When my children were young one of their favorite books to check out from the library was titled When the Relatives Came. I think they loved this book so much because it reminded them of when our relatives came to town. We are fortunate to live in the same town as my maternal grandmother. Over the course of a year we usually get to see most of our relatives who come into town to visit my grandmother. Having the relatives in town was always a festive event; it still is. Today the relatives came. Tomorrow more are coming. Tomorrow my grandmother turns 102.
Tonight I had the relatives over for dinner. It was a small crowd by our standards – sixteen relatives. Tomorrow thirteen more are arriving. When we get together we eat, we drink, we tell stories, we laugh, we cry. We remember those who are no longer with us and we remember those who couldn’t make a cross-country trip. We weave the threads of our family quilt, we strengthen our ties to each other while we celebrate our past and look to our future. We compare our skinny legs and our receding hairlines. We comment on which of us look like our grandfather’s “people” and which of us resemble our maternal side. We question how a teen could grow two feet since the last time we saw her and marvel at how our children resemble the children of our cousins.
The stories we tell are family lore. The stories we tell have been told hundreds of times and will be told countless more. The younger family members listen intently as we recount the tales of prim Aunt Opal’s secretly sipped boiler-makers, or about the cousins putting red dye in the hotel fountain, or Uncle Sam’s hitch-hiking trip from Texas to New York. They listen closely because they know one day it will be their turn to tell the tales.
We laugh hysterically as we hear the story of Aunt Mary putting a department store mannequin, complete with blonde wig, in bed with Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is awakened the next morning by his mother (my grandmother) swatting him with a broom and yelling, “How dare you bring this hussy into my house?” The next story will bring tears to my eyes and to each of my aunt’s as we discuss my mother’s illness and death and the subsequent discovery of a child she gave up for adoption; the “child” we found fifteen years ago and who is now just one more relative with tears in his eyes as he listens to the story of his birth and adoption that took place fifty-five years ago.
We eat second helpings and pour another drink and tell some more stories. It’s all part of our version of the story of When the Relatives Came.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Boring Stuff
This blog is the motivating force behind my housecleaning efforts for 2009, rather my house-purging efforts for 2009. The premise being: it is more fun to write than clean – so if I clean something I get to write about it. Stupid premise, but it is working. The cleaning I have been writing about involves purging the “stuff” I have in drawers, closets, shelves, etc. I have not written about the everyday cleaning that we all have to do in order to keep our heads above clutter or the health department away from our door. I have not written about it until today. Today I had to clean my house, really clean my house – not just a drawer or a closet, I had to dust and vacuum and mop. Company is coming. We are celebrating a big birthday in my family this weekend, my grandmother, Big Red, is turning 102. I am having the family over for dinner tomorrow – so I had to put aside my house-purging efforts and focus on house-cleaning. BORING.
Housework is boring. I have never liked it; does anyone? I love having a clean house, but I much prefer having someone else do it. When my children were young I was a stay-at-home-mom, but I still had someone come in every week and clean. I didn’t want my children to remember a mother who did nothing but clean house. We went to the library and to the swimming pool or to the movies instead. Now that my husband and I are the only two at home (plus two dogs that shed) we decided to do the housework ourselves. It is not very much fun and I much prefer whining about it than actually doing it. My husband is great to jump in and get the work done, but on the eve of every family visit we find ourselves scrambling to get it all done. We’ve become complacent about the level of clutter we can live with, but we are just vain enough not to subject our guests to our everyday lackadaisicalness.
So, the furniture is dusted, the floors are mopped or vacuumed, the tub and toilets are clean and the dog hair is mostly gone – and I am bored to tears!
Housework is boring. I have never liked it; does anyone? I love having a clean house, but I much prefer having someone else do it. When my children were young I was a stay-at-home-mom, but I still had someone come in every week and clean. I didn’t want my children to remember a mother who did nothing but clean house. We went to the library and to the swimming pool or to the movies instead. Now that my husband and I are the only two at home (plus two dogs that shed) we decided to do the housework ourselves. It is not very much fun and I much prefer whining about it than actually doing it. My husband is great to jump in and get the work done, but on the eve of every family visit we find ourselves scrambling to get it all done. We’ve become complacent about the level of clutter we can live with, but we are just vain enough not to subject our guests to our everyday lackadaisicalness.
So, the furniture is dusted, the floors are mopped or vacuumed, the tub and toilets are clean and the dog hair is mostly gone – and I am bored to tears!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Stuff We Eat
Today was an important food day for me. It was important for several reasons. I spent the entire day at a Local Food Conference with about 150 like-minded people trying to figure out the food issues facing our country, our state, our town and our brothers and sisters who don’t have enough to eat. We ate food grown locally and prepared beautifully. We envisioned a community that could produce good, clean, culturally appropriate and affordable food for all. We dreamed a bit, but it was a beginning. This took place on Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting for some; a day for new beginnings for others. A day when we make grand gestures about what we will give up for Lent: sodas, red meat, sweets, chewing gum, junk food, fast food, alcohol, biting one’s fingernails – all things that are bad for us.
What if we really gave up the “stuff” that is bad for us? What if we gave up processed foods, foods with more than five ingredients listed on the back of the box, foods that were grown in countries with questionable standards? What if we gave up eating animals that were not raised and processed in a humane manner? What if we gave up eating foods grown with genetically modified seeds or grown with chemicals? What if we gave up foods that were grown on the other side of our country and trucked to us using the oil we are fighting a war for? What if we gave up foods that were grown by growers who did not earn a living wage?
What if we ate good “stuff”? What if we ate food grown locally by growers paid enough to support themselves? What if we ate food that was in season? What if we ate food grown on a farm that had been in a family for multiple generations? What if we ate food appropriate to our culture? What if we ate meat, poultry or fish that was raised in natural conditions? What if we ate whole, real, unprocessed food? What if we ate food grown in a sustainable manner? What if we ate food grown from heirloom seed saved by conscientious farmers? What if we ate foods without growth hormones?
What if we thought about our food before we shoveled it into our mouths? What if we thought about the farmer who grew it and said a silent pray of thanks? What if we thought about the animal grown for our hamburger or steak and said a silent prayer of gratitude? What if we thought about only eating the best food we could get?
What if we thought about those who don’t have enough to eat; those without access to clean food, healthy food, whole food? What if we thought about why obesity and diabetes and heart disease are out of control? What if we thought about one in four children being hungry? What if we thought about mothers going without food so their children could eat? What if we thought about people who get their food out of dumpsters?
It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of “making a new man” for Catholics and some Protestant denominations. What if, instead of giving up something, we really thought about our food for forty days? Could this lead to changes? I don’t know – but it’s a beginning.
What if we really gave up the “stuff” that is bad for us? What if we gave up processed foods, foods with more than five ingredients listed on the back of the box, foods that were grown in countries with questionable standards? What if we gave up eating animals that were not raised and processed in a humane manner? What if we gave up eating foods grown with genetically modified seeds or grown with chemicals? What if we gave up foods that were grown on the other side of our country and trucked to us using the oil we are fighting a war for? What if we gave up foods that were grown by growers who did not earn a living wage?
What if we ate good “stuff”? What if we ate food grown locally by growers paid enough to support themselves? What if we ate food that was in season? What if we ate food grown on a farm that had been in a family for multiple generations? What if we ate food appropriate to our culture? What if we ate meat, poultry or fish that was raised in natural conditions? What if we ate whole, real, unprocessed food? What if we ate food grown in a sustainable manner? What if we ate food grown from heirloom seed saved by conscientious farmers? What if we ate foods without growth hormones?
What if we thought about our food before we shoveled it into our mouths? What if we thought about the farmer who grew it and said a silent pray of thanks? What if we thought about the animal grown for our hamburger or steak and said a silent prayer of gratitude? What if we thought about only eating the best food we could get?
What if we thought about those who don’t have enough to eat; those without access to clean food, healthy food, whole food? What if we thought about why obesity and diabetes and heart disease are out of control? What if we thought about one in four children being hungry? What if we thought about mothers going without food so their children could eat? What if we thought about people who get their food out of dumpsters?
It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of “making a new man” for Catholics and some Protestant denominations. What if, instead of giving up something, we really thought about our food for forty days? Could this lead to changes? I don’t know – but it’s a beginning.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Why I Can't Let Go
Having breezed through the hall closet top shelf yesterday, I decided to tackle the second shelf today. Again – there was not too much “stuff” on the shelf, but again – it was hard to make decisions regarding what to keep and what to throw away or donate.
- Three rain ponchos (it is important to note that my city’s annual rainfall is approximately 15 inches and we usually get 2/3 of that in one day) – KEEP 1, DONATE 2
- 12 child-size plastic coat hangers, 6 pink, 6 blue – DONATE
- An awesome black messenger bag - KEEP – if the awesome black messenger bag I am currently employing as a briefcase ever wears out (doubtful) I will have a replacement
- A pair of fairy wings. Not actual fairy wings, but costume fairy wings made out of wire and netting and glitter and sequins. This is a really tough call – KEEP – (the whole scavenger hunt thing from yesterday’s blog)
- A Zip-lock storage bag full of bungee cords – KEEP – take to lake house where the need for bungee cords is greater
- Three porcelain Mardi Gras clown dolls from New Orleans – DONATE (only after first checking with daughters to make sure it is okay)
- Another Zip-lock storage bag containing a set of International Converter Adaptors with Pouch – Royal Traveller (package spelling, not mine) by Samsonite – KEEP – God forbid I should ever get a chance to travel internationally and be caught with out plug adaptors for my blow dryer.
- A plastic zipper bag containing a comforter, bedding, dust ruffle, curtains, and throw pillows from daughter #2’s room several incarnations ago – KEEP*
*This is why I can’t bring myself to part with the bag of bedroom linen:
In 1997, according to detailed records I still have, I spent roughly $5,000 to decorate my then ten year old daughter’s room. I remember vividly shopping for furniture, making a grid on graph paper, cutting out little to-scale replicas of all of the furniture to make sure everything would fit, selecting the paint colors, and finally pulling it all together with the perfect fabrics – bed linen and curtains. For a few sweet, wonderful years my precious daughter had a beautiful room. AND THEN – she turned into a teenager. The floral bedspread was exchanged for a blanket with the image of a punk-rock band. The cheery paint, so painstakingly selected, was covered from floor to (and including the) ceiling by black paint, the walls were covered with posters of tattooed, barely clad young men and my sweet daughter was replaced by a surly replica of her former self. For the duration of her teen years I endured loud music, slammed doors, purple hair and missed curfews. I am happy to report we both survived her teen years. Now, in her twenties, I am thankful for the opportunity to know this awesome adult I had a small part in shaping.
The floral comforter is staying as a reminder of the sweet little girl who once loved Tweety Bird and wore baseball caps and friendship bracelets. I am keeping it to remember the $5,000 was not a re-decorating expense, but an investment in the future of my ten year old daughter. I am keeping it to remind me that somewhere inside my smart, independent, beautiful twenty-something daughter there is possibly a bit of that ten year old who might, on occasion, still need her mom.
