The Bi-Annual Chore

Once about every six months or so my scrap bin fills up so much I have to
stop and take the time to pull it all out and individually iron it and
cut it into usuable pieces, perhaps for a scrappy quilt somewhere down
the road. I'll begin by finding the biggest piece possible to cut then,
because I do this to honor our forequilters in their frugality, I'll
take the remaining pieces and cut each one of those into the biggest
size possible.
I'll start by going down to a 2" size square because as my grandmother
taught me, raised during The Depression Era as she was, born in 1906:
"Waste not want not".
As the day progresses I find the need to take more and more breaks,
get yet another cup of coffee and oh , look at that mess on the table
will you? Someone has better clean that up and oh nose! The laundry
needs done again!
The dogs need to go outside in the heat more and more frequently during
the afternoon: guess I'll need to make an appointment to check them for
UTIs.

Back at the cutting table I realize that it's silly to make any
other size than 5" or 2.5" because really, how often do I really use
3", 3.5" 4" and 4.5" squares? I'm always finding a use for the 2.5"
squares so that's my goal!
I congratulate myself on my efficiency! Grandmother would be proud!
I occasionally run across a special piece of fabric that really needs
to be cut into a 2" square so I still diligently dice and slice away.
Around 9pm or so, I look down and realize I am about 1/4 of the way done
with the large kitchen trash bag container that seems to have gotten
much bigger since this morning.
I just realized that I could really speed this up by cutting ALL
5" squares! Later, when I'm stronger, I can cut those into 2.5" squares
and who needs those special 2" squares, really?
No one, that's who!
I can still hear my Grandmother's voice in my head scolding me for wasting
all those valuable little scrap pieces but you know what?
Grandma also said: "See a penny pick it up".
Yeah right. Do you have any idea how much a lousy penny is worth these
days?