Any Given Saturday

 Last Saturday, I was (again) home alone for the majority of the weekend.  While there were some 'must dos' on my list for the day, I decided to, for the most part, tackle whatever I felt like doing around those have to do items.  For funsies, I kept a list of everything I did that day.  (Well, not everything, as I obviously didn't record bathroom breaks or brushing my teeth and hair, getting dressed, etc).

Anyway, if you're bored interested, here's what my Saturday looked like on that given day:

I fed horses their breakfast.

I fed myself my breakfast: a couple pieces of ham (I'd put small baggies of 2-4 slices of ham into a gallon sized freezer bag and put them in the freezer last year for such purposes as this) and two chocolate chip pancakes (also from the freezer, leftover from last time the grandkids spent the night).

Then I boiled six eggs and when they were done in the hot water and ready for their cold soak, I 

-went out and turned out horses

-cleaned stalls

-replaced the grossly-full-after-less-than-a-month fly ribbons hanging above the horse stalls

Also before noon, I was able to 

-clean past-their-edible-phase fruits and veggies and non-meat leftovers from the fridge and put them in the compost bucket, which I dumped in the compost bin out by the garden

-clean out the still sorta edible (like not moldy or slimy or gross) but I wasn't going to eat it things like shriveled blueberries, leftover peas (I'd already had some of the peas twice that week), and overripe watermelon from the fridge and give it to the chickens, which I let out of their coop at that time.

-wash and hang two loads of laundry on the clothesline 

-ran down the road to look at some hay I'd been offered to buy off the wagon after it was baled later that day (same family that does my hay was cutting and baling a neighbor's field about two miles away)

-rinsed my cucumbers that had been doing a limewater soak the three times rinsing and resoak in clean water 1 hour each time called for by my go-to customized dill pickle recipe

-set up the canner to heat the water to a boil and also set up another pot with the vinegar, water, canning salt and turmeric brine to simmer.

Then I fed myself lunch, which was two more pieces of ham from that breakfast baggie and some thin-sliced smoked gouda cheese made into a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on homemade bread with about a dozen sweet cherries on the side.

Wow!  I was kind of amazed when I looked at my documented activities from the morning.  Not bad.  I actually had done a lot and wasn't feeling tired/overworked yet.  So I continued after lunch.

I made deviled eggs with three of those hard boiled eggs I'd cooked that morning; the other three eggs I left for eating on salad in the coming days.

I peeled and sliced some short but fat cukes from the garden and made them into refrigerator pickles for DH to enjoy after he returned home on Sunday.

I canned dill pickles made from those cucumbers I'd limed the night before and rinsed that morning.  Three quarts and one pint worth.

While waiting on the canner, I emptied the dishwasher of clean dishes, swept the mudroom and kitchen, and vacuumed the living and dining rooms plus DH's home office.

After that I tallied up how much it had cost to raise the broiler chickens this year.  DS2 and DD1 each had wanted me to raise a few for them with promises that they'd reimburse me the costs of each bird they took.  I was unhappy to find that it cost me $18 per bird--although each bird weighed between 5 & 6 pounds after processing--because my original guesstimate based on last year's costs was only $13-14 per bird.  That extra $3 per bird processing fee having to not use my planned on processor really was a hit.  All the other price increases--like on feed and the purchase price of the chicks themselves--were tiny compared to that.

Plus, I also

-moved a dresser we don't need/use from the upstairs down to the garage so I can get rid of it (will list on local free pages)

-emptied the water in the dehumidifier

-weeded the four rows of peppers in the garden and 4 of the 6 rows of cucumbers

-walked to the mailbox and got the mail

-fed myself dinner of a salad and a protein bar (too hot to feel hungry)

By then it was time to bring in the horses and feed them their dinner.  Once that was done, I

-picked beans, cucumbers and zucchini

-made a chocolate zucchini cake

-loaded the dishwasher

-shut in chickens and gathered eggs

-sat on the porch swing and read Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts while listening to cicadas singing in the nearby trees

--ate a big hunk of zucchini cake still warm from the oven (YUM!)