Monday, February 23, 2009
My Life is a Game Show Waiting to Happen
Remember the game show, Let’s Make a Deal? The host, I think his name was Monty Hall, would approach random women in the studio audience and ask them if they might have certain bizarre items in their purse. If they had, say, a rubber chicken, he would give them cash prizes. I live this scenario every day, only it is my life, not a game show, and it is my home, not a purse and the biggest difference of all – there are no cash prizes!
Several years ago the radio station I listened to had a morning talk show that featured a segment called Swap Shop. Listeners would call in with the most outrageous items they owned and if another caller could top the craziness of the item the d.j.s would arrange a swap. I only called in once, but I won the swap and the d.j. commented that normally one would have to go to the Addam’s Family house to find such an unusual item. The item I swapped was a petrified blowfish mobile; I can’t remember what I swapped for, but I am sure it wasn’t nearly as exotic as a petrified blowfish mobile. (I neglected to mention that the petrified blowfish was wearing a little straw hat.)
Another area I have excelled in is the annual White Elephant Christmas Gift Exchange with our best friends and their children. A Christmas White Elephant memory that will never be topped was the year I brought as my exchange gift an acrylic polar bear rug, complete with polar bear head and long plastic polar bear teeth. Who has this kind of stuff in their house? I do.
My home is also a popular stop among the scavenger hunt crowd. I can usually get a scavenger hunt team through their entire list in less than five minutes. Many a scavenger hunt prize has been won thanks to me and my “stuff”.
So this brings me to today’s cleaning/purging project. I cleaned out the top closet shelf in my hall closet. A closet that is used to store out of season clothes, children’s clothes I can’t bear to part with (Girl Scout vests with badges and Li’l Abner costume), and the extra leaves to my dining table.
Several years ago the radio station I listened to had a morning talk show that featured a segment called Swap Shop. Listeners would call in with the most outrageous items they owned and if another caller could top the craziness of the item the d.j.s would arrange a swap. I only called in once, but I won the swap and the d.j. commented that normally one would have to go to the Addam’s Family house to find such an unusual item. The item I swapped was a petrified blowfish mobile; I can’t remember what I swapped for, but I am sure it wasn’t nearly as exotic as a petrified blowfish mobile. (I neglected to mention that the petrified blowfish was wearing a little straw hat.)
Another area I have excelled in is the annual White Elephant Christmas Gift Exchange with our best friends and their children. A Christmas White Elephant memory that will never be topped was the year I brought as my exchange gift an acrylic polar bear rug, complete with polar bear head and long plastic polar bear teeth. Who has this kind of stuff in their house? I do.
My home is also a popular stop among the scavenger hunt crowd. I can usually get a scavenger hunt team through their entire list in less than five minutes. Many a scavenger hunt prize has been won thanks to me and my “stuff”.
So this brings me to today’s cleaning/purging project. I cleaned out the top closet shelf in my hall closet. A closet that is used to store out of season clothes, children’s clothes I can’t bear to part with (Girl Scout vests with badges and Li’l Abner costume), and the extra leaves to my dining table.
I thought the top shelf would be a simple enough project; there were only 4 things on the top shelf. How hard could this be? Hard! These are the four things that were on the top shelf:
- A hat box containing a brown floppy felt hat my mother wore in the 1960s. We have already established the aversion I have to getting rid of anything that belonged to my mother - KEEP
- A shoe box containing a pair of dyed black peau de soie shoes, a half size too small for me. I will DONATE these (unless daughter #2 wants them).
- A shoe box containing a pair of dyed purple/lilac peau de soie shoes I wore when I was the Matron of Honor in my sister’s wedding in 1985, a full size too small. I will DONATE these (unless daughter #2 wants them).
- The fourth and final item on the top shelf of the closet is the item I am torn about getting rid of. If I get rid of this I will never again be able to participate in the radio Swap Shop show, I will never again have an awesome White Elephant gift, and I will never again be a one-stop-shop house for a scavenger hunt. The fourth and final item on the top shelf of the hall closet is a midnight blue velvet sombrero with silver top stitching and multi-colored sequins. What if Monty Hall comes calling and offers me a cash prize for a midnight blue velvet sombrero? I am SO KEEPING this!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
A Day Off From Stuff
I have a big week coming up - my grandmother's 102nd birthday and I am co-hosting a conference at work. So - I took the day off from cleaning/purging. The ironic part of all of this is that I should really be cleaning/purging because I am having the whole fam-damily over for dinner on Friday! Stay tuned.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
"Stuff" the Postman Brings
I normally bring in the mail. I normally get home hours before my husband and I bring in the mail, but occasionally he brings in the mail and separates it into stacks of bills, magazines, junk and stuff addressed to me. The stuff addressed to me goes on the side table in the den next to "my chair". I usually ignore it for days until the pile grows large and I have no choice but to look through it. Today I decided to purge my mail - this is what I found:
- a statement from my retirement account
- something from an organization called Investor Protection Association for America urging me to "tell Washington what I think"
- a statement from my Doctor on a medical procedure I had in October that my insurance is supposed to pay, but hasn't
- an advertisement for an antique show at our Civic Center
- a magazine from my college sorority - The Eleusis of Chi Omega
- 2 Valentine's Day cards from two of my dear friends
- an advertisement begging me to subscribe to Organic Gardening
- an advertisement from Dillard's Department store begging me to try MAC Cosmetics
- a post card from my college Alumni Association marked URGENT NOTICE trying to sell me an alumni directory
- a notice from the Arboretum reminding me of a program at the arboretum that happened a week ago
- a 2009 Obama Agenda Survey
- a dues reminder from Texas Democratic Women
- another URGENT NOTICE from my college alumni association
- an advertisement from Dillard's Department store begging me to try Prescriptives Cosmetics
- my February bank statement
- an advertisement from Pier 1 Imports
- an advertisement from Sally Beauty supply
- an actual letter from a dear friend
- a gift certificate from Daughter #1 for an online writing class
- a newsletter from our lake Municipal Water District
- an advertisement from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine
This is less than a week's worth of mail that was routed to me. It saddens me that there is not more real mail. I am reminded of mail we received when I was a child. The mail my mother received was much more exciting. Especially the family chain letter.
There was one delivery from the United States Postal Service we especially looked forward to when I was young. It was the much anticipated family chain letter. My mother was the oldest of ten children; five girls and five boys. These nine aunts and uncles and their children along with my widowed grandmother made up the maternal side of my family. We lived over 500 miles from my mother’s hometown, where my grandmother still lived in the same pink brick ranch-style house where she raised her ten children after being widowed in her early fifties. All of my mother’s siblings, with the exception of my youngest uncle, had moved away from home, as well. In the days when long distance phone calls were still considered a luxury the best way to keep in touch was through the postal system. In the case of my mother’s family, the most expeditious way was through the family chain letter. One wrote a letter to everyone, mailed it to the next person on the list, in turn, each person added their own letter, and so on down the line until there were eleven letters in total, including one from my grandmother.
The chain letter arrived twice a year, if we were lucky and if the aunts and uncles, or uncles wives were on their best behavior. One year it was left on an airplane and didn’t make its way back to the family for almost a year. Another time it was delivered to the wrong address at Christmas time and was accidentally put away with Christmas decorations not to be unpacked and returned to the rightful addressee until the next year.
The arrival of the fat, brown manila envelope with various denominations of different colored postage stamps was something akin to a religious holiday at our house. If it arrived while we kids were at school Mother would put it aside, saving it as a special treat until she had finished her day’s housework. I did not inherit that gene. I would have ripped it open immediately and devoured every bit of news. If the letter arrived when we kids were home we cajoled and harassed Mother until she had to acquiesce and open it right away.
The first crucial task upon opening the manila envelope was to put each individual letter in chronological order. There was definitely a right way and a wrong way to read the chain letter. It would have been unthinkable to read about Stevie’s date to the Senior Prom in May before reading about Sandra’s children’s Easter egg hunt in April.
After mother had the letters in order we could begin. She would carefully open the first envelope, if we were really lucky there would be photos. Depending on the decade there could be white-bordered black and white square Brownie snapshots, Polaroid’s with a white paper bottom, or textured, too-colorful Kodak Instamatic pics in their Fox Photo or Photo-Mat envelopes. Mother always handed us the pictures first, with a stern warning not to get fingerprints on them, while she settled back to read the letter. She knew we were much more interested in seeing our cousins, our aunts and uncles, their new cars, and pets than in hearing the news. But all too soon we would be finished with the photos from that first envelope, even if we looked at each one five or six times. We knew we couldn’t move on to the next envelope until Mother had digested the entire first letter and seen the photos herself. We began asking questions and mother began telling us about our far flung family. This is how we got to know each other. The twin uncles, Ron and Don, Aunt Sandra’s five stair-stepped children, Aunt Gail in foreign New York city, wild Uncle Mike who almost died in a Corvette Stingray wreck, Aunt Mary who married her college sweetheart, Aunt Karen and her perpetually pale winter Wisconsin children, our hippie Uncle Sam, and Uncle Steve who was only three years older than I, and yet still carried the “uncle” status. From that much anticipated manila envelope came at least 10 smaller envelopes, each pregnant with greetings, photos, newspaper clippings, recipes and news of births, deaths, graduations, marriages, good times and hard times from our relatives in other towns and other states.
The chain letter was a part of my life for as long as I can remember. After my mother’s death, as the oldest daughter, I took her place as the recipient of the letter. Later, the next generation started our own cousin letter. Sadly, email and free long distance cell phones have replaced our chain letter. We still attempt it, but it rarely makes a round in under a year and by the time it is received the news is old and I have already seen the photos in an email download. But the legacy lives on. A few years ago we had two major family reunions. One was a gathering of my maternal grandmother’s descendants and the other a celebration for her one hundredth birthday. Each gathering boasted close to one hundred family members. My friends and co-workers can’t believe I know all of my cousins, first second, third, double and twice removed, but I do. I met them all when I was young through the chain letter.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tulip Trauma
It is very difficult to write a blog about cleaning everyday when I actually have to clean something in order to have anything to write about. I do have a full time job, 2 dogs and a 101 (102 next week) year old grandmother I see everyday. Today I was desperate for some easy cleaning/purging project – it’s not like I don’t have a million things that need cleaning, it’s just that they are all such BIG projects! Today I needed something easy, and since the tissue from the floor around my bed idea has already been used I had to come up with something new. As I sat in my big, overstuffed chair contemplating the problem it came to me. Directly in my field of vision was a wicker trunk I use as an end table and to display framed family photos. I couldn't remember what was in it, but I was certain there had to be something. In my house there is no space that goes unused. I was right! Inside of the wicker trunk was the white comforter with primary colored tulips from Daughter #1’s bed. The comforter that was on her bed when she was in Kindergarten; she is now 28 years old. It is high time I remove the comforter from this trunk. In addition, there is a navy blue bed skirt or dust ruffle. The common denominator is that both the comforter and the dust ruffle are both covered in dust. But at least I have cleaned/purged something. My husband wants me to add here that I have been out to dinner and have enjoyed several adult beverages – there is more to life than cleaning. So, I am short one tulip clad comforter, and the better for having had several adult beverages.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Earth Mother
What began as a blog project to force me to clean my house has turned into a process of self-discovery. Whether it is triggered by my children’s toys, my mother’s recipes, or my grandmother’s dishes I am learning things about myself. Today it was 2-quart canning jars. 2-quart canning jars that came inside of a 4-drawer metal file cabinet I bought at a garage sale years ago. The seller insisted I take the contents if I wanted the filing cabinet. Perhaps that was her way of getting rid of her stuff? I didn’t want, or need the 2-quart canning jars. I should have just taken them straight to the trash, but as you know, that isn’t my style. Instead I scrubbed them all (there were probably about 50), ran them through the dishwasher and stored them in the cabinet. The very same cabinet I cleaned out today.
