Three loads of laundry done. Bathrobes, pjs, sheets. Putting away the winter bathrobe.

I was going through my drawers to assess the slip situation. I have enough full slips that will fit me now, so I washed them up. I also found a scarf that I like very much but will not wear again, so it's in the cleaning fairie pile.

I washed and put away my winter gloves, hats and scarves LAST YEAR and I never even used any of them this year. So I'll get a step ladder and bring down the decorative boxes I placed them in and cull the herd.

Oh that's interesting about your family, Tillie. The names are a good tip off! My sister is interested in the dna so she bought a kit for my mother to do. I'm not interested but they will enjoy it.

I am going to have to talk about the closet. I don't know when. Tonight is garbage night. Perhaps I could see what's in there. Just a peek.
SubC you have prioritized well. I will focus on work today.

Tillie, thank you for the reminder to focus.

I just want to sit on the couch and let the badger. "Shhh, little badger, go to sleep..."

I got good work done in the studio yesterday, but it seems like every time I really get immersed in my pottery, everything else slips a gear. Even though dh helped this weekend, the house is still pretty bad.

I have done my chores and started the laundry and emptied the dishwasher. I am eating breakfast and at 9:00 I will take care of my phone calls.

Here are my priorities for the week:
School - I have a commitment to my kids and to my employer, so I need to be sure I meet that.
Pottery - I have less than two weeks until the spring sale and I need to be as ready as possible.
House - my parents are coming to visit, arriving Friday night, and dd2 is coming down for the weekend. I need to have their rooms clean and ready and the downstairs in reasonable order. Also, I need to have food.

I need to make sure that everything I am doing this week serves one of those areas.

Hi Tatoulia
What a pleasant and busy day you had.
YEA!!! For purple crocus!!!

WTG! for nothing extra in the shopping basket!
Wish I had someone decide what should eat daily because I have no idea what I want to eat.

It does feel good and freeing to have our possessions at a manageable level.
Less things to have to tend to and less time cleaning, means more time and more peace & quiet in our lives.
Are you going to venture into "The Closet"?
BADGER, BADGER, BADGER

DNA testing? Sounds interesting.
Is there any long standing question about her genetics/ethnicity?
My Aunt who was married to my father's oldest brother lost her mother when very young and was raised by her father's family and her father died soon after.
Well, after questioning, I managed to figure out she was Jewish by birth, and she had no idea.
My cousins didn't know they were Jewish too and didn't believe it until I had a Rabbi explain it to them that since my Aunt's mother, grandmother and great grandmother were discovered to have been born Jewish, that made them Jewish by birth too.
My first clue that drove my investigation were the names...
Ruth-Sarah-Beth-Rebecca-Esther and the tiny gold Star Of David pendant inherited from the Grandmother.

So much fun playing with the kitties outdoors. I bet the hyacinths smell lovely. The crocuses are up here, in little purple clumps.
Many the time I got to mom's today, the sunny skies had become cloudy. She was still in her nightie at 2PM so I cleaned the cat box and fixed her bed and then I did the rest of her grocery shopping. Last night I'd gotten her bread and coffee and a few other things like tuna and today i got her what she wanted. We also did her DNA test, which is something my sister is curious about.

It was raining pretty hard when I left to grocery store. I walked around the Prudential Mall and had a cup of coffee. I called BF, who wanted me to meet up with him so I did, then afterward I did mim's Grocery shopping's fat do good on no extra items in my basket. In fact I haven't really bought anything as I cannot figure out what I want to eat these days.

I need to add to my list to continue to reduce my possessions, Tillie. I feel great happiness in reducing my possessions.

Love you all. Have been doing some work tonight to help get my numbers up. It's been peaceful with my friend asleep in the chair next to my desk.

I'm out of the shower and the clean bed awaits.

April challenges???

Lets see...
CriticalMass will be trying to get time to sort out & organize storage.

Subclinical will be focusing on school and getting all set for the Spring sale.

Tatoulia will be getting adjusted to her new budget and working on sugar blasting.


Is there anything else you want to try to squeeze in for April?

My main challenge is to try getting the roof and ceiling fixed and prettified.
Also need to fertilize grass & hedges and get the garden all set up & a watering schedule established.

Good Afternoon
Just going on 2:00pm here.

Cats & I had a great time outside today.
Scooter would jump high up in the air trying to catch a butterfly.
He never got one though.

Got litter boxes all cleaned and refilled with fresh litter.
Spent some time down on my knees enjoying the sweet Hyacinth scent.

Scooter came in to use his litter box and decided to stay inside and take a nap so I came in too.

Heated up my leftover fried potatoes and fried the last two eggs to go with them.
Now I am resting and thinking what fun thing I want to do now.

Good Morning Everybody
"Clink!"

Hi Subclinical
How wonderful that you got to see all those lovely countries!
I had pictured your treasured doll collection as having dolls in native dress from all over the world.

I sure can relate to "if money were no object".
I would use it to hire people to come fix and clean my home and land and comment "my how nice" too.

