Good morning.

I cleaned out a crate at school yesterday and threw some things out. I also took my barn trash to the dumpster and my kiln over fired slightly and I threw out the mug I had put in. It was a disaster. I have to deal with the rest of the kiln today.

I was stressed out and tired yesterday and I made a long series of bad choices - beginning with food and moving through the internet and staying up so late I got lass than 6 hours of sleep.

Not surprisingly - I don't feel good today. AND the only lesson plans I have ready center around ducks...

Dd and dsil leave to take Bean to visit my parents today. My dad has a heart procedure on Monday. My mom will not let me tell Dd because she and dad don't want them to change their plans and not come. Which means I can't tell Dh because he might decided Dd should be told. Which means I have to be stressed about it all by myself. Which apparently means pizza, sugary baked goods, crappy movies, and no sleep.

One of my coworkers made a decision to have students engage in what was clearly risky behavior that had no educational value other than perhaps a lesson about thinking for yourself, making intelligent choices, and not blindly trusting authority figures.
One of our kids is now in a cervical collar for at least three weeks with fractured vertebrae. I looked up the law - the parents have two years to sue for negligence. The kid has two years after turning 18 or being diagnosed with a health issue or disability stemming from the injury. (The kid graduates in may) Students videoed the whole thing and were sharing the video yesterday. I am the killjoy saying: guys, none of this is funny.

Coffee kicking in gotta do chores.

Road!! How terrible! I am so sorry for your loss, and also for your son being so sick. I am so sad for you.

All updates were read and I am glad people are posting. SubC I am glad your ducks did not ship and get stuck somewhere. What a relief.

I worked and worked and finally have my day off tomorrow and although I have to take a road trip for an appointment with Teen, I still am glad to have the day off to sleep in and recover a bit. I honestly have too much work, too much on my plate. Lesson learned and if I can just get through the next 2 weeks of so much work, it should calm down a little and I can be less stressed out.

Oh, Road, I'm so very sorry about your brother, and everything else besides.

And Lila, yes, stress such as you went through causes all sorts of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline to rush through one's body, kicking it into overdrive as a survival mechanism, using lots of energy and resources then when the crisis is past you crash.

Both of you going through so much: Try to eat and drink good things and take any vitamins that help if you have them, and nothing wrong with resting. You need it to rebuild at the cellular level and to replenish.

SubC, I'm glad you finally found out about the ducks.

I had a busy day yesterday with Ash Wednesday Mass at 8:00 a.m. (discovered I could make it there without too much craziness, something I wasn't sure of because I haven't gotten out and about much earlier than 9:00-10:00 for ages except for my uncle's funeral). I quilted and then had my 1:00-2:00 holy hour. Back home I kind of lost my momentum a bit. There was a cold front that rolled in.

Today I pulled out my unfinished quilt, tried measuring it for a border. It was slightly off, even though I had tried so hard to keep my seams consistent. Not bad, but I wasn't sure how to compensate for the discrepancy, and without a good working space for large projects, I decided to call one of our experienced and efficient quilters who has a sewing room. She was happy to help, I will give her the quilt and the border fabric on Tuesday. Since the quilt goes into the lineup at church, it won't be coming back here so that counts as half a cubic foot of stuff gone.

And it also frees me up to do quilts a new way, just making sets of blocks and passing them along to those who, like her, have the facilities, time, and know how to assemble them. I don't know if this change in my quiltmaking MO will be temporary or permanent. I don't have to decide that right now. All I know is, I was so stressed I had ground to a halt and wasn't even sure I liked quiltmaking anymore. Now I can take off the pressure and perfectionism and just see how it goes.

Take care, everyone. Poco a Poco. Vamos a Llegar.

The hatchery just called.

Even though the computer sent me an email saying that my ducks had shipped, my ducks did not ship. They had a hatch failure and no ducks were shipped.

My ducks are not dead in a box somewhere. They will ship in April.

Oh road, I am so sorry! I know this is a huge loss for you and so much harder having to figure out how and when to tell your son.

I really hope that the flu passes quickly. Poor kid needs a break!