Over the years I have used some of them for various projects. Once I filled about 10 of them halfway with sand, put candles in them, wrapped copper wire around the necks of the jars and hung them from tree branches in my backyard for a beautiful lighting effect at an evening cookout. I think I learned this from Martha Stewart. I also used some of the jars as candle holders at my daughter’s wedding reception. They were a nice addition to the rustic theme of New York City Girl comes home to Texas to wed party.
There are still twenty 2-quart jars in the cabinet taking up space. Twenty 2-quart jars that must be moved or reached over or around every time I need something from this cabinet. Why, I asked myself, have I held on to these jars for all of these years? The answer is part of my self-discovery. The answer is because I am a descendant of pioneer women who canned and I think I might actually one day “put up” food. I have never canned; I have no idea how to do it (in spite of owning numerous books on the subject), but I see myself as the kind of person who “cans”. A woman who grows her own green beans and tomatoes and “puts them up” for the winter. A real Earth Mother.
So, I’m hanging on to the jars and I’m hanging on to the idea that I might one day use them for something other than candle holders. The idea of having fresh tomatoes in mid-winter is too dear to give up.
Over the years I have used some of them for various projects. Once I filled about 10 of them halfway with sand, put candles in them, wrapped copper wire around the necks of the jars and hung them from tree branches in my backyard for a beautiful lighting effect at an evening cookout. I think I learned this from Martha Stewart. I also used some of the jars as candle holders at my daughter’s wedding reception. They were a nice addition to the rustic theme of New York City Girl comes home to Texas to wed party.
There are still twenty 2-quart jars in the cabinet taking up space. Twenty 2-quart jars that must be moved or reached over or around every time I need something from this cabinet. Why, I asked myself, have I held on to these jars for all of these years? The answer is part of my self-discovery. The answer is because I am a descendant of pioneer women who canned and I think I might actually one day “put up” food. I have never canned; I have no idea how to do it (in spite of owning numerous books on the subject), but I see myself as the kind of person who “cans”. A woman who grows her own green beans and tomatoes and “puts them up” for the winter. A real Earth Mother.
So, I’m hanging on to the jars and I’m hanging on to the idea that I might one day use them for something other than candle holders. The idea of having fresh tomatoes in mid-winter is too dear to give up.
This is what was in today’s kitchen cabinet project:
- The enormous stainless steel pot I took off of the top of the refrigerator for blog dated 1-26-09 - KEEP
- Yellow plates, bowls, cups and glasses that came in sacks of Mainstay dog food in the 1980s – 6 plates, 10 bowls, 13 cups, 14 glasses (that’s a lot of dog food!) – DONATE
- A Pampered Chef Apple-Corer-Peeler-Slicer with wooden stand – KEEP
- A Salton Air Popper popcorn popper – KEEP
- A set of four divided plastic plates and cups that came with a picnic basket – DONATE
- 6 plastic trays – DONATE
- A partial set of dishes I rescued from my Grandmother’s house. They are plastic or Melmac and marked “Ever Ware Arrowhead Brookpark Pattern” – There are 5 square gray dinner plates, 11 square maroon salad plates, and 10 square gray saucers – sadly, I am going to DONATE as I can think of no sane reason to keep them.
- 2 plastic cutting boards – TRASH – I think the health department would want me to
- A partial package of Dixie brand paper plates, 500 count – KEEP
- A partial box of clear plastic forks, 300 count – KEEP
- A partial box of plastic forks, 24 count – KEEP
- A partial package of clear 6 ¼ -inch plates, 70 count – KEEP
- A 8-inch high stack of square white plastic dessert plates – KEEP
- A partial package of Hefty bowls, 50 count – KEEP
- A partial package of Solo blue plastic bowls, 22 count – KEEP
- 4 random red plastic Solo bowls – KEEP
- A partial package of brown paper lunch bags, 50 count – KEEP
- A partial package of white paper napkins, 200 count – KEEP
- A black wicker napkin holder containing assorted holiday napkins – KEEP
- 8 rattan paper plate holders – KEEP
- Box containing 1 rabbit wine bottle opener (placed here when I cleaned off top of refrigerator for blog dated 1-26-09 – KEEP
- 2 square red plastic dinner plates – KEEP
- An electric tea kettle – KEEP
- 3 blades to food processor – KEEP – move to cabinet with food processor
- Package of 16-ounce, 140 count Party Cups – KEEP – maybe I should have a big party?
- 4 empty coffee cans – KEEP – one never knows when one will need an empty coffee can and coffee rarely comes in cans anymore
- 4 rolls of Rubbermaid shelf liner – KEEP
- A George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine - KEEP
- A Mr. Coffee Espresso Maker – KEEP – this actually belongs to daughter #1
- 6 paper dessert plates – Thanksgiving theme – KEEP – put with other paper plates
- A brand new, still in the package flexible cutting mat – KEEP
- A yellow plastic Solo cup – TRASH
- A 5-piece metal canister set with lids circa 1950 – I think belonged to my husband’s mother – SEE IF DAUGHTER #2 WANTS
- Something called a Squeeze Breeze – a spray water bottle with a fan attach to it – TRASH
- A metal Candy Land lunch box – DONATE
- An insulated pink plastic lunch sack with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers logo – DONATE
- A plastic Care Bear thermos – KEEP – I have a collection of Care Bear “stuff”
- A Pampered Chef vegetable chopper – KEEP
- A two-slice toaster – KEEP
- An empty Grolsch beer bottle – KEEP (great for storing homemade pepper sauce)
- A plastic bag containing 38 canning jar rings and lids – KEEP
- 20 2-quart canning jars – KEEP – I AM going to can - I'm that kind of a girl!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The "Stuff" We Carry With Us
Okay - it is Wednesday - Please reference blog dated 1/28/09 where I warned you about Wednesday blogs! Tonight I cleaned out my PURSE at the suggestion of my friend, Susan. Thanks Susan! My rather large purse contained:
- 4 grocery store receipts - TRASH
- 2 grocery store lists - TRASH
- 11 tissues, clean or otherwise - TRASH
- a Master Gardener name tag - KEEP
- 8 writing pens - KEEP
- 2 wine corks- KEEP - add to collection
- 2 match books from Abbey Road Rub and Restaurant - 22nd St. Virginia Beach,Va - KEEP
- a bag of Ricola Honey Lemon with Echinacea Cough Suppressant Throat Drops + 4 Halls cough drops - KEEP - it is cold and flu season
- 2 decaf Peach Tea Protein Drink supplement envelopes - KEEP
- 2 check stubs - KEEP - it is almost IRS season
- a rebate form for $10 off on dog food- KEEP - we are in a recession
- a certificate of Rabies Vaccination for Chloe and a statement from the vet - KEEP - I am unsure of the "keep dates" for animal medical records
- an IRS donation receipt - KEEP
- a pair of silver earrings (I wondered where they were) - KEEP and wear
- my wallet containing i.d., credit cards, store discount cards, cash, coins, and lots of other "stuff" I will just count as "wallet stuff" for the purposes of this blog - especially in consideration of it being Wednesday night - KEEP and be wary of identity theft
- the cover to a pocket umbrella - KEEP and find pocket umbrella
- a hair brush - KEEP
- a work name tag on a lanyard - KEEP - because we really are supposed to wear these at work
- a pair of cheaters in a case - KEEP - very important!
- 2 - pocket-Kleenex tissue packets - KEEP - the whole cold and flu season thing again
- a spiral bound scratch pad - KEEP
- a pair of black sunglasses - KEEP
- a refrigerator magnet - KEEP - put on refrigerator
- an Vick's Early Defense nasal decongestant - KEEP - put with medical "stuff"
- a $10 bill - KEEP - duh
- a pair of brown knit gloves - KEEP - put in front closet
- a tin of Velamints - KEEP
- 2 barrettes - KEEP - put in bathroom drawer
- 2 hair elastics - KEEP - put in bathroom drawer
- CVS hand sanitizer - KEEP - use (the whole cold and flu thing again)
- 2 lipsticks - KEEP
- 1 Burt's Bees lip balm - KEEP
- 3 pecans - ??? EAT
- a case containing my business cards - KEEP
- a pair of prescription sunglasses - KEEP
- a cell phone - KEEP (better put in charger)
- 2 post-it notes with very important information - KEEP
- prescription samples from last visit with doctor - KEEP
- Ayr Mentholated Vapor Inhaler - KEEP - you guessed it - cold and flu season
- 2 - 3x5 index cards with important stuff written on them - TRASH
- .75 cents in loose coins - KEEP - recession, remember
- sample of Colore Science line tamer cream - KEEP, by all means
- 2 deposit slips - TRASH
Why is it necessary to carry all of this stuff with me everyday? It isn't! Why can men carry small wallets in their back pockets? I do not know the answer to that. I do know that I love my lipstick-red leather purse and all of the "stuff" I can carry in it. I guess I will continue to have back problems, but always have access to my stuff. Who knows when I will need 3 pecans or a package of peach tea protein drink?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Memories...
Today I was determined to clean/purge something in spite of not feeling well. The lower kitchen cabinet project isn't finished. I am only about half way through - even though the monster Tupperware cabinet is done I still have cabinets full of pots and pans, small appliances and dishes. So I selected the cabinet of least resistance - the cabinet with the least amount of stuff in it:
- 14 Fiesta serving pieces - KEEP
- 2 aluminum 1 cup measuring cups - KEEP - move to upper cabinet with other measuring devices
- 2 plastic canned pet food covers - DONATE - to daughter #2 (aka the crazy cat girl)
- a wind-up kitchen timer - DONATE - the microwave and oven both have timers, I don't think I need another one
- 00- size capsule filler - KEEP - I sometimes take vitamins that come in powder form and I make my own capsules - move to bathroom cabinet
- 00-size capsule tamper - KEEP - ditto above
- a bag of 00-size gelatin capsules - KEEP - ditto above
- a plastic 1 cup measure that goes with a food scale - KEEP - put with food scale
- a small wooden bowl - DONATE
- a sliver bread tray - KEEP
- a crochet liner for the silver bread tray that reads "BREAD" - KEEP (maybe I'll polish the silver tray and use it?)
- 2 pedestal cake plates - one milk glass that belonged to my mother, the other a gift from my sister-in-law - I love them both - KEEP
- 2 milk glass fruit compotes that belonged to my mother - KEEP
- 4 milk glass flower vases in various sizes (yes, they belonged to my mother) - KEEP
- a glass jar containing assorted tools for eating shellfish - KEEP
- a tin can covered with contact paper made in Brownies by daughter #1. This was used as a pencil/pen holder for years. I think it is time to TRASH - sorry daughter #1!
