Hey, thanks so much for your background. That helps me a lot actually. Wow you DO have a farm! Amazing!

We are getting sloppier around here with garbage instead of more careful. *although I did just buy Eco friendlier laundry sheets. Will try your brand next!

H came home early. Boo? Not sure. But in the meanwhile, I got the bins moved and curtains "installed" to cover the closet and the back half of my room. Is a shock e very time I walk by. 😁

*PREVENTS PEOPLE stupid auto correct. Lets *

OverFILL

Re: fridge. Yep, I overlap it and then waste everything. This essentially makes it smaller but let's the light through. I was thinking for your counter it could be a placeholder sort of. And enter people from putting stuff there ?

Hi again,

roadie, I just saw your p.s.

I don't really understand the advantage of having upside down shoeboxes in the fridge - do you mean it keeps you from buying too much food? We have a relatively small fridge in the kitchen and a slightly larger one in the basement for extra eggs, milk, and garden veggies, and I spend all summer trying to keep them from overflowing.

I did put a towel down to try to motivate myself to keep that space clean, but the problem is that it's a bottleneck. The things on the counter are (mostly, temporarily at least) supposed to be on the counter. So making less space to put them would just be narrowing the bottleneck and backing the process up to somewhere else.

Ideally I would put all of my stuff away when I was done using it (so Dh didn't need to scoop it out of his way) and dishes and containers would be washed as soon as they were used or emptied and then every evening I could just grab the few little items that used the counter for a landing spot and put them away and the counter would start every morning clean. I am not there yet. I am not even to every week. But I believe I will get there.

Hi Roadie,

We have a hobby/subsistence farm. We have 27 acres and about half of it is wooded. The land is squarish and the house is right in the center between woods and fields. Most of the woods is steeply sloped and most of the open is flat. A creek runs through the low part between/in the woods and the road. We have a good sized pond, a small barn for animals, and a big barn for tractors, shop, pottery studio and a "guest loft" - it's literally just a metal loft with a rug and a bed - but that barn has a bathroom with a shower stall, and our house, well - in the words of my oldest "basically my parents bought a tear down and then we moved in."

We bought the house in late February 18 years ago. We started work on it and moving stuff to the big barn right away. For two months we commuted over an hour from our house:
Morning - load car, drop kids at school, drive to new house, unload car in barn, work on house, shower, return to old house, load car, pick up kids, new house, unload car, drive home, eat, pack for next day, repeat. Meanwhile Dh worked and he and the kids joined me on weekends. Then for the next four months my family of 5 lived in that loft. In August our furniture was delivered.

I thought I had reached peak hoard before we moved, and Dh tried to encourage me to use the opportunity to downsize (the new house was much smaller than the old house) but I couldn't manage with everything else that was going on. I moved everything. Things actually got worse. At one point the entire barn was wall to wall and head high (or more) I did start making progress after about a year, but our basement was the same, and I'd say I didn't really get serious about the house until ten to twelve years ago. My kids can't remember living with me in a house that didn't have boxes and bins that needed to be moved and stashed. Things started to get bad when I was pregnant with the now 25 y.o. Youngest and dealing with depression, and they just kept getting worse.

I buy things at regular grocery stores and farmer's markets and thrift shops and online or in normal stores if I have to. I try to buy as little as possible and I pay attention to packaging and to ingredients if it's food. I try to grow and make as much food as possible and I choose no packaging over reusable over recyclable over burnable over trash. Some things I have just stopped buying because the trash isn't worth it. Most of them are things that weren't good for me anyway. I have never worn make up, so that's a whole category...

I can answer more specific questions - for example, here I learned about tru-earth laundry strips, and I ordered them, and I tried them, and I love them, and I ordered "a year's supply", which came total packaging one cardboard box smaller than a shoebox and I still have 1/3 more than a year later and the cardboard box will recycle when it is empty. *neither Subclinical, this website nor any associated participants receive any compensation for this endorsement - lol!

P.s. SubC, rereading posts below gave me a thought. At one point I used upside down plastic shoe boxes in the fridge to keep myself from overstocking it. I think my son (or H) kept taking them out for whatever reason... but I gonna try that again. I wonder if that would work for your counter to guard your cu inches?

Also I had the idée brillante to store the extra bins in my now empty closet while nephew is here because then I am still guarding my newly conquered floor space and I can hide it by hanging a length of fabric (who needs fabric?!) Over a tension rod! Haha 😂 have to laugh at my delusions a bit because as soon as I said that I glanced up and saw the bags and poster boards teetering over the edge of the book case (3 cu. ft) and the pile of "DO NOT LOSE" and "SUPER FRAGILE" on top of my dresser (1.5) and the "a middle aged fat lady with chronic mystery health conditions lives here" on the bedside tables (1.25) and half open drawer ? and I realize my nephew will not be fooled!

Naturally, when describing volume, we should use cubic feet beforehand, and once it's clear, cubic inches!

SubC, sorry about the counter inches... but fwiw I am super impressed with your canning exploits. I am soooo sad my garden had to be minimal this year. But even in a good year I usually end up wasting a large % of my produce because I can't get it together to process things in a timely manner. I have several jars of year old fridge pickles staring me in the face every time I open the fridge. Yesterday morning when my cleaning energy was at its zenith I stared down those pickles and thought "you don't have long, buddy" but fatigue and reality caught up to me before I caught up to the fridge. This year the bumper crop will be the grapes. I didn't prune as much last year and it went crazy this year.

The goat thing just blows my mind. I totally get the appeal - they are insanely cute - but I get tired just thinking of it! But I seriously want to go to a cocktail party now and wait for a lull in the din and yell I HAVE GOATS!

#ihavegoats #guardthe144

Glad you got some bean time. You two buddies have a magical thing going on,,,

The trash thing is interesting. Curious how that works - what do you buy and how do you buy it ? And what do you make yourself? I can tell you have land - do you have acreage or a farm or ? I often wish we had a little more space - like half an acre or acre but I can't handle what we have now, so...

I totally get that you want to show your Dh sister your progress. If it wasn't for wanting to have something to report to you all I'd still be where I was last month!

So curious if you could share (whoever is willing) a little about your situation - like what are you dealing with generally - Where are you in the process - how long have you been actively working on this - is there a particular thing you're working on / focused on at the moment?

Oh, and congrats on the needle moving!

Hugs,

Good morning!

Roadie, check your laundry.

We enjoy hearing about your life because it helps us get to know you, which helps us try to help you better. I'm sorry about your situation with your Dh. It sounds like there is a lot of anger there. Stuff is one of the areas that becomes a proxy for other issues. It can also cause them (just like money, sex, religion, kids/no kids, pets...). I hope that as you clean out you guys can also improve your communication and relationship. So, at least he doesn't also hoard like lila's dh, but not a good source of support...

I'm proud of you for continuing to make progress! Are the wallpaper tubes for wallpapering your closet?

I hope you have a fun visit with your nephew.

CM, good job on the catalogs!

Once I almost bought a t-shirt that said "I prayed for patience and God sent me goats."

My sil struggles with a chronic health issue. Some days it makes it hard for him to take care of Bean, and yesterday morning he called and asked if I could come get him. So, I'm sorry for my sil, but I got a wonderful extra day with Bean! His mommy had some meetings, so I got to keep him until 9pm and give him his bath. After a day with grammie, he needed one!