Guys! Ugh!! I just want to Check in. Had/having one of the worst times of my life. My son was in hosp for almost three weeks with complications from pneumonia. Had to have a chest tube and so many scans and X-rays and sedations and blood work. We came home and we got the flu and now my son has it. But the worst thing was in the middle of it all my brother died. Suddenly/unexpectedly. We don’t know if it was a post Covid thing or heart attack or stroke but he didn’t respond to the usual texts one day, didn’t show at the hospital. I called police and they found him dead in his home. His dog friends were kind enough to take on his dogs after a few days and we had to go through a lot in his house to find documents etc. Very challenging to deal with my dad under these circumstances because he was disgusted by the house and just wanted to complain about the state of affairs and now that he’s planning the memorial my sister feels he is only concerned about appearances. We still haven’t told my son. The funeral for our next door neighbor is tomorrow (died day after my bro) but now I don’t think we can go to that either due to my son being sick. My bro’s memorial won’t be til April or May now I guess. I am not sure how much I can check in just wanted you all to know what’s been going on. I hope all of you are doing ok. Sending ð?'"ð?'"ð?'"ð?™?ð??¼

Got off to a good start this morning but have not managed my evening well.

Took a plastic grocery bag of trash to the gas station when I got gas today - mostly packaging I am letting go of recycling because it requires too complex a process.

Brought home the giant clay mixer from school (which belongs to me personally) to use in my studio. I do not really have a spot for it, but I have a spot where I can put it, and I am hoping it will help me get some of this clay processed - which should make more room.

Ran one load - wash/dry of laundry and one of dishes.

Tired.

Still no ducks.

Good morning.

Lila, I think when something traumatic happens, it knocks us back - we have less resiliency. So if another bad thing happens before we get a chance to recover, it hits us harder than it would have and we get knocked back a lot more.

Like grass - thick, tall healthy grass has deep roots and can stand some time without rain. Cut it short and the roots actually die back. Then if it doesn’t rain, it goes brown quickly.

Also, sometimes if you have too much to handle, your body will store it and hand it out later when you can process it.

Be gentle with yourself.

Sometimes going to bed is the best option.

I don't know what is wrong with me. Is it a thing that if you have a very stressful traumatic experience and then another one a day later that it does something to your brain that takes a long time to recover from? The thing with Teen was really awful but it has been almost 2 weeks and I still feel like I can barely cope with anything. Not sleeping well, etc. I am doing better in that I actually did go to work today and did fine for about 5 hours and then suddenly I felt like I was completely wiped out and had to come home, where I am sitting here staring into space non functional.

Better than last week, when my work limit was about an hour and a half and then I would be a bsket case.

Anyway I got work done, and now am home zoning out. I would like to declutter but I have zero energy. I want to go to bed.

I read your posts but my brain is offline.

So yesterday I took Bean to school so his parents could pick him up there (close to home) and I could fire a load in the kiln.

All I tossed out was diapers.

I am really struggling with sleep and my weight and organization.

Someone was fired at work and I know part of the backstory and an email was sent out which Dh says was very appropriate from a company standpoint and made it sound like the person had to quit suddenly for personal reasons and I feel totally gaslit by the email. Dh says quote: you don’t know, they could have offered them the chance to quit instead of being fired and they may have mental health issues going on that contributed to the behavior that made it not possible for them to keep working there. and that just feels like more gaslighting, and the part that is hard for me is that I am already wary of parts of my administration, and this just makes it impossible for me to trust any communication from them.

Also, I am stressed about the ducks.

I cleaned off the couch and put a few papers in the recycling.

I am going to shower and brush my teeth and pack up some things that need to go with me today for the class I am taking tonight, and then go to school.

Well, I'll chime in on the general themes floating around here - I've made a simple list of spiritual practices for Lent which feel like they will help me grow closer to God, a variety of practices and sacrifices and just trying to cultivate that trusting attitude like you said, Lila.

I'm fat; I don't want weight loss to be for my sake during Lent, but if I can try not to be a glutton that's a good goal, for sure. Or sloth - laziness - that may be more why I've gained. I let my fears and stress become huge obstacles to getting to the gym or anywhere else to exercise. That trend needs to reverse. I need to dig way back in my memory and recapture the time last summer when it was actually relaxing and positive. I got stressed out, the gym changed their locker locks in a way that I got all worried about (how to remember what to do with the new ones - but I've written a little cheat sheet now and printed it out, so I can do this).

