The two inner me’s are having a war…over a calendar.
I have a sentimental side and a ruthless purging side. The ruthless purging side is in rare form these days. I even scheduled the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? guys to come tomorrow to haul away the crap that has been building up on the side of our house for years, the crap that I never want visitors to see because it reveals the white trash underbelly of the House of Prince. There’s an old barbecue, empty cat litter bins, splintery wooden chairs, and now the piece de resistance: our old toilet. Why don’t we just put that in the front yard, turn the bowl into a planter, and invite people to come and gawk at the sheer tackiness of it all?
Every waking moment that I spend in this house, I am aware of the clutter, and I make minute changes all the time. When I took down last year’s calendar, I walked right over to the recycling basket, prepared to pitch it in without a second thought. But then I glimpsed a simple notation on March 15: “euchre.” And that reminded me that I played Euchre that night. And I kept looking at the calendar because for a while I noted a lot of different things that our family was at least scheduled to do, and I don’t think I would remember those things without this calendar.
Plus, it’s a cute calendar: The Little Prince. Right? I really want to throw it away but I really want to save it. I know what will happen. I will save it and save it and it will constantly get cycled through my “in-box” (which is simply a pile on top of the printer that I only use for scanning, not to be confused with the other printer that is right in front of it that does not have a scanner function. Which reminds me that when I was little we had two tv’s at one point: one that did not have working video and one that did not have working sound.) until I finally get so sick of it that Ruthless Purger will just throw it away, laughing and pointing as Sentimental gets all weepy, crying “What about ‘August 6: Stew returns!’ Remember that day?!”
(Actual photo from August 7, 2006)
I detest clutter and am constantly throwing things away in an attempt to keep clutter from over-taking my life!
I ‘m with you on the clutter/sentimental dilemma. But here’s my 2 cents – save the dang calendar. Put it in a place where you keep special things and in 25 years Kyle will enjoy looking at it. Trust me – my dad did the same thing and there are doctor’s apointments when I was 1 and the birth of my sister on them. I kept them for a few years and then it was up to me to toss or keep (I tossed after about 5 years).
When Luke was born I got one of those 1st year calendars. I definitely saved that. But I found that since I hate scrapbooking the calendar was a neat way to record all the things he was doing. I made one with his pictures on it last year and tried to write on it every day. It’s handy now when I think about the new baby – I don’t remember when Luke started doing things but I know where I can find out. This year I made calendars for all my family members and kept one for myself for writing in. I’ll probably do the same for the new baby too and then let the kids keep all their own calendars when they grow up.
Oooo….I like Katie’s suggestion! I still have our old calendar, not so much because there are important things written on it, but because I know there are important numbers on it. But I also still have (somewhere buried away) calendars from college that for some odd reason, I can’t bring myself to toss. So I understand your dilemma….
Maybe it is the sleep deprivation (I’m with you on that, though thank goodness without the pregnant belly)… but I find this post extremely funny. I just picture your old toilet in the front yard, and it makes me laugh. You should impose that on your blog banner.
Oh, and what the heck, keep the calendar. It’s the little things that you forget, and as I see Cosette growing I am saddened that I don’t remember these small milestones in Juliette’s toddler years.
Maybe it is the sleep deprivation (I’m with you on that, though thank goodness without the pregnant belly)… but I find this post extremely funny. I just picture your old toilet in the front yard, and it makes me laugh. You should impose that on your blog banner.
Oh, and what the heck, keep the calendar. It’s the little things that you forget, and as I see Cosette growing I am saddened that I don’t remember these small milestones in Juliette’s toddler years.
Sorry about the double comment. Stupid blogger gave me an error message so I thought it didn’t post. Feel free to delete the extras…
I still have every calendar since Hubby and I started dating 14 years ago.