Goals for Today

Today is Memorial Day, the day on which we remember and mourn those who died during wartime. The flag is flying outside the house.

I recently learned that my great-grandfather served in the Spanish American War.

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I have a few mild goals today. The other day (that day some unknown number of days before today), I took two bins of kids clothing and consolidated them into one, sorting out the "too small for the younger" from the "too big for the younger" and setting aside a bag of items that might have some resale value for my friend who actually does indeed list things on ebay. Whatever she doesn't want will be donated. Today, I need to move the now-empty bin to the garage with the other empties. Also, I plan to purge the toys. The children have toys in too many parts of the house--living room, bedroom, basement. If there are so many toys that each of those three areas can be hazardous for walking, well, that means we have too many toys.

It is very hard for me to purge toys. Yes, it's hard for the kids also, but for me, well, I look at each item and think "this is a nice toy! The kids like it, it's interesting, I've seen them play with it many times". Yeah, and so on and so on and before you know it, your house is overrun with toys! Sometimes, I'll just bundle everything willy-nilly into a bin and let is sit, marinate if you will. Then, after a month or so, it seems to be easier to sort it all out.

It's worse now that my mom has died. There won't be any more packages from her, gifts at Christmas or birthdays or just because. What we have is all there is. Can I bear to let any of it go? I don't really know. I suppose it'll depend on the children--I want to let them lead, but also, I want to make sure they have physical memories from their Grandma. The Little One mentioned her this morning, her habit of writing a message on her hand. I'm so happy that the Little One has so many memories, strong memories of her Grandma.

Since the weather is nice, not too hot, but not raining, it may be time for some outdoor clutter control. The lawn is out of control, the parking strip needs to be mowed, and the flowers outside the fence desperately need water. I have soaker hoses to install in the front garden.

We'll see how much I am able to accomplish.