Very tough decisions were made.

Yay Tatoulia!

Lila 🙂

I am so glad you have a new shirt! Yay for the new shirt! If anybody ever does say anything mean, you just remember that you got compliments and they have no fashion sense.

Would it be possible to put ex's junk in the driveway and lock the house and garage? Or is the storage room just too overwhelming? Can your boys be there with you when he comes? Will the storage room be empty after this?

We had fun with our friends. I am tired. I wore my favorite dress and my green fake pashmina scarf that I couldn't find at first in my closet and got frustrated. Dh said "you know, we can buy you some clothes." I told him I want to lose x more pounds and then I will clean out my closet and probably buy some clothes. Maybe. I took all the scarves off hangers and tossed them in a basket and when I got home I put just the green one on the fancy multi scarf hanger and hung it up. When I wear another one, I will hang that up.

I am glad ex is coming to get his stuff, Lila. It may be a hard day for you and certainly anxious as the day approaches but hopefully you will feel relief and will feel lighter!

Yay for the springy blouse! I bet you looked nice in it!

Glad you found the green scarf and put it where you can find it, SubC.

I have so many clothes that would fit me (not many by other people's standards) if I would just get serious about it.

Might do my taxes now.

Hey All 🙂

I'm new to posting here, although I've been ghost reading this thread for a little while to get to know everyone. I hope you don't mind me posting on this thread - I read on someone else new's thread that this was the place to post.

While I'm new to posting here, I am not new to hoarding... I found this thread when looking for help/support/advice on hoarding. Google is full of information on what hoarding is but nothing on how to reduce/get rid of the anxiety associated with parting with possessions. I'm also from another part of the world (proof that hoarders are found all over ;)), so I hope you don't mind me joining in from across the planet.

Reading all your posts is inspiring and a little overwhelming at the same time. You all are doing so much and making good progress with cleaning up. I think I'm a little behind in my mental state - just the thought of getting rid of things induces much stress and anxiety.

CM - happy birthday for the 11th (assuming my calculations are correct - not sure if the site accounts for time zone differences). Hope you enjoyed the nursery, spring flowers are lovely and cheerful. 🙂 (It's fall where I am, so everything going into Autumn colours and getting colder.)

Lila - I'm sorry to hear about your health, I hope you feel better soon. Yay for the new shirt though, it sounds beautiful (I love blue and white combo, it's a classic). I agree with SubC's suggestion of moving ex's things onto the driveway and locking your garage and storeroom if that's possible (not sure how much stuff ex has).

SubC - sorry to hear the baby goat died, but I'm glad Jane is doing well. Farm life sounds very interesting. 🙂 I'm glad you found your green scarf too. I love scarves and probably have more than what I should, but I enjoy them.

Tatoulia - well done on making the hard decisions, I know how stressful those can be! It sounds like you're making good progress (and Emiko sounds like wonderful help to you). Hope the taxes are done.

Have a good day all. I was hoping to get some laundry done today but I don't feel I have the energy. I also have class preparation that needs to happen and marking to do.

Tatoulia, I am worried. Taxes are due today!

Welcome Alanna! We all start where we start and make progress at the rate we can. The important thing is starting and not giving up. As our dear CM reminds us - poco a poco - little by little we make it better.

Class prep and marking! Another teacher. Do you mind sharing anything about what (ages/subjects) you teach?

I am also curious about which continent you are on.

I think teaching (at least in the US) encourages hoarding because we never have any money for class supplies and are always looking for creative alternatives, scrounging free supplies, and saving stuff that might be useful.

Do you have a plan we can help you with? Or a problem are you want to tackle?

Taxes done and paid. I owed a lot this year. Generally I'm pretty even. But I had some unexpected income.

Now I'll read the posts! Sorry to scare you, SubC

Good morning.

Ah yes, James Herriot and his cautionary tales.. Loved them, failed to learn from them and so got a farm anyway.