 And that was what I did with my Saturday.

Happy Things This Week

 While I may not have taken any days off, or gone anywhere that would be considered fun this week (I do not consider the grocery store fun), and I was incredibly busy all week, that doesn't mean it was a bad, draining, unhappy week.

Am I exhausted, sitting here typing this on Friday evening?  Oh heck yes, I'm ready for a twelve hour snooze (as if that ever happens, even on the rare vacation).  The heat and humidity are ramping back up, and I certainly feel that pressure on my body.  But, as tired as I am, I can still see things that made me happy.

For one,--and don't judge me for the first picture, which is partly a before and partly an in-progress photo--I got the master bath shower scrubbed.  It hadn't had a good scouring in about a year (and, honestly, not even a half-assed one in six months or more) and was looking pretty skanky. Gotta love well water, especially iron-rich well water (and yes, we do have a water softener but it can only accomplish so much. . . )  

Part of the lapse was because I was out of my go-to wonderful shower cleaner, and found out several months later that it had been taken off the market (it was pretty potent stuff, so probably not the greatest environmental- or health-wise, but dang it did a good job with hard water stains.)  A different brand was finally recommended to me by someone else who has very hard water, and I was able to get ahold of some of that to try.

Before/During

The after picture looks much more appetizing.  'New' brand did the trick, although it says no scrubbing needed, just spray on and wipe away and I most definitely had to scrub, even with a scrub brush in some areas. Now to keep it this way. Perhaps a monthly cleaning will only require a spray on and wipe away. . . 

After

 I didn't, technically, enjoy scrubbing out that nasty shower, but I am loving how bright, clean, shiny and generally more pleasant it is now!  (Do you think I can give myself a cash bonus equal to what it would have cost to pay someone to do this unpleasant task?)

Much more fun than taking a mineral deposited shower back to pristine brightness (or as close as it gets after almost 22 years of use), was cutting a bunch of black eyed Susans from the front flower bed and bringing them inside to beautify the dining room table.  

The 'vase' is actually an antique blue glass Ball canning jar that previously belonged to DH's paternal grandmother. When she died about 20 years ago her daughters divided up her canning jars and, since they knew I was the only one of this generation (the grandchildren) who cans and preserves food like they do, they shared some with me.  The blue ones I don't use for canning, but use them for display instead.

I have been trying to get DH (and myself) to eat salad of some type--not counting pasta salads-- at least three times a week all summer.  We had an especially colorful one with our dinner the other night (along with marinated and grilled chicken breast from one of our freshly butchered broilers).

After not being home enough the last three weeks to work on anything in the Finish The Tack Room category, DH installed the light fixture I'd bought for it.  It's LED and SO BRIGHT!  But I wanted bright, like full sun daylight bright, because 1) it's a 12' ceiling and 2) there's going to be a 18" or 24" wide shelf around three of the four walls at approximately 6-7' from the floor for storing totes of out of season or otherwise not used daily/weekly horse-related stuff and that shelf is going to kinda block light coming from above.

This is the light I got, with two moveable panels so that I can kind of aim the light 'under' the future shelf, which is where the saddles and bridles will be stored.

Last Sunday evening, DH and I had a small campfire (really to burn some brush and paper garbage we'd accumulated), and while sitting out there watching the fire, I was able to do some knitting.  

Back in March, when we'd taken K3 and Toad to Sedona on Spring Break for a hiking trip, I had started working on a new pair of socks.  It pretty much got a few inches knit on that trip, and then I didn't touch it on a regular basis after Easter.  However, it was to a point that two hours of knitting on Sunday brought me to the needed foot length for beginning the toe decreases. And once you start the toe decreases, well, you get kind of obsessed about just finishing the dang sock already!