So very wise of your fruit trees!
Weather prediction is that some areas are going to get another big blast of Wintery weather this coming week.

WAY TO GO!!! for trying to stay focused on school and finishing up unfinished projects!
Best wishes for the Spring sale.
Fingers crossed no other organization is planning an event for the same day.


Hi Tatoulia
Knowing how to express your manners in a foreign country will always win you favour.
Been so long since I have spoken anything except English that I can't honestly say I'm bilingual any more.

Good Luck with work! Crunch those numbers hard. ;)


Only task I have set for myself today is to empty, scrub & sanitize the litter boxes.
Such an easy task now that there are only two boxes to clean. :(
Twinkles prefers to go in the dirt whenever he is outside.
He never uses Scooter's box when he is inside, only his own.
But Scooter uses his own box and also Twinkle's box.
Looks like another sunny cool day and if the wind doesn't pick up it will be a lovely day.

How I love to hear of everyone's travels, experiences and dreams. I would like to go to Lebanon and Egypt and Kuwait. I don't like the heat but I'd love the experience. We are invited to Greece and Switzerland each year (by the woman who is re-doing my house). Travel is not an option for BF and me right now. We still have time, God willing.

I'm working today. Work-work. It's end of the quarter and for the first time, my numbers are down. I know I struggled to get in the grove earlier this year. I won't drive myself nuts, just try to close the gap.

I'll take mom out in a bit, too.

I'm excited about your sale, SubC!

Tillie I can only speak English. I can be polite in French and Japanese and Portugese which essentially means I can apologize and say thank you.

I'll be back later. Going to go crunch some numbers.

When I was younger I visited Canada, the Bahamas, France, Germany, Austria, and Hungary. My grandparents travelled all over the world, and whenever she could, my grandmother brought a local doll back for me and one for my cousin - it's where a good part of my doll collection originated.

Now I don't want to go anywhere. Someone started a discussion about what your dream vacation would be if cost was no object, and my first thought was to envision major upgrades to the farm, followed by a week of hired help, catered meals, and housekeeping so that I could (as my mother says) just putter about and say "my how nice."

I would have to have all the work done first though, or instead of being able to relax, I would just use the free time to make progress on other things. But they did say cost was no object....

I will be working in the studio again today. It's cold out, and we are supposed to have a hard freeze (low of 25 and below freezing all night) tonight - so the stone fruit trees were wise to stay shut up tight!

I am overwhelmed with things I want to do right now, but am trying to stay focused on school and work for the spring sale - unfinished projects first as much as possible.

How wonderful your trips must have been!
A dear friend of mine was born in Tokyo and I thoroughly enjoyed learning so much about Japan from him and his family and visiting friends.

I've been to Houston.
Was thinking about accepting a position there but hated the city, weather & country so much I changed my mind.

Seriously think about a quick trip to Japan!
So much more fun than a car.

All my Grandparents and older relatives spoke French.
Granma always spoke French to me when I was little.
She told me that speaking English while in Canada the Mounted police would arrest me and put me in jail. LOL

Then my father moved us to southern Arizona on the Mexico border where I had to learn Spanish to survive.

Close dear family friends I had when young were from Syria and what they taught me about their homeland and culture were so fascinating.

There are so many places I would love to see in person rather than just in pictures or video.

The best place I found in America to meet a lot of people from other countries is at the Grand Canyon.

BFs family is overseas still. He lived in Canada after college, Montreal. He's been in boston about 20 years, I think. I've been in boston 33 years now.

I don't know where we will retire. I'd like to consider Greece or Switzerland. I hope we do not retire in the US. We once had the opportunity to go to Oman for three years and we have a lot of friends in the Middle East. He has the gift of languages so I'm good with moving wherever he wants to go. The Oman move was ultimately nixed by me, as I went from let's go and I'll fly home every two months to see mom to, I'll stay here and fly to see you every two months. So we scrapped it.

It's exciting to think about where we may end up. I've only ever lived in the US. I've traveled to Canada (Montreal and Toronto), Japan twice, and a handful of European trips. I've never been to So America or the Middle East or Greece. I've got a bad hankering to take a trip to Japan again.

I haven't traveled out of the country since 2003. Things kind of went downhill in my family in 2004 and my brother's needs escalated when he became partially paralyzed. I took a few trips, Florida, Houston, San Antonio upstate NY, Chicago, Denver, San Antonio, Charlestown, some with friends, some with mom, some as part of my volunteer work.

I am leaning toward not getting a car. And I'm thinking about how I could scoot over to Tokyo for 10 days. So much fun there.

I guess I never think of myself as having been much of anywhere but maybe I sell myself short.

Paris. Love the French speaking men.

Hi Tatoulia

Happy you all enjoyed the game and saved your appetites for dinner afterward.
So wonderful BF has such long friendships with them!
That's very special.
Can I know what part of Europe they grew up in?
I have never been any farther than Canada & Mexico.
Granma took me to Canada a lot since she/we are Canadian but born in Michigan.