My kitchen actually looks better this morning than it did yesterday morning, and I was able to cut up some kale to dehydrate today and run a load of laundry during his nap. I ran the dishwasher last night too. Maybe two more loads? Canning doesn't help with that.

Unfortunately I lost my counter. Part of it is just dirty dishes, but also the counter is where Dh puts everything he doesn't know what to do with or that I need to process. This is by agreement. Otherwise he would put recycling in the trash can - because he is unwilling to devote brain space to learning the rules and also unwilling to wash anything he is ready to get rid of, and he would put some of my stuff away where he thinks it logically belongs and where I would never find it because our brains work differently.

I don't know if Lila and Roadie know that I don't have trash service. So everything that comes to my house has to be used, stored, composted, burned, or taken away. This actually helps a lot with my decision making - I have to look at things and think "what will I do with this when I am done with it? We have very little actual garbage for a US household - it usually gets tossed in a plastic grocery bag when I get gas.

My dd2 is coming home this weekend for her birthday, so I have to get the laundry off her bed, and Dh sister and her Dh are coming to stay the night on Monday. Dh sister is also fighting a hoarding problem and somehow it is weirdly important to me for her to see progress in my house since she was here in May. The counter is the biggest target. She is someone who will actually understand what it takes to get those empty square inches.

On a bright note - the needle on my scale moved in the right direction this morning. Not very far, but it moved, and I'm calling that a win!

Hi all,

My nephew and his little boy come tomorrow to stay for a few days. That has little a tiny fire under my ass to get some things done. Conversely, the H has gone out of town for a few days making it psychologically much easier to work on things even though I have less time to do it.

???? SIDEBAR ON MY TOXIC SITUATION - feel free to skip- More and hopefully last tome on the H:
I'll admit there must be some push and pull with him being a jerk being a demotivating force... yes, this is a toxic relationship. We still have attraction and affection for each other but the baggage now is so immense it's completely dysfunctional. There was a major incident last week where he was totally in the wrong but one Result was that he retaliated by moving the bins I was using to sort from his room to the garage. He was on board with them being in there to begin with - we specifically discussed it - but evidently he thought it should take a matter of days and not weeks. So I mention the thing about the bins because this is the most progress I've made so far in dealing with the problem and in my view he took a totally unrelated incident (having to do with my sons behavior in the car) and used it as an excuse to derail my efforts to clear out my room by moving the bins I was using for sorting in his room out to the garage. I guess he didn't put any in my room - I realized what he was doing and moved the remaining ones to my room. Now I'm really going to try to stop talking about him because I think now you can get a feel for how this dynamic is impacted by my hoarding and how me dealing with it is impacted by the relationship. I mean, I guess I've wondered before about whether or not he undermines me with these efforts but now I think there's definitely something Weird /passive aggressive going on there. I can't image how he would possibly benefit From derailing a train that's definitely going in the direction he says he wants.. . he presumably hates that I have a hoarding problem, but well anyway. When he moved that stuff it was so mean spirited I just couldn't believe it. But I had to kind of disconnect from it and realize I just have to power through this - albeit in slow motion - and deal with the other issues at a later date. I know I need to do this. It will ultimately help things. Not dealing with it will definitely hurt things. He's got stuff he needs to deal with with his moods and temper, etc. but I have to keep focused on this for now. I can't tackle both things simultaneously. They're both too big.

??-

Ok, so update on today , I cleared out the stuff on the shelf in the closet and some stuff on the floor. All the clothes are already gone, now I just have a guitar, scarf, hangers, an antique tiger maple chair (maybe my stitching chair?), a shoe organizer, and wallpaper tubes. I'm thinking now I may wash it down and prime it and see if I get the motivation to paint or even wallpaper it...

I moved the six? Bins that were still on the floor in here back into H's room temporarily. Now the 40 or so sq feet on two sides of my bed are bare floor for the first time in ??? A section of the other half of the room is also bare floor. The rest of the stuff over there is all containers that have organized things in them, not loose paper/trash.

Also swept floor again but didn't wash it yet, instead I pulled a little more crap out from under the bedside table, the dresser and the bed (dammit I forgot there was a floor under all of these pieces of furniture) But that's ok. It actually really made me feel good that I could keep chipping away at it and not lose ground. Once I got that stuff done, the state of the bedside tables started coming into focus. So I might try to clear those off tomorrow am. Also have to move the bins back out of H's room because my nephew will be staying in there. Will try not to get discouraged by that. I'm making a lot of progress. Everything that's left up here can be sorted at the standing desk now.

I did forget the laundry today. Someone needs to invent an app that says "you forgot the laundry again!"

I propped up a bulletin board (but didn't hang it yet) that I need to use for sons school stuff. And I pinned a couple things up there. So that's at least a start,

Oh, I refolded tee shirts, undies and paired socks and *put them in a drawer* whaaaaat?! And at same time emptied one of the bins On my bed into a proper laundry basket and filled it up with the last of the dirty laundry. I moved one of the two big stitching bins to the other room and dumped it out and started reorganizing it again. Also took son and doggies to my brothers to hang out and play. He does frisbee competitions with them and the puppy idolizes one of his dogs and chases him when he races out to catch a frisbee, so cute. Went to the grocery store with my son. Most impatient mom store trip of the year so far. Then tonight I made him take a bath and followed it up with 3 different skincare routines he tolerates and 20% of an *omg way over due* pedicure which he hates. Poor kid. Will try to make it up to him tomorrow. Ok I gotta stop talking! I'm so sorry. I think most of this probably needs to go into a journal not here. But I appreciate your hearing me out while I get the hang of things...

Over and out,

SubC, the customer "service" folks make that process the Spanish Inquisition only more complicated precisely so they won't have to own up to their poor quality control, much less shell out any money. 😠

Road/Sara, sorry you and your sister have suffered as well. I can feel the itch from a flea bite but for me it's short lived and without all the big redness and swelling around. Perhaps Pharaoh will let the people go so this plague will end! Little Bible humor there. 😁

We may have a prospect of work getting underway tomorrow. Roommate will fill me in in a bit.

This has been a crazy summer in a different way, with some of the crazy being good, so I really am glad about that. It just varies a lot.

Sometimes I do resist the OCD, but some days I am already on overload. Oh well. You know what they say about praying for patience - that you'll be given opportunities to practice it. Those are never in short supply. Silver lining: I did throw some catalogs in the recycling bin without going through them. Which I probably was ready to do anyway; the anger just kept me from dithering about it.

Hey all,

CM, I feel your pain on the home repair stuff. I get twitchy just thinking about it. I hope you can find a way to Make things tolerable while youre in limbo.

My sympathies also on the flea sitch. I have terrible reactions them. My sister (also member of this "club") had a terrible problem a few years ago - could not get it under control for quite awhile.

My good news for the morning is I got the last of the garbage up and floors have been cleaned. When I am able to move all the bins Back out (prob today Since the H is gone for a couple days) I will be able to wash the entire floor better Without so many obstructions, This stage was a key achievement because if I needed help or EMTs had to come in here I wouldn't be reported or (that) embarrassed. Big relief.

So today, I think I'll move the bins out and Maybe everything that's still touching the floor and see what perspective that gives me on next steps. Definitely do-able.

Will be back later with responses to other posts... everyone have a great day.