I finished the toe and grafted it closed last night while DH was watching TV.  So now I have one sock knit this entire year! Woo Hoo! I'm hoping to at least find a half hour someday soon to cast on and get the cuff knit for it's mate; maybe by Christmas I'll have a pair I can wear.  The yarn is some Trekking XXL that I've had in my stash for probably 10 years.  So if I make it into socks, does that count as decluttering my house?

What 'simple' joys did you find in your week this week?

Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #2

 This is another tip in regards to polo wraps.  I discovered, a while ago, that if I hung my used, sweaty/wet from dew, polo wraps on the hayloft ladder, the breeze coming in the front door of the barn would typically dry them by the time I returned for the night feeding.  Cleanish ones (ie, just damp from dew or sweat) could then be rerolled for use in the next training session.  Dirty ones could go in the house to the laundry and not become a yucky, damp, and potentially mildewy mess by the time I had several sets of polos in need of washing. (Especially helpful when the Poetess wasn't getting worked but once or twice a week and it took awhile to get a load of horse laundry built up.)

When DH built me the new hayloft ladder, I was happy to discover that it not only does the same drying task handily, but that it also performs another service: it holds the wraps fairly taut when I reroll them. Having them be taut makes the task so much easier!  

I attribute the difference in tension when rerolling to the fact that the old ladder was propped up and at more of an angle than the new ladder, which is installed pretty much vertically.  Whatever the reason, I'm loving how handy it is for both drying and rerolling the wraps.

So, for those of you who might also use polo wraps on your horses, and who have a ladder in your barn, my tip is to put the ladder to use as a wrap dryer!

Low-Key Cleaning

 Recently, DH said to me "I have an idea, kind of a New Year's Resolution but let's start on April 1st, since the year began almost four months ago.  My idea is, everyday, let's find something to throw away.  Something that's been laying around that is either junk, or broken that we're never going to fix since we haven't all ready, or things we don't even know why they're here anymore."

Since he's usually one to not clean until he gets this fit to clean an entire room/garage/basement NOW and it takes an entire day or weekend and involves me no matter what I'd actually had in mind for that day/weekend, I though this dispose of one thing per day idea was a great one.  Something that's low-key, should be fairly easy to maintain, and over time will result in less clutter.  Plus, it's a good way to start a new habit: looking at what he/we tend to save and learn to let go of it sooner rather than years (or decades) later.

So far, so good.  Some days I see two things and I throw them both away rather than saving one for tomorrow.  And he's managed to see/find one thing each day no matter how busy his day is; like the day he had to go to work in person plus had a Board of Ed meeting that evening and was gone from home 11 hours of the 16 he was awake.

I have to admit, in case the obvious trash-bound items start to get harder to see on casual observation, I jotted down a list of things to look through, or places to look for long-forgotten unnecessary items.  Like the drawers in the low-table that's been down in the basement for about a decade and a half.  What's even in those drawers??  I haven't opened them in at least five years.  More than likely everything in there can go.

Since we tend to keep stuff until it's totally worn out, and even beyond that point, most of our destined for the trash can items are not in any condition to rehome. "Good" stuff with life left in it is going in a different place; a box that will either be donated to a charitable organization or listed online for free/cheap once a month.

Another low-key cleaning method I find myself employing when I don't want to be overwhelmed by the concept of doing one room top-to-bottom (mostly in the case of decluttering a room) is what I think of as stream-of-consciousness  cleaning.  I'll start in a room and say "What doesn't belong in here?"  Then I'll pile together anything in that category that go together in a different place (say, papers needing to be filed).  I usually end up with a couple of piles. Once I've been around the room, I'll take the biggest pile and put it in the room it actually goes in. While I'm there, if I see something in that room that doesn't belong, I'll grab it and put it in the spot/room it does belong.  Then I'll return to the first room, grab another pile, and repeat the process.  

If I actually get the first room done, all piles removed and put away properly, if I still feel like cleaning or have time in my designated cleaning time slot to spare, I'll look around whatever room I ended up in (the final pile from the first room) and ask myself the key question "What doesn't belong in here?" And the pile-making begins again.

