Tillie, thank you for the cranberry tip! I let you know how it turns out!

My car is kept a commercial garage, so cleaning it out would have been ok. I did more shoveling and went up to mom's. It has been freezing rain and our shoveling company does half the job. And I need the exercise.

At mom's I did a project she wanted me to do for her. It went very well. Good to visit with her.

Bf coming doen with something. I'm worried. He's home napping. Not sure if he'll be watching football.

I'm just laying around now.

I'm in the mood to simplify my life. Will do some relaxation exercise now.

Hi Tatoulia

Cold, sleet, snow & ice sounds like a bad time to clean out the car.
WAY TO GO!!! Shoveling snow!!!

GREAT! that you are mentally ready for the challenge!!!
I am too.
One aspect I like is that I can shop at home and use up all my supplies.
Food, condiments, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc...
I enjoy when cupboards are empty and I get to buy all the "new & improved" versions as I replace them.
But I will NOT allow the toilet paper supply run down.
Scares me too much just how much he goes through weekly.

Depending on how many dried cranberries I plan to use
I juice one or two oranges and also put in a bit of orange zest.
It coats them about as much as vinaigrette coats a tossed green salad.
Then I let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour so it can soak in, marinate.

So nice that the laundry room work isn't going on yet. LOL

Be safe out there in that cold icy city.

Paste waxed table and dresser tops.
Did a bunch of dusting other stuff.
Sorted out and tidied up my sewing stuff drawer.
Opened some windows & airing out the house.
Ate lunch and just thinking about what I'll do now.
A nap?
That cats are all napping.

Hello everyone! We've gotten our first winter storm and I did some shoveling today. Now I'm doing laundry and enjoying some coffee. Tastes so good!

Great work, SubC! 27 evaluations! So very pleased by your hard work!!

Cm I think what you are doing is wonderful. When I shredded my diaries, I also had to sort through some emotions as I read them. I'm glad they are gone. They took up a huge amount of space and I don't want anyone reading them once I'm gone. These work stubs are playing an important part of your life and you're finding a different way to view your life and accomplishments. Keep up the good work.

Tillie the chicken and rice casserole sounds delicious. I also have been thinking a lot about soaking the cranberries in orange juice. I'm not sure if I will bake today. I was thinking about a football cake for the BF and whoever he'll be watching the game with...but he's not feeling well so I'm thinking of skipping it. I'd love to make a pumpkin bread as I have fresh eggs and a new can of pumpkin but I'll eat too much. It's just too delicious and we have tomorrow off the honor Dr King.

I will go to mom's today to do a project for her. We have ice and sleet right now. I'd also like to clean out my car.

Mentally I am ready for the financial challenge. I will not be using my cards and will only be paying by cash. So other than bills, cat supplies, food, I won't be making purchases. I've never had credit card debt before and I know I can knock it down. I'm treating this the way I treated my student loans, which was essentially a constant focus on paying them down. I'm up for the challenge.

Ladies, you are great.

Good Morning

Another dark cold gloomy drizzly day.
Nothing pressing needs doing right now.
Can't do laundry until Tuesday due to the weather.
Can't play in the dirt outside due to the weather.
Can't make the bread yet since the bananas are still too green.
Have a partial can of paste wax that I've been wanting to use up.
Think today would be a good day to do that.

Hi Everybody

YEA! WTG! Subclinical!
Getting 27 evaluations done today!
Great that you put clean sheets on the bed and I hope you are sleeping peacefully there now.
I suppose having a box of anxiety hiding in the basement can be a good motivator?
Thanks for the kudos.

Hi CriticalMass
I don't know...
Free good food might be worth dressing somberly and mingling with mourners. 😉

WTG! for the paper decluttering project.
It will be so much easier to carry around when it's all been digitized.

It can be very cathartic to revisit past memories and view them from where we are at today.

Hi Tatoulia
OK THE CHALLENGE IS ON!!!
Really wish Steven was participating.

The good thing about a no shopping challenge is it gives us a chance to see and evaluate our spending habits.
When we can't buy things it eventually becomes easier to not buy things impulsively.
It also makes us more resourceful to find other ways to manage.
Makes us look around and shop at home for whatever we may need.

