Got it!

Good Morning Everyone
Another dark drizzly day here.

Hi Subclinical
Maybe DD2 will want the ring.
If you do give it to her don't tarnish it with your memories/knowledge of your grandfather.
Just tell her all you know about your Grandmother. :)

So happy you burned the bouquet.
Such a satisfying end to a bad memory. (((hug)))


The cats and I are all smart enough to stand clear and just admire the carnage from afar.
I have no idea if the insurance agent came by and what may have been said.
He does not talk to me and whenever I ask him any questions he just yells at me about things that are stupid and illogical nonsense.

I always wish someone would report the condition of the property to any agency that would take action.
Unfortunately, here no such agency exists or I would call them myself.

Today I plan to do some light tidying up, the usual cat tasks and wash my hair.
Need to do some laundry but have to wait for drier days.
This is why having a minimal amount of sheets, pillow cases, towels & wash cloths wouldn't work for me.
I need all of them while I wait for dry sunny days to hang out the wash in Winter.

Tatoulia, I missed your pst right before mine.

What a nice dinner! And tiny cat sounds like a perfect birthday present.

Mr. kitty was a birthday present for my son. He was turning 16 and all he wanted was a kitten. So I got him one. But then, he went away to college, and lived in tiny apartments, and his gf, now wife, had a dog... so Mr. kitty still lives here. But he is always just as happy as I am when his boy comes home.

And I agree that your bf is lucky to have you and I am also glad that you are getting such nice compliments.

Sometimes when you are cleaning out, you have to put things in the trash. We did when we cleaned d❤️Ds house. But thank you for not telling me what they were. I shall just imagine that everything was broken beyond repair and made of nonrecyclable material. ;)

Tillie, I hope the cats have the sense to stay away from the carport! Did the insurance person ever come? I worry about someone being called on you.

I gave my paternal grandmother's wedding ring. She died, and my grandfather remarried quickly and gave all of her jewelry to his new wife "M". (There wasn't a lot, she wasn't into jewelry and had already given her engagement ring to her youngest son for his wife) M was a sweet and gracious lady and when she found the ring, she gave it to my mother to pass on to me - the oldest girl. I loved my grandmother, but my grandfather was a piece of work. And I don't know what to do with the ring. I asked my mother if she thought they were happy, and she said "I think so. Mostly." It fits me and I don't have a gold band, but I can't wear it. My grandmother wasn't much of a thing person, so what I have from her is that ring, some charms on a bracelet (the charms were divided but I got the bracelet too) her childhood dollhouse made by her father that was passed to me when I was very little, some teacups, a hand mirror, a little statue, and a tiny china doll. My mother says maybe my dd2 will want it. (My dd1 wears my maternal grandmother's engagement ring - her actual engagement ring came out of a bubblegum machine - long story.)

OTOH, I used to have a fancy dried arrangement I made from the bouquet I carried in d❤️D's Wedding. It was beautiful. But he hit her. And one day I just took it out in the yard and set it on fire.

Thank you for telling me it gets easier. I will hope.

WAY TO GO! Tatoulia
for ALL that decluttering you did!
YEA! that giant dust collector is gone too!

Sometimes it's best to just get rid of stuff in the fastest way possible.
We all have amnesty to just get rid of it, whatever it is.

Good luck getting to the bank tomorrow where all your missing documents are.

I have been seriously contemplating selling my Granma's Bulova wrist watch.
It's white gold with 8 diamonds.
The face is too tiny for me to read without my glasses on plus I never wear a watch.


There was a very scary loud noise here today.
Scared all the cats.
That carport roof broke apart in the center and is now solidly resting on the hoard underneath it.
The end bits are still hanging in there putting stress on the support beams.

Wind, rain and snow couldn't bring it down but heavy fog did the trick. ;D

I agree whole-heartedly! SubC needs new boots. I do not. I probably wouldn't have even noticed the leaking if I hadn't been walking through the vast puddles and wet snow from a decent snow storm followed by 42F!

SubC it does become easier! It really and truly does. It just becomes easier.

Tillie, I quite like the Swedish Death Cleaning SDC. It has opened up my eyes. The giant vase I have been keeping all these years to celebrate my graduation from grad school actually held bad memories for me that I'd never acknowledged. So glad to have that dust collector gone. SubC I threw out scads of stuff this weekend. I know you would've been able to salvage more but I couldn't at the moment. I just needed to clear out and do it. And that's okay. I just needed to do it and get it done. I won't tell you what was thrown out. It's garbage now. I felt I was in a death match of me or it. I needed to win this one.

I have to remember to go to my safe depot box tmr to pick up my birth certificate (look how confident I'm being). I truly hope it's in there. I may also take out a watch and sell it. I like the watches BF has purchased for me and I can sell one or two of the others from a different time and place. I have the boxes and the extra links. I also have a very old gold watch that had belonged to some elderly relative. It's pretty and so maybe I'll bring it here so I can look at it. I had it appraised probably 35 years ago and the guy wanted to buy it from me, which is unethical. Now I'm sure it's not worn very much due to changing sensibilities. I'm sure it's good and it has a delicate ribbon for a band and I can't remember if it had diamonds on it. Time will tell.

