Big Black Trash Bags

Sadly, my mom leaves today. In a little over two hours, I will say goodbye just before head out the door for work. Then later this afternoon, Roy will take her to the bus station and she will begin the long adventure home. Having my mom here has been a whole lot of fabulous. We've taken several walks together up winding roads, talking the whole way. She's cooked for me and done my dishes and my laundry. She helped me move around the living room yesterday afternoon and sat with me, she in one chair, me in another, until I headed to bed, leaving her still on her laptop until probably far too late. (I'm not sure what time she finally ventured to bed.)

She's a good mama.

I'm sad to see her go.

Roy and I have the house to ourselves this week as Jace is gone to Osh Kosh and Savana is at the beach with her boy and his entire family for the week. It's so quiet around here!

Since Jace is gone, I started a major project yesterday: cleaning out his room. Actually, it really doesn't matter that Jace is gone. I would have done this anyway. But there is an advantage to his absence: he isn't here to whine about everything that I want to either give away or throw away. The child is a packrat.

I hauled out a huge black trash bag of trash and three large boxes stuffed full. Two of those boxes will head to Good Will today; the other? I'm hoping to sell its contents.

As I was going through Jace's closet, I noticed a stack of books on the ground that I had placed there the last time I thoroughly cleaned his room. They're all books from early childhood--sweet books that I got at Jace's baby shower or that the girls had when they were little. I yet again sat on the floor and paged through them, remembering my toddlers as they looked at the pages, pointing and slobbering and giggling. I'm not sure I can let these go.

I am a lover of books. I love how words have the power to create emotion and spark imagination and transport us to another world. I love the feel of the cover, the worn pages, the mystery of a story before it has unfolded.

I, too, have gone the way of the Nook due to its convenience. I can carry a library with me at all times in my purse. I can fall asleep reading without the light on so that, I simply fall asleep. But in my heart of hearts, nothing compares to a well-loved book with dog-eared pages and covers that spell home.

These days I haven't been reading as much as I would like. My job entails a lot of reading and writing and so by the time I get home, my eyes swimming are in my head. I've become much too accustomed to Netflix--mindless watching rather than choosing something that will inspire or make me think. I've gone the way of the average American. I do believe the 8-5 will do that to you.

It's time to make a change.

It's time to get back to the basics.

The other day I noticed Mom thumbing through a book from my bookshelf: Making Over Your Metabolism. It looked inspiring and so, I'm going to start reading that. School is starting one week from today. I have goals to accomplish; life I want to live outside of mindless living once I am back inside my house. There is so much to explore at one's fingertips. There is so much living to do.

And yet...it's so easy to be mindless. It's so easy to simply vegge. And yet...I have personal goals to accomplish, books to explore, recipes to try...

Today?  I am going to start hauling out the big black trash bags of mindless living and refocus on the adventures that are right inside my doors.