Errata:

There should have been an actual star after little Star's name, but even though I used a keyboard symbol, it rendered as a question mark. So Lila, I wasn't questioning your choice of nickname for the little sweetie!

I wonder if this attempt will yield a star: ?

We'll see.

SubC, I meant to say "Derp!" re my technological goof up, not "Deep!" Oh well.

And I missed a space after a comma, if I want to be really picky. Trying to write in a hurry meets my past working as a proofreader once upon a time. I really enjoyed that job. Then I got promoted to a more demanding job and wasn't trained much, and things went downhill.

This morning I got up and around with decent executive functioning and got errands to three places done by 11:30. The weather is so much better that I'm going to deep clean bunny cages after lunch. An onerous task but overdue and it will be very satisfying to have it done.

Good morning everyone!

CM, thank you for the feedback. It is helpful. I am not a reliable judge of my own behavior.

I'm glad that your heatwave finally broke!

I struggle so much with the waste. there is a vlogger who closes with the mantra "you cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do." I keep repeating it to myself as a reminder that I can't fix everything, but also, I shouldn't give up.

Lila, check out some "capsule wardrobe"s online to see if you can work something with some of the pieces you have and minimal additions. Do you have a friend you could borrow a blazer/fancy cardigan from?

I hope you don't get sick.

Tatoulia, good job on the goodwill drop!

I don't have Bean today because his other grandmother is visiting. I'm going to finish a few more things in the house and then go out to the pottery studio.

Open house went well yesterday. We're supposed to be doing as much as possibly electronically, but then I was required to have 12 sets of handouts for each class I am teaching (the handouts are already posted on the class pages) - 216 sheets of paper. And of course, many of the families who can easily access the class pages still took the handouts.

But, this year I did not bring the extra handouts home. I just left them in the classroom in case of new students and will deal with whatever is left at the end of the year.

I had to rush the previous post completion due to circumstances so here's a little miscellaneous I was going to include:

Our heat wave has finally broken, thanks be to God! It was sure wearisome, day after day. I pretty much estivated (summer version of hibernation, practiced by toads for example). I'm glad to be done making like a toad.

Yesterday I played tech support for one girlfriend who had gotten a new phone so we took my laptop to the library and got online and I walked her through the process. Got flummoxed at one point because the app icons weren't showing up and thought I'd need to factory reset the phone, only to realize we were just forgetting to have her unlock it with the PIN number she had just set. Deep! That sort of sums up why I'm the geeky gal friends turn to for help, yet I doubt I could ever do it for real money. Too forgetful.

But we had fun, and went to Walmart to get her an SD card, and she bought me a few little items. They had blue light blocking computer glasses on clearance so she got me some. Looking forward to seeing if they help prevent migraines.

Then today I went to the Chinese buffet with another girlfriend I haven't caught up with for awhile. So that was also enjoyable. I feel pretty rested and well fed, and am looking forward to a better week and hopefully some productivity in it.

Hi ladies. 🙂

Lila, congratulations on the arrival of little Star! ?

SubC, I feel the feels re when people go on a tossing binge and I'm torn between wanting to rescue stuff and wanting to be able to peacefully walk away from such temptation. I do think you handled it pretty well.

It's coming to me more and more what a throwaway society we live in, and it's not just in the United States or even necessarily all first world countries, I don't think. Any country that can manufacture cheap consumer goods may end up with more than there is demand for. Stores have to maintain inventory on their shelves enough to look plentiful or else they would lose business because customers would think less of them. People have duplicates of many common items and they can donate them but even the thrift shops can fill up with them; meanwhile, people continue to go to the dollar store to buy new ones instead of used. I start to get overwhelmed just thinking about it all.

And then there is the category of sentimental keepsakes, another thing that starts out happy and then poses a dilemma for people. My cousin today texted me photos of stuff she's still finding in my grandma's house. Handmade cards from me to my grandma,for instance. I am determined that I'm not going to hoard this sort of thing - photos of the best ones maybe but not too much. I haven't even gone through my own boxes of cards to and from my parents, or those from relatives to me. Yikes.

I'm glad more greeting stuff can be digital these days!

hi SubC and Tatoulia!

How did it get to be back to school time again already? This is the first time in 34 years that I do not have a child in school (or, in Teen's case, supposed to be in school) Crazy. But Tot is starting pre-K FIVE days a week. Half days, but wow.

