Letting Go

We're still whittling away at unpacking.  A trip to the garage yesterday revealed still more boxes labeled kitchen, bathroom, etc. - I wanted to run screaming from the space. 

So much of what's left is really coming down to just letting go.  Boxes of quilting 'stuff' - much of it I inherited from my mom.  Will I get into quilting again?  Possibly.  The 'hobby room' we sort of added late in the planning of the floor plan of this house was designed with quilting in mind.  But really?  I'm not sure I will quilt.  Maybe make some 'crazy quilts' to pass on to my kids and for their kids, someday?  Only I'm not sure I want to do that either, because I'm not sure I want to saddle the kids with 'things' that they will feel obligated to keep. 

Letting go will be something they'll need to do at some point, too. 

If I were to quilt, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't choose most of the fabrics that I've carefully saved over the years. My design tastes are very different now - no more 'country chic' with lots of calico, flowery prints. 

I'd love to learn to do 'watercolor' quilts - and while some of the fabrics I have could be incorporated, I truly would probably prefer to start over. 

Starting anew and fresh is why this house was built. 

The two kitchen boxes were easily unpacked and revealed some serving/entertaining dishes that I'd wondered about - now just have to figure out where to put them.  More canning jars - which come in handy for so many things (salad dressings, caramel or chocolate sauces, bacon grease, pancetta fat, etc.).  I may have a small hording issue when it comes to canning jars but they aren't inexpensive and while I likely will never use all of them at once, the variety in sizes also comes in handy.  So...now re-configuring the pantry storage (where I'd already placed a lot of canning jars) to include all the ones I found this morning. 

Also the yogurt maker I bought a long time ago - new in box, unopened.  Bought it because we didn't have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's in Tracy and I wanted to try to make yogurt using almond milk.  Never did try it and in Carson City, we do have a Trader Joe's so if I want almond milk yogurt, it's easy to find.  We will donate (I just typed donut - and now I am craving a donut) the yogurt maker and the accompanying yogurt cheese maker to our local thrift shop - they seem more than happy to accept any and all of the 'stuff' we are letting go of. 

We have a lot of books and this morning, I sort of regret not having some installed bookcases somewhere in the house.  We do have a wall unit coming for a wall in the Great Room that needed something - sort of a credenza in the middle with 'towers' on either side.  The credenza can definitely hold books when it arrives.  So for now, like in Tracy, we are using what is technically the linen closet to house a bunch of books - and we gave away boxes and boxes of books to the Tracy Library before we moved.  I also let go of a bunch a few weeks ago - decided I wouldn't really be re-reading every JD Robb book or the cat mystery series I've treasured forever.  And if I do want to read them, I can find them on my Kindle in the library there so...time to let stuff go. 

We'd planned to go to Atlantis today - free-play day!  But decided to do that tomorrow instead.  5x comps on Wednesdays vs. 'regular' comps on Tuesdays so why not wait a day to earn more for whatever play we do outside of free play - which won't be much.  I had a major trouncing on Saturday - what can only be described as angry, pleasantly inebriated gambling - so I'm going to go low and slow for most of August to regroup.  Why was I angry?  Well....I'll read this someday and probably not remember so I'm not going to say.  Not remembering would be preferred at this point.  Family.  You've got to love them.  And I do.  But I was super ready for alone time -

J. was diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple weeks ago - he has his first oncology appointment on Thursday and I plan to go with.  As cancer's go, prostate is a 'good' one to have - and at 70 years young, they tell us he will very likely die 'with' prostate cancer as opposed to 'of' prostate cancer.  He will have internal radiation - small rice size pellets will be implanted and will (hopefully) kill the cancer.  The side effects are minimal - fatigue, most likely - and he'll be sore for a few days post procedure - which we think is done under general anesthesia probably at the hospital.  We'll learn more about that on Thursday. 

So far, we're all holding it together - navigating this new normal.

OK - time to get to work again.  I think we're going to load up a car with thrift shop items so we can get those out of the garage.  Every little thing we (continue) to take out is one step closer to getting two cars in the garage.  Next on the list is to hire the handyman who lived next door to us in the town house rental to assist in putting up the overhead storage shelves in the garage - so we can move a massive amount of stuff up overhead and off the garage floor.  Most of the overhead stuff is holiday related.

We culled a ton of Christmas stuff before we moved but we will most definitely be culling a lot more this Christmas.  Can't wait to decorate this house from stem to stern, though!!