Letting go of material possessions is the ongoing thing - back in 2015 when I joined this board, I was wanting to be a minimalist and part of the impetus was my beliefs, and the rest was just being fed up with being a hoarder. Nearly 8 years later (gulp) so much has happened including the pandemic - feels like a tornado went through in my head about it all. But I'm ready to start just doing what I can where I am, for now. Hoping momentum will gradually pick up with each success.

SubC, I think I was so computer and data backing-up preoccupied, I didn't catch that you were the one who suggested to Lila to put the cameras in tubs. So now that I know that, I think your reasoning was good as well. I guess now she can weigh the pros and cons and pick whichever strategy ends up working best. It's good that we all have the chance to pick each other's brains.

My computer's been mostly behaving itself today. I am hoping I'll be able to track down anything problematic and deal with it. I don't feel as intimidated, provided I am diligent about backing up files - that is one time when Justin Case proved his worth, lol.

Good thoughts, SubC. I have left two churches in the past that I was in for years, so I know how that is. The one I go to now is more compassionate and kind. I never knew about Lent and thought it was just giving things up - and my new pastor has explained it the way you did. It's not about self improvement in a "world" sense but in a spiritual sense of getting closer to God, or more like the ideal of Jesus. It's about removing something that is in between you and God, or just something you don't need, and giving that time towards God. So like if you give up watching TV for two hours that is not really about Lent, but it is if you use those hours to pray, read the Bible, serve others.

So for me I used to be a binge eater and food became something I spent a lot of time on, for my own pleasure. I think by fasting I am trying to change that and when I get hungry while fasting I use that as a trigger to pray or read or turn to God in some way. Or fix something that I think keeps me from God (maybe gluttony if you go with a Bible term?) Clutter is the same way. It keeps me from trusting him.

So when I do not eat for a stretch of time, but pray instead, it helps me focus on what's important.

And when I give away things that may have value, it is me trusting God that He will provide what I need in the future.

I read a really cool book by a monk a couple years ago. I wish I could remember it. But it explained why they give up pretty much everything. Yeah, that may be extreme, but I think there is something to be learned about valuing the spiritual over the flesh, no matter what one believes, right?

Tasks done so far:
- cleaned up half the dog yard (poo)
- listed some overabundance of produce online and gave it away
- opened a box that was in my room that is for a colon cancer study, completed the steps and scheduled a fedex pickup for today (one box gone from my room!)
- working on clearing the area next to my bed. Mainly I am putting things where they go instead of on the floor and have not tossed anything there yet.

So, maybe take this with a grain of salt as I was raised in a Protestant church and left the faith (I find the more time I spend in churches, the farther I feel from god. Ymmv)

My understanding of lent is not so much that it’s about self improvement in a temporal sense, or suffering or sacrifice or self discipline, but that it’s about giving up those things that separate us from god, removing distractions and recentering and refocusing on what is really important. It’s supposed to be a time of prayer and reflection.

So, in that sense, lent could be a great time to declutter your life. Looking at the time and energy you are spending on things that could better be spent serving god - whoosh! Seriously, instead of �does this spark joy?� It’s �how does having this help me live the life god wants me to live?�

On a less spiritual note - Bean and I added the daddy giraffe to the animal collection today. He was very pleased. (I didn’t buy him any card or treat for valentines, so that’s our February thing.

Lila what a lovely post. I like this a lot. My BF is Catholic. I grew up in congregational churches. I really love the peace you are bringing to your life. Recognizing that a pile of stuff could be replaced with peace is powerful.

For me, for today, I am going to the UPS store to return my brothers modem. I switched his internet a week or so ago and I must return this.

Big day for me yesterday, having two different girlfriends over. I am trying to skip apostrophes so pardon the poor grammar and stilted language.

Today I want to make more donation bags. I do not believe that goodwill is open and I have a car full of donations to make. This must be my priority for Monday.

Tonight is trash night. I have my recycling ready to go out.

Good morning. A day off for many of us? Yes for me!

Does anyone else participate in Lent or something like it? This Wednesday is Ash Weds and I never knew anything about it until my current church, which is not Catholic but does have an Ash Weds service and talks about Lent. I have already begin a 'season of fasting' which I wanted to try this year with the 16:8 intermittant fasting because I require structure and it is something I want to do as a self discipline. I am using this time to stop idolizing food, eating lots of junk and fast food and sugary things that harm my body, and using the hunger as a turning-to-God point.

