52 Years Together!

While in Florida in early April, we celebrated my parent's 52nd wedding anniversary!
Here's the young couple, pictured above, still enjoying married life.

Happy Anniversary H&B!

Two Wolves

Cherokee Wisdom

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

"The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

(Thanks Mrs G!)

Day 1 - Kitchen Demolition

A series of photos here show that the demolition has begun on time. The top one was taken late yesterday, and the other 2 today. All our cabinets just a pile of rubble now.

By the way, learned another Canadianism along the way. I was talking to the appliance guy about our cupboards and he asked what part of Canada I was from. Huh? Turns out American's don't say cupboard. Still acclimating!

Spring at the Tower

This Tower is the highest point in our neighborhood, which is nestled in the Ramapo mountains in northern NJ. The Tower is only a short walk from our house. During my last walk I noticed how perfectly this tree has blossomed.

The Tower has some very interesting history. From fire watchtower to enemy aircraft look-out, from fancy dining room with a view to a hideout for a jilted bride, it is a beautiful part of our scenery. It is now sealed up and serves as a community landmark and communications tower (cell).

The Urge to Purge

We have spent part of the day today purging. Oh how I love to purge. Having to pack up one area of our house (kitchen) makes me wonder whats going on in other parts of the house. So today I have been poking around all over the place, and purging.

Also, we moved the electronic keyboard into the den upstairs which led to purging in the den. It had become a dumping ground for all things no longer used - a real hodgepodge of junk. I'm thinking that because the contractor is bringing a dumpster for the kitchen demolition, perhaps I can throw out an old sofa that we inherited from the previous owners and other stuff that cannot be otherwise recycled.

Carolyn has started working with Habitat for Humanity and they will apparently take used appliances. I have a call in to them to pick up as much as they want from our kitchen demo. I'd rather see the stuff reused if wanted, than in landfill somewhere. I made about 20 phone calls a few months ago to find a place for some old desks we had ... NO ONE would take them. So hopefully their metal is going to good use somewhere. (Okay, they were very ugly & old.)

I'm slow to purge certain things. I have no problem throwing away clothes that don't fit or are out of style, and I'm not a pack rat nor a collector, but it is tough for me to throw furniture away. My sister-in-law, Vicki, seems to be excellent at moving on. "Good-bye old sofa!" (Resold so reused.) And my friend Anne, "Done with this, need a fresh look!" (She often resells too altho she does not recycle - boo!) I admire that quality to move on and get rid of the big clutter. (Anne, you must recycle but we've been down that road! Henry, I was counting on you to turn that household around!)

The urge to purge is a constant thing with me, BUT I am on a 5-year 'major purge' cycle since, historically, every 5 years I have moved, and thus I have spent my nervous energy preparing for the moves by purging. It is bang-on 5 years since our last move (MD to NJ) so I guess I'm right on schedule.

P.S. Col, if you happen to read this post, do you recognize the framed work on the left?! (I think you can click on the photo to enlarge it.) I know you were with me when I bought it from our fav 'Sampler' store in High Park. Talk about hanging on to stuff! (Bet you have all yours too! With neat backs!)

Kitchen on schedule to start

The demolition of our current kitchen is going to start on May 7 as planned. While I am excited about the outcome, I'm apprehensive about the mess, daily little decisions and being displaced. Maybe it'd be better if I didn't work from home, but it will be good to be easily accessible when issues come up. I know it will come to a happy close and that many before me have weathered home renovations. (Photo is of cabinet sample with granite sample, laying on wood flooring.)

Maybe its my age or just the closeness of my neighborhood, but there seem to be a lot of people dealing with more serious issues than a kitchen renovation - injuries, health, teen angst, aging parents, etc. So I will remind myself to keep things in perspective during this reno process and to laugh rather than cry!

The end of an era

Our current fridge has hosted many photos over its 10-year life as focal point in our kitchen. We bought this one when we first moved to Maryland. I don't think we'll be 'cluttering up' the face of our new fridge when it arrives and is installed, so this is kind of the end of a decorated-fridge era - what you do when your kids are young. Now there is less artwork coming home, unless we count the elaborate doodles in the margins of Bryan's notebooks.

Let me take you on a quick tour of our current fridge. As you can see, many photos have captions, thanks to a birthday gift Carolyn received last year. Clockwise from the top left: B&C posing for an early Christmas card, B&C at the waterfall park in Rocks Spring, MD, Don & I in Maryland house, glare, Eric (so cute), brother Michael (also cute), Lucky (handsome), B in High School hockey game, Dad's 80th birthday with B&C, B&C in another Christmas photo (1st Christmas in NJ), the family at TGIFriday's in Leicester Square celebrating C's 6th birthday, B&C back in Richmond Hill, Carolyn & I just before Barb & Doug's wedding - C was the flower girl, B&C at the Old Mill in Toronto. There is also a doodle of Bryan's and a cartoon about not listening while sports are on TV (NO idea who that would be referring to in our household).

I will miss this fridge with its decor. The end of the cluttered fridge era.