The goat I thought had another week or three to go had her babies last night. The boy was tiny and had no muscle tone and even though I brought him in and dried him off and gave him supplements and a cozy bed in front of the heater, he never swallowed and died in his sleep. (Baby goats have about 12 hours to stand and eat or they don't make it) Herriot never wrote those stories.

I have not been out yet this morning to check on his sister, (Sister! - I forgot they also come in mixed sets) but momma was showering her with love last night and she looked ok. I'm still too tired to face any other possibility.

So I think kidding is over. Pansy could still surprise me up until June, but I put her on the stand last night and checked again, and still don't feel anything but soft goat belly.

CM, happy birthday! have fun at the nursery. Don't buy work.

The studio where I am taking my class - my "community" studio, is an hour away. - it's only twelve minutes from my job and seven from my grandson's house. Sadly there is a lot of
City, suburb, and farmland between.

Lila, I hope your eye gets better quickly. Maybe something scratched it? You are getting a lot done. In spite of all your health challenges.

I pet the baby goats twice a day even on work days.

Clothes - I have done the turn your hangers back wards thing, but don't know if I will follow through. My clothes don't really fit my life. (Or my body right now) can you gather up all of your work shirts, pick your ten favorite (that is still a lot) and donate the rest to a place that provides clothes to people who need nice clothes for interviews and work?

I remember how hard it was to get rid of all of my "teacher dresses" but where I work now, I teach in jeans and a school shirt.

Jars? The glaze from the other thread? This week I bought a $4 pint of stuff that makes it easy to remix the glaze (think "I realized I'm never going to make this fancy cake from scratch so I bought a cake mix") and hopefully that will help me empty some of them out. Then they will get reused for other pottery materials (a few) or recycled (most) I also got more gloss white. So now I will probably find the other jar(s). I estimate 2-5 years if I just remix the glaze when I need it.

Today it is not supposed to rain, so I need to go work my butt off in the barn.

CM, I hope you got to enjoy some time with your cousin.

We got sunshine and drove up to the park.

It was pretty cool. The weirdest part was how the light got dim like dusk or heavy clouds, but the shadows were still sharp and short. I expected totality to be darker than it was. It was pretty cool to see "Dawn" all around the horizon.

This morning I got more fence set up.

Hello everyone,

Glad you got to see the eclipse. I went to VT and had a very long day. Left the house at 7:30 A and home right after 11:30 P. The traffic was terrible. Several hours just to get out of Vermont. It was a mess but totally worth it! We were at my sister's house in the mountains. Good to see her.

I'm beat today. That was a very long day.

I have to find the strength to do some things today.

Did the dishes, ran to grocery store, cleaned cat boxes, showered. So got a few things done. Going to bed now.

Good morning!

It's quiet here.

I have not done anything in my house. I have mostly been focusing on pottery. I have used up some of the scrap clay in my studio. But it is like trying to empty a bathtub with a thimble. Maybe a quarter cup measure - that might be proportionally accurate. Emptying a tub one quarter cup measure a day.

The teacher social pottery thing last night went well. I was rewarded with the leftover tub of dark chocolate covered almonds.

I went to the studio to work on my project for two and a half hours afterward. It was a learning experience. It's supposed to rain all day today, so I am planning to drive down and spend the day there. The first thing I'm going to do is undo almost all the work I did last night. If I don't get the basic structure finished today, I don't know how I am going to get this thing done.

Tomorrow is a school day.

Saturday the weather is supposed to be good and I am hoping the ground will be dry enough for a garden day. Sunday Dh has made plans for us with friends.

Hello everyone! Taking a break from work.

I need to do quite a few things tonight and I hope I get to them. Only have cat food that one cat likes, for example. Need to drop off a check at my mother's former place to close out her account.

So relieved to have the car out of my life. Making a big difference for my mental health.

I have to figure out some stuff for goodwill. I still have more things than closet space, due to getting things from the car and still some mom stuff.

