This and That...Mostly That.

It's definitely been one of those months. After we got back from Europe, it took roughly two solid weeks for me to even feel like my body, mind, and soul had all landed on the same continent. For the weekends of those two weeks, we had company. Briley Hooper once again travailed the mountains of East Tennessee to visit us with Eva--always good times there! And, second, my very own father drove down our new car! But that's kind of a fun story...

When my parents moved to PA, they soon realized that a car without four-wheel drive would not bode well for its driver during the snow-covered winters of New England. They began shopping around for just such a car. In the meantime, Kevin and I had fully planned to drive both our cars (his a '93, mine a '99) until their wheels fall off. My parents then approached us with a proposition--sell our Nissan and buy their '06 Toyota Corolla. In a wonderful turn of events, we sold our Nissan to a dear friend of ours whose sister (who was her ride) just got married. We then purchased my parents car, and Dad drove it down just a few weeks ago.

Drives like a dream! We haven't, however, found a good name for it yet. Any suggestions? :)
In other news, our porch garden is just trucking right along. I must admit, I was a bit surprised that if I left what I thought were green peppers on the pepper plant long enough, they turned red. Is that normal? In any case, the tomatoes have been absolutely scrumptious!
Inject random comic relief here:
So, as stated in previous blog post, I returned from Europe with a renewed commitment to keeping our lives simple and clutter-free. It's quite the process--have you ever noticed how stuff just seems to develop a life of its own and multiply? Yeah, I know, that's a lame excuse. In reality, we bring stuff in and it only controls us to the level that we allow it.

In all seriousness, I'm learning a lot about appropriate levels of sentimentality. What is it that is truly irreplaceable and should not be given away and what can I take a minute and realize that if it was out of my house, I'd probably never even remember that I once owned it? It's a very fine line, and it takes diligence, structure, resolve, and most of all, the realization that, at the end of the day, it is just stuff.

Where is this mini-rant going? Well, we've got a fabulous guest room/study/piano room that I love having. The problem is that the closet therein had become a bit of a junk closet, something I told Kevin upon moving in that I wanted to avoid at all costs. It wasn't purposeful; it just happened bit by bit, box by box, file by file.

So, last night, around 9:30 at night, we did it. Together, Kevin and I cleared out the entirety of said closet's contents. We have a big bag of trash, two boxes ready for Goodwill, several items ready to be donated or sold on Craigslist, and lots of wonderful, beautiful space of nothingness!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present our closet! I love it!
Now, that that's done, we're moving on to the desk....

Lest you be concerned that all we've been doing is buying, gardening, and cleaning, we're also training for a 5k! I know, for those of you who run and exercise regularly out there, that's not that impressive (what's a wimpy 3 miles!?). But for us this is big news! We're two weeks into our training, and it's just starting to get to the point where I'm sorta kinda looking forward to it. :) The run is sometime this fall, probably October, and we have several others who have said they'd come out and run with us. Should be fun!

So, that's life in a nutshell. The highs, the lows, the plateaus. :)

Until next time!