SubC it gets easier. My life is unbelievably easier. I started here and it has gotten easier and easier and easier. I don't struggle too much on getting rid of stuff. Sometimes I do. But mainly I do not. And If I start struggling, I just go onto something else. There's plenty to look at.

Tatoulia just needs to keep her feet dry as she walks along city sidewalks.
You muck around in the mud and shovel out stalls.
Totally different circumstances.
You definitely NEED new boots. :)

Sweetie,
it will get easier, I promise.
Changing our thought processes and changing the way we have always done things takes time.
You have come a long way already.
For instance, you have decided not to keep vast stores of school related items for Justin Case.
You will simply ask other teachers and the students parents to bring you the needed items as you need them.

When you start to feel overwhelmed with making decisions you need to take a break.
Decision fatigue is a form of burn out and you just need a rest. (((HUG)))

WAY TO GO! doing some pottering and clean up!
Sorry there was more discouraging fiber.
You have had so much on your plate with the building addition, work, farm work, decluttering & organizing and family.
Understandable the fiber was not a priority at the time.

Hi Tatoulia
That dinner and dessert last night sounds delicious
but I still would have grabbed myself a burger. LOL ;)
So wonderful your friend let you know how pretty you are and how lucky your BF is to have you in his life. (((HUG)))

You look so good because you are losing the weight in a healthy way, not fad dieting but a healthy lifestyle change.


OK, the Swedish cleaning is a great mindset for me to have to make the decisions on things that are no longer important to me to have around.
This method is for anybody, not just old people.

It has helped me with some rings & things that I had/have that I do not wear or even like because they were given to me by people I do not like.
We are told we must keep these things but when I see them they just remind me of bad times.
Now, somebody else looking at these things and not knowing they are NOT special to me may think they are and have qualms about tossing/selling/donating them.


It's just a good way to deeply evaluate things and get out that which I felt obligated to keep but do not want without having any feelings of guilt that I am tossing my muther's first wedding ring set. ;)

I don't care how late in the year it is. I got paid on Friday, and as soon as I get a chance i'm buying boots that don't leak.

Tillie, I understand the Swedish death cleaning thing, but I do not like it. I wish it was called something else. I object to death on principle and I have had enough of it this month!

I went out for hay today. It has been a bad hay year here and my neighbor was down to the last of it. The price was up to $5 a bale, so when I got there I told him I only wanted ten, because that was how much cash I had (I usually get 12). He said "i've got 13 left. You'll take it all and owe me." Now I just have to hope the grass starts growing!

I also worked in the studio again. I threw nine more pots and wedged a little and cleaned up a little. I found more fiber, which was discouraging. Two bags - I decided to rebag one for salvage and throw the other out.

It never gets easier. It gets better, but not easier. Is there going to be some point where I have made so many decisions that my house is normal and it won't be hard to throw out broken pens, or is it just going to be hard forever?

I wanted a burger. But I had a beautiful filet mignon last night with asparagus and sliced potatoes. Followed by an oblong plate with a scoop of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice creams. And across the top of the plate, in chocolate, they'd written Happy Birthday. So I had to remind myself of that.

I'm going to bake myself an almond cake for my birthday. Then Slice it up and distribute. Although BF sometimes gets me a cake and we eat it at his office. That's generally a great deal of fun. So we shall see. He's working all day and evening on my special day. He sometimes gets a neighbor to pick up my cake. We shall see. Yes I'm better today. I still feel the pressure and weight of too much stuff. But I feel stronger today.

I love my birthday. And my tiny cat was my birthday gift 14 years ago.
Oh! Last night our visitor, when I was walking her back to her room, said nice things about my relationship with BF and how lucky he is. Generally I have to eat a lot of, do you know how lucky you are? So that was nice. By the best part was the weight loss abs looking 10 years younger. Pretty nice.

Ok I've continued to work tonight. Garbage out. Cat box clean. I've figured out what to wear tmr since I don't want to be late. I mean, I'll still be late but not crazy late.

I remember my grandmother's phone stand. And it had a small metal personal phone book on it, where you'd move the lever to get to the Letter of the person's last name. Oh there's a memory.

I love wheatback pennies. Tiny little works of art.

Yeah, it's so late in the season, best to just wait until next Winter to get new boots.

I would have bought myself a burger too.
Don't know how you are strong enough to resist.

I've been continuing on with my
"Swedish Death Cleaning".
Yesterday I went through my jewelry again and today I did coins.
I have an old cast iron bank that looks like a house where I put coins.
I separated out the Indian head and wheat back pennies, the silver dimes, quarters and fifty cent pieces, buffalo nickels and Barber quarters, etc. from the current "spendable" coins.
Have a lot of very old Canadian coins that are from my Grandma and a lot of assorted other foreign coins from all over the world.

Now I have a sandwich size baggie full of current U.S. coins to spend. About 60.00 worth.

That stuff is HEAVY!

