keethink.com

By popular request, I’ve done a roundup of some of the crafty blogs I love. Also, I’m trying to ease back into blogging after baby, and a roundup is an easy way to do it!

The blogosphere is always changing, so I anticipate posting more of these in the future. That’s the best part of the interwebz – running across something wonderful & new. Hope these are wonderful & new to you!

Sew, Mama Sew. this blog does great roundups of sewing projects.If you are reading it in an RSS reader, you will need to click through – the previews are limited.

OhDeeDoh. Not always a craft blog, but the crafts they do have are SO clever, and often book-related.

Make it and Love it. Cute stuff for home & kids.

Make Baby Stuff. Check the archives for even more good stuff.

Homemade by Jill. worth it just for the advent calendar patterns! so cute.

Ana White, previously Knock-Off Wood. Plans for building Pottery Barn and high-end furniture knockoffs by yourself. Love this blog and the blogger behind it.

Thrifty Decor Chick. Mainly home stuff. Lots of fun before & afters, on the cheap.

Martha Stewart Craft Dept. ’nuff said.

Sewing at CraftGossip. This is the king (queen?) of sewing blogs, with many small & easy projects. LOVE.

I am Momma – Hear Me Roar. Lots of great boy crafts! And she’s actually shown a couple of my projects. :)

Design*Sponge. Not technically a craft blog, but their before & afters will inspire you to no end, especially if you are like me and like to “upcycle” stuff.

Grosgrain. Tons of cute ideas, especially for sewists.

Ruffles and Stuff. No longer an active blog, but the archives are worth a look. Girly, but in a really good way.

Enjoy getting lost in these fun blogs. Happy Thanksgiving!

As you might have guessed from the silence here on the blog, I had my second child. He was born on October 21 and I haven’t been doing much else for the past ten days!

We named him Fitzwilliam “Liam” Torbjorn Keeth. Yes, Fitzwilliam is named after the most gentlemanly literary character of all time, Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy. Torbjorn is Danish for “Thunder-Bear.” More on that later… the Thunderbear is crying and I’ve got to go.

Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is wildly popular. After reading several Facebook recommedations along the lines of “the bestest book evar!” and seeing my students trying to sneak-read it while I was lecturing, I decided to give it a try. After all, I loved Audrey Niffeneger’s Time Traveler's Wife, and this was a time-traveling love story too, right?

At first I thought I’d get it at my local Half-Price Books. After some searching, I realized it was in the Romance section. Strike one. I don’t read books from the Romance section, unless they are Jane Austen fanfiction and sometimes not even then. I’m embarrassed when I’m at Half-Price Books and I’m in the one aisle that is half Romance and half Sci-Fi. I want to tell people, “I’m here for the sci-fi! Really! I don’t read Romance novels… at least, not since junior high!” But I digress.

I got Outlander from the library and read it in a couple of days. I’ve heard people complain about the length of the book, but that never bothers me. As CS Lewis said, “You can’t get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”  Besides, Gabaldon keeps the action moving and the pages turning.

The book was fine, and Gabaldon has done her homework in the history department. What bothers me is the romance-novel-ness of the whole thing. It’s not so much that sex scenes bother me (they don’t really) but that in romance novels they tend to take up an inordinate amount of page space and be soooo goofy. There’s much bodice ripping and bosom-heaving and “Wow, we almost died just then! Let’s do it behind this tree!” and so forth.

But more than that, the characters started to annoy me – especially the main male hero. He is so stinking perfect. I can see why it would mess with your head to read romance novels all the time (The Coquette, anyone?). No man—no one at all—is this perfect and brave and gallant all the time. It’s ridiculous. No, it’s preposterous. Give me a flawed, conflicted character any day. About halfway through I thought, “This book is a perfect example of why I don’t read romance novels.”

The real test is: would I read the sequel(s)? And my answer is that yes, if I’m ever in an airport and my flight is delayed, I would grab one of the sequels from the bookstore. Of course, I’d read a cereal box if I was stranded in an airport, but you get my point. Gabaldon’s Outlander series is not going to be first on my reading list, but it’s not quite to the point of “I can’t believe I wasted four hours of my life on that.” If you like romance novels, I imagine Gabaldon’s are probably better than most. If you aren’t a huge fan of romance novels, you may skip Outlander with no qualms at all. Better yet, read Time Traveler's Wife instead.


