I had a great day at East Lake yesterday. Took my blow-up boat and paddled out in lake with my friend. It was a perfect day to be at the lake, and wasn't crowded at all. I wanted to go back up and camp.
Today had a miscommunication with a friend, and it was difficult, still bothering me. I was sure of what time we were going to meet, so I went to Lowes, and she was calling my house, she thought she was supposed to call at 12, I was sure we were to meet at 12. How do these things happen?
This morning I watered yard and worked in garage for 3 hours. The disagreement zapped my energy, so have just walked in circles this afternoon. Finally remembered it is time to quit when energy gone, so here I am. I loved reading all that you are accomplishing and the goodness in each post. Tomorrow I will stay home all day and work here, I am happy I can work without interruption tomorrow. Really want to make progress on big bedroom. thanks to all of you.

Yeah, if you're going to paste something here, it's probably best if it's plain old 7-bit ASCII encoding. Unfortunately, as somebody who doesn't use Microsoft software, I'm not the person who can tell you how to force Microsoft tools to do that.

Speaking of techie stuff, Tillie, if you're around and would like to try some practice postings to see what the deal is with clickable links, I'm in the chat room right now and could try to walk you through it.

Oh, and I might be around for the first few minutes of tonight's chat, after all; I'm not sure how soon my ride will be picking me up.

Something strange happened with the typing in my last post -- not sure why -- but I think you all still get the idea -- maybe b/c I copied+pasted it from my own MS Word doc-?- Anyway, take care & remember to giggle every once in a while (even if it's just at yourself! }:~)

Here¡¦s my day¡¦s ¡§Ta-Da¡¨ Report:
I put in my paid part-time work hours, then made myself a healthy lunch at home (combining leftovers to create a tasty summer greens, tomato, turkey breast, & crumbled goat cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette); put in my 2 (15-min) timed sessions, bagged up current load of clothing donations, & just hung up washed laundry load to dry; only have maintenance tasks to complete for the day: dishes after dinner & folding/putting away clothes once dry. (Good thing as I am still energetically wiped out today)
Hope everyone¡¦s having a good day.

Keep Kickin¡¦ Out the Clutter, Folks!

Thanks all!

Tillie, I've actually been looking into possible socks or slippers that are designed to scrub as you walk. So far I've found some that are designed to dust the floors and pick up pet hair. Those might be useful but I still am concerned with the effort of scrubbing.

Using my wheeled desk chair is certainly worth a try! After all, when I tire it is sitting down I have to do if not laying down!

WAY TO GO!!! Roxie 😀

Some people have managed to do a pretty good job washing floors by sitting in their desk chair, dropping a soppy wet rag on the floor then using their feet scooching the rag around.
Then sopping up the water by scooching around a towel.

This is just a suggestion and you are free to simply ignore it. 🙂

WOW Roxie WTG!!!

When you rally you do it BIG TIME!! 😀

Oh, I am so grateful for my rally days. Yesterday I brushed my teeth and hair, I thoroughly cleaned three light bulbs that were filthy and fly specked (they've been sitting on my chest of drawers staring at me and complaining),

I cleaned off the vacuum cleaner (ugh, so dusty and dirty). I vacuumed around my desk and a chest of drawers. I changed out all my trash bins and put in fresh bags, took the trash to my outside bin.

I finally unloaded the large and very heavy box that was delivered weeks ago and contains the parts to build (put together) the cat tree I'd ordered. It's been sitting there blocking my kitchen steps. I hauled all the parts inside (cats immediately investigated the cube part) and stacked them in one place. Then I broke down the box so I can put it in the car for recycling.

I broke down the remaining boxes indoors and took them to the car for recycling.

I brought in a case of canned cat food and actually put the cans into the cupboard and broke down the cardboard carrier for recycling.

I sat on the back steps and broke down more cardboard boxes. One has those big metal fasteners that are a bear to undo. Still working on that one. All will go into the car to recycle. I think I'll have to go to the recycle center later this week or early next.

It felt very good to get all this done. I found I could do a lot of it while I'm sitting here at the computer waiting for it to do various things for me. I even vacuumed by sliding around in my desk chair on wheels...whee! One way for a disabled person to get something done. It's a start.

Dirty kitchen floor still whining at me. And the litter boxes calling me from outside: "wash me, wash me, NOW."

Each of you inspire me each day. I'm grateful you are here.

GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY!!! 😀

Wonderful to have so many posts to read with my morning tea. 🙂

Just have a few cat chores to take care of and some general tidying up to do here today.
Have no idea what I will do today but as always, I will find things to do.
Maybe reward myself with a pedicure. Watch a movie. Plan a fun project.
I love being all caught up and having my free time. 🙂

Hope you all get a chance today to just enjoy summer time. (((hugs)))

Janie, animal waste is the main reason I go to the dump. I had to pay for trash pick-up but there was a strict rule about no animals waste. I used to mix bags of waste with lighter weight trash but the stress of worrying about getting caught and keeping bags from week to week til they could be balanced was crazy. I had planned to lie if questioned about the heaviness and say well we have twin babies here with diapers and my father in adult diapers....it just wasn't worth it.

Be careful with the private dumpsters, Janie. I did that with regular trash for awhile always making sure my name wasn't on anything (man what we go thru) but they'll hit you with sometimes a $500 fine if you get caught.

Janie - Thank you 🙂 Yes, your words hit home ~ my life has been a journey of learning the "how" of attaining that goal of moderation/balance between the extremes. (Learning how to NOT push myself past the point of exhaustion & then being kind of immobilized until I recovered, & then repeated.)Thankfully, I'm happy to say, I've been able to "hone in" towards that middle way over the past year & a half.
Reading your recent post of ***ALL YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED*** is super exciting 🙂 & inspires me! I hope you are HAPPY DANCING your way through your Tuesday. =D
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
(I look forward to reading your updates & progress as you tackle the 2nd floor.)

Hope everybody stays cool today!

Mrs Landlord sent me an email, apologizing for having forgotten about the inspection; it's now rescheduled for next Sunday.

Monday is one of my regular board game nights, so I didn't get any cleaning done. I got home at about 2am, and then spent four hours doing some volunteer proofreading that couldn't really wait. Now 6:30 and it's getting light out; I hope I can sleep into the afternoon.

I've got dinner plans for Tuesday (though it may well be breakfast for me), so I won't be doing the online chat this time.

Trying to remember what all has been done since I last posted. I know on Saturday I was in the final stages of my family room de-clutter. I finished in the family room on Sunday and took the day off today. I didn't get home from work until late and just needed to relax. Here's more accomplishments:
* Tried to tackle DH's . I cleared all the clutter off the top of the hutch and dusted. The rest is his responsibility. I don't think the man has thrown out a single bill or statement in 10 years. The piles are falling over and covered with dust. There is a printer that hasn't worked in 5 years and a tower PC with one of those big clunky monitors that hasn't worked in about 3 years.
* For the past few weeks I've been accumulating bags of papers that need to be shredded. Turned on the TV and shredded enough papers to fill two 13-gallon kitchen bags.
* Picked up whatever trash was still on the family room floor and vacuumed. I didn't move any furniture, just did the open areas. Yikes. Can't believe how much dust, dirt and cat hair I emptied out of the vacuum canister. I'm sure there is stuff under the sofa and loveseat but I just wasn't in the mood to move these big pieces.

Karl - You are making such good progress! It's a shame your landlord didn't show up to see your accomplishments.

WoW, Tillie -- sounds like you did an AMAZING amount of work today -- and hard manual labor at that!!! (I hope you didn't over do it physically today -- again, I say: WOW!)
I hope you take a day of rest tomorrow =) Except for doing the "Happy Dance" in celebration of your newly clean areas 😉
Also, thank you for your kind words.

"Hi" to EVERYBODY on the Boards 🙂
Looking forward to reading what everyone's up to tmrw (Tuesday) ~ Hope you each: Take Care, Play Fun Music, & Have a Little Fun Along the Way!

Thank you Dianne 🙂
Yes, he does deserve the pink undies. lol

I too have found that mixing the litter brands does make for a nicer box.
The litter boxes are large plastic storage bins and I fill them deep.
Since the sides are high there is never any "over the side" accidents.
When the cats jump out they carry less litter on their feet and that makes for less sweeping in the box area.

Tillie what a lot of heavy work!

You deserve a little fun like a red sweater with his white undies in the wash. >:)

Hi Roxie,

Now if I could get that excited about keeping myself clean it would be nice. 🙂

OK you all motivated me.
Been asking him to clean up the pumphouse since even before he made that huge flood in there.

