Day five of five - I QUIT!!!

LOL Just too tired today to get much done. I feel pretty satisfied with what I've accomplished over this break.
In summary:
1. Hung rod in laundry area to hang clothes.
2. Removed damaged drywall section, screwed in replacement section and started filling in the gaps with joint compound.
3. Washed two of the worst walls in laundry room and started washing the door.
4. Applied wood putty to missing wood area on outside of back door.
5. Purchased dog door to install before my trip.
6. Did multiple loads of laundry - and put it away.
7. Decluttered cabinets, counters and island.
8. Did emergency clean up under kitchen sink after garbage disposal came disconnected and leaked.
9. Decluttered under sink.
10. Deep cleaned kitchen
11. Decluttered pantry
12. Kept kitchen clean for FIVE days now! HOORAY!!!
13. Kept computer area clutter down to small amount.
14. Went through all clothing crates in attic.
15. Emptied, sorted and refilled 4 of them.
16. Returned crates to attic.
17. Emptied out closet - NIGHTMARE
18. Only clothes currently in closet are ones that fit.
19. Threw out all shoes that were eaten
20. Emptied armoire, cleaned and refilled with appropriate clothing.
21. Cleaned off top of armoire - got rid of most stuffed animals.
22. Moved small TV and VCR to top of armoire.
23. Sorted and put away all old laundry hanging out on top of dresser, table, dog crate, in two laundry baskets.
24. Did more laundry. (aaack)
25. Bagged up 5.5 bags of clothing that was either old/out of style, or didn't fit/didn't like.
26. Realized how much NICE clothing I have that's only one size away - hmmm...new attainable goal???
27. Emptied out dresser, sorted, refolded, refilled. (except the nylon drawer - just didn't have the guts to face that)
28. Gave away one box full of misc. stuff to neighbors.
29. Visited Bella (dogsat) 8 or 9 times.
30. Groomed Bella - yikes!!! 5 lb dog has more hair than I do!
31. Checked on Shaggy and Coal twice while Priscilla did an overnight visit to new grandson.
32. Sat with neighbor's son for an hour or two while his wife was in ER with MS crisis.
33. Made bed every day.
34. Made pot of soup tonight.
35. Weeded one of the flower beds.

and #36... TOOK A FOUR HOUR NAP TODAY!!!

DA DA DA DAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Not too bad for one 5 day cleaning spree.

Day four of five

Wow - I'm getting tired. I added another half bag of clothing and two afghans to the donation pile - along with several stuffed animals. The small TV and VCR are now on top of my armoire. I've checked EVERY box in the attic to make sure there are no more stray clothes hanging out up there (none found!) and put the packed plastic crates back in the attic. I spent three hours this morning making the rounds on the dogs I was watching. I groomed Bella while we watched a movie. THAT was a job! She matts as badly as Dusty used to - thank goodness she's just a tiny 5 lb thing. It took me over two hours to get her all combed out and beautiful. Poor little thing was really missing her family...

I have also kept my kitchen tidy from the cleanup I did two days ago - I think 48 hours is a personal record for me! Slowly I'm running laundry through and putting it away. Yecch. The dining room table is my launch pad right now. I have a pile of stuff to go to Jennifer's, a pile of stuff to go out to the car on the next trip outside (donations), and assorted stuff that goes in that general area that will get taken care of when I concentrate on the dining room. I'm trying to stick to one room at a time for cleaning while maintaining what I've already done.

I have one quilt that's all torn up and badly worn though it's only a year old. I think I'm going to store that in the trunk of my car for dog trips, picnics, etc.

I'm going to go work on the bedroom again and see if I can unearth my bed without shifting piles from one surface to another. If all goes well, I'm hoping to graduate to vacuuming by tomorrow! :-D

Day three of five

FIVE kitchen garbage bags full of clothes to be donated. 3 crates packed with clothing that is (for most part) one size down and I still like. Am working on taking control of my body as well as my space so hopefully by the time I have a fully decluttered home, I can start decluttering my current clothes in favor of those in the crates!

Have gone through 3 attic crates, one closet, one dresser, and an armoire. Still have 3 piles of clothing and the last of the current laundry to sort. Can actually move items in the closet again! HOORAY!!!