Before I go to the store to buy something I specifically need I usually first ask Steven if he has one.
Of course he always says he does.
I then ask if he can find it. LOL
He will go look and look...
If he does manage to find it, it usually is broken or all dried up and useless or missing parts.
I play this game because he says he has ALL this stuff so we don't ever need to go to the store and buy necessary things and pay a lot for them because he buys them second hand for cheap.
Then I go to the store and buy a fresh new unbroken necessary thing.
So much easier, cheaper and rewarding to just let the store keep it until I need it.

Oh, meant to tell CM - I tell my student all the time that I am going to take him home with me one of these days. He always says "ok!" I think he wants to be Cory when he grows up.

Cm, that is great that you are going to get rid of that box! I bet you will feel a lot lighter once you have processed it and let it go.

Tatoulia, I wish you luck on your credit card challenge! It is great that you don't have any other debt! Are you able to stop using your card during the not buying challenge and go to cash only?

Tillie, great job on the housecleaning!

I did not bake today. I did not finish my Wednesday classes. I only took three ornaments off the tree that had to go in a special location. I did change the sheets and do a load of laundry and I procrastiorganized for a while in the basement this afternoon, making use of some areas I had cleared out until I ran across a box of anxiety and went back to my evaluations. I did complete 27 today - three short of my goal, but my eyes are tired and I am making too many typos and thinking much more slowly, so I need to quit and go to bed.

Homemade lemonade, Tillie - that sounds good! And chicken & rice. I'm eating fried chicken and scalloped potatoes leftover from the funeral the other day. It's so yummy that church better hope I don't start crashing all their funeral luncheons!

SubC, I wish I could borrow your cleaning ninja student! I'm sure I could keep him occupied.

Tatoulia - Debt, I haz it. Student loans. And I had credit card debt, had to do a bankruptcy and wish I could donate to charity the equivalent of my forgiven debt, it felt so bad to know I'd racked it up on so many unnecessary things.

As for the student loans - I don't know if I'll ever be able to do anything about them, but I'm going to start researching about ways to bring in more money. I so want a better life financially for that and for being able to afford a place to live.

I've been doing a rather quirky "decluttering" project that ties into this in a peripheral way. The OCD part of me refuses to simply shred or toss a lot of the financial information in my life. I have lugged around a box of every paycheck stub from every paycheck I've ever earned. I am going to let go of them - but not before data entrying them into a document.

Yes, I know. It's not necessary. But I choose to do it. Work and Love - Freud's two big areas of life that mean a lot to people, and I've flubbed both - or have I? Feeling like I'd run out of options and needed to go on disability at 49, after roughly 50 jobs in 30 years, with gaps here and there - retaining the information on the pay stubs helps me feel it was real, that I did actually work and earn some money. And that I might be able to do it again in some fashion.

The process of typing them out is taking me back through Memory Lane, good times and bad times and in-between times. Not only on the jobs themselves, but with the guys I was dating, places I was living, and some skeletons in my closet that thank God are in the past mostly by now.

It's been a sort of therapeutic process in a way; I feel like since I've long wanted to type the info, I needed to just go ahead and do it. Either type them or toss them. Go big or go home. Etc. I knew I would be reminded of dark times but I think facing them, and being aware that I'm okay now and God's got my back, is going to help somehow.

What has stymied me the most over the years I don't believe is work per se. It's workplaces. I'm the square peg. I'd usually start out on a roll with my intelligence and be the shining star. Then my emotions, ADD, anxiety, people issues, and other assorted demons would catch up with me and the rot would set in. Then I'd end up being the problem child.

I began to try to figure out what aspects of jobs/workplaces I might change to make things go more smoothly, but alas, the problem was my brain, and yes, sometimes my attitude was immature though I feel I've grown out of some problem hangups. Even back in college I would look at the bulletin board in the campus job center and feel so frustrated. I'd find jobs that were almost right but had one or two things that for most people wouldn't matter at all but for me were dealbreakers. And also practical issues such as driving and being alone in a sketchy place fears/phobias.

Anyway, I should be done in a day or two with the stubs, and this weekend has been a good quiet time to do the project. I found TV shows that make my roommate happy but don't distract me too much, so it's all good. The physical stubs will indeed be going bye-bye, don't worry. There are other typing projects I intend to do this year which will help me get rid of other paper I've been keeping, move ahead on writing projects, and other good goals. I can intersperse typing work with art and craft and other goals, as well as general decluttering of physical objects.

So yes, I'm weird and obsessive but I'm embracing it and seeing where it leads. It's like some kind of paradoxical profound thing. LOL!

