Living in the Light

I volunteered to teach Sunday School again.  My first lesson was about Lightness and Darkness.  There are many references to light and dark in the Bible.  Regardless of your religious affiliations there is a lot of truth to the fact that many of  us  live in our own sort of darkness. 

So, what do I mean by Darkness?  It is not necessarily the physical absence of light, such as you would find on a cloudy, moonless night or in a windowless room.  Darkness is portrayed by many feelings such as sadness, depression, apathy, ignorance, guilt, selfishness, fear.  It can also be the innocent acceptance of other’s ideas.  For example, often on Facebook, ‘friends’ will post a comment about a current event.  A little research can prove whether this is a factual or fraudulent comment.  Are we that willing to accept what others say as Gospel or truth?  Why have we become so lazy in our lives?  Do we enjoy living in the darkness?  Are we not a more advanced society than we were 100 years ago?  If that is so, then why are there so much evil in the world?  Evilness is another form of Darkness.  

What does it mean to live in the light?  Once again it is not a sunny day or a room filled with many lamps.  Lightness comes from within, just as Darkness does.  You can recognize that Lightness is the opposite of Darkness.  

Lightness portrays itself as happiness, love,  empathy, respect, peace, joy, patience, gentleness, self-control.  I believe that life is much better when I live in the Light.  It is not easy to live in the Light.  In fact, for many, living in Darkness is easier.  It takes courage and effort to live in the Light.  I often tell my students that they need to ‘do the right thing’.  Living in the Light is like that, doing the right thing in every situation.  That may sound impossible to you.  In fact, it may well be impossible to do the right thing EVERY time.  Is it not worth the effort though?  I believe it is.  

2012 has been another challenging year for me.  I have dealt with a lot of happiness and quite a bit of sadness and frustration.  Through it all, I have persevered.  My efforts to live in the Light have been what pulled me through.  It is easy to sink into Darkness, but that is not where I want to be. 

Where are you?  Do you live in the Dark or the Light?  Is there where you want to be? 

The 600--After the Yard Sale!

Yes, I had ANOTHER yard sale. This one was in conjunction with my friend Janice's yard sale.  This time, however, I did NOT have the most stuff of the participants!  Janice had me beat my 1000's of items.  I had a fairly successful day, and I know that Janice had a fabulously successful day! 

So, today, I sold or gave away: 

black binder

bike bell

cups/bowls/plates

cooler

shoulder bag-luggage

5 percy jackson books

bible atlas

curtain pattern

2 yards fabric

2 insulated cups

3 pitchers

onion keeper

3 computer games

3 airplanes

2 cake pans

quilt marking tools

bag of pens/school supplies

notebook briefcase

Of course, this is what I can remember.  I did not keep a tally as I did in my previous yard sale. So here is the current status of the 600: 


Total removed:  514
Total received:     56
 total remaining:     86

I am finally under 100 items!  I believe that I will accomplish my goal of purging 600 items before the extension is finished.

the 600. After the Vacation!

Our Birthday Adventure was fabulous!  Cat and I had a wonderful time, even with the incredible heat. 
I did make some purchases as gifts for my friends and family.  Of course, a few for me as well!  So, here is the status on the purge of 600 items!

Today, I gave away this styrofoam box. A very reliable freecycler named Richard is now the proud owner of this box.  It was originally used to ship something here (I have no memory of what!) and we saved it thinking we might have a use for it.  NOT.  So, it is now gone. 

I have been purging my books yet again.  I listed several on half.com, and offered several to my fellow teacher Beverly. Beverly is now the proud owner of Millions to Measure, The Great Divide and Full House.  All fantastic math related story books that can be utilized with fun lessons in the classroom.  I know that Beverly will put these to good use.  She does not know it yet, but she will be receiving Mummy Math, Maps and globes and The Best of Times. 