Good luck with the sugar blasting.
I didn't eat any candy again today.

The potatoes were very satisfying.
I sliced them thin enough that Granma's cast iron frying pan cooked them to perfection while it nicely browned them.

Took a lovely long warm shower and some ibuprofen and am now resting in bed. :)

That's a lot of raking, Tillie. I hope you're not too sore tomorrow Eggs and potatoes sound tasty. Do you good the potatoes first or do they get cooked enough in the frying pan?

Hockey game was great fun. We went with a couple who BFhas been friends with for 30 years. And he's known the husband even longer, having grown up in Europe together. I haven't seen either of them in about 8 years. Do we went to the hockey game and we decided not to eat st all and we went to dinner afterward. Very nice time. Then BF took me grocery shopping and now I'm home.

Going to work on sugar blasting. What a gift to be able to tackle these barriers.

Good Afternoon Everybody

Well, the cats and I decided to go outside since the sun is shining and the wind is mild.

I raked & carted off to the side yard a lot of leaves & sticks & whatever.
Scooter & Twinkles wandered off to the way back totally unkept South back side yard.
It's terrible and very scary back there all overgrown with grass & weeds and there are a lot of assorted big things dumped out there.
Had to walk through all that to convince them to come back out of there with me.

My Hyacinth was looking a bit thirsty so I unwrapped the outside water spigot and hooked up the hoses and watered them and the few other plants I am keeping.

Then I came back inside & cut up some red potatoes and fried them.
Then I fried 2 eggs to go with my potatoes.
Now I am resting up feeling very good about all the yardwork I did today. :D

Good Morning Everybody

Hi Tatoulia
You posted while I was composing :)

Yes, it makes sense that it won't really set in till you don't have that bill to pay any more.
WAY TO GO! sorting through what clothes you have, what you actually will wear and waiting to see what you need in the future!!!
So nice you have someone in your life to gift them to. ;)



Where the heck have all the days of March gone?

Seems like the month began with lots of time to do so many things, and now it's all gone.

Maybe April will last a little longer?
Maybe we will have time to enjoy it?

Sometime in April I have a scheduled dental appointment for a check up, xrays and cleaning.
Only going because I don't want pain in the future.

The predicted "rain" storms this last week only brought raging winds.
So I need to re-rake/clean up the yard/garden and the dust in the house is ridiculously thick, should do something about that too.
But first I must shake this apathy.
Watching cats chase butterflies is a lot of fun but doesn't really accomplish anything.
I feel like I am far behind on everything but actually I'm not.
;D

SubC!!! Glad your classes are filling up! You do so much and I'm proud of you!

What do you mean, no flushing when power is out!?! Wow!!

My paycheck didn't have the loan amount taken out so I checked the loan docs and the first payment is April 15. I know what amount it will be, but I still have to brace myself.

I won't feel credit-card free til May, when I have no payment due. Does that make sense? I'll notice that I don't need to make credit card payments that month.

I need to finish getting ready for hockey game. I finally found my one polo shirt. It's actually quite nice/given to me by my company. And I'll wear a company branded shirt over it and then a public radio branded fleece. I honestly don't own casual clothes beyond these. I may think about getting a polo or two for summer but I will need to think through that. I'll need a new denim skirt as the one that I bought (and still needs to be returned) didn't do it for me. But I'll think about this before buying anything. Summer's still a ways off. And I don't want to rush into something I don't need or want.

While hunting for the polo shirt, I found a pair of pj pants like the ones the cleaning lady mentioned she liked and I also found a pair of pj shorts that I won't wear again but won't fit her. So I'll think about what to do with those, whether to offer to her or to just donate. I also found several v-neck T-shirt's that would fit her. Solid colors, to wear under cardigans. I've already donated the cardigans, save one just in case I need it.

Ok I best dry my hair now. Glad you'll still wear dresses Tillie. Hope you are healing and in less pain.

Good Evening

Hi Subclinical
Thank you (((hug)))
But don't worry, I didn't break any bone, fortunately.
Plus I will wear a dress, bruised or not. ;)

That's funny about him flushing.
It is strange that city people get to flush, power or not.

WAY TO GO!!!
Sounds like the school year will be a fun filled and busy time for you!


Hi Tatoulia
Yes, they all had special jobs they did all on their own.
Eowyn was "the mouth"/spokesperson and Gimli was her protector & enforcer.
They all knew to obey Eowyn and never ever touch her.
Marty was like a fun loving happy go lucky brother who would stir things up if he thought they were being too boring and sedate.
Now Scooter & Twinkles are left to fend for themselves but I am trying to learn their language.
Gimli and Eowyn were just month old tiny babies when they came here to me.
They grew up together.
After Eowyn died in October, Gimli just lost the will to go on and a cancer over took him.

Isn't it wonderful how even decluttering unseen items can make a room feel more open and tidier!
:D
And so easy to keep areas clean with only a few items out on display.
It also really helps if we start to just set things down in the wrong places. Stands out like a red flag.

