PS re your reward smoothie, Diane...when my daughter was here in January she gave me a glass jar of jelly beans that they were giving away at the veterinary conference she attended in Orlando. I stuck it in the back of the closet. Now I am rewarding myself with jelly beans for doing the dishes and cleaning off the counters. They are certainly not healthy but somehow getting the task done does not work as a reward for me, even though I know it "should." Oh well...I know I probably "should" have just thrown out the whole jar anyway, but I do not think they will kill me.

Peace,
Kathy

SLOW PROGRESS DEPT. In 2002 I bought a book called Cut the Clutter and Stow the Stuff, which suggested making an inventory of things you collect, like in my case, books. I had 2400 books approximately at that time. I kept decluttering, selling, donating books. I just did a recount yesterday and I have 1410 approx. in the house now. I know I got rid of more than a 1000 books. The problem is, they keep coming in ..I guess that is better than the count going up, though. And I cheated by getting a Kindle. However, digital clutter is much less space-occupying and in my mind is better for that reason.

Hint to those who have ants: They hate cinnamon and will not go through a cinnamon blockade. That is especially helpful if you are sensitive to pesticides, etc. Besides that, spraying them with pesticides if they are the small ones will only kill the workers which will soon be replaced.

I've been keeping up with the dishes and laundry. Need to find time and energy today to go grocery shopping and put away groceries.

Peace,
Kathy

This morning I cleaned up lots of stuff in house and yard, nothing like the pressure of a visitor to get us moving. Kathy I appreciated your reminder to throw things away for practice, helped me toss some things that did not belong in my life anymore.
LR bet you look all fancy in your new stuff, sure hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip. Barb, are you relaxing on your new sofa? After the all the prep work, hope you love new sofa. Tillie, piss ants, and a whole army of them, sounds like no fun at all.
I kept smelling something rotten, discovered it was a rotten potato at the bottom of bag I bought last week, took a few out of the top to keep, threw the rest away. Got it out in time for garbage pickup.
Just had my "you did good work today" smoothie. It is cooler than yesterday. May get a second wind. Still have a few dishes to wash, clean counters and a few other things. Did wash bathroom floor. I am doing so much better than a year ago. Clutter creeps back in, then have to have a visitor, then can see it. I am still blind to clutter at times. Getting better though.
Roxie, good you are feeling better and have some energy now. My garbage and recyling carts are still at the street. Tillie having fun this weekend is a genious idea. My new loaner dog is very small I hear, so I could easily take her and me to a lake for a day.
Would like to wash and wax car and vacuum. When I got in it yesterday, was very aware how dirty it looked from all the smoke that settled on it from fires, clear air now.
My mouth is much better, now just a small area is swollen, might be bone chip, not constant pain like it was, so happy to have no problems today. Hugs and clinks to you wonderful support people!!

LOL Piss ants? Is that a species? My father used to use those words but in a derogatory slam at someone. hehe

Coffee cup salute!

Good Morning Everybody! 😀

TTYL 😀

Barb: Hope all goes well in this last stretch of the race to get ready for the sofa!

diane: Congrats on so much work. Yea that the modem situation is all finished now (old one out, new one in and working)! I'm happy that you got to see your old friend. When that sort of thing happens with me, it helps put me in touch with the "me" that somehow got lost years ago, the "me" that was more social (although I've never exactly been a social butterfly) and the "me" that felt so much more positive about herself. Hope things with the new dog go well.

Kathy: The composition notebook and picture frame comment made me chuckle. I think the practice does help.

Me: Later in the day yesterday, I got dishwasher mostly unloaded, laundry dried, wedding gift bought, some bills in the mail, and made a start at (ugh) shopping for a new dress. (I probably did some other things I forgot about.) Was very tired in the evening. Tried to go to sleep early, but that didn't work out so well. I spent some of my awake time looking around on the Internet for ideas of where to shop for shoes that would be dressy but that have better support than some I currently own. I freely spend money on some types of things, but good shoes (ones that are good for my feet) usually are not on the list. Need to rethink my spending priorities.

