Peeking up front a stack of boxes

I am quickly taking a break from my organizing project in the garage. With the unusually warm weather continuing, I must take advantage of it to sort through Christmas items. It will take painful surgery to Tradition and Memories but I MUST get rid of some items which I know my son or daughter would not want (as in some of Mom's more tacky stuff when she was still in her poultry decorations stage). :)

Last week it was so cold, I tried to go through the boxes but I could stay in the garage only about twenty minutes. I'm certain the weather will return to normal soon, so I must "make hay while the weather is good" so to speak. My goal is to reduce the Christmas boxes by at least one-third this year. It didn't matter as much when we had a great deal of storage room but now our garage must function as a workshop, pantry, laundry area and storage area since we have no basement. Not to mention a place to keep a car.

We are blessed with a very nice storage shed "out back", one of those that cost a great deal of money at Lowe's and Home Depot. It was here when we purchased the house, most likely to hold lawn and garden supplies and a riding lawnmower for a past homeowner. We use it for same (only we have a push mower) and to store a few items which are not affected by weather changes, mostly my son's toys from when he was much smaller. He wants to save them for his children someday.

I did spend part of my morning perusing Barnes & Noble while my son was taking his first final. I noticed the new Tea Time magazine is on the stands! I will purchase it when I get my new "allowance" in January. It is loaded with recipes that can be used for "High Tea", those which would be more filling for cold weather.

I checked out two more library books (as I've said, I'm going on a library fast starting January to read more of my own stack of books). The library at the junior college has a couple rows of homeschooling books, most likely because many high school age homeschoolers take classes there and they know there are family members using the library. I checked out Volume 4 of the Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Series (the one titled Ourselves, Improving character and conscience). I also checked out a lovely book about homemaking and hospitality called Simple Hospitality by Jane Jarrell. I purchased it a couple years ago as one of my daughter's birthday or Christmas gifts and quickly looked through it before placing in the box to send to New England. It is full of very practical and useful homemaking and hospitality ideas from a Christian perspective (I believe the writer was a preacher's daughter).

Now, I must warm up the chicken noodle for a late lunch. I have promised myself some DVD time if I get all of the boxes finished today.