WAY TO GO!!! Working on the sugar addiction!


Tomorrow I plan to order the ceiling tiles and glue from Amazon.
I gave Steven a very good reference for a roofer and he said he is now waiting for a call back from him.

I read that it's best to paint the ceiling tiles before putting them up and I want to be all ready to fix my ceiling soon as I am safe from the leaky roof.
Also need to check on the paint I may have on hand or get to the hardware store and look at pretty paint chips.

Hi.

So much! Has it really been days since I posted? I am reading - always reading! But I type slowly am
Nd have been so busy!

I worry about tillie's leg, and hope it will feel better, but I would wear a dress anyway.

I am glad you got rewarded by the insurance for your care of your home and looking forward to your roof repair!

I hope tatoulia's new net pay was not bleak, and Tatoulia, I am proud of you!

I grew up with well water and I remember the first time the power went out in our apartment and dh flushed the toilet and I yelled at him "what are you doing? You don't flush the toilet during a power outage unless you have to! you know that!" And he was so confused.... and then he taught me that city people have water when the power goes out!

CM, thank you for the badger. It sounds like he has been helping with your bed, but I may need to keep him for the weekend.

Good shopping at home and I hope you keep improving your sleep. sleep is so important!

My classes are filling. Some are still very low so I try not to look at them, and a couple are almost full. Many names I am happy to see, and so far all in the right spots. I hate it when I have to tell a kid they can't take my class. My high school studio is going to be so good next year! I might even be able to stretch it to a couple of extra spots, which will make my boss really happy - more kids in a class means a longer shoestring (which describes our budget).

Isn't that something re Twinkles and Scooter! It never occurred to me that they'd have particular roles in the family!

Yay for clean laundry!!!!

I'm going to work on sugar cravings workshop tonight. I do feel a shift. It's part physical, part mental, part emotional. I've completed the physical one and two and am deep in the mental. It seems to be working.

I walked a lot today and came home to my clean house.

I used to like a lot of treasures in my bathroom. I now have just a soap dish with a bar of soap. So easy to live this way. None of the little displays and cute things around. Antique toothpaste jars and other stuff. So glad to be free of that. I keep my toothbrush etc in kitchen now.

So I feel miles better with less stuff. Even the silver tray I gave to cleaners, it was stored behind another tray in the kitchen (the other tray is very nice, enamel, cheerful) that is in a stand. Just removing the hidden tray makes my kitchen seem neater. I am so thankful to have found everyone here.

Good Morning Everybody

Hi Tatoulia
Sorry the work will take longer and more money to finish out back.
Very glad you aren't panicking this time.
All this work is increasing the value of the property and also preventing deterioration.

That's what I need, a sugar crushing workshop.
But the last few days I didn't eat any candy mainly because I have a wonderful fresh sweet pineapple to snack on.

WAY TO GO! for having a brain sugar chemical
shift!

My leg is still very painful to touch, the bruise looks dreadful, but overall it is slowly getting better.
Since it's been getting warmer outside I shaved my legs the other day just in case I wanted to wear a dress.
But now I can't cause my leg looks so ugly. :p

Have the clothesline all full of laundry this morning.
So I'm all caught up, YEA!

Twinkles & Scooter are both acting weird trying to adjust to the new pecking order.
Like who's job is it to remind me when snack time is or to tell me the kibble bowl is empty or to ask me if they can go outside and eat butterflies.
Those jobs were never theirs before and it's confusing for them to figure this out.

Subclinical
Thinking about you and hoping you are just busy doing wonderful & fun activities (((HUG)))

Tillie how is your leg?

My sugar crushing workshop is starting to take hold in my brain. I could feel something different last night. And this AM. Feels good to get healthy.

We have more work to be done out back, which will prolong this and require more $. I didn't panic this time.

I needed to see the badger, CM! Thank you for the time and effort to get her message up for us! Esp me.

Cm I am excited about your storage space. I'm so happy you found material in your own stash to work with.

Tillie I'm standing by your side.

Well kitty and I are tired. We are doing a load of laundry now since I didn't do any yesterday. Oh! Our dinner plans were moved to next Thursday so I'm happy to be home tonight.

Good Afternoon Everybody

Thank you Tatoulia ;)
I appreciate that.

Hi Badger
Hope you are ready to get nipping at some heels.

Hi CriticalMass
WAY TO GO!!! keeping the bed clear of pile-it momentarily stuff!

YEA! for shopping your fabric stash and only shopping for what you need to do the quilt!

That is sad about your handyman/mechanic.

Yes, April is going to be very busy since it should be the perfect weather for doing stuff in storage before the Summer heat kicks in.

Thank you for rousting the BADGER BADGER BADGER for us. ;p

Oops - trying again

Hi

I'll still want to go back through everyone's posts in detail and make a more responsive post. I'm almost done with sitting with my elderly lady from church while her daughter is on a work trip. I've had a split shift Monday and Tuesday, then last night and tonight just evenings.