I accept the financial challenge, Tillie! Thank you! Let's start now and have it run to the end of February!

You guessed it, SubC. Credit card debt. No loans. No house/car payment. In choosing a work-life balance, i took a big pay cut. My pay is slowly creeping up to what I'm used to. The debt represents a lot of different things?shopping, trying to support my brother, trying to be all things to all people. As soon as I pay off my debt, I do want to buy one final car. I was originally going to sell the car I have now just to get rid of it but I'm keeping it. Part of the motivation to get rid of it was I wanted to make sure I didn't go back to seeing my brother every weekend.

Ok I've had a pretty good day and I so want to just take a bath and climb into my nice clean sheets. These are my famous last words as I generally then stay up way too late.

Good Afternoon
Cold homemade lemonade "Clink!"

Well...
I made my chicken & rice casserole.
Cleaned the kitchen.
Ran hot water & vinegar through the washing machine to clean it.
Scooped litter boxes.
Took out the trash.
Then I swept the floors & vacuumed the carpeting.
Getting the carpet vacuumed made a big difference in the overall look of this place.
There was cat fur, carpet/sisal bits from the scratch posts, other kitty assorted random stuff, catmint (catnip) leaves strewn all around and tracked about kitty litter.
Only about 4:30pm here.
Before I go to bed I will shower & wash my hair and put clean sheets and pillow cases on my bed.
YEA! 😀

Good Morning Everybody
Iced chai masala "Clink!"

Hi Subclinical
Sounds like perfect weather to stay close to the burning fire working on evaluations.
Hope you get to reward yourself with something wonderful smelling from the kitchen.

WAY TO GO! with fish activities in class.

YEA! for getting the cans back up to the house!
So glad you slept for 10 hours, you needed that. 🙂

Just now 9:00am here.
Have a tiny post-it note of tasks to complete today.
House really needs a good thorough cleaning but I will not do that today.

The place is "good enough" considering.
Nothing gross, just starting to look neglected.

CM,
I enjoy your lovely short story posts.

I used to knit. I was going to say I knit, but then I realized haven't knit anything in at least three years, maybe four. I still have a large stash of yarn though - and an intention to knit some funny stockings for everyone in my family for Christmas 2019. I should get started soon because I know that i will go from "I have plenty if time" to "what was I thinking? I will never get these done!"

It ?s always the clean up afterwards... I have a student who gets great joy out of cleaning and organizing. He is in my last class of the day twice a week, and always stops working a little before everyone else and stays a few minutes late to wipe down surfaces and put the last few things back where they belong. He's my angel! I can tell i'm doing better too, because last year I often had to stop him and say "class was over 10 minutes ago - you're going to be late for pick up." But now I never do!

Tillie, i'm Glad you are getting out some. Wish Stephen could lose the truck keys while the truck was in a good place. Do stay far away from the carport!

And yum for the baking! It's close to freezing and pouring rain here with the temperature scheduled to drop. A nice day to bake, but really must do evaluations! At least I have a fire to curl up near. Maybe I will reward myself by making something quick that smells good if I finish my Wednesday classes.

One of my kids brought me delicious warm muffins from cooking class after school yesterday. He's a terrific cook. I told dh "S could poison me. I pretty much eat anything he hands me without question."

Tatoulia, yay for feeling better!

What kind of debt do you have? Not asking how much, but what forms? Do you need to pay off credit cards, or loans? I have a car loan and we have a home loan (not a mortgage) i've been paying extra on the car loan and will hopefully get it paid off in February. The home loan is variable rate and it has been driving me crazy to watch the interest go up lately. Currently it looks like it will take us about ten years to pay it off.
We took it out to help finance the addition, so it was definitely worth it, but I still hate paying the interest!

Day length is part of my struggle as well. All these grey clouds don't help.

Yesterday I did not get my ice, but it was fine. I lifted part of my lesson from Berkeley. I took in some interesting items from the ocean centered portion of my childhood, and I found my fish activities folder from years ago. (I FOUND my fish activities folder!) Then I stopped at the pet store and spent 75 cents on goldfish.

I feel like the lessons could have been better, but the kids were engaged and two of the classes ran out of time before everyone finished all of the activities. Best of all, one of the parents let his kid take home the fish at the end of the day.

knowing that the weekend weather was going to horrible, I forced myself to bring all the empty trash cans back and put them in the studio barn. Now they are not up by the road getting covered in ice, and I will have them ready at hand if I get out there in the next three days - yay me!