I have a challenge out there to everyone who has champions a cause. C’mon, we all do it. I am specifically talking to those of us (myself included; I talk to myself regularly and have not yet been admitted to any kind of psychiatric institution) who are championing “first world causes.”

For me, a “first world cause” would be something that only affects those of use who are ridiculously wealthy compared to the rest of the world. If you are American and not on food stamps, I’m talking to you. (Did you know that if you make a household income of over $50,000, you are in the top 1% of the world? It boggles the mind.) My challenge is to take your first world cause and make it bigger. I’m not saying you have to give up your first world cause, but maybe you could expand it in some way. You are probably talking to people about it with some regularity, or posting messages on your Facebook status about it, or maybe even doing more like fundraising. That’s great. But I’m asking you to widen your circle of interest here.

For example: If you are trying to get people to stop using plastic water bottles and start using reusable bottles (disclaimer: I love my SIGG), maybe you could expand your cause to help people in developing nations get drinkable water. I don’t know what charity you should support in order to do that, but I know there are a few. Get involved.

Another idea: if you are campaigning against childhood vaccines (in which case I still love you as a person but most wholeheartedly disagree with you), maybe instead of paying those doctor co-pays you could donate money for malaria nets for African children. You’d be saving lives, without compromising your beliefs.

Or: If you are into the home birth movement (I’m not, but I know a lot of people who are), maybe you could donate the money you saved on doctor bills toward fistula hospitals in developing nations. We in the developed world have access to incredible prenatal & obstetric care–so much, in fact, that most people don’t even know what a fistula is anymore. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in places like Ethiopia and Afghanistan.

Or maybe you, like me, are against the use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in, well, anything. I can keep that up, but perhaps I should also spend time campaigning for children who don’t get enough to eat right here in my hometown. Programs like Share Our Strength or North Texas Food Bank help feed children whose parents can’t feed them dinner at night or food on the weekends. That’s not far away in Africa, folks… that’s right here, maybe in my neighborhood. Probably in my neighborhood.

If I’ve picked on your cause celebre, forgive me. I’m just having a hard time lately getting truly riled up about “first world problems.” Whatever you are fighting for, whatever you think worth arguing over—see if there’s a way to make it bigger, to make it life-changing, to make it real to more people. More than just those who have enough extra cash in their pocket to buy a latte. See if you can make it big enough to save a life.

Thinking a bit this morning about the purpose of a blog, of Twitter, of an academic blog. How does one craft the online academic self in such a way that that self becomes bigger than life? I want my online persona to be transparent, but also to be, well, academic. The thing that I realized this morning was that I don’t need to ask anyone’s permission to do this. I just need to begin.

I’ve chosen three examples of professors who are creating their own online academic personas. I chose these people and their blogs because A. I am personally acquainted with all three and B. they represent three entirely different approaches to online academic writing.

1. One of my professors at UT Dallas, Dr. Jessica Murphy, runs the blog “Everything Early Modern Women.” I’m guessing she isn’t sitting around waiting for people to give her permission to be an authority in her field—she’s making herself an authority. By that I do *not* that she is hijacking the conversation by being “loud” online (as some bloggers do), but that she is posting relevant and scholarly information consistently, over a long period of time. She maintains the site, keeps the materials up to date, and is at the front of the curve for posting new information. Want to know something about Early Modern Women? Dr. Murphy’s site is a great place to start.

2. Another UT Dallas professor, David Perry, writes the blog Academhack. This blog mainly consists of Dave’s own writings, rather than being a repository of the writing of others (pardon my informality—I have never heard him introduce himself as anything other than “Dave.”). He both writes about and demonstrates trends in social media and online scholarship. If you think he is waiting on someone else’s permission to write (often controversial) posts about emerging media and the digital humanities, you are sadly mistaken.

3. An old college friend of mine, Dr. Jason Jewell, writes the blog The Western Tradition, which contains his musings on things classical and Christian. While this blog does not have a strict focus, it gives Dr. Jewell an online presence and a place to begin discussions about how current events or newsworthy items relate to classical and Christian themes.

So does one’s online presence develop organically, or is it something that is crafted intentionally? Yes, to both. If we craft our online personas, we have a certain amount of control over them (never complete control, of course). If we do not craft them, they will develop organically, whether we intend it or not.

I am, at this moment, not entirely sure how I want to craft my online academic persona. I do have a bit of time before I receive my PhD, but why not start now? I may be musing about this more in the posts to come (although I’ll be taking a short break to have a baby in just a couple of weeks).