Good morning.

CM, I'm sorry you are struggling.

I know the missing thing will keep weighing on you, but do you think you can talk yourself into believing that it is somewhere in the room and you will find it and delay looking for it until you have finished some more steps? Like "I will set this aside and get the rest done and then I will find the thing?"

I have a relative whose therapist told her she needs to not do the ocd thing at all or at least as long as possible because giving in to it reinforces the pathway and the more she can resist the weaker the impulses will become. She says it is very uncomfortable, but it helps.

I would love talking to you at cocktail parties. I used to have to go to them for Dh work, and he would usually identify someone it was safe for me to talk to and point me at them. Unfortunately on one occasion I was talking to someone who was very interested in the "back to the land" movement and the room was very noisy. Bad luck resulted in me yelling "I HAVE goats" into a rare naturally occurring near silence.

I found someone I wanted to hug and punch at the same time and I married him. So far it's going really well. I've never met a man I didn't want to punch at some point, so I think the key was still wanting to hug him.

Yesterday started out really well. I picked the beans and tomatoes, I had the peaches going, I was having a really relaxed day. Then my jars started breaking in the canner. I called customer service and after 20 minutes I got a human and I explained to her what was happening with details about the temperature at each step - and she informed me that the jars were breaking because of thermal shock. As if I were stupid. And I said "I know it's thermal shock, that's why I told you they had been preheated and filled with boiling syrup before they went in the canner. They are canning jars. They're supposed to be designed to tolerate some temperature change." She continued to be very unhelpful and unsympathetic, but she offered to send me an email I could respond to, with photos of my broken jars, and a photo of my receipt, and they would reimburse me the cost of the broken jars if they determined I was not at fault. (My email is currently broken and will not send. I asked for a physical address.)

Got the email, no physical address, mandatory 40 item questionnaire that requires me to type in the entire recipe I was using (one item) and provide the title, page number, and publication date of the BOOK it came from (another item). so I will not be getting a refund on my 3 broken jars.

Googled and Ball no longer makes Ball jars. The same company now makes Ball, Kerr, and Golden Harvest jars. So my options are off brand jars that get bad reviews or more expensive French made liters that won't take my lids. I weighed an old jar and a new jar and the old jar weighs 15 grams more. Guess I should just expect breakage.

Anyway, I ended up with 11 quarts of peaches plus one not quite full in the fridge plus a bowl that had to be scooped out of the canner for the chickens. And it took way too long because of having to completely empty the canner and bring it back to a boil after the breaks.

I was looking at the jars and I told Dh, you know, the last time I canned this many peaches it was 2011 and (friend whose kid is in jail) was here. And I swear I was remembering a happy thing, with all the kids around, but then I thought of her sweet little boy and I just started sobbing.

I went to bed last night without setting up the coffee or setting my alarm, and this morning Dh had an early meeting. His alarm went off, and he went straight downstairs instead of getting in the shower. Then he came back up and said "I made the coffee." And I said "I know. I heard the grinder. I'm sorry. I'll get up and make your breakfast in a minute." And he said "I didn't make it so you would make me breakfast. I made it because you are having a hard time."

(And when Mr kitty saw it was Dh making the coffee, he came upstairs to see if I was ok. He gave me a thorough sniffing and then curled up on the bed with me.)

So, I will try again today. No progress to report on the counter.

SubC, I can so relate. I had a bad mental health day yesterday too. Was organizing Barbie sewing patterns and almost done, feeling pleased how much nicer and neater and easy to use they would be. Then I found one that had 3 sets, S M L sizes - and the Medium pieces were missing. 🤨

Well. I looked everywhere, and grew increasingly frantic. Went to Joann's but patterns weren't on sale so I balked. Came back home, continued to tear my room apart and my hair out (figuratively, but there were cusswords 🤬 and tears 😭). Finally admitted defeat and went back to Joann's in the evening and paid highway robbery price for the silly pattern. The whole business is my OCD completist compulsion and I know it.

It's also the tip of the iceberg. The home repair work has indeed ground to a halt. It had last week but we weren't sure. Those stupid missing parts! No wonder missing things are a trigger for me right now, sigh. Some of what hasn't arrived has to do with the Big But, and the remainder is for doors and windows and other things that are half done.

We are finally making a bit of progress against the terrible flea pestilence of 2021. Since the dog doesn't sleep in my room and I don't have allergic reactions to the bites, I've fared better. But my poor roommate has had to deal with the itching and the extra time spent vacuuming, combing her animals, etc. She's sleep deprived to the max. Retreated the critters and the numbers have dropped significantly. Bunnies have been okay with the first treatment last month since they're clear in the other end of the house.

Such lovely cocktail party conversation starters! 🍹🍸 Good thing I don't go to cocktail parties. I don't even know anyone who has cocktail parties. 😅

I don't know that I have dysmorphia but I've known the pain of extreme self consciousness about my weight. My skinny cousin used to like to smack my thigh fat and laugh when it jiggled. 😠😡 And she was my favorite cousin, so how do you reckon wanting to hang out with someone and wanting to punch them at the same time?!

Right now I just want to figure out if I can really get rid of the droopy loose skin in the midsection where I did manage to lose some weight over the last 4 years - and I would like to do more but I've hit a plateau, and am almost hesitant to push it if it's just gonna mean more loose abdominal skin. It creates such a disproportionate fit for pants, making it hard to find anything that fits the tummy without being ridiculously baggy in the legs. 😝 I feel ya, sis.

So much more to tell and posts to catch up on but much to do today so better hit pause. The clutter business is not getting addressed because my executive functioning is toast right now. I pray it improves.

Good morning all!

Lila, don't let the long conversation get intimidating - just jump back in with your stuff!

Tatoulia, I hope all is well.

CM, are the dolls contemplating their move?

Hi Roadie!

Fantastic job on the laundry!

My counter is at 12x36x45

Have you washed your floor?

I understand what you mean about the good day. We are working really hard with my heart grandson to help him see good days. His (insert your favorite expletive here) father insisted that he stay in public school until he was literally failing everything and coming home with behavior penalties every day. So no matter what happened that day or semester, it was summarized by a demerit card and a failing report card. And he was internalizing "I am bad" and "I am stupid".

He has been in the program where I teach for a year and he is becoming a different kid. I mean, he is the same kid - smart and kind, and funny - but now he is also becoming happy and confident.

I wish for you to have a nice stitching spot. How hard would it be to set up a clean chair and a little table with just that tray on it in your room? Do you have a window it could be close to? Or if it was a corner, the corner would give you a point to work out from....

I worry about you and your Dh (I want everybody to have positive domestic situations - be that CM her roommate, Tatoulia and her BF who lives elsewhere, or couples in the same house. I feel like our relationships influence so much!) do you still function as a couple or are you roommates with a son? (Or you can ignore that because you think it's none of my business.)

CM and I both have fabric challenges, so if you want to post your ideas and actions here, I know I would love to see them, and maybe CM would too.

I am doing a little better today. Yesterday I had a very good day with Bean and then after I dropped him off I went to target. His parents keep forgetting to send his sippy cups, so I bought two if my own, and I also wanted a dozen canning jars for peaches. - I have a lot of canning jars, but I have been using the wide mouth quarts to store dried food, and that is what I want to put the peaches in. And I impulse bought him a Christmas present - it is a purple cat water bottle with a straw that he will be just old enough for at Christmas. He loves cats, and his favorite cat picture is the purple one in his Eric Carle book.

