Hi 🙂

Hope you all can get to the online support group tonight at 5:00pm PST.
We all really need to connect with each other.

Karl, I'm sorry life is sucky for you right now. But you've got the right thought that it is better than the alternative. I have frequently believed throughout my life that the alternative would be much better. Only kids and animals needing me have kept me going. But the nice thing about sucky times is they always get better. Just the nature of things, to change. Hang in long enough and it all changes.

Have a great day everyone! If not great at least good. If not good at least know that I pray for all of you to feel some blessed peace and certainty that good is coming your way.

No progress to report. Lousy day yesterday. Lousy day today. Life sucks, though it still beats the alternative.

Hi all,
I know I dropped off the map for a while. I went through some personal problems and cleanup needed to stop while I dealt with other things.
Having a cleanup crew come in is on hold for a while. I watched the hoarding show episode where the cleanup crew threw out the woman's purse with her driver's license, glasses, and cell phone inside. That just reinforced for me how hard it is going to be to put someone else in control.
We had another snow again yesterday. A forecasted 30 degree rise in temperature is going to cause major flooding. My house is so tiny that we would need to do the project when there is access to the driveway and front yard as a staging area. There is limited parking on the street. That probably means summer.
I have to see how much I can get done on my own first.
I would guess that my house is a level 4.
The kitchen has been in fairly good shape since I thoroughly cleaned it. I need to steam clean the floor and clean the oven but they are really not bad. I need someone to lift out the old microwave and put the new one in.
I have revisited the philosophy of living from Stephen Covey's 7 Habits books: maintenance activities first, decluttering next.
I had depleted the food in my pantry and freezer so I restocked yesterday. I buy meat in bulk and freeze it because it is cheaper.
Today: laundry, kitchen cleaning, one bag of trash out, repackage the meat I bought in small units for the freezer.
I may join the discussion group tomorrow night, although I hate to miss Downton Abbey.
Love to you all. Keep your eye on the prize!

Today will be basic maintenance.

It's nail clipping time. We all hate that. It takes too long to soak all the nails for easier clipping but I've found that after everyone has a very full belly they are much more relaxed and willing to lay still; or at least stiller. The kitties could use some dulling also. If I still have any calmness left I may try a few of the youngsters.

Dear Diane, I understand your overwhelm. Please try not to look at the whole thing at once. Small bites work better. There are times when the whole hoard needs does need to go at once. If that times comes for you, you have the inner strength to get thru it.

It's so good that you got info and will be talking to someone who can give you advice on how best to adapt your living situation. You have so much on your plate right now. Weather problems can be crushing. In a few weeks the worst will be behind us. When the weather is more moderate you'll be able to think more clearly and feel more at ease. {{{HUGS}}}

Thank you Dianne, Dave, Roxie and Tillie, warmed my heart reading your kind words. Thanks for the dog story Dianne, you are so kind.
Today I had my first leak in the kitchen, put a bucket under it. A couple of days ago a flood warning was issued due to heavy rains on top of snow. I have been checking ceilings in here and kitchen was only leak so far. Past two days have been putting old towels around all areas that flooded last time, walkway and garage. New leak in garage.
This is such a brutal winter. I have been thinking of living options, new roof on garage, newer manufactured home or small stick built. While in garage thinking I could get new roof, store stuff in there until new house is here. I started crying like a baby at all the hoard I still have to deal with. Yesterday I spent the whole day moving stuff off deck to garbage or garage. Churning gets me nowhere, I am so overwhelmed, feel like I am going in circles today. I think I will follow Dianne and pack up some books to give away. I thought to do that just before I got on computer, then thought, that won't help much, but it is a start on giving stuff away again. It is pouring out all day. Woke up at about 5 with loud rain, jumped up and started looking for leaks, this is no way to enjoy the golden years. Would be so much easier if hoard was gone totally. Today I will go through every room with a bag or box and see what I can donate. I have to go pick up a Rx today and will take a load to donate, have to see some progress, too depressing the way it is. Thanks for your support through this terrible winter. Would be so much worse if I hadn't made the progress you have helped me make.