It is a small room with a primitave rough cement floor.
Over the years he has tracked in sand, a one inch thick layer.
He has stuff stored in this room.
9 big plastic 5 gallon buckets of paint and over 30 one gallon cans of paint.
A case of green glow in the dark halloween spray paint and some christmas spray snow.
A big heavy bag of stucco patch.
There was a lot of obvious trash strewn around and a jumble of various assorted other items.

This was just the floor. Not even bothering with the shelves.

Moved everything out and the flood waters had made mud that was still wet.
Shoveled and then swept the floor clear.
Restacked the paint cans to the side that didn't get wet.

The floor looks very nice again in there. 😀

I really resent having to clean up areas he has messed up.
Thinking about washing his underwear with a bright red sweater. ;D lol jk

I came in, took a shower, washed my hair, put on all clean clothes, ate lunch and am over it now. 🙂

Five is more than I'd expected to find, but I agree it's not too many. Yes, I'll have to pick out a "good" place to store them and other dental spares; at the moment they're with the medical stuff, but a separate small container would be better organization.

If I have extra space after the re-organization, maybe I'll put some towels in the bathroom cabinet. Currently I'm keeping the clean towels in the closet just outside the bathroom, but they're kind of crammed in there.

It is good to see so many posting. I really miss it when folks don't so much.

Diane, I have a journal from my great grandmother written over a five years span starting in about 1930. Mostly it is incredibly boring, if not confusing. She refers to her "work" about which I know nothing and sounds more like she does home visits of some sort and does some kind of healing ritual. Very strange. I do know she had at least six children to raise on her own after her husband died young (of which I know nothing and so far have found nothing). I intend to leave the journal for future generations. It does have a nice list in the back of names and birthdates and such. It is helping me in my work on ancestry dot com.

I got teeth brushed yesterday and also today. No idea what else I may or many not accomplish. I do of course feed and water animals indoor and out each day, so I just assume you folks know that and take it as a given that it is accomplished. I do know I need to start setting up some kind of litter box routine as I am very bad about that and it is not fair to the indoor kitties. I did order a Breeze system to see if that might help. Here's hoping.

I'm trying still to figure out how or if I can break down cleaning floors to a manageable system for myself. Mostly I ignore but that's part of how I got in a fix in the first place, right? 🙁

Big list of things to do today and here I am playing on the computer.....

Clear area under daughter's sink and deal with leak.

So much to catch up with here....

You are thankful for this board and I am truly thankful you are here! 🙂

Hi AnneW 🙂
Sometimes it is hard to find a proper balance between all the things we try to get done daily.
Unfortunately we tend to take time away from self care to make up for the other activities.
This is where I find that I must schedule in time for proper rest and meals. Make it a priority over doing other tasks because we only have just so much energy and need to recharge to be at our best.
GREAT plan you have for this week! 😀

Hi Karl 🙂
WAY TO GO! finding the medical supplies! 😀
Having 5 new toothbrushes in stock is not too many. Some people could open a shop with all their extras. 😉
A good place to store them is in a bathroom drawer or in a shoe box with extra toothpaste & dental floss on a cupboard shelf.
My mother always kept the shoe box on a shelf in the linen closet next to the towels.

The cats are all fed. 🙂
My To-Dos for today are.....
Scoop litter boxes.
Put down fresh water.
Go out and water some things.
Sweep floors & porches.
Do a load of laundry.
Wash my hair.
This evening I will wash some dishes.

Monday! A new week for a fresh new start, no matter what happened or didn't happen in the past. 😉

I sorted the bathroom cabinets tonight. It turns out that I have five unused toothbrushes! I'll open one of them tonight, and retire the old one. I also found all the medical stuff -- it was already sorted, I just hadn't found the bag last time -- and put some liquid bandage over my recent injury.

THANK YOU!!! I just finished reading everyone's "What I'm Doing Today" posts from July 10th through today & they are all SOOO Chock Full O' Goodness!!!
It just reminds me what a GREAT GROUP we have here =D

And, reading the posts helps me feel re-grounded in my own intentions re: de-hoarding.