But there were so many people at target - which is hard for me on a good day in a normal year. And only 7 of them were wearing masks - a family with three kids who had two of them in the shopping part of the shopping cart and they barely fit - I feel like the mom was trying to keep them contained so she could make sure nobody got too close, and a dad and teenager who had an unmasked very little girl in the seat of their cart. (Plus me) I wanted to scream at all of the families back to school shopping with unprotected children. Newsflash - Delta is hitting kids harder. Keep breeding strains in kids and you're eventually going to come up with a strain that kills them more often.

So I came home exhausted and I made bad food choices and I felt angry at myself and I finally decided that I just needed a mental health reset. So I went to bed at ten, and I didn't set my alarm, so I slept 8.5 hours until Dh alarm went off, and I have done nothing but drink coffee, pet mr. kitty, make dh breakfast, and wander around positive parts of the Internet since - for almost two hours. I have three goals for today - relax, can peaches, and pick beans and tomatoes.

About the weight - I literally have dysmorphia - when I look at my body it doesn't look like part of me - I just want to take it off and walk away from it like you would if you tried on a dress that itched. Also parts of my body are now big enough that they touch other parts of my body in unpleasant ways - like I can feel the roll of fat against the top of my knee when I stand or walk, and it is irritating, and I literally want to peel it off like a piece of tape. None of which is helpful.

Ok, I do have to do chores, the poor goat needs to be milked!

The prompt for today was to post a picture of your stitching spot. If I was not in this situation I would picture it in a comfy chair by the windows in the dining room... work table and reading light... but alas, this is not my life. My son would never leave the things alone and my husband would never think you should leave a project out (it should be put away)... like if I leave my purse hanging on a dining room chair he will put it in the closet. because of his views which are getting more extreme, and my problem, which has become more of an issue, we've gradually kind of stopped hanging out on the first floor And with each other altogether. We each have a bedroom Upstairs and that's kind of where we all hang out. At one point my room was ok with half of it a bedroom and the other half an office with Two desks and almost floor to ceiling storage. I couldn't even tell you when it got out of hand. Or how long it's been that my floor has been buried.

So all that to say, I couldn't show a photo of my stitching spot because it's my bed... which is terrible for my back and all the things, and it's piled with 5 bins at the moment,,, paper, stitching, toiletries, dirty laundry and clean laundry. It's a goal of mine to have a good stitching area, whether downstairs in the ideal location (one day) or more likely, part of my room. And for today I settled for cleaning up and repurposing a beautiful reproduction shaker carrying tray to put my stitching stuff in.

Sorry so long. Hope everyone is having a good Monday and I will check back in a day or two.

Hey,if you make ice cream and berry jam you better be licking all the everythings! Speaking of which, if you figure out a way to peel off this troublesome fat layer, do let me know.

We were gone all afternoon and evening except for a quick stop home to let out the doggies. Haven't done that in quite awhile. It was great. First we met one of my sons teachers for lunch and talked and talked and then we went over to my parents new place and Thankfully my dad was mostly pleasant and cognitively normal seeming?well, except for making a bit of a scene moving tables around at dinner, and the part where (I think) he got confused what floor he was on... And insisted we follow him like a line of obedient ducklings in the opposite direction of their place. It was a little problematic because my back was killing me and My son Had reached his new threshold of "the good behavior reservoir has been expended for the day... and I will now start behaving in unpredictable, chaotic, and sometimes dangerous ways..." any way, I think I was trying to say how well it went. Haha. But overall it was a very good day.

Space-wise I got a load of laundry done, got the very very last piece of laundry (I think!) off the floor of my room, and am down to about a square foot of crap on the floor - mostly garbage. I sized up what is left in terms of paper stuff and it's about 15 sq feet. Some of it will be fast and some of it will be very slow as it's drawers and Containers of mixed paper. I actually feel very positive about things though because I know I am through the worst of it - in this room - and most of what remains I can do standing or sitting in a chair. The garbage is all but gone and I can bring in an air filter again and try to get more of the dust out of here. I am going to avoid thinking of the garage and the basement (where the majority is) and just keep focused on this room til I get it done. Then hopefully my husband will have some hope and won't derail me. One other positive thing was that I'm participating in this 30 day "common threads" ... continued

I just came back so soon to saY thanks for all the motivation... had a little breakthrough on my floor. Between this board in general, the cubic inches challenge in particular, and the impending visit of my nephew on Thursday, I achieved some clarity... I have been working on this task for weeks. It's so mentally burdensome my perception of it was like it w@s a mountain. But when I started working on it and started trying to gauge how big it was in order to explain it verbally to you all I think I started having a more accurate view of the size of it. Don't get me wrong, my overall situation is BIG but this floor thing is coming into focus. So anyway I realized if I just gathered it up into a box or two I was done. I just did the first half in between the last post and this. And now I'm going to do the second half. And then I will finish the piece by piece sorting standing up at the standing desk which I can now reach walking on wood floor and not a mountain of garbage.

Don't get me wrong (the editor in me is cringing that I'm saying the same thing twice in one short post) but I totally know the answer is not to bin things up. But in this case I am only moving it up to the table to save my joints. I am still committed to getting rid of all the garbage in this room.

Last thing I want to say is on my Instagram account I identify myself as a recovering fabric hoarder and someone just messaged me and told me they have a problem and wanted to know what I was doing. In telling her where I was in the process and what I thought I might do it gave me some ideas of what I might do. That was a pretty amazing experience, too.

I am going to try to measure how many cubic inches of paper I need to go through just in this room and keep track of that... do I need a spreadsheet? Perhaps! Back later,

Hi all, just checking in. Some lovely words to read here this am. I smiled and laughed more than once. Will be back.

I need my people.

After I posted I decided to try to at least cook the berries down so I could can jam tomorrow night after Bean goes home.

When I went to get the berries out, I realized that the reason one of the jars of dill pickles didn't seal was because the jar was cracked. The pickling brine had leaked out and was all over two shelves and the bottom of my fridge and in a vegetable crisper. By the time I got that (mostly, there are still vegetables on my counter) cleaned up, Dh suggested dinner.

So after dinner (leftovers Dh cooked) I decided I was not going to be stopped. I went downstairs to get out my berry mill, and I found another case of canned food from 2011. I mean, I guess it's progress that I'm actually finding this stuff, but I had to ask myself - what the heck happened in 2011?

...nothing. 2011 was really good - I canned a ton of stuff! So much that we didn't eat it all. So normally, I would can less of the leftover things the next year and we would eat the older stuff first.

But in spring if 2012, my ds graduated from high school and got a summer job. Then he moved away to college. I lost 80% of my farm help. I didn't produce as much, or can as much, and I apparently forgot to rotate my stock. And then in late winter before the spring of 2013, my grandmother died.

And that's a novel.
And for some reason I seem to be revisiting it this year.

So I'll keep feeding spoiled food to the chickens and try to be proud of myself for cleaning out instead of mad that I let this happen.

I froze my ice cream and I made 2 pints of jam - which was all the berries we had picked and not really worth getting all the pots dirty for. And I think I may have overcooked it....

