Memories

The KonMari Method: CDs, DVDs, Video Games, Etc.

Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk, Konmari, Memories /

So, I thought we’d just go ahead and go through this entire category and just get – it – DONE. Silly me.

I ambushed myself within about three minutes because I’d forgotten about the 45s. The moment I put my hand on the 45 case, I knew there was no way this category was going to go smoothly. There’s so much “sentimental” carry-over with this stuff that it just… yea. No. It did not go well.

KonMari Problems… Oy

A photo posted by Denise Tanton (@dtanton) on

I immediately put the 45s into the sentimental category, made the decision that albums would wait ’til the end, too, and moved on. I waded through CDs pretty quickly and TW went along behind me and we had quite a lot of CDs to discard. Except, TW put them in a bag to send to the nursing home for her sister. I’m not sure that was a smart move, we’re just going to end up with them again, aren’t we?

TW released her old cassettes with not much trouble — we don’t have a cassette player, after all.

Then we got to the DVDs and VHS tapes and we were lost. I left behind hundreds of videos when we moved here and I was having a very hard time releasing any of those this time. The ones I kept 7 years ago were the BEST ones. They’re still the best ones. So, I kept most of them and will let my big kids go through them at Christmas and maybe we’ll be able to discard some more.

Though we kept a lot, we also got rid of a lot but we sent most of them to the nursing home.

Then, the little girls looked at the Wii games and RJ said discard them all. Elly took a few back to her father’s house and would like our Wii controllers because theirs are broken (so when I find those, I’ll be sure to pass them on.)

In the end, we were able to discard 15 Wii games, 73 videos went to the nursing home and we have a bunch of VHS tapes to donate (probably around 20), 50 music cds were discarded and we have a whole spindle of black cds/dvds we can donate. We also have a half dozen discs that we’re not sure of. They have stuff on them but we’re not sure what’s on them, so I need to find a laptop with a CD player (or use TW’s laptop) and take a look at those before we discard.

All things considered, I’m OK with how we did with the discards (as long as the nursing home giveaways don’t come back to us!) We’ll revisit the category again in December and again when we do sentimental items and I’m sure a few more things will go, then. Probably.

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KonMari Method: Books (Part 1 Revisited)

2015, Books in Bed, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Konmari, Memories /

nkotbPoop. I knew it was going to be hard to NOT find joy in every single one of the children’s books, but I didn’t know quite how hard it was going to be for TW.

I felt no real joy for a whole lot of books that I had previously felt joy for. I was ready to let go of all sorts of books. TW was not.

So, I’d guess we maybe 1/4 of our children’s books didn’t bring joy. Maybe a 1/4. I’m probably being generous with that guess.

We have four bags to give to our wonderful former barista, Melisa, who is getting her own 3rd grade classroom next year. And, 11 bags of books to take to the children’s book donation drop off next week.

I stumbled across another problem with this modified KonMari method… The books that bring us joy have to go back on shelves somewhere… and that’s a pain, since our books are shelved by color. I’ve got them just shoved and stacked every which way right now. Not ideal and it’s making me just want to get the adult books DONE so that I can rearrange the shelves properly.

Or, maybe we should just run out and get some book boxes and pack them up in preparation for our move next year? Maybe that’s what we’ll do.

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Ah, That Brings Back Memories

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Foodie, Memories /

On Saturday, I was scrolling through Instagram, like I do, when I saw a photo of a Cherry Dip cone from Dairy Queen.

Oh! Cherry Dip! I haven’t had Cherry Dip in a zillion years. I want Cherry Dip!

I pushed that last thought away and went about my day. But Cherry Dip kept popping into my head.

Finally, a little after 4pm, I couldn’t take it any longer and I told TW we should just put on pants (pants!) and go to Dairy Queen and get Cherry Dip.

Oddly enough, TW’s response was, “It’s almost 4:30.”

Umm, not her normal response for such things. I figured she didn’t like Cherry Dip or something? So after telling her that they do serve Cherry Dip at 4:30 pm on Saturday, in the summer, and getting not positive response from her, I tried to push Cherry Dip from my mind.

Next thing I know, TW’s making dinner. A very nice dinner. The tater tot waffles were good. Good enough that I didn’t even complain about the mess from the waffle iron. And by the time I’d eaten all my dinner, I pretty much had forgotten about Cherry Dip.

Until a couple of hours later when TW said, “So, are we going to get Cherry Dip or what?”

I tried to ignore her. I had wanted the Cherry Dip hours ago. Not at 8pm, damn it. Didn’t work. I still wanted Cherry Dip.