I also have thought this morning that the mindset of giving, not hoarding, trusting God and being a free giver to trust in the Lord to provide for the future is something I am trying to cultivate. If I cultivate that mindset, it will follow that I give more of my unused belongings away, and trust that I will have what I really need.

I will try to channel that mindsent during Lent into crafting my environment to reflect my inner peace. I thought of this when I got up this morning and looked at the piles of STUFF on the floor just a couple feet from where I got out of bed. Wouldn't it be nice, and peaceful, to get up and have all of that gone?

That is scary, CM, with the computer situation. I no longer have a computer other than my work laptop. All else is iPhone or iPad. I hope it is okay. The cyber stuff terrifies me!

SubC! I know you weren’t advocating to keep the cameras! You are a gentle, kind soul and I was being like a drill Sargent. Lila, why not package them up in one eBay listing for say, $100? Maybe someone would want all of them and that would give you some funds! Some people like to get a whole bunch. And if someone says, I really only want camera x and I’ll pay $30, you can sell it! Worth a shot!

I wish I could sell on eBay. I never dedicated myself to it. I know there is money to be made.

So I got rid of eight pjs. Two pair of pj shorts, three pair of pj bottoms, and three pair of complete pjs. Then Emiko came over, took a look at my pjs and asked if she could take a pair. So I went into my pj drawer and let her choose. So nine in all. As I wrote this, Emiko texted to say she’s wearing the pj pants. So that’s good news. I have to be tough with myself.

I’m pretty excited about the ducks, SubC.

Okay tomorrow is a day off. Let’s see what I do. I saw a girlfriend today and we did some walking around the city. Then Emiko needed me to help her with a work project. I did not see mom today and I feel guilty.

Okay I’m going to read now.

I want to chime in that I was not voting to keep the cameras, I was just voting to move them to an available space (minus batteries to avoid a disaster) if they were too much to handle right now so that Lila can finish her room.

I feel like anything that speeds up the room is a good choice, but yes, now is better than later if you can do it.

Dd surprised my by turning up at 12:30 with Bean while I was still throwing pots. He did not take a nap today, but she made lunch and they baked some muffins while I set up the duck pen. Then Dd left.

So I did not cut brambles, bake any bread (Bean and I will bake it tomorrow) or do any lesson plans.

Bean has had his dinner and his bath and stories and gone to bed, and Dh is resting in the house after a long day of golf. He can be in charge of Bean, so I need to go back out and do a little more work on those pots. I just threw a cover over them and came in at lunch time.

I did get a load of laundry put away and a load of dishes run. And I put one thing from the barn in the garbage when I was working on the duck pen. Better than nothing.

CM, oh, when the computers do weird things and it's not like it used to be it stresses me out so badly!! I'm glad it went back to normal for you. I do not like change!

Thank you for the encouragement and possible ways to handle these things. I know it would be a huge weight off my mind to just get all the files off these computers and photos off the cameras and get rid of them!! I have thought about just calling the computer stores around here and asking how much it costs to get all the files off a computer. If it isn't too much, it might be worth it to just pay them to have it done. Now, to me "too much" is $50 so maybe I am way off. But I would pay $25/each to have someone else get my files off, and just GIVE them the computers for any parts they could use! I think I will call around. That would free up a huge amount of physical AND mental space.

I just cleaned out the litter box which I hate doing, especially when Teen has let it go for too long and is refusing to do it. I had to take it outside and wash it. So gross. I like the cat ok but it is not MY cat. However it is like a therapy cat for Teen so I can't rehome him. He is a nice cat, actually. I just would prefer Teen do the litter box, which they do about 75% of the time.

What a busy weekend for all of us, sounds like.

SubC, I don't know, it may be that my roommate and I have sort of turned into sisters, lol. We do sometimes refer to ourselves as sisters in Christ, anyway. She is a few years older than me, and was one of the older sibs of her family, and we tend to fall a bit into a big sister-little sister dynamic. Or else we butt heads if I feel like she is being bossy (which she really isn't intending to be). Sometimes my inner control freak comes out because of being so used to living on my own and having my own routines, and I get a little obnoxious and petty. I'm working on that.

I toy with the idea of intermittent fasting, because it might be a better method for weight loss being as I'm a picky eater who mostly shuns vegetables. And there was is gal from my parish who had great success with it; she is an inspiration to be sure. But I think I'm needing more structure in general before adding any subroutines to my life, if you see what I mean.