This was all after spending the morning with my friend Carla and her daughter Rebekkah who is turning into quite the little photographer's model. We took her out to Chickamauga Battlefield so Carla could meet up with a newly discovered relative, to lunch, and then for a play session at Warner Park playground. I can't WAIT to see how the pics turned out!

On top of that, I've been checking on three dogs in two different homes while their owners are away, and helped my neighbor get his wife to the nearest ER - she's quite ill.

All in all a very busy, and productive day! I'm so tired, I'm not tired anymore....

Day two of five

I'm not feeling so productive today. I've accomplished some stuff, but not much I can really look at and say WOW I really did something! I spent a large part of the day in my car. I went to work to pick up my pay stub, visited the bank to make sure my records had been corrected (bank error), and went to my friend's house to pick up her little dog to take with me as I ran the rest of the errands. (She's out of town and little Bella was feeling very neglected. ) We went and comparison shopped for a dog door to install at my house and finally went back to buy one at the first store I went to, stopped by my insurance agent to make sure my coverage covered the antiques I recently inherited, and bought some dog treats at the Aunt Sue's Pet Bakery (This dog is SO spoiled! LOL)

I KNOW I got stuff done today,and it was necessary stuff, but when I got home at nearly 5 pm, my house still looked as terrible as it had this morning.

I guess I'm getting stuff done, it's just not stuff that has visual impact and makes me feel like I've really DONE something. I've just finished mopping the kitchen floor, and I had to put my vacuum cleaner bag (the cloth cover) to soak in the tub to get it clean before I can use the vacuum for anything. That means tomorrow night soonest before it's dry enough to use. :-(

Leonard got married today...

It feels so weird to know that my brother got married today - and I wasn't there. :-( I wish them both the very best and look forward to seeing them soon...

Day one of five/cleaning extravaganza

My work hours just changed to 3 12hr shifts a week, and I stacked them up so I was off today and don't go back until next Tuesday! HOORAY!

Today, DAY ONE, I finished hanging rod over my w/d in the laundry area so I now have a place to store empty hangers and will be able to hang perm press straight from the dryer. BIG Hooray!

While in laundry room (a converted back porch) I cleaned about half the walls, baseboards and the door to inside house. This area is ALWAYS dirty as I leave the door to the outside open all the time so dogs have shelter while I'm at work. Last year, one dog managed to close himself into this room and then proceeded to destroy the drywall in about a 2x3 ft area trying to get loose. Today I cut down some pieces to fit in that area, used my handy dandy drill to attach it, and I am now in the process of mudding it in! It will be such a thrill to see a real wall there again...

I lost the battle on decluttering my cookbooks - set two little ones and my old Betty Crocker cookbook aside to give to my friend who is teaching herself how to cook. The rest of the cookbooks are really old ones that I got from my grandmother, and/or specialty cookbooks that I may not use very often but keep as references. i.e. The Canning and Preserving cookbook circa 1950. Awesome recipes! Besides I have a big kitchen with a pantry and I'm single. I have room for cookbooks, right?

I had been doing little bits and pieces of cleaning my kitchen (a major disaster area) during my work day evenings, and yesterday when I came home, I had done enough of it that the rest didn't look too overwhelming. I had done a deep clean on the short counter on one side of kitchen so just had the long counter left. I did all that, wiped down the roller blinds on the windows over the sink, and took down, washed and rehung the window sheers in that room.

I think I need a small, easily managed goal for tomorrow, so tomorrow will be bathroom day. It's pretty well decluttered so I should be able to knock it into shape in about an hour or so.

After reading this, I'm feeling like I accomplished more this first 24 hours than I had thought I did - yeah!!! Not a lot of items, but big ones, and ones that NEEDED to be done to allow for better functioning of the rest of the house.

I'll update tomorrow on DAY TWO/FIVE.

"Winter's End" - Happy Father's Day, Dad

"Carole, put your books away and get your stuff to go home. The principal needs to see you downstairs before you go." These words, guaranteed to strike panic into any seven year old's heart, brought me to a state of terror.

