June - The Decluttering has Started

It's a hot start to June. Our weather here in Michigan has been warmer than usual. Today it reached 90f/32/c. The next few days is going to be more of the same. It's a little too warm for me and warmer than it usually is at this time of year. I've been going for my walk and then coming home and enjoying the window air conditioner that we have. 

Today is the first of June. This month I am going to work on starting to get the house in order. I hope to get rid of 50 things in June - hopefully more! I've got off to a good start. Here's a few of the things I got rid of today. I took advantage of our quarterly rubbish pick up. Most of the things I put out already got picked up. Other things I donated. Not included in this list are two bags of rubbish I sorted and took out!

Step stool - this is from the kitchen. I had brought home one from Jane's house as ours was getting a little worn, but I'd never changed them out. The step stool went on the curb and someone picked up. 

2 sets of sheets and extra pillowcases. These are well worn. I can't even remember the number of years I've had them. 

7 books. This is not an easy one for me. Sigh. I struggle with books. 

3 bras - I think I wore them once. They weren't comfortable. Goodness knows why I kept them - perhaps hoping for some miracle that they'd finally feel good perhaps - ha ha!

Cardigan - I like it which is why I've kept it. BUT I haven't worn it for a long time. I have plenty so it's gone. 

a tangle of headphones. No idea why I kept them. 

a new pack of shoelaces. Don't know why I bought them. 

Pair jeans. Just not comfortable. 

3 suitcases. We downsized. How many suitcases do we need? 

It's a start. Husband is dropping off two boxes of donations on his way home from work tomorrow. The donations include some items I decluttered last month (not included in the list). I'm writing things down and will probably update once a week. 

Is anyone else decluttering? How did you do? 

Some of the decluttered items. 

Back Again

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the last post. I do appreciate them. 

We had a lovely weekend away. The weather was good, nice and sunny. The campground was packed, but we had expected that as it was a holiday weekend. The mini cabin we stayed in was quite nice. The only thing was that it was fairly close to a busy road, so not very quiet during the day when we were sitting outside. The nights were quiet though. 

I got up and did sunrises and stayed up and did sunsets. Lovely to see. The campground was in a State Park that was on the shores of Lake Huron which is a Great Lake on the east side of Michigan. The beach was busy at sunset, but it was big enough that we could walk along and have a little slice of sunset quiet by ourselves. At sunrise I was the only one on the beach. Lovely. I sat on one of the downed logs and watched the colours in the sky and the birds (including eagles) flying over the lake hoping to catch some breakfast. 

It was a lovely break. We did some walking, there were a couple of trails. I'm not sure this campground will be one we'd go back to though. It was quite small and crowded and some of the other campers were quite loud. There is supposed to be quiet times between 10 and 8 but people were certainly making quite a bit of noise after 10. The good thing for us is that as we were in the mini cabin we were spaced a little bit away from actual campers.

Tomorrow is the first of June and time to start my 50 in June decluttering. I'm glad that some people said they were going to give it a go too! I think being away from the house and then coming back makes me see what needs to be tackled AND makes me want to do it!

I'll finish now with some phone photos of our camping trip

Mini Cabin

Sunset

A walk along the trail

Along the Beach

Off Camping for the Long Weekend

It's Memorial Day weekend here and we are off camping or sort-of glamping this weekend. We're staying in a basic mini cabin for Saturday and Sunday night. It does have electricity so a step up from our usual tent camping, but we won't be taking along anything fancy. It's a chance to decompress and enjoy the outside. The weather is supposed to be quite nice, maybe a little chilly at night, but the good thing about staying in the mini cabin is that we can take a small heater with us if things get too cold. I am looking forward to seeing a sunset or two. We'll walk a little bit, but it's more about relaxing. The State Park we are staying at is on the lakeshore, so there will be a small beach. I won't be sitting out sun worshipping, but I will be enjoying taking a walk along the beach. 

We come back on Monday. On Tuesday I am going to start planning for my 50 in June decluttering challenge. I am really struggling about where to start. I'm going to think on it and maybe work out some sort of plan. I think the goal should be to tackle some of the areas that are really bothering me. I am hoping that, by doing this challenge, it will motivate me to keep going and continue sorting the house. 

Something happy for today. I love these flowers that I saw at some gardens while visiting daughter. There wasn't many flowers around. The gardens were beginning spring planting as the winter there is longer. Google Lens tells me that these are Bleeding Hearts. They are so beautiful and vibrant

Hope everyone has a great long weekend - it's one of the few Bank Holidays the US and UK share (though for different reasons) 

Getting Back In The Groove...or not

Up bright and early this morning for a walk. I was walking along, took a stumble, tried to right myself and ended up splat on the dirt path. Luckily the only thing hurt were my knees. They are feeling a little rough tonight. I saved my hands as I was wearing light gloves (my hands were a little chilly, thank goodness) and I saved the camera and long lens. That would have been a very expensive tumble! I was certainly glad there was no-one around to watch my splat!

I thought I'd share a few more photos of our visit with daughter. One day we took a drive to Minnesota's Largest Candy Store. I like to go there as they have English chocolate. There are sweets/candies from all over the world. Lots to see too! I imagine it's a really fun place for children, though expensive too lol. I stocked up to last me (hopefully) until I go to visit sister in August. 

I'm doing some thinking about June Challenges. I need to get this house sorted and I need to do some decluttering. I'm thinking of Fifty in June - getting rid of at least 50 things out of the house. I'm beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by the stuff. We brought some things back from daughter's house and I need to make choices of what I can let go. I just find it really hard to let go!

More tomorrow - hopefully!

Long Time No Chat - Back From Daughter's

Just a quick check in. I'll try to write more tomorrow and catch up with blogs. 