Lila, that was a good idea to reuse the food bag for a trash bag so that you wouldn't be tempted to keep it. We do that with bunny hay and litter bags, and dog and cat food bags, etc. They are good both in the large wastebasket or during gardening season they can hold weeds.

Bunny club had its fun event today where the bunnies get to hop around in a big room and the bunny "parents" get to watch their antics, and welcome new members, talk about upcoming events, etc. It was quiet and lowkey, yet people seemed happy and engaged. Not hectic or overstimulating for me as such events can sometimes be. It just seemed to pace itself out nicely. We'll have a board meeting next weekend and an event to plan for at the end of March.

I'm thankful it was so mellow, because yesterday certainly was not, after the coffee shop. It got really windy and was messing with my roommate's screened porch, which was upsetting for her.

And then my computer decided to freak out - all of a sudden I'd try to type something in Google and nothing would happen, the little circle would spin fruitlessly. The fan was running continuously. I checked the readout and saw that the CPU was running at 80-90 percent. This is a gaming laptop with speed and plenty of RAM, and I wasn't doing gaming or anything memory intensive.

So I shut it down, and restarted - and that's when things really got "interesting." When it restarted, it appeared that Windows 11 had reinstalled itself, none of my personalization colors and home screen picture were there, my Start panel was in the center instead of the left, etc. and the Windows 11 graphic that looks like bright blue strips of petals or buttercream frosting or something was there.

With mounting trepidation, I went to look in my file directory. I saw that my username wasn't there but some temporary user profile was. And my files? GONE. By this time I'm pretty much hysterical, but trying to hang onto some scrap of rationality so that I can troubleshoot the thing.

Well, long story short, I thought at least I have been backing up, so my data is not truly lost. Somewhere in there I think I shut down the computer again, and then upon restarting it, lo and behold, there was everything the way it had been before! I quickly got my second backup drive and made a duplicate backup just in case. But it appears that things are okay.

But what caused all that? I've been Googling, and I hope I can ask some people who know about these things. One possibility that can produce such symptoms is that someone was doing cryptojacking? Using my computing power, and my roommate's electricity, to run their calculations. I don't understand all about how cryptocurrency works, nor do I really care to, but obviously I just want to get rid of and/or prevent any sort of malware or whatever might've caused the problem.

So it was a relief to have things back - and I hope and pray the worst drama is over. I have no idea whether Windows "reinstalled" itself, if that's indeed what it did, to thwart an attack, or if it just thought I told it to do so, or what. The whole thing was weird.

Lila, I wish I could help you with data recovery, because with this computer of mine, which I do believe is still basically fine, I could probably do quite a bit fairly rapidly, at least with the devices/storage that can still be accessed. I agree with Tatoulia that the cameras are probably not going to be wanted much by anyone else - technology has left them in the dust, if they are the point and shoot types. Even older DSLRs may be obsolete. And of course everybody uses phones nowadays anyway. Or if they're serious they may use DSLRs - I think. Haven't totally kept up.

However, do remove any old batteries from them, that is a good idea, and if there are SD card storage chips unmount those - they can be read by your computer easily enough provided the data is not corrupted. If your computer doesn't have a card slot it's easy enough to purchase a USB card reader in a store or from Amazon. If the only way to get the data is from the camera's internal memory with a cord (e.g., if it has no working SD card) perhaps there are universal cords for those? It's been awhile.

With the laptops, it depends on what type of data storage each uses - CD ROMs? USB? Or old floppies (harder to deal with). The larger the gap between the old tech and the new, the more time consuming a task it will be, if it's even possible.

I think you will need to decide (hope I'm not being bossy) to go ahead and try and set aside time to make a big push to recover the data fairly soon, or if you are still drawn more to procrastinate realize that that in itself may be a decision, because the data is going to be more likely to corrupt in storage and become unrecoverable - and your own energy and time will diminish to get it done. This is what I am finding out about a lot of things as I realize how I'm getting older and so on. It's not pretty, but we can't avoid reckoning with the reality of it. I guess what I'm saying is try to be courageous and honest and deliberate, and don't kick the problem too much further down the road.

Sometimes, too, comes the sad realization that it's not possible to retrieve everything, and sometimes we just have to grieve it and move on. I have an old cell phone that may contain a late photo of my mom a year or so before she died. I had purchased some software that was supposed to be able to read the data from the phone but it didn't work. (I still have the phone and the software, and I should probably practice what I preach with them...)

