Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Downsizing Resolutions


Happy New Year. My mother was always quoting old wives tales and superstitions. We always had black-eyed peas and ham hocks on New Years Day. Some sort of greens, too. Turnips, collards or mustard. Cornbread, too. All this was supposed to bring good luck and wealth in the new year.

It never worked. Our luck and finances were still predictable. After all these years you would think it would be okay to abandon tradition, but I didn't. I cooked it all in happy anticipation of all the wealth to come. Maybe it has already started ..... we were able to sign up for insurance on Christmas day.

Another of Mother's sayings ........ whatever you do on New Years Day, you will be doing all year. She would never do a load of laundry, or tackle a big cleaning project on the first day of the year. Funny thing, though, she still had laundry to do all year long. I never really believed that particular adage, though.

Still, these things stick around in a corner of your mind like dust balls. As you sweep through memories, those dust balls bounce around and come to the forefront of your mind. So, with that particular thought in my mind I decided to tackle my closet. My shoulder still hurts, but, I sure don't want to sit around all of 2014 nursing an ache, do I?

Of course not! I did it, too. I pulled all the stuff out and weeded through all the things that will never get any use. My closet is pristine! I vacuumed and folded and hung and tidied the day away. I did laundry and I cooked. I mopped and washed dishes, too. Tomorrow I will be stripping the bed and taking down the curtains. I will be washing all the rugs and linens and curtains. Really, I will. I have set the precedent and now I must follow through!!

The only bad thing about pulling all those clothes out is that I have spent far too many hours trolling Pinterest. Those oxford cloth button down collar shirts that He Who wears day glo safety colors used to wear, ...... those would make really cute little dresses for little girls. The sweaters could be re-purposed into mittens and tea pot cozies and oh, so many things. 

It will be hard to part with all that good crafting material, you know. Mother rarely made any resolutions, but I have decided that my resolution this year will be to down-size. No, not me, but my belongings. Not that downsizing me is necessarily a bad idea ........

9 comments:

joanne said...

I was a city girl so didn't know about the peas and greens but if it works, why not? Hoping to downsize around here too, lots of crafty stuff that needs to be weeded through...if I could just get motivated to start! Happy New Year.

Linda O'Connell said...

Eating black-eyed peas and greens means I also eat cornbread and real butter, which means I will never be able to downsize if I start out day one of the new year this way. Happy New Year. You have such a clever writing style.

Brian Miller said...

downsizing is not a bad idea all the way around...i think mine will be eliminating the clutter in my life and in my house.....

happy new year

mamahasspoken said...

My SIL is one for the superstitions. She always told me though NOT to take my tree down on New Years eve. She would tell me I could do it the day before or New Years Day but not the eve but NYeve would bring you bad luck. As I've gotten older, I realize that she is the only one that has EVER said this one, but I still don't take it down on that day ;o)
Happy New Year to you kathy!

Kathy G said...

I've never eaten black eyed peas on New Year's Day before, but they had a bag of (dried)ones at Aldi the day before and I had some homemade broth in the freezer. It ended up being a tasty dinner served with cooked kale (frozen, from Costco) and hot sauce. No cornbread, though; that would have been too much work!

ellen abbott said...

We did not eat black eyed peas yesterday. Usually we do. Do you know why black eyed peas are considered good luck? After Sherman burned his way through the south and confiscated all the food supplies, the only thing left was black eyed peas which people considered animal feed back then. So the southern states survived on animal feed and felt lucky to have it.

Anonymous said...

So, what you do on New Year's will be what you do all year? I like that one. I spent the day reading. Oh, raked leaves and pruned some shrubs but that's ok b/c I do that all year any way.

Happy New Year. Hope the campground does a great business this year and few crazies come through your store.

Joanne Noragon said...

The good news is some crafter will find all that raw material in the thrift shop and take it home!
Happy new year.

Val said...

We had black-eyed peas and corn muffins. Just for luck, of course. I'm brewing up some cabbage and sausage and potatoes tomorrow. A few days late, but still near the start of the year. My grandma always pushed the black-eyed peas and cabbage for Jan. 1st.