Free

Hello, all. This morning, happily, I can see my floor. And there are only 5 boxes left to be unpacked in my office. Half a days work at best. And yes, I have been putting in 20 hour days here and at the old place for the past 3 weeks, which means I basically fell off the face of the earth.

Moving from a way-too-large house to a much smaller one has had many interesting discoveries attached. My kids and I love each other and laugh a lot about sharing one bathroom. We get cozy together in the evening and watch movies and play games. Life is amazingly good even with some bumps in the road to still bace for.

The coolest thing about this move is that it's giving us a chance to purge. Majorly. A garage sale like no other is in my future. But I think I may have to do something a little different....

How many of you have struggled and needed things in the past? I had one of those years last year but was very fortunate to have people step in repeatedly just when things looked bleak. We never went without (thanks in a large part to RK and Mr RK and their families) and I feel fortunate to walk into a new year with affordable rent and enough to eat. Aah, the little things in life.

So, now that our struggles are behind us, I think it's time to pay it forward, as they say. We have all this stuff. And a lot of people don't have enough. And I have all sorts of friends who have given things, little and big, over the years. Now, I have stuff and those people are going to get dibs on it.

My impending garage sale will start with an invitation only event. Where everyone I love and everyone I know will be invited to come select one or two or twenty items from our discard pile and take it home. We don't have any junk here, it's all good, usable stuff. And I want you to have something that comes from my home and that means something to me. With a little Rachel love attached.

Then, once the friends have had their shot at the goodies, we'll open the doors to the neighbors. No big signs - we will let word of mouth spread that there's free stuff. For anyone who needs something. And there'll be cookies and soda and popcorn and great conversation. And I will get to know my new neighbors in the best way - by welcoming them to my home and my life, by making them into my new friends.