And I'm just tired and sad. And fat. My body doesn't feel like it belongs to me - it feels like I'm trapped in it. Like all this extra fat is just stuck to me and I want to peel it off like my shorts so I can be comfortable again. But I made ice cream and jam and licked all the everythings when I cleaned up....

Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be Monday, and Bean will come. And all he sees is arms that hold him and carry him and hands that bring him things and feed him and a smile and long hair to wrap his hands in and someone who loves him and plays with him and when he is tired I am soft and warm and he even seems to like my awful singing.

Things put in fridge, weeds whacked, lunch eaten, beans, a few tomatoes and a couple of squash picked.

I went out to start weeding the melons and it started pouring rain. Honestly, I was relieved. The garden needs the rain and my knees and hands hurt. Now it has stopped raining, but everything is wet. Not good for weeding. Especially when the weeds are two feet high.

So when it rained, I had a snack of kale chips, drank four glasses of water (maybe I was dehydrated?) and watched some YouTube. Watching a woman with 5 kids - one of them Bean's age - make a full breakfast with biscuits, meat, gravy, eggs and fruit, then bake rolls and several loaves of bread, pit and can 18 lbs of cherries, boil down the flesh that came out with the pits for juice and can 5 half pints of jelly, and cook dinner from scratch (not even using the rolls - those were for lunch!) and then sign off in a clean kitchen with daylight coming in the window was not inspirational. It made me feel incompetent. And she filmed it. Without crying babies or fighting kids on the soundtrack. She apologized to her boys for giving them sandwiches for lunch - on freshly baked rolls.

So anyway, after that mistake I did attack my counter. I've got it down to 12" deep - although it is more squared off now, so some of that is rearranging. Still - it can't pass the 36" because those are edges, and I am keeping the 53" marked off with the edge of a tea towel, so visually the height matters as much as the mass. Down 3816 cubic inches - just over two cubic feet!

Hi CM,

I had a friend in college who used to say that rabbit thing. Where does it come from?

Good luck with your cookies! I am always skeptical of bake sales, because I always wonder if the people selling charge enough to cover the ingredients and make them worth the time. I hope yours do!

Sometimes I have trouble wrapping my head around the bunny club, because as much as I love my bunnies - around here, bunnies are livestock.

Take your vitamins!

I got my squash weeded and the black plastic moved down so that they have weed free space to grow into for at least the next few days. Eventually they're going to run so far down the hill that they go out of the old garden area, through the rusty sagging fence, and into a space that could technically be considered yard. Then we'll just stop mowing at the squash line and they can fight it out with the "grass" (think ungrazed pasture, not lawn.)

I also have some blackberry peach tea and some ice cream mix cooling on the stove until they are ready to go into the pitcher and some jars for pre-chilling respectively.

I'm going to go take care of a few minutes of weed eating and then put those away and have some lunch.

White Rabbit 🐰, White Rabbit 🐰, White Rabbit 🐰 - Happy August and where the HECK did the time go?!

I think I discovered one other possible reason my brain was dull this past week. I'd run out of Vitamin B complex and the week prior had bought new - and set them down and forgotten to open the bottle and put them in my pill box! 😜 Derp!

So hopefully this will get me back on track. The certain things I know my brain needs, some are more noticeable than others if missed. The B vitamins are definitely one of those that seem pretty essential to keep up with.

Fifteen days until the bunny club has its big annual fundraiser. I had been going to do crafts, and still might, but definitely need to focus on the bake sale. Having the shindig in August has always been tricky as far as food prep. Both in not wanting to overheat the kitchen at home, and making sure stuff doesn't melt or spoil in transport.

I hit upon the idea of no bake cookies shaped like bunnies. The usual chocolate and peanut butter ones, and I've also found recipes for things like vanilla and strawberry and more. I think this could work.

What I really wish I could do for the bunny club, because they're in such desperate straits right now having received two bunny families with babies, is win the lottery, or at least know a car dealer who would donate a Mercedes-Benz to raffle off or something!

Le sigh. 😟

Good morning! Happy August!

I like the roadster image! I now imagine you are a little red classic car - penned into the garage and a bit dusty at the moment, but soon to be shined up and cruising down the open road.

I just realized it is 27 days to open house for school and I will spend a week of that at ds's, so I am panicking a little. Our summer was shorter than usual this year because we shifted our school year for covid.

I need to email the building person and find out if my shelves are done.

Meanwhile, I measured my counter. In the name of transparency - I had lost my empty space to a pile of canning stuff, and I started by putting that away. So the new dimensions are 53"x36"x14" but the only real progress was bringing the peak down from 19, and I will now get much slower, because the rest of it is a drift of small things with no easy choices. The drift is currently about 26,712 cubic inches. I am hoping for 500-2000 cubic inches of progress a day - moving it either over or down an inch. A cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches. Maybe we should aim for a cubic foot a day?

Ok, time to get off my tush. My new mantra is "do something." (In the evening that becomes "do something or go to bed" because I stay up online when I am tired.)

Hey we have ourselves a little challenge it sounds like. I will do some measuring tomorrow too. Having a concrete benchmark to compare Progress to sounds like a solid strategy,

Did someone say blackberries?! Oh enjoy! My fave winter squash is "butternut rugosa". It's absolutely massive and the texture of it is smoother And the flavor sweeter and more complex. You could make 4 meals out of one of them! I told my neighbor the pests don't seeM to bother them And she said "I guess they don't speak Italian!"

CM, there's Nothing on me that doesn't hurt most days. And some days more than others. Hope the doc has some ideas. I have medical ptsd from a toddlerhood in hospitals so Even though I need help it's complicated to get help. I got a gardening/kneeling bench last year and it was a game changer. If my shoulders and arms hold out I'm in business.

Re your brain, my brain defn fires differently during an emergency. Weird how circumstances can alter your processing speed...

Over and out, compadres

CM,

I hope you remember and get your barbies all tucked in their cases.

The ice cream is frozen and I got all the kohlrabi peeled, cubed, blanched, and ready to go in the freezer (as soon as it cools down a little). It came to 5 quarts plus half a pint I just stuck in the fridge to add to something later. There is more room in my fridge now.

Next big food jobs are blackberries and beets. Next big garden challenges are weeding around the winter squash and the melons. Or I may just let them grow into the weeds and have a treasure hunt later.

I worked on my counter a little, but I'll measure it tomorrow.

Wow, there's a lot to respond to. I'll have to do it in stages. I'm glad for you all for backs and eyes that are doing better and thumbs and fingers that remain attached as they should.

My own knee likes to pop now when I get up from the floor. I'm going to a new doctor for a checkup soon and I hope she can identify which part is having issues and maybe recommend exercises. I think overall it's getting better, just slow. Next year when planting I will borrow my roommate's gardening bench instead of doing all that bending. That's what messed me up. Swimming seems to help. At first the knee protests then after I've acclimated to the water it's all good.

My brain, now, that's another story. Probably beyond help. 😂 This week was hot and we didn't have work being done. Thought we would but parts are coming on a slow boat from wherever. Supposed to rain tonight and switch back to moderate temperatures for a few days.

I have my cases for the dolls and theoretically am ready to go. Yet I feel kind of fuzzy headed and like I don't have a plan. It's just a feeling because I did have a plan, I'm just not remembering the details. It's like it was sharper in my mind when the buzz and commotion of the home repairs was going on. Even though that time was crazy. Now it's a lull plus the heat to contend with. I'll get back on track.

