Today I’m doing that shocking job - cleaning out my kitchen pantry. I’m shocked because of the number of unused appliances I found there, plus beans and rice that must be several years old at the least, and ::gasp:: cat hairs! At the same time, I’m thrilled because I’m moving my stuff around and making a cleaner space for my kitchen goods.

One of thing I like about having a clean pantry is that I get to make decisions about what I’m going to put back. I just threw out a lot of the appliances - two old blenders, a broken toaster oven, a toaster I no longer use, my old tea kettle, and a hand mixer. I’m keeping the food processor, one blender, and the crock pot. That’s plenty for one old lady to use.

I have several boxes - one for the second hand store filled with pans and cups I no longer want to use. Another box with canned goods will go to the community food pantry. I’m giving my son a few boxes with foods only he will eat. And then there’s the small box of canned goods I’m keeping for my own use.

It feels good to get everything refreshed, polished, and organized.

On Sundays I take time to give thanks. Today I’m thankful for my financial independence. After almost 18 years of being a SAHM (stay at home mom) I’m now working outside my home again. I’m working part-time in a pizza restaurant, and am very grateful for this opportunity. It doesn’t matter to me that there’s other things I trained for in the past that I could be making much more money at. I’m excited to be cleaning off tables, rolling pizza dough, and waiting on customers. It is a thrill to be able to get a paycheck, rather than what I was doing before.

Well, what I was doing before included work-at-home businesses that weren’t working very well for me. I own a web design business, and got very frustrated by constantly working on ‘other peoples sites’ rather than my own. It took all the fun and excitement and creative freedom out of my web design work, and I totally wasn’t happy doing it. Now that I’m working outside my home again, I’ve transformed my web design business into something I’m doing for me - by building up some blogs and improving sites that I started long ago.

I also had a profitable small town news website which I’m in the process of selling. I am so excited to be able to get out from under this small business. It had become like a ball and chain to me. What started as a community service project years before became unmanageable and frustrating. Too many people in my community wanted to diss the news editor (me!) and even though others here were positive and enthusiastic about the project, it wasn’t enough to make it worthwhile to me anymore. So part of my personal declaration of independence this year is to unload the site. The good news is that my best friend here, an experienced news writer, is buying the site. I’m training her to maintain it, and she’s looking into getting a grant for it so that she doesn’t have to constantly sell ads. Good for her! Good for me!

So my ongoing financial worries are for the time, defeated. I’m feeling great about working for someone else, and grateful that my youngest child is now 17, so I can do this.

…

Inspired by: Independence Day at Create a Connection

I was only ten when my older sister discovered music. I was naive, thinking childhood pursuits were enough, but she was eighteen months older than me, finding newer, more mature things to occupy her thoughts.

That day we walked along East 14th Street in East Oakland, just down the block from our grandmother’s dry cleaning shop. She ducked into the little record shop where there were wooden tables with 45rpm records, also called singles, in bins for us to sift through.

Susan knew exactly what she wanted. This was her first record purchase and she’d planned it out carefully in advance. She bought her three favorite current hit songs:

1) Rhythm of the Falling Rain, recorded by the Cascades
2) Purple People Eater, recorded by Sheb Wooley
and
3) The Lion Sleeps Tonight, recorded by the Tokens

These three songs were my introduction to the world of popular music, and I still remember them clearly. Fortunately the lyrics are easily found on the internet, so if I ever want to sing them again, I can.