Over the past couple of weeks, I tried experimenting with energy output re: work time/social time/rest time/de-hoard time & I tipped too far on the work & social side, which took away from my quality of rest & de-hoarding ability.
It's okay... I've still managed to make progress, but it doesn't feel like it's as much(or maybe just not as consistent-?-) as I was able to do in May & June. I've been maintaining the areas I have cleared & been regularly cleaning them, too (& that's like a FIRST for me EVER!). Just haven't cleared another large chunk of space again yet -- just little bits/spaces here & there. Regardless, I guess I feel more comfortable when I have a bit more of a weekly plan in place.
Think for this week it is time for me to simplify -- Here's my simple plan for the week: 2 (15-min) timed de-hoard work sessions/day, & by next Sunday night, I'll have delivered at least 1 donation to AmVets & 1 to the Humane Society. Anything beyond those goals & maintenance, I'll consider "icing!"

Makes me happy reading about all of the accomplishments here!!!
Keep up the great work =)

Diane (((hugs))) 🙂
When I finished reading my Granma's journals I felt the need to burn them.
There was nothing bad in them but some of my Grandparent's friends are well known figures and I did not want Granma's personal remembrances to ever be made into a book or movie.
Her journals were her own personal experiences.
The hardest entries to read were when her 21 year old daughter died the same week I was born.

Back here on the farm.............
I have been telling him to ALWAYS close the gate behind him and too often he doesn't.
Fortunately, it's only one horse in my yard today.
In the past I have had over two dozen cattle grazing in my garden.
Sure, they leave good fertilizer behind but by the time they get finished there are no plants to fertilize.

Been playing music all morning. 🙂
Dancing and singing at times.
I refuse to allow anything to ruin my good mood. 😉

Woke up at 3am and tried to go back to sleep for an hour then got up at 4am, and vacuumed, did dishes, sorted a stack of papers. I wrote on here about reading my moms journals, but that was what woke me up, thinking I wish I would have known how to handle her in a kinder way. I wrote a page in a notebook about the feelings I was having, that helped some. The wood guy was scheduled to bring another cord of wood at 9am today so I was out there watering and cleaning up until 11am, then called him, message machine so left a message. Nice I have this group on days like this, I know the thing to do is look at the feelings and then get back to work. I felt like my mom wrote, nobody really cares when wood guy didnt show and didn't call. My good fortune is too have this message board and less clutter, so I don't have to feel bad for long, and making progress is so healing. Really looking forward to group tonight, reassuring knowing you will be there Tillie. Maybe the stinker will join in!!! Trying to make you frown go upside down!! Reading your post made me realize how lucky I am to be alone, and once clutter is fixed, it really will be wonderful. Thanks to all of your honesty, we can make life better as a clean team!! See you at 5

Good morning 🙂

Janie,
WAY TO GO! on all that cleaning, straightening, organizing and maintaining! 😀
I hate yardsales too and would rather just send the stuff to donation. I'm happy you saved yourself the the frustration of having to handle the stuff again and again and didn't bother trying to sell your boxed up donation stuff 😀

Diane,
(((HUGS)))
I know how emotionally hard it is to read daily journals.
I read my Grandmother's journals.
It is never too late for us to change our paths.
Try to make peace with ourselves and move forward.

Hi Karl 🙂
I hate this waiting.
Happy you had a pleasant evening, hamburgers, YUMMMY. 😀

Hi Ali 🙂
Hope you can make it to chat. 🙂
Take care of yourself and don't over do. (((hugs)))

Hi Roxie,
Keep up the great work. 😀

Well, I have no hope that he will do anything today, or ever.
Wish I had friends. Then I would call them to all come over often.
Maybe he would be embarassed and do something if people were always showing up around here.

My plan for today...
Strip his bed and wash everything.
Only because he gets really pizzed off when I do this. "evil grin" emoticon.
His bed only gets changed at most four times a year.
I absolutely love clean bedding and can't understand why he likes sleeping on stinky nasty sheets.
He will pitch a fit and violently throw things around in his bedroom when he discovers what I have done.
But I don't care. "mad face" emoticon.
The stench keeps oozing out from his room and invading my "no clutter zones" cluttering up my air. ;P

Then at 5:00 pm I will be in chat. 😀
Hope to see you there!

Roxie - I wish I was 30 again!! But reality has me almost twice that age.

Coasting on too little sleep but basically I'm okay. I rallied a little yesterday and got a sink full of dishes washed. Also, although later in the day, brushed my teeth. I could not bear to not have another little X on my calendar. It's working!

Janie, your whirlwind energy reminds me of myself when I was in my 20s and 30s. Now, I get tired just reading of yours and others' amazing work here! Way to go all of you!

Karl, disappointing about your landlord, but we're proud of all your work and your willingness to keep digging in.