Day 227 of 365 Days of Being Thankful

          Today I am thankful for purging more stuff.  Everyday I am going to fill at least one hefty trash bag for Goodwill and one for trash!  It is a non-ending job.  I have clothes in my closet from teaching that I will most likely never wear again.  I am never going to wear pantsuits again or some of the regular dresses so off they went! Sometimes I wonder why I kept so much stuff! They went into the Goodwill bag!  Dan said that he wears a very small amount of the clothes in his closet so he can also purge.  My closet is still stuffed so I am sure I will need to do a second or third or fourth cycle of purging! I feel motivated to keep going for the time being so I don't want to stop! I couldn't sleep last night so I purged another hefty trash bag from my closet and then filled a trash bag from my bathroom.
       We have had groundhogs living in our yard this summer.

I think they live under the pool deck.  I want them gone but I don't want to kill them! There are at least three of them.  I goggled how to get rid of them and it said to pour moth balls down their hole. It also said to pour kitty litter on the ground near their hole and we have PLENTY of used kitty litter from our two cats. They like to eat dandelions and clover and I have a big yard full of both! I see them digging everyday.  I just can image tunnels all over my backyard!!Dan bought the moth balls for me last night.  I poured them into what I think is the hole this morning.  The smell reminded me of my grandmother's house. Her house reeked of that smell.  I threw the empty box and bag into my trash compactor and now my kitchen smells of nasty moth balls! I washed my hands thoroughly but they still smell like moth balls and I never touched the actual moth balls just the packaging.  I am going to take the trash bag out to the garage because I can't stand the smell. I think of my poor dad growing up in a house that smelled like that.  My dad had a very difficult life.  His father was a city police officer and died when my dad was an infant. My grandmother said he died in the line of duty but my dad said he died from alcoholism.   My grandmother took my dad and his brother out of school after 8th grade and made them go to work.  She was a very tough cookie!  They had to pull a wagon full of her baked pies and go sell them in neighborhoods.  My dad said they never went to the same neighborhood twice  because her pies weren't very good and the people were nasty to them.  They couldn't go home until they sold all of the pies! My dad was very successful in life. I think it was because he was smart.  He gave us a good life and put three kids through college!  I miss my dad everyday. He was so kind and loving.