Goals for this morning (after breakfast and such) are to get outside before it's too hot and get a lot of things (like tools) out of my vehicle in prep for my little trip tomorrow. I also need to get the wedding present wrapped, and I need to finish getting the stuff together that I'm going to wear for the event. I might stop by a certain local shoe store (one that sells high-quality shoes) and see what they have in stock that might be good for me. I also need to add to my gratitude list and put away laundry.

Iced tea clink to your coffee mug, Roxie.

Up at 5:45 a.m. and having cereal and coffee before I make one last ditch effort on the living room. The sofa delivery men will be here between 9 and noon.

This morning I painted the deck railing that I previously pressured washed, scraped, sanded, looks ok. Did dishes, one drainer heaping full, put away when I got home. Still have a few dishes and dog dishes to wash.
Drove to Bend found UPS, dropped off modem and got receipt. Went to Costco and ran into an old friend of mine, we had a great chat, we used to be really close. I went to her wedding 10 years ago, I could hardly believe it had been that long. felt good that she was so happy to see me, and I was to see her.
I bought lots of good food.
watered lawn tonight
was good to get out and about. I will finish dishes in morning and vacuum. New dog is coming in afternoon, so have morning to tidy up.
Laundry is caught up now.
good reading everyone's posts

Hi, everybody...happy for everyone's progress. Mar, finding a mistake before your thesis adviser does is major progress!

Finished the laundry, it's all folded and put away. Finished de-cluttering the bookcase, in 30 minutes; threw away two perfectly good composition notebooks and a 4 x 6 picture frame just for practice. Donations still in the car. Had lunch. Now I am going to rest for a while. Label printer ran out of tape just as I was going to label the large binders in the bookcase. I've got an anniversary card out for my daughter and son-in-law but have to find their new address before I send it.

One of the things I recently instituted is a shelf on a bookcase for things I intend to give to specific people. It now has quite a few items, I think I should put sending them on my agenda.

Peace,
Kathy

Good morning, everyone.

I was really tired yesterday after having gotten relatively little sleep Tuesday night. For that and various other reasons, I didn't get much done yesterday in terms of cleaning and decluttering. I got some good sleep last night, though, so I'm glad about that.

I got out the door before 7am this morning and went out to that rural area to do a little work. Checked on the animals' water supply and worked on getting rid of a few more unwanted (invasive) trees. After getting back into town, I got some more debris out of the yard at my family's home and got the trash can put out for pickup. Am doing some laundry, planning to eat lunch soon, then need to do a little shopping for the event I'm attending this weekend (the one I mentioned on Sunday night's chat).

Hugs to all. May post more later.

Hi Roxie, nice to see you here.
Best wishes for your cardiology appointment!!

Hi Kathy, Barb, LR, Diane and all! Glad for your achievements.

It's time to go, see you later. ((((Hugs for all))))

Good to hear from you each and all, and to catch up on your thoughts and doings.

Later.

Last night I vacuumed the kitchen, living room, dining room, hall and den...using a mask, no asthma flare-up. This morning so far I made a nice breakfast, did my infusion, left a message again for the person I missed yesterday, made bed, put in a load of laundry (which I need to move to the dryer as soon as I finish this post), put the dishes in the dishwasher.

I need to finish getting ready for Sunday's work...declutter another bookcase, take the books to donate to the library. Finish the load of laundry when it comes out of the dryer. The floors and laundry are all new responsibilities as before my once a week help was doing that. I guess I should work on the bookcase before I take the donate books to the library as there may be more...have to put the trash out tonight.

I stopped in on the chat window this morning but nobody was there...trouble with being a morning person on the East Coast. Nice "seeing" RJ and Mar and Vi there before bed last night, though. Keep making progress, friends!

Peace,
Kathy

Today is the final opportunity to clean before the sofa is delivered tomorrow. The living room is not going to be completely clear of clutter. My main goal is to have a clear space for it and make it as easy as possible to get the old one out and the new one in. This work is going much slower than I would like, but I am making steady progress. I am feeling very anxious today.

