HGTV this is not

Well, we might be moving.  Not far-- really, as the crow flies, it's less than a mile-- but a different house.  You might remember that we tried this awhile back and couldn't sell our house.  But it is starting to look like this is really going to happen.  The new place has a beautiful lot, gorgeous views, smaller house.  Those were my three priorities.  I'm not much of a house person, and it's a good thing, because the house itself isn't as nice as this one.  But we can fix it up a bit and it will be fine.

Did you catch the key word there?  smaller.  And this one is packed to the brim with stuff.  Which means much jettisoning is going to have to happen before the move actually occurs (which will probably be in early January).  Clean out must happen.  Fortunately my friend Debbie is way ahead of me-- she's started a new blog called "100 Days of Cleanout" about her determination to eliminate at least one item of clutter from her house every day for 100 days.  She is inspiring me, although a whole heck of a lot more than 100 things are going to have to exit chez nous.

Anyway.  I will only do a minimal amount of cleaning before the semester is over.  Then I will have about three weeks between exams/papers and the actual move date.  Of course, Christmas is in there, too, but who's counting?  At least I won't be bored.

Earlier this week, I cleaned off the tops of my cabinets in the kitchen and the plant shelves above.  Here is what I took down:

and believe it or not, there is still quite a bit left.  Our church is having a bazaar to raise money for local charities in a couple of weeks, so that's their destination.

I think I'm going to have a book giveaway for my loyal readers (all six of you) to clear out my bookshelves a bit.  Stay tuned.

On a further cleanout note, I spent about an hour on Twitter last night clearing out the list of people I follow.  When I first started Twitter, I didn't really know anything about it, so I just followed whoever they told me to follow.  Which meant I ended up with a continuous stream of tweets from people I care nothing about.  I deleted about 60 last night who had never followed me back, and all the sudden my tweetstream is full of people I know and who I want to keep up with.  Suddenly I am interested in Twitter again.  It had gotten to the point where I never looked at it, because why would I?  This makes me happy.

Also: help needed.  When I started blogging back in 2003, I was a member of an online community of moms who all had babies in July 1997 (that would be MadMax).  We all referred to our spouses as dh ("dear husband" or "dang husband" or whatever the mood required).  So I just kept using that and never really came up with an internet name for him.  But since all my other family members have internet names, "dh" has felt too impersonal for a long time.  So I've been trying to think of a name for him.  Unsuccessfully.  Any ideas?  He is a runner, bicyclist, gardener, loves his tractor, smart as heck, 6'2"-ish.  Ha.  Maybe TractorMan.  I hadn't though of that.  All of the names I actually call him in real life (besides his real name, of course) are too silly.  I'd be embarrassed.

Have a great weekend, everybody.  I actually have a manageable amount of reading to do for once.  Which means I should get started on my papers, right?