Then I slept ten hours and woke up feeling like I have been rolled down a hill in a barrel. Today all I am asking if myself is to see how far I can get on the evaluations. And maybe some laundry.

YEA! Tatoulia for a good day today at work! 😀

Good luck with your budgeting.
I know the outside building re-do was expensive.
The redoing inside your place was important since you did so much decluttering and needed to see these improvements and your friend was able to visit and help make it beautiful.
Since you didn't have a hoard of clothes laying around to fit your new smaller size, you have had to add items.
This laundry room work will probably cost you too.
If you would like I will do a month long challenge with you where we only buy food, tooth paste, TP and any other necessities.

So, is Monday the rug shampooing day?
Just think how that will make the room smell so fresh and how lovely the clean rug will feel on your bare feet. 😀

Today I bought bananas and oranges because when the bananas are ripe enough I plan to make
banana, dried cranberry, walnut bread.
I soak the dried cranberries in the orange juice with some orange zest.
It comes out more cranberry bread and the banana part is just what holds it all together, makes it super moist.

The sun is coming up a little earlier every morning and going down a little later every day.
I think that is really helping my mood and general outlook on life. 🙂

Hello hello!!!

Great reading your posts, SubC, Tillie and CM!!!!

I won't remember a word but I'm so happy to read of your days and accomplishments. SubC you are so industrious and I envy your swimming! CM glad to hear about your decision not to buy those precious quilts. Very hard to resist things like that. Chicken and rice casserole sounds so tasty!

I was back at work today. Much better day than I've had in a while. Felt normal again. I had a few mtgs, I did some work, had a sandwich with a colleague and then coffee with someone else. A good day. I walked to and from work.

I'm feeling aggressive in reducing my debt. This is helping me in making decisions re purchases. I need to get real about my debt and start knocking it down. I've been spending too much on me and my house and I need to pull it together.

We have Monday off. My challenge is to shampoo my bedroom rug.

I say this every January: my mother used to pray for February 1st because she knew it would be light til 5 PM.

WOW! CriticalMass
What a wonderful post! 😀

Hope you do plant a few annuals this year.
I know what you mean about garden "burn out".
That's why I am making mine a minimal garden with a LOT less watering, fertilizing and weeding.

Makes me happy that you are enjoying sewing doll clothes.
That's like me playing with my doll house.

GREAT! that you are not tempted to buy quilts and plan to make your own to donate.
Bet looking at the quilts gives you a lot of inspiration.

I opened a licensed daycare when I left medicine.
It was fun and really did my nerves a lot of good.
Who wouldn't just want to spend the day playing with little kids and get paid for it too.

Sure do understand the difficulty in making and keeping to a schedule around someone else's schedule & routine.
Steven really has to work out a schedule and stick to it so I can do things without him in my way.

Well, I went into town.
Had some lovely conversations with people I know.
While I was gone Steven had to stay home because he has lost his house key and couldn't lock the door.
He left soon as I got home, gone shopping AGAIN!
Even when he does donate something he brings in far more than he ever lets go of.

Anyways...
Tomorrow I am going to make my chicken & rice casserole.

warning - another of my Russian novel length posts

Motown sorry things aren't so rosy with your hubby on communication. I think we hoarder types are anxious control freaks and can turn snarly really quickly. Somehow if there's a way to break the bad communication style, and find a method that is more relaxing. Maybe try a different form of communication - writing? The texting may be a good way to go.

Just have to look at some of the things I am getting done and continue to be patient...

Good Morning

Cold & frosty with scattered sprinkles this morning.
Could just stay home and clean with him making messes behind me.
Pretty sure I am going into town for a while just to get away from him.
Only 7:30am so I will wait until 9:30 to leave.
When I leave the house lately the cats get all weird and needy acting like they were afraid I have abandoned them forever.
Anyways, have a grocery list all made up and two empty water bottles to fill.
He's still sleeping and the truck is parked behind the car, again.
He said he would move it last night but I have to get him to move it now.
Keep telling him to get rid of that one derelict car and we won't have this [problem.

