THE BEST ADVICE FOR DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME, FILLING IT WITH MORE BOOKS AND THROWING A FEW BABIES IN

Hello November.  I am so happy to see you in all your glory (finally).  I wish I had a picture of the yellow leaves from the many walnut trees in my backyard.  It's a natural carpet.  Sometimes when I let the dogs out and stand on the porch it seems to be raining leaves.  We've had a lot of rain lately and I absolutely love how the leaves are matted to the ground, glistening and showing no sign of being swept away.  

I'm also loving bringing out my sweaters and boots.  I like small doses of muted colors, there's something about the earthy colors and layers.  Are we mimicking fall?  Wanting to stand out against the cold gray skies of winter?  We know how to dress for the elements here.  And we're smart.  And of course, I love an excuse to switch up my wardrobe.  

I want to share an article I recently read online.  I think you guys know that I devour information; fact, fiction, trivia, pop culture and history...you name it.  I thought I'd share some links here and there  in some of my posts in case the subjects interests you.  

Perusing Yahoo News, I came across an article regarding the 'correct age' a woman should stop wearing jeans.  Did your jaw just drop?  Read the article here.   

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Now you know I wasn't going to post without mentioning the big win by the Chicago Cubs last night.    What a game.  Emotions were up and down much like we were from our seats (or stools).  We (mostly family) met at an Irish pub that my sister in law owns here on the Southside. and had a nice table in front of several TV screens.  I loved that one was closed captioned.  We had a ball; pizza, buckets of beer and lots of high fives.  I nearly didn't go out at all and I'm so glad I did.

Me and Abby.  I'm the one with my hat askew.  

Emily couldn't be there as she s due to have the baby any time now.  Son Jeff has been literally flying back and forth between Chicago and Cleveland.  He Face Timed us around the 8th inning.  I could be wrong but I sort of felt he wished he were here with us in Chicago celebrating although there wasn't a huge lack of Cub fan at Progressive Field.  

What a night!  The parade is tomorrow.  I had an appointment downtown and rescheduled it.  It will be craaaaaazy.  Abby. who lives just a few blocks from Wrigley Field has been a regular guest here.  Even when the Cubs were away, the celebrating in Wrigleyville was loud.  As our mayor, Rahm Emanuel said, "For once we don't have to say, 'Well, there's always next year'!"

No, no, no.  I am not wrapping Christmas gifts yet, I pulled this from last years photo files.  I was thinking about the reasons I didn't decorate for fall.  Other than some little pumpkins and a basket of apples, nothing.  On Halloween (was that just four days ago?) I went downstairs to my storage/hoarding room to find an orange scarf I like to put on Milo.  The room is chaotic with messy cartons and bins which were once categorized by the seasons and holidays.  It has become an aching pain in the arse as it's such a disaster and it's going to take forever to get in order.  In order to have decorated with some of the really cute things I have for fall, I would have had to move some of the clutter from my living spaces.  That would mean bringing it down to storage and making a bigger mess.  I'm spewing secrets here.  

I have a major goal to declutter before Thanksgiving.  I am going to pack up everything I don't need or hold close to my heart and add it to the lakehouse pieces for the lake garage sale in June.  Need is the key word here.  No matter which store I walk into; Target, HomeGoods, Kohls or Marshall's...there is never really going to be anything I need.  What I need is a diversion for when I feel cooped up.  This mess has finally caught up with me.  

I hear so many of us say that we are going to go lighter on this or that holiday, we are going to purge clutter.  Boy, I'm right there with everyone else.  I'm on a mission now and I hope as these next few months go by that I can share some of the things I'm going to do to resolve this problem.  In the meantime I want to share another article I read that might give you food for thought.  It's about clutter and you can find it here.  I've read many similar articles on this subject but this actually makes sense.  See a little pattern going on?  I want to pass some interesting ideas along to you as I find them relating to my life.  Simply click the link if you think it might be interesting.  

I am super influenced when a blogger recommends a book, in this case, books.  In a short description I can decide if it sounds interesting to me.  I then go to Amazon and read the low down and reviews.  Sometimes I hit the Order Now and the following day it's on my porch.  These books are by author Ellen Stimson.  To quote the cover of her first book, Mud Season: "How one woman's dream of  moving to Vermont, raising children, chickens and sheep and running The Old Country Store, pretty much led to one calamity after another."  And there is a continuation of her story in Good Grief.  The last book is a great hardcover of the author's traditions, recipes and photos for an old fashioned Christmas.  

I want to thank Courtney who writes the blog Golden Boys And Me, who made me dive in head first to order.  I can't wait to curl up in my favorite chair once the wind starts to howl and immerse myself in these books.   And by the way, you will love Courtney's blog so sign up to follow!

I so apologize for not giving you the correct link for the newspaper, The Reporter, that I will now be writing for.  I was really chuffed that some of you wanted to have a peek.  This is the correct website.  As far as viewing  the paper online, you will need to check that out...I don't think it will be for free.  After my article is published the third week of every month I think I'll post it here if you'd like.  

I can write between 500 to 600 words in my column.  When I submitted my article yesterday (and believe me, I had writer's block and extreme anxiety beforehand), I used a website called Word Counter Tool.  I had to revise and edit my article a few times as I kept going over my allotment.  I know all of you are well aware that my blog posts are veeeeeeery long.  For the heck of it I copy and pasted my December 2015 article for the Michigan newspaper on the website.  That's it above.  I knew it had to my longest article and yep, hang on to your hats... 16,616 words.  I've often felt I don't write posts, I write essays.  If you guys skip or skim I totally don't blame you.  

On that note I'm going to wind this post up.  And it is with something that is very special.  Son Kevin and Mary Clare are expecting another baby in May!  I am so, so excited for them.  Elsie will have a little brother or sister.  They are just so good at parenting, I just know that as their family grows, we will all be blessed.  So... three of my four kids are expecting.  The odds against something like that is  like the odds against the Cubs winning!  Emily and Mike are ready for Madelyn Elsie to be here next week.  Son Jeff and Deirdre will welcome their baby in early February, and then Kevin and MC will add to their little family in May.  It is raining babies!  Say a prayer for all of these special people.  I'll keep you posted!

See you all soon!

Jane x

P.S.  On a totally different side note I want to mention something about what I wrote in my last post regarding finding a ton of my treasures in the dumpster at the lakehouse.  I think the way I worded it made it looks like The Husband had tossed this stuff away and that's my fault.  So I have to correct myself and let you know it wasn't him (believe me, he'd be walking bent over right now).  The service people hired by the insurance company cleaned out a section of the garage that had water damage.  Sadly, it looks as if they were in a hurry as they tossed a lot of good stuff.  Gladly I was able to salvage most of it.