To toss, or not to toss—

that is the question.

When we moved here last August, we arrived with a truck full of furniture and belongings, and hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of “stuff” we paid good money to move, only to have it sit in boxes—or on shelves—lo these past 10 months.

Granted, we don’t have nearly the amount of cabinet, or shelf space, we had back east, and some of it is unsorted family photos and things the teenager made, wrote and created over the years that I just can’t seem to part with.

I’ve begun to sift through the “stuff” stuff and to weed out those things we haven’t used, or seemed to need, since we moved here.

Over the weekend, I spied four or five cookie tins—filled with Halloween, Valentine Day, Hanukkah, Christmas and other specialty cookie cutters—that the Legal Dude has placed high on a shelf in the storage room in the basement.

miss mash from one of the containers

I don’t have room in the kitchen cabinets or the drawers for these oh-so essential tools of the trade of any self-respecting mom who has the time to bake.

My child, however, is now a teenager who seems to despise everything he once loved and embraced, and at nearly 14 years of age, would prefer to pull his own fingernails out rather than have his mom bake cookies using “cookie cutters” for his class or his mates.

So—I’m thinking, maybe it’s time to pass them forward, to a neighbor who has a three- and a seven-year old.

They celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, and all the holiday baking I do these days seem to be bar or drop cookies, rugelach, peppermint marshmallows or other goodies that don’t require cookie cutters.

Besides, I’m hoping NOT to be a grandma anytime soon, like say within the next fourteen to sixteen years!

By then, who knows what the whole cookie-baking industry will be and I’m certain my cookie cutters will be considered obsolete.

Then again, maybe I have some “soon to be vintage antiques,” if I keep them that long.

So back to my query—to toss, or not to toss?

That is my dilemma...

It's always something...

Yesterday we set the oven to self-clean and then the Legal Dude roasted a prime rib.

We followed the butcher’s directions—roasting for an hour at 450 (well, the butcher said 400), then turned the oven off and left the roast in the sealed, turned off oven for another two hours.

I was actually worried about letting meat sit in a hot oven—not actually cooking—for so long.

It was delicious, if a just a tad overdone for our taste buds, so next time we’ll take it out a half-hour earlier.

When dinner was done and the oven cooled, I wiped it down to remove the grease and smut that was causing the kitchen—and the rest of house—to smell like cooked meat.

This morning after returning from errands, the house still had an overly strong oder of cooked meat coming from the overn, so we re-set the oven for self-clean.

When the beeper went off indicating it was done, I opened the door and without thinking, took a damp paper towel to wipe down the glass window.

Big mistake...

Big, BIG mistake…

This is what happened, immediately upon touching the hot, hot glass with the damp paper towel.

Photo upside down, for some reason can't right it.

I’m not too proud to say I shed a tear of frustration.

We don’t know if we can just replace the door, or just the glass—or have to get an entire new unit.

We don’t know if it will effect cooking if the glass will continue to crack.

We have family and friends coming to town in a few weeks and have plans to do lots of cooking and baking, not to mention just day to day cooking.

It’s always something...

When no news is "not" good news...

Ugh!

I got a call this morning from our renters.

Two branches fell on the roof sometime during the storm, but they don’t think they did any damage.

More serious though, is a damp spot between the living and the dinning rooms where a teeny tiny bit of drippage lasted about 15 minutes.

But that was 2 days ago!

So why am I just getting a call this morning?

I made arrangements for our contractor guy to take a look see. He told me they would probably have to remove the snow from the roof.

I checked in on our renters twice during the storm to make sure everything was okay. I told them to call if there were any problems.

Earlier this week I’d been feeling the pull to contact them again, but told the Legal Dude, “No news is good news.”

Besides, I don't want to hound them.

Now I know better. I need to listen to my gut.

Gad…there’s always something.

Post Script: During the teenager’s bb game this afternoon, the Director was telling me how their house was pretty much destroyed during the rare tornado that came through two years ago.

Kind of puts things in perspective, a bit.

A House Unknown…

Looks like the ceiling vent fan in the master bedroom might be leaking.

There was a fine mist on the wall and floor all around the commode, the commode seat cover and the tank, but not the top of the commode tank.

To be honest, I wondered if S hadn’t sleepwalked and, you know…

When asked, he said he couldn’t recall---but isn’t that, after all, the problem with sleep walking---but he really didn’t think so.

He suggested that water may have sprayed from the shower head while the vent fan was on.

I experimented. There was no way the water could have spray around the corner.

Then I noticed water droplets hanging from the ceiling vent fan…sigh.

Of course there were issues with our house back home, but we’d lived there for nearly 20 years.

Wow…did I just write that?! 20 years!

Anyway…we had a sense of knowledge with our house back home, and although things always break, leak and fall apart, we had that sense of false comfort and knowledge of what was what.

Or maybe I just remember things as they really weren’t…

Here, everything is new and unknown and kind of scary, but still exciting at the same time….as long as I don’t have to worry about fixing leaks, gas ranges or broken sprinkler systems (which is fine by the way).

Just saw a sight…three plow trucks drove by the house…twice.

Of course, the snow (and ice underneath) is so packed that the plows don’t really make a difference.

And they don’t use salt, just sand.

Hoping the sun will shine today but don’t think so…and it’s barely 30 degrees…and windy!

I’m still having fun though!

Hope you all have a good day!