Hi Subclinical
You did great finding enough to fill 5 cans and a bag too!
So happy you swam.
Good luck assembling lesson plans, hope you get your late start to the day due to ice.
When I had my daycare I was always thinking up new activities to expose the toddlers to to keep them happy and learning.
Finger paints, cookie decorating, picnic outings, collages...
Yes, if you need yogurt cups or any other thing like that just ask the parents.
I was always happy to send whatever the teacher needed.
Wishing you all the best finishing the evaluations.
I know you CAN do this.
Put that new low desk through a real trial workout.
WAY TO GO! for everything you did today!
Hope those wicked voices have been silenced and no longer telling you lies.
(((HUG)))

Got the kitchen all cleaned up, again.
Thinking I might go into town tomorrow just to get away.
All depends on how I'm feeling and what the weather is doing.

So far, my reaction to the trash is "I am never doing this again"

Here is what actually happened today - I procristicleaned a little and turned in 19 evaluations - 12 I had ready and 7 new ones. I have a total of 93 (74 left) to do by the 28th, so if I don't start working on them I am going to be tied to my desk all weekend.

The house is a little better but the dishes are still backed up.

Then I worked on the trash, because the deadline for that was tonight and I simply cannot fail at another thing I promised my dh I would to. I managed to take five cans and one big black contractor bag up - I gathered up all the styrofoam and a bunch of plastic containers like yogurt cups and sour cream containers that I was planning to either salvage dried up glaze from or wash and reuse for paint cups, etc. I haven't made time to take care of the glaze in two years (I did do the orange). There will be more at the end of the year, I know a whole bunch of people (classroom parents) who would save me plastic food cups if I do actually need them and probably even wash them for me. I threw in some plastic flower pots (the kind you buy starter plants in) because I have too many.

I taught. I loaded the school kiln. I swam. I had to stop for gas, so I ran in for bread.

I still have no lesson plans for three classes tomorrow beyond "fish" I will be winging and a prayering it. Maybe the predicted ice will delay school? I usually wish that doesn't happen, but just this once would be ok. One class. My first one is the hardest.

Berkeley has some great open source online material, I may just "steal" some of that.

Tillie, I keep hoping Stephen will mean it.

Hi Guys 🙂

Been raining off & on since last night.
Got a lot of "this & that" done in here but still have things to do.
One of those days where you go to do one thing and see other things needing doing so you do them and get sidetracked away from what you were going to do in the first place.

Steven was going into town to pick up his free pizza.
He said he earned 3 free pizzas because he bought so many other pizzas while he was working at his job.
Anyway...
Since the pizza place is right by the animal place I got him to drop off my two big bags of donations.
YEA! They are done & gone! 😀
For some strange reason he brought me back a burrito.

Then he went into the garage saying he was planning to gather up some stuff to donate.
He actually said "little by little it will all get gone"
WOW!

The strong winds and rain have brought the center part of the carport down to three feet off the ground.
The nails holding the corrugated metal roof on have all started pulling out and the large metal sheets are flapping noisily in the wind.

OK enough procrastinating.
Time for me to wash the dishes. 😛

Good Morning Everyone

Subclinical you are only one person and can only do just so much at a time.
Your job, the evaluations are the #1 priority right now.
All the housework (except animal care) will just have to wait.
Whenever the negative voices start up in your head
say very positive things to drown them out.
Life happens and kitchens get messy, laundry piles up, floors need sweeping, etc...
Your DH will survive and maybe even pick up some bread at the store all by himself.

So happy you put your quilts on the beds between dog visits.
There's nothing like a sweet old quilt to warm up any room.

Good luck with the evaluations today and afterward everything else will fall in line.
😀

Hi Tatoulia
WAY TO GO! being all dressed and ready to go to work on a stay at home day. 😉
What you do with your quilt is bring it out and drape it over a chairback where you can see it but it won't be disturbed.
Some people use quilt racks to display a quilt safely.
Quilts are a work of art that are also very useful items.
When I use one of the "human" size quilts that I made I put it on my bed and cover them with the blanket or a sheet to keep the cats off them but I can still enjoy their warmth.

Yesterday I was so involved in sorting out and decluttering that I let everything else in the house go to heck.
So today I will clean the filthy kitchen, sweep & vacuum the floors and generally get things beck in shape.
But first I will finish my tea and get dressed.

SubC, I'm going to have to ask you to take a deep breath. Now another. Now another. Try to quiet the panic as you move through your tasks. The garbage can wait. Do the important stuff first. You are doing great; you're just overwhelmed. Breathe, do a few jumping jacks or something else, and then get through your evaluations. You still have nine more weeks of trash service. This removal service is a gift and an experiment: is it something you find helpful? Should you do this once a year or more often? You'll only be able to answer that question at the end of the 12 weeks.

