Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Simpler times

A few things have me thinking about how we can simplify some areas of our lives.

Our old desktop is on it's last leg. A friend's husband was able to bring it back to life after a hard crash. Thankfully I had backed up 75%, but the external drive is not directly compatible with my mac, so I was unsure how I was going to get access to the documents and pictures. Since the HP is revived, I have been slowly using a thumb drive to switch over files.

I have had a few empty days, so spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday transferring and sorting (and deleting blurry images) into folders on my laptop. I have put images into folders by year. We were all looking through them last night and marveling at how the girls used to look (Teagan's crazy thick dark hair, Piper's huge blue eyes) and how empty the house was in the background.


Teagan at 3 months old



Piper at 22 months old



In the past few years we have gained some new furniture from my grandmother, but it's not the presence of furniture I noted- it's all the clutter. True, there is an inordinate amount of colored plastic baby toys in the old images, but there was also space. Something there is little of now. Both girls looked at old pictures of their rooms and said that they wanted their rooms now to look like that (hallelujah!). They are both pack rats and save every little thing. I'd love to clear out a great majority of the "stuff" in their rooms. Same goes for me and the closets and the insides of cabinets and all my bow stuff needs a massive reorganization.

I have grand plans for this summer.

I started going through the guest room piles of old clothes yesterday. So many items to ebay this year. I am committed to not miss this selling season. I need to have all my auctions up by late July to not miss on the high fall/winter traffic (crazy, I know!). So I began washing and folding and taking inventory (95% is Gymboree- old lines= good $ to be had) and researching current selling prices. I think I have some possible big $$ items.

And when we are not cleaning and sorting, we will be watching some simpler times TV. They play outside a bunch, but in the afternoons when it is too hot and they need a break, we cool off inside for a bit with a show.





We checked out Leave it to Beaver from the library and the girls have loved it! We also watched the Disney mini-series of Little House on the Prairie. We just got the TV pilot episode in to watch, and then we'll check out the seasons to view. They are hooked!


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2 comments:

  1. Those baby photos are adorable!--And now you have gorgeous older girls!
    It is so fun to look back though! Totally hear you on the clutter issue. I'm queen of clutter--ug. And I battle it daily. Especially with my sewing and art stuff. It's hard to be creative and clutter free! Although I will say that a clean studio space is like a breath of fresh air. And I am so fearful of my MAC dying soon ... and I don't have much backed up. UG! I also need to "clean " it ... it is SOOOOOO slow! I think I need to follow in your footsteps on a few of these things! Thanks for the great ideas to SIMPLIFY!!
    HUGS--Valerie

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  2. What's beats finding such cute "older" pictures of your babies? I have to admit, I love a clean work area - for some reason, it's not hard to collect things and get it messed up - but it's always a challenge to get the energy to clean again. Sigh. It's a vicious cycle!

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