Also have three small pieces of furniture that I am ready to let go of.
A small antique wood plant stand "podium", a tiny wood antique corner wall shelf and an ancient short wooden telephone stand.
The kind that you put the phone on the top and had shelves underneath for the tiny phone book and some paper & pencil for taking messages.
There would be a chair next to it so you could sit while you were on the phone.

Oh the poetry in your writing, Tillie. I get a clear picture of the apricot tree and it's expected visitors.

I went to pharmacy to pick up a prescription then I went to a burger place to get mom a burger. She's been craving beef. I know she wants me to go to grocery store but instead I got her a freshly made two-patty burger. I'll tahe her for a steak dinner on Thursday, the special day.

It is warm and the snow is melting. I just found out that my snow boots for jeans, the low ones, are leaking. They were new last year or the year before. I won't replace them til next year. I'll be wearing my tall boots tomorrow.

Okay I haven't eaten and after the torture of being in the burger place for mom, I'm going to need to figure out my lunch.

Good Morning Everybody

Hi Subclinical
YEA! for starting out the week with a clean kitchen!
WTG! DH ;D
Great puttering around you did during your lazy weekend.
Best of all is you took it easy, you needed easy.
Good challenge to not rebury the guest room these next four weeks.


Hi Tatoulia
How beautiful to have everything all covered in fresh white snow.
I'm waiting for your birthday to wish you a
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Whenever that is. ;)
So nice the clinics are all closed so nobody has to travel out in the snow today.


Thank you both (((HUGS)))
We have thick fog this morning.
My kitchen needs some attention, I've been ignoring it.
I've been pretty much ignoring all external things and keeping myself safely wrapped up in my mind, not thinking about external things.
I have been finding happiness with the cats inside here with me and the ones who visit in the yard.
The apricot tree is covered with fat little buds getting all ready for Spring when it will burst out all in flowers and the tiny little green and yellow finches will come in huge flocks to pick all the flowers off so we don't get many apricots.
LOL

Woke up to a winter wonderland! The wet type of snow that sticks to all the trees! So pretty. And...the kitty doctor called to say that the clinic is closed today! So no dr for the little one! Then mom called to say that her clinic is closed, and she's happy because she didn't want to go either.

I'm still feeling well after our dinner last night. When I got home I texted the cleaning fairies to have them come next week (I'll be at nutritionist on Wednesday then hopefully at RMV to get my license. And she wrote back to say, but I wanted to give you the biggest hug on your birthday. Really great.

I'm running a load of laundry and working. Looking forward to a focused day


Keep up the good work, SubC. Oh how I would love a guest bedroom! Thank you for supporting me. I was really disgusted with myself yesterday. I'll go to safety deposit box tmr. After I find the keys to box, of course.

Tillie, find a dry spot to curl up with your cats! I am so unhappy about your roof. :(

Tatoulia, i'm Glad you got past your panic. That is no fun all. But please do not beat yourself up when you are fighting depression. I hear you say you have to "pull yourself away from your depression." And want you to remember that that is like saying "I just have to get over this broken leg and go for a walk." You wouldn't feel bad about yourself because your leg was still healing, right? You just do what you can until it gets better.

I had a very lazy weekend, but dh cleaned the kitchen again, so I am in a good starting place today. I have my own personal cleaning fairy. :)

I did putter around a bit yesterday and put a few small things in the trash can or goodwill bin. And I ran the dishwasher and did two loads of laundry.

This morning I have more laundry to do. And I need to remake the guest bed. My parents are coming to visit in 4 weeks, so I will try very hard not to rebury it!

Oh I wish I could get your roof fixed for you. I worry so. See if the kitties have room for you.

WAY TO GO! working on things! :D
Good luck tomorrow with the taxes.

The only money I made in 2018 was when I cashed in my savings bonds.
Don't think it is enough to even bother filling out the forms for.

A&E keeps posting more episodes of HOARDERS on Youtube every few days.

The rain we had washed away all the snow and made big puddles.
Then it started snowing again.
I have buckets placed in my room and the hallway to catch all the water. :(

Twinkles and Scooter are snuggled up together in a cat quilt on the couch.
So cute.

Thank you Tillie. Thank you for taking good care of me. Thank you all for taking good care of me.

I'm streaming pandora and kitty is being terribly cute. I am a work in progress but I feel much relieved. I'll keep working on things here tonight. I'll play Let's Do My Taxes tmr. I think I'll owe and that's fine too.

We cross posted ;D

YEA!!! for happier news and emotions.

WAY TO GO!!! for all the bagged donations and trash!

Bet the birth certificate is with the passport in the safety deposit box.
Sounds logical.

Tatoulia
I am so very,very proud of you.
You have been facing all the things you have been neglecting for years in your life.
You have worked so very, very hard changing your mind set about buying, discarding and eating.
You are an inspiration to everyone here.
You show us that no matter how hard something is
we CAN do this.

So please quit beating up our dear friend.
Show her kindness, forgiveness and understanding.
(((HUGS)))

Miss Kitty,
Show Tatoulia how much we all appreciate and love her. ;)

Ok I'm better now. I showered then went to dinner. Our friend is looking very well. It's been three years since she's been here. We had a wonderful time together and she is free on Saturday so I'm going to move my massage appt then spend the day on Saturday palling around with her! So happy.