I’d love to hear your thoughts on creating an online presence, academic or not.

nine months pregnant!

I made two hospital gowns for my upcoming hospital stay (my second child is due in a couple of weeks). The pattern is available online via this link to Skip To My Lou or via the original link at LazyGirl.

Wanna make one? They’re super easy.

I learned a few things while making the gowns, so I thought I’d pass along whatever pearls of wisdom I had gleaned. (Can you glean pearls? Could Ruth have followed behind Boaz’s pearl divers? Sounds like a mashup novel just waiting to happen, doesn’t it?)

I spent about two hours per gown, start to finish, and I’m not a great sewist by any stretch of the imagination. I generally take up at least a little time with ripping out places where I sewed something together accidentally, or with winding the bobbin yet again because I didn’t put enough thread on it in the first place, or with looking for dropped pins. You might be able to finish one of these a little faster than I did.

Here’s the pearls of wisdom:

1. FABRIC: I recommend a patterned cotton fabric, something that won’t show stains. It is a hospital gown, after all. Try to choose a cotton fabric that is on the thinner side. While you want the gown to be modest (not see-through), you also want it to be soft and not too hot. I had to wash my fabric quite a bit to soften it up.

If your fabric has a large pattern, you might try and center it. As you can see on the brown gown, the pattern is slightly off center, and that bothers me.

With my sizing modifications (see below) I used exactly 2.75 yds on the brown gown (45″ wide fabric) and six inches less on the floral.

2. INTERFACING: Don’t skip the interfacing step on the shoulders. It really makes the shoulder fastening easier to work with. I used single-sided lightweight interfacing, because I found some in the closet, but since you are folding the hem over on it anyway, feel free to use double-sided interfacing if that’s all you have. When I turned the shoulder seam over, I made a nice big hem, a little wider than my snap tape.

3. SNAP TAPE! I used snap tape instead of the button & velcro indicated on the pattern. I like the result. BUT I did it wrong on the first one. The pattern instructions are correct, but I did it wrong anyway because I didn’t visualize what it was supposed to look like. Since you can count on me to give you an example of what NOT to do:

wrong way

wrong way

right way!

As you can see in the photo, you want to put the snap tape or velcro on overlapping edges, not edges that face each other, so that the shoulders lie flat, instead of sticking up and giving your shoulders strange dinosaur ridges. It wasn’t a disaster, but try and learn from my mistakes, OK?

-use your zipper foot to sew the snap tape on. This makes it much easier, and your topstitching will be less wavy. You will also break fewer needles this way. I broke 3 needles between the two gowns, even with the zipper foot. Because I am a dork.

I wasn’t even wearing my safety glasses, which you should do when you sew, because a needle in the eye is not cool. Any glasses will do. I have a couple of inexpensive pairs of sunglasses with light tint – one pair I call the “Bono” glasses, and the other pair are the “Jackie O” glasses. You may as well be glamorous when you sew, right?

I did not take a photo of myself wearing the glasses.

- arrange the snap tape so that you sew both male sides onto the front and both female sides onto the back (or vice versa) so that you are sure it will match up on the finished gown. Try to match up the snaps so your gown won’t be lopsided.

my shorts are peeking out!I am dressed underneath – didn’t want to flash the neighbors. This is the shorter of my two gowns.

4. SIZING: I used the pointers from Lazygirl’s pattern and from Skip To My Lou about sizing the pattern. I added six inches to the length of the first gown (I am almost 6′ tall), 4″ to the total front width, and cut two right sides for the back.

Thank you, photo-taking husband, for not telling me that my gown was not at all closed in the back.

This is because I am not one of those people who gets a cute basketball belly when I am pregnant. I am one of those people who resembles the Hindenburg when I am pregnant.

feeling Hindenburg-esque.

Also, I liked having the extra coverage that the two right sides provide for the back.

This is a more accurate representation of the gown's back coverage.

For the second (blue) gown, I only added three inches to the original length, so it’s a bit shorter than the brown, but I like both lengths. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

5. TIES: I used double-fold bias tape for the ties (one 3yd pkg per gown). This allowed me to put bias trim around the neckline. I needed to put trim on the front neck anyway, because I can’t sew a proper V-neckline to save my life and it looked like a hot mess before I covered it up with trim. (tip: clip the seam allowance in the center of the V. Helps it lie flatter. Mine still needed trim, though.)

