Yesterday the cleaning lady and I (mostly her) cleared off 4 shelves of books in the back kitchen that I have decided to donate. I have not looked into any of the books since I graduated with a Bachelors's degree in counseling studies in 2008. Most of these were counseling books focusing on marriage and relationships. Others were cookbooks. Lots of cookbooks. I gave away more than I kept, but I do, after all, have grandchildren learning to cook. So I kept the chocolate books and the pie books and the jello books. I could do a whole blog post about each one of those.
I actually flipped through every single book to see if I had left any interesting book marks. I once loaned a bunch of specific counseling books to a class mate for her thesis. She took a moment to flip through each one and found an envelope with $150 US and enough Canadian cash to pay my cleaning lady that day. I had given my husband the last of the cash I had on me that day and wondered how I would pay the girl. God is amazing in providing what we need at just the time we need it. I had planned to visit the author in Ohio later that year and had my money ready. I try not to use cash for book marks anymore. I once found my birth certificate in a book several years after I got a new one so I could get a passport. There were book marks of all sizes and shapes with notes and post its in most of the books.
There were cookbooks about canning. And she found a plaque I had received in 2006 for winning high points in canning at our local fair. I was canning queen in 1998 also. Oh the stories I can tell. I learned to make homemade jams the year I got married and eventually canned fruits and applesauce and pickles and relishes. We had a big vegetable garden. It was a way of life. On the farm here, we have plenty of room to grow food for ourselves not just for the cows. We gave up the vegetable garden the year we turned 50 and took over the family farm. Now our son is getting ready to plant 500 strawberry plants and start his own vegetable garden. He has 3 little girls to help.
My ADHD brain had a field day with memories evoked by each book and I had to tell the cleaning lady about each one and stories and talk talk talk. Why do I do that? I don't know, but I do. Bless her, she keeps right on cleaning. Another day we will tackle the china cabinet in the hall that houses about 200 counseling books. But I had decided to not get rid of them until I had my dissertation done. Then there are hundreds and hundreds more here in the office/quilt room on theology (after all I have a degree in theology) and many more counseling books. And devotionals. I have lots of them. Quilt books are on a different bookshelf on the other side of the room. But Glenda from Australia once told me that you eat an elephant one bite at a time.
This bookshelf will be cleaned up and moved into to the living room for the many children's books that are presently in boxes in a closet. The closet shelves will then have quilting project boxes returned when the book boxes were put there. At least this is the plan in my head.
Blessings,
Chris
I actually flipped through every single book to see if I had left any interesting book marks. I once loaned a bunch of specific counseling books to a class mate for her thesis. She took a moment to flip through each one and found an envelope with $150 US and enough Canadian cash to pay my cleaning lady that day. I had given my husband the last of the cash I had on me that day and wondered how I would pay the girl. God is amazing in providing what we need at just the time we need it. I had planned to visit the author in Ohio later that year and had my money ready. I try not to use cash for book marks anymore. I once found my birth certificate in a book several years after I got a new one so I could get a passport. There were book marks of all sizes and shapes with notes and post its in most of the books.
There were cookbooks about canning. And she found a plaque I had received in 2006 for winning high points in canning at our local fair. I was canning queen in 1998 also. Oh the stories I can tell. I learned to make homemade jams the year I got married and eventually canned fruits and applesauce and pickles and relishes. We had a big vegetable garden. It was a way of life. On the farm here, we have plenty of room to grow food for ourselves not just for the cows. We gave up the vegetable garden the year we turned 50 and took over the family farm. Now our son is getting ready to plant 500 strawberry plants and start his own vegetable garden. He has 3 little girls to help.
My ADHD brain had a field day with memories evoked by each book and I had to tell the cleaning lady about each one and stories and talk talk talk. Why do I do that? I don't know, but I do. Bless her, she keeps right on cleaning. Another day we will tackle the china cabinet in the hall that houses about 200 counseling books. But I had decided to not get rid of them until I had my dissertation done. Then there are hundreds and hundreds more here in the office/quilt room on theology (after all I have a degree in theology) and many more counseling books. And devotionals. I have lots of them. Quilt books are on a different bookshelf on the other side of the room. But Glenda from Australia once told me that you eat an elephant one bite at a time.
This bookshelf will be cleaned up and moved into to the living room for the many children's books that are presently in boxes in a closet. The closet shelves will then have quilting project boxes returned when the book boxes were put there. At least this is the plan in my head.
Blessings,
Chris
Sounds like you accomplished a lot. I think it is great to donate for someone else to use/enjoy. that is what I have been doing with all my stash.
ReplyDeleteI have not gotten to the stash yet but I did move 8 big tubs of fabric out of my bedroom to make room for the cleaning lady to work her magic in there next week.
DeleteGoodness, you are so busy my head is spinning!!
ReplyDeleteI sat and she worked. That is the arrangement we have.
DeleteYou are really on a purging roll, that has to feel good. Your son is planting a lot of strawberry plants, is he going into business selling U Pick strawberries? Have a great rest of the week!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are staying on task with that monthly To Do list! I think clearing out old quilt books is the hardest - so many new modern techniques for piecing, etc. that they tend look very dated compared to current offerings. Happy to hear you rediscovered the cash supply! When I was cleaning out my folks house a few years ago, everything I turned over had cash stuck under it - Mom was famous for that. When I got done and turned everything over to the estate sale folks, they found even more that I had missed...needless to say, the dear people earned my total trust to do what is right!
ReplyDelete