Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Tuesday Monday

What did you do over Labor Day weekend? 

I worked like a beast! 

We finished hauling stuff out of two of the three rooms we are turning into our new space so the kids can take over our upstairs. Drywall, studs, old insulation, carpet, disintegrating carpet stick on pads, it all had to go. 

I pounded through the walls with a fire ax. It might be a construction ax but fire ax sound so much more powerful doncha think? 

We then had to clean up of course. Jules and the kiddos helped tremendously. Those little buggars can get some clean up done when motivated.


Oh, and after we had loaded more stuff into our sons car for his Service Learning Group garage sale fundraiser, we had some furniture we wanted to get rid of. Before just taking it down the road to the Goodwill just to get rid of it, a friend texted me that a friend of her's son was just getting an apartment after rehab and needed everything. Uh, we had a futon, a queen size bed that we were going to probably put in the landfill because who's going to buy a used mattress from Goodwill ya know? 

He wanted those and brought a buddy with a trailer over to get it. While we were waiting we decided to just go ahead and purge more furniture. We will have very limited space. My bedroom is so small we can only have a bed, a dresser and two nightstands or it's going to feel overwhelming. Our little sitting area will be plenty full with our armoire, couch and recliner. Everything else has to go. This guy took almost all of it.  It feels real good that our stuff can bless someone who needs a little extra help. 

After we hauled it down so they could load it up, after we got the last bit of drywall torn off the wall we all collapsed into hot, filthy messes but were all so satisfied with what we got done! 

Sunday we got a bit more cracked out. 

Monday. Wham! We killed it again. I even cut up some branches into logs for fire pit fires when the big remodel is done. Rob wouldn't let me use the chain saw for obvious reasons all of which would involve pain and blood. So I used his saws-all. Ha.Ha. Which he hurt himself with later. I'm lucky to be alive. 

Oh, and today, Out of the Frying Pan RELEASES! Fern shares a bit about herself here.  

Serials and Scenarios ~ My First Author Interview

Pssst. Hey!!!!!

Drum roll. Please.

In my first author interview you can read about my shopping shame and my dream travel idea here. 

Did I mention this was my FIRST author interview in my FIRST book promotion/marketing tour for my FIRST BOOK?!?!?!

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ The American Dream ?

I think the American Dream used to be centered around courage and strength and good old-fashioned grit. You know, like John Wayne style.

People weren't afraid to work hard and break a sweat and make a decent days' wages. Just enough, not too much, but not too little.

They grew a lot of their own food and food wasn't tossed very often. My grandma quipped after I took her to visit the organic farm we worked at, "We ate organic when it wasn't cool, it just was what it was."

Somehow the American Dream has twisted itself into collections and toys and possessions. And that's bothersome. 

A few years ago I set a goal to get rid of 1000 things in a year's time. That goal was busted out in three months and I haven't stopped. Now that we are making room for four more people in our home the purging has intensified and I'm appalled at the amount of stuff we have accumulated because materialism had become part of our American Dream. 

This picture is the second large batch of stuff we are getting rid of in just a month. And there is more in the room. I just took a picture of half of it. The last load filled my husband's pick up. And I have actively been downsizing and purging for almost three years. 

This stuff is in the way of the life we want to live. Literally and figuratively. In order to make room for the ones we love we have to get rid of mere stuff. Stuff that required space, upkeep, dusting and hard earned money. Good riddance. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Fifi?

Posts over the next couple of weeks are going to be pretty Out of the Frying Pan centric. 

I'm posting all sorts of stuff all over the internet. Chances are good you'll see unique material when you follow the links. 

Now. I'm not going to lie. Gladys has some less than photogenic moments and she might be a little inspiration for Fifi. 

Fifi? You might ask. 

Fifi is a character in Out of the Frying Pan. Zula introduces her here. Gladys did her best to do a Fifi impression that was believable. 

Believe it or not. This book releases next Tuesday. As in a week. The last week of ten years worth of work. Not sure what else to say.  Maybe buckle that seatbelt. It's going to be a ride.  

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ A Hedgie Update

It's been a bit since I gave you an update on the ol hedgies. 

What I've learned thus far in my 6 months of hedgehog ownership...or cohabitation.  They are prone to grumpiness. As nocturnal animals they do their cruising after dark Most of our waking ours the hedgehogs are cuddled up inside their toasty little plush pineapple nests. Yes the live in plush pineapples kind of like SpongeBob SquarePants.

 Sometimes we haven't gotten upstairs to turn the light on so it's already dark when we head up. We'll flip the switch and catch them out and about eating. Speaking of eating, it's as adorable as you might think. Tiny little crunch, crunch, crunches. Drinking from their water bowls, dang cute. Rare occurrence to catch these events, but adorbs when we do.  They poo in their running wheel every night, so every morning I put those bad boys in to soak. The bedding isn't too stinky though. So that's great. Mostly clean water, food and clean the bins every ten days or so. I totally recommend the big plastic bins. So easy to clean! Because hedgies aren't naturally social as in they'd love to have a servant provide food and water, keep the wheel clean, and then leave them the beep alone, we humans have to put the majority of the work into the relationship. Hence the cuddle bag. I made little hidey bags they can curl up in and hang out with me in. 