For the back neck, I just extended the bias trim out to make the ties. Go ahead and topstitch all the way to the end of the tie – otherwise it will flatten out and unravel when you wash it. Then make a knot in the end.

I changed up the placement of the lower ties just a little from where they are indicated on the pattern. When you cut out the pattern and are sewing it, you can see where the back pieces are at their widest point—that’s where the tie goes. I kept the ties in the same place vertically, but moved the ties over horizontally to the left seam and to the edge of the back piece.

note tie placement

note that the tie is on my left side, rather than in the back of the gown

If you mark the ties before you stitch the sides, you can place the tie inside the side seam. This would look a bit cleaner, I think, but I forgot to do it.

I used a sort of x-within-a-square to secure them. Don’t forget to stitch along the length of the tie to prevent it from unraveling, just like you did for the neck, and then tie a knot at the end.

6. SERGING/ZIGZAGGING: I don’t have a serger, but I did zigzag all the raw edges as instructed on the pattern. On the first gown, I zigzagged kind of close to the edge. Then when I washed the gown, I got this:

Then, I read the instruction manual that came with my machine.

And guess what? Lo and behold, you can overlock the edges of your fabric (that’s what a serger does) by zigzagging right over the edge. Just set up your zigzag stitch, and make the needle go off the fabric on one side. Voila!

Before reading the instruction manual:

Before

After reading the instruction manual:

After

I was so excited that for the blue gown, I did all the raw edges at once, right at the beginning, rather than switching back and forth between zigzagging and topstitching as I went (as indicated on the pattern). It saved a lot of time on the second gown. Just go all the way around each cut-out piece of fabric with your newly-found overlock skills.

It’s tempting to skip this serging/zigzagging step if you keep having to go back & forth between topstitching and zigzagging, but if you do it all at the beginning, it’s quite easy. It really does make the finished product better.

7. NECKLINE: The neckline on the first (brown) gown was cut according to the pattern.

The neckline for the second (blue) gown has been lowered by 3″.

Keep in mind that I am quite tall, so you may only want to lower the neckline 2″ or so. I think it looks better and will be more comfortable this way.

8. POCKET: I followed Skip To My Lou’s advice and skipped the pocket altogether.

**UPDATE**: When I was in the hospital after the baby was born, I found myself wishing that I had a pocket to put my cell phone in. So you might reconsider the pocket.

9. IRONING: In case you are a true beginner, let me remind you that when you sew, you must iron as you go. Iron your fabric before you cut it (since you’ve prewashed it, right?). Iron every hem before you stitch it. I am a very lazy sewist, and I cut corners whenever possible,  but I can tell you that this is not a step you should skip.

I’m very pleased with the result. It was a very easy project. I think these would make a fabulous shower gift. Whether I will be able to whip one one of these out for a shower gift when I have not one but two kiddos running around will remain to be seen.

By the way, the original pattern link from LazyGirl is free, but not meant to be used for personal gain. In other words, don’t make one of these and then sell it for a profit. That would be uncool. But if you want to make one for yourself, or give it to a friend— do it.  They would make great gifts for expecting mothers, hospital or nursing home patients.

I cleaned out some closets. I decided that since we live in gardening Zone 9, there is no need for us to have eight feet of closet space taken up with coats. We now have “only” five coats or jackets each. (I realize as I write this how ridiculous it sounds.) I also got rid of several vintage clothing items, including some lovely vintage ladies’ hats. Not to mention box after box of miscellaneous household items that we don’t like or use.

When I give things away (and I’m sure you’ve experienced this too), I feel freer. I feel open to receiving. I feel lighter in ways that are difficult to describe. I am pretty sure that something actually happens when I/we get rid of material possessions that we do not need. But what? What happens, and where?

When I’m in a bad way, I hold onto things because I’m afraid that if I were to need them at some point in the future, I wouldn’t be able to replace them. This is a complete lack of faith on my part.

But—and here’s the question I brought up at dinner—a lack of faith in whom or what?

I am a Christian, but I am aware that my beliefs have been (whether I like it or not) influenced by my culture, which includes neo-Platonism, materialism, belief in karma and the like. It’s not that i intend to believe in karma, but more like it sneaks in and I catch myself believing in karma whether I meant to or not.

(I do find karma useful in one aspect of my life: I have convinced myself that buying an item of clothing just because it’s on sale, when it doesn’t quite fit me, is bad bargain karma. I’m stealing someone else’s bargain and that means that my bargain won’t be waiting for me when I need it. Whether I truly believe this or not, it keeps me from having buyer’s remorse when I’m shopping for clothes, so I find it useful.)

