Good morning to all. Good to "see" you, Diane!

I am expecting to join some other family members this week to do a lot of cleaning at the "family home" I've mentioned a number of times on chat. Will probably be kind of bitter-sweet to be in that particular location. Decades worth of memories tugging at me. Hmmm . . .

Looking forward to hearing more from all of you. Hugs.

Good Morning Everybody! :)

Hi Diane :)
Wonderful to "see" you! :D
Tell us more about what you have been doing around your yard. That always inspires me to get out and do more around here. ;)
Good luck with your list of plans. Hope you cooked something really tasty.

Hi Tatoulia :)
All the kitties say "HI" too.

Decluttering is like peeling an onion, there are layers.
First time around you peel off the top layer and every additional decluttering session you peel off another layer, and so on and so on, until you finally reach a stage where you feel you have "just enough" stuff.
Not too much but everything you truly want and need.
Then to maintain this, once or twice a year look around the rooms, closets, cupboards to see if there are things that you are finished with, have found replacements for, and toss or donate what you no longer want or need.

Finishing up my morning tea and planning to go outside and do some gardening type stuff.
My yard is filled with Humming birds. :D

So wonderful to see you all here. :)

Well, I am equally excited to see posts from Cory and Diane! Truly is a special day.

HELLO CORY! What a treat to hear from you! Thank you for all you have done for us!

HELLO DIANE! I have missed you! I actually thought of you when I was having my friend over. I remember a year ago when you got your new freezer and y our friend came in and sat with you and talked. I have to tell you, other than papers on the coffee table I didn't have anything to worry about. I was relaxed and happy and dint apologize. It does not look like I have too much stuff, but I know I do, and I have plans for it. I am still waiting for my sister to take some things and then I will be able to store the things I must store (winter bedding, for example) and make some more decisions. It was wonderful saying yes and not making excuses. I am so pleased.

HELLO TILLIE, MARTY, TWINKLES AND SCOOTER! Love you all.

Great day with good friends (I'm talking about you)

Hi all, I read through some posts, good to see your thoughts and actions.
I have been obsessed with my rocks, and let the cleaning tasks fly away. Tat, I still have too much stuff too. I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work I need to get done in here, thank goodness it is finally raining, keeps me inside. Happy you had company inside your place Tat. I could not do that today.
Tillie so great you have been consistent on here, good you are handling life so well with all that is going on.
Today I think I will list things I want to get done and see if I can actually get some things done.
Wash dishes, clean counters, cook.

HI CORY! :D

GREAT to "see" you. (((hugs)))
I know you have been so very, very busy.
Good luck and best wishes with your new HOARDERS program.

Just wanted to check in and say Hi to everyone! I have been gone a lot lately filming a ton of new episodes. How is everyone doing? It is great to see all the familiar names on here still :)

Keep up the support for each other!

Cory Chalmers

Oh Tillie I am so glad to hear that. I had read about Marty's plight and was worried. Also glad that twinkles is doing better.

Hot and humid here today, I hated it. Got my sheets changed, took care of brother, had dinner out with mom, boyfriend and brother. Now ready to just lay down and relax. Got two loads of laundry done but essentially a very busy day with no real housework. Was on the move much more than would've liked.

I do, however, find I feel more rested when I do fun things on the weekend. If I just take care of family and relax, I'm not nearly as well rested come Monday.

Have a busy work week ahead and more stuff to do next weekend too. Will eventually find some time to take a day or even half a day off from work to spend with boyfriend. Right now we've been spending good time together with our friends who are visiting but no time just to be us, Will shoot for some time in the coming weeks,

Good news!
Marty (the cat) was dislocated and it corrected it it's self.
:D

Hello everyone! Good morning and Happy Mother's Day to all!

Roxie good work! As soon as I get out of bed I'll toast you!

Tillie, what a tough few days with the water well problem. I'm happy about Twinkles. Really funny how no one liked the prescribed wet food! You'd think someone would find it tasty

I spent the day with a friend yesterday. She leaves in a week and I've had such a good time with her. We went antiquing again yesterday and I bought only for my boyfriend. It's been nice having a friend visit who likes to do the same stuff. I used to do a lot of that with my mother but now we can't do it as much.

I am going to try to do something this morning before my brother calls me. I am so tired today and just want to rest up.