If they are running loose on a lap they will 1) just go and if that means fall on the floor, so be it. They have no fear of falling. 2) poop and pee indiscriminately on me or whatever else 3) climb and with the pooping and peeing, uhhhh, I've had a few unpleasant moments. The good news is that when they are first real active and running around they get most of the potty out of their system and once it's cleaned up its good to go and the risk of a caca covered shirt diminishes.  My girls also have a tell and since it's both of them I'm assuming this is a hedgie trait. If their little tail pops up they are going to be peeing real soon like. So towels are a surface they get to run on. 

But the bags are mostly sleeping bags so the ewww is way less. Plus they are getting handled, I may be able to do a few things while hanging with them, and they are reinforcing our scent with love and care. Or something like that. 

But the grumpies are just still there. Daffodil presents the most obvious of grump stances. The forehead grump. The quills kind of mohawk while the nose disappears. When the forehead is fully mohawked then the stabbing commences. Yes. Stabbing. They head butt with their sharp little quills. This is probably why you might hear about people's pet hedgehogs being jerks. 

But we love them anyway and fortunately think it's kind of funny that they try to stab us to death every night when we pick them up. Hmmm. Maybe hedgehogs are kind of like perpetual teenagers. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Chapters Part 2, Flipping the Page

As shared in part one here we are downsizing big time around here. 

I thought I had unloaded a lot while purging over the past two years. Oh, no, that was the tip of the iceberg. I've read about the folks who get rid of up to 90% of their stuff. The downsizing, minimizing super stars who transfer a family of five from suburbia to a tiny house, for example. Rob and I are probably at 50% and counting. And I'm looking around as I type this and deciding there is still too much that I'm looking at. 

Instead of buying our little 700 square foot house, we have been talking with our daughter. She is able to and good at single parenting, but she has nothing to prove to anyone anymore, including herself. Single parenting is hard. We are involved but not daily. And we have empty rooms. So we've decided to leave our upstairs, hand it over to her and the kids and turn the three downstairs bedrooms into an apartment for Rob and me. 

We will share a downstairs living room and a kitchen/dining area with our daughter and grandkids. She will have an upstairs living area as well where she can have people over etc. We will build a small sitting area in our little apartment where we can go to escape if necessary and to chill when needed. Our personal space will be about 300 square feet. This is our bedroom, our private living area and a den that will be invitation only where kids are concerned. Now a tiny house is usually under 200 square feet and that includes a bathroom and kitchen so we definitely have a space luxury. Our bedroom will be big enough for my big dresser and our bed and a few odds and ends. It's 9 x 11. The sitting area is roughly 9 x 9. Rob has some space saving creative ideas so I'm real excited. 

We will have someone to share the cleaning and upkeep with. She likes to clean. I do not. We will have better meals because there is one more creative cook to add to the mix and a reason to actually do sit down dinners and go beyond quick and frozen meals most nights. We will have chatter and company whenever we want it. And the dogs will have company always. Our daughter can put the kids to bed and run to Target or meet a friend and not have to worry that the kids are up too late at our place or that I'm falling asleep on her couch, or paying a teenager to sit with sleeping kids. 

Last night our daughter and I went through several boxes I've been putting off. Some of it was hers, a lot of it was stuff we had purchased together or with an idea in mind. We poured through old pictures, cards, crafts odds and ends, things from our gift cupboard and drawer. We got rid of more than we kept. 

We have gotten rid of so much I'm honestly feeling very much like one big dresser and one bed, two closets and two bedside tables is going to be enough space. Right now my big walk-in closet is down 75% of what was in there. My big armoire (which is going to become a living area piece not a bedroom piece) is half empty. Rob smartly built drawers in the base of our bed when he made it years ago. Those drawers are empty. Two craft closets are down to 3/4 of one. The kids happily discovered and played Battleship while we cleaned out the game cupboard. What's the point of having too many games to go through so the choice is overwhelming? My three heavy duty bookshelves have become so decluttered I'm only using one and a half and when our den/office is finished most of those will fit there.

Our daughter has three kids and three years worth of accumulation. She is purging as much as we are to make this happen. 

I just can't even put into words how happy this solution makes me feel. And I'm feeling like with every item I put in a box for someone else who might need it, that I'm making room for the important things in life. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ A New Blog in Town

Out of the Frying Pan comes out in mere weeks. 

Holy MOLY!!!!!! I'm not feeling prepared to be a published author. This whole thing from start to finish is quite a bit of work and requires lots of stepping outside the ol comfort zone. 

Our main characters Fern and Zula have started a blog. Today is the first post. 

I'd love for you to stop by. Zu-fer And you will discover you indeed get a lot more than what you bargained for. 

Like I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'll be promoting lots of links in the next several months as we put ourselves out there to promote this novel. 

Can I just say I hope you will love Fern and Zula as much as we do. These are some ladies. And if it's okay we'll just use social media to promote them since we don't have a spider who can do amazing things with a web.