Snow Globes

The last couple days have been spent cleaning. We've tossed a bunch of stuff, sold a few things on craigslist and to halfprice books. It feels great! The house is less cluttered already! We went to my parent's for a new years eve party last night and I told my sisters about some stuff I'm planning of getting rid of, but hate to give away or sell. I really wanted someone in my family to take these things, because I do love them but just have nowhere to put them. One of my sisters offered to take my birdcage, which I LOVE and have toted around through many moves over the past 12 years or so. It's a huge (maybe 4 foot tall) birdcage that is more for decoration than a real bird. It looks kind of like a cathedral and when I saw it I just had to have it. Of course everyone made fun of me for buying it (it is quite a sight), but admitted they liked it when I had it on display. Before the twins were born I had it out, but now I just can't find a spot where it looks right so it has to go.

While we were at my parent's house I got to talking with my siblings about our snow globe collections. Every year growing up our grandma gave us a snow globe. As I was putting away decorations this year I went through the collection and threw away most of them. I didn't realize this could happen, but after years of being in storage the water in the globes evaporates. So the snow globes either had no water, or a little water that was so cloudy you couldn't see what was in it. There were a couple that had little plugs and I thought I could probably put new water in, so I kept those ones, but threw the rest away. My siblings couldn't believe I would toss them! They thought that the fact that they were old and from my grandma (who died a couple years ago) should override everything. My sister in law even said that the first year she and my brother were married she displayed them all...um, really?!?! They are nasty! Anyway, I'm proud I was able to get past the emotional attachment and get rid of them because they really were junk. The three I kept can be restored and next year I'll put them up. I think that's a better memory of my grandma than a bunch of cloudy and waterless snow globes stored in a box somewhere.

2012 Goals

Like people all over the world, I'm thinking about what I want to change when the new year rolls around. I like making resolutions, and in the past I have followed through with them, so I'm excited about my resolution for 2012. I want to simplify my life. The way I'm going to start this process is to e-clutter the house. I've already started, cleaning out Christmas decorations as I put them away. I cleaned out the kids' rooms the week before Christmas. So I'm off to a good start! I'm hoping to get the garage cleaned out before Terrence has to go back to work and after the garage I'm going to move to my side of the bedroom...yikes.

The second part of my resolution is where things are going to get hard. I am going to try not to buy anything unnecessary. This is going to be really hard for me because I'm a gal who LOVES a deal. I have a hard time passing something up if it's a great deal, so I have been known to buy things that I don't need just because it's a deal and I might need it some day. I know I will need to buy things, but aside from consumable goods we really have everything we need. The coming year will be a challenge for sure, but I'm looking forward to it!