Things are going on, changes are happening.....

Thus is life, no?  Tim and I are making plans for our future which immediately includes selling our home and soon will mean moving to another place, to another town, maybe even to another country.  Graduate school calls the boy & life's path of adventure calls us both.

I will miss our xeriscaped front yard full of cat mint, Russian sage, yucca, blanket flowers, lamb's ear, rabbit brush, coneflower, sparia and 'Autumn Joy' sedum very much

So, our house is up for sale.  We've already had one garage sale and may have a second one soon.  We have begun the arduous task of thinning our possessions, packing, deciding what we can live without & what will go into storage.  This certainly makes one take stock of memories and attachments to things acquired over the years.  Do I really need to hold onto that book someone gifted me 15 years ago that I've never read?  How do I begin to weed through my craft supplies to donate what I honestly won't use?  Why have I kept a scratched up side table from a garage sale in upstate NY that I haven't found the time (or desire) to refinish?  Some moments have made me realize purging is a gift of good feelings - freedom from stuff, providing something useful to an organization that helps others & will be able to do a bit more when they sell what I donate, having more breathing space in my home, having less to pack in the end.  It feels great.  In fact, during my garage sale I gave many things away and not just at the end of the day.  I was happy to see it go.  Happy to know someone else would find use for it, whatever it was.  Happy to have fun conversations with joyful people who wandered buy to shop or just look around.  Happy to know I gained some extra cash to make an appointment for a much-needed haircut and go out to dinner with Tim!  

I won't deny that the money we made after many hours of set up was nice.  But overall, letting go of the STUFF was by far the biggest reward.  No doubt about it. 

Miss Penny enjoying some fresh air in the back yard despite having to wear her harness and leash