Once we got our if the car, and BF was parking it, she said, you look 10 years younger and you've lost so much weight.

I'm so excited. And energized!

I didn't get mom's grocery shopping done today. I hope she can forgive me.

I have two garbage bags ready to take out tomorrow night. I have taken two extra jars of buttons and put them in the donate pile. I have a bag to donate and then the bags with things for my cleaners to decide on.

So energized. I'm sorry about my meltdown earlier. I am going to have to pull myself away from my depression long enough to get things done. I've been letting the important things slip. Hopefully on Tuesday I'll find my birth certificate in my safe deposit box.

I'm running the dishwasher (is loaded it earlier in the day) I'm going to change into pjs and then scrub the kitchen counters.

Arrggghhh.

I went to start the process of renewing my license on line. It's a big scene now. I grabbed my SS card and then I had to find my birth certificate, which I keep in the junk drawer in my kitchen. The junk drawer is terrible in a hundred ways because after I changed out my stove, the drawer now only opens a few inches. So I started to dig around and I found an old fortune cookie fortune. It says, now is the time to finish up old tasks. So I made a bag for donations and a bag for trash. Shocking how much is in there. I made a button bag so all the little envelopes with buttons can be put on there and donated. No birth certificate. But I'm thoroughly grossed out by the drawer. I cannot believe how much was in there. Pens. Pens pens. Binder clips. Broken jewelry. Broken jewelry is bagged together. Maybe someone at goodwill can use the beads. Some are very nice from Italy.

I checked my desk and I checked my important papers place and I checked my safe. The last place will be my safe deposit box so I have the hassle of that to deal with. I didn't find my passports either so I'm pretty sure they are all together. I just can't believe they aren't in my safe. In fact, I was a little surprised to see that nothing is in my safe. I may have to go thru the hassle to check in there again. I'm so grossed out by the dirt and the safe is in my scary closet that I tried to clean out years ago with Tillie and LR. I was able to take something out of there and put in garbage bag. So now I have two garbage bags of pretty disgusting stuff. SubC look away. I threw out all the pens. I cannot figure out if they work or not.

Oh I am so upset. I'm upset with myself which makes it worse.

Going to go finish with the drawer then shower. I am so upset. So mad at myself for being a giant slob and letting things fester and treating my home like a garbage can and letting my depression go unchecked and my eating as some sort of solution and buying and saving stuff as some sort of solution and treating my body like a garbage can and using drawers and closets as some sort of garbage can and I'm just so upset.

Kitty is next to me and I'll spend some time with her.

Good Morning Everybody
"CLINK!"

Hi CriticalMass
How nice that your quilt was so well received by the people seeing them all displayed together! :D
A bakery made cake is a fine cake.
Not everybody can easily whip up a pretty and tasty cake at the drop of a hat.
WAY TO GO!!!
You did GREAT clearing the chair and making it cat comfy.
Plus you managed to get some unneeded thigs out of the home too! :D

Hi Subclinical
What a nice house guest you had.
And you were easily able to give him a warm dry bed to sleep in.
WAY TO GO!!! :D
You seem to be managing your time and priorities very well even with everything going on there in your very busy life. (((hug)))

Hi Tatoulia
I get my eye exams and glasses from WallyWorld.
The optometrist there is very nice and everything is very affordable and well made.
WAY TO GO! for tidying up and keeping up with maintenance!
Sorry about that monkey wrench. :(
Hope you find your motivation to do things on your To-Do list.
Find something quick and easy to start with to help give you motivation.

Overcast rainy cold wet day here today.
Sitting here in my bed with kitties all around while I drink my tea and play on the computer.

Wow! Great posts! Cm that's great that you reclaimed some space and that kitty has a new spot! How sweet about your quilt! Great work! Also, I would award you some points for getting rid of the old tv and clearing off the chair!

SubC I adore your houseguest too!

Well a monkey wrench has been put into our plans....we had long-standing dinner reservations and I had added the visitor. Is today we find out she's on a schedule and needs to be back by 8. I'm disappointed but have changed out reservations. BF had suggested telling her that we had long-standing plans to celebrate my birthday and had changed it to include her but I think I'm more comfortable this way. I was so looking forward to our meal at the other place. Such is life.

I have so much to do. I hope I start doing it. Any of it.

I have been reading.

Happy birthday time to Tatoulia, and cool on the recognition for the quilt CM!

The goats are fine.

I got swamped at work - boss asked me for another class design on very short notice, there was another loss, my youngest is dating and has been needing to spend a lot of time using me for emotional support (the dating is going very well, but the dd has severe anxiety), and my husband's best friend since elementary school came to visit.

I haven't seen this guy in person for 26 years. (Dh has caught up with him a few times) he was in our wedding. I adore him.

He gave us 48 hours notice (what he had) that he would be in town. I taught a day and a half of that notice, I did not give up my swimming, I wrote one of the class descriptions, and I was still able to clear off the guest bed, take care of some dishes, and welcome him to stay in my home. I wish things had been better, but I gave him a tour of the whole place, a little embarrassed, but not ashamed.

