Praying!

I'm doing books today. Our youngest is in 10th grade. I don't need all the homeschooling books for younger kids. I don't need all the nonfiction and hands on project books, etc. That stuff can be found at the library or online. I don't need my knitting books when Pinterest, Ravelry, or the library have all the patterns I will ever need. We have never done nature journals and yet I have two books about nature journals, bought years ago with good intentions. And on and on. Sigh. I will still have plenty of books when I am done!

It gets weirder. Besides being invited to the wedding of this girl we weren't close to and hadn't seen in years, about a year later I received an invitation to her baby shower!! Lol. I still hadn't seen her in years, had never met her dh, and didn't even know they were expecting! I think the young woman we DO know well helped to plan the shower. She knows us well, remembers that we know her husband's sister, and invites us. But..she fails to consider that even though SHE is close to us and close to her SIL, we are not close to them. I didn't go to the baby shower either.

We're not Mormon and we don't receive announcement type invitations. They are always from people we know. The invitation we received from acquaintances we hadn't seen in a dozen years, well, it took me a minute to figure out who it even was.

A few years ago we received a puzzling wedding invitation. We have very good friends whose oldest daughter is married with young kids. She and her dh met at our homeschool group as children. The invitation was for her dh's sister's wedding. Yes, I knew the girl when she was little and in our homeschool group but we were never close to this family. I hadn't seen them in years. Is it proper etiquette to acknowledge every wedding invitation with a gift or card? I considered sending a card but thought that would look like, "You're not special enough to receive a gift from us." It felt weird to send a gift so I ignored the whole thing.

Yes, you can make mohair yarn or..oooh cashmere! The goat was supposed to be for the groom's family to help pay for the dowry, but if you brought your neighbor's spinning wheel to the reception maybe we could do some spinning there.

Now there's an idea. Could I bring a goat?

Me too!

Yes, I've definitely heard of this. See my previous post. I think it is in lieu of a gift.

I think it's an awful attitude. Friends of ours went to a wedding in the NYC area and they told us it is customary for everyone to give money, typically $100, to cover what they spent on you. It was a lavish reception with fancy hors d'ouvres, steak, lobster, etc. I don't live there so I don't know how common it really is, but I would hate for any guests of mine to feel they need to give X dollars. That's not really a gift, is it? It's an obligation.

Exactly. Whatever happened to the joy of the occasion? Sending a bill, really? And taking it to the media? Points for bizarre, rude behavior all around.

Ah, I see. Then I would use dots of hot glue, which is only dangerous until it cools off.

You had 20 items in a 14-or-fewer items lane? What did she do, actually count your items?? I would have ignored her. I've gone to those lanes with LOTS more items in my cart when that lane has no customers and the checker waves me over. Some people like to gritch, or maybe she was having a bad day.

Maybe a hot glue gun? I might just pin it on though, using a pin or two with small heads.

Even if they showed that you paid in the previous cycle, your balance should have been zero, just like if you had paid ahead of time. It's odd that the system couldn't calculate that you had a zero balance. Something is off in their system.

I did my clothing first. I could see doing my books as two categories, upstairs and downstairs, but some of my purging has been by area. My dd's old room turned sewing room was so clogged with wedding leftovers and a mishmash of random stuff that I tackled it as an area, not by categories. So...I'm not pure KonMari but I'm still inspired listening to the book.

Books are sentimental for me, too!! And yes, it's completely different and harder purging, organizing, and cleaning when you have kids, but almost more important then. It's such a time saver to know right where things are, and to not have excess stuff to trip over or clean. She does talk a lot about what she did growing up, but also talks about her clients and trying out different things with them as a professional organizer. She does seem rather OCD but I think she's just trying to share what has worked for her, and what hasn't.

I knew a woman who was prepared for Y2K. A married couple she was friends with also believed it. They had over a year's supply of food, high fencing all around their property, guns, etc. They were prepared for total worldwide chaos. Certain people seem to almost *want* something dire to happen. I've heard the same woman warn of other horrible things (though not the blood moon thing).

I broke down and bought the digital book last night, including the add-on audio. I'm almost halfway through it. She does make a lot of sense. I love the idea of keeping only the things that give you joy. However, I still can't wrap my head around only purging by category. With clothing it makes sense, but books, papers, miscellaneous, sentimental? I would spend a ton of time just gathering all of one category and would still likely miss something. I could sort of see doing it for upstairs books and downstairs books as two separate categories, but I'm not lugging books up or down the stairs. Ah well. I still like the book.

I'm very much a baby/toddler person. Our youngest is driving so those years are far behind. We had a long time with babies and/or preschoolers in the house, so it took me a few years to adjust to only having older kids. I don't miss the lack of sleep or the diaper bombs, lol, but I did love being a mom of littles. I missed it at first. Now I love having deep discussions with my teenaged son and young adult kids. I try to embrace whatever stage we're in and look forward to grandma-hood. :-)

I thought it was going to be a rant about all those "you won't believe what happened next" click bait posts. So sorry you have to deal with lice and I hope you are rid of them very quickly!

Happy birthday!! Did you specifically tell him it was today? Maybe he thinks it's tomorrow. He might be in a mental fog due to not feeling well. I'd be texting or calling him saying you'd like to go out for dinner because you don't want to cook on your birthday.

Whew! We have five more days! I'm so relieved.

It was very cool! We watched from our deck and ds climbed onto the roof. :-)

No way. You're doing the right thing. Just visit them later when you and dh can take the kids there.