If you can get yourself to deal with some of them, there are usually places that the components can be taken for recycling though. I have a couple of old computers I need to take myself. Hmmmm... do we need to start a Recycling Computers Tally? Just kidding - the Daily Tally should suffice - but if we do get one gone, we definitely need to celebrate and pat ourselves on the back. Good luck! I know how hard it is.

Tatoulia, that is wise. And you said something I did not think of before, about the new owner being thrilled. You are right! Keeping them all in a drawer for 20 years is pretty silly, and kind of selfish, too. Someone else would be enjoying them. Very good points. I think on my days off I will try to take out one at a time, check for photos/photo cards, remove batteries and pack together to give away. I do think I will search ebay for each one, just one search, before I donate because I AM kind of broke. But if any camera is worth less than $50 I will donate (I would guess they all are but I have this weird thought process hoping I will find something worth hundreds of dollars...) so I will do the 5 minute search to make me feel better.

SubC, that sounds like a productive day. If you have time please tell me about your ducks. I love ducks.

I worked today and felt good doing but was completely wiped out exhausted at the end and left early and avoided people. I feel like I ran a marathon and could go to bed right now and it's barely noon. I think all the emotionally taxing things I have been dealing with catch up to me. I was only there for about 2 hours but I was at my limit. I have paid time off tomorrow so that will be a rest day (decluttering as well).

Today - I hit my 16 hour fasting goal again.
I have put one load of clothes in the wash.
I will pick away at decluttering in between resting.

I am supposed to do some calls for work, and maybe emails. We'll see.

That is a terrific list, SubC! I am up early for me! I snuck downstairs to start a laundry. Cat blankets.

I just made my bed and i will now go through the pjs to decide on a minimum of four pair to donate. There are arguments to keep them all, naturally. But if I keep thinking this way, I will change it to five pair need to go. That’s how ruthless I need to be today.

Good morning! I slept late.

It is a nice day and Dh has gone to play golf.

Here is my too long plan:
Chores
Throw pots
Set up duck pen
Cut brambles
Make bread
Lesson plans

Clean up after myself as I go, try to accept that some things are trash - I want to have more than just diapers to take out this week. The scullery has become a transfer station again.

SubC you did a lot. I too am going to shower and I will probably wash my hair. I finally found pajamas I like and after washing them last night and hanging them to dry, I am looking forward to testing them out. You did great today, SubC.

Lila, I hope I am not being hurtful but your grandchildren will not want the cameras. They will not. You may have one grandchild who is an old soul and gravitates toward that sort of thing and that one child will show the signs early. I was that old soul and trust me, everyone could tell by age 3. I think saving them is not productive. ON THE FLIP SIDE, if you donate them, someone at the thrift shop will be thrilled. The right next owner will be found. Please consider this before storing them. Please consider sending them on their way to a new home. New home for the cameras, and new and cleaner home for you. You can take out the photo cards (and batteries) before donating. These are not your grandparents records. There is no connection for you.

This is how tough I have been on myself since I started this journey. I got into an unlivable and cluttered place by hoarding things. everything had meaning of someone might want someday. You don’t need to be the warehouse for someone elses someday. Your day is today.

Again I am telling myself this at the same time. As I marvel at three pair of new pajamas and I have to get rid of four pair to make room.

Hi all!

I have low personal bandwidth tonight, so I’m just going to address one th8ng - Lila,Mia you have space to pack away the cameras right now, do it, BUT you need to go through and remove all the batteries first. You can do it as you pack them up.

CM might know something about the computers.

I did a load of dishes and two loads of laundry and put two other loads of laundry away and cleaned up in my studio so that I can just go out and throw tomorrow. And I took a shower with washing my hair.

Tatoulia, I’m glad you were able to have your brother over.

another post, this time requesting input.

Stuff in my room that is bothering me.

I have a drawer full of old cameras. All digital but back when digital first came out. I am insistent on keeping them but sheesh. I am considering putting them all in a plastic bin and putting them on a shelf in a closet in the basement so I have that drawer free. Maybe in time I will feel ok about getting rid of them but it is overwhelming: are there photos on them? I would need to find the cables to get them off. Are there old batteries in them leaking acid? Are they worth some money since I kept the boxes and manuals? Would my grandkids like them to take pictures with in a few years? ugh

I have a bin in my room, and a BIG bin maybe also in my room somewhere, FULL of cords. Just cords, plugs, all different kinds of chargers and cords. It would take me a week to sort through and try to figure out what goes with what. I cannot donate them because they go with things...

