Mundane Life

I've been spending most of my time trying to weed out the unnecessary clutter that fills every nook and cranny of this house.  So far I have filled fifteen trash bags.  Other items too big for the bags have stood on the sidewalk their own...a cooler, a lawn chair, etc.  On the left is a pile of USB cords, cable wire, telephone cord, extension cords, and a few miscellaneous connectors I didn't recognize.  I spent some time separating them into categories and placing them on a shelf in the closet.  How could I dare throw any away since I had no idea what they were for?  What if I needed them?  Otherwise, I was merciless.  Anything I hadn't needed for at least a year went into the trash.  Mostly it was junk that I have kept for various reasons and never used or looked at. 

The next room I tackled was the "guest" room.  It's also the room where I store most of my artwork.  Since so much of it was in the show at the art center I took the opportunity to go through the rest and throw out what was really meaningless.......proofs of various prints, failed paintings and drawings, etc.  I went through the drawers of the chest in there and tossed towels and sheets and curtains that have been there unused for years.  In my own bedroom I tossed old clothes and shoes, and hundreds of cassette tapes that aren't usable anymore.  Downstairs I cleaned out the closet in the dining room, which was full of sheet music from when I was playing the recorder, musical instruments, old tablecloths, napkins, wrapping paper, boots, gloves, hats, skeins of yarn, etc. In addition, I put down a new tile floor in both the upstairs and downstairs halls.  The kitchen and living room didn't require quite as much work, since I maintain them fairly well and keep the excess to a minimum.  When I began this cleaning frenzy it was because I had decided to move back to Bangor if I could find a place to live. I wanted to weed out my belongings to make the move easier.  For awhile I was obsessed with the idea and spent days on line looking for apartments and dreaming of the city life of my home town. I applied for subsidized housing.  As time went on, though, my enthusiasm died down, as I had predicted it would.  I have moved so many times, looking for nothing other than something different.  I love the novelty of a new place to be...........so I made my house new.

Today I made bread using the first recipe I had tried.  I've tried two or three others since I got my new stove, but this is the one I like the best.  As you can see by the picture, these loaves were quite enthusiastic and practically overflowed the pans.  I put two balls of dough in each pan to make them easier to store and freeze, but I'm not sure it was a good idea.  The two balls bulged out over the ends rather than rising in the middle.  Nevertheless, it is delicious.