Thanks for joining me for lunch roadie.

There is no shame here. No shame, no guilt. Sometimes we are sad.

The pile on my counter is 69" long, 36" wide, and 16" tall in the middle (the edges slope)

I have always felt lucky to be able to live set apart. I am an odd duck and living near people has always felt lonely, stressful, and isolating. I wish that Dh would take it more seriously. He won't wear a mask anymore unless it is required, and he goes to bars with his friends. He got the J&J vaccine, which is as low as 30% against infection with delta. So, he will get sick, and either we won't know, or if he has symptoms (which may be a cold) he will refuse to get tested, but I will get tested (over and over, because - colds.) and if he gives it to me I will miss two weeks of school and even if he doesn't ever get sick I will be constantly afraid that I am going to infect Bean or my students.

And I wish more people would get vaccinated because death pisses me off.

Haha I love it. I'm now going to think of your shorts family as Bean shorts, squeezey shorts and fave shorts... maybe you are a shorts minimalist? I'm padding around trying to think if I'm minimalist at anything,..

I really feel for people in low % vaccination areas... it feels like everyone around here (except little kids) is vaccinated but it still feels dicey to me. A couple vaccinated people at my parents retirement place managed to get it anyway and we were all sick a month ago and I am not sure we didn't get it even though we are all vaxxed and still taking precautions. My cousins husband is a hold out and was insisting on going to Branson, mo even though my uncle is an 80 yo diabetic and my cousin teaches a special needs population. And he works retail. I was actually aiming to get down that way to do some genealogy research but Springfield mo ended up a hot bed. Do you feel lucky being set apart and somewhat self sufficient or would you rather live where people are taking it more seriously? We are in a major metro but suburban and last spring when everything was kicking off I just felt lucky to have a yard and not live in an apartment building anymore.

I'm up for whatever, I know for sure it's motivating to come back here to report because I keep thinking about it while I'm staring at the schtuff on my floor. I probably could have measured my floor trash in cubic inches and then I would not only have felt crushing shame accurately describing the state of things but a tremendous sense of accomplishment getting rid of it all. Lol. Not sure how reliable I would be at this point, some days I still forget I'm in this group but I would give it a try.

Just got back from the shower (accomplishment) and my son told me "purse box, put in" and I'm like "uhhh. Were you in my room?" And he says "yes, help clean" 🥴🥰 the other day I herd him talking to my mom on the phone and there was some convo about him calling her from my closet and he sounded like he was saying " busted" and all I could think of was how much of my room did my mom see on FaceTime. This might be one reason I'm motivated to fix things - fear of being found out! Oh my gawd.

Morning accomp: showered, washed The newly cleared floor, bagged up new garbage...

Hope everyone has a happy and productive day. 💕💕💕

Lol! The "lazy" was me saying "I have accomplished enough! I now instruct myself to sit here surrounded by dirty dishes and ignore them."

Here is the thing about the shorts - I don't need them. The purpose of shorts is to cover my underwear if I am going to sit or lean on something or I am in a situation where I don't feel my underwear will keep my lower region clean or protected enough, or someone who isn't Dh will see me. I effectively have no neighbors. I wear my good shorts on Bean days, I wear my tight shorts if I am going somewhere with lots of yummy fattening food as a reminder to be moderate. I like the shorts with the rip (it is in the hem, I'm thinking about cutting the hem off.)

I don't even want them. If it wasn't for sunburn, bugs, and basic sanitation I'd run around naked all summer. I have bathing suits, but I swim naked in our pond.

Going to the thrift store is 45 minutes of driving. Kohl's is an hour ten. Plus shopping. I hated shopping in new stuff stores before the pandemic. Now I live in an area with a 47% vaccination rate, and maybe 10% of the people are wearing masks - mostly children and their mothers and old people - who are probably vaccinated. I go into a store and I get angry and my list of people who have died starts running through my head. Which is not healthy for me.

Oh, and Justin is not Bean.. Justin is "Justin Case" around here we try not to buy or store things for him. 🙂

Excellent job on your floor!

Are you a challenge person? Do you want to try to match each other - your floor and my counter? I find having someone else to commit to helps, but I don't want to put pressure on you if that is unhelpful.

Always choose your kid over cleaning! Good call!

P.s. I can't believe you said you'd be lazy after watching all those class videos and all the other stuff you did yesterday. You got so. Much accomplished!!

Re: shorts... repeat after me. Today I am going to kohl's clearance or the thrift shop to buy exactly 2 pairs of shorts that fit my current butt. I need this. I deserve this. It's not too much. It's the minimal acceptable amount. Bean doesn't need anything from there today but my butt does need two pairs of functional shorts. 💕🙏

SubC - ok, I tried pages but alas no room to install. Story of my life right now (usually)... I try something to solve a problem but it doesn't work because I have previously put off 16 other problems and now in order to solve 1 current problem I'm staring down the barrel of 16 old, neglected problems instead of 1.

Now I am trying the front and back arrows. I think I had mistakenly blamed them for some post implosions so lemme try this out... hey heyyyyy! Jackpot. That worked! thank you for sticking with me on that. That helps a lot and so straightforward I never would have come up with that. Lol.

Glad to hear your mandoline safety plan. I can't even look at those without cringing... and yet that is the exact tool I need for making pickled veggies for my banh mi kick.

Just want to declare that not only did I reclaim my floor space (clothes and some garbage) but after posting last time I decided to go for the next 144 and managed to do 288. Go me. Cause it was not pleasant. I was staring at that acreage (In actuality 2 sq ft) for a few days remembering my goal had been to do that section and all the rest behind it by the end of the weekend which was *last* Sunday. But I know what happened between then and now and how that derailed me which I haven't shared here (Suffice it to say the bins have returned) but instead of getting stuck there I somehow managed to Grit my teeth and get myself to get down on the floor and start. There's a bit of a universe between staring at something daunting like that and actually putting your ass on the floor and getting your hands dirty. I'm guessing the more experience you have with doing that the more the gulf shrinks to a less distorted perception (??) Well, anyway, I got that done and then as I've been doing after each chunk was done, swept and washed that area of the floor. Another small garbage can crammed with trash. Will bring up a couple more kitchen garbage bags today. I think this will be 6 so far. I'm estimating this is from an area of about 25-35 sq feet? OH MY GOD I can't believe I've been living like this. Putting this experience is a major reality check... I hope this isn't triggering anyone. Is it?

Next: maybe now that the whole area around my bed is cleared (of garbage, not stuff), I will wash the whole thing and try to push into the back 40.

Well, anyway, I will close cause my son just walked in my room impersonating forky from toy story 4 so I cannot resist going and hanging out with him now. He's 100% nut.

What are you guys up to today? Is Saturday a big project day for you?

Good morning!

I finished picking the beans last night. I also loaded and ran the dishwasher, so the mess is down a bit.

I think I'm going to give the dehydrator a rest for a bit, although the kale is almost done until fall. The cabbage moth caterpillars are getting bad, and the only things I add to my garden are cardboard, used bedding (straw) and as little water as possible. I squish caterpillars by hand. So, when we go to visit Ds in august, no one will squish the caterpillars and the kale will get skeletonized and stay that way until after the first hard frost.