- 2 Weight Watcher food diaries - TRASH
- an antique syrup tin - KEEP
- a plastic bag containing 23 plastic cookie cutters - DONATE
- 2 large clear glass jars with lids - DONATE
- a 2-quart blue Ball jar, Pat'd July 14, 1908 - KEEP
- a ceramic colander - DONATE
- a blue Fire-King bowl that belonged to my paternal grandmother - KEEP
- an antique candy tin - KEEP
- a pink serving bowl - DONATE (it doesn't match any of my other dishes)
- a light blue serving bowl - DONATE (ditto above)
- assorted refrigerator magnets - TRASH
- 6 photographs that were once held to my refrigerator with aforementioned magnets - KEEP - move to photo box
- a postcard from daughter #2 dated March 2007 - KEEP - would it surprise anyone to know I save postcards?
- a piece of paper with a quote written on it by daughter #2 reading "Without work all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies." - KEEP - post in office
- a cartoon cut out of a magazine that was posted on my refrigerator for years because it was the funniest cartoon I have ever seen. A drawing of an elephant sitting at a desk writing with a pencil in it's trunk and it reads - "Dear President Bush: I am writing to request you no longer use an elephant as the symbol of your political party. I am ashamed to be associated with your administration and suggest you adopt a more appropriate image such as a crocodile or a Gila monster." How funny is that? - TRASH - I now have it recorded for posterity here
- 2 "report cards" from the dog groomer on the behaviour of my dogs when they were in for baths - TRASH
I am definitely seeing a pattern here. I can't get rid of the stuff that belonged to my mother or to my grandmothers. In the case of the milk glass, I don't really like milk glass, but I have memories of it in my mother's dining room hutch. The white glass always looked so pretty against the dark wood. But I don't remember her ever using it. It was decorative only. Maybe she got it from a relative and it held fond memories for her. Or maybe she was afraid to use it with four rambunctious children around.
The blue Fire-King bowl sat next to my paternal grandmother's sink with a plate for a lid covering it. She kept her vegetable scraps, egg shells and used coffee ground in it. She and my grandfather had a compost pile behind their garage. I have a compost bin in my backyard, but I have a special container with a lid and a filter that sits on my kitchen counter for my vegetable scraps, egg shells and used coffee grounds. None the less, I can't get rid of my grandmother's compost bowl - too many memories.
Should I feel guilty for keeping these things? No! When I began this purging project daughter #1 cautioned me not change who I am just to get rid of "stuff". Obviously it is in my nature to save things that make me happy and that is okay! I am not going to change, I am just going to get rid of the insignificant "stuff" with no memories attached. I think by getting rid of the items that have no real importance to me I will be able to enjoy the "stuff" that comes with memories attached.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Random Blog Updates or There Are No Blog Police
I'm still sick. My husband is now sick. I came home from work and made garlic-chicken soup. I really don't feel like cleaning/purging anything. My husband tells me there are no blog-police, but how can I be sure? So here is my lame attempt at another blog about cleaning without really cleaning -
Random Blog Updates:
Random Blog Updates:
- 1/19/08 - Don't forget to check out 365photos2009.blogspot.com
- 1/20/09 - There have been no house fires as a result of writing this blog.
- 1/26/09 - Daughter #2 came to my house with the explicit purpose of throwing the wine bottle lamp in the trash.
- 1/29/09 - I have not begun training for the Olympic ribbon swooshing event (just thought you might want to know).
- 2/3/09 - No significant improvement in appearance as a result of not throwing away anti-aging products.
- 2/6, 2/8 and 2/10 - I have enjoyed many comments and reminders from siblings about wild and crazy childhood experiences revolving around our dining room table. I was also reminded that I owe my baby brother several thousand dollars because I promised to pay him a quarter a bite to eat the liver from my plate when Mom made liver and onions during our youth.
- 2/11/09 - No one thinks picking up used tissue counts as housecleaning.
- 2/12/09 - Thank you to everyone who remarked on my blog "Those Without Stuff". It was heartfelt and well received.
- 2/14/09 - The labor for The Tupperware Cabinet blog was pronounced worth at least a $10 payment by daughter #1.
- 2/15/09 - The bread was delicious. The bread machine gets to stay! Whoo-hoo!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
I Did Say Domestically Challenged, Remember?
Since January 26th I have been searching for the instruction manual that goes with my bread machine. Since January 26th the bread machine has been sitting on my kitchen cabinet awaiting its fate. If it could make a nice loaf of bread it got to stay in my household. If it couldn't make a nice loaf of bread it would spend eternity in the landfill or on the shelf at the Goodwill Store until some unsuspecting sap took it home. The search for the bread machine manual was the impetus for cleaning out the lower kitchen cabinets - I was certain it was under there somewhere. I finally bought a box of bread machine mix. I got it home, turned to the instructions printed on the back of the box that read:
Bread Machine Instructions - Add the following ingredients according to your bread machine owner's guide
By this point I am getting a little mad. How hard can it be to make bread in a machine specially designed to make bread? So I go for it. I mix the yeast with the room temperature water, just as I have seen Big Red do a hundred times when she made bread the old fashioned way. I dump the yeasty water into the bread machine, I dump the packaged mix on top of that. I shut the lid and press "start".
Then my husband says, "Here's an entry on the web that says not to worry about differing machine instructions, just don't let the yeast touch the liquid."
Of course, I am sure he is wrong. How accurate are things on the web anyway? In my frustration I begin looking through the cookbooks on the shelf under the microwave. My husband suggested earlier that I look there for the manual, but I knew it wasn't in such an obvious place. Yep, it was there. I held my breath as I quickly scanned all of the bread recipes. Each and every one begins with the following instructions:
Bread Machine Instructions - Add the following ingredients according to your bread machine owner's guide
- 1 cup room temperature water
- Full box mix
- 1 packet yeast (included)
By this point I am getting a little mad. How hard can it be to make bread in a machine specially designed to make bread? So I go for it. I mix the yeast with the room temperature water, just as I have seen Big Red do a hundred times when she made bread the old fashioned way. I dump the yeasty water into the bread machine, I dump the packaged mix on top of that. I shut the lid and press "start".
Then my husband says, "Here's an entry on the web that says not to worry about differing machine instructions, just don't let the yeast touch the liquid."
Of course, I am sure he is wrong. How accurate are things on the web anyway? In my frustration I begin looking through the cookbooks on the shelf under the microwave. My husband suggested earlier that I look there for the manual, but I knew it wasn't in such an obvious place. Yep, it was there. I held my breath as I quickly scanned all of the bread recipes. Each and every one begins with the following instructions:
- Measure all ingredients except yeast into baking pan in the order listed below.
- Tap the baking pan firmly to level ingredients. Make a depression in the middle of flour and sprinkle the yeast into it, ensuring that the yeast does not touch any liquids.
GREAT! Then, as if to add insult to injury, at the exact moment I have had all hopes of a decent loaf of bread dashed, the bread machine goes into the kneading cycle with a whirring sound. Both of my large, (60 pound) dogs go ballistic protecting me from the bread machine. They don't know what the strange noise is coming from the kitchen, but they are going to be damn sure they keep it at bay by barking ferociously at it.
Dogs have been exiled to back yard and I am awaiting the end of the of the three hour and fifty minute Basic Bread Cycle with visions of Lucy and Ethel's bread baking debacle running through my head.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Happy Valentine's Day My Dear Tupperware
Have you ever dreaded a project and put it off because you knew it would be awful and then once you did it you thought to yourself, "I can't believe how easy that was"? Well that did NOT happen to me today! Today I finally cleaned out the dreaded Tupperware cabinet. It took 4 hours and I think I have a black-eye (a stack of heavy platters fell on my head while I was crawling inside the cabinet). It was a NOT FUN project. Now I know why I haven't done it before. This is what was in the Tupperware cabinet:
- 10 travel coffee mugs with lids – KEEP some, DONATE some - I don't need 10 travel coffee mugs, but I want to make sure I keep the very best ones, so I may have to road test a few before I make the decision on which ones to keep
- 13 metal Christmas tins – KEEP 8 - I have moved these 8 to a closet containing Christmas stuff (Now that I know where they are I might actually make Christmas cookies this year), DONATE 5
- A Nordic Ware Supremer Ice Creamer – DONATE
- A Mini-Mate Igloo Cooler – DONATE (it is much too small for anything!)
- 2 Igloo 2-quart beverage containers – KEEP (great for large batches of wine coolers on a hot summer day)
- 1 Rubbermaid 3-quart beverage container – KEEP (great for even larger batches of wine coolers on a hot summer day)
- 4 metal trays (Christmas motif) – KEEP (put up with Christmas tins)
- Large Oneida Melamine tray with a watermelon print – KEEP (I am going to try to use this under my laptop when I am using my laptop on my lap. It gets warm, you know, and the tray is just the right size.)
- A package of Vis-Ã -vis Markers 8 colors – KEEP (move to desk)
- A large oval ceramic tray with a turkey painted in the middle – DONATE (I know I will never use this – it is too flat/shallow to hold a turkey)
- 3 round Currier & Ives platters – KEEP
- A Christmas-themed ceramic plate – DONATE
- A clear glass platter with a Christmas tree etched in the middle – DONATE
- A brown platter that went with a set of dishes I owned in the 70’s – DONATE
- Large chartreuse round Brusche platter that belonged to my mother and matches bowl from blog dated 2/9/09 - KEEP
- An oblong Ironstone platter from England – KEEP (this one is deep enough to hold a turkey)
- A huge white heavy plastic tray – KEEP – this has come in handy on lots of occasions
- A Farberware stainless steel “Hostess Tray” – KEEP – I received this for a wedding present and use it all the time
- A round enameled tin spatter ware tray – KEEP – I use this all the time
- A metal tray with a black plastic holder – KEEP – great for bringing steaks in from the grill
- 5 random metal trays: circa 1950’s toll painted tray – KEEP, pewter tray – DONATE, souvenir tray from the New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 – KEEP, tray with cute pictures of Metropolitan cars on it – KEEP (my husband has two Metropolitans), circa 1950’s drink tray with recipes for Tom Collins and Stinger on it – KEEP (too cute)
- 7 plastic party trays – TRASH
- A plastic cookie tin – TRASH
- 4 plastic ice cube trays – TRASH (they have seen better days)
- A woven rattan place mat - TRASH
- An aluminum roaster pan – TRASH
- A Glad Casserole dish with 2 plastic lids – TRASH
- 2 aluminum pizza pans – KEEP – good for making fruit pizzas for daughter #2
- A small silver tray – KEEP
- A tortilla warmer – KEEP
- A very large Excalibur Food Dehydrator – KEEP (I use this for weeks on end to dehydrate apples in the fall)
- 3 dehydrator cookbooks – KEEP
- 3 large insulated beverage mugs – KEEP 1, TRASH 2
- A bamboo steamer – DONATE (this makes me sad, it was the first item I ever ordered from an infomercial)
- A turquoise straw bread basket – DONATE
- 2 Brita Pitchers – KEEP
- 2 Rubbermaid 2 ¼ -quart pitchers – KEEP
- 1 Rubbermaid one gallon pitcher – KEEP
- 1 one gallon sun tea jar – TRASH
- A Tupperware ham container – DONATE (I don’t ever anticipate having this much ham in my house – ever)
- A Tupperware bread container – KEEP (When I figure out if the bread machine from blog dated 1/26/09 works I can keep my home-made bread in here)
- A Tupperware container I think was purchased to hold the contents of a box of cereal – DONATE (why would I want to take the cereal out its original box?)