Today is for digging out. I didn't even bother trying to keep up with snowfall.

For the hoard ~ get two boxes of books to donate to the lending library at my granddaughter's dance school.

Tillie,
Thank you for clarifying your abbreviation! Not many people are happy when those abbreviations are present 🙂

Hey Dave,

The vet just laughed and said, "I'm not going in there. You can bring me my coffee black." The boys had just turned 2 years old and I knew we'd always be safe. 🙂

re on this day

certainly a lot of conflict over land and people. quantity of deaths per engagement goes up a lot too from 1779 to 1942. Valentines Day Massacre shows a nice summary. Civilization has developed and improved technology so that angry and covetous people can kill others more efficiently.

on this day in history...

HAPPY VD 🙂

VD = valentines day in case you were confused. 😀

Good morning 🙂
Nice to see all your posts.
Waiting for the aspirin to remove this headache.
Surveying the damage caused by the water leak from the broken pipe this morning
I can see now that it had thawed at least three days ago but went unnoticed due to all his clutter piled up in that area.
Oh well...... 🙁

Wondering about how much is enough and what constitutes too much,
yesterday I went through all my clothing and wrote down an inventory of what I have.
Looking over this inventory list the first thing I realize is that it is important to know thyself.
The one thing I have the most of is dresses.
I wear only dresses from Spring through Autumn.
I have dresses for working around the house, dresses for at home when I am not doing dirty work like cleaning or gardening and dresses that are suitable to wear to town.
Blouses are another item I have a lot of.
I have some that I only wear in the winter with my jeans, some that I only wear with my skirts.
Some of them are fancy go to town in and some are not so fancy.
Looking at my inventory list I can see that I have enough of everything that I ever wear and nothing that I don't ever use.
I could get by with less but it is nice to have these choices.
One firm rule I have is that my clothing all must fit into it's assigned spots and not all be crammed in so tight that it is hard to access them.
For me, the "one in, one out" rule keeps me in check. 😀

OK, I will shut up now ;p

Dianne,
Do you and Laura have a Dakota story or memory you'd like to share with us?

The activity today is to try to avoid social isolation.

I can suggest that keeping the most absolutely favorite clothing such as shirts, pants, sweaters, etc. and absolute favorite photos, drawings, books makes that item more special.
I know that there may be a whole lot but pearing down to the ones that mean the most are the most special.

Trust me you will not lose the memory that is trapped in your brain. What is missing is that feeling of excitement or great feeling of what you had when you got that object. If you must, then please take pictures of what item you feel means a lot to you then let go. Space is what you need. Objects holing memories is taking up valuable space.

The decisions are very tough but keep in mind first there is grief before relief.

In time you will see or ask yourself why did I keep that item for so long when just the memory was holding me back from freedom?

Photos can be organized in a box like a filing system with catorgories such as by year, season, event,people or how ever you would like.

For those who pile papers there is a horizontal filing system that makes it easy to pile and sort papers per category of the labels you can make and place on the filing system. You can see all the papers and still have peace of mind seeing all the papers there and know where everything is.

For most documents such as tax documents for jobs and some insurances, they can be shreded after 7 yrs.
For bills the catorgies can be act now/pay, paid, file, shred.

Tillie,

🙂 🙂 Hmm... I see I don't have hoarding word connotations integrated into my vocabulary and thought processes. I expect that one is going to take awhile!

I often suffer from tunnel vision over things like that. Thanks.

The warm weather finally thawed all the plumbing and the faucet out back has been cracked.
Hissing and leaking pretty good.
He has it capped off and redone already.
So far we have been lucky. 🙂

I just picked up the book "Stuff" by Randy Frost 2010 and can't put it down. I got it from the Library.

Many of the signs and symptoms of someone I know are explained greatly in this book by others.

Reading a few chapters a day is all I can handle due to eye strain.

Dave,
I meant the daily maintenance like dishes, laundry, vacuuming and stuff like that.
The big ticket stuff she has to do is a different type of maintenance. 🙂

I think the problem for Diane right now is that she has maintenance which is gruelling physical labor, but if it is not done she actually risks having to replace her home because the costs of repairs could be more than the house is worth.