Good morning :)

Hi Roxie :)
Clink!
WAY TO GO!!! for all your accomplishments.
Make sure to take plenty of "me time" resting up.
(((hugs)))

Hi Samantha :)
Why don't you come down here and share your days activities with us. :D

Think I should clean the bathroom and the floors today.
I don't want to but they are really a mess after all these past days of plumbing work.
But then again, maybe I will wait to make sure there won't be more messes made over the weekend.
Thinking the water leveling doo-dad in the toilet tank has lost it's mind and will need replacing.
I will wash dishes today, have a sink full right now since the water was turned off periodically and I was busy doing plumbing anyways. :D
Twinkles is doing fine. No more pain meds.
Has a healthy appetite, no swelling.
Right now he is napping on the back porch on the cat tree in the sunshine. :)

Take care. Try to schedule in some time to enjoy Springtime. ;)

Hi Tatoulia :)

Hi Everybody :)

Been having problems here these last several days.
Problems with our water well.
Water level is down due to drought and our well is very ancient and narrow.
We have water but very little water pressure since the well refills slowly.
This causes the water pump to run overtime to keep up with the demand.
Trying to get things figured out and also working on the well causes sediment to stir up and foul the water lines in the house.
Finally got the toilet water inlet unclogged and it fills the tank again. Yea! for a flushing toilet again!
With everything else going on here I am at the end of my rope.
Would run away and live in the woods but the cats don't want to and I don't want to leave them behind.
Planning to sleep in all day tomorrow, hope life lets me. :D

Take care :)

Thank you for your encouragement and praise and help!

I just logged on to see that Gem has given us an update and she's had her bad situation escalated to worse. I feel sad right now.

What a solid, reliable group we have. This is the most wonderful place to be. Thank you all for sharing so much of your lives.

WAY TO GO! Jess :)
Hope you had good luck finding the perfect recycling bin.
Happy you painted your nails. Bet you look pretty. :D

Hi LR2014 :)
Always nice to "see" you :D

Hi Karl :)
Hope you are doing well and still having fun geocaching and gaming. :D

Twinkles is doing very well.
Refuses to eat the Veterinarian prescribed food so I broke down and fed him " Tasty Treasures", his favorite canned cat food.
Offered all the other cats the prescription canned cat food and none of them will eat it either. HaHaHa

Very exciting news, Tatoulia!!! WTG!!

I did it! House wasn't perfect but solid progress and I'm pleased. And I didn't apologize. How's that? In the process I got a big bag together for goodwill. Very pleased.

I am slowly living in a home again. A place where I can feel proud and happy and satisfied. My friend loved my house,and was just so dear.


Much love to Tillie and twinkles and Jess and Samantha and LR and Diane and Bitsy and Roxie. If I left you out please forgive me. The love is there, the memory is not.

Hi Everyone. I'm trying to get house to an acceptable level for my visitor today. I'm staying relaxed and calm. Unfortunately got nothing done last night. I watched a movie then fell asleep. I still have too much stuff. I need to reduce my possessions. Too much/too many. I'm going to have to make more tough decisions soon. But for now, I will put that anxiety to one side and I will continue to clean. I am proud of myself for saying yes when friend said she'd drop by. What a good feeling to say that. I think I can get house to a fairly acceptable level. A year ago I couldn't have done it. Today I can.

One of these days I'll remember to be around when there's a chat.

Today I've done my morning routine and a load of laundry, already folded and put away. I painted my nails just to feel a bit pretty :) Almost time for my hike.

I've got to get to the grocery store today and I'd also like to buy a recycling bin for the house. Like kitchen trash can size and it will fit in the laundry area off the kitchen and garage.

Kind of a chill day. Wishing everyone well!

Tillie, thanks for the update. I'm glad Mr T is doing better and hope the therapy goes well today. Ahh Twinkles. I bet a rest in the sun will be a nice treat.

I am working on getting house acceptable for company tomorrow. My brother took me to goodwill to donate a small table. I bought two beautiful tables at a consignment store last weekend. I had been admiring them and finally bought. They are on either side of my bed and they are gorgeous. One of the tables that used to be next to my bed I will give to my sister and the other one I just donated. I felt a little twinge as I donated it because it is just so sweet. I loved it enough. Probably fifteen years of love.

Hi Roxie! Medical appts are draining, aren't they? Thank you for your recent post urging us to get proper screenings. I put off my colonoscopy for a full year after turning 50. I just finally ran out of excuses.

Will be making a cup of tea soon.

Hello everyone! Poor Twinkles. Poor little thing.

Jess, Good job! You are an inspiration! LR I understood what you meant--please don't doubt yourself! We are all familiar with and beneficiaries of your unending compassion. My brother is very disabled, physically and mentally and emotionally and despite that, he can still be manipulative. I think we all have a little of that in us, and it's good to commiserate and get a little laugh out of our situations. Trust me, when I had a surgical procedure last week (went well) I milked it a little just to avoid having to take care of other people.

