Book Giveaway: A Claim of Her Own

Before I tell you about this week’s giveaway from Bethany House, let me announce the winners of last week’s books:

The winner of Gardening Eden is:

Comment #1: Jolanthe

And the winner of The Secret is:

Comment #13: Nancy

Congratulations!

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Here’s how the giveaways during Spring Reading Thing 2009 work:

Every Thursday, I post about a new book that’s up for grabs (some weeks, there will be more than one book!). If it sounds like a book you’d like and you want to be eligible to win it, just leave a comment on the post and I’ll put your name in the virtual hat. I’ll leave the post open for comments until the following Wednesday at noon. I’ll then randomly pick a commenter and announce that person as the winner when I put up the next giveaway.

Also, I apologize to any international readers, but these giveaways are only open to readers in the U.S. or Canada.

This week’s giveaway: [Read more...]

The longest post about decluttering you never wanted to read

So. I haven’t been on the computer much lately. But I have been decluttering. Which is quite surprising.

Surprising? you ask. What’s the big deal about decluttering?

Well, the big deal is, I’m usually trying to find ways to avoid most forms of houswork. I’m uptight and particular about many things, but a spotless and clutter-free house is not one of them. So when it comes to housework, I procrastinate and rationalize and practice advanced avoidance techniques. It helps that I have a high tolerance for dust and concealed piles.

Yes, I said concealed piles. I like the kitchen counter to be cleared off. I don’t stack things on the coffee table. But give me a closet or a cupboard, or pretty much anything that closes, and I’m likely to stash stuff there with little concern for the number of items accumulating.

Until this week, apparently. This week, I was seized by the overwhelming urge to just clean some things out. Certainly not normal for me, but I went with it.

It all started with the hall closet.

When we moved to this house, I decided that in addition to coats, the hall closet would be used to store things like light bulbs and extra school supplies and board games — things that we might need at any given time, and wanted to have handy. I bought a little two-drawer organizer, set things up and kept it that way for the past four years.

But on Monday, I decided that I actually need the vacuum cleaner in the hall closet. At this point in our family’s development, it seems that I have to vacuum our main level twice-weekly daily constantly. (Apparently, my kids can generate more  than their body weight in crumbs and itty bitty scraps of paper on a daily basis.) Currently, however, the vacuum lives upstairs, in our bedroom closet. And lugging it up and down the steps all the time makes me grouchy tired. Things would be so much easier if I had it readily available on the main level of the house.

Great. Problem solved.

Except it’s a small cloest, and there was no room for the vacuum.

Okay, so all the stuff in the closet had to move elsewhere. I quickly decided that the cabinets under the half-bath’s sink would be the perfect place for light bulbs and the other random household supplies that were currently in the closet. Perfect.

Except for the fact that those bathroom cabinets were full of…well, other stuff.

So I started there. Within an hour, the half-bath cabinets were streamlined and organized, ready to welcome my handy two-drawer organizer from the hall closet. Another hour or so later, the hall closet was happily housing the vacuum. In the process, I also generated a large garbage bag full of junk that could leave the house entirely.

But did I stop there? Oh no.

On to the storage room.The storage room is the half of our basement where I stash anything that doesn’t have a home, along with clothes from C. that I’m saving for L., books that don’t fit on the bookshelves, holiday decorations, and about a million other things. It is a scary place, because I’ve been somewhat less than organized in my stashing.

I’m currently in the process of going through every single item, storing like things together, and actually labeling containers. I started months ago, but I have a feeling it will never actually be done.

Monday night, I attacked seven more boxes, filled a bag of clothes for the local mission, set aside a basket of toys to give away, and produced another two garbage bags full of, well, garbage. Whew!

You’d think that would be enough for a housework-avoider like me, but oh no!

Last night saw me finally dealing with the “to-file pile.”

Confession: I hate filing. I like things to be filed, but I hate the process. So I tend to let the to-file pile grow. And grow. And grow. Until I literally cannot fit another item on it. It stays hidden in our computer armoire, where I can be careful to not look at it. But anyone who stops by our house is likely to see it, since the armoire doors are often open. So I’m perpetually embarrassed about it, but still manage to not do anything about it for months at a time.

Here’s what it looked like last night at 8:00 p.m. (And no, I can’t believe I’m posting this for all the world to see.)

before

And here’s what it looked like at 10:30 p.m.

after

Ah, much better. I love when it’s all cleaned up. So why don’t I file more often? I have no answer for that.

Not surprisingly, there’s no point to this post. Except: I’ve been decluttering. Which isn’t much of a point, if you ask me.

