Emotions and Ice Cream

I keep eating ice cream. I think it has become my comfort food, sometimes I have it before lunch on the weekend.

It is driving me a little crazy that we are finally getting all the odds 'n' ends done around the house, making it all nice only in hopes to have someone else fall in love with it. I must remind myself it is only a house, simply a structure providing shelter. Home on the other hand is where ever your loved ones are and it doesn't have to be one place, just places you simply love being. Living on a boat will let us have many homes over the course of a year.

I like to think that everyone who says they will come visit us actually will. Albany is a very lively city, a city I have very much enjoyed for the last 9 years and there will be a lot to miss, but most of all it will be our friends. We have great friends.

One thing I remember from when I was a kid in the Daisy's Troop- being a Daisy means your working your way up to become a Girl Scout. The sequence is; Daisy, Brownie, Girl Scout. I only made it to a Brownie, then bailed b/c it was way to girly-we weren't learning to camp or survive we were learning songs, arts and crafts (which at the time really bothered me). Even back then I was smart enough to know that singing "kum-by-ya" when I'm lost in the woods is not going to save me from a grizzly. But I did take away one valuable lesson- "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver, and the other is gold" Albany will always be my gold, they simply rock!

We met our friend Maude and her daughter at the ice cream parlor the other night. Alana is 3 and watching her walk up to the ice cream parlor and upon seeing us her eyes light up, my heart just melts. This little girl may be one of the coolest kids/people I have ever met. Alana lights up a room. At her age the world is kind, people are friendly, laughter is often, and life is good. As Alana and Maude approached the door I couldn't help but think how much I would miss nights like this. What I love about Maude is that though she thinks we are a little crazy she supports our decision. K Family...you MUST come visit!

Ok so on the right here is the Daisy uniform...really do I need an apron, since when did anyone put on an apron before hiking into the woods? Even the girl in the sketch appears to be saying "Really, I have to wear-THIS?

Updates

Worms- doing great!
I recently started to harvest the nutrient soil they are producing. You simply move the soil and the worms to one side of the bin, and start to put the bedding (newspaper) and new fresh food on the other side of the bin. The worms will make their way over to the fresher food over a period of about a month and then I will be able to take the soil they produced and put it in my flower pots!

I don't like to let my exterior plants die off in the winter so my house is full of them and they could all use some healthy soil. I jumped the gun a little and sifted out about two cups of soil.

When researching composting I had learned that the worms lay eggs and they look like little yellow seeds, and guess what MY WORMS HAD BABIES!!! I carefully sorted throw my two cups of soil looking for the eggs as I did not want to harm any of them. Check out how small they are; it is the little yellow blob in the center of the spoon.

4 Hours of TV/Week- well it didn't go so well at first, b/c when I would feel bored and couldn't think of other things to do I would give up and click into TV land. However in the last week I don't think we even maxed out our 4 hours. What I had to realize was that I wasn't bored and it wasn't that there was nothing to do. I was simply so use to zoning out and forgetting all the other things I wanted to do. Now we spend our time reading more, cooking, going to the library, blogging, listening to music, eating dinner at the dining room table again! We have been going for more walks and spending more time working on our house as we prepare to sell it. Good bye TV, hello Life!

Purging

They crushed my couch, but I looked away. We are emotionally attached to so many objects, but why? I have been following other blogs about donating, recycling, and selling items, and what I have learned is it takes time to emotionally remove items from your life.

In the past I never could have thrown out pictures, but how many candid photos do you need? I have discovered that if I sort through some photos, make a pile of keeps and check back in a week or two I can eliminate a few more. I am now done eliminating. I have narrowed my photos down to three thin albums (not including my wedding photos, which have there own album). I think that three albums for 26 years of life is pretty good!

I saved photos from all stages of life, all different experiences, and ones that triggered strong meaningful memories and emotions. Quality vs. Quantity...now I have an outstanding collection of moments in my life!

Good Bye Couch, Hello Future

So this weekend was productive! We put my favorite couch to the curb in order to paint our front porch. I have had the couch since high school and it traveled with me through the years, but it is mustard yellow crushed velvet so it is obviously from the 70's and I feel 30 years is a long lifetime for a couch. It is missing a leg and really I don't know who else would love it other than me. It was crazy comfy and I had many enjoyable naps in the sun on it, but it is time to go. I'm not gonna lie; I did keep the cushions in hopes that I could find a use for them. Today we painted all the radiators in the house, the banister, and Bill made a radiator cover for one of the radiators that is even to ugly for paint to save it. The cushions served a purpose today; I sat on one while drinking some celebratory beer on our front porch! Hard work deserves cold beer, oh how I greatly enjoyed Blue Moon, Pandora, the sunset and the company of Bill and Riley! Today was a good day!