I am still laboriously typing out messages on my phone so I will keep this short.

Yea for the progress, Kathy. Frustrating that you missed the phone call.

diane: It's so motivating to me to watch you move forward in so many areas. Gives me a lot of hope for me.

Hugs to all.

I got modem packaged up and ready to take to UPS, not sure where that is. I was careful to follow directions about writing info in correct places, and packaging as they said, so hopefully they will stop charging me for it. Tomorrow will take and ship. What a relief to have it hooked up and boxed up. I need to hook up tv so can see in kitchen, then more likely to do dishes, it worked before, also cooked more when I had tv distraction.
sewed a little today, love being creative
watered all plants outside, trimmed edges of lawn and flower beds, cut all dead stuff off, did I already post this? that modem was an emotional drain, silly as it seems now. Tomorrow will also buy groceries. Plan to tidy up things, since new dog and new dog owner will be here friday.
It is still a major stress to have strangers over, especially ones that live in nice houses.
Another money thing I have procrastinated on, will do tomorrow. Have to take receipt to insurance to get $100 that I paid in advance, so it is worth it, just difficult to ask for money, even though they owe it to me.
they are raising premiums by 20% I heard.
so grateful we have this site and each other

Yay for the modem being done, Diane!

I did declutter a desk file drawer. And make the salmon loaf and some sauteed zucchini for dinner, and clean up after dinner (in two shifts, back was hurting).

I am realizing that I am going to have to do something to maintain the floors now that I no longer have any household help. Sweep or vacuum or mop or combinations.

The lawn guy came and cut the lawn and trimmed the hedges and hauled away the lamp post and the brush. The lady from my mom's town's Area Agency for the Aging returned my phone call which I made to her on Monday morning but I didn't hear the phone ring at 3 pm, even though I was home. Very frustrating.

Peace,
Kathy

Yea, diane, for the modem! Whoo-hoo!

As I mentioned in the post yesterday, I didn't plan to do much in terms of cleaning/decluttering. I did go buy more sponges and get a little more work done on the wall-washing project. I also ran a load of dishes. Did some of this during the daytime online chat.

My Tuesday evening event went reasonably well. (I'd used some of the daytime online chat time to help me get ready for that event; I set some fifteen minute deadlines for myself for some of my event-prep tasks to help keep me from getting too perfectionistic as I worked on the tasks. That helped me get the things done much faster than I would have otherwise.

More later, probably. Happy evening.

Tillie so happy to read the report on sweet kitty. You are so good to twinkles.

main goal is to box up old modem and ups it to telephone co. so won't be charged for it after this month. Have to follow their directions exactly so can be credited with return they said, not up for that this moment, but soon.

after many wasted hours on my own, online for help, and finally today got help via telephone-----------

MODEM IS HOOKED UP AND WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now time for a celebratory smoothie in the sun, many days of gray, makes sun look better than ever.
I will join in chat work sessions once I calm down after messing with modem for so long this am, guy was so patient with me, could not understand his Indian accent.
Finally done!!!!!!! When will I learn to ask for help earlier? Hopefully next time I need it!
Today I will be doing dishes, vacuuming and mostly fun stuff if I can remember what is fun!

Good work, Mar! I knew you could do it. Keep writing...I wrote my talk for Sunday this morning. And the lawn guy was here, he will be coming back to do the brush hauling later. I fielded a phone call from my mom about the senior services, fixed a paper jam. Ate breakfast and part of lunch. Will try to do the bottom left drawer of my desk this afternoon and get some rest. And make some salmon loaf for dinner.

Peace,
Kathy

Good morning to all!

I'm happy, just sent to my thesis advisor work he told me, did it faster than I thought 😀

Plan for today: not skipping meds, meals or school, and much writing. God help me.

(((Hugs))) and have a nice day!