It's kind of backward from what most cleaning gurus recommend to do, but sometimes it's the only way I can stay motivated to finish a room.  By leaving the room even for a few minutes and then coming back to it, I feel less like it's a dreaded task I have to fulfill and more like something I want to do during that time slot.  Like I'm not restricted to that spot until the room is spic and span (which makes cleaning feel like a dreaded task) but that I'm free to come and go at will, as long as I take something with me and put it away while I'm gone.

Yarn Thief, the Mighty Sheet Hunter

 There's a game the Yarn Thief and I play each week when I change the sheets on my bed. For some reason, she loves it when I take the old sheets off and put the new sheets on.  She watches, with huge eyes and a swishing tail, as I strip the bed.

Then, as soon as I grab the clean fitted sheet and start to unfold it, she leaps onto the bed and starts grabbing at the corners. Often times, I manage to get the sheet unfolded and spread out onto the bed, then tuck in the corners without encountering a claw.  Other times, there's blood shed.

Typically, the Yarn Thief ends up between the fitted sheet and the mattress.  She'll sit there, an unmoving lump, until she hears me step away to get the top sheet. Before I can start unfolding the top sheet, she shimmies herself, under the fitted sheet, to one edge of the bed and pops out onto the floor. Where she readies to spring into action for battle with the top sheet as I try to smooth it out onto the bed.

After that, it's a race to see if I can get the top sheet centered, smoothed, and tucked in without her claws finding my fingertips.   Some times I win.  Other times, I try not to bleed on the clean sheets.

Repeat with the blanket, but not the quilt, as that one is heavier and doesn't lend itself to being shifted into crookedness by her paws.  She does, however, like to be made into the bed and will sit under the quilt until she hears me walking out of the room.  At which point she will crawl out from under the quilt and settle herself on top of it for a nap.

Until next week, when the game starts again.

To Find Order, First You Must Make a Mess

At least, that's how it seems to go for me. Whenever I'm doing a deep clean, or reorganization, or just plain trying to get things back into the system that works for me (versus reacting to everyone else or everyone else cramming their stuff willy nilly into my system. . .) things get messy before they get clean.

DH has been working long hours again lately, including days away traveling. So, I took that opportunity to trash our living room.

Well, destroying the living room wasn't really the intent, but it was a side effect of the project.  What I really was focused on was cleaning out the closet in the 'sewing room' aka my sons' old bedroom aka the bedroom Toad sleeps in when the grandkids are here overnight.  Through the last several years that room and closet have become increasingly crammed with stuff.  Most of it intended for sewing or knitting or quilting, but yet, it was a jumbled chaotic mess.

First, I pulled out all the bags and boxes and piles of old jeans (worn out at the knees, or in the thighs, or with broken zippers) that my grown children have graciously bestowed on me in the last handful of years.  They knew that no longer wearable jeans are the base material for denim quilts, and that I'd also mentioned maybe trying my hand at throw rugs made from jeans, so of course they would gift me with this resource rather than tossing them in the trash.

Except that with the exception of the quilt I made DD1 & Honorary Son for Christmas, I hadn't made a jean quilt since 2008.  For the Christmas quilt, I used part of a bin of old jeans that have been around that long.  Ones I'd already cut the unusable parts off of.  So the 'new' old jeans that have come in since 2014--when I cut up the other batch and put them in the bin-- ended up in a hodge podge of piles, cartons, etc. Where ever they could be stuffed at the time that the sewing room/bedroom needed to be usable for an overnight guest.

What I ended up with, once I'd rooted around and found every last pair of jeans, was a pile more than knee deep on my living room floor.

whole lotta jeans

 A pile that I commenced to reducing by cutting off the unusable parts, and setting aside the legs, which are what I sew with.  That tallied two 13-gallon size trash bags of scrap to throw away, and an entire 18-gallon tote of denim for future quilts or rugs.

trash

denim fabric

Once that task was done, I moved on to my stash of fabric.  Again, I rooted through the closet (and piles here and there about the house) until I found every last piece of fabric.  All of it went to the living room where it was sorted by type: cotton for quilting/sewing, canvas/duck, flannel, corduroy, fleece, etc; and by color.  I have so much fabric!!  Way too much fabric.  But, that's what happens when things become a disorganized mess and you don't know what you have.  Plus, well, I have grandkids and cute fabric is cute fabric and I can't resist buying fat quarters and entire yards with the intention of making it into something the grandkids will love.

