While spring cleaning last month I came across a box of keepsakes in the back of my closet I had forgotten about.  Inside I found these jacks.  My granny, who was born in 1917 held onto them her entire life!  Since my parents divorced when I was only 3 we had lived with my gran.  When I was about 7 years old Gran taught me how to play jacks. I was amazed at her skill!!  She would often tell me stories of her childhood growing up in Baltimore City and how they would pass the time playing jacks on the marble steps (which Baltimore is infamous for) in front of their family home.  As I grew and continued to practice playing jacks, I too became quite the competitor!  I can recall challenging Gran to a game of jacks well into my young adult life.  One day, not to long before gran becoming diagnosed with Alzheimer's desease, Gran took me to her bedroom and got out her old jacks.  She told me that since I was the only grandchild who had learned to play jacks she was giving them to me to keep as a family heirloom.  I was both thrilled and honored!  After finding them last month I was flooded with memories of Gran and the good times we shared playing jacks on the kitchen floor and decided they needed to be on display.  I found this shadow box at a thrift store, painted it and hot glued the jacks and ball inside.  It is now proudle displayed in my family room along with some old family photos of Gran. 

In Response to Week 4 “Spring Cleaning” Savings Challenge: ENTER HERE by JeffYeager

 Whew! I just finished emptying my studio completely to ready it for a new tenant. Fifteen years of art supplies, office furniture, packing materials, hardware, clothing, yard sale type stuff,and what have you! With the internet I was able to find so many places to move these items along to new owners that will find them useful and keep all this stuff out of the landfill. the Clothing went to the clothingdrop box at the church, The hardware and sheetrock pieces went to the new resource store that Habitat for Humanity is building nearby. the thrift items went to the Tibet thrift shop. The blankets, rugs and big, flat  basket went to the ASPCA (for the kittens). I dropped off my very cool blonde 50's flat file at the local consignment antique store (wish  me luck). I gave all my metal industrial shelving to a friend that is starting an ebay business in her garage. she got my packing materials, too. My art supplies went to two local independent children's art schools and each generously gave me $100...so glad to know these materials are going to be used. My pal dropped by and I gave her my fantastic desk chair and she is letting me store my scroll saw in her shed. Brought the defunct DVD player to Best Buy. I am in awe of the places available to take things and reuuse them. Everyone was so gracious and the feeling of becoming unencumbered is fantastic.

We just sold our house so we are combining spring cleaning with moving.  Tomorrow we are taking a truck load of hard to recycle materials for a special recycling day.  It's amazing how much stuff we collected in 22 years that normally would go to the landfill, but we are able to recycle it.  Many items will go to the resale shop which helps to support an animal shelter.  It is such a freeing experience to get rid of all this clutter in our lives.  We hope to never have so much stuff again.  Not buying stuff in the first place is a huge savings.