My inner squirrel is very happy with all the dried kale and beans, but the kale will go quickly. Even dried it takes up a lot of space for the actual amount of food. It is much better to stay home and busy and feed my inner squirrel actual food than to be traveling around to yard sales or thrift stores letting her buy gifts for Justin.

The pandemic has helped me refocus on home.

It's interesting. I have three pairs of shorts that fit. One is torn, and one is tight. If this were a normal summer, I would go to the thrift store and buy more shorts. But they still won't let me try anything on. I rarely have to go anywhere. I wore a dress to Bean's birthday party. I wore a teacher skirt to my eye appointment. And I am happily gardening in long tshirts (I have plenty) and underpants. If I need to work in the barn I put on the torn shorts. So instead of spending $15 on secondhand shorts, I spent $17 on a new mandolin. I still would have preferred a used mandolin, but I have beets now. And having bought this new thing I feel pressure to actually use it. maybe next summer my other shorts will fit.

Today is supposed to be another nice day, then three days of heat and rain. I plan to finish weeding the strawberry beds.

I finished all my classes before 5. Yay me!

I only picked a third of the beans. Then I got distracted by tomatoes and caterpillars. Then I took some caterpillars to the chickens which made me remember that I needed to go to the feed store. So I went to the feed store, came home, finished my work, and still need to pick beans.

Also I am faced with daunting piles of dirty dishes and clean laundry.

But I think I'll be lazy for a bit.

Oh, yes, sara road, don't worry about my fingers - I once cut off part of my thumb with a chef's knife. I bought a mandolin with a nice guard and gripper system that lets you cut anything from long cucumbers to round fat tomatoes to little green beans without getting near the blade.

Sara road, I'm glad I made you laugh.

Thanks for the visit to come back to.

I am on an iPad and usually just use the back/forward arrows, but typing in pages then copy/paste is also an option, you just have to switch between pages and your browser.

I ate lunch and finished 7 more classes.

I'm going to get ice cream mix into the fridge (trying to preserve something every day) and pick beans, and then I will tackle the last two (hardest) classes.

Hold that line!

SubC "so I can't plan pickles" my favorite line so far. 😂 Also: beware the mandolin... I have a cousin and friend who have less finger surface now than they used to...

CM - I hope you can sort out the quilting group situation. Having been a creative in my career And a current hobbiest (? That doesn't look right) I appreciate how essential that can be. Seems like for years I put that at the bottom of the list. Now it's near the top and although I'm sometimes out of whack in the balance dept., I still feel good about keeping my sewy stuff front and center in my life.

Ok this iPad is pissing me off so I will be back after I give it a time out. I did lose my last post twice already. Argh.

Everyone have a great day !

#GuardYour144

CM, good tips on preventing posting disasters,,, I think my main issue is that I'm trying to do this on an iPad so side by side is trickier and I'm always hitting things I don't mean to... I really need to get a new computer.

The "guard my space" mantra came back to me quite a few times the last few days (as I noticed I was losing ground)... good to notice how it slides inch by inch... The 144 has me chuckling... "guard the 144"... or "hold the line on 144!" sounds like an epic war saga. Hey, this *is* an epic war. Perfect! Lol

So anyway, I forced myself to recover my sq inches. Why is this so hard? Did some laundry. Only abandoned 1 pr shorts to the mildew gods this week so not too bad.

Sounds like the bday part was quite an event. Sometimes I can't wrap my head around how an extrovert like me can become an introvert but I think I have. Or maybe mine is more anxiety ahead of an event... not sure. And of course Covid shuffled the deck on everything.

So far today I have fed and medicated child and beasts... cleaned up puppy messes. Grrrr also chatted with neighbors, and did quite a bit of gardening. Today it was weeding and pulling carrots, a few beets, and accidentally harvesting onions and leeks while weeding,,,.. My plan is to make more pickled vedge for banh mi sammies. No daikon, but I have rainbow carrots, a few types of Thai basil, cilantro, and all the

Hi Sara road!

So glad you are sticking around - I look forward to your post as a reward after my next task session!

This morning I weeded two badly overgrown strawberry beds and did the 5 easiest classes. 9 classes (and two strawberry beds) to go.

Hi all, popping in. Will check back after catching up.

Sara aka Road.

Good morning.
My day is overcommitted in too many directions.

The weather is supposed to be good all day, so it is a rare opportunity to tackle some large outdoor tasks
I put off creating my online class pages and they are due today (14 classes and poor computer skills)
My fridge is full of milk and produce begging for action.

Dh left early for a breakfast meeting and I am having trouble getting started.

I tasked myself with starting a load of laundry before I allowed myself to post. Next breakfast and then chores.

I may check back a lot

You did a lot today, SubC! I am proud of you! My back is significantly better today. Looking forward to my stretching zoom session on Saturday.

Nice having my friend over tonight. Kitty was glad to see her, too.

House clean and I've showered. Time for bed.

Good evening,

Tatoulia, I hope you are enjoying dinner with your friend in your freshly cleaned home.

I picked up my new glasses today. I can see much better, but am getting a bit of a headache as my eye muscles adjust.

I also went to the fancy grocery store, which was a much better experience this time. On Dh orders I bought a decadent dessert (hot fudge cake) which we just enjoyed. I picked up fresh local sweet corn at the farmers market on the way home, and we each had a stack of corn, a glass of wine, and the cake for dinner. Very indulgent and irresponsible - lol!

I had to laugh a little at my grocery shopping. - nuts, fruits, bakery bread, cheeses, sugar, vinegar, dessert and coffee filters. The only box was the case of peaches I bought to do a second canning. I also bought a mandolin to make dried beet chips. So that is another thing in my life. But the more vegetables I can turn into snack food, the better chance I have of getting back to a weight where my knees don't sound like paper being crumbled at every step.

I am going to do one batch of beets plain, and then maybe add cinnamon (no sugar, just cinnamon) to the next batch - we'll see what I think after I try them.

I got email from heartdaughter this morning - she starts her first salaried job with benefits and vacation days mid August! Dh and I are taking her and her fiancé out to dinner to celebrate.

Besides the glasses/store trip into town (which took 4 hours) I slept in, ran the dishwasher, made a pitcher of tea, cleaned up the kitchen, and dried more kale. That doesn't seem like much for a whole day.

Still here, cheering everyone on. Bird mouth! Bean knows his ice cream.

I hurt my back this weekend. Very difficult to move. I did walk partway to work on Tuesday but then needed to take subway the rest of the way. The walk seemed to do me good.

I have someone who will help me with gentle stretching (over zoom) Saturday afternoon. I am grateful for that.

All is well. Cleaners come tomorrow and my friend comes for dinner tomorrow.
The back pain is a wake up call for my weight and my age. I can control the weight.

Dried beans packed away, ice cream in ice cream maker, Bean came over for 8 hours and I fed him and his mommy dinner. I sent them home with four squash.

Toys everywhere, kitchen is a mess but I ran a load of laundry today, and I picked more beans.

The Grammie is tired. But we had a lot of fun. He fed me imaginary soup and we fed the goats and we took a big low bin out in the yard and filled it with water and splashed and floated sticks and leaves. And we played catch and trucks and read books. The wrong one of us took a two hour nap. (Which is when I prepped dinner, did that load of wash, and put away the beans.) I also ran the dishwasher during nap, but you can't really tell.