BIG NEWS! A family friend is visiting from overseas and we are having dinner Thursday night. She said she'd meet me at my apt (she has never seen it) and instead of making up an excuse, I said, sounds good, here's my address. I figure I have six hours of cleaning to do (no idea where that # comes from). at least my bedroom is up to date/clean and clutter free. I will be busy tonight and tomorrow and the next day, but I can do it! No more making excuses, the time to clean is NOW!

I also have been having some dental work, Jess. (And Twinkles). Had a painful tooth a few weeks back and needed a root canal. That is all finished as of tonight. I wouldn't wish tooth pain on my worst enemy.

Tillie, keep your chin up! You are a fabulous caretaker of dear Twinkles. And us. And everyone else.

Hi Jess :)

WAY TO GO!!! :D
Making GREAT progress there.
Hope your dental work is doing well and not giving you any grief. (((hugs)))

Hoping I can spend the day at home today.
Lots of little things have been being neglected here.
Twinkles is recovering as expected. Poor baby.
But I have syringes filled with pain medicine that I am to give him orally two times a day, so he can sleep through the next three days.

TTYL :)

Thank you for the encouragement everyone :) Feeling a bit better today. I had some dental work yesterday and handled it pretty well. Today I've got a therapy appointment.

I've managed to vacuum the bedrooms and around the hardwood areas. Need to mop/scrub still but I'm happy I started it. Did my morning routine and stripped the beds instead of making them because it's that time of the week.

Cleaned one bathroom, restocked the other.

One foot in front of the other.

Good Evening :)

Been a very busy day.
Twinkles is home from the Veterinary hospital and is recovering nicely.
Stoned out of his gourd with medications and sleeping it off under the bed.
Did a lot of other things today too but nothing fun.
Honeysuckle is blooming now. :)
Looking forward to bedtime.

I understand what you are saying LR2014.
Same here, I would never doubt someone's claims and wish I were always believed too.

As a follow-up to my last post, I just want to be clear about something. I find it very frustrating and discouraging when I am feeling weak, exhausted, and just generally awful physically, and then somebody (especially some family member) implies that I'm exaggerating how badly I feel. (Not saying that that happens often, but it definitely is within my realm of experience.) I never want to downplay another human being's pain, exhaustion, or illness. The situation I described in my post below was a specific one. This very elderly family member would make a big show of feeling bad in front of the therapist, and then seconds (and I do mean seconds) after the therapist gave up and left, the elderly family member would suddenly be all smiles and would offer to jump into the car with me (which at his advanced age was no easy task) in order to run errands with me. What amazing recovery!! (Uh, huh. Right.) Sometimes he truly was tired or in pain when a therapist arrived, but there were times when he clearly was trying to put on a show to get the therapist out the door faster. :(

I wrote this post because I know that there are many people on this site with significant illnesses. I also know that many of us suffer from what I call "invisible" illnesses, such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Sometimes, people with such illnesses are not believed and are treated as if they are exaggerating their problems. Worse still is when they are treated as if they are imagining their problems...as if the problems are all in their heads. I do not ever want to be or to even remotely sound like I am insensitive to the real physical struggles that so many of us here on this board have. Ever.

Lots of hugs to all.

Roxie, Tillie, Jess and LR --GREAT to hear from you all! And thank you for the encouragement.

Tillie, I do think kitty at will be okay. Boyfriend's cat had teeth pulled a few years ago. We fed him cream cheese when he got home and some chopped up turkey, just so he could eat soft things. He was definitely nit himself a day or two after the surgery but then he seemed like a kitten again, it's scary and upsetting but ultimately Twinkles will feel better.

Jess, please don't feel even a minute of guilt--we all suffer and have difficult times and this is the place to be. I sometimes feel guilty when I'm being negative, then I feel guilty when I feel too happy. Ridiculous, let's treat ourselves better than that! Read ing your insight into your struggles helps me to look at my own in a different light. Thank you for that,

Roxie's! Great day at Walmart yesterday! I bet it felt wonderful to be out and about, Thank you for reminding me to use the gratitude list. I trust your intuition and will give it a shot.


LR I am always so happy when you have posted. You are a dear friend.


Have to shower and get ready for dinner now. Will post again later,

Had a few bad days emotionally. Not really feeling up to posting but I figured I should do it anyway.

I've done my morning routine and I want to take the dog out for a hike. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if our usual spot is open today so I may have to take him out on a leash. It won't be as good for him as a nice long off leash run and it will be a bit of a hassle for me but it's better than nothing I suppose. Those are my rational thoughts on the matter, while my OCD is making my head spin. Trying to ignore that.

After the dog outing I need to do a bunch of stuff. So I'm going to run errands that are top priority and choose ONE cleaning task to do and break it into small steps. I'd rather crawl back into bed to be honest. Also to be honest, if my wonderful husband wouldn't be working all day on a Sunday to come home to me as a lump in bed I probably would. Trying to avoid that cycle of guilt and shame.