It helps that he is one of the least judgmental people I have ever known. When dh offered him a whiskey and I said "you may have to wash a glass." His response was "it's whiskey. by definition the glass is clean."

Hi,

We're just waiting to see what the winter storm will amount to here. The projected negative wind chills sound worse than the snow.

Went over to the church this morning to take a cake (storebought again - just not ready to stress over baking under the circumstances). The quilts are hung in preparation for Bingo. One of the experienced quilters gave me a squeeze and said "You did a good job," which was sweet. And one of the girls from the family I sewed the Barbie clothes for said if she won the Blackout Bingo and got to pick a quilt she'd pick mine - and I was standing there so I couldn't resist telling her I made it, LOL!

Yesterday I got some things out of the house - a small TV I don't need, computer batteries to recycle, and misc.

With this and other things I needed to do, I didn't get round to starting my challenge thing but I'm still satisfied with what I did get done. The TV had been in the rocking chair by the front door, so that chair is free of stuff now. I got a synthetic sheepskin kitty mat and put it on the seat, and it didn't take girl kitty long to discover the new cozy place! It'll help because boy kitty often claims the cat tree near that chair. So girl now has a place to claim - and they are relaxed near each other, which is progress.

Decluttering is great - finding a wonderful use for the reclaimed space is nothing short of awesome.

I watched a movie on Netflix and I just unloaded the dishwasher. Going to go to bed soon.

I need to do some things around the house in the AM.

Thank you, Tillie. I am rethinking things. We were so carefree when we were young. Now I'm a pile of worries. I was a worrier as a child but then teen and early 20s, felt invincible.

I am excited about the new month. Are you going to do a challenge? I'm excited about CMs challenge because she's trying s new way to make it work! And that is exciting.

I'm going to read for a while. I have clean sheets on the bed and I did wash one load of laundry. All dried and put away. Dishwasher needs to be emptied; I ran it this AM. We had snow this AM with more expected tmr night.

I need to get an eye appt and buy new glasses. I've been putting it off due to the cost. But if I'm able to work on my debt as I plan to, I'll be able to weather the cost of new glasses.

Hi Tatoulia

Happy to hear from you. :)

That is a really GREAT project to work on.
Having peace of mind is more important than most people realize.
Eliminating what we can and finding good solutions for the rest of life's troubles.

Of course I have always worried about you living in a large city.
Things were not so dangerous as they are now.
One of the best ways to keep safe is to have a responsible buddy with you on walks and evenings out.
Another good thing to do is act confident and look anybody straight in the eye, should you feel they are "off" in some way.

Good luck Miss Kitty with your Vet visit.
I know it's scary but it's good for you. (((HUG)))

Hello everyone! I am sorry I haven't been here. I have been feeling run down and tired and didn't want to come in here just to say I'm tired!

Tillie ooooh the hyacinths starting to peek through the soil!

CM great job on coming up with a challenge that can work with your patterns! I think for March I will do a focus on me. It's going to involve focusing on the things that are upsetting me and finding ways to eliminate or adapt to the upsets. I think I will be able to tackle my debt. I have put a few things in motion and will have a better idea around March 10 th. That in turn will help me to make some decisions about my house that are worrying me, etc. I am also seeing nutritionist on the 6th, as a birthday gift to myself. So I'm going to do a challenge that will help me find greater peace.

I am now cleaning the cat box at mom's once a week. That is goi f much better for her. I told her today that I'm going to have my cleaners scrub her bathroom the week after next. I cannot have cleaners this week because I have my nutritionist Wednesday AM then I have to get my license renewed, and it's no longer an easy process. Then Thursday mom and I are going to the Musuem. So I'll put off the cleaners by one week.

I have sorted my clothes for spring. I know what I need to buy and I know what size to get. I've identified exactly what I'm getting and where I am getting it from. So I'm pretty excited to have a plan.

BF and I are celebrating my birthday tomorrow night. We have a friend in from Kuwait and she will join us for dinner. We are not telling her that it's my birthday. I don't want her to be shopping for me although I suspect she will already have a gift for us.

I am taking kitty to the vet on Monday for a well-kitty visit. So I'm working on ticking off some of those items that I have to do so I can relax.

Work is going better. I am still walking in each day and walking home most nights, unless BF picks me up. He did pick me up one day this week because it was so terribly windy and when I was walking a disgusting piece of garbage, which had been swirling around, flew into my face and bounced off my nose. Disgusting.

We had another going woman disappear from a downtown bar and she has been found dead. We had lost a woman in January and she was found, being held hostage by a psychopath. It is so dangerous and I'm so upset. None of them are doing anything that I haven't done. It is so unnerving and so upsetting.

SubC how are the goats?

I'm sorry I've been away. I guess we will help me focus and I'll feel better. Cm I am rooting for your bed!!! I want you to have a nice bed to relax on!!!

Good Morning

Very cold with falling snow.
Some of the snow flakes are very big and fat.
Two and a half inches wide!

Today I plan to do a little food prep then clean the kitchen, again.
Then I will scoop litter boxes, sweep and vacuum the carpet.

