Life Lately | November 2017

+In My Head

I’m a little messed up with the timing of Thanksgiving this year. I’m used to the month ending pretty quickly after and this month we got almost an entire extra week so in my head I’m feeling like I’m behind on getting things done for Christmas. I noticed a lot more people decorating before Thanksgiving this year to prevent this sort of frenzied feeling and I think I may incorporate some of that next year, such as getting the lights on the stair-well hung and a few other small decorations.

I also feel out of sorts because the house has been a disaster for so long with Chris building the aquarium and then having to rearrange our kitchen furniture, which meant selling our china cabinet and having to find a place for everything inside it. Speaking of selling things, I’ve been slowly trying to sell various baby and maternity items as well as other household things such as the china cabinet. Surprisingly the china cabinet sold fairly fast (I was going to have a mental breakdown if it didn’t—too much clutter in the kitchen!) but I’ve had the worst time trying to sell baby items, particularly our crib. We got our crib from a college friend as a hand-me-down and at this point it has been through three kids. It has some wear on it from the kids but is in great condition. I’m selling it, with the mattress, two mattress covers, and four mattress sheets for $40. I mean, really, that’s to cover the sheets because they were the most expensive and since the crib had wear and we got it for free we didn’t really want to try to sell it for much. I’ve had a lot of interest, including almost getting rid of it but then not because someone came to pick it up and mentioned “Thanks for giving this for free!” to which I replied that it was $40 and they practically ran back to their car. I mean, I guess if you don’t have $40….but really. And people flake or fail to follow up via email. I’m posting via Nextdoor and Craigslist at this point.

I really thought maternity clothing would go pretty easily, too. I listed it all originally back in the spring as one bulk thing but had no one took a bite I photographed everything individually on hangers (if they hung) and spend time writing down brands and sizes. Chris was going to list on Ebay but I have been trying on Nextdoor and Craigslist first. So far I’ve only listed the maternity dresses—I haven’t gotten around to the others and hope to get that this week. I guess I’m just surprised they aren’t selling at all. I listed dresses at $10 each and they are mostly Motherhood Maternity which, if you know that store, it can be pricey. Other clothes will be cheaper based on wear and type, of course, but really? Am I listing too cheap? Do people want free? WTF?!?!?!

I suppose I could just take it all to Goodwill or another thrift store but I know so many of those places get overloaded and hearing about where donations go if they don’t end up in the thrift store, I’m not sure I want to donate a ton of stuff if I can sell it to someone who wants it. I suppose I could ThredUP some of it and get credit. I don’t know, we’ll see.

Do tell if you’ve had experience selling items through Nextdoor or Craigslist. Groups on Facebook are of no use to me because I don’t do Facebook.

Anyway, I hope to get through December and get through all of our baby clothes and keep what we want and move on to selling the rest. We’d love to give them to someone we know having a baby but alas, we were kind of the last people having babies and the one or two people I know who could have babies are not on that track at the moment.

+Watching

I’m still working my way through Charmed on Netflix but I haven’t been watching it as much in the last couple of weeks. I did dive into Alias Grace on Netflix and looooved it! Before seeing previews for the show, I was not familiar with the book by Margaret Atwood that this is adapted from, nor the true story Atwood’s book is adapted from. Very fascinating mini-series put on by none other than the fabulous Sarah Polley. Some day I will get around to reading Atwood’s books.

On the Outlander front, I’m in a love/hate relationship with that show. I’m giving it the rest of the season and it might be dumped from my lineup. Yes, I’m having that much trouble with it! The front half of the season was pretty spectacular but whoever they got to do some of the writing in this back half has made me question if they know who Claire and Jamie are as characters. I don’t mind changing plot to fit the time frame for the series but I have a problem changing fundamental character configurations into story lines that make absolutely no sense. Some people are enjoying the so-called “Dark Jamie” aspect but I never thought of Jamie as ‘dark’ in any of the books. Fallible, sure…but there have been some questionable things he’s done and said in the last few episodes. Same with Claire. I’ve actually had a problem the entire series with Claire on the show because they’ve made her a little more air-headed than I think she was in the books. The last episode redeemed itself a bit but we shall see what happens with the remaining portion of the season.