But I do have to admit that purging the closet and cabinets and storage pile and computer armoire has been — if not “enjoyable” — fulfilling. It feels good to know that the piles aren’t actually taking over my house, and that I’ve gotten rid of a whole bunch of stuff that was either expired or unnecessary or useless or extraneous. Who knows — with my new lightened load, maybe I’ll actually have room in my brain for blog posts.

Wordless Wednesday

bubbles

Bubbles!

To visit more Wordless Wednesday participants, visit 5minutesformom.com

Really Random Ramblings

It seems that I only pop onto the blog these days to do a book review or giveaway. Sorry about that. I’ve got some post ideas brewing, but I can’t make any guarantees as to when they’ll show up as actual posts. In the meantime, some random and disjointed thoughts and comments for you:

1. I loved hearing/reading how many of you are doing so far in Spring Reading Thing ’09! It seems like we have a mix — some people are right on target or ahead of the game, others are struggling to get through their books. My only request is that you keep reading (when you can, of course) and don’t beat yourself up! Enjoy your books and have fun during this little challenge.

2. Speaking of Spring Reading Thing ‘o9, we have some serious book reviewers involved. Have you looked at the book review list lately? We’re only one month into this thing and there are already 180 reviews posted there!

3. In a somewhat drastic and unexpected move, I have deleted my kids’ names from the blog. I know, I know, you’ve grown to know and love them by name. It’ll be weird. I agree — it’ll be weird to write about them without using their names. But after a little research, a few conversations, and much thought, I decided to take their names off for now. At some point, I may reinstate them. But for now, they will simply be C. and L.

Nothing horrible happened. The decision was made in part for safety, but in larger part, for privacy. They might decide one day that they’re not crazy about having stories about them (complete with their names) out on the internet for all to see. C. already cringes sometimes when I ask, “Can I blog about that?” And while it’s one thing to tell family and friends a cute or funny or slightly embarrassing story, it’s another thing to tell the world on a public blog. So no names, and maybe some changes as far as how/when I blog about them.

4. On a related note, we were discussing this change at home one night, and C. felt strongly that he did not want to just be an initial. He thought we should substitute some fake names. I considered that, but had to veto his first pick. He wanted to be Vladamir. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the name Vladamir, but blogging about “my son, Vladamir” would be even weirder than blogging about “my son, C.”

In the end, Chad vetoed fake names anyway. We might try to come up with some “non-name” names — you know, like “ComputerKid” or something, but I’m not feeling very inspired at the moment. I promise to not confuse you too much by changing names on any kind of regular basis, though.

5. As I type this post, I’m trying really hard not to eat the Hershey’s Special Dark Eggs, left over from Easter. It is not easy. Not easy at all. They call to me from their drawer.

Mother's Day Giveaway6. 5 Minutes for Books is having a wonderful Mother’s Day giveaway, with lots and lots of books being given away (and you know I’m a fan of free books). I’ve had the button in my sidebar for a while, but in case you didn’t notice it, I wanted to let you know so you can go check it out. Just click HERE.

7. Finally, a few good posts I thought I’d share with you:

Stuff Christians Like:  #527. Thinking God Needs You. “We don’t serve a needy God. We serve a complete God.”

Rocks in My Dryer: No, Really, I’m Fine “I’m coming more and more to the conclusion that we (I) seem to be operating in a fog of sensory overload.   We blog and Twitter and Facebook.  We have cell phones and multiple e-mail addresses.  We’re so darn plugged in we’re almost motorized, and it’s exhausting.”

Reading to Know: The Covenant of Marriage “We can’t keep walking away from “hard” conversations just because they seem hard. We’ll never be able to celebrate the beauty of a TRULY successful marriage/friendship unless we are willing to work through the hard times.”

Book Giveaway: The Secret

Before I tell you about this week’s giveaway from Bethany House, let me announce the winners of last week’s books:

The winner of  Love Is a Verb is:

Comment #15: ellie

And the five winners of First Family are:

Comment #4: Fresh Girl
Comment #10: Lyndsay @ bytesofmemory
Comment #12: 3carnations
Comment #25: Carole
Comment #40: MJ

Congratulations!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Here’s how the giveaways during Spring Reading Thing 2009 work:

Every Thursday, I post about a new book that’s up for grabs (some weeks, there will be more than one book!). If it sounds like a book you’d like and you want to be eligible to win it, just leave a comment on the post and I’ll put your name in the virtual hat. I’ll leave the post open for comments until the following Wednesday at noon. I’ll then randomly pick a commenter and announce that person as the winner when I put up the next giveaway.

Also, I apologize to any international readers, but these giveaways are only open to readers in the U.S. or Canada.

This week’s giveaway:

[Read more...]