I have also given Beverly my Tree.  I created this tree from Matte board.  It was used in a writing project in the beginning of the school year. The white squares are velcro where I attached Leaves with the students' names on them.  The writing assignment was entitled "I'm turning over a new leaf" and focused on what changes they were going to make in the new school year. 

Today,  I sold a book on half.com:  Photo courtesy of amazon.com! 

Total given away:  419
Total received:        46
total remaining:       227

Getting there! 

The 600. Repurposed items!

 In my travels, I often come across interesting fabrics or incomplete projects that are just asking to be repurposed into something else.  Sometimes they are even from my own stash of unfinished projects.  The striped placemats were originally from a quilt class that did not quite make it to completion.  I loved the fabrics and the colors, so the pieces remained.  I wanted to bring a gift to a friend of mine...so here are a set of nifty colorful placemats! 

These embroidered floral pieces were found in a thrift store.  They were incomplete pillowcases and table runners.  I loved the work, but did not want to finish them for their original purpose.  Since I wanted to bring a gift to my aunt and uncle, here is a set of nifty placemats!  

This purse was created from a small piece of upholstery fabric and some scraps left over from another project.  It has a piece of metal carpenters tape in the top to help keep the top closed.  The strap I created by twisting together pieces of DMC Floss (of which I have tons!) to create the twisted cord. 

So these 17 items will be leaving the house.

Total removed:  410

Total received: 36

Total remaining: 226

House Addition

The construction has begun!  Here is a view from the front of the house showing where the addition will be.  We are adding two rooms onto the house here.   








This is the hole where the foundation will be.  The walls are in place and the concrete is hardening.  In the background is the HUGE pile of rocks that was delivered earlier today that will be used to fill the hole before the slab is poured. 

 This is a close up of the huge pile of rocks! 

 

Oh, wait!  More rocks were just delivered!  Now there are TWO huge piles of rocks in the yard. 

To be continued.......

Productive or not?

Perhaps being home is not good for me. 

This morning, I started off with breakfast and a good book.  I wanted to finish it to see if the bad guys were caught.  I felt like I was being too lazy, so I went downstairs to clean my studio. 

There, I found the broken crayons I wanted to make into a jumbo crayon for Tony.  I went into the studio closet to get the wax melting tools.  Once there, I discovered the candle jars with the remnants of candle wax in the bottom.  I wanted to get those candle jars out of there, so they needed to be cleaned.  Since I was already melting wax for crayons, why not make a candle or two? 

It takes time for wax to melt, so I peeled all of the crayons.  (The wrappers will be composted)  Now, I have two candles cooling, along with the jumbo crayon. 

Then I remembered I needed to clean the bird cage.   I washed the cage bottom, changed the paper, vacuumed the floor and got that task completed. 

While there, I wrapped up the plastic bands that I am saving for a future project, and took them downstairs to the studio. HMM---didn't I start there? 

One the way, I passed the vacuum and the pile of photo albums.  A task and a project. 

I vacuumed and while doing that remembered I wanted to clean out the storage closet to check for mildew ( bit of a water problem under the house previously). 


So, I bounce around from project to project, activity to activity.  I wonder if I will actually finish anything else today. 

The 600!

No, we did not adopt a penguin! 

I just needed a photo to add to this blog since I have no photos of what I purged this week!  These penguins are at the St. Louis Zoo!  Rob and I visited there last weekend. 

It has been a Freecycle fest here lately.  I managed to get rid of ALL of the books that I had from my classroom library and the remaining books from my own collection, along with several other items.  

While visiting Rob and Izzy, I agreed to take a box of items they no longer needed.  It is easier for me to give these items away than it is for them. 

So, I freecycled a glass baking dish, a large pot and a frying pan, several articles of clothing, two glasses, three plastic tumblers, three small glass bowls, and I also got rid of a huge box of bubble pack! 

These items do not count in either what I acquired nor purged....it all comes out even. 

Total removed:  358
Total Received:   22
Total Remaining: 264