Here’s the thing: I believe firmly that there are natural laws in place in both the physical and spiritual realms. In the physical realm, a natural law would be, for example, gravity. Whether you believe in gravity or not, it still works.

The spiritual laws are a bit trickier, insomuch that different people have described them in very different ways. But whether you believe in them or not, they still seem to “work,” albeit in ways that are often difficult to control or define.

Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38)

The people preaching the “prosperity gospel” teach this as, “give money to me and God will make you rich & happy!” If you are even vaguely familiar with the teachings of Jesus, you will know that “rich & happy” is not what He taught, as much as our American materialistic culture (and that includes me a lot of days) would like to believe it.

But I’m not giving away money (not today, anyway). I’m giving away stuff. The stuff was mine, and now it’s going to a charity that runs a thrift store and uses the money earned to support a good cause. I have less stuff. That makes me feel better. Why?

Is it because I’m getting some kind of karmic bonus points? Is it because I’m reducing the hold that material possessions have on me? I’m certainly no paragon of asceticism. I’m not a monk or even a minimalist. But I do believe that as we reduce the number of material possessions we own, by moving things around in this physical realm, that something actually happens in the spiritual realm. I know I’m not the only one who feels that feeling of lightness, of freedom, of openness. What is it? And how can we explain it?

image from design*sponge

I admit it – I love a champagne cocktail.

Every time I order one I am reminded of the following exchange from the movie “Blast From the Past”:

Brendan Frasier: “Two champagne cocktails, please.”

Alicia Silverstone: “I thought only hookers drank those.”

Brendan Frasier: “Well, I know Mom sure likes ‘em.”

I saw this post on design*sponge blog with a lovely champagne cocktail recipe called “The Marriage of Two Minds” and thought I’d share it with you. According to the author (I’m quoting from the design*sponge blog here):

“My mother coyly renamed the Champagne cocktail “The Marriage of True Minds” because it was a heady mixture of her favorite libation (French Champagne) and my father’s (cognac—but always Courvoisier V.S.O.P.).  On their anniversary and other occasions of triumph and celebration, she would lift her glass in Dad’s honor and recite these lines from her favorite Shakespearean sonnet:

I haven’t had one yet, but I won’t be pregnant forever.

Currently (well, you know, pre-pregnancy), my favorite champagne cocktail is a French 75, so called because it packs quite a punch, much like the 75mm howitzer used by the French in WWI.

The recipe for a French 75 from the (sadly, now defunct) Gourmet magazine is as follows:

“Half fill a cocktail shaker with cracked ice and add 1 jigger dry gin, 1 teaspoon bar syrup [simple syrup] and the juice of 1/2 lemon. Shake the mixture vigorously and strain it into a highball glass packed with cracked ice. Fill the glass with chilled Champagne.” I would add: dump the ice out of the glass before you pour in the drink, and garnish with a slice of lemon peel.

(I started receiving Gourmet magazine when Conde Nast canceled Domino, and then they canceled Gourmet and sent me Bon Appetit. Oh, my first world struggles. Le sigh.)

The Gourmet magazine recipe is the one I like to use; I have seen other recipes with Cognac or other liquors, but I think gin is the way to go. The original recipe leaves the ice in the glass, but that is CLEARLY unacceptable. Pouring Champagne over ice? I shudder at the thought. My favorite French restaurant uses a chilled champagne glass, no ice, and that’s the way I like it.

You can make a French 75 at home, or order one at any self-respecting French restaurant. The last time we ate at The Chalkboard in Tulsa, OK, I taught the barman how to make one. He did a mighty fine job of it, too.

original shirt

You might be thinking, “but this is just a striped shirt! No graphic! Why do you need to change this one?” The answer is: because this was my friend’s son’s pirate shirt. He wore it regularly with his pirate pants and pirate hat and pirate hook and eye patch. So I thought I could change it just slightly.

I also took the pocket off to use on this shirt, so I needed to do something about the missing pocket.

The redo was pretty quick and painless. I used the old pocket as a pattern for a new navy blue pocket that I cut from one of my husband’s old tees. (If you cut it from the hem of the old tee, then the top of the pocket is already finished. See closeup of pocket below.)

I then did a reverse applique on the pocket (BEFORE I sewed it on the shirt).