I asked the cats if they wanted to go outside and play and they all just went back to bed.

Did all the stuff I do on the first of any month because it's easier to remember to do them if I always do them on the first of the month.
Cleaned the filters on the space heaters.
Watered my cactus, Saguaro.
Cleaned the inside of the washing machine.
Turned the calendar page.

Today is a very mean and nasty person's B-Day.
I am ignoring him because he ALWAYS keeps yelling at me about everything.
The phone rings and it's for him, he yells at me.
Stupid things like that.
I do not appreciate being yelled at, not by anybody.

GREAT! idea for a challenge CriticalMass :D

Just don't get bogged down into trying for too many points daily and if you miss days due to "LIFE" getting in the way
don't let it get you down, just start again from where you are.

And avoid momentarily! ;D

Tillie - so amazing that you would mention challenges right when I just thought of one! :)

You see, I shy away from challenges with deadlines because deadlines and I have never hit it off. When I try a challenge that is within a specific time, I usually fail to meet the DEADline and feel bad. But today I have this one that can be open-ended.

Here it is: In the work I've been doing lately I have gotten rid of lots of small items. It can be something as small as a receipt or a note with a link I wanted to enter into the computer, a thing to not forget, etc. The small items scatter and make big clumps of clutter.

So here's the challenge in a nutshell: Instead of saying I'll do a timeframe's worth of work, I'm going to try to do a set number of pieces each day. Each receipt or note, for example, would be worth 1 point, and when I get to 50 or 100 points I've accomplished my goal. If I want to I can count out a batch of items. In my case, similar items that require similar amounts of time and thought, or go in the same place, etc. would be most efficient than a random batch.

Those of us who want to do this can say they'll do it for the month; I'm just going to say I'll start and try to do it each day.

I know what you mean about the Walmartization of America. I can remember when it was just a store and there were others its same size - KMart, Woolco, Target (which wasn't so huge then), and some local ones. Shopping was more interesting - though whether that's always a good thing or not... but still, what WM and Target and other "big box" stores have done to retail and to rural America is not good.

The same goes for supermarkets - there used to a variety of mid-sized stores; now there are just the few big 'uns. It gets boring and so standardized. The same stuff is trucked in. The bakery doesn't bake on site. Etc.

Glad you have some handy places to get what you need though.

Sigh.

Tatoulia, SubC, Motown, Day1, and everybody else we miss and hope to hear from again soon - have a good day.

Avoid "Momentarily"! :D Especially on beds!

Good Morning Everybody

Hi Subclinical

Clink!"

Thanks for the drive by.
Hope you are busy with lots of good stuff. ;)

Hi CriticalMass
I visualize you sitting there with all your dolls living a little girl's dream.
When you were a little girl I bet you always wanted to have so many Barbie's. ;D
Hope you reclaim your bed soon.
Beds are dangerous places to put things momentarily.

The small town I live near used to have many lovely Mom & Pop shops.
WallyWorld moved in and drove them all out of business.
We used to have 3 grocery stores, now just WallyWorld and Safeway.
The Safeway is nasty, dirty, dark and dingy with expensive rotting produce and smells of old rotting fish so I don't shop there.
Doesn't take me long to get into town and I take a lovely tranquil scenic back roads route to get there.
To get to Reno or Carson City it's 150 mile round trip so I very rarely go there.
Fortunately there is a Naval Air Station (Top Gun) near by here and the people transferring out donate lots of new and fancy things to the thrift shops so I can have nice things without traveling far.


Bright & sunny clear blue skies this morning with a slight chance of rain later.
This latest storm sure did a number all over the west.
Snow & rain with avalanches & flooding.
Plus everywhere has been so bone chilling cold.
Spring is right around the corner.
Soon things will be green and growing and baby animals will pop up everywhere.

Since this is the last day of February does anybody have anything special they want to challenge on in March?

Hi.❤️ And clinks.

So, MUCH right now. Good stuff too. And tired - just e-mailed my boss and misspelled "thank you".

Know that i'm reading and glad you are here, every day.

Hi everyone - lots going on, that's good! Glad for the goats esp. the little guy. And yay for all the things everyone's finding to donate and the space being reclaimed.

It got cold again here - really cold. Going to the non-climate controlled storage unit is on hold until this cold snap ends. It's supposed to stay frigid for several more days. Including this weekend when the quilt Bingo is scheduled! Plus Saturday and Sunday have precipitation forecast. If that isn't just the "icing" on the cake. Once in a great while we miss those forecasts - join me in crossing fingers?

I've gotten some of the Barbie boxes out to the van. The boxes are those small flat Amazon boxes about the size of a student dictionary. There was an empty tub in the van into which they fit. Momentarily.

Did I tell you the joke behind "Momentarily"? It was when I was moving from the storage unit across town to this closer one. When I couldn't decide what to do with something, I would tell whatever friend was helping me: "I'm just going to set it over here momentarily" so that I could work on something I could decide what to do with more quickly. Then I noticed how many times I was saying that word, and it became a running joke. My roommate was one of the helpers, so "Momentarily" lives on when we are doing organization projects around here. LOL!