- A 2-quart Rubbermaid liquid container – KEEP (this is great for home-made salsa)
- A 2-quart container for liquid – TRASH (I’ve never seen this in my life!)
- A plastic margarine container – TRASH
- A 3x5 index card box – KEEP (move to office)
- 6 small scratch pads – KEEP (move to office)
- A microwave omelet pan – KEEP (I have never used this, but might, one day, maybe)
- A microwave egg poacher – KEEP (I have used this once, and might again, one day, maybe)
- 4 orange plastic bowls – TRASH
- The ice cube holder that came with my refrigerator/freezer - TRASH (it is too small)
- A Tupperware celery/carrot/other vegetable container – KEEP
- An Electric Skillet – KEEP
- A Tupperware deviled egg container – KEEP
- 2 Tupperware “Shake and Pour” containers – KEEP (these are great for salad dressing)
- 3 colanders, various sizes – KEEP
- Tupperware “That’s a Bowl” 32 ounce with lid – KEEP
- Tupperware 1-quart pitcher – KEEP
- Plunger to broken Bodum teapot from blog dated 2/9/09 - TRASH
- 4 three-compartment divided containers with lids – DONATE
- 2-cup Tupperware container – DONATE
- 3-piece nested Tupperware canister set – KEEP
- Tupperware iceberg lettuce keeper – KEEP
- Tupperware microwave steamer – KEEP
- Tupperware marinade container – KEEP
- 3 Tupperware soup bowls with lids that double as plates – DONATE
- 3-piece storage bowl set with lids – KEEP
- 3 two-cup bowls with lids – KEEP
- 6 random Tupperware bowls with lids – DONATE
- 2 very large generic plastic bowls with lids – DONATE
- 2 rectangular Tupperware containers with lid - KEEP
- 7 small Rubbermaid containers with lids – DONATE
- 21 Glad storage containers in various sizes with lids – KEEP
- 3 plastic 2-cup freezer containers with lids – KEEP
- 2 Tupperware bowls without lids – KEEP 1, DONATE 1
- A plastic milk crate originally used to store lids to Tupperware bowls – KEEP (now I am going to use it to store Glad bowls and lids)
- 2 Wilton candy molds – DONATE
- The handle and tray from a Tupperware cake carrier – TRASH (what good is it without the cake carrier?)
- 2 Kleen Kanteen water bottles – KEEP
- 1 plastic water bottle - DONATE
- 2 small stainless steel prep bowls – KEEP
- 2 bread baskets – one silver, one gold mesh – KEEP
- Tupperware lunch box with 3 containers inside for sandwich, salad, and fruit – KEEP on the outside chance I might one day take my lunch to work
- Generic plastic 4-cup container with lid – DONATE
- 11 random generic plastic lids – TRASH
- 11 random Tupperware lids - DONATE
- 7 Tupperware “Midgets” with lids - KEEP
- 4 silver plate chargers - KEEP
This is over 200 items. Most of this "stuff" I don't need. One Hefty bag to the trash, four Hefty bags to charity, one cabinet that is no longer a nightmare.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday the 13th (cue horror movie organ music)
Has anyone noticed that 4 out of the last 5 blogs don't actually involve any real cleaning/purging of "stuff"? I am showing my true colors - I am blogging about cleaning without actually doing any cleaning. Awesome. Today will be no different. Today is the lead-in to the TUPPERWARE CABINET. (In case you can't hear the sound effects in my head - there was creepy horror movie organ music playing during that last sentence.) I figure it will take at least a day to mentally prepare myself to tackle (cue organ) the TUPPERWARE CABINET.
It will help to understand the enormity of this task if you first understand the enormity of the cabinet. I have a 4'x6' breakfast bar in my kitchen. The TUPPERWARE CABINET is everything underneath the bar. Imagine a garage for a VW Bug and you are close. Had this house been in existence in 1942 and located in Amsterdam the cabinet could have housed the Frank family.
The TUPPERWARE CABINET has been a storage nightmare everyday of the 25+ years we have lived here. I can count on one hand the number of times it has been clean.
The routine for putting something back into the TUPPERWARE CABINET is: Open cabinet door, announce loudly, "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate this cabinet," throw item into cabinet, and (this is crucial) slam the door quickly before anything can fall out.
I plan to spend today in prayer and meditation (perhaps I'll have a few glasses of wine). Tomorrow I begin (cue organ) the TUPPERWARE CABINET purge.
It will help to understand the enormity of this task if you first understand the enormity of the cabinet. I have a 4'x6' breakfast bar in my kitchen. The TUPPERWARE CABINET is everything underneath the bar. Imagine a garage for a VW Bug and you are close. Had this house been in existence in 1942 and located in Amsterdam the cabinet could have housed the Frank family.
The TUPPERWARE CABINET has been a storage nightmare everyday of the 25+ years we have lived here. I can count on one hand the number of times it has been clean.
- the day we moved in
- once, when I paid daughter # 1 to clean it when she was about ten or twelve years old
- once, when I paid daughter #2 to clean it when she was about ten or twelve years old
- nope - that's all, just three times.
The routine for putting something back into the TUPPERWARE CABINET is: Open cabinet door, announce loudly, "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate this cabinet," throw item into cabinet, and (this is crucial) slam the door quickly before anything can fall out.
I plan to spend today in prayer and meditation (perhaps I'll have a few glasses of wine). Tomorrow I begin (cue organ) the TUPPERWARE CABINET purge.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Those Without "Stuff"
I began this blog in order to purge my home of all the unnecessary “stuff” I have accumulated over the past 30 years. I have written with a somewhat flippant attitude as I have listed the “stuff” I have pulled out of closets and drawers. I had an experience this morning that made me realize how blessed or lucky I am to have a home and how obscene it is to have so much “stuff”.
In spite of having a cold, I showed up at a soup kitchen at 6:00 a.m. to help administer surveys for the 2009 National Hunger Study. The expression “what an eye opener” is such a hackneyed phrase, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. My eyes were opened, and I wish everyone’s could be, to the problems of hunger in America. And I say problems with an “s” because lack of food is only one of the issues I saw this morning.
Last evening, at a family dinner (where we enjoyed too much food), upon hearing of my morning plans, my aunt commented that there were no hungry people in United States. I tried to convince her, but she wouldn’t believe me, my reputation as the family’s bleeding-heart-liberal doesn’t always lend me the credibility I desire.
I wish my aunt could have been with me this morning. There are hungry people in America. There are hungry people in our small city. Approximately 200 people were at the soup kitchen this morning. The two gentlemen I interviewed (and they were gentlemen – calling me Ma’am and saying thank you and please) were both homeless; one living in a shelter with his nineteen year old son, and the other living on the streets. One was unemployed; one was working full-time for minimum wage. Both were extremely grateful for a hot breakfast and a place to come in from the cold. After the interviews it occurred to me that I had no idea where our town’s homeless shelters are located. I only had a vague idea that there were some. Now I wonder about the man I met today who lives in one: how long can he stay, is it safe, and are they nice to him there? I do know the area around the downtown library is home to a lot of the “street people”. Now that I have met someone who gave me that location as his residence I wonder about him: how does he stay warm, where does he go to the bathroom, where does he keep his “stuff”, does he have any “stuff”?
I met others this morning. Once they were fed and warm they began asking questions. Questions I didn’t have answers to. Where can I get an i.d., mine was stolen? How can I get help with bus fare? Is anyone giving out clean clothes? Once the most basic need has been met – food, the other problems can be addressed – shelter, transportation, clothing, medical care, hygiene, mental health, education. These problems seem insurmountable to me. To me in my nice warm house with all of my “stuff”. It is truly beyond me to imagine how someone without access to a home, to food, to clean clothing or even a place to bathe can cope with these problems.
I vow to be more mindful of my blessings and to remember those without “stuff”. I am also going to take my aunt on an excursion to the downtown library and show her some of the non-existent hungry people in America.
In spite of having a cold, I showed up at a soup kitchen at 6:00 a.m. to help administer surveys for the 2009 National Hunger Study. The expression “what an eye opener” is such a hackneyed phrase, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. My eyes were opened, and I wish everyone’s could be, to the problems of hunger in America. And I say problems with an “s” because lack of food is only one of the issues I saw this morning.
Last evening, at a family dinner (where we enjoyed too much food), upon hearing of my morning plans, my aunt commented that there were no hungry people in United States. I tried to convince her, but she wouldn’t believe me, my reputation as the family’s bleeding-heart-liberal doesn’t always lend me the credibility I desire.
I wish my aunt could have been with me this morning. There are hungry people in America. There are hungry people in our small city. Approximately 200 people were at the soup kitchen this morning. The two gentlemen I interviewed (and they were gentlemen – calling me Ma’am and saying thank you and please) were both homeless; one living in a shelter with his nineteen year old son, and the other living on the streets. One was unemployed; one was working full-time for minimum wage. Both were extremely grateful for a hot breakfast and a place to come in from the cold. After the interviews it occurred to me that I had no idea where our town’s homeless shelters are located. I only had a vague idea that there were some. Now I wonder about the man I met today who lives in one: how long can he stay, is it safe, and are they nice to him there? I do know the area around the downtown library is home to a lot of the “street people”. Now that I have met someone who gave me that location as his residence I wonder about him: how does he stay warm, where does he go to the bathroom, where does he keep his “stuff”, does he have any “stuff”?
I met others this morning. Once they were fed and warm they began asking questions. Questions I didn’t have answers to. Where can I get an i.d., mine was stolen? How can I get help with bus fare? Is anyone giving out clean clothes? Once the most basic need has been met – food, the other problems can be addressed – shelter, transportation, clothing, medical care, hygiene, mental health, education. These problems seem insurmountable to me. To me in my nice warm house with all of my “stuff”. It is truly beyond me to imagine how someone without access to a home, to food, to clean clothing or even a place to bathe can cope with these problems.
I vow to be more mindful of my blessings and to remember those without “stuff”. I am also going to take my aunt on an excursion to the downtown library and show her some of the non-existent hungry people in America.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Puffs Plus
I am committed to doing my cleaning house blog in spite of being at death's doorstep with a cold, sore throat, and very runny nose. So, the question I am posing today is - does picking up one's dirty tissue from the floor around my bed count as house cleaning? Just wondering.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
More Thoughts on Recipes
Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, lettuce salad with tomatoes and Italian dressing; what I would consider now to be too much trouble, too time consuming to prepare on a week night, was regular fare on our table when I was a child. Beef stroganoff, thick with sour cream and tomatoes, served over plump egg noodles was a special occasion meal; my sister’s favorite birthday meal.
