Yes/No.....turns out they're both good

First of all, I'd like to introduce you to my new girlfriend..... 

her name is Lily... 

for her pretty flowers.

We fell in love on-line..... 

 

In case you haven't guessed, 

I love white ironstone...

and have a little collection underway...

The good thing is... 

I have developed a special affection for the
 shabby pieces ~ 

the ones with "patina" and "character".

And those good things translate to...

"affordable".

Well, last you heard from me, Lily had just arrived on my doorstep...

 and I was to be heading to Goodwill with a car-load of  crap  blessings for others...

But Mother Nature stepped in 

(duh, duh, duh........)

and brought us some of this.....

and life as I know it was pretty much put on hold...

because school was cancelled for the rest of the week and we lost power for 30+ hours.

And that lovely... peaceful... serene... 

room that many of you commented on... {thank you}

turned into a campground for the better part of 3 days.....

And, I have to admit that, as fun as it was for the monkeys to camp out by the fire in that tent, 

and as much as I enjoyed their pleasure...

it KILLED me just to walk through this room for those 2+ days.  

There. I said it.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those moms who can just "let go" easily, in the name of fun and whimsy and childhood. Uh-uh. No, this was a "stretch" for moi.....

And it's not easy for me to even say that. 

But, hey, I said it..... and, most importantly, I did it. 

Which brings us back to why I am just now geting to this post, and why I haven't done squat about that Goodwill trip. Because I've been busy chewing on my nails while a tent sits in my living room....... ;-}

The monkeys went off to school this morning and I have this house to myself for a while... 

so I am off to fill some boxes and bags with our junk  someone else's treasures...

But while I've got you, I thought I'd share a little wisdom I acquired recently.....

I think I read it on one of my organizing blogs (yes, I like those, too) 

but I'll have to verify which one for you...

Anyhoo... it goes something like this....

Every time you say "yes" to something, you are saying "no" to something else.

Which, when you think about it.....

.....is so.very.true. 

So, I have been applying this idea to my life here and there, when I remember it...

and when this Goodwill project came to be *urgent*, and then I had a few nail-chewing days to mull it over, 

I came to a rather stunning realization.

You see, I am great at getting rid of household "fluff"..... you know... 

newspapers, catalogs, school papers, other peoples' stuff (oh how tempting it is), trash, recycling, old junk.....

but it's a lot harder to get rid of the "good stuff", that you paid good money for, and just because you don't "love it, use it or need it" (the decluttering mantra, people) doesn't mean you want to just give it away, right?!

Well,  I have finally had the lightbulb moment I was waiting for about my "precious" junk. 

All that stuff I've been "saving".... for the consignment shops, Ebay, Craigslist, whatever.... 

so I can make a few precious bucks back on it.... 

I am saying "NO" to that stuff. 

I have spent some time struggling with "that stuff" in my head, and it finally hit to me..... 

if I said "yes" to those piles of my-old-crap, I was saying "no" to something else. Whoa.

So, I thought about what I'd be saying "no" to... 

and I won't bore you with details, but it didn't take me long to realize that what I'd be saying "no" to was 

WAY more important to me than the little bit of money I might recover on the other end.

What it came down to for me was this... 

that if I said "yes" to the stuff, then I was saying "yes" to the past... 

and if I said "no" to the stuff, then I was saying "yes" to the future, and what I could DO with all that time and energy in that future. Whoa.

So.......

what are you saying "yes" and "no" to today? 

(you knew I was gonna ask)

I'm gonna go say "NO" to some junk.

more soon .....

oneshabbychick

real (not staged) pile of junk at oneshabbychick's house

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