Right now I'm doing dark laundry before I start getting ready to go over there later. My room has really needed for me to get it done and then there's a white load and some quilting fabric to be prewashed and pressed.

I'm slowly but steadily getting a new quilt designed for the church guild. I "shopped" for fabric first in my storage unit stash, and did indeed find some I could use. I bought other to fill in, which is permissible as long as I don't recreational shop, just focus on what I came for, get it, and be on my way.

March here came in like a lion with frigid temps and is more lamblike as it prepares to exit. The month itself just went super fast! 😮 April will be upon me: The prime time for attacking clutter and neatening the storage unit so it's like a spare bedroom rather than the county dump.

So many events in April, Easter being the main one, also bunny club community happenings, and no doubt much more.

My roommate and I have felt sad because it still is uncertain if we'll ever hear from the handyman about the sun porch. And we do hope at least he is recuperating still and hasn't had setbacks. It had been such a wonderful thing to look forward to but it seems to be in limbo indefinitely, maybe forever.

And since he is/was also our car mechanic, now we just pray our vehicles keep running okay.

Changing the subject - I'm doing well about not putting junk on the bed that doesn't belong there. It's so much nicer. Maybe it's even helping me sleep better - my sleep is not so great anytime but I think it was worse when the books and other items were piled up.

Oh, before I forget - I did notice some requests for this critter:

https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/q91/p206x206/51456699_2566695656735991_6840207126548185088_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=e93fa925ee54256c26d291a5155cdaf1&oe=5D48163A

I'll punch him for you. This is infuriating. Please rest your poor leg.

Good Morning Everybody

Hi CriticalMass

Hi Subclinical

Hi Everybody ;)

Hi Tatoulia
It's so nice you have people right in your life to gift with things.
That makes it so much easier and actually enjoyable.

WTG! Cleaning Fairies!
So nice to have everything all clean again!

Have fun if you go to dinner tonight.
I can't even remember the last time I ate at a restaurant.

Having no electricity or water for a few hours is not so bad.
With country living you just get used to it and adjust.
Plus the quiet empty hours gives you time to reflect and meditate.


Well, the dishes are still there waiting for me to wash them.
Fortunately, all the food prep & cooking was finished just as the power went out.
Have something all ready to bake wrapped up in the fridge and was planning to bake that today anyway.

Day before yesterday I got severally injured trying to maneuver through his ever growing hoard.
My left leg from my knee down to my ankle is a huge bruise now and there is a large red painful lump just below my kneecap.
Been spending time between tasks to rest and elevate it.
I have been trying very hard to get my emotions under control but I am just furious.
So far I have managed to bite my tongue and not go off even though I really want to punch him right in the face.
But sadly, I am not a violent person by nature.

Tillie I hope you were able to salvage your food. Being a city girl, your description of the wind and dust/dirt sounds exciting. No water and no electricity is not exciting.

Yesterday it was the main fairie and a woman who I think had been here once before but then again maybe not. Boy they scrubbed and cleaned. I had the bag of dressss and they immediately started to try on and were so happy. It was really sweet. In the last bag, I'd included a pair of very gently worn pjs (I normally put those in the goodwill bag) and the cleaner said, I loved the pajama pants. (Duly noted?I think I may have one or two XL pair left that I haven't donated). I also had an XL summer weight bathrobe. Little by little. Oh and I opened my drawer and added in another top.

Had dinner with friends last night. It was expensive. But I had enough cash for my portion and a tip. All three of us had the filet. So tasty.

We are eating st same restaurant again tonight? BF and two of his students. I will have a salad with salmon. He hasn't confirmed yet.

For lunch today I have the food the cleaning lady brought me. It's enough for several lunches but I'll just have it today and then maybe Friday night.

Ok I'm blathering. Sorry about that. Bottom line: my house is so clean. They did kitty box and everything.

Hello Everybody...
I finally have electricity again!
Was just finishing up a post when the power went out right before I posted it.

The wind has been raging today.
So much so that visibility was reduced to zero due to all the dirt in the air.
Someone on the road ran into a power thing and knocked out all our power.

Without electricity my water pump can't draw water from the well.
My kitchen is a big mess because I was cooking and doing all sorts of food prep.
Now I'm too tired to bother washing dishes.
Oh well, they will keep till tomorrow.

Other than no power it was a good day.

Hi Tatoulia
Thank you :)
YEA!!! WAY TO GO!!! thank goodness for your cleaning Fairies!

Tillie!!! That is highly interesting news! At least someone appreciates your hard work in establishing, maintaining and defending your clutter free zones!!! Yay you!!!

My fairies are here. Can you believe it? So nice.

Good Morning

Hi Subclinical
WTG! for disposing of the mold.
Great thinking about what a pain it would be to fix it and that it was basic and boring and not worth the time.
Now you have that little bit more space to store the molds that aren't broken and are more interesting to work with.