So we got dressed (it took more than just pants by this time) and drove to the DQ/OJ combo a couple of miles away. The line was long. Very long. The workers were not quick. We ordered our Cherry Dips (and small OJs) and sat at a small table by the door.

A boy behind us in line also ordered Cherry Dip, though he got a large one and we had small ones.

Every time someone came into the DQ, they said, “Oh Cherry Dip! I haven’t had Cherry Dip in years!” or “Oh, I haven’t thought about Cherry Dip since I was a kid!”

Nobody ordered Cherry Dip but it was amusing to hear everyone do that initial gasp of memory when they saw the Cherry Dip. It was also kind of fun to listen to everyone talking about their memories of Dairy Queens from long ago — because that’s what everyone sitting around us did, while they were there.

I don’t know if it was the Cherry Dip that brought on the nostalgia or the old photos on the walls or if it’s just a thing that happens in Dairy Queen. Whatever it was, it was fun and I really enjoyed the Cherry Dip.

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Frozen Yogurt for Dinner

Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie, Memories /

Last week (or was it the week before) when I read one of those Jennifer Crusie novels, the characters kept eating hot fudge sundaes and I really really wanted one.

Actually, what I wanted was plain ole vanilla ice cream + the chocolate syrup my parents used to sometimes make for us. But, since neither of my parents seemed to show up at my door and I was still craving a hot fudge sundae, we went to Menchies for dinner tonight.

A froyo with bobas and hot fudge sauce is not nearly the same as a hot fudge sundae, but it was good. Or good enough. I’d still like one of my parents to show up and make me some hot fudge. Or maybe I could just figure out how they made it and convince TW to make me some? Now that I think about it some more, I’m kind of still craving that hot fudge sundae.

Gah.

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Mmmm, Pie

Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie, Memories /

Funny title, coming from me, isn’t it? I don’t like pie. At least that’s what I usually say.

The only real pie that I love is pumpkin pie and I can eat a whole pumpkin pie all by myself, in just a few days. In fact, I prefer it if I’m the only one eating the pumpkin pie. Let the other people eat the other desserts and just leave me the pumpkin pie.

I’ll eat the bottom crust but I never eat the side crust. Ever. Blech.

Which is why I don’t like pie. I don’t like crust.

I will eat a cherry pie but will leave as much of the crust on the plate as possible, which means I really just like the cherry filling. And please. Do not ever put a top crust on a pie. That just pisses me the hell off.

I’ll actually eat all sorts of pie FILLING. Key lime, lemon meringue, banana cream, apple, peach. I just kind of wish people would make crustless pies more often. That would be wonderful.

But…

Today we went to Bakers Square to pick up a holiday silk pie that I ordered for TW’s mom to take to some social event or another (and I ordered a banana cream pie for me and TW… I’ll eat the filling and leave the crust, duh) and all of the pies in the case looked really appealing. But I know I won’t like them. I’ll just like the filling. Seems dumb to buy a pie just for the filling, doesn’t it?

That visit to Bakers Square reminded me of going to Shoney’s when I was a kid and picking up a Strawberry Pie, on special occasions. It didn’t happen often but when it did, oh boy was that awesome. I miss those pies.

Well the filling. And the whipped cream on top.

I’d give pretty much anything for a good ole’ Shoney’s Strawberry Pie right now. Hell, as nostalgic as I’m feeling, I might even eat the crust.

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30 + 44 = Awesome

4 Comments / Family Funk, Kid Talk, Memories /

Last Saturday TW said she thought Jenn would need balloons for her birthday. I didn’t get it. Balloons? Why would she need balloons? It hit me about three days later. Oh. 30. She’ll be 30. Of course she needs balloons.

So we ran down to the Dollar Tree before coffee and grabbed a few mylar balloons and one on a stick for JMP and some birthday candles. Those were a hit, particularly with JMP — he played with them all day long.

Then it was pretty low key for the rest of the day. We all did a little work. TW had a little nap. We played with JMP.

I picked the girls up from school and brought them home where we all sang to Jenn while she opened the magic birthday bag. (TW got a present in her email this morning and she’ll get another present tomorrow when she and Chris go shopping…)

Then we all loaded up in two cars and went out to Chicken & Waffles (TW’s choice) — mmmm, chicken and waffles. We got there too early for the live Jazz but we wanted to beat the storm and it’s a good thing we did. It was bad (brief, but bad) — watching the lightning strike in the field across from the restaurant. Ouch. I’m glad we weren’t out in that. It was a good dinner — JMP enjoyed it, quite a lot.

Then it was back home for a quick blowing out of the 30 birthday candles and a few bites of cheesecake before the little girls had to head back to their dad’s house.