Tillie, I too love those homemade grandma quilts. I only have one right now, and it's in my drawer. Someday I'll have to decide what to do with it.

I decided to work from home today. I am dressed etc and then realized I wasn't going in.

I'll write more later.

Tatoulia, you are doing such a good job with your clothes!

I am not brave enough to start tackling my clothes yet. My weight is down, but not enough, and I seem to be at a new set point where I gain and lose the same three pounds every couple of days.

I'm impressed that you are still walking in the cold too.

Tillie, I wouldn't be able to resist those quilts! I have family quilts, some nice, some in not so great shape. I wanted to put them on the beds and use them, and I do sometimes, but my children bring dogs now, and the dogs are hard on things, and all the blankets have to go in the washing machine, so now I put the quilts away when they come. Which makes me a little sad, but I don't want them destroyed in just a few years.

We don't have any special cat things in the house, the cat is sure the whole house is his. We do have an old bathrobe in a tub in the garage in case he is outside at night and wants to sleep in it. I think half the time he sleeps in the hay though - bed and breakfast when the mice come out.

I am feeling very discouraged. I don't have any trash ready to take up tonight, and I have a ton if evaluations I need to do today. I cooked dinner last night and the kitchen is a mess and the house is getting worse generally. I am trying to remind myself that the kitchen used to be like this ALL THE TIME. Probably worse. But it just feels discouraging.

The voices in my head are pointing out that I regained part of the weight I lost when I was sick - (which is good) and that now it will never come off again. (as long as I kept exercising my weight doesn't matter!)

And that I am still behind on lesson plans and grading and I am a bad teacher, and everyone else can manage their evaluations just fine, There is just something wrong with me (I was able to give the new teacher who has a new baby a tip to help him finish faster by using a template he didn't know about)

And that I made a promise to dh and I can't even keep it for three weeks. (The trash)

And I am going to lose control of the house again and I haven't really accomplished that much, it's mostly just moved around and if the kids hadn't moved out it would probably be worse than it was (not true!)

And I haven't done any clay work since Christmas and I am not a "real" potter, I am just a dilettante....

It is winter. I know it is winter. January is hard. All these evaluations are hard. I'm doing ok. But it's hard to believe.

Dh brought my new desk home last night - he had to go pick it up at the shipping office because even after plowing, our driveway is "impassable" (we both have 4wd) I think I like it. It is smaller than the coffee table, but less obtrusive and much lighter. I think it will work ok. I can sort things and then pile them on my actual desk in the basement and bring one task at a time up to work on.

For now I have a fire going and the desk in front of it and once I feed dh breakfast and pack his lunch (voice - there is not going to be enough bread for his sandwich on Friday, I am a terrible homemaker!) and get him off to work, i am going to start a load of laundry and do evaluations there until it is dry - with a break to switch it over

I will re-evaluate from there, but I have to remember my priorities today - evaluations, lesson plans, trash. (Go to work, swim) Dishes and cleaning up the kitchen are not on that list. Going to the store for bread is not on that list. Dh can eat out. He knows how to wash dishes. He can survive a few days without a housekeeper so I can focus on my job and health and work that makes a permanent difference.

If I say that enough, will I believe it?

WTG! going through the skirts!
Happy there was a warm mall to warm up in.
Make sure not to stay outside too long when the temps drop too low.

One problem I have here is that people donate beautiful old, old, old crib/baby and doll quilts.
Hand made hand quilted, perfect condition, many signed and the thrift shops sell them for 50 cents to 2 dollars.
When I see one I bring it home, wash it and when I bring it in from the line all the cats want it.
Every one of them curls up on it soon as it's their turn.
Right now I have the newest quilt at the foot of my bed with a kitty softly snoring on it.
People these days don't appreciate these kinds of things and when some old lady dies they donate them.
My pillow cases are all the old elaborately embroidered ones with the hand crocheted lace edges bought for no more than a dollar each.
My plan is to use these treasures until they are all used up.
Not save them for some "special" good reason like the lady before me did so when I die they will not have gone to waste. 😉

Great work, Tillie. I know that blue feeling. I'm glad you went through the cat blankets. I got rid of a lot last year. This year I have kitty's new bed and one throw that we both use. I do have one other bed for her, which is washed and put away. Now that my house is actually clean, I don't find it nearly as creepy to share a blanket with the kitty. I've always kept up with laundry but I think knowing my house was dirty made me think of everything as being just so filthy. And I used to have cat blankets everywhere. We are both glad for the order in my house now c

I tried on skirts today to see what I could eliminate. One. But there are a couple on the cusp of being shown the door.