Hey everyone! I did two loads of laundry tonight, took out the trash and recycling, and got to the grocery store for cat food. Now I'm going to shower and go to bed.

Hope everyone had a good day and that everybody is healthy!

Good morning!

Tatoulia, I'm glad you got the car resolved.

Does the check take care of your mother's estate? (Besides what is in your house) Or do you have more administrative work?

I got a lot done at the studio yesterday. Maybe enough to finish my project on time. It was actually pretty nice working in the studio. Quiet and I got to talk to a couple of people briefly. I have a really nice little work space for this class. It's in the basement - which is not optimal, but since it pretty much rained all day yesterday it was fine. My legs, hips, and back are pretty sore today after standing on the concrete so long.

Today is a school day I really need to get moving on that.

More twin bucklings!

Momma has a nice udder though, and they are up and have had their first meal. She's a first fresher, so I'm very pleased with her.

Useless is letting me down though (on gender)
My kidding preference in order:

Twin doelings
Triplet doelings
Single doelings
Twin bucklings
Single buckling
Triplet bucklings

(Odd numbers are always more of a challenge and single bucklings can be huge and create birthing issues)

hello friends! After 5 days of work I am back, with a day off. I work tomorrow and all week until next Friday.

Tatoulia, hugs for your very hard thing. I am sorry you had to go through it. We care about you. You mentioned the car being gone is better for your mental health. That got me thinking, what do I have that, if it was gone, would be better for my mental health? My answer as of right now is - clothes, kids' clothes, unused toys. I have massive guilt around those items.

Even today I went in my closet looking for something to wear on my day off. I have 4 certain comfy shirts for days off but all were dirty from a mishap I won't recount. As I looked through no less than 2 dozen shirts hanging in my closet, I thought "that's too nice, this is a work shirt, this would be a good work shirt, this looks too nice to wear around the house, what if I stain it, " etc etc. Silly. I finally settled on a short I used to wear for work but it is plain and just a 3/4 sleeve tee and there is no reason not to wear it. Honestly most of what is in the closet never gets worn at all. I wear the same 5 things to work pretty much every week. But I feel traumatized if I think about getting rid of anything.

SubC, what will you do with all the jars? I hope you are having some enjoyment of the baby goats. I read your posts and had other comments but forgot so forgive me!

CM I hope you are doing well, I also read your post and forgot what I wanted to say. My brain is terrible.

I have pain in my right eye as if there is something stuck under the upper eyelid. It has been like this all week but I can't see anything in there, I have rinsed many times with the artificial tears rinse, and my eye is not red or even pink. I could not get an appt til Monday. It burns most of the time and hurts when I blink. I don't know what to make of it. I also have a UTI and am on antibiotics... again! ugh

Today I:
- unloaded the dishwasher
- loaded the dishwasher
- hand washed some dishes
- got all the spoiling stuff out of the fridge
- ordered groceries and got them all put away
- gathered 3 bags of trash and had Son take them out before the trash truck came
- put in two loads of laundry, mostly my clothes
- put one load in the dryer. Working on the rest
- cooked a meal from a kit someone gave me, which was very tasty
- did quite a bit of Bible reading and study
- watched an explanatory video on one of the Bible books I was reading
- listened to a podcast a friend sent me

Wow, look at that. I did not totally waste my day like I thought!

What are you all doing today?

SubC, your post about the goats brings back memories. I have been a fan of veterinarian author James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small series) since high school and I remember from the books - there was a chapter about lambing, with a bit about a large single lamb being harder to deliver. And a set of quadruplet lambs, and various other events. Time for a reread of those books one of these days. I introduced my roommate to the TV show too, two or three years ago. With Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, and Peter Davison (who was also the 5th Doctor Who) whom we met in 2016 at a con. Sorry for rambling but nostalgia hit me hard there, lol!

How far is your studio? I want to get back to my painting someday along with everything else. The days are longer and maybe I could paint out on the patio, before bugs get bad. If not painting right away, perhaps some drawing.