Wishing you all the best of luck filling all your classes with bright and curious children. (((hug)))

Hi Tatoulia
So very sorry about all that racket!
Hope the loud pounding stops soon and the rest of the work is finished up in a week, as they promised.

Focus on the positive aspects of being on your new strict budget.
All your financial plans coming to fruition.
This lesson will teach you more about "Making-Do" with what resources you already have at hand.
It will help you appreciate the little things in your life & day even more.
Find all the little things you are grateful for every day.
(((hug)))


No sunshine today, lots of rain clouds.
Will have to wait doing laundry.

Think I know why the man from the insurance company did not cancel our policy.
Steven finally told me that the man came inside the house to see the damaged ceilings.
None of the other agents would come inside, just saw the outside hoard and made their decision to cancel us immediately.
When the man entered and saw how clean, clear and nicely appointed the interior was he was surprised and impressed, commented on it even.
So I believe that it was him seeing my clear & clean
"NO CLUTTER ZONES"
that made the difference this time in not cancelling the insurance.

I took some lunch up to mom's for her. I also stopped up to see BF for a minute. Need to get back to work. No idea when cleaners are coming. Just as well, I suppose.

Good morning from a very loud apt in Boston! They are working on my bay window and it is loud. I've relocated kitty's dishes to my bedroom. This noise is really bad. It's causing me some stress.

SubC I'm proud of you for disposing of that broken mold. And you were so lovely with your worried student!

Tillie I'm glad that jack is still hanging around.

I am super stressed right now. I need to avoid worrying about the pounding. I'm glad that I disarmed my back window alarms while I was at work yesterday. What a racket.

Ok I'll try to get my act together here.

Oh! BF's sister needed me to buy her a few things from L&T yesterday and I felt so happy that I wasn't buying for me. I did on/line since I don't have the card anymore. Not thatI want it back. Spending seems so wasteful to me right now. BF said he'll go to the store and pay it this week. Sister lives overseas.

I have preplanned dinner with girlfriends tonight. Then in future if anyone wants to have dinner I'll suggest we come here or we go for a cup of tea and a walk instead.

Tmr I find out what my paycheck looks like with loan payment taken out and an additional sum I'm having put into savings. Might be a bit bleak.

Good morning.

Tatoulia, I hope you got to relax.

Mixed success last night. I still have a map to finish for class today (at worst I can do it on my lunch break), I only partly unloaded the dishwasher, and I didn't touch the laundry.

But the rest of my class stuff is ready, I did chores, and I poured my mold.

Class sign ups for next year start today. I am nervous and excited. I need six kids in a class for it to run. And I am nervous to see which kids I get.

Today the rest of my classes help with the molds. I told yesterday's class what I was doing, and one of my students was very concerned about "get rid of" and wanted me to promise not to throw them away. I reassured her that I was taking them home for now, but told her that I can't keep them forever, so if she knows anyone who wants them to please let me know.

Then I did throw one away after school, because I realized it was broken. It could be patched, but it's a pain, and the mold is basic and boring.

Hi Subclinical

That turn over sounds really good!
A batch of those would really help when you are busy, over tired and hungry.

I have a recipe where I use bread dough and wrap up hamburger with onion, shredded carrots and diced potatoes in the dough, that freeze very well after baking.

Poor Mr. Kitty. I have seen how vicious chickens can be when going after mice.

Jack is still around, comes by every day.

WAY TO GO! cleaning stalls and especially for passing on the items that were not exactly to your liking.
Thrift shops seem to go through phases where who ever is pricing items is totally out of touch with reality.

Good luck with your plans for this evening.


BADGER, BADGER, BADGER!


Hi Tatoulia
Sorry you hated everything you did today.
Happy you are in your jammies.
Yes, call and tell him not to call and do your relaxation tapes. ;)

Hello Ladies! Sounds like you both had good and productive days! I had the office then a volunteer thing. I hated both but that's okay.

I'm home now in pjs. I want to do my relaxation tapes but I'm afraid BF or mom will call me. I could call BF and tell him not to call me.

Tillie, i'm Glad you are taking care of yourself!

I can absolutely imagine mr. kitty being terrorized by butterflies. Once he caught a mouse and the chickens stole it away.

I wish I could make and freeze lasagna, but the cheese is a problem. I did find an interesting "turnover" recipe I want to try. It uses savory stuffing and you prepare the filling, pinch it into the dough, and then either bake or freeze to bake later. I could freeze a big batch and have choices about how many to bake.

Good candy choices. And glad for the reassurance on scooter and twinkles. Is "jack you're not my cat" still around?

It is time to free the badger.

I did not swim (although I did spend 45 minutes cleaning stalls this morning.) I ran an errand on the way home and stopped at the thrift store where I found one thing I wanted - but for some reason it was 4x the normal price, so I left it, and I almost bought a shirt because it was very very soft and would give me a second oversized shirt that doubles as a hand towel for class, but I wasn't in love with the color and it wasn't on sale, so I left that too.