Of course "Momentarily" can be a dangerous concept for folks like us. The badger growls and hisses at me when I say it.

Unfortunately, going to the non-climate controlled storage unit to offload anything is not something I want to do until this cold snap ends.

The Barbie boxes I put in the tub are labeled as to whether the dolls are ready to sell or need TLC first. I've already decided not to sell dolls after this. I can break even I'll just do clothes which take less room. If I can't break even, I'll give the dolls away for shipping cost.

Several thrift stores here have closed in the last few years, and they were the ones most likely to have fixer-upper Barbies. Perhaps that's a good thing, eh? Less temptation.

But it's also been fun going through the dolls, identifying them online, etc. I need to put my regular collection back in their plastic boxes so they get off my bed. Then deal with some books and things still on the bed. This is taking awhile, which I rather suspected it would, but is moving in the right direction.

I can't wait to get the bed completely back to being a BED. The first night it is, I'll feel like I'm at the Ritz!

Tillie - I read that article about Route 50. Wowzers. I would have an agoraphobia meltdown there. I'm one of those people who just doesn't take well to vast empty places. I knew there were places in Nevada like that, and I'm sure other states may have long stretches of road even if towns can't be seen. Our Kansas Turnpike goes nonstop through the Flint Hills but there are cows and more other vehicles on the highway. How far do you have to drive to get to Walmart?

Hurry up, Spring!

Good Afternoon Anybody

Left the house about 9:00am this morning.
Went and visited people at the food bank thrift store.
Got change and went to the water depot and filled up 4 bottles with water.
Then I went to WallyWorld and walked around looking at stuff.
On a shelf in an isle way out of the way I discovered they had 18oz. Better Homes & Gardens scented candles for only 1.50 each.
I love burning a scented jar candle!.
Bought myself 2 spicy cinnamon stick and 2 fresh cut Frasier jar candles.
Don't care for the overly sweet food scented ones.
Got kitty litter and cat snax.
Then I wandered around and got all the food items listed on my list.
Looked at all the donuts, cakes & cookies and did NOT buy any.
Did buy a package of 8 Russell Stover's chocolate covered marshmallow eggs.
Put them away till later.
Came home after 1:00pm and got everything all put away.

Did notice in the outside garden department they have the bags of compost/steer manure mixture.
Will have to make a special trip to get some of that.
Someday when I am not already all tired out from running around.

HAPPY DANICING that the babies are all doing well (((HUG)))

WAY TO GO! for tackling that terribly frustrating and depressing fiber clean up.

So many things on your mind you don't have any space available to remember things.
You need to spend some quality time doing pottery.
That would help center you.;)

Yay for a clean kitchen!

I am losing and forgetting things. I know it's brain chemistry but it's also frustrating.

Today I trimmed a pot. I also spent a lot of time cleaning up in the studio. I have a lot of raw fiber stored out there, and I needed to move it, and at some point - because the studio is indoor/outdoor space, moths got into it - which I noticed when I suddenly realized the bags were falling apart and there were cocoons all over the outside of everything. Which was overwhelming and depressing (the animals the fiber came from are now dead or sold) and I couldn't face it.

But today I did. I threw out two small bags that were really awful. I shopped vac'd and wiped down the outsides of the bins, and then I opened a bin expecting to see cocoons everywhere. But it turned out most of what was in the bins is ok! There are still some bags I haven't delt with, they may be salvageable, but the whole situation is a lot better.

I wanted to throw pots too, but I ran out of time.

Then I went to school and forgot stuff I meant to take, went to the pool and realized I forgot my earplugs (had to swim with my head out of the water because I can't get water in my ears, so did 1,000m breaststroke instead of a longer freestyle), went to the grocery store and forgot to buy stuff (but I have to go back anyway because I got home and realized that they charged me for the same bananas three times.)

My house is getting messy again, I have three loads of laundry to put away, and I just realized I may have washed a check.

But the baby goats are all doing great! Even the little one.

Good Afternoon Everyone

Did a bunch of miscellaneous little tasks today.
Kitchen is all clean, again.
Cats have been having canned food breakfast & breakfast & breakfast.
Thinking tomorrow I should grocery shop since I haven't been in a while.
Some pears would be nice.
I'll work on getting my head into it.

Hi Subclinical
Still holding the baby goats close to my heart (((HUG)))

Sorry for the loss of a wonderful teacher, human being.

WAY TO GO! for bagging up the jumper.
I always set the harder things aside and think about letting them go for a little while.
Very, very rarely do I ever change my mind and I then never regret my decisions.

Be kind and gentle and understanding with yourself while you grieve.
(((HUGS)))

Brave Tatoulia to fight the wind!

That is nice about your dress. I think if you just remind the cleaners now and then to let you know if they don't want the stuff you are fine. They did tell you they were passing some along.

Could you have the cleaners come when you are with your mom? I know you do her dishes sometimes - what is happening with them? I realize the cleaners don't normally do dishes, but I wonder if they would be willing to come in and do her dishes and her sink/counter now and then?

Even dusting and a thorough floor cleaning once a month could make a big difference.