We had a lovely time at daughter's. It's a long drive there and back. We had lots of time to just relax and hang out. I celebrated both Mother's Day and my birthday with daughter.  Now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and clean up the house a bit (ended up bringing quite a bit back with us as well as some things I'd left last time) and catching up with the washing. We go on our first camping trip this weekend so things will be busy until then. 

The puppy, Sierra, was adorable. She was better behaved than I thought and listened well. She obviously has puppy energy though. 

A couple of photos of the dogs

Koda

Sasha

Sierra

Hope everyone is doing well!

Thursday... and Off on An Adventure

Just another day today. Walk. Errands. Cleaning. 

Lovely sunrise

 And watching some beavers at the lodge

And here's one I took of a beaver. They are so adorable!

Tomorrow me and husband are off to daughter's for a week! Really looking forward to it. Not the drive. Too long. But looking forward to spending a week with daughter. She has time off work so it should be fun. We will get to meet Sierra

I am taking my computer with me as we are driving so plenty of space! I shall hopefully be checking in though I shall be enjoying my time with daughter. It will probably be September before I see her again!

Thanks for reading!

Another Day...

Got up and went for a walk. It was a lovely day. Fairly warm this morning. Lovely and sunny. Looks like Spring might (fingers crossed) be finally upon us. Things are certainly starting to look a lot greener and brighter. 

After my walk I got all my errands done and came home to sit in the garden for a little while before husband came home. I've been watching this Groundhog at the bottom of the garden.  It comes into our garden to eat. I have persuaded husband not to mow a small portion of the garden for No Mow May. I'm not sure entirely what that is, but my understanding that is a way to try to get people to think about how they share their garden with animals and birds. Our garden is quite long and there is (admittedly) a wild bit at the back. Husband is just expanding that for a while. Because of the way our house and gardens are set up with our neighbours it isn't an eyesore for them. Most of the end of their gardens butt up with ours. 

I think (from what I've been told) that Groundhogs can be a bit of a nuisance. We're keeping an eye on it in case it thinks of undermining any structure near us!

Really likes all the grass. 

Another visitor we had this week was an Opossum

Not the prettiest looking thing (though those ears do remind me of Mickey Mouse!). They are good for the garden. They eat pests and are good for getting rid of ticks (ick, ick). It was out early Sunday morning though I've seen it several times at night. 

I'm off to bed. Think I've rambled enough lol. Hopefully back tomorrow. 

I forgot to say yesterday that we did end up going to some garage sales on Saturday. I got up early, went for a quick walk to watch the beavers and then headed home to go with husband and son for the sales. We haven't been to this one neighbourhood sale for years. It is really big. We park and walk the streets. It was packed. I found lots of (too many) goodies. Husband found a couple of things. We had a good time. Middle son came up in the afternoon and brought me an early Mother's Day present. 

Hopefully I can keep it alive! I do not have a green thumb. I'd like to. I end up getting distracted and forgetting to water and take care. 

I went out for a walk today. It was lovely out first thing. 

Not much done on the home front. The usual house-y stuff but not a lot extra. Sigh. 

Monday

I missed a few days. Not because of anything bad, just keep forgetting to post. There isn't a lot going on right now. I suppose that's good in a way. Just feeling a bit blah too. Don't seem to have a lot of energy! I am out walking quite a bit so at least I'm getting exercise. Housework is just blah. We did go to some garage sales this weekend and I found a nice planner thing to help me (hopefully) keep on track. I know I have some somewhere around here, but can I find one? Nope. 

We had a lovely walk yesterday. Husband and I did a little birdwatching around Indiana Dunes on a Marsh Trail and then went to another park on the way home. It's a new one to us and we wanted to take a look. It was quite interesting. There is a platform overlooking the river and then one down on the river. We decided to take the one that meant we could go down the staircase (instead of up) and walk up a winding hill (it was certainly easier)

Platform

Husband out on the platform. It was a weird feeling standing out on it. It moves! It's a little like being on a swaying boat. Yikes. 

My walking friend was supposed to be going away this week. She was booked on a (expensive) river boat cruise in Switzerland and somewhere else (having a brain moment lol) for three weeks. She had it booked for over a year. They cancelled two days before she was due to leave!!!! Needless to say, she is quite upset. I wasn't planning on walking with her for three weeks. I had made plans for this week. However, I did walk with her today as I felt a little sorry for her. Tomorrow I'm on my own. 

Hoepfully I'll be back tomorrow. 

End of the Week and better weather!

Yesterday was another cold day. I took a walk, but it was cold and windy and not all that nice. This morning started cold, but we actually had a sunrise and by the time I was done with my walk it was quite warm! I got my jobs done and then sat outside for a little bit watching the birds and such. I've been quite fascinated by a groundhog that is building a den under our back neighbour's garage. I don't know them well enough to say anything (they can be quite a nuisance). They are quite funny to watch though. It comes into our garden as our long back garden butts up to their garage. I've been watching it gather leaves and such today. I took a few photos but haven't sorted them yet, so will post as soon as I do. 

I'm on my own for my walk tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I'm actually on my own for the next three weeks as my walking friend is going to be away. 

I'm thinking of going to some neighbourhood garage sales on Saturday. It would usually be a walk day and I'm so stuck in my ways I feel a little anxious when I don't go for a walk. I don't know how to explain it, but I'm really stuck on a routine and I find it hard to break away. I seem to get so overfocused on something. It's quite annoying, but I don't know how to break it. It makes me quite anxious if I don't go for a walk first thing in the morning and take photos. How do you break away from such a routine? I want to break away from thinking that I 'have' to take a walk and take photos, that I'm missing out on something. Perhaps a beginning solution would be to go to the sales and then go for a walk? Not sure.