Piles!

I've been trying to work at getting some things cleaned up and organized while Dennis has been gone. There are some piles I love to look at and work on and some that make me want to throw up my hands in despair.

I love piles of fabric and the projects that are waiting patiently to be done. Right now, at the top of that pile, I have some cute girly fabrics ready to make an infant car seat tent for Mandy's new baby. I have some table runners and wall hangings to possibly get sewn for Christmas, some bags to make for camping gear and outdoor games..... My fabric piles are extensive and so are the projects I would like to make when I have the time.

I love piles of books that are waiting to be read. At the top of this pile is The Help by Katheryn Stockett that I need to read before book club at the end of the month. Some of the others are: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, Dewey (we bought this one for Mindy and she liked it), Magnolia Wednesday, The Weight of Silence, The Search, Saving Max, and A Thread so Thin.

I have a pile of hoodies and lightweight jackets sitting on the end of my bed. I really like them but don't have a space to hang them and I know where to put them all. It is that changing of seasons when the lightweight jackets are still good most of the time but it will start snowing and getting cold any day. I need to figure out what to do with them today since Dennis will be home in the morning and he probably doesn't want to share his half of the bed with a pile of clothes that aren't his.

I have piles of shoes. Actually, I just got my 20 pair of summer shoes packed away so the pile is looking a little better. Luckily the boots are still in their boot boxes so for at least a little while the pile is very manageable.

I have a pile, well actually buckets, of carrots that we dug up from the garden yesterday. They have mostly been washed but they need to be processed and frozen.

And then there are the piles of paper. I hate those piles!!! They are never ending and frustrating. I try to be sure that the bills never end up in those piles and that they get paid but the rest of it............ Some is stuff that Dennis should probably look at, or something that needs to be acted upon when the appropriate time comes, or that is interesting, or not, but maybe it should be kept and filed...... We don't have a very good filing system set up right now - just a box that all "important " papers get thrown in. That may just have to be my winter project!

There are piles of things that I have a love/hate relationship with depending on the time and circumstances; piles of laundry, piles of toys, piles of pictures to be organized and scrap-booked, piles of quilts, pillows and blankets, piles of pill bottles, a pile of food stuffs on the pantry floor, piles of stuff waiting to be put away or thrown away or given away, piles of shoes inside the front door, piles of dirty dishes....

Maybe piles are a sign that we are alive, busy and looking forward with hope. Maybe they are reminders of how blessed we are. And, just maybe, someday in the future we may look back to this time and wish we had some of those piles again, or not.