Lila, I sure hope you feel better soon. You're still getting a lot done, and pushing forward despite many obstacles.

Tatoulia, you are getting a lot done too, and it's a series of big decisions and logistics involved. That takes energy!

My birthday was yesterday. A semi milestone, 62 (!) in that there are a few options that open up although not all ones that I would be in a position to take. More housing options but I'm not ready to make a change yet. Could convert disability to retirement but the staggering cut it would entail makes that a non starter as well. Only if I also married a rich man would that work, and if I found one, it wouldn't matter either way, as long as he was nice and we both had good health etc. But dreams aside, I had a nice day. Went to church for a little prayer time in the chapel, met up at the coffeehouse with a lady from my Bible study, and roommate took me to dinner later and I had a tasty steak, potato, salad and fruit, and cake.

It's getting warmer again here, sometimes windy, other times reasonable. Still not consistent as far as temperatures. But then no need to rush right into too hot of weather. The flowering trees are giving way to leaves, but not all trees are leafed out. Bedding plants are being sold. Roommate and I and a couple other friends are going to plant nurseries tomorrow. I mainly just look, because I don't have a lot of extra time for gardening. But it's fun to see the pretty flowers.

Good afternoon!

My in-laws are gone. I did not go to my pottery brunch this morning because my goat was in labor. Twin bucklings. First one was footling breech and has struggled a bit, but I think they are both ok. Little brother and mama doing great - circle of life on the farm.

Also, fresh milk in two weeks! Yay!

With the horse hair pot, you heat the pot, then decorate the surface by taking it out of the kiln hot and laying horsehair on the surface. The horse hair catches fire and the carbon from it burns into the surface of the clay leaving black curvy lines.

In between goat checks I glazed a bit and I am now going to go set up fence!

Good luck with your list Lila!

How interesting about the pots, SubC! I never would have thought of that.

I am struggling, probably because I am avoiding my list. I went in my bedroom and moved things and tried to put sheets away but the dresser is so packed full. I sort of shoved the last one in, and if I had pushed any harder it may have broken the drawer. I then started to get upset and quit.

I think obviously, some things in drawers need to leave or be consolidated to make room for the sheets, or I need to pull out all the sheets and decide which ones I don't want. But, I am just avoiding yard work, which is odd because it is nnice out and I like doing it. I guess the overwhelming tasks are, find a pair of yard gloves, find the trimmer, go out and do a bit. Even ten minutes would be a success. Okay, I am forcing myself NOW to do 10 minutes.

Ok Lila, it's dark here. Did you do your ten minutes?

I got up ten sections of my new fence and took a walk in the woods with Dh to mark tree seedlings. We have to remark them every year until they are big enough to see from the tractor. Also did some more glazing. But I am tired and wondering where my day went. I think it mostly went to baby goats.

I did very hard stuff about the car today. Very hard stuff. Don't think I can go beyond that.

He will register it tmr. He tried to go Saturday but they weren't taking walk ins. So I went to the car myself today and went to goodwill and dud very very hard stuff.

Sorry about the dear little goat and welcome new goat!

Too traumatized right now, even all these hours later. Did my best today.

Tatoulia, we are very proud of you for doing your hard thing by yourself!

Know we would be there with you to hold your hand if we could.

I did not set my alarm this morning. Slept past six. I'm still waking up with a headache.

I have a lot of todos on my list today - I'm in "so many things, so little time" mode right now.

I don't know if Dh and I will try to see the total eclipse today or not. We have glasses. We would have to drive about 45 minutes on back roads, so it will be close in our yard. And there is a good chance it will be raining.

Mostly I would just like a huge infusion of energy so I can do all the things I want to do.

Well, it looks like my cousin won't be able to make it today or if she does it would only be for a short while. She decided to make a trip to my grandma's town again because there is getting to be an urgency to wrap up the estate. Because I am an heir, I totally support this. I also need to communicate with another cousin who is the executor to get up to date.