I tried to join the chat group tonight but trying to follow the discussion and type on my tiny phone did not work well. I applaud everyone for the work they have done.
I got a lot done today even though my computer crashed and the belt on the vacuum cleaner broke. One trash bag is out. I still have lot to do before the sofa comes on Friday. But I feel good about what was accomplished today.
I hope little Twinkles will feel better soon.

Good evening 🙂

I am exhausted.
Didn't get much sleep last night.
Got up early.
Was going to water outside but it was very dark cloudy and in the low 40s.
Will do that tomorrow.
Spent all day worrying about Twinkles.
The Dr. called me about 11:00am and filled me in on what he had to do and we discussed further treatments to help him.
Twinkles is now back home, hiding under the bed.
He is all filled up with all kinds of drugs.
He has pain meds and antibiotics to start on tomorrow.
Not going to feed him until tomorrow, let his system recover from everything but he does have fresh water available.
Along with a teeth cleaning he had to have two molars and one incisor pulled. Poor baby.
He is a rescue cat, showed up on my porch literally starving to death. At that time he had already had four other teeth out at sometime.
When he came here he brought along a buddy, Marty.
Marty came here having been declawed at some time.
They have lived here about five years now and have given us so much love and enjoyment during this time.
🙂

Good thing that I wrote I dropped off a prescription yesterday on this board, because I remembered to pick it up after reading this. Was too tired last night. This morning I followed through on the phone calls and got my mother (93) signed up to be picked up next Monday and 3x/week to be taken to a congregate dining site for seniors. She just lost her driving privileges, and lives 125 miles from me. Lives alone.

I would have said she has no hoarding tendencies (and I answered 8/10 to Dr. Zasio's quiz and have been surrounded by more or less severe clutter all my life); she has a house that on the surface looks incredibly immaculate and neat; she thinks she is really letting things go if she doesn't make her bed. However, I noticed when I was down there recently that she does have a lot of things stuffed in her closets and drawers and other closed in non-visible areas that is not really necessary or useful.Interesting.

I decluttered a bookcase today and have a stack of books on the donate basket to be gone through to see if any of them are worth selling on Amazon, otherwise they go to the Friends of the Library. I finished the project I had decluttering over my desk and dealt with the items I took down from there.

Other than that I made a couple of meals and made my bed (!) and kept things pretty well picked up today; did a little reading and attended an online meeting and rested a bit this afternoon which may make it possible for me to attend the meeting tonight. Brought the garbage can in and noted that they did not pick up the lamppost I left out there but the lawn man is coming tomorrow and I will ask him to haul it away.

On the "fail" side, I found a book in the bookcase, hardbound, that I just bought again and got in the mail yesterday the paperback edition (blush).

Peace,
Kathy

finishing up breakfast after i spent a lazy morning in the shower, today is kitchen and dailies and bedrooms. If the sun comes out we'll go to the back yard and pick it up a bit, if not we might pick up the living room.
In Chat today working with a few people. Kids are home for the Summer so I may be afk unexpectedly, no worries, I will be back

Good to read all the work getting done. Thank you for sharing. Brother left yesterday. He got a lot done and now I am tired. 🙂

Good morning, everyone.

Barb: I'm sorry about your computer issues! Bummer!

Tillie: Wow! Sounds like there has been a bit of cooperation in your household! That's nice! Hope Twinkles gets much better soon.

diane: Glad you got so much done yesterday. Glad you could be at the daytime chat!

Me: I mentioned in an earlier post about my trash that didn't get picked up by the city. Apparently that happened up and down the block. I didn't end up calling the city about it yesterday, but apparently someone else did. It finally got picked up. Now I can fill the trash can up again this week!

I mentioned that I won't be at chat tonight (at least not for most of it) because I have a special (annual) event to attend. Although I will probably do a little laundry and will probably do a little more wall-washing today (once I find where I put my sponges . . . I had them recently!), I'm not planning to spend much time today focusing on cleaning/decluttering. Instead, much of it will be a day of writing and of reflection in preparation for tonight's event. I might pop into our afternoon "work chat" for a bit, though, if anyone is doing that today.

Happy Tuesday!