I’m really looking forward to The Crown coming back soon! All of the previews have me really stoked to see more of the royal family. Still not sure how to handle the casting change when Claire Foy leaves but I’ll be interested to see how the actress replacing her will be able to fill in those same mannerisms Foy developed as the Queen. It’s a little Dr. Who-like, right?

HBO had a preview week last week and I managed to catch some things to record, one of them being Hidden Figures. It’s been on my radar to watch for a long time now so I was thrilled to see it and record it. There were several things that I got a kick out of, one of them being the use of computers for humans doing computing—because, duh Misti!—but seeing technology yet again phasing out jobs. I mean, early 60s and mid-2010s and it sounds similar. Of course this isn’t anything new, but just seeing this aspect of it made me think about today’s implications. I also thought about how Katherine had to run across the NASA campus to use the colored women’s restroom and remembered some other instances that didn’t have to do with race but just gender when women were moving into the work place, particularly in male dominated professions, and not having a restroom. Having that extra layer of racial burden put on the women really shook me, too. And then comparing all of that situation to the current trans-gendered bathroom ‘bills’ made me think that we really haven’t come as far as we have thought in accommodating our fellow human beings. Anyway, lots of parallels to on-going injustices in today’s society.

+Outside My Window

I just looked at the 10 day forecast and thought, well, looks like winter in Florida! 70s during the day, high 40s or 50s at night. Ok, so maybe depending on which part of Florida you are in depends on those night time temps, but it is either sunny or partly sunny for the next 10 days! I’m ok with this. It makes the holiday season feel weird but I will take sun over dreary and grey for weeks. I mean, give me a day or two for some cozy winter feelings but too much and I’m apt to curl up in a ball and never come out.

+Making

After I made the crochet wall hanging earlier in the month I continued on to making a Christmas wall hanging. I’ve not worked on it in over a week because the need to just chill after Forest gets into bed has over taken me. I’m about to get on the ball with making some Christmas gifts for Forest, though. I’m thinking homemade playdough and am going to be cutting up parts of my calendar from this year that will work as great clip art for gluing. Also contemplating some quick amigurumi crochet projects.

+In The Garden

That pull to hibernate and slow down is strong. I haven’t done much in the garden in the last week other than poke my head out and move some leaves off seedlings, finally finish mulching the edible garden paths, and do some watering. I did take milkweed cuttings of some of the milkweed I cut back. I need to start some seeds, contemplate December tomato seed starting for getting them out in the garden in late February/early March—yes, time to start thinking of that you southern folks.

The garden is just handling itself pretty well at the moment. Another chore that needs to be done is to finish raking up the leaves in the garden path and moving them to the compost pile. There’s plenty to do, just not as high on the priority list right now.

+Reading

Uhhhhhh. Nothing.

I know, right? I’ve gone strong all year and now I’m in a reading drought. I have a culprit. Bedtime changed when Forest got a big boy bed back at the end of October so I’m no longer sitting with him while he goes to sleep which means less reading time for me. I did finish What Happened because it had to go back to the library but my ability to focus on reading at the moment isn’t too strong. I’d like to get back to it soon, though.

Less reading has meant being able to do other things, like being unproductive and watching tv. Or being productive and working on crochet, editing photos, working on my blog, or working on the podcast.

+Loving

Sarah and Beth from Pantsuit Politics podcast started a new podcast called The Nuanced Life. I am loving it so far because it’s more of these two fabulous ladies but none of the politics! I mean, I love their political show, but they bring to the table more great perspectives and the ability to balance each other well with different ideas on life. Worth checking out!

I put in my first request for a book to be ordered by the library. A couple of weeks later I received an email from the librarian in charge of ordering for our system and they said they would order it! I had read the book digitally but really wanted to read it on paper to re-absorb the information so I’m excited they are buying it! *mentally makes list of other books I want*

What’s up with you?