I'll just enjoy the eclipse today and then see what's next. It's cool to see how excited people are getting. SubC, maybe you will get a break in the clouds...?

CM, swimming sounds nice. We get winds here too like that, so I know how much damage they can do. Hopefully it won't be too bad for you.

I did some tasks towards a project:
- found a screwdriver
- removed batteries from baby swing
- put screwdriver away
- put batteries away
- folded up the baby swing
- picked up dog toys

I need Son to carry the swing down to the garage and bring up the vacuum. Then I can vacuum and set up the pack and play for the baby.

I am draggging today.

Back with an update on my to do list:

- my laundry (clothes) DONE and put away
- basket laundry DONE and put away
- take batteries out of baby swing and put it in the garage DONE!!
- look for ex's stuff in garage and put some where he can get to it. He is coming to take some. DONE!
- Set up the pack and play DONE, I still need to find a crib sized blanket to put in there
- take donations box to my car - not done yet
- call my Aunt DONE
- check the messages on the phone DONE

I also added "bathroom sink" to the list because the sink off my bedroom is 95% clogged. I have used the sink thingy to pull a bunch of hair out of there (gross) but it is still clogged. So I put dish soap, baking soda, and vinegar down it about a half hour ago. I am heating up some water to pour down there and see if that does the trick.

I also cooked with Teen, watched a show with her, fed dogs. So I did good today.

It is almost dinner time. After that I want to read, and help Teen cook again, and then MAYBE look for a couple more items to donate.

The eclipse party sounds like fun, CM! I don't know if I mentioned this but I'm going to try to get to my sister's house in VTon Monday. No idea what traffic will be like!

Lila, you are amazing!!!

We don't have a DOL here in MA and I don't know that the RMVwill give me access to anything. In any event, he will have to have his own plates on the car at this point and I'll have my canceled on Monday. I'm not terribly trusting myself, but he does not have access to drive the cars and I just need my registration cancelled and plates cancelled. I do hear you about if they don't register the car and where does that leave me. We will see what happens when I talk to him tmr.

I see that BFtried to contact me three times on the new phone and the information isn't loading I tried to call him back but it's 3AM and he didn't answer. So I don't know if there's something to do with the new phone but it seems to be more than coincidental.

I a, so proud of what you accomplished, Lila! And CM, I admire your dedication to swimming!

Good morning.

Wow you have all been busy!

Lila, you are doing great! So much progress on your room! And I'm glad ex is finally taking some of that stuff out of your garage!

Awful about the caseworker, but glad she is ok. I hope that when she does come she has a good option for a group home. It would give teen more supervision and also some distance and independence from you which I hope would take some of the strain out of your relationship.

Tatoulia, I hope the phone gets sorted out. Good luck with your trip to VT. How will you travel?

CM, crossing my fingers that you get to have fun with your cousin!

The goat departed peacefully yesterday.

Dh parents have not come in from their motor home yet. I think they are still asleep. They are leaving in two and a half hours to join DD's family for church, so I have pretty much survived the visit.

It actually went fairly well. The car stuff that Dh wanted to work on with his Dad did not arrive, so they pivoted to a different project in the studio barn - moving and sorting the giant pile of scrap wood in the shop area to free the train table from when the kids were little, moving the train table to our basement, building a new rack for the scrap wood (using a bunch of the scrap wood) and cleaning up the scrap wood. All progress! Dh plans to set the train up in the basement for Bean (it's currently down there in bins.

Mil and I also went out to the studio, and I helped her make a horsehair pot using some of the hair from her horse that she saves for me. She was delighted with it! Big win. While the kiln was heating the pot, she sat in a chair and talked at me while I managed to trim and burnish ten pots I had thrown that needed to be done before they dried out too much. Conversation was limited by the fact that the guys kept using the saw, and we were wearing ear protection- because the guys kept using the saw, which also protected me from the fact that mil's normal speaking voice is loud yelling and made the experience much less stressful and tiring.