Now I am home. Dinner is in the oven. I need to:
Organize my papers, materials and lesson plans for class tomorrow
Do my chores.

Ideally, before bed I would also:
Empty the dishwasher
Put the laundry away
Pour a mold in the studio

Unloose the badger!

Good Afternoon
Only 2:30pm here.

Gave myself a pedicure and it felt SOOOOOO good.

Got a whole lot accomplished.
Absolutely NO work or chores, just fun and relaxing activities.

The Hyacinth are blooming and two more daffodils too.

It's sunny and warm (70s).


I took the cats outside for a bit but for some reason they got scared, tails all fussed out, and came back inside to take naps.
Maybe it was the thick cloud of butterflies that scared them. LOL :D

Good Morning Everyone
"Clink!"

Hi Subclinical
All the rain/snow this Winter in Southern California and Arizona has made a LOT of plants/weeds grow and the butterfly caterpillars are doing so well we are predicted to have a bumper crop of migrating butterflies this year.
YEA!!! :D

One way I use to keep homemade meals on hand is to make a large batch and freeze half for later.
Works great for things like lasagna or enchiladas, etc.

Glad you found the blueberries and get to enjoy them now.
The way I keep a better control of what I have in the freezer is by having designated sections for each type of food.
Then periodically take mental inventory of what else is in the section I am rummaging through while looking for something specific.
A written inventory list would work better though.

Have a wonderful day today (((HUG)))


Hi Tatoulia
We need to get that badger out of the closet/cupboard so it can nip at your heals and get you decluttering that closet!

Have a great day today at work.
Enjoy your nutritious lunch!

YEA!!! for cleaning fairies tomorrow! :D


Yeah, I've been eating chocolate covered peanut butter Easter eggs (Reese's) & chocolate covered marshmallow Easter eggs (Russel Stover's) and chocolate covered malt Easter eggs (Whopper).
It has made me feel happy to be so bad.

Woke up at 5:30am then laid back down and slept soundly until 9:40!
The Apricot tree is full of butterflies again.
Scooter is quietly playing with his toys and sitting at the window wishing he was outside chasing all those butterflies.
It's 10:30.
I am taking full advantage of my day off to rest.

It is just too sad to talk about when my babies are sickly and near the end of their lives.
But I will tell you right now that Scooter and Twinkles are both well and not fixing to die any time soon. :)

Yes I have closet phobia! Maybe the badger is in there.

Closets and cabinets. What is wrong by with me?

Tillie eat something better today. I hear you on the sugar. Ice cream is the most perfect food for me. Hits enough of the food groups as far as I'm concerned. That said, I am looking forward to a nutritious lunch today. Since I ate half of what BF brought me last night, I'll be getting my regular salad today and eating the remainder of his food for my lunch tmr. So tasty. Chicken and rice with almonds and pistachios and other deliciousness.

Off to work. Keep up the good work, my friends. Cleaning fairies come tmr!

Good morning.

Tillie, sometimes you just have to take a day and indulge yourself - give yourself permission to make bad choices and wallow in them. Besides, if you are eating chocolate, it has chemicals in it that help lift your mood. You are grieving and your body needs those right now.

Tatoulia - I will be your closet phobia buddy! I am very not ready to tackle mine, so every time you talk about getting rid of clothes, I am impressed.

We always let the milkweed grow for the butterflies, but there are so few of them the last few years. Last year I gave dsil some seeds so he could start a little butterfly oasis in his city yard.

Dh made shrimp dumplings. They were from a package, but they were good. I don't think I will buy them again because of the packaging though. I've been trying out a couple of "healthy" frozen things every week or two because there are so many nights when we both get home late.

With my (hopefully) increased work schedule next year, I am thinking I will need to get a head start this summer by freezing some meals myself. I will need a plan and a tracking chart though, because my freezer is one of my problem areas. Too often things disappear into it and I forget them. I forgot I still had blueberries until I was looking for something else a few weeks ago. But now I am enjoying them!

I want to work baking back into my week too. One reason my grocery bill was so high was because I bought cookies and bread. Lately dh has an English muffin for breakfast every morning. That is costing almost $3 a week. He would rather have biscuits, but I don't make biscuits anymore. Which is silly, because it only takes about half an hour to make a dozen biscuits for far less than $3! I could even make them ahead and cook them in the morning while the coffee is brewing.

Today I get to teach again! I am looking forward to seeing my kids. And we will get started on the molds - today and tomorrow, then I will have had all the classes that use them, and there will be no excuse to wait.

I am not feeling very well today, so I think I might skip swimming.

But if I do, I need to make sure that I don't waste my evening sitting on the couch with the computer. I may need CM to get the badger out.

Hello

Hi Subclinical
Glad you went for groceries and have a nice dinner reward for doing so.
YEA! that the old project pots turned out well!
Hope you get to do more pottery tomorrow.
WTG! for laundry!

Hi Tatoulia
That butterfly garden sounds so dreamy!

