Long time, no blog

I can't seem to get motivated to write lately. I see my computer sitting there on my desk, and feel guilty for not writing... Like I've missed some sort of important deadline. It's similar to the feeling I used to get when I needed to grade a giant stack of papers but couldn't seem to get motivated to get started.

Maybe it's because there's not much going on around here lately. Well, ok. That's not exactly true. There's just nothing especially interesting going on. I've been trying to get the house organized, running a bunch of errands, cooking, cleaning, blah blah blah. Nothing that seems like it would be interesting to an audience.

Still, I've been feeling guilty about not updating, so here goes:

Frankie is back at school, and is doing great. She's made a bunch of new friends, and always seems excited to go to school in the morning. I was really worried that the transition would be tough on her, but she seems remarkably resilient. She still talks about her Dearham friends, but not with sadness. It's been a real relief to me. It's so great to see her having fun at school and making new friends. Last Friday was "crazy hair day" and this Friday is "lunch with a loved one." It seems like there's always something for her to look forward to. Go, Putman School of Science!

The only potentially dark cloud on the horizon is that Frankie's school, Putnam, has been put on a list with five other schools in town for potential permanent closure. I'm trying not to get too worked up about it yet, but it would really be awful to put Frankie through yet another transition next year. I know she'd be fine, but I hate to push her capacity to adapt too far. We won't know anything about the closures until January, but one of the five is definitely going to go. Keep your fingers crossed that it's not Putnam.

Speaking of changes, transitions, and adapting....

Matt and I have been making a lot of progress in getting the house ready to go on the market. We spent the day on Sunday cleaning out the storage shed and clearing out the boxes we've been storing underneath the house. I can't believe some of the stuff that we've kept stored down there over the years. I mean, how many boxes of VHS cassettes does one family need? (Answer: ZERO.)

I'm a bit of a pack rat, so it's hard for me to throw things away. One of the reasons that it's so hard for me to let things go is that even years (sometimes decades) after I buy something, I can still remember exactly how much I paid for just about everything. It's like the worst superpower ever. When I throw a sweater in a bag for Goodwill, in my head I add it to a mental mathematical list of how much it cost, and how much it plus all of the other items total. I know it sounds weird, but sometimes throwing away stuff feels like throwing away money. Even if I haven't worn the clothes or used the items in years, I still have a hard time with it. I know it's ridiculous, but I can't help it.

I found a solution, though. Instead of throwing stuff out or giving it to Goodwill, I've started taking the things that are especially tough to part with to consignment shops. It's not much... $30 here, $40 there, but it takes the psychological sting out of it for me. And when I'm done running things to the consignment shops around town, anything they don't want or need goes right over to the Salvation Army. And I'm ok with that. Great, even. Plus, it's really liberating to leave the house with a carload of stuff and come home with nothing plus fifty bucks.

So, that's what I've been doing. Boring, you say? I told you so. But I sure do have a lot less junk stuffed intro the nooks and crannies around here. And that's a very good thing.