Fried salmon croquettes, fried potatoes, stewed tomatoes and cabbage slaw with a vinegar and oil dressing was a routine Friday night meal before Vatican II got rid of the no meat on Friday rule. Creamed tuna on toast was a Lenten favorite I crave to this day, but never prepare. It was made in the electric skillet. One of the few recipes that warranted pulling it out from underneath the kitchen cabinet and searching for the cord that seemed to be always missing. Creamed tuna bubbled in the skillet while slices of store-bought white bread were perfectly toasted. My mother cut our toast into triangles. I followed my Father’s lead and ate my meal with Heinz ketchup. Today it sounds disgusting, but I know it would taste delicious.
The first meal I ever cooked was browned steak and gravy, another weekly staple in the home of my youth. My mother was in bed recuperating from surgery and I couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve. Every step I took in my new culinary experience was double checked with her. I was instructed to cut up the round steak into serving size pieces. This was the first time I had touched raw meat. I can still recall the cold, firm texture and almost smell the copper blood scent mixed with the standard refrigerator odor. Each trek down the hall to my mother’s bedroom gleaned detailed instructions on what my next step would be. Use the silver metal meat cleaver to pound the meat on the scarred wooden cutting board, sear the meat in the Dutch oven in a little Mazola oil, season with salt and pepper – three or four shakes, cover with water and put the lid on. Making the gravy was easy. I had seen mother do this hundreds of times. Use the glass peanut butter jar with the screw-on lid. Shake up water and flour until there are no lumps, add to the pan with the steak and stir like crazy until it thickens. I am certain my first attempt at gravy was full of floury lumps, but no on mentioned it, or if they commented I have forgotten. This meal was also accompanied by mashed potatoes, canned green beans, and a salad of iceberg lettuce. I didn’t know there was any other variety of lettuce until I went away to college. When the potatoes were served with this meal you had to make a well in the top of the potato mound to spoon the gravy into.
Comfort food is what we call these meals today. I prepared them occasionally when my children were young or when my father came to visit after my mother died of lung cancer at the age of 57. On one of dad’s visits, after I had proclaimed I would no longer fry food in my house because I didn’t want the smell to linger in my new custom made mauve (it was the 80’s) drapes, he tried to trick me into making one of his favorite meals, chicken fried steak. When I asked him what he would like for supper that evening, instead of asking for the chicken fried steak he knew I would refuse to prepare, he said, “Well, why don’t you get a little round steak and dredge it in flour and cook it up in a skillet with a little oil.” I would like to think that he got his chicken fried steak that night, but I truly don’t remember. It is more likely that we went to a local restaurant that was famous for their chicken fried steak.
When my children were young I mostly prepared food on the run between ballet lessons and play practice. Hamburger Helper, canned or jarred spaghetti sauce, bean burritos or tacos. There were many evenings we drove through a fast food hamburger joint or had pizza delivered. I shudder to think of the food legacy I have left my children. But interestingly enough, in spite or because of me, both of my daughters love to cook.
My oldest daughter lives in New York and has created a close-knit family of friends she prepares a meal for almost every Sunday night. My youngest daughter is a vegetarian and has developed quite a repertoire of phenomenal dishes. I am very proud of them and of their cooking and nurturing abilities; I know my mother would be, too. I wonder if my sister has mom’s recipe for beef stroganoff. I suddenly feel like cooking.
Fried salmon croquettes, fried potatoes, stewed tomatoes and cabbage slaw with a vinegar and oil dressing was a routine Friday night meal before Vatican II got rid of the no meat on Friday rule. Creamed tuna on toast was a Lenten favorite I crave to this day, but never prepare. It was made in the electric skillet. One of the few recipes that warranted pulling it out from underneath the kitchen cabinet and searching for the cord that seemed to be always missing. Creamed tuna bubbled in the skillet while slices of store-bought white bread were perfectly toasted. My mother cut our toast into triangles. I followed my Father’s lead and ate my meal with Heinz ketchup. Today it sounds disgusting, but I know it would taste delicious.
The first meal I ever cooked was browned steak and gravy, another weekly staple in the home of my youth. My mother was in bed recuperating from surgery and I couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve. Every step I took in my new culinary experience was double checked with her. I was instructed to cut up the round steak into serving size pieces. This was the first time I had touched raw meat. I can still recall the cold, firm texture and almost smell the copper blood scent mixed with the standard refrigerator odor. Each trek down the hall to my mother’s bedroom gleaned detailed instructions on what my next step would be. Use the silver metal meat cleaver to pound the meat on the scarred wooden cutting board, sear the meat in the Dutch oven in a little Mazola oil, season with salt and pepper – three or four shakes, cover with water and put the lid on. Making the gravy was easy. I had seen mother do this hundreds of times. Use the glass peanut butter jar with the screw-on lid. Shake up water and flour until there are no lumps, add to the pan with the steak and stir like crazy until it thickens. I am certain my first attempt at gravy was full of floury lumps, but no on mentioned it, or if they commented I have forgotten. This meal was also accompanied by mashed potatoes, canned green beans, and a salad of iceberg lettuce. I didn’t know there was any other variety of lettuce until I went away to college. When the potatoes were served with this meal you had to make a well in the top of the potato mound to spoon the gravy into.
Comfort food is what we call these meals today. I prepared them occasionally when my children were young or when my father came to visit after my mother died of lung cancer at the age of 57. On one of dad’s visits, after I had proclaimed I would no longer fry food in my house because I didn’t want the smell to linger in my new custom made mauve (it was the 80’s) drapes, he tried to trick me into making one of his favorite meals, chicken fried steak. When I asked him what he would like for supper that evening, instead of asking for the chicken fried steak he knew I would refuse to prepare, he said, “Well, why don’t you get a little round steak and dredge it in flour and cook it up in a skillet with a little oil.” I would like to think that he got his chicken fried steak that night, but I truly don’t remember. It is more likely that we went to a local restaurant that was famous for their chicken fried steak.
When my children were young I mostly prepared food on the run between ballet lessons and play practice. Hamburger Helper, canned or jarred spaghetti sauce, bean burritos or tacos. There were many evenings we drove through a fast food hamburger joint or had pizza delivered. I shudder to think of the food legacy I have left my children. But interestingly enough, in spite or because of me, both of my daughters love to cook.
My oldest daughter lives in New York and has created a close-knit family of friends she prepares a meal for almost every Sunday night. My youngest daughter is a vegetarian and has developed quite a repertoire of phenomenal dishes. I am very proud of them and of their cooking and nurturing abilities; I know my mother would be, too. I wonder if my sister has mom’s recipe for beef stroganoff. I suddenly feel like cooking.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Here I Go Again - Kitchen Cabinets Volume 4
Knowing I have made a commitment to blogging everyday (okay, almost everyday) has really forced me to get some much needed cleaning/purging projects done. I have put off cleaning out the kitchen cabinet for so long because the project seemed so daunting. Now, by breaking it up into small increments and then writing about it - I have discovered the secret to cleaning house!
I know the kitchen cabinets are getting boring, but I'm almost to the Tupperware - so hang in here with me things are really fixin' to pick up! This Is what I pulled off of one shelf in the lower kitchen cabinets today:
I know the kitchen cabinets are getting boring, but I'm almost to the Tupperware - so hang in here with me things are really fixin' to pick up! This Is what I pulled off of one shelf in the lower kitchen cabinets today:
- A black tray with an owl on it – I swear I’ve never seen this before! – Give to Big Red, I really think she will use it
- A magazine box containing 10 Cooking Light Magazines – Put away with cookbooks I am planning to look through
- A Brita water pitcher filter – SAVE until I can find the Brita pitcher
- A spiral notebook open to a page with my Christmas menu on it, complete with instructions on what to prepare and when - RELOCATE to desk where I will use it
- A scratch pad with two very important addresses on it and a password to an apparently important email account (don’t know what email account) - Write important addresses in address book and toss password ( I can always get a new one, right?)
- A set of four nested Pyrex mixing bowls, that belonged to my mother, in (from largest to smallest) yellow, green, red, blue - KEEP - I will never, ever part with these bowls, they remind me so much of my mother
- Two clear glass Pyrex mixing bowls - KEEP - these are very utilitarian
- 2 white ceramic mixing/serving bowls - KEEP - ditto above
- A glass salad bowl - KEEP - this is my favorite salad bowl
- A huge wooden salad bowl - KEEP - I use this bowl when my favorite glass salad bowl just isn't large enough
- A French coffee press - KEEP - nice for making just one or two cups of coffee
- A food scale (another food scale) - KEEP - I don't know why I have two food scales, but this is the better of the two, so I'll throw the other one away
- A glass dip bowl - this is a hard decision, I've never used this bowl, but certain dips would look really pretty in it - so I'm saving it for a while to see if I will use it now that I know where it is
- A crockery mixing bowl - DONATE - I have plenty of bowls and this one screams of 1980s country decor
- A chartreuse Brusche-California bowl - KEEP - this was also my mother's and is so 1950's I can't get rid of it (somewhere there is a platter that matches it)
- The insides to a Bodum tea pot – the outside having been broken - TRASH, why did I save this?
- Two lime green Tupperware bowls, spill-over from the cabinet next door (the dreaded and much feared Tupperware cabinet) - I opened the Tupperware cabinet, threw the bowls in, and slammed the cabinet door as quickly as I could - I'll get to this cabinet soon
- 2 rolls of clear packing tape - KEEP - put in wire mesh basket with other tapes
- A refrigerator magnet frame showcasing the nutritional information from a package of peppermint pigs – one of my daughters thought it would be hilarious to have the nutritional information of a pig on the refrigerator - TRASH - sorry daughter, but I'm getting rid of most refrigerator magnets, no matter how funny
- Several recipes from Emeril that came in packages of fresh herbs - TRASH - apologies to Emeril - BAM
- A pink pressed glass bowl with gold trim - KEEP - I don't really want this, but it was my mother's - I'll check with my sister to see if she will take it
- An eight cup yogurt maker - Keep - I will totally make my own yogurt, someday, maybe
- A six up plastic measuring cup - KEEP - this makes a wonderful vessel for filling dogs water bowls
There you have it - more progress made!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
My Mother's Recipes 2-8-09
One of my house cleaning/purging projects of late has been to clean under my kitchen cabinets. Under the cabinet, with my cookbooks, I found several 2-pocket folders containing yellowed newspaper recipe clippings, recipes cut out of magazines, and recipes written in various hands on 3x5 index cards. These folders belonged to my mother. When my siblings and I cleaned out my parents’ home, following the death of my father two years after my mother's early demise at the age of 57, I took her folders full of recipes and two bulging recipe index card boxes home with me. I couldn't bear to throw them away without looking at them. I am embarrassed to admit that the recipes have resided under my kitchen cabinet, without being touched, for 15 years. I knew they were there, and assumed I would one day go through them. But I have waited too long; I no longer have children at home to cook for. The recipes are for family meals, not for my husband and me who are always dieting or getting home from work too late to prepare or even eat dinner.
As I go through the recipe files and boxes I am struck by a similarity between my mother and myself. I, too, cut out and save recipes. What is this compulsion we share? Is it an indication of our nurturing tendency? Or is it the picture a recipe can paint; the picture of a more glamorous life? A life where one has caviar as a staple in the pantry.