Sorry if this post is a bummer, I'm just trying to post honestly instead of only coming on here when I'm all positive. I'm fine, just having some trouble dismissing my OCD lately. It's cyclical for me, I've noticed, depending on hormonal swings. Just gotta push through.

Hang in there everybody, thinking of you all!

The visiting medical personnel want you to do more, Tillie??? If that weren't so frustrating, it would almost be laughable. How much more can you possibly do than what you already do, day in and day out???

Glad to hear that you actually got away from home for a few hours . . . just you (and the vehicle). You've deserved that opportunity (one that so many of us just take for granted) for soooo long! Whoo-hooo!

I had to laugh inwardly about how your s.o. behaves around the therapists. I saw that scenario many times with one of my loved ones a number of years ago, especially around one particular therapist. Admittedly, I myself would not have wanted to have experienced the therapy techniques she used with him. Well, he would sometimes put on a big, big show of being exhausted and of feeling bad when she'd show up. Oh, no, he just didn't "feel up to" the therapy today! Finally, she would give up on the day's therapy and would leave. It was amazing how much energy he'd suddenly get once she walked out the door! I felt angry about it at the time, but it kind of amuses me as I look back on it years later.

Good morning, Tillie and Roxie! I am working on being kinder to my self. I'd feel better if I'd just do something. I will be taking my family out soon and so will take ten minutes to do something before I go. Thank you for the help and encouragement. I don't like the idea of being negative here and need to remind myself that we all go through ups and downs. I am coming up on my year anniversary here and look how far we've all come in the past year!

Tillie I am so sorry about your situation right now, It is very hard being the "well one". It's like you're not able to feel overwhelmed or angry or resentful because you are well and the other person is not. Growing up with a sick brother, I was expected to be in charge and to do everything because I am not the sick one. Forty years later, and it's no different. You are entitled to put your foot down, you are entitled to say you can't./won't/shouldn't have to do everything. It's easier said than done, but stay firm where you can. Keep those car keys,

Roxie, thank you for your insight and wisdom. I hope today treats you well.

Thank you all for your support. You are important to me. If I could head out and help you, I'd be there in an instant. Til then, I am standing by your side in spirit.

Tatoulia :)
(((HUGS)))

Make a plan. Write a To-Do list.
Tackle a task for 10 minutes.
Whatever works best for you right now.

Decluttering, cleaning and change of any kind all begin with thinking.
Right now you are thinking about how much you don't like your surroundings and are thinking about plans and ways to change it.
WAY TO GO!!! :)

CLEAN unfolded laundry not ocean. I'm just so disgusted with myself tonight. I hate the frustration I am feeling and I don't like myself a whole lot right now. Please know that I care about you all, I'm just distracted by my self loathing this minute.

Hello. I'm feeling like my house is unlivable with the clutter creep. Am keeping bedroom the best right now and other than the occasional pile of ocean, unfolded laundry, I've done a good job keeping up with the bedroom. I need to do something about the living room. It is not livable. There is too much clutter and too many papers and bits of papers from the shredder, etc.

Really upsetting that I've let the clutter collect. I will not beat myself up any more today, and I will think of a plan and make a list of some individual tasks to do.

HaHaHa Karl :D
As always, he was suspect number one,
but upon further investigation I was quickly able to eliminate him from the suspect line up. :D

Hi LR2014 :)
Hoping that you have been able to get some of that creeping clutter corralled so it doesn't come get you while you sleep. ;)

The drive home from Reno was upsetting/traumatizing.
Someone hit one of the horses on the highway. :(
There are signs posted warning people that there are horses and cows living free out on the range.
The landscape is open with nothing larger than sage brush blocking the view for miles.
People are supposed to watch for them near the road and slow down, even stop if necessary.
The very first funeral I ever attended was when I was a young teenager, for a dear friend of mine who hit a horse with his car.

Today I need to find inner peace with the world.
Replace the images with beauty and hope.
I will watch the birds play in my garden. :)

(((hugs)))

Tatoulia, I am just getting caught up a little bit on posts, and I noticed this line in one of yours: "So what I did buy were pieces to decorate my cleaned out home and to bring it to the next level." Ah, ".to bring it to the next level." I like that thought and that phrasing. Upgrading! Sounds great! Hope your procedure goes well this week. Hugs.

Tillie, I am greatly reassured that in this challenging situation, you have not resorted to spraying! You're too funny! : )

I have a creeping clutter problem near where I sleep that needs to be attacked today. I plan to spend at least 30 minutes working on that today.

Hugs to everyone. Looking forward to catching up on more posts later.