We love Corn!

The Corn Roast was tonight and I am in the Rotary so I chopped corn all day and I also set up our Rotary booth for my new Sweat for Nets program I am bringing to our community. The booth looked really nice thanks to the amazingly large Mosquito net sent to me by Children for Children. I was stunned that you could buy this net and save up to three children's lives for only $5. I also set up Malaria Trivia for the kids to teach them a little about a different part of their world. I was really excited to give teachers and local families incentive to raise money for a global cause. The CFC programs are incredible and the people there are super to deal with. The Sweat for Net program guide is INCREDIBLE and if you are a teacher, it gives you full lesson plans by grade that you can do with your glass. I believe that teaching children to volunteer is one of the best gifts you will ever give them. I hope our town has success with this program. I felt lucky to be a part of it.

Here are a few more answers to some more questions about my infamous dupmster.....

1) It is gone (sniff, sniff). I mean, it was SO EASY to throw out anything with a dumpster on your driveway. And sort of fun, too. It was NOT close to full - but it did have all the extra wood from our deck project, a broken deck umbrella that we just replaced, and my grandma's broken chair, so it had some nice LARGE items. I loved the comment about I should leave it there and alter it! Not a bad idea. :)

2) I was not cleaning my scrapbook room for this project. That is already in pretty good shape thanks to a major clean out of that last year (I did not need a dumpster for that project, but I did make the kid's teachers VERY happy with my large donations to their classes). My desk top gets messy in the rush of life, but the cabinets and closets look pretty darn good and are filled mostly with stuff I use and love.... I was cleaning my attic and this nasty little unfinished corner of my basement. We quickly tossed EVERYTHING in my basement into my attic after the accident to allow us to finish the basement for my dad. This resulted in boxes of hand-me-downs, tons of older scrapbooking product, random files of bills and other life paperwork, and lots of our family memories being shoved away with limited access. I had some old stuff from our old house and from closing my parent's house as well.... it just became one of those things you like to shut the door and forget about..... And I am SO EXCITED to finally fix that problem. I love to throw things out, I just had such limited access to even know what was in these boxes.... so it became a major undertaking to get it all OUT and sort it. I am so happy that we are close to getting done..... The dumpster being here made it happen much quicker than is tolerable for most people (it was a lot of work and we worked very fast and hard), but I am glad we did it that way or this project could have drug out forever.... Our friend let us borrow her 12 year old daughter to play with the girls for a few days while Neil and I just took off work and totally focused on getting this all settled. I wish I could do things little by little... but I tend to do all or nothing when it comes to projects like this!

3) THE SALE - I am definately having that preview night some of you asked about on Thursday, August 21 from 6 - 8 PM. I will be in Colorado from the 15th to the 20th so I cannot do preview night any sooner. I live in Schererville Indiana. About 60 miles from O'Hare airport in Chicago - so the North East Corner of Indiana. I have tons of back issues of CK, Memory Makers, Rubber Stamp Madness and other magazines. Lots of idea books. Boxes of older 12 x 12 and 8.5 x 11 cardstock and printed papers. A few albums. Some stamps and other crafting supplies. A lot of storage and organizers, too. Non Scrapbooking stuff includes SO MUCH girl clothes (and I price things SUPER CHEAP because I just want it gone), Franklin Covey Planner systems, TONS of photo frames, baby stuff, books and more. It would really not be worth it to drive a long way, but if you are from around here, you might find some cool things. I already have Salvation Army set to come pick up ANYTHING left from the sale right after it. I cannot wait until all that is over. :)

My last thought on this garbage topic is this.... please do not be afraid to toss stuff out. I know it took us a lot of time to take on this massive project.... but you can also do it little by little. I know you all have stuff in your drawers (especially in your kitchen) that you do not love or use. Think about WHY you are keeping it. If you do not use or love it RIGHT NOW - Toss it out or give it away. I struggled getting rid of some things that were from my Mom. Other than that, it felt GREAT to lighten our load. You do NOT need to drop a dumpster and spend four days sorting stuff... that is just totally the best way I saw my family accomplishing this project. Do it little by little. If you have areas of your home or your scrapbooking space that bother you, decide to fix it rather than ignore it. It is not going to go away on its own. You can really make yourself feel better by even just tackling one little thing like your pantry or junk drawer and creating peace and order in that one place.

Sorry for the totally longest post ever. Have a great weekend.