However much I do

Oops, this week has gotten away from me a little bit.  Sorry about that.

Cranky Steve sold his house to his nephew like on Monday and since that time, he's purchased a new house and will move by this weekend.  Cranky Steve does not mess around.  Anyway, he brought me a load of canning jars--and lids from the 1970s by the look of the box--and now he's trying to give me all sorts of other stuff as well.  No, I don't need a spittoon (um, what?) or a stereo cabinet (iPods rule!) or a food dehydrator (got one of those already).  Then he offered to sell me the 1984 station wagon he bought "to take the little old ladies to church" for $450.

Who WOULDN'T want this car?

When I said no he tried to sell it to Angela in Sales whose car gave it up right in our parking lot just this week.  Sadly, she didn't want to "do that to her kids."  I was like, can you imagine the awesomeness of driving them to school in that thing?, but she doesn't have my vision.  Plus it's easy for me to say because obviously, I don't want it either.

Speaking of saying no to unnecessary things... Johanna's backpack weighed a ton after school yesterday, and I was all, do you have boulders in this thing? because seriously, it was that heavy.  Once we opened up the backpack, I wondered why it didn't weigh more. She had all manner of crap in that thing, and aside from her lunchbox, a couple of library books and a bag of cookies my mother had sent home,* it was all junk.

P.S. Oh, except.  Turns out she DID have a rock in there.  The girls inherited Eric's geology mania.  We've got rocks all over this joint.  I especially love finding them in the dryer.

The firemen came to her school, and that's all well and good, but I'm not very excited about the red plastic fireman's hat or the three "safety" coloring books now sitting on the kitchen table.  And then apparently a nutritionalist came too because Johanna also pulled out a plastic vegetable brush and a handout detailing why we should use paper towels instead of cloth to clean all surfaces of our home.  (Don't even get me started.)

And I know, whatever, right?  But this really annoys me.  I'm trying to get the crap out of Johanna's room--out of my entire house--and here comes this stuff marching in without permission.  I can toss the coloring books in the recycling (when she forgets about them tomorrow) and I can pop the vegetable brush in the rummage sale bag, but what about the fireman's hat?  That's just landfill fodder.  Actually, who am I kidding, so is the vegetable brush because vegetable brushes are stupid.

My point is this: We need to start saying no to giveaways.  (Hard to do when you're seven and not with your crazy minimalist mother, I realize.)  Just because something is free doesn't mean we should have to take it.  Let's enjoy the moment for what it is without a souvenir.

I just blew my own mind.

*Wednesdays are CCD/First Communion prep and the 'rents were on Johanna duty. Thanks for the cookies, Mommy!

P.P.S. I'm thinking of changing my blog format again because Eric says this one looks like red dripping blood, which I guess is appropriate for Halloween but isn't really the overall look I'm going for.  So don't be surprised if it looks different around here soon is all I'm saying.

The Cure, Never Enough.  Because it's NEVER ENOUGH.  Well, duh.  And also I love The Cure with my whole heart and this is a good song to sing when you're alone in the car.