Feelin' Groovy and Playing with Barbies

Before I had surgery, I had forgotten what it is like to have enough energy to do more than 1 chore a day; baking cookies was just wishful thinking, washing laundry AND folding it didn't go together on the same day, cleaning house meant picking up and dusting, but not vacuuming, or at least, not vacuuming and mopping on the same day. Lack of energy and pain caused me to have limited activities. But that has been gradually changing, and I have noticed this week that I feel better than I have for a very long time. So today, I have been able to bake pumpkin bread, wash 3 loads of clothes AND fold or hang them up, hose off our outdoor wicker to bring in for the winter, make dry bread crumbs from an old loaf of bread, and sort my old Barbies!

Yes, I still have my old Barbie dolls, and they have been in the basement for over 20 years. Whenever I would think of getting rid of them, along with the Barbie car and Barbie doll cases and clothes and whatever else was in the boxes, I would think about selling them on Ebay or some antique shop in the area. Yes, it is hard to believe, but I have actually seen toys I played with as a child in ANTIQUE shops!! And so, yes, that means my Barbies are between 40-50 years old, probably. Yikes!

So, after I finally brought them up from the basement a couple of days ago, the boxes beckoned me to go through them today. The boxes themselves looked ancient, and the Barbies looked, well, of the Velveteen Rabbit genre. They were VERY played with; Ken was going bald (his fuzzy-not-plastic hair was almost worn off),and the Barbies looked dated with their 50s-60s makeup and hairdos (although 2 of them had assorted wigs!). Barbie's little sister, Skipper still looked youthful, and Midge and Allan, friends of B&K, looked pretty good, but then, those youthful freckles on Midge and plastic hair on Allan helped, no doubt. Every darn 1 of them had kept their shape; no potbellies, crows' feet or saggy chins in this bunch! (Maybe some of them had plastic surgery, ha!) The Barbie car had a flat (actually, broken plastic) tire. Sigh, the spoils of a well-spent youth!

There were lots of clothes and little plastic shoes, so I sorted through them all and got each doll dressed in something that wasn't soiled or torn, and put them in boxes and even in 1 original Barbie case. By the time I went through it all, there really wasn't much worth selling, so it will be off to Goodwill soon to donate, and if they can get something for them, a good deal for them.

It's been a full day, and it's only 3:30, so I think I will have a piece of pumpkin bread with a glass of apple cider and put my feet up. Tomorrow, Lauren and I are going to do the outside chores we didn't get to earlier this month since the high temps were in the 20s and it is going to be 70!!

Thank you, God, for the beautiful autumn days and for giving me the energy to enjoy it all!