Dreaming and other things

Last night I had one of my recurring bad dreams.

The constants are these: I am frantically trying to get to the airport to make my plane (usually an international flight), and I am running really late. Total chaos ensues.

The variables are the forms of chaos: get lost driving to the airport, can't find gate/ticket info/people I'm flying with, long line at ticket counter and the plane is minutes from take-off, my children are with me and I'm trying to keep track of them, their bags, my bags, etc. It's a very, very stressful dream and I'm always so relieved when I wake up.

In last night's exciting episode I was trying to find the ticket counter and then check a bunch of bags and boxes filled with random stuff. The flight was scheduled to leave in ten minutes and I was a disorganized mess. The boxes weren't sealed, some of my belongings were in plastic grocery bags and I was trying to stuff them into suitcases and duffel bags. There was so much STUFF! I'm talking little plastic toys and dolls, old books and papers, dollar-store trinkets — a bunch of crap, really. It wasn't working. Stuff was falling out everywhere and oodles of it didn't even fit in the bags. Aaaaak!

I woke up, thank goodness, and it was morning.

In the past this dream is all about the flying. I know why I have it — because I HATE flying. HATE! (Yes, I'm yelling.) But this time the part that felt like the bigger stress was all the crap I was carrying.

So I awoke with renewed enthusiasm for purging some of the stuff in my house.

Relinquishing some things is so easy for me, like clothes. I could whittle my wardrobe to a single loin cloth (and maybe a thick robe for winter) without batting an eye. Clothes aren't emotional for me. I don't love them or covet them. That's not to say that I don't enjoy dressing nicely or having nice clothes – I just don't feel attached.

Where my attachments lie are in the little things. Sadly, I now realize, I have a hard time purging all the exact crap I was trying to fit in my luggage — my childhood collection of paper dolls, baby clothes my daughters wore, a collection of tiny painted chairs, hoards of beautiful scrapbook paper, a gallon of shells. Things like that darling little mouse family in the photo above. I love their fuzziness and their little faces. I might miss them if they were gone.

Yikes. I fear there is a canyon-sized gap between me and people who live in those tiny homes.

~

That said, I do plan to make some headway on simplifying this coming week. I may try photographing some of my sentimental possessions, saving the photos and letting the actual items go. The important word there is may. I may part with some things and . . .  I may not. ;)

Happy

Cold and dreary here. Thank goodness for books, little reading lights, the new green growth on the rosemary plant in the kitchen window, and Izzy's little face, always looking up at me with such anticipation. "Where are you going? Can I come? Mind if I sleep under your desk while you work? Is it time for bed yet?"

I finished the book by Tammy Strobel on simplifying and it was wonderful. So much inspiration, good insight and encouragement. I recommend reading it if you're interested in decluttering, downsizing or possibly moving in to a "tiny house." She lives in an 8' x 16' house with her husband and loves the life they share in their itty-bitty home.

Along with reading Tammy's book I happened to watch an excellent documentary on Netflix called "Happy." It was AWESOME! You know how sometimes you feel like something comes along at the perfect time in your life? Like you were waiting to find it? That's how I feel about this movie. I loved it and it's made me think about a lot of things . . . yes, I think a lot. You can watch the trailer and read about the movie here.

Lots of work to do this week. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a freelance graphic designer? Maybe not? Well, that's what I do when I'm not rambling here or reading or crocheting or spending time with my girlies. I'm designing brochures and newsletters and book covers and event posters and logos . . . or annual reports, which is the case this week. Did you know that February is annual report season? Well it is, and I'm knee deep in it.

As always, many thanks for reading. Wherever you are — sitting in a coffee shop in New York, watching the rain fall in the UK, or relaxing on your patio in Austin, Texas — I wish you a happy week.

* I made the star in my kitchen window: directions here.

I won!

I've never been a winner. I enter drawings and giveaways, put my name in a box for a free dinner, etc., but nope . . . I never win. And then zing! a few weeks ago Claire on Just a Little Less announced that I was the winner of her book giveaway and she would be sending me a copy of You Can Buy Happiness (and it's Cheap) all the way from her home in Staffordshire, ENGLAND. Yippee, I won! A new book, wrapped, packaged and sent from ENGLAND! How fun is that. The book is written by Tammy Strobel who blogs about living in her tiny home on her blog Rowdy Kittens.

I rung in 2013 with an oath to try simplify my life, so this book couldn't be arriving at a better time. I'm pining to declutter, downsize and cast away excess. I'm excited to delve in and see how I can move toward a life of less.

So far I have made some decent strides on my own. I've donated three bags of clothes to Goodwill, tossed a boat load of old papers and the biggest thing — we got rid of cable television. I don't know why but this feels HUGE. Getting rid of all those crazypointlesstrashyboring channels is something I've been dying to do for a long time. We just don't watch much television and despite all the channels (seriously, we had something like 300 channels), there truly was never anything on worth watching. The shows we did watch (Downton Abbey, The Middle, Modern Family) were all on PBS or one of the main networks. We were basically paying for a service we weren't using.

Now we are down to the basics, PBS, NBC, CBS, FOX and Netflix for streaming movies. All those cable boxes are gone and all the "mind clutter" with it. Plus we now have an extra chunk of change in our pockets every month. I feel lighter.