Week of Solid Sewing - My beloved houseguest daughter is making my week so wonderful. Monday, New Year's Day, I spent sewing all day with Meala, while Liz enjoyed a New Year's day of college football with Alan, Theresa, Jeff, and Adrienne. Tuesday she cooked a marvelous crock-pot dinner and followed it up with baked apples done with brown sugar and ginger. Meala came over and joined us for dinner, sewing, and socializing. After she went home and my roomie and daughter went to sleep, I stayed up finishing all the hand-sewing on my new yellow linen and silk dress, at attach the stomacher in the front. Imagine a triangular window in the linen, to show a layer of silk for the "bodice" section of the dress. The neckline is squared off, and the triangle tapers to just past my waist. It looks wonderful, but it did mean going to sleep at 3:30 am.

And yesterday, Liz again took charge in the kitchen for me. I scarfed down a hasty reheated lunch and we did laundry over the lunch hour. Then as I went back to work, she made some lunch for herself and some toasted "cheesy bread" for me, served neatly with a little square of chocolate on the plate. She's so darn adorable. Then she went grocery shopping and put together a dinner for us. We decided we needed a "comfort food" as part of the meal, which ended up being macaroni and cheese, complemented with roasted chicken breast in herbs, fresh baked bisquits, and steamed fresh brussel sprouts. I'm spoiled rotten by her!

Then I took her to the local baronial fencing practice where she got instruction from several fencers, looked adorable in a borrowed jacket and borrowed gloves (however, bright yellow gloves and bright pink linen sleeves are a little unusual!), and she seemed to have lots of fun. I snuggled under the quilt from my car in the cold and damp, doing more hand-sewing (this time, finishing the applique's for Meala's skirt). We all went out for coffee and food at the local IHOP afterwards, and then home again.

So far, in Liz's "work for minimum wage for me at home" hours, she's completely resorted and organized my bookcase full of office supplies, and I've finished reorganizing my art supplies corner. Today she'll be helping me shred old documents and take out stacks of recycling, as I finally attack the backlogged filing in my life. I sorted through two pull-out drawers in my filing cabinet and have probably tagged 60% of it for shredding or recycling. I cannot believe how much crap I used to keep. I've dug through my organizing reference books and found the recommendations for how long to keep which kind of paperwork, and we're attacking the papers in this way.

* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Professional Organizers and their handy-dandy reference lists.

* * * * *
Additional Editor's Postscript: For those of you who are interested, here's those references for purging your paperwork and filing backlogs.

Clutter Control by Jeff Campbell (1992), pp 137-138 -- I made a hand-written copy of the list of "How Long to Keep Records" and had it in a plastic sleeve in my filing cabinet. Now I'm planning to leave the list out =ON= my filing cabinet, to remind me to purge paperwork.

Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern, pp 160-161 -- This book is amazing in general, and the chapter on "Household Information Centers" had her recommendation for how long to keep papers in your files.