The Last of Sweet September

This is her Nanny McPhee look

Summer is officially over.  Geese fly over head.  Matt heads to work emboldened in purple pink rays that turn golden before he drives away...nothing can stop the morning.  Nothing can stop him. Fog hangs heavy on hillsides.  Trees begin their subtle show.  The garden gives goodness still, though long neglected and overrun with weeds.  The tomatoes continue to shine though our harvest is much smaller than last year.

I took the fans out of the bedrooms last night which made for a still and quiet night.  I heard crickets again- a sound I haven't heard since the torrent of fake wind from a box first began.  The cutting flowers are giving their last show, the flower circle is all dark and dried and dying.  Sadness.  I will mourn the flowers most.

We haven't started school yet.  I gave myself until the beginning of October, as I did last year, because now is a very busy 'putting-up' time for me, though I've done very little of what I should be doing.  (Apples!  Beets! Pesto! A last load of fridge pickles! Too many things!)  Instead, I've been determined to go through that granary and downsize our clothing bins.  I was resolved, I should say.  

A good week of work and I've finished about 65% of it.  While sorting through clothes, I also worked at doing the summer/winter clothing switchover which is always a big deal too.  I've gone to bed sore and exhausted every night, from lifting bins and carrying overloaded laundry baskets, but I've gone to bed happy and excited that it is all getting done.  The great stuff that I just don't need I've been washing up and dropping off at two different consignment stores (which equals more laundry too!).  What doesn't sell is boxed for a yard sale this spring.  What isn't in top-notch condition is getting donated.

In two weeks alone I donated 11 garbage bags of clothes and made $160.00.  I have 7 bins ready and waiting for yard sale time this spring...and anything that doesn't sell then will be donated too.  That, to me, is an accomplishment WORTH the exhaustion and sore back!

  I have a special 'Mama Fund' where all yard sale/consignment shop /photography money goes and waits for me to do something special with it.  I've been hoping to buy a new camera with that fund as my camera now is broken in several ways and is taking worse and worse pictures (I tried to have it repaired and cleaned earlier this year but was ineffective.)  I had saved almost $500.00 up until a few months ago at which time I had to empty it out for porch supplies.  So the money I make from this endeavor is going to begin that fund again.

Every time I say goodbye to another adorable dress or baby suit (which is harder to do when one is expecting a baby!) I think, a little more towards the camera!  And that makes it just a bit easier.  I hope to have enough to get the camera BEFORE Tiddle is born but since I am running out of clothing, that might be like squeezing milk from a lemon.  (Or maybe that isn't a saying...but it still works, I guess.)  We'll see.

No matter what, with every bag that leaves this house I feel a little bit lighter.  And right now, that is a really, really great feeling.