De-cluttering

It happens every year but most years I ignore it or our lives are too busy and well yeah, cluttered to do anything about it but not this year! 5 bags of stuff to the charity shop, a run to the tip and two full bins.

You see what happens is that I make our annual trip to the States and have a fabulous time catching up with family and friends. In the background while all the fun stuff is happening my senses are working without me really initiating anything, and they are seeing bigger houses, more space, different ways of organising things and then that knowledge gets played thru every room in our house. The solution is always the same. Too much stuff. Things without homes? Clear out. Clear out big time.

As I said I can normally side step the urge to sort and it generally diminishes after a few jet lag driven days. Not this year. So I started as soon as I got home. 5 days later and I had moved mountains. I was exhausted and the house? It still looks as crazy and well........ lived in as before. I have had at least three strops with the family about all that work and nothing to show for it.

And I am realising that five days of clearing will only begin to undo five and a half years of gathering in this house. The same way that I am realising to de-clutter my life and find the things that are really important to me is going to take time to. There are things we do because we need to and that is fine. There are things we do because we like to and that is fine. It is the things we do that we feel we ought to. These regularly need a bit of sorting thru.

As maladjusted as ever....

or at least I am committed to try and be.

Today a friend gave us a huge bag of eucalyptus leaves. I had questionned the gift as we clearly do not have a Koala living as part of the family. The response was something along the line of, seeing as I was into making my own soaps and stuff. Yep challenge set! A quick search round with the help of Mr Google and I was crushing leaves in the food processor and putting them in the slow cooker with some olive oil to gently simmer for six hours to make eucalyptus oil. And the result? Well, my better half had to tip the results into the brown gardening bin as I gagged any time I lifted the lid of the pot. He said the smell was OK. I beg to differ. My gag reflex is not that sensitive. I do now have lavender oil on the make and I will let you know how that turns out in a month or so when it will be ready, or not, as the case may be.

I hauled home a huge box of baking soda from our recent trip across that large pond so tonight I measured and mixed and produced shampoo, conditioner, bathroom scrub and rinse, kitchen scrub and general cleaner. All good stuff. I know this because I have been using them for two years now.

And during our trip, (from which we also hauled home a stand for beer butt chickens (2) and a giant cupcake tin, more details on both to follow) I took time to consider my whole thinking on this maladjusted thing. It has always been about more than cleaners and failed attempts to concoct with natural ingredients. ( I have only just thrown out the grape jelly gum/glue/ car reinforcer for those who do read this blog in any kind of detail; not that I am expecting anyone to still be there after this length of break!) I am still committed to my initial challenges but will over the next while be exploring a few more, maybe some a little deeper, a little more intense, and there should still be things to laugh about along the way.

Now where is that Koala, we have some leaves left....................!

New Life

We can only live in winter for so long. We crave new life.

I have looked in great despair at our garden for the last few weeks. So much deadness. I know that is not good English but I am sure you know what I mean. Piles of dead leaves, rotting. Plants that had so much life last summer brown and dry. And in the midst of that I had allowed the recycling to overflow, bits of trash to lie around and the weather being so cold we had an overflow fridge to keep our drinks cool right at the back door.

Two weeks ago I had persuaded my mother and the littler boy to go and buy some plants from the local garden centre, a determined effort to fly the flag for spring. Yet days went by while we continued to live with the mess, not able to juggle our time to get a bag of compost and some time to do a little work. Until today! Friends, people who listen and care in the small and the big things that make a huge difference, pitched up at church with a big bag of compost.

With the sun shining and a very enthusiastic little helper, I set about clearing out a lot of the deadness and replacing it with fresh soil and new life which will soon grow and flower. We swept and filled the garden bin. We got filthy in our efforts but both felt that a good job had been done. We even took a trip to the recycle area to clear out a pile of paper from the garage, just like Peppa Pig.

We need winter. It is about resting and indeed dying. There comes a time though when we need to have a good look round, do a bit of reflecting on what we want and then we need to clear out the things that have no life, get rid of some of the rot and move into a period of preparation, of caring for new growth and indeed expecting new things to come in.

And yes, it is not just in our gardens!

To blog or not to blog

It has been few weeks, maybe even a month or two since I last blogged.

I know.

It is not like I have forgotten. I have been busy. Life continues to happen, and that of course I am glad about, but at times it seems to happen with a little more intensity.

The thing about blogging is that I enjoyed it, I enjoy it. I never wrote to be read. I wrote because I enjoyed writing and if you happened to come along and read it, then great.

So to continue or not?

Am I still committed to the challenge of being maladjusted? Not just getting sucked into the norm without really thinking about what the norm is. Oh yes! But it is so much more than the five challenges I initially set myself.

Do I need to maintain these things but set some new challenges? What would these be? Am I crazy to add anything else into a crowded highly challenged life?

Is it about recognising the challenges that are there already and exploring these? Would that make for interesting blogging?

Maybe I should start with the challenge of finding time for things that I like to do? Like blogging?

Doesn't sound very maladjusted , does it?