They had a zoom call with a group of their friends at 1:30, which had them tied to my kitchen table from 1:00 (afraid they would miss it) to 2:30, and then mil made cookies to take to dh cousin tomorrow. (And insisted on hand washing all the dishes in my scullery sink, which was full of soaking art bins, which she just pulled out, paint infused water and all, and put on the scullery counter with the rest of my mess. - kitchen sink was empty.) back to the studio to wax her pot - where I managed to hover closely enough to keep her from getting wax in places where it would be a problem in spite of her best efforts) dinner, and then things got a little off the rails.

Mil has found a new favorite website that is hard to navigate and probably exploitative of the artists involved, where you can buy jewelry by individual artists and she - who loves jewelry - was determined that I would choose something from it right now for her to buy me for Christmas because it is perfect because they are individual artists and they have farm animal jewelry. I have too much jewelry. I had just been corralled to look at the website when the delivery driver called about my fence. The truck was too long in spite of multiple conversations and assurances about the maximum truck size for the shipment. They arrived after dark for our very challenging driveway. We had difficulty communication as the driver had very limited English and I have only Sesame Street Spanish. Mil was determined not to let me get away. I finally got through to her as politely as I am capable of that I simply could not manage the website and make a choice while the truck thing was happening.

My fence is in the yard (as desired) My yard is full of ruts. They drove through a flowerbed and crushed a bunch of irises. We think they hit our bridge rail on the way out, but haven't had a chance to check for damage yet since it was very dark. My Dh did not yell at me, although he said a lot of things about the sales person and the shipping company. Fil was a big help.

The in-laws are taking Birdy's bin of duplos to his house. (They will get there Tuesday)

Bean insisted that his duplos must stay at my house. I asked him "do you like things to stay the same?" And he said "yes." I told him "me too."

I don't get him tomorrow because his dad wants to do a family eclipse thing.

After the company leaves I am driving down to the studio for the monthly networking brunch and staying to work on my project for class. Dh is going to stay home and have some peace and quiet.

Sorry this is so long.

I enjoyed your long post this morning, SubC! I am sorry for the loss of your goat. That is hard. I am really happy about all you have going on that is good. The scrap wood project they were working on sounds so productive! I am intrigued about a horse hair pot. It incorporates the hair into the pottery?

I am watching church online this morning and then will start working on my daily list. I did so well on yesterday's list. I even found the baby blanket to put in the pack and play, and I had Son put my donations box in my car. It looks sunny out today, although a bit cold, so my plan is:

- pull weeds
- trim trees
- see if I have the fertilizer and/or weed control to apply
- apply them
- call my oldest son, who lives in another state
- walk the dog (the younger one)

I may also do a little something in my bedroom, and I have some veggies I should cook.

Hoping I am successful today. I go back to work tomorrow and have a very busy week ahead.

Wow! Amazing work, Lila and SubC! Lila, I can see your progress in my mind! Wow!

Great work, SubC, on all of your tasks! You are doing great! Amazing how much you do!

I had oral surgery yesterday and so am somewhat sore and bruised today. The stitches are bothering me. I actually accomplished two things today: I ordered a new iPhone and I'll pick it up tmr and I wrote out all of the thank yous to my mother's doctor's office, which were about ten or eleven in total. That's been nagging at me.

My iPhone is quite old and it no longer holds a charge and BF is very worried about me not having a good phone. So he'll be happy to hear that I have that sorted.

I did a load of towels today and then tonight I did a load of dark delicates. Dishwasher is running. I'll clean the cat boxes in the AM before I leave for the office.

I started to worry about the neighbor registering the car before the weekend and then realized I don't have to worry. I just don't. They will get it done. I think I mentioned that he and his mother came over on Tuesday to get the title and the gift receipt. I also had filled out a lot of the other paperwork for them and had a bunch of stickie notes so they'd know what to do.

So we are getting my affairs in order, so to speak.

Ps thinking about the goat!