Good morning 🙂

DIANE! 😀
So happy you posted!
Sorry to hear that the weather has been so rough on you. 🙁
Some things are out of our control and it's best we just carry on the best we can.
Maintenance and progress will just have to wait and we should not allow ourselves to get discouraged.
Hang in there. (((HUGS)))

Hi Karl 🙂
WAY TO GO!!! 😀
cleaning the microwave and putting in the application! 😀

Hi Dianne 🙂
Love reading your posts.
You say things so beautifully. 🙂

Hi Roxie 🙂

HI 😀
everybody else!

Slept in today but still got laundry done.
Overcast and warm, no rain or snow so it should all dry out on the line.
Need to find something to do today.
Trash can is out at the road for pick up.
I am so ready for Spring to shake this cabin fever. 🙂

HEY!!!
All you who haven't posted
we are all thinking about you and wishing you well. (((hugs)))

(((Diane))) I concur with everything Dianne told you. WE care about you, and I admire you and all you are capable of and have been doing. When something like nature dumps on us, all that is expected is to do the best you can do and get through. If you have angieslist you might check for handymen you could hire here and there to help you at times. I plan to do that soon. I think maybe you need to borrow or foster another dog?

Diane, {{{{BIG HUGS}}}} I was getting worried about you.

Dianne, happy to hear you slept and you are doing as well as you are with such a loss to deal with.
I have been shoveling snow for 3 days. It snowed over 2 feet in a day, which is a first here. I am worried because they are now predicting days of rain. Since the last flood, it scares me to think of going through that again. I am so weary from all the shoveling. I had a tax appt today so really wanted to get car dug out,have a large circular drive, so took hours . I got it done, but the steep road was too dangerous. Even 4WD were not able to make it up my hill, city did not plow it this time, usually they plow. Had to cancel appt. for taxes. Frustrated. I finally got path dug to woodpile and got more wood in. This has been the most difficult winter since I have lived here. I am getting behind in maintenance which is so discouraging. I have made no progress on clutter past few days, just worn out from shoveling. There was so much snow on roof and deck, which are old, had to get it off so didn't buckle. Have had to do gutter repairs as ice jams and large chunks wrecked some gutters. It has been a full time job, with no rewards it seems. Today I realized I can't keep doing this much work forever and have to make some decisions on living situation.
Decision making is exhausting for me, change is hard. Seems like I have done so much this past year, discouraging all this extra work has been added. Now I am thinking, who cares what I am going through. Very difficult days here, I am taking all the actions necessary then nature throws me a blow, again and again. I am going to have to hire help, I am exhausted.

Yesterday while the rice was cooking, I decided that the microwave could use some cleaning, so I took care of that. I also bicycled over to the apartment complex I'd recently looked at, and dropped off an application. (They'd previously said 5-12 month waiting list; we'll see what my situation is like when my name does come up.) I was going to drop off another application at the neighboring place, but it turned out that I hadn't yet filled in the page where I list my assets. I still need to contact the DMV, too.

Good morning 🙂

Have no plans for today.
Thinking I will probably straighten my dresser drawers. That should occupy about five minutes of my time.
Considering making a braided rag rug. This has been on my bucket list for some years now.
Have some fresh asparagus and need to think of something else to fix for dinner.

Hope you all have some good plans for the day. 🙂

WAY TO GO!!!
XS Trash of Michigan! 😀

Thank you all very much for your condolences. It is very much a comfort.

After dog and cat care I need to shower and make a run to the dump. Maybe do some more real cleaning in the breakfastroom. There is a hutch there that I've been working on. It's basically a dog supply center now.

re: Demand Resistance
Thank You.

((Dianne))) I am so sorry about your Kota Bug, but I am also glad he was able to pass at home with those he loved around him. How is his brother holding up? And how about you and your daughter?

Yesterday I finished up dishes and wiped the counter tops. I went down and got the big garbage bin from the street, plus all the mail (mailbox very full), and three Sunday papers (!) that I'd failed to collect.