"What did I do?" was the immediate question that came to mind as I quickly ran over the list in my mind. I had already been in the office earlier in the week for losing my lunch money, yet again, in the black hole that seemed to exist between our apartment and the bus stop four houses away.

I didn't think I was in trouble. As the perpetual new kid in school, I had quickly learned to keep my mouth shut and my head down. After all as a military 'kid' in second grade, I had already transferred schools three times. My stomach churned - I KNEW that getting in 'trouble' at school was about the worst thing I could do in life. It was even worse than accidentally flushing the baby diapers that Mummy left soaking in the toilet. School could be a scary place. The teachers were strict but I didn't always remember the rules and didn't like to make them mad.

The year had been a difficult one for me. My father, a military man, had settled us near my mother's family while he attended school out of state and then went overseas for a year. The theory had been that she would benefit from the support of her famiy and a familiar location, as she dealt with being, for all practical purposes, a single parent to myself and my two younger brothers, now aged three and one.

For myself, although I greatly enjoyed the novelty of aunts and uncles still in elementary and jr high school themselves, it had not been an easy transition. I had changed schools during the Christmas break and missed my beloved first grade teacher's wedding. To make it worse, after three years of living in the south, I found myself in snow and ice for a winter than never seemed to end. Going outside was a lengthy process that involved extra socks and boots, mittens, gloves, scarves and other clothing items that baffled me. Mummy seemed to be always busy with the babies, and my father's absence was a void in all of our lives. Even the baby seemed to know he was gone.

Slowly, I gathered my belongings and slipped out the door, embarrassed at being the center of attention. The long hallway was silent and every footstep seemed to echo. I stopped in the bathroom on the way out, both to delay the inevitable meeting with the principal, and to give myself a moment to struggle into my heavy winter coat and mittens. Everyone kept saying spring was almost here, but it was winter to me.

Finally, the moment could be put off no longer, and I trudged down the steps towards the front door. Uh oh, there was the principal waiting for me. I must REALLY be in trouble. It took me a moment longer to notice the tall slim man standing next to him, neat and trim in his military uniform, and another split second to realize it was my Daddy. I don't remember the last ten steps or what the principal said, but I'll never forget the feel of his arms around me or how special I felt as he rode me home on the back of his bicycle, all the way up the hill to our apartment, still in uniform. It was spring after all, and my Daddy was home.


May not be copied or published/republished without written permission of Carole Lee, author.

Fuming...

I just got home and I am hot! The rose of Sharon bushes that I have carefully tended for over a year - which were finally a lovely 2 ft tall and soon to bloom for the first time - are now 2 inch nubs. SOMEONE took it upon themselves to mow them down. I am furious!

I should have known it was gonna be "one of those days" when I was woken at 2:30 am by the sounds of Midas losing his supper - thank God, NOT on the bed.

There will be a sign in my yard tomorrow - "WHO MOWED MY BUSHES DOWN YESTERDAY? LEAVE MY YARD ALONE!!!"

Crabby Carole in Chattanooga

Thanks Julie!

Julie pointed me at a website called www.organizedhome.com and it is FANTASTIC! Between reading some of the notes there, and comparing notes with her every day or so on what we've accomplished - I have been kickstarted back into cleaning - and more importantly! - decluttering my home! Of course it looks like a war zone right now - but so far I've gotten rid of the old microwave, emptied out my car, gathered up groceries that I'm NEVER going to eat, carted books off to the used bookstore ($74.05 worth of credit - LOTS of books!) gathered various belongings scattered through out the house and relocated them to their appropriate room (not put away yet, but at least near where they're supposed to be), and come up with a working plan for sorting/storing the piles of paperwork I'm drowning in.

The amazing thing was how much better I felt, just by getting rid of that dern microwave. I didn't realize how much it was bothering me as it was the first thing I saw every time I went into the kitchen.

At last I feel like I'm making this house my home again. My goal is paperwork this week, then next week I tackle the closet/clothing issues. I'll have to be ruthless - and try stuff on all day long (groan) - but it will be nice to see my closet floor again and a relief to not be constantly struggling to find places to shove various clothes and linens. I wonder how many bags of clothes I'll be donating this time?

