I’m serious. My stuff is making me insane — I mean full-on, crazy-train-insane. Let me explain. We never really fully unpacked when we moved here five years ago, and since then we have absorbed a couple of other households worth of stuff from relatives who have passed. I have definitely crossed my clutter threshold. It’s to the point that I almost just want to walk away from it all. I’m sure that all of that STUFF is really valuable, useful and sentimental stuff, right? WRONG!

So I have been on a quest (obsession?) to get rid of the clutter in my house. I have been checking out decluttering, organizing, minimalism and zero waste books like crazy. Wait. We already established that the clutter is making me crazy, right? This quest has actually been an on again/off again thing for quite a while. I read “The Story of Stuff” when it first came out along with “No Impact Man” and even though I was concerned, life crowded those stories out.

The first obvious go-to books are “The Magic of Tidying Up” and “Spark Joy” by Marie Kondo. The idea behind these books is to hold each object in your house and decide whether or not it inspires a sense of joy. Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. That would just have me getting rid of things that I should probably keep (like the vacuum cleaner) and holding onto things that I should probably have let go of by now (like that crazy prom dress). It’s also hard to look at an item like a whisk and say “I need to get rid of that.” No. It’s a tool. It’s useful. We need to keep it. But when I looked in my kitchen drawer — the one that won’t close because it’s so full — I counted 10 whisks so maybe I do need to let some of them go. Continue reading “Help! My Stuff is Making Me Crazy!”

It’s been an odd summer for my family. The longest we have all been able to make our schedules match up this year has been two days (over the Fourth of July) so we took a mini-vacation together to the Ozarks. Beyond that, we are all taking separate longer vacations. My daughter went to Greece (lucky girl!), my son is planning on going skydiving, and my husband just got back from visiting family in Denver (with gorgeously cool weather). Me? I’m heading to Texas in August, but it’s for my mother’s 82^nd birthday so I won’t complain about the 100+ degree weather. But since we can’t all take an actual vacation together, I thought we could take a virtual vacation through the library!

I asked my husband where we should go for our virtual vacation and ran into an immediate snag. We have completely opposite vacationing styles. He likes islands; I like mountains and woods. He likes drinks on the beach; I like coffee shops in bookstores. He likes bungalows; I like historic hotels. He likes sand volleyball; I like strolling through museums. We did find a compromise, however — the Galapagos Islands. He gets sea and sun and I get science, history and adventure at a World Heritage site. Continue reading “Virtual Vacation: The Galapagos Islands”

Forget all the rules of fight club because we want to talk about this! Who even knew that ukulele fight club was a real thing? A lot of people, evidently! It’s not just here in Columbia, or Missouri, or even just the USA. No, this is a global thing. And why not? Ukuleles are the perfect instrument: small and portable, not too expensive or complicated, and you can sing and play at the same time. Ukuleles have shown up all over the place in popular music from Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/It’s A Wonderful World” to anything by NeverShoutNever.

The library is a great place to learn this new skill. Check out some of these great books to help you get started: Continue reading “Ukulele Fight Club!”

Growing up, I didn’t go to summer camp. Most days, my mom simply sent us kids outside to play. I spent many hours at hopscotch and jump rope with neighborhood kids who also had been turned out of their homes for a few hours. I was vaguely aware of a place called summer camp. It seemed to me something like Camelot, a land of adventure and merriment in a faraway time and place.

As an adult, I think the idea of summer camp sounds pretty fun and wonder why it should be an experience only for kids. Who’s with me? I see lots of hands going up out there. Whether you find yourself longing to recreate the wonder of your own childhood summer camp memories, or aching to fill a hole in your life that was caused by camp deprivation, your library is here to help. Continue reading “Adult Summer Camp: Design Your Own Adventure”