I'm noticing how extremely well my confusions sort themselves out when I stick to the basics. While I DO them, my mind keeps pointing me in the right direction...I've learned the trick of HOW to "slow down."

And here I am, enjoying what I see and nodding companionable sympathy and approval!

I did a successful purge yesterday AND a good deed as well- my sister-in-law loves to "gift" us at Christmas with loads of little, cheap, er, useless crap. Now that the 12 days are over I'm ready to take down the tree and so on (well, not really ready but aware that soon it will have to happen!).
Also, the "advisory circle" aka Board of my chorus has been having some uncharacteristic difficulty amongst themselves- squabbling, competing for my approval- silly stuff, that just needed to be nipped in the bud. So last night we had a potluck "retreat" at my house (they were all excited to see it). And I wrapped all the SIL gifts up in big boxes, re-using the giftwrap that hadn't yet made it to the recycling center. And we had a "Yankee Swap" which I introduced by giving the Rules: Have Fun, Laugh, Give a Compliment, Keep it Positive, and All of the Gifts Must Leave My House By The End of the Evening.
Then we drew numbers, and each person in order got to choose and open the gifts. She could keep it, give it away, or swap with another person, but if she got rid or swapped, she had to give a compliment to the person she was dealing with.
Lots of laughter, everyone had fun- and all the gifts disappeared! And I ended up with the one thing I thought was a keeper- a perpetual birthday calendar, which will end up on the "office" wall once I have an office, and won't take up much space in the meantime.

SRS, do check the link. There won't be updates for awhile yet. We're waiting for the guy who is supposed to finish the siding (my DH calls him "The Messiah- his coming is promised but never fulfilled"- very funny, dear.) . And we have to dig through the snow to get at the 2 x 4s to frame the upstairs- so that may be awhile yet- but the downstairs is reasonably tidy. But I do miss having a desk, file cabinet, and shelves for my stuff!