To do reverse applique, you put the contrasting (in this case, white) fabric behind the pocket and pin it. I made a star shape with freezer paper and ironed it on the front of the pocket. Then I sewed around the star applique (I used white thread for contrast, and also because sometimes I am too lazy to change the thread in my machine, and certainly too lazy frugal to go buy new thread to match).

Once you have sewn around the star shape, CAREFULLY cut through the middle of the star on the front (blue) fabric, and trim. DON’T CUT THROUGH THE WHITE FABRIC. Then turn the piece over and trim the back around the outside edges of the star.

Then I sewed the pocket onto the front of the shirt. Pocket sewing tip: If you look at a store-bought shirt, you will see that the pocket’s top corners are sewn in a triangle pattern:

You should try to recreate that if at all possible; it really does help keep the pocket on. I’ve tried it without, and the pocket eventually comes off. :(

I also added a little piece on the back of the shirt just for fun. I just stitched around it without hemming because I thought it would match the front better that way.

I think this would add a lot of pizazz to a solid color shirt as well. Did I just say “pizazz?” Do people still say that?

Time it took to make: a couple of hours

Percentage of that time spent ripping out the thread from where I accidentally sewed the front of the shirt to the back of the shirt: 60%

I’m nesting. That’s what you do when you are eight months pregnant. This means cleaning out the closets. It also means our house is a little bit upside-down-fruit-basket.

We used to have a guest room/craft room, which is now the baby’s room. Everything from the guest room/craft room is now in the dining room.

This is a problem because 1. we actually eat in our dining room, every meal and 2. it’s the first thing you see when you walk in our front door.

I won’t bore you with details of what’s going where, but to make a long story short, I need to have less stuff. Sure, more storage would be great, but what I really need is LESS JUNK.

So I’m going through piles and boxes and closets, a little bit at a time (eight months pregnant = moving kind of slow) and I’ve realized a few things.

1. I am way too emotionally attached to physical objects.

2. I am a packrat.

3. My husband is a packrat.

4. You can’t organize clutter. (ok, I stole this one from Flylady, but whatever.)

I have been trying to ask myself, “what is the worst that could happen if I just threw this away?” The answer is usually, “If I needed it, I’d have to buy a new one.”

That’s not so bad, really. So I’m trying to make some space in my life to actually LIVE. I’m throwing things away and giving things away. I know a lot of people do garage sales, but I can’t deal with that right now and I can’t deal with storing the junk until later. It’s going to charity (or in the trash).

Case in point: the Colossal Desk. Several years ago, some friends sold/gave us some furniture (we wrote them a check, which was more than they asked for and way less than the furniture was worth). We got a beautiful bookcase, sideboard, credenza—all solid wood—and the Colossal Desk. We put the desk in one room. Then in another room. It was almost the size of a full-size bed, and that’s without the return (the L-shaped part).It was solid wood! It was a desk! It was too big.

Last month, we decided we had to get rid of the desk. It was just too big for our house, and besides, with a laptop, you don’t need all that space for a CPU tower + CRT monitor, like in “the old days” (ahem).

So my husband dragged the elephant of a desk out into our yard on Friday of Labor Day weekend and we put a sign on it. “$50 or best offer.”

Three days. No one even slowed down to look at it.

So on Monday evening, with rain looming on the horizon, my sweet husband dragged that behemoth of a desk back up onto our porch, where it sat for three weeks. I’m sure our neighbors loved that.

Finally, bulky trash week rolled around. Sweet husband dragged the desk back out to the curb, and we waited. You see, in our neighborhood, bulky trash week is also a form of freecycling. People put out furniture, mirrors, appliances, all kinds of things, with the intent that others are welcome to pick them up. They usually do. I’ve even picked up an item or two myself on bulky trash day (one of them was a beautiful, functional lamp).

So there the desk sat. Sunday night. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. By Thursday morning we were getting a little antsy. What if no one takes the desk? What if the bulky trash truck won’t take it because it’s too heavy? (They can refuse to take heavy stuff like refrigerators or construction debris.) I was actually praying that someone would take the desk, even though I felt a little bad about putting that kind of white elephant on someone else.

And then, when I got back from the grocery store, it was gone.

Can I tell you about the lightness in my heart? The empty space in my dining room? The ibuprofen my husband would no longer need to take?

It gave me the strength I needed to clean out the coat closet. I’m on a roll now. I just want the useless clutter out of my life and house and heart and mind. I feel free. Free-ish, anyway. Free-er.