I am going to bed now. Got just under 3 miles in tonight. When I got too cold I went into a shopping mall and walked around to warm up. And then I was perfectly fine once going back outside.

To the office tmr.

See you all tmr.

Good Evening Everyone

Hi Tatoulia
I know what you mean...
Back in the late 70s early 80s I made way to many zucchini breads.
Walking in the cold burns more calories because you shiver so much. 😉
When the weather is cold like today, I just stay inside whenever possible.

I had a small stack of cat blankets/quilts to put away properly.
Since I am sorta melancholy anyways I decided to go through cat bedding and let some things go.
I had 5 cats a year ago but only have 3 now so there was too much.
The boys still have plenty of nice blankets & quilts and I feel content with what I have bagged up to be donated to the animal shelter.
Then I also went through my towels, wash cloths, pillow cases, table cloths, my blankets, sheets, etc...
Everything is neatly folded and all tidily put away.
All together I eliminated two big plastic bags worth of unnecessary stuff.

Tillie I still eat too much! The pumpkin bread is so delicious. I prefer it over banana bread and other quick breads. I used to make a poppy seed loaf quick bread which was delightful. I also used to enjoy zucchini bread right up to the day that I didn't.

I am running dishwasher and doing a load of delicates in the laundry. I am partially dressed and need to get a walk in today. It is so hard on cold days when I'm working from home. I never just get up and walk. Will push myself today.

Good Morning Everybody

Hi Tatoulia
Your pumpkin bread sounds delicious!
Wish I had someone to share my baking with so I could bake more and not have to eat it all myself.
LOL ;D

Big storm in the area but it has been very selective about where it's dumping all the snow.
Not a single flake fell here.
But it's just too cold to play outside in the garden.
Haven't decided what I'll do today.
Need to decide what I want to cook and eat next now that the enchiladas are almost gone.
No plans or need to go into town.

I like the cushion idea, Tillie! I got my garbage out this AM then walked to work. Tonight I walked halfway home and met up with BF. Now I'm here and just hanging out.

The pumpkin bread was so delicious. I think I'll buy another can of pumpkin and make some more this weekend. I cut the loaf into thirds and then slice the thirds then I give to BF and mom. Everyone gets a third. So delicious.

We have Monday off. I think our first noticeable snow comes this weekend.

Motown I only recently started having cleaning fairies come to my house. Culmination of de-sh$&ing and dehoarding my house, starting a redecorating project with the help of an artist friend and paying off my mortgage. A lot of years went into this. When I first bought my place, I had a house cleaner once a week. That faded away when my job ended and I didn't go with the newly reconstituted company. I got another job but never got the house cleaner back. Over the years, I became overwrought with life and possessions and over buying and overspending and taking care of a collection of people instead of myself and it just got worse and worse and embarrassing and dirty and overwhelming. Then I came here, to this community. I couldn't believe how warmly I was welcomed! I'm still a work in progress. Now I have two ladies who clean my house every other week. I would like them every week but that seems excessive. I'd have to have them start changing my sheets and doing other stuff. I'll wait til I'm older and can't do those types of chores easily.

We will get there. We will draw upon our collective strength.

Good afternoon everybody

Almost 1:00pm.
Washed some cat blankets/quilts and have them on the clothes line.
It is cold and overcast today but the things should dry.
Melting some wax on the stove and making a candle.
Already made another one this morning.

Steven has just taken off for the thrift store. >:(

He sits around all the time when he's here and has not done anything constructive.
His excuses used to be that he had to go to work and now he still doesn't do anything.

I did some dusting and cat fur removing and plan to wash some more cat blankets/quilts soon as the ones on the line are back in play.
Can't have all of them wet at the same time, the cat's said so.

Have a bolt of nice cotton fabric that I have no other plans for and have decided to use it to cover the rocking chair cushions.
This way the cushions will stay fur-free and human ready and I can just toss the used fabric and put down another piece when it gets too fuzzy.