Good luck to your son tomorrow, Road!

You are brave to have a houseguest. Most people want clean sheets and bedding and a clean bathroom. Let the rest happen with or without you. You know you are doing well and you have your hands full most days. My birthday is Monday.

My cleaners come tomorrow and not a moment too soon. I changed my own sheets last week and the bed doesn't feel righ. I'm not used to not having a footboard.

Very busy this week at work. Looking forward to Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off.

I'll do the dishes and then get ready for bed. I snuck in a load of towels tonight; I'll get them out of the dryer in a little while.

I have my mindful emotional eating webinar tomorrow. Wish me well!

Hi all, so great to read your posts. Tatoulia, happy birthday! Early? Late? It's also the H's bday this week.

Interesting observations from everyone about a number of things! I am also really into process/tracking and while I KNOW it can bog me down it's also sometimes very motivating, star charts for adults!

Being a graphic designer, my approach ended up being to make it very detailed and pretty at the same time. I used some of David Seah's forms as a base and customized and cute-ified them. This is a daily worksheet I used to plan and track everything... health goals, diet, money spent, films watched, creative endeavors - you name it. I actually made different ones for each month, incorporating italian terms (trying to learn Italian) and all the habits I was trying to instill. I guess at this point I am back to using these about half the time. I know when I do I generally have more productive days. Of all the many habits listed on this sheet, I currently ignore almost all of them. That's probably why the system isn't overwhelming me. Lol.

I don't know about you guys - well, I think CM's comments must have gotten me thinking about this - but I anticipate spring pushing me around a corner. I always feel better(mentally and physically)... so hopefully I can have - MAKE - another big leap forward in progress.

My son has eeg tomorrow (weds) and then I have a couple friends coming to town for another friends dads funeral this weekend. One is staying with us for a day or two, this always presents interesting challenges for people in our situation,,, where do they sleep? What has to be cleaned? Triage!!! What in my room can be sorted out and what has to be shoved into the back 40 and hidden behind my temporary curtain situation? Well, one positive thing is last summer before my floor was cleaned out I would never have let her stay here. She's one of my best friends and knows all my secrets but has never actually been in my house. Like happens a lot when I casually identify as a hoarder people don't take it seriously (or don't know how to act when I say that) so they probably imagine a cluttered kitchen countertop and not a full basement and full 2.5 car garage.

Well, anyway, the impending visit should definitely light a fire under me. Or at least TRIAGE!

TRIAGE list:
1) determine guest sleeping location
2) determine alternate sleeping locations for the rest of us
3) clean sheets and towels for guest (towels are done)
4) clean bathrooms (not in bad shape)
5) bad smells? Refresh freshy things
6) FRIDGE! Omg. The horror.
7) the worst cabinets
8) other cleaning
9) groceries/cooking plan

Alright friends, it's 3:30 am and since my insomnia started a few hours early tonight it's almost time to go to bed again...

Also I can't even about the Ukraine situation. I've reflected a lot on these people going from a place of security and comfort one day and literally having their lives threatened or fleeing their home and country the next. What are they carrying? A purse or maybe a single piece of luggage. Their pet. Their kids. What do they have left? Just their friends and family who are all in danger. What do they have materially? Nothing. Do we know what we would take if we only had an hour to pack a bag? What about all the rest?

Lila where are you? Did you disappear like me?

That's an interesting topic, SubC. A few years back, our health insurer had a steps app and you could win badges for 7000 steps a day, 10000 steps a day, doing 7000 for ten days in a month, etc and I thought about how stupid the badges were.until I started collecting them. We also coul earn up to 100 a quarter, which most of us got our 400 each year. But the badges felt so good. Who knew?

I'm going to have to up my diet game. I've decided that when I'm down 20 pounds I'll start getting Botox in my forehead. I have the elevens very deeply. No crows feet or other wrinkles. Very deep lines in forehead. One of the lines looks like a thunderbolt.

So I was hunting on m6 phone for some info I needed and I found all these notes to myself in 2014 about my hoarding and having too much stuff. Amazing how aware I was and the things I'd say to myself. I knew I had to do something. And I made simple lists. I'm so grateful I did it. Huge gratitude to stop living that way.

Ok tonight I really am going to go to bed early. I hope.

Good morning!

I am picking my boy up a bit later today because his mother has other plans. I am rethinking my "habits" I did not fill out my chart all weekend, and I am realizing that the chart had become another source of stress. I was up to nine habits and most days could not do all of them. I was also starting to worry about remembering to record.