As I read my mother’s saved recipes it occurs to me that I don’t remember her ever preparing any of these dishes. My mother was a wonderful cook. She cooked the old-fashioned meals she learned from her mother and from her mother-in-law. Comfort food is what we call it today. The recipes she clipped and saved were not the hearty fare I found on the table of my youth. Going through the folders and boxes of recipes I see a version of my mother I never knew. I see a version of my mother that perhaps she wanted to be. A woman who could whip up Treasure Island Shrimp and Orange Salad or Beef Stroganoff Hollywood for a weeknight family dinner. How about Swedish Roast Leg of Lamb or Sesame Veal Cutlets for a Company Dinner. I don’t recall Company Dinners. It was usually just us – my mom, dad, two brothers, my sister and me. We sat together every night at our kitchen table and ate browned steak and gravy on mashed potatoes, or salmon croquettes with fried potatoes and stewed tomatoes or spaghetti with meat sauce from the American Beauty box or fried chicken, my mother made the best fried chicken in the world. We almost always had a salad of iceberg lettuce and tomato with Italian dressing from the Good Seasonings cruet, and a vegetable; usually out of a can. On Thanksgiving and Christmas we sat in the dining room and ate roasted turkey on the good china with the real silver. On Sundays, after church, we had sausage or bacon, and eggs, and pancakes, and maybe hash-browns. We sat at the kitchen table for hours on Sunday after church and laughed and talked and irritated my father who had left the table to go watch football on television. “Can’t you gosh-darn kids keep it down in there? I’m trying to watch the game.”
But who was the woman who clipped Wild Ducks Deluxe or Let’s Have an Old-Fashioned English Christmas? Why did I never see the Cheesy Beef Surprises or the Freezer Ham and Olive Sandwiches from the “Back to School with the Lunch-Box Bunch” in my brown paper bag in the cafeteria at Westcreek Elementary School? I usually had a PB&J or that packaged ham that was sliced so thin you could see through it.
In my mother’s recipe file there is a booklet that must have been a magazine insert, titled “Beachcombers Happy Hour Bar Guide.” The booklet, clearly from the 1960’s, is decorated with tan young bodies in their modest 60’s bathing suits drinking it up on the beach. Drinking Tom Collins and Planter’s Punch, Daiquiris and Honolulu Coolers while running through the surf or doing what appears to be the twist. Is this who my mother wanted to be? In 1965 my mother would have been 32 years old; she had four children under the age of ten. I bet she would have loved to be on the beach drinking a Gin Rickey and doing the twist.
What else can these recipes tell me about my mother? That she took pride in cooking. That she wanted to nurture her family. That she would have liked the time to make a Cranberry Avocado Mold instead of drilling me on my times tables. Or that just once she would have preferred to make a Standing Rib Roast for Thanksgiving. As I go through her recipes I am reminded that she was a good mother, no – a great mother. A mother who always took care of her family, who fed us well, and sent us off into the world with the optimism to clip recipes of our own, recipes like Shrimp Pierre, even if we knew we would never actually prepare it. Just the idea of it can give you hope and optimism and the idea that you are creating a family that might just one day sit down to a hearty helping of Shanghai Steak.
As I go through the recipe files and boxes I am struck by a similarity between my mother and myself. I, too, cut out and save recipes. What is this compulsion we share? Is it an indication of our nurturing tendency? Or is it the picture a recipe can paint; the picture of a more glamorous life? A life where one has caviar as a staple in the pantry.
As I read my mother’s saved recipes it occurs to me that I don’t remember her ever preparing any of these dishes. My mother was a wonderful cook. She cooked the old-fashioned meals she learned from her mother and from her mother-in-law. Comfort food is what we call it today. The recipes she clipped and saved were not the hearty fare I found on the table of my youth. Going through the folders and boxes of recipes I see a version of my mother I never knew. I see a version of my mother that perhaps she wanted to be. A woman who could whip up Treasure Island Shrimp and Orange Salad or Beef Stroganoff Hollywood for a weeknight family dinner. How about Swedish Roast Leg of Lamb or Sesame Veal Cutlets for a Company Dinner. I don’t recall Company Dinners. It was usually just us – my mom, dad, two brothers, my sister and me. We sat together every night at our kitchen table and ate browned steak and gravy on mashed potatoes, or salmon croquettes with fried potatoes and stewed tomatoes or spaghetti with meat sauce from the American Beauty box or fried chicken, my mother made the best fried chicken in the world. We almost always had a salad of iceberg lettuce and tomato with Italian dressing from the Good Seasonings cruet, and a vegetable; usually out of a can. On Thanksgiving and Christmas we sat in the dining room and ate roasted turkey on the good china with the real silver. On Sundays, after church, we had sausage or bacon, and eggs, and pancakes, and maybe hash-browns. We sat at the kitchen table for hours on Sunday after church and laughed and talked and irritated my father who had left the table to go watch football on television. “Can’t you gosh-darn kids keep it down in there? I’m trying to watch the game.”
But who was the woman who clipped Wild Ducks Deluxe or Let’s Have an Old-Fashioned English Christmas? Why did I never see the Cheesy Beef Surprises or the Freezer Ham and Olive Sandwiches from the “Back to School with the Lunch-Box Bunch” in my brown paper bag in the cafeteria at Westcreek Elementary School? I usually had a PB&J or that packaged ham that was sliced so thin you could see through it.
In my mother’s recipe file there is a booklet that must have been a magazine insert, titled “Beachcombers Happy Hour Bar Guide.” The booklet, clearly from the 1960’s, is decorated with tan young bodies in their modest 60’s bathing suits drinking it up on the beach. Drinking Tom Collins and Planter’s Punch, Daiquiris and Honolulu Coolers while running through the surf or doing what appears to be the twist. Is this who my mother wanted to be? In 1965 my mother would have been 32 years old; she had four children under the age of ten. I bet she would have loved to be on the beach drinking a Gin Rickey and doing the twist.
What else can these recipes tell me about my mother? That she took pride in cooking. That she wanted to nurture her family. That she would have liked the time to make a Cranberry Avocado Mold instead of drilling me on my times tables. Or that just once she would have preferred to make a Standing Rib Roast for Thanksgiving. As I go through her recipes I am reminded that she was a good mother, no – a great mother. A mother who always took care of her family, who fed us well, and sent us off into the world with the optimism to clip recipes of our own, recipes like Shrimp Pierre, even if we knew we would never actually prepare it. Just the idea of it can give you hope and optimism and the idea that you are creating a family that might just one day sit down to a hearty helping of Shanghai Steak.
Friday, February 6, 2009
You Knew it was coming - Volume 3
Here we go again - I am getting tired of my kitchen cabinets, but I am glad to have some clean space. Okay - third foray into the black hole otherwise known as the lower kitchen cabinets.
- 28 cookbooks, 7 of which are Weight Watchers: Quick Success Program Cookbook, Fast and Fabulous, Quick Start Plus, Favorite Recipes, New International, Super Good, Super Fast and 123 Success Collection – REVIEW and then get rid of the ones I don't like
- The cookbooks, not in the Weight Watcher category are: Texas Celebrity Cookbook, In Good Taste, Bon Vivant II, River Road Recipes, Favorite Recipes Compiled by St. Elizabeth’s Women's Organization, Gatherings, Lone Star Legacy, Southwest Seasonings, Fredericksburg Home Kitchen Cook Book, The New Diabetic Cooking Made Easy, Ground Beef Cookbook – TRASH (I don’t think I will be cooking much ground beef), In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs (sadly, I will TRASH this one, as it must have gotten wet at some point and the pages are all stuck together), Create Your Own Cookbook – a blank recipe book, La Bonne Cuisine, Pace Picante Sauce 40th Anniversary Recipe Collection, The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook, Great Food from Six of the Worlds Greatest Chefs, Jell-o Kids Cooking Fun, General Electric Cook with Pride, Sandcastles and Snowflakes, and (EUREKA) The Bread Machine Cookbook – I will REVIEW all cookbooks except the ones I marked TRASH to determine which ones I will keep. I promise I will get rid of at least one-third of the cookbooks.
- A two-pocket folder full of Weight Watcher recipes - REVIEW
- 3 two-pocket folders full of loose recipes – KEEP and review before I toss them.
- An Antique leather-bound accordion file containing recipes that I bought at an estate sale -KEEP - until I can look through
- 2 books on organizing – Sidetracked Home Executives and Is There Life After Housework? – DONATE (maybe someone else can get them to work)
- A metal basket containing – a roll of masking tape, a roll of clear packing tape, a roll of two-sided tape, and a roll of duct tape – KEEP
- A Ziploc bag containing advertising magnets that were at one time stuck to my refrigerator. Why did I take them off and put them in a bag? TRASH
- 2 pads of Post-It notes - KEEP
- 4 scratch pads, more of those cool ones with the magnet on the back - KEEP
- a package of 560 count round white labels - don't know why I have these - TRASH OR DONATE
- a paint can opener - KEEP
- a cut glass bowl full of keys I have no idea to what? - KEEP until I can determine if they are important
- a brass key rack that once hung in my utility room - KEEP - put back up in the utility room, I've missed it. Would anyone notice if I hung all of the random keys I've recently unearthed on it?
- an antique chalk-ware piece in the shape of a bathtub - DONATE
I found the bread machine cookbook, but not the manual that goes with the bread machine. I'm going out of town tomorrow - so the search will have to wait until Monday.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Number Three on the Hit Parade - Volume Two
Here I go again - still looking for that damn bread machine manual. This is what was in the lower section of the half of the black hole, I mean kitchen cabinet, I started cleaning yesterday:
- candles, lots of candles - 55 votive candles, eight 2-inch candles, two 12-inch drip candles - KEEP
- 14 votive holders - 3 DONATE, 2 USE, 9 KEEP
- a bag of tea lights - KEEP
- a set of plastic measuring cups that stack together to look like a bee hive - DONATE
- 4 florist vases - TRASH
- 3 glass coasters with silver plate rims - KEEP
- a candy tin from London - DONATE
- a pressed glass cream pitcher - KEEP
- a large crock from Marshall Pottery with a spigot, that is designed to hold a 3-gallon water jug - KEEP - don't know if I'll ever use it, but I am not ready to get rid of it
- sterling silver coffee canister - KEEP
- 4 flow blue dessert plates - KEEP - they will make good saucers to put under potted plants
- a small silver platter - KEEP
- 3 Currier & Ives Old Grist Mill pattern salad plates - KEEP - these go with my everyday dishes I inherited from my paternal grandmother
- 4 Currier & Ives Old Grist Mill pattern ashtrays - KEEP - ditto above
- 5 random pieces of silver plate cutlery - DONATE
- 4 forks, 4 knives and a cake server all with Bakelite handles - KEEP - Daughter #1 collects Bakelite
- a clear glass bottle - TRASH
- A glass jar with a large assortment of car keys and house keys - KEEP until I can determine if any of them are important, then TRASH the ones we don't need
- a rabies tag dated 1999 that belonged to my now deceased Basset Hound, Lale' - TRASH
- an antique blue glass Ball canning jar - KEEP
- a green glass juice jar - KEEP
- a clear bottle with a stopper that is one of those old-timey laundry sprinkler things (you have to be at least 50 to even know what this is) - KEEP
- a blender - KEEP
- a food processor - KEEP
- an insulated coffee carafe - KEEP
All of that and still no instruction manual to the bread machine! You guessed it - volume three tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Number 3 on the Hit Parade - Volume One
There are three black holes of clutter in my house. Number one on this hit parade is the garage. I don’t have the strength or the inclination to even think about cleaning that yet. It will have to wait until I have help from either my husband or a small army of robots. Number two is the very large hall closet. It is full of books, holiday decorations and the detritus of my almost 30 years of living in this house. Again, I don’t have the strength or inclination to begin that project. My lower kitchen cabinets are the third black hole. Fortunately, I have tons of storage space in my kitchen. Unfortunately, I have been storing for 30 years and have created a disaster. Do I have the strength and inclination to begin the kitchen cabinet purge? No! But, remember the bread machine from blog dated 1-26-09? It is still sitting on the cabinet waiting for its fate to be determined. I can’t make bread until I find the instruction manual that came with it and I think the instruction manual is in one of the kitchen cabinets. So I gathered my strength and broke down the task into small increments. So, today’s task was one shelf in one half of one cabinet (there are eight sets of lower cabinets in the kitchen). This is what I uncovered in the piece of today's black hole:
- an electric knife, in its original box - KEEP
- a rather antique-looking flour sifter - since I don't foresee sifting flour in my future -DONATE
- an Inertia Nutcracker purchased at a garage sale because daughter #2 has pecan trees in her yard and I was hoping she would give me some pecans. I will KEEP this in hopes that she reads this and gives me some next year.