What's really made this neat is the fact that Julie and I are doing it together. Knowing that I have someone out there who's in the same position and acting as my own personal cheerleader - a favor I TRY to return - makes all the difference in what was formerly a thankless and oppressive job. So - THANKS JULIE!

Yuck

So, here I am with a dang near healthy colon and I'm sick! Go figure. Near as I can tell my body is not appreciating the pinto beans I fed it yesterday and it especially dislikes the cheapo brand cheese puffs I bought a few days ago. Didn't have any problems with the name brand stuff, but every time I eat the cheapo ones I'm sick the next morning. Enough with the colon - I'm as tired of it as I'm sure you are.

So, what else is going on? I've got to get to the post office and mail packages to my folks, my gramma and my friend Julie. As soon as I can safely leave the house, I'll see about getting that done. Also have tons of paperwork I must get done by this weekend. I need to file to get money from my medical reimbursement account, file a grievance against BC/BS and send Prometheus some money to keep them happy until BC/BS straightens out their act and THEN I need to get some other, much overdue paperwork completed and in the mail.

THEN I need to make appointments with the investment guy at the hospital, and with the Business Planning group. Yikes! Just thinking about it all makes me want to just go read a book.

There's also the 3 loads of laundry piled up in the bedroom to be folded, and the half ton of dog fur that needs to be vacuumed before I can mop the floors. I have the sofa half cleaned and need to put the cushions back together, I need to mend a tear on the bedspread before I can wash it again, and I need to shampoo one of the living room chairs where M decided it needed to be claimed. Who has time for a life?! (sigh)

Sorry, just feeling a bit overwhelmed right now and it's easier to think about it than do it! I'll do house stuff now since I can't leave the house - laundry and sofa cushions. If I can get gut under control and go to work then will try to get to post office there and mail out packages today. Will get folks package out at least - just remembered post offices are closed tomorrow so MUST get in mail today. Sure hope I can find Cindy and Noel's address. I've done a lousy job of keeping up with addresses since I bought the house.

I guess I could sell house and buy a new modern econobox house. It'd be so much easier - but no fun at all. Decisions, decisions! LOL Guess I must be alive, I have too much to do to be dead!

Great news from Doctor Yates!

(This is quoted from an email I wrote recently) Got great news from my doc the other day. I will be doing three more treatments of Remicade (IV medication) between now and the end of July and then, cross your fingers, I'll start on another medication to maintain my remission. Yes, Remission! I am down to one tiny little ulcer that is healing dramatically, and, by the end of July, I should have a totally healed, intact colon for the first time in 20 years!!! Every time I think about it I get all happy and excited - I'm not excited about going back to oral medications every day, but being able to eat whatever I want without major consequences is a huge thrill. (end quote)

Knowing that "potty trips" are becoming non-painful again for the first time in what seems like forever is the biggest thrill of all! No more fissures or fistulas and hopefully no more tearing of scar tissue - wow! Childbirth has no fear for me - cramps and the pain of a healing episiotomy (sp?) would be nothing new in my life! LOL

And, for those of you tired of hearing about my colon - too bad. Go find your own blog. (laughing - sticking out tongue). Just remember, I could tell you all about my sex life on this page if I wanted to. Oh yeah, I forgot. I don't have one! (sigh) Time to go to work and earn some more $$. Next month I'll own a few more inches of my house. Hopefully I'll have it paid off before it collapses.

This is the work I just completed on the front walk. 

Back to Normal

Whatever that is! I basically wasted this entire weekend. I did do some shopping on Saturday, but I never even got dressed on Sunday. The weather was horrible - hot and sticky - and I was tired and didn't feel well so I spent most of Sunday either sleeping or reading. Things finally got interesting Monday evening when I went to the outdoor concert and fireworks at Chickamauga National Military Park, but I was actually ready to go back to work. Depressing, isn't it?! LOL

Funny dog story - the guys were roughhousing on the bed Monday morning and T ended up sprawled next to me with Midas straddling him but looking the other direction. Midas did a quick look around, realized the positions they were in and promptly SAT DOWN right on T's back! Poor ol' T was wiggling and squirming and finally wormed his way out from underneath him - Midas never did move! I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the bed. T was not pleased. lol