I think the value of the habits was less the tracking and more the being mindful of focusing on certain things. So I am taking a short break and setting a new resolution for March, or possibly lent. I have been doing some reading today on Lenten spiritual practices, and there is a lot for thought. (I was raised in a spiritual tradition of memorization and obedience. Neither of those is particularly helpful to me.)

I have also been reading about gamification and how the assignment of points (rewards - grades, dollars, prizes, "likes", views, badges, titles..) teaches us what to focus on (value, pay attention to, invest our time in, track, collect.)

I feel like there is a connection to be made there.

Glad you were able to restore your spirit by attending the conference! And enjoying yourself!

I am taking Friday and Monday off to celebrate my birthday. The 4th is also my anniversary with miss kitty. She was a birthday gift 17 years ago. I still remember bringing her home. She was a wreck from being a stray and sick and was neutered the day before. She was the most pathetic thing. Now we are pathetic together.

Cm, you will break the log jam. I saw something meaningful (well, meaningful enough) on Twitter or Instagram and for the life of me, I don't recall what it said. But it reminded me of both myself and you, so I'll search around for it.

Shout out to Road and Lila!

Everyone is quiet today.

I made four gallons of milk into two pints of cream, a quart plus half a pint of ricotta, and four wheels of mozzarella. I gave part of the whey to the chickens and put the rest away for baking or chickens on another day.

I also made pound cake.

I ran the dishwasher which took care of about half the resulting dishes, and I did two loads of laundry.

I didn't do lesson plans. I have to email the reptile kids' parents tomorrow. I know that doesn't make sense, but I need to get to bed, and if I put the note here, I'll see it.

Good morning! I slept late.

It is sunny today and supposed to warm up. Dh is going to go play golf.

My plan for the day is to do lesson plans and make cheese and maybe poundcake. There are a lot of other things I would like to do, but I have a very busy week ahead and cheese and lesson plans (and pound cake) will reduce the pressure.

Yesterday I went to a wonderful all day teacher workshop at the city studio. I brought home a goodie bag and bought a few things - some for me and some for school. (They had 20% off all day) and I restocked some of the clay and glaze for school.

For me there are two small tools and some goodie bag stencils. I don't know yet which stencils I will keep and which I will take to school (the more fragile ones will stay with me - I can take them in if a particular student might benefit from them) but they are 6" thin squares, so one or ten makes little storage difference. I actually already have one of these stencils, so they will stack on top.

It was a really good mental health break. I realized part way through the third session (after lunch) that I was just relaxed and having fun and not thinking about all the other things I need to do at all.

I need more days like that.

Oops, left out a word - should read "nothing terribly difficult."

At library, found this new thread.

Weather is improving here. Should be in a pattern that'll be easier to cope with. Next week is a little busy, Ash Wednesday, a doctor appointment and payday/bill paying on Thursday, a bunny therapy session in a care facility on Friday. Nothing terribly, just things to remember.

Work on my quilt had slowed down but should pick up again.

I've been bugged a lot by thoughts of my STUFF. I know the angst is partly due to impatience with the bad weather and the way world events make one think about what really matters or doesn't.

But I keep telling myself that stewing about the hoarding and clutter isn't going to be productive, that soon enough I will be able to do something about it. Hopefully that will put an end to the worrying with action. Days will be warmer - and longer. I'll make a point of putting more emphasis on resolving things especially with the storage unit being so disarrayed, and too much stuff where I live - break the logjams, rethink a lot of things, see what can go away.

I was actually up early (for me) today and it felt good! I had coffee and a bagel. BF actually had this AM off so I met him at his place. He was shoveling when I got there. Beautiful, sunny day. Now he's back at the office and I am here.

I changed my sheets yesterday. My cleaners didn't come because I was feeling poorly. I did two loads of laundry last night and have two more to do today, but I don't know yet whether I will. I'm out of oj and other things but might wait to do my shopping til tomorrow. I'm feeling a bit sleepy and feel like laying around.

I'm taking a zoom class for emotional eating on Tuesday. Courtesy of the Boston Public Library but in truth the thanks goes to CM. She got me here!

Good morning! Thank you!

Howdy hey
I don't know why I thought I could make that rhyme with seventeen.

Good morning everyone. Rare moment nothing to say, just "hi"