I had Tot and Acorn all day yesterday, overnight, and until lunch today and wow I am so tired! I took them to church, so that meant getting them up early, feeding them, giving baths, getting them dressed, getting ME ready and showing up almost late! But we had fun, they love Sunday School/play time.

Came home and toys were everywhere!!! Took me awhile to get them cleaned up. But I got the dishes done.

Tot was coughing in MY bed last night, so I am taking my vitamins and washing my sheets to avoid getting sick.

I have to work tomorrow but can have a late start.

My clothing situation is dire. I am going to a work conference this fall for a week and have nothing that looks great to wear. I have to figure it out.

I will go put that top in the donate box.

Hi everyone, including our little star!

I took half a day Friday and had lunch then some antiquing with a girlfriend. We had a very nice time together.

Weekend was slow but it's over. I went to goodwill yesterday and took the bad juju stuff. Very nice things but do not like who gave them to me. And other stuff.

Today I went downtown and bought cat scratchers so the cats have something to scratch on (my cat and mom's cat). I also did some grocery shopping. I've visited mom and I've showered. I'm doing two loads of laundry. One is I the dryer and the other is in the washer. Emiko is coming over for dinner so I need to get ready for that. She should be here in 10 to 25 minutes.

That's the news. Took my recycling out today and I have times garbage all packed up and ready to go out tmr night.

Open house today.

Still wading through my life, but finally excited about meeting my new students and seeing the old ones.

I've started working on my lesson planning and am recycling a few sheets of paper each session. Poco a poco!

That is great progress!

Get rid of the top. Wear clothes that make you feel beautiful.

And congrats on the granddaughter!

p.s....

I was able to have the kids over here without having a lot of clutter in the way! I just had to dust and vacuum and move a few things. That is progress!

Hi Friends!!! Celebrate with me the birth of my new little granddaughter who I am calling Star! Not her real name, but she is one! Momma and baby are healthy. I had Tot and Acorn for a few days and nights while they were in the hospital and settling in. Everything is good and they are coming over for dinner tonight! So I do need to cook.

I missed you guys but I was sooo busy with the babies (Acorn is 1) and trying to work really long days to catch up. Today is my day off, yay! I am enjoying the rest.

Today I:
- brought in the trash bins
- swept the driveway
- cut up some of the branches that fell in my backyard and put them in the green bin
- paid bills, read emails, made calls
- ate some really amazing heirloom tomatoes my neighbor gave me, with basil I grew, and fresh mozz

I am not pressuring myself to get anything much done today since I have not had a real day off in like 3 weeks. Just enjoying the day!

I am thinking about donating a shirt I bought for myself in the spring, but have never worn. Every time I put it on and look in the mirror, I go "ugh" and take it back off and put on something else. I have tried to make myself like it, since I think it is cute, but it is NOT cute on me. So it is out of the closet and sitting on my bed. I am trying to move it to the donate bin today. Words of encouragement welcome!

I caught up and read your posts and am glad to be back!

Dh and I are going to his office picnic. Heat index 103.

I put on a dress I've had for a long time because it fits and it's cool. He made a face. The dress is in the donate pile and I'm wearing a sleeveless black silk top and a print cotton skirt.

Ok, this has been a rough day from a hoarding perspective, but I think I have handled it pretty well.

I went in to work at school and they were doing a giant pre- open house clean out.

Guys, our dumpster is overflowing and there is furniture piled around it. I am hoping someone scavenges at least some of the furniture - metal scrappers if no one else.

I started by telling the building manager she could toss the flattened cardboard boxes in the back of my car. I was going to bring them home and peel the tape off and use them in the garden, but by the time this story ends, I realized I was over-invested and they are now in the recycling drop about a mile from school.

Lost and found - headed for dumpster - I diverted it. The looks clean lidded snack cup is in my dishwasher. The clothes are half in my donate pile and half in the washing machine because they are close to Bean's size and I want to let his momma shop them first.

I now have a 16 space shoe sorter that retails for about $80.

https://www.amazon.com/Stackable-Organizer-Drawers-Brushed-Nickel/dp/B097RYT56C?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=AWIXUV03329VL&th=1

It is missing one of four drawer bins and has two cracked front cubby rim supports - I think these will be easy to replace by poking a hole and inserting a dowel. It will be great for Bean's toys and materials in my new basement space!

I didn't try to save any of the other furniture, but then a thing happened - we aren't offering Spanish this year, and I walked by a cart with a wide assortment of stuff, including Spanish books (including children's books in excellent condition I gave the teacher last year that were my kids') and I asked "where is this stuff heading?" - answer, the dumpster. The building helpers were told to take everything from the Spanish closet to the dumpster.

So we put 80% of it in my car. Honestly I think more was salvageable, but it was jumbled and would have taken too long to sort. After recycling all the handouts and partly used workbooks and weekly readers in Spanish (when I dropped the cardboard) and selling the books at the used book store (and I'm keeping the money - the nicest books were mine before) -

I have a dozen large sheets of mint condition card stock in both colors and white (May take this back to the other art teachers) and a paper ream box of hanging file folders and ring binders in basically new condition - which I would love to put in the supply closet at school, but I'm a little afraid they'll throw them out again.

So, I think I did ok.

Forgot to say that I dropped a Lot of recycling and handed over two folders of lessons to two other teachers who can use them, and a box of pots to the flower teacher. I also handed the gardens over to her for the year.

Lunch and hijinks sounds like fun.

I am more interested in school now that my tables are back where they belong and I have started gluing my wall tiles up. I ran out of liquid nails though, so I will have to go back to finish.

I like my new floor mats. Having a rooomate is going to take some adjusting though. She definitely has a different style than I do.

I understand, SubC. You're prepared but not ready.

I bought a ticket to a movie about Vermeer and it is being shown at the museum on sept 22. So I know I'll go that night. Im hoping to get myself there before then. I miss our Friday nights at the museum. This coming Friday I am taking half a day and meeting a friend for lunch and hijinks.

Well I am not ready for work so I have to run.

When will you go to the museum again tatoulia?

Staff meeting and room set up today. I cried last night because I'm not ready to go back to school. Not because I don't have my materials ready, because I don't have me ready. I haven't missed it at all this summer. I've only missed a few kids who aren't coming back.

I had trouble getting to sleep last night and woke at 4:30 after something less than six hours .(I heard the clock cuckoo 10:30, but not 11.

I need more time to get myself in order. I'm hoping it will be ok. I'm glad I'm only working two days a week this year.

I have a lot of recycling to drop when I go out.

Hi everyone! Lila, I hope the baby is here and that mother and child are healthy!

Cm, I'm glad the bunny event was successful!

That's a lot of work, SubC, congratulations! And you have made your meals!

I saw mom after work and now I'm showered. Dishwasher is ready to go. I'll go to bed now.

Cleaners are coming Friday this week.

So, here is what actually happened. It took two hours.

I picked the beets, and I washed the greens, and I chopped the greens

and I took the dead kale from the fridge out to the chickens
And I salvaged parts of some dying in the fridge onions and diced them

And I went out to the garden and picked a pepper and pulled some weeds and picked some tomatoes

And the pepper wasn't hot, so I tried again and I picked more tomatoes

And I put rice on and diced the pepper and the garlic

And decided that since I was in the kitchen anyway I should boil a bunch of eggs

And then once the rice and the eggs were going I cooked the beet greens. And ate lunch.

So now I have enough leftovers for about 5 meals because Dh won't eat this and eight hardboiled eggs and my kitchen is a wreck.

But I did the thing.

Hi CM,

Cross post.

We got into this one small item at a time - even just paper. Any day with more out than in is a good day!

I'm thinking about sweet curried beet greens.

Which is what I really want for lunch.

The problem is that the beets are in my garden in the blazing sun and the green have to be washed and picked over and it takes about 20 minutes to cook, and so I've been "thinking about it" for over an hour while putting away laundry, when I could have made and eaten it by now..but my laundry wouldn't be put away, so there's that?

Dh and I were both tired when our alarms went off this morning. The new fall routine is going to take some work.

I did do all my morning routine things - including yoga, but not in the time period I want to fit them into once school starts.

I dropped a bag of trash off yesterday and added a little more paper to the recycling this morning.

Also, there was a moment this morning when the scullery sink was empty and scrubbed clean. One of my goals is to have that moment every day.

Ok, I should go pick beets, right?

Just hi, not much else - hunkering down to survive the beastly heat. Today is Day 1 of 4 more to go then it should be better.

Roommate and I had the bunny event on Sunday so that was tiring, albeit successful - I'm surprised they got a decent turnout but I guess a lot of people don't mind driving to an indoor event. Most are not weather wimps like I am.

Here and there I've been finding a small item to discard, even if it's just a paper, just to keep the ball rolling. Maybe I'll work on my writing later.

I'll just keep swimming!

Bean is having a lovely childhood! I'm grateful to be a part of that.

I'm going to bed very early these days. It's what I can do for myself.

Okay back to work! I'm hungry and thinking about waffles with raspberries.

Thanks Tatoulia.

Just keep swimming. (Dory from finding Nemo, my kids and I say that a lot)

Bean liked his mat. He also helped me wash six more floor mats and enjoyed the soap and the scrub brush and making designs in the soap and playing with the hose. It was a hot day.

The green beans are dried and jarred.

I am working on sliding into my fall schedule and routines, so must go to bed now.

You set up your classes just fine, SubC.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm trying. It's all wading through mud with my depression.

Good job Tatoulia! I would take the nice sheets to goodwill. There are plenty of less nice sheets out there for the animal shelter.

I'm sorry I didn't come by yesterday.

It sounds like you are getting things squared away. I'm glad you got to talk with BF. Is he settling in?

I cleared out some more paper yesterday. And I tried to take the online class for google classroom, and I concluded that I will not be doing that. There is no text only option and I cannot follow the pacing of the videos. Also the majority of the content is not relevant to my class and I am unwilling to spend hours wading through it.

I have figured out attendance, how to message a class, how to add my room number to my class info, and how to change the color and stock image on my class heading. I will not be doing any online teaching or adding videos or interactive assignments. If there is a place for my welcome letter, I can't find it. I can ask on Wednesday. It will be far more effective and efficient for me to talk to our tech guy for five minutes and take paper notes if I need to do anything else. They are supposed to be paying us $20 a class to "set up our class online". As far as I'm concerned, my classes are set up. The only thing left to do is invite students tomorrow. They can keeps the $20's. I need to focus on setting up in the real world.

I also got the dehydrator filled with green beans yesterday, which was good. Today is a Bean day. I get to see what he thinks of his car mat.

Took mom her nightgowns and the shampoo and other stuff. Got her undressed for the night. I took the recycling out to the bin. I've showered and I'm ready for bed.

It was hard for me to put the top sheets into a bag but then I ask myself, would I rathe4 have those top sheets or the pretty embroidered vintage ones. And the decision is made. The sheets I'm donating are nice. Are they better for goodwill or for the animal shelter? Would like to know what you think.

Getting ready to head into bed. Weekend is over.

Guess who? Me again! I started a second wash of sheets. Mom's nightgowns are in the dryer. Normally I'd hang to dry but want to bring her a fresh nightie tonight.

I started the dishwasher. No real reason. Have the recycling ready to take out.

I took a bag to the car and tried to go to goodwill to get my things donated. Unfortunately, the donation trailer was closed. BUT I got a bag out of the house and that feels good. I went to BF's old business and hung out and also picked up my packages. I had ordered new nightgowns for mom and they had arrived. I'm washing them now.

I took some of the stuff from BF's house that was in my car back here. A few plates to take to mom's and some trash bags and rubber gloves for here. Kitchen and bathroom stuff I can use. I also took his half full bottle of shampoo for mom. Stuff like that. His car registration, which has been stressing me, is all sorted and the car is now registered in the neighbor's name. I'm glad the timing worked out for her and for BF.

Not a lot to show for today but something. I'm having chicken salad for dinner.

That's the news from my house. What are you doing today?

Good afternoon!

I got up early today and BF and I talked on the phone. I e gotten dressed. I need to shower but maybe later. I just had breakfast of waffles with raspberries and maple syrup. Tasty.

I did run the dishwasher last night!

Another say that seems relatively humidity free.

It's very weird not having BF around. I miss him a lot.

I don't know if I should do laundry or just what. I'm going to make a list of things to do, even small things, to get them done.

Good morning!

Tatoulia, I hope the dizziness passed quickly. That is worrisome. Get thee to a physician please.

Did you get the dishwasher run?

I was going to pop out today to run a few errands, but then I remembered that it is Sunday and the bank is closed.

I do really need to do some online training and set up my classes. I can't believe the summer is nearly gone!

Lila, I am hoping you are just busy enjoying that new baby.