It was nice having Jenn home for her birthday. 30 years. It seems pretty impossible, to me.

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Just Say “Green”

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Family Funk, Holidays, Memories /

When I was a kid, I’d ask my mom what her favorite color was. Sometimes because we were going to play a board game with a colored game token and she needed to choose a color. Sometimes because it’s a question kids like to ask… “What’s your favorite….”

Sometimes my mother would say something like, “I don’t know, just pick one for me.” Or “I don’t care.” Or just “I don’t know, what’s your favorite color?”

Those answers were obviously inappropriate and I would argue, tell her she had to pick one, and otherwise boss her into choosing. That’s what kids do.

And so, my mother would answer “green”. Every time.

As I got older, I was very sure my mother’s favorite color was green. Even now, if you asked me what her favorite color might be, I would immediately say “green”. If I’m looking for a gift for my mom that comes in different colors, I immediately gravitate toward green, though I know that this is silly. She might like green but it’s not really her favorite color in every situation. It never was. It was the answer she gave because, as a mom, it was a good, easy answer.

When I became a mom and was faced with the same questions from my kids, I’ve done it a little differently.

“Which color do you want to be?” I would choose green, unless I knew that a child playing would choose green (which was rare.)

“What’s your favorite color?” led me to respond with, “I don’t have a favorite color.” or “I like a lot of colors and it depends on why you’re asking.” But yes, my fall back if forced to choose a color for any question a child asks has always been green.

Because that’s what my mom said and my mom was smart.

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The Birthday Box

5 Comments / Family Funk, Kid Talk, Memories /

This is Michelle’s birthday box. Well, she calls it her birthday box, I generally call it Michelle’s box. It’s got stuff that I tucked away from her childhood.

All of my kids have a box like this. Jenn has hers. I think I still have Chris’s with me. Michelle usually has hers but she decided to leave it here when she moved to Philly because she’s living in a super small apartment. That made me kind of sad because Michelle is the child who looks at her box every year. On her birthday.

Since she doesn’t have her box with her today, I thought I’d go through the box for her. Take some pictures. Talk about what’s in there. Celebrate her birthday, long distance-like.

Her baby book is here.

Baby clothes — she was adorable in all of these.

Books she loved and book reports of books she loved. Like One Yellow Lion, Barney, Brown Bear (though she really liked Polar Bear better) It’s Just Me Emily, and A Pony for Linda.

Poetry, a lot of poetry and poetry journals.

Writing samples and her first ‘zines!

Girl Scout stuff.

Bowling and Cheer stuff, too.

Awards, certificates, ribbons, plaques.

Art — a lot of art.

Especially, drawings of Pepper and Serano.

Happy Birthday, Michelle Belle. Next year, you’ll have the box to go through all by yourself but I enjoyed going through it this year. *sniff* 23 years. *sniff*

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My Mom, Barbie and Me

6 Comments / Daily Dose, Family Funk, Memories /

When I was a kid, I liked Barbie. I liked her a lot and I wanted the Dream House and the corvette and the airplane (I really had a thing for Barbie as stewardess, don’t ask me why.) I didn’t get the Dream House or the corvette or the airplane. My mom was soooo mean.

Except she wasn’t mean at all.

She made me tons of Barbie clothes — knitted or crocheted or on the sewing machine. And, while I didn’t have the Dream House, I did have a Barbie house/carrying case combo that I loved. It was the most awesome thing EVER, even though I still kind of coveted other girls’ Dream Houses.

Which is why when I had kids, they had the corvette. And the camper. And the plane. And some version of the Dream House.

They did not have homemade clothes because I was not that kind of mom. Obviously.

I think I had it better.

My house was portable, the Dream House is totally not portable.

I had just enough Barbie paraphernalia that it was fun to play with and easy to store inside of the special Barbie house/case combo. My girls had so much that the Barbie stuff was everywhere and it was hard to find the pieces you wanted, when you wanted them.

My mom was right. I was totally not right.

So when mom told me her granddaughter, Haley, wanted a Rapunzel Barbie for Christmas — I smiled.

When mom told me she was getting back into the Barbie clothes making “business” — I smiled. (And I laughed out loud when she kind of ranted about how many different patterns there are for Barbie clothes now. lol The internet is a glorious place that makes life very complicated for Barbie clothes-makers, and everyone else.)

When mom posted a photo of a Barbie with a handmade dress on her Facebook wall and said she had Barbie fever and needed shoes, and purses, and a stand and a case — I did more than smile and laugh. I went online and tracked down the Barbie house/case that I had (and loved) when I was a kid and sent it to her.

No Dream House for my mom, she deserves the best and the 1968 Mod Family House & Case is the best.

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