It's a good thing I did this while DH was out of town, because I had fabric everywhere while I sorted it.  The living room really wasn't usable for sitting or watching TV for a couple of days.

DH definitely could not have sat in his chair

or on the loveseat

or the couch (except for note "my" spot is clean, so I can knit, LOL!)

Even the ironing board got brought down to the living room temporarily.

While the sewing room and closet aren't totally done yet, all the major stuff in them (jeans, fabric, and old stained & outgrown knit shirts--for future rag rugs), have been sorted through and organized by kind.  It's a good start on reclaiming use of my sewing room.  Although, honestly, I've been thinking for over a year now that maybe I should move my sewing space into the basement (maybe once DD1 has moved all her belongings and household goods from it to her own house) and set up the sewing room with bunk-beds, toy box and bookshelves and turn it into a grandkids visiting space.

Yarn Along: March

I am joining Ginny today for the monthly Yarn Along.

In the past month, I've done quite a bit of knitting.  I started two projects: a pair of Cadence socks with the yarn my Mom sent home with me in early February, and a Beachcomber shawl destined to become a birthday present for Surprise next month.

My intent was to work on them simultaneously; on the socks because I'd gotten the urge to make socks while finishing the Kempii shawlette I talked about in February's yarn along post, and on the Beachcomber shawl when I was in need of something with larger needles. No hurry on either one as long as the shawl was finished in April.

What I found was that once I'd started the shawl, it was quite addictive with it's color changes, stripes, and lace panels and I pretty much worked on that alone until it was finished in less than two weeks.  It is still in need of blocking, but looks pretty good even without it.

I really loved the ease of this pattern, and just the whole look of the shawl.  It's big, asymmetrical, and being knit in a cotton/linen blend, is lightweight for the size.  I envision making at least one more of these--DD1 saw it in the works and loved it--and have a new color combo in mind for one for myself (someday).

Once that was off my needles, I turned back to my barely started sock for Mom.  I had made these socks before, for myself, and once I got into the charted part of the pattern, I remembered that these, too, are addictive knitting.  The charts are easy to follow and knit up pretty quickly.  So quickly that I'm nearly done with the first sock.

Kind of funny that when I made them the first time, in 2016, I talked about how I'd probably make this pattern again in the future.  You see, when I went to give my Mom her fingerless gloves for her birthday, I happened to be wearing my Cadence socks.  And when she gave me this current skein of yarn and requested that I make her a pair of socks 'when I had time', I asked if she had a particular pattern in mind.  She replied: "I like the ones you have on.  Could you make a pair like those?" So, I guess it's fate that I am making Cadence socks now.

In addition to a lot of knitting, I apparently did a lot of reading this past month too.  In the photo above, you can see the book I am currently reading: Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver.  I have read some of her books before, and enjoyed them, but because of the topics and tone (so real) I have to be in the right frame of mind to read her works.   This one is really good so far, and yet personally touching me in a way that makes me hope I can continue the book all the way through; I might have to set it aside for a while.

The books I read and finished since the last yarn along are:

1. The Girl on the Dancing Horse  about Olympian Charlotte Dujardin.  It was interesting, yet not quite what I had thought it would be.
2. How to Walk Away by Katharine Center.  This book I could not put down!  I literally stayed up until 1:30 in the morning to finish it--and I am not a night owl.  I will definitely be looking for more books by this author.
3. Naughty on Ice by Maia Chance.  Another Prohibition Era murder mystery by the author I discovered last fall.  Her books are funny and intriguing.
4. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. She is another author that I greatly enjoy.  The depth of her stories is amazing.  I cannot imagine the hours of research she must put into her fiction-yet-almost-nonfiction story lines.