- a hand-held electric mixer - KEEP
- 9 aprons - aprons are worn at my house once a year when daughters help me cook Christmas dinner - 3 DONATE, 2 RELOCATE (child-sized aprons to be saved for future grandchildren), 4 KEEP
- a tea towel someone brought me as a souvenir from Ireland and for some reason I felt I shouldn't use it (was I saving it for a special occasion that would call for "Irish Family Names" tea towel?) - USE
- a food scale - KEEP on the outside chance that I might one day weigh and measure my food
- a coffee bean grinder - KEEP
- a yellow index box full of cards I developed after reading a book called Sidetracked Home Executive that promised to show me the way to a clean and organized home -this is a no-brainer - TRASH
- a gallon-size Ziploc bag containing: Tupperware labels, a Tupperware lettuce corer, corn-on-the-cob holders, a honey dripper, a measuring spoon for liquid medicine, a melon-baller, a cheese knife, 3 church keys, 3 grapefruit spoons, a silver-plate baby spoon, 2 demitasse spoons, and 2 teaspoons - I haven't needed any of this in years so everything is going to the TRASH, except the grapefruit spoons, the baby spoon, the melon-baller and the church keys (who knows when I may need to enter a church?)
- a clay pot made by one of my children - KEEP, of course
- a cute scratch-pad with a magnet on the back - KEEP
- 4 two-pocket folders bulging with loose (and yellowing) recipes cut out of magazines, newspapers, or written on slips of paper by neighbors, friends and relatives - KEEP I can't bring myself to get rid of these until I go through them, some of them belonged to my mother. These are now in a large Banana Republic shopping bag sitting in my office (aka daughter #2's room).
- 17 cookbooks (this is only half a shelf, remember?) The cookbook purge is very difficult for me. Some I am going to save until I can look through, some I won't be able to part with: The Pooh Party Book (as in Winnie the Pooh!) - KEEP (put with children's books), Feed Me I'm Yours and The Taming of the C.A.N.D.Y. Monster - KEEP (put with children's books), Cooking the Watkins Way - REVIEW, a Kamp Kaleidoscope cookbook from Daughter #1's childhood -TRASH (unless she reads this and tells me to save it for her), a Sears Meals in Minutes cookbook - TRASH, Food Editor's Favorite Desserts - REVIEW, Reader's Digest Eat Better, Live Better - DONATE, The Book of Appetizers - REVIEW, Favorite Potato Recipes from Betty Crocker - KEEP, Weight Watchers Quick Success Program Cookbook - REVIEW, Favorite Brand Name Recipes - REVIEW, Entertaining in Texas - KEEP (this is one of those "tried & true" cookbooks), Favorite Recipes From the Kitchens of Holy Family Parishioners - REVIEW, Victoria Junior Woman's Club Cookbook Spring 1975 (run off on a mimeograph and covered in yellow floral contact paper, tied with yellow yarn) - REVIEW, My First Cookbook - KEEP (put with children's books), a two-volume set of Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking copyright 1947 - KEEP - I will never be able to get rid of these books, they were a wedding present to my parents in 1956 from my great-aunt Louise (the gift card is still scotch-taped to the front cover).
- 2 books on organization: Getting Organized and The Sidetracked Sisters Catch-Up on the Kitchen. If these books had worked I wouldn't be doing a blog on purging one's home of "stuff" - DONATE
- Instruction manuals for my microwave, dishwasher, cook top, oven, coffee maker, and mini-refrigerator (that may or may not be at daughter #2's house) - KEEP - but move to file cabinet to folder marked "instruction manuals".
- 2 index card boxes full of recipes - KEEP - until I have a chance to look through them
- a large box of wooden kitchen matches - KEEP - they are kitchen matches, what better place for them?
Alas, my foray into the black hole did not result in finding the instruction manual for the bread machine. This probably means I'll have to go on another expedition tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
I feel pretty. Oh so pretty... 2-3-2009
In the master bathroom I share with my husband there are nine drawers; eight of them are mine. I share the ninth one with him. I don't really know why I need eight and a half drawers in the bathroom. Sure, there are cosmetics and toothpaste and toiletry items - but eight and a half drawers worth? I only tackled cleaning one drawer today and the contents are as follows:
- Sure unscented solid deodorant
- ROC Age Diminishing Night Cream
- a dental retainer in a hot pink case
- Neutrogena Weightless Volume Mascara
- Lancome Renergie Lift Makeup
- L'Oreal Featherlash Mascara
- Tweezerman tweezers (red)
- Clinique blush - Extra Clover
- Maybelline Creme de Cocoa eyeshadow
- Maybelline Tranquil Sands eyeshadow
- Mary Kay 3-in-1 Cleanser
- a fingernail file
- Simply Saline nasal moisture gel
- Mary Kay Oil -free Hydrating Gel
- ROC Anti-Wrinkle moisturizing treatment SPF 15
- Mary Kay pressed powder
- Lancome Absolue Ultimate Replenishing and Reconstructuring Serum
- Burt's Bees Beeswax lip balm (2)
- Instant hand sanitizing spray
- Neutrogena Healthy Defense daily moisturizer SPF 45
- a blush brush
- Lancome Eye Shadow - Latte, Garnet Sensation, Mochaccino, and The New Black
- Moisturizing Saline Nasal Spray (2 bottles)
- a makeup sponge
- Mary Kay blush
- a white head band
- ROC Deep Wrinkle Night Cream
- Mary Kay Perfecting Concealer
- contact lens cases (3)
- Satin Dental Floss
- Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow - SunSparks 200
- Prescriptives - Brightening Concealer SPF 15
- Mary Kay Bronzer
- Cover Girl lipstick - Almost Nude
- a pad of Post-it notes
- Mary Kay blonde eyebrow pencil (2)
- a bandaid
- Mary Kay Indulge Soothing Eye Mask
- Zicam Cold Remedy
- Lancome Lipstick - Crushed Rose
- NYC Lipstick - blossom
- Mary Kay lipstick - Plum
- Lancome Mascara - Black/Noir
- Burt's Bees lipstick
- Nivea Hand Creme
- Brow Gel
- Mary Kay Instant-Action-Eye Cream
- Lancome Lipstick - Wicked Brown
- Mary Kay Eyeshadow - Olive
- a lipstick brush
- black eyeliner pencil
Upon further inspection I determined that everything in the drawer was needed. Nothing was thrown away! Not a good day for purging.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Roll-top Desk Drawer 2-2-09
I had big plans to clean out one of the heinous "black hole" kitchen cabinets, but I was exiled to my bedroom by daughter #2 when she wanted to watch t.v. in the den adjacent to the kitchen. I have an antique roll-top desk, that once belonged to my great-aunt, in my room. It serves as a catch-all for books, magazines, letters, hand cream, a Kleenex box; and that is just the surface. I decided to clean out the desk lap drawer. It is a very thin drawer, not much space, but it holds a lot! Here's proof:
- 11 matchbooks - TRASHED
- a receipt from Dillard's Department Store dated 12-18-07 in the amount of $199.72 for cosmetics - TRASHED
- a 2007 Christmas list detailing what I bought for my daughters and son-in-law -TRASHED
- a bank envelope holding 9 expired credit cards, a Southwest Airlines companion pass that expired in 2007, and 2 expired gym cards - CUT UP AND TRASHED
- 3 old drivers' licenses - 2 of mine that expired in 1989 and 1987 and one belonging to my husband that expired in 1988 - KEPT (what can I say? I'm sentimental)
- a Chili's Restaurant Frequent Diner Card - TRASHED
- 4 Post-it Note pads - KEPT
- 2 packages of spare lead for mechanical pencils - KEPT
- 1 package of mechanical pencil eraser refills - KEPT
- a pair of sewing scissors - KEPT
- a box of thumb tacks (100 count) - KEPT
- 2 glue sticks - KEPT
- a kindergarten school photo of daughter #2 - OF COURSE I KEPT
- a Jamaican one dollar piece - KEPT on the outside chance I might go to Jamaica
- a box of staples - KEPT
- a mini stapler- KEPT
- a tape measure key chain - KEPT
- a single hole punch - KEPT
- 4 scratch pads - KEPT
- 1 fingernail file - KEPT
- spiral bound 3x5 index cards- KEPT
- a Ziploc bag with a hinge, a screw, and a nail - I KEPT because I think they go with the desk
- a box of white permanent self-adhesive reinforcement labels - KEPT
- a bag of 25 self adhesive Index Tabs- KEPT
- 3 rulers - one 12-inch metal, two 6-inch plastic - KEPT 2, TRASHED one of the 6-inch
- an over sized laundry safety pin that I once used for a key chain - KEPT
- 2 business cards - TRASHED 1, KEPT 1 (it was daughter #1's first post-college job)
- a flashlight that doesn't work - TRASHED
- A "Presto!" pocket correction pen - KEPT
- 3 bookmarks - KEPT
- a deck of cards - RELOCATED to toy closet
- a calculator that doesn't work - TRASHED
- a staple remover - KEPT
- a lamp finial - KEPT
- 3 tiny Ziploc bags with extra buttons - RELOCATED to sewing box
- a pair of cheater glasses - KEPT
- 6 Highlighters - 2 yellow, 1 orange, 1 green, 1 turquoise, 1 pink - KEPT
- 4 Sharpie pens - 1 turquoise, 1 light blue, 1 dark blue, 1 hot pink - KEPT
- 15 pencils - KEPT 12, TRASHED 3
- 2 eraser sticks - KEPT
- 53 (yes, 53!) writing pens - KEPT 37, TRASHED 16
Remember, I said this was a small drawer. I think it was a clown car in a previous life
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