Someone on my other board where I always fail the challenges posted "what is your fantasy self item?" (The thing you are keeping for the person you imagine yourself to be and not who you are.)

Lol! My whole house! Mostly my fantasy self is efficient and competent and never gets tired. Everything else is built on that. - farming, pottery, teaching, crafts, housekeeping, baking and food preservation, spinning and knitting and sewing, exercising, eating right, and being an amazing wife, mother, and grandmother.

My real self is fat, tired, overscheeuled and messy. But she has ice cream.

I got totally busted when Bean saw the green container come out of the freezer and yelled "that!" Dd said "oh, he knows what that is, does he?" I said "I think he is asking ?what is that?'" It did not help my case that he was making bird mouth before I even got a spoon.

Lila!

So glad you are better! Fantastic job with the freezer too. You are making good progress!

CM, I am proud of you for hanging on to your motivation in the midst of the chaos. I hope that you are able to continue with your quilting group. I know it's important to you.

I will be curious to hear how it goes if you get a light.

I had Bean yesterday, but I still managed to fill the dehydrator with green beans working during his nap and in the evening. I am starting to turn the tide on the refrigerator. Next I need to make more pickles (which keep getting delayed) and freeze kohlrabi. I gave never frozen kohlrabi before, but I have so much this year! I have a lot of yard/barn work to do too, and my classes need to be updated this week.

I'm not sure what is happening today. Sil asked me to pick Bean up at early. Then he said he wants to come out with him, but his back has been bothering him, so he might need to ask me to come get him. I'm not sure why he wants to come out. I'm kind of hoping he wants to talk, because I think he needs some "Momming" as my heartdaughter puts it. But he might just need some time alone in the woods. Anyway, I have no idea who will be here or for how long. So I can't plan pickles....

It doesn't really matter. Bean provides a lot of clarity in my life. If I can spend a day with him and support his Daddy and the trade off is I lose six quarts of pickles and the chickens eat a lot of mushy cucumbers, that's an easy choice.

Ok - off to do the things I need to do no matter what!

hello all, I survived. Wow I was so sick. But it was not covid. Anyway I am mostly better, just tired.

I was sick most of the time Hoarding Hubby was gone, so very little got sorted or tossed. I did however go through the big freezer. He has an aversion to getting rod of ANY food, no matter how old or expired or moldy. I threw out 2 trash bags full of meat and food from 2014 plus frostbitten stuff. The freezer was packed full and now is under half full. So that feels good. I also got my kids to build a shelf that has been sitting in a box downstairs for years. Now I just need to get the cans organized on the shelf.

Off to deal with cat...

Hi all

It was a disjointed week again. And the reasonable weather has switched back to stinkin' hot. With a smattering of weekend rain.

The projects that have been going on with the house are on pause until components arrive and (keep fingers crossed) a different project is set to commence in the interim.

Each day of busyness and some carryover sleep deficit, and now the heat, does mean occasional frustration and grouchiness for us but then we get past it. I'm feeling motivated still on both creative projects and decluttering, though some lowering of expectations is still going on while these days are so unpredictable.

I am not sure if I'm still going to be able to attend the sewing group on Fridays. Something came up regarding capacity and whether some of us new people are part of a parent guild that I didn't realize originated the whole thing. I looked up requirements to join that group and benefits vs. obligations of membership. Money is less tight and I could swing the yearly dues which are reasonable. But classes and other activities are extra. Though I really don't know as I'd be doing the classes.

Mainly I just need access to a creative space. So I hope I can still go on Fridays, but I need to clarify with the gal who invited me. She's going to be out of town for a few days. The group was going to have this coming Friday off anyway. If I do have to forego it, I just want to quickly find some alternative so I can continue being productive. In these few weeks I'd made good progress on a quilt that's been sitting around since well before the pandemic.

We'll see. I've decided that this fall I'm going to invest in a full spectrum light to kick winter depression's butt. Because this summer I have been mostly feeling good and able to get stuff done, and I realized it was the polar opposite of how winters make me feel. I NEED that light. It will pay for itself. Plus I can surely find a reasonably priced one if I do some research and comparison.

A few notes re posting here that may help some, tricks I developed after some agony over lost posts:

--When I go to post, I open the Post Reply in a new tab, keeping the thread tab open so I can refer to posts I want to comment on.

--I either compose my post in Word and copy paste it into the blank post box, or if composing directly, before submitting I do Ctrl-A (Select All), then Ctrl-C (Copy), then submit the post with the Captcha.

These tricks have prevented much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Good morning!

Yesterday fried my introvert soul.

I started the morning by canning 10 quarts of peaches, which was fine, but then I left all the mess and went with Dd2 to Bean's house to help his parents get ready for his birthday party.

It was originally supposed to be 20 people, but by the time it started, it was 35, and then they kept inviting the neighbors over. Even this morning I flinched when Dh sat on the same couch I was sitting on.

Also, I did not "hold my ground" but I did manage to clear my counter spot back off this morning.

Now I need to start cleaning up and run the dishwasher about three times.

I did give the last jar of old jam to the chickens this morning. So all my canned goods are up to date and edible.

So first - eye appointment - the news was better than the best case scenario - so I am super relieved.

I also cannot see what I have typed at all right now, so good luck with this post!

I can read what you guys posted because I can make that screen big enough.

Sara, I was going to tell you to just go ahead and tape a sheet of paper to the bin, but if they are clear I guess you don't need labels. I like opaque for the visual quiet.

The commitments was me. I've started to accept that just as I try to stuff to many things into MySpace, I try to stuff toomanycommitmentsinto my time. And they are related - sometimes I don't get things done because I can't find what I need or I don't have space to do them, or I am busy trying to juggle all the stuff, but sometimes it's because I run out of time. And I don't get enough sleep, which makes me less effective and less able to enjoy the things I have and do.

So, I don't know if you're familiar with the "container concept' but it basically is you decide what "container" you have for certain items, and any that don't fit have to go, or something else has to go to make room. My "container" in this case is my calendar. Which is effectively already overflowing in spite of the fact that the pages of my actual calendar are nearly blank, because I have all these things I do/want todo that don't actually leave any time for events and activities. So, when one comes along, I have to decide what I'm willing to let go to fit it in. Does that make sense?

Continued

I do use exclusively clear bins. I'm lost as it is I could never do anything if they were opaque.

Tatoulia, what kind of a place is your mom in? My parents just moved into a retirement place in town. It has an integrated assisted living place and there is a nursing facility next to that, they moved into an apartment in the independent living section. My dad is having a tough time though. It's mostly behavioral, not memory, but he is having some disorientation. You know, I am about to launch into a story about his memory problems when in fact I can't remember if I shared this story here yet. Oh boy. He was asking me what he was supposed to do with the receptacle end of an extension cord and how would he get that in the wall... (he had it reversed) and yesterday he kept insisting we couldn't see what he was pointing at in his new curio cabinet forgetting it's mirrored in the back and glass on all three sides... but no diagnosis yet. He Has been making my moms life pretty hellish with combative behavior. We are hoping he will embrace new lifestyle and settle down but we shall see. They are also due to get some a/v work done today at their place. We are in sync with our parental situation sounds like...

Who was talking about tracking changes in "commitments" the other day - CM? What's that all about? Curious...