I've also thumbed through, but not yet read, the latest issue of Taproot, Issue 31: REVIVE.  In it, I found the perfect pattern for a needed item I'd recently told DH I wanted to make: little knit coasters for under the metal feet of his recliner.  I'd crocheted some (kind of ugly and very free hand thought up with no pattern) years ago for under the legs of our couch, but did not make any after purchasing his chair.  It had occurred to me, a few weeks ago, that those little coasters not only keep the couch legs from scratching the wooden floor, they also make it really easy for me to slide the couch out and back when I want to clean/mop underneath it.  Something I cannot do alone: move DH's big heavy recliner to clean underneath it.

Wouldn't you know that this newest issue of Taproot has a pattern for knit hexagons (which are knit in the round, then blocked into hexagonal shape) to make afghans, hot pads, throws, etc out of.  At approximately 6" in diameter, and left as circles, they are the perfect size and thickness for furniture coasters.  Yesterday, I made three, and today I am working on the fourth.  Then I'm going to get DH to tip up his chair so I can put them under the feet, and forever more I shall be able to slide that chair around to clean the floor underneath!

Blessing in Disguise

Injuring my wrist has been frustrating.  It has really limited the sorts of things I can get done around this little place here, just when there are tons of outdoor and indoor tasks needing to be taken care of.  Anything involving pushing or pulling with my right hand is out.  Anything involving carrying more than a few pounds with my right hand is out.   So, no weeding, no scrubbing, no kneading bread, no carrying of furniture or boxes as DD2 packs and leaves for school and DD1 unloads the rest of her boxes and furniture that she is moving in.  No stacking firewood, no carrying rocks from the area by the road that DH is cleaning up of dead trees and brush and discovered a rock pile just under the surface.

But on the other hand, it has been a blessing in disguise.  I have had a lot of downtime since I can't be physically going all out like I normally do when there is so much work to be done.  I've used that downtime for a lot of mental tasks, such as planning and researching.  I've also been able to keep up on the food processing that so far needs to be done.  

Peas have been picked, shelled, blanched, and packaged for the freezer.

Green beans have been picked, topped and tailed, snapped, and canned in the pressure canner. It's been a few years since I actually canned beans, and boy, was I so glad yesterday that I had gotten down to business and processed this current batch.  The kitchen smelled so good, of canning beans, and it took me back to summer days in southeastern Ohio helping my grandmother put up green beans.  Some great memories there.

The handful of ripe cucumbers were caught at the perfect size for making refrigerator pickles, rather than getting overlooked until they are golden yellow because I was too busy weeding and working to do a daily check of the cucumber row.

I've picked my Red Haven peach tree at just the right moment, and been rewarded with delicious, juicy peaches to eat fresh, to can, and even to share with a friend.

Broccoli heads are cut at the right time, instead of several days or a week later, when I have to cut out the open flower buds.

I've 'found' zucchini before it gets to baseball bat size.  We've even eaten small ones in shish kebabs on the grill!

On the planning front, I've spent time with both daughters helping them sort through their things and decide which items they no longer want or need, which items they use regularly, and which items are things they don't use now but will in the future that can be better stored in the attic than in the house.  Slowly, this house is getting a little less cluttered, and I'm feeling a little less anxious.  I feel like, bit by bit, I'm getting things back under control again.

Also on the planning front, I've made a few lists of easy projects DH and I can do to help finish rooms and make them more functional.  It's hard to believe that we've lived here nearly 14 years and still have a woeful lack of storage and use of vertical space.  All those 'little' things that we said we could finish once we moved in, yet life with four kids happened and so we either had no time or no money (or both!) to work on those seemingly inconsequential things like the floor to ceiling bookshelf for the study, or an actual room with walls for the laundry room (instead of a counter held up by 2" x 4"s butted up against the washer and