It was very sunny here today, but too cold to be outside long. I cleaned up a bag of stuff that was next to the garage steps. Things are looking pretty good out there.

The thing that surprised me the most about tumbleweeds was how big they get.

The little white goat is doing ok.

I have had a hard day today though - one of the teachers at our local high school died yesterday. He taught all three of my kids and was amazing and wonderful, and far too young. He had been ill, but I didn't know.

I did work in the studio today - but cleaning up, I couldn't find the energy to be creative.

And I finally put the jumper in the goodwill bin - I had to live with the idea for a while first.

Yeah, tumbleweeds are real.
Some are 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide and ALL of them are full of pickers that stab you.
So painful to try getting rid of.

Sorry you were attacked by disgusting garbage tumbleweeds.

OK, so maybe the new cleaner is intimidated by your Mom's refusal for things getting cleaned.
I can see that happening.

Just give whatever you want to the cleaning fairies.
I'm sure what they can't wear they will be so happy to gift to someone they know. ;D

We've had terrible winds here today too, Tillie. It was a gritty walk in: eyes, mouth, shoes. My face was dotted with dust when I got in. Lunch time, undaunted, I walked a distance to get my salad. I brought a canvas bag with me to put my salad in it. Then there was all this garbage swirling around and a piece glanced off my nose. So filthy. I immediately scrubbed my nose when I got to office. So filthy. BF picked me up at the office tonight. It is cold and so gusty.

I wonder if, when it comes down to it, if it's the combination of the new cleaner and mom's reluctance that results in her place being less than cleaned. Her former lady would fight her a bit and keep on cleaning. So I question if they are combining to see a dirtier apt. I'll get my ladies up there and see what we can get done.

I found another blouse to donate. Worn very few times. I know these things won't fit them. I hope they don't mind taking them for another person. It's hard to know what to do. I don't want to make them take my stuff but on the other hand they are hard working immigrants and they may know other people. I've asked them in the past and I'm pretty sure they want everything.

I have been planning my spring clothes and I'm excited. I think I have one dress that I could have altered and wear again.

I don't think I'll get my garbage out tonight. The bags will be tumbleweeds.

I'm sorry the tumbleweeds are stirring up your allergies and the dear cats's sensitivities. Tillie I may have said this before but I keep forgetting that tumbleweeds are real!

Hoping Day 1, CM, Anony, Motown, Tess, SubC, LR, Joan, Diane, Dianne and who am I missing? Stop by.

The wind has been picking up all day.
Started out as a breeze and now it's really raging.
So much dust in the air, visibility is greatly reduced.
Worst part is all the darn tumble weeds (Russian thistles) blowing onto the property.

This is making the cats miserable with watery eyes and I keep sneezing and coughing.

If the wind was not raging it would have been a lovely and warm day to play outside.

Good Morning Everyone

Hi Subclinical
WAY TO GO! cleaning off the dresser!
My dresser used to be in the diningroom area until I made him give me the tiny room for myself.
FANTASTIC! your home looks better now than it did on Friday! :D

Hi Tatoulia
Hopefully that "new" cleaner there won't be around much longer since they don't seem to really want to do the job.
Have a wonderful walk home today. :D

Sunny & bright and will warm up today.

Yay dresser! Yay laundry and dishwasher! Great work, SubC! Sorry to hear about the little one. I'm glad that the other four are gaining strength!

Mom's cleaning person is part of her assisted living package. The previous one loved my mother and would do everything and anything for her, including cat box and other stuff. I don't expect this guy to do the cat box but it seems like he walks the vacuum in, does her toilet and shower, mops the bathroom floor, then leaves. He doesn't vacuum the whole area and doesn't seem to sort of look around. I will have to convince mom to let me send the ladies up for a couple of hours. I think if she'd let me clean and declutter a little more I could convince her.

I could probably have them do her bathroom and she'd be comfortable with that. Again, baby steps.

I'm heading into the office today. Going to be very windy this afternoon. I'm looking forward to my walk.

Sorry about your mom's new cleaning person Tatoulia. Can she change to yours?

You got a lot of exercise today!

I cleaned off the top of the dresser next to the garage door. There is not actually supposed to BE a dresser next to the garage door, but one step at a time.

I only did that because I told you I would and I do not have time to feed the badger!

One of the little white babies doesn't seem to be getting any stronger, but the other 4 baby goats are doing great.

I ran my dish washer twice today and washed and dried two loads of laundry. I'll put them away tomorrow. My house isn't great, but it looks better than it did on Friday.

What a lovely picture you painted, SubC, guitar strumming, fire roaring, planning to cook together! Lovely!

I had a cup of coffee with BF then I went to mom's and changed kitty's box, emptied mom's bathroom garbage, decluttered her sink, walked to store to get her new toothpaste and tooth brush, then went back to her house. I also broke down some boxes and took them out. I wanted to scrub her sink (I do not think her new cleaning person does much of anything) but ultimately felt tired after walking to and from grocery store so that will have to wait.

Kitty has already fallen asleep next to me. I'll have to cook dinner soon. I'm hungry.