WTG! for kitty box, garbage and recycling!

I'm sure your closets need more work.
One thing I have noticed about you is that you have a very bad case of "closet-phobia". ;)


One very nice thing is that even when the electric power goes out, I can still always heat food or water for tea on my gas stove.
Plus some things taste much better when cooked on/in the stove/oven rather than in a microwave.

I'm all caught up with dishes, laundry & regular daily housework.
Tomorrow I have the day off!
Plan to do my much needed pedicure, wash my hair and relax.

Must confess, I need to straighten up my act concerning eating.
Last few days I have eaten very little real food and have been eating way too much candy.
Tomorrow I will change my evil ways, honest, I promise, I hope. ;p

Groceries are so frightfully expensive, SubC. Good work with the pots!

Tillie I bet the monarchs are beautiful. There is a stretch of park/walking/biking path near my house and at one spot, between my house and my mother's, someone has built a butterfly garden. It has grown more and more lush each year and it is beautiful to see the butterflies. Twice (many years ago) I saw a smallish orange cat just walking through. It was like a scene from a book. So perfect.

I didn't take my walk tonight. I did a few things here including changing kitty box and getting my garbage and recycling out. Then I slept.

Bf just brought me the meal he had gotten for me. I just had half and will have the other half for lunch tmr. So yummy. What did dh mane for dinner?

I don't miss having a microwave. It took very little time to heat in a pot on the stove.

It's so funny that I can't remember where I used that table before the big changeout last June. It's been hanging in the bedroom since then and now I'm grateful it is gone.

My closet needs more work. There's.more that can go.

I had sticker shock at the grocery store. I had not gone in so long that it was hard to go. Unfortunately, I couldn't wait and stop on my way home tomorrow. Dh is rewarding me with dinner in the oven.

The critters all have new food too.

Tatoulia, good job on the continuing to clear out!

I did some laundry today too, but haven't put it away. My hair will have to wait for tomorrow.

Thank you for explaining the card.

Tillie, that is a big empty space. It will take a while to get used to, or perhaps in time you will find more (not "new" they won't replace) companions to help you feel less lonely.

The old project pots I put in the kiln today came out well. I started glazing some more and will hopefully finish getting at least some of them ready tomorrow.

Good Early Evening Everyone

Hi Tatoulia
Thank you
That little table sounds lovely.
Very happy it has been found safe and will now be in a location where it can be used and enjoyed.

This very warm dry gentle wind today is coming up from the South.
This afternoon it brought several dozen Monarch butterflies who are happily enjoying the Apricot blossoms before they continue on their migration.
This morning I saw ducks migrating straight to the North.

It is wonderful to live in the flight path of migratory birds and butterflies.
Soon many species will stop here long enough to have and raise their babies before moving on.

You put your sadness so beautifully, Tillie, that I, too, heard the echo.

I know that lots of cats and dogs will benefit from the donated goods. Doesn't change the sadness, though.

Today I offered BF a wonderful little table, cast iron (not wrought iron) for his patio. He said, where have you been keeping this? Truth be told, I do not remember. It's now in the trunk of his car. I loved it and no longer need it. And it was be very cute on his patio.

It is cooler here today than yesterday. It is about 45F. The walk will feel good.

Good Afternoon Everyone

Hi Subclinical
YEA! for Daffodils!

Sorry the trash service does that to you.
Probably a different substitute driver.

WAY TO GO! for a successful firing!
The new projects are always shinier than the older ones.
Good to get them finished up to make room for all the new ones.

Hope food shopping is successful and you get lots of fresh veggies.


Hi Tatoulia
Hope the weather is nice and you get the skirt returned with no problems.

Be strong!
The temptation and feelings of deprivation will gradually diminish.
I promise. ;)

WTG! for shampooing & dishes!


Was very busy all morning.
Have 4 cat carriers & one small kennel out for donation.
Kept just two cat carriers.
Had laundry on the line and the wind is so warm & dry that it dried in two hours.
Lit the burn barrel...

Need to wash dishes.
Was getting started washing them yesterday but the water heater turned off & I only had cold water.
Eventually Steven relit it but by then my back hurt too much to stand at the sink.
So I took a shower & went to bed.

I have finished decluttering all the excess cat related things.
There was a lot because I didn't declutter much after losing Marty then Poohkie.
Going from 5 cats down to only 2 there was just too much and looking at the stuff just made me sad and bitter.
I feel good about all I have done but I sense an echo in my home and my life.

I did a lot of laundry today and I'm pleased with that. It is beautiful and sunny and I'm wondering if it's warm. My house is so cool.

I did get showered and washed my hair so that too felt like a victory.

I need to get out and walk a few miles tonight. I could return the skirt and then just wander around. BF is off tonight but he forgot to bring my lunch so he'll have to run home and get it so I have something tasty to eat tmr at work.

I have to unload the dishwasher. I forgot to run it last night so I ran it today.

My intern is sound asleep next to me. Wound up in a little ball.