Tidying

I was all set to start on my to do list last Monday when it hit me-- the sudden, overwhelming urge to tidy.

I didn't, alas, have the urge to clean. There is a distinct difference between tidying and cleaning. Tidying is putting things in order, eliminating the clutter hotspots in the house. Cleaning is the scrubbing, the dusting, the vacuuming and mopping.

The house has several clutter hotspots. One of them is my office, which becomes what my mother would call "The Pilot Room". You know, pilot here, pilot there. I hadn't tidied the office since Mama de la Casa's visit and that disorder made it all too easy to just throw stuff in there that I didn't know what to do with. The room was virtually impassable.

The office was the worst, but there were other areas: the hall tree where mail had piled into an eight inch tall stack, the "landing spot"-- the kitchen counter where I leave my purse and lunch bag when I get home from work, the bedroom dresser which became a clothes' magnet. I systematically worked through them all and others. I stopped to admire my work when I had cleared each area and then immediately jumped into the next. I finished, but the tidying energy was still strong.

So I treated myself to a Netflix show (not, as you may image, Marie Kondo's show) as I sorted through the endless stack of filing, putting papers into their designated folders. I pulled old bills and outdated paperwork for the shredding pile.

At the end of the day, I wandered from room to room, reveling in the neatness of the house. Gretchen Rubin says "Outer order leads to inner calm". I concur. A day was a worthwhile investment to have a space that is tidy and organized and my psyche enjoys the results.

I have never been able to figure out what brings on these moods. Is it a feeling of "Enough is Enough"? Was the Moon in Virgo? Was I subconsciously avoiding working on a more important project? I don't know. I just know that I am grateful to have had the chance to take advantage of the mood and reap its benefits.

Success at last!

I love butternut squash. I love it in soups, roasted, mashed, in salads. I save the seeds and roast them to sprinkle on salads or to eat as a snack. It's my favorite winter vegetable.

For nearly 20 years I have tried, unsuccessfully, to grow my own. Some years, the plants were sickly and failed to set fruit, while other years they thrived until they were suddenly stricken with some disease or infestation. I stopped planting multiples and confined myself to one plant.

One year, the plant flourished and set fruit, several miniature green squashes. Success was within my grasp! And then I went away for a week and when I came back, the plant was dead, the little squashes shriveled and gnawed on. When I pulled the plant out of the ground, it came away easily. Gophers had eaten the roots, probably even as I was getting into my car to hit the road for vacation. I was utterly discouraged and gave up on growing my own butternut squash.

This year, I decided to try again. I expected it would follow the same path of failure, but much to my surprise, this beauty survived to maturity. I checked on it every day, cautiously allowing myself to hope.

This weekend I harvested the lone squash. It is perfectly healthy, feeling heavy for its size, smooth and symmetrical. These squash last a long time, so I am leaning toward cooking it for Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps roasting it with a spiced maple syrup glaze. I will save the seeds and roast some of them, but will save a few for next season. My hope has been renewed, maybe next year I'll double my harvest and get two squash!

The Shredder

A few weeks ago, the paper shredder I've had for years stopped working. Well, that's not entirely true. It would work just fine in reverse, but when I fed it paper to shred it didn't respond at all. I cleared the paper out as best as I could, but when I switched it on, it remained unresponsive.

Since it still ran in reverse, Man of the House suggested turning it upside down. That, unsurprisingly, didn't work at all. I had had the shredder for 15 years, so it was probably time for a new one. I set the shredder aside and started the search for its replacement.

I began working toward one of my 2020 goals a few months early. For the next year (and perhaps permanently going forward) I will be making most of my purchases on the secondary market. With the exception of a few things such as underwear and shoes, I will search for what I need at thrift stores, garage sales and on-line second hand venues.

So I made the rounds of my favorite local thrift stores. I found a few options, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to buy any of them. I went home to take a final look at my shredder.

With a fine gauge crochet hook I fished out bits of paper from the teeth of the shredder. Some of them were jammed in tightly and it took some effort to fish them loose. I would occasionally run the shredder, but it still didn't start.

Finally, I got one last bit of paper out and when I flipped the switch the shredder roared back to life. I fed it papers and it chewed through them as always. I was back in business.

This experience makes me more interested in learning how to repair and maintain the appliances I have. Yes, I could have picked up a good shredder at the thrift store, but it is even better to not make the purchase at all. One day the shredder will be dead for good, but the longer I can keep it out of the landfill, the better.