I have about 3 laptops in various stages of broken, and a PC that is olddd but has photos on it but no internet connection. Baby pics of my kids and stuff. I would LOVE to get rid of all of them. But, they have documents and photos to get off them and who has time? And, to make it worse, I had a Windows 95 PC and when I was decluttering 10+ years ago I got what I could off of it and then got rid of it and THEN realized there were some irreplaceable conversations on it that I did not save and now cannot get back. And it sort of haunts me... and so I am touchy about getting rid of more.

Okay, all suggestions welcome. Even if I don't follow them right away, I think about what you say and let it process and percolate so I can work up to doing something about this junk.

oh wow, 2 days fasting! I would have to work up to that. 16 is about my limit and I get dizzy. But I think my body will get used to it again. I used to do an occasional 20:4. I am heavier than I was then. I want to lose about 50 pounds.

I worked on my bedroom and got 22 more items out of there!! Not counting papers and receipts I tossed. All were items I was keeping. Most got donated (and the box is now in the back of my car) and a few were trash. I am proud of myself for doing that.

I have a lot of boxes and plastic bins in my bedroom so I was sorting some small plastic bins and was able to consolidate the contents of 3 bins into 2 bins after I donated stuff. And there is still room in those bins.

I needed a mental break even though it only took me like 20 minutes. There is SO much stuff in there and each item is WORK to let go of.You know what I mean right guys?

But also the feeling of freedom and success after getting rid of things is really motivating.

Hi Lila! I used to intermittent fast, too, but I did 5:2. At five days a week, no eating for two days. I enjoyed it and got to the point where I could go into the office on fasting days. I gave it up after meeting with a nutritionist who helped me lose a lot of weight by fasting. Right now I’m doing other things. 23 down, probably another 20 to go. I’m definitely enjoying the benefits of losing weight!

I hope the fasting works well for you! I would lose a reliable one pound a week. Not bad!

My brother came over today. I got him a pizza and I had a Caesar salad wrap. He got to meet the new kitty and seemed to like her. She is a nice little companion.

I’m going to take a nap now.

Well I made it to 16 hours 28 minutes in my fasting app and I am happy about that. To make it to my goal, I went in my room:

- gathered dog treats and sample food bags off the floor and brought them to the kitchen. Put treats in the jar and will feed the dogs the samples.

- put a dog bone into the correct bin, and threw the container out. It is a disposable container, but the lid does not stay on and I decided to toss it.

- looked around and got overwhelmed. But took my laundry basket of dirty clothes into the hall so I can wash them.

Then I looked in the fridge for lunch. A friend gave me a free week of one of those vegetarian meal plans and it had one meal left in it to make, for the last couple weeks. So I got that out, all the ingredients were still good so I spent a good 40 minutes making a couscous bowl with roasted chickpeas and roasted vegetables. It was really good! It makes 2 servings so I put the other half into a nice dish and put it in the fridge for another day.

I also used the weird foil-like bag the meals came in as a trash container because I was tempted to keep it, but it had food spilled in it and would be a pain to keep.

So there's a couple things I'll add to the daily tally.

CM, so glad you found your coffee shop!

Isn’t your roommate situation sort of a replacement sibling situation?

I’m not sure siblings are much of a guarantee of anything. I’m much closer to my cousin than I am to my brother. And one of my �family of choice� people is the third name on my emergency contact list (husband, in town Dd, heartdd)

The breakfast turned out to be a good experience.

I’m still tired and mostly resting today, but I’m going to at least get some laundry going. I’ll check back later.

Good morning and happy weekend.

I am fairly well rested and things are calm. I have started intermittent fasting again, which I felt very good doing years ago. My goal is 16 hours fasting and an 8 hour eating window. I use and app to keep track, and I do have coffee or tea during the fast and I do use minimal plant based creamer, even though that is not ideal. It is how I can work it.

I have a little less than an hour before I can eat, and now I want to eat, so instead, I will get off this couch and attempt some cleaning and decluttering.

I hope we all get some stuff OUT of our homes today!