wheee!

This Wednesday begins the Heart of the Matter Online Virtual Conference, and it runs through Sunday. There are some excellent speakers and topics, plus some fun giveaways. If you'd like to join in, you still have time to register. If you do, I'd surely appreciate it if you'd include my name in the "referred by" section. It means I get credit. Although I have no idea what that means. I'm already attending, so . . . not really sure there. But it's good to get credit, isn't it?

INSURANCE
It's open enrollment time for my husband's employer and the rates have gone up substantially. To the point of ridiculousness, IMHO. So. It's time to start researching some other options. We don't want to be entirely without health and dental, but we cannot possibly afford to spend what they're asking. As if taking a pay cut weren't enough. The Comedian is in need of some orthodontic work, so it really is important to deal with this. Sigh. I'd really rather have a tooth pulled. Get it done and over with and move on. It's just really time-consuming and kind of frustrating. But it's necessary and important. So, I'll be working on that as well in the upcoming week.

WRITING
I would like to be more organized in my writing. Not as in "this is too random," but staying on track with the various places that I write. Maybe even writing in advance. Gasp! I've heard that people do that. I think it would be kind of a cool thing. I think I did write a couple of blog posts in advance once. It was very handy. I plan to explore that option a bit more. I actually missed an entire post last week that I was supposed to have done. So having something in the wings, ready to go would sure be nice.

Oh yes, I'm getting Kim's BlogHop 08 package in the mail today, too.

Oh yeah, the Carnival of Bloggy Giveaways started up today. I'm not giving anything away. Not that I don't have plenty to offer. But I'd be one of those pathetic people who'd mail my package really, really late and apologize all over myself for being late. Who needs that kind of pressure? But there are plenty of other swell folks who are giving away the farm lots of great stuff. At last check, there were 375 such swell folks.

That's pretty much it. I think. My brain could wander on and on, I'm sure, but I need to get rolling. Before it gets too hot. Although it's already nearly 90 at 10:00 a.m. YUCK. I'd love it if it never got warmer than about 80. I'm just not a hot-weather kind of gal. Even the cat isn't happy about it. No playing. She just lays around all the time now. My kids are slugs. I could sure go for some more rain like we got on Friday. Alas, we're supposed to be in the 90's most of the week. I know there are plenty of you out there with higher temps, but that doesn't make me feel any better. And we all know that it's all about me. Ha! Ha!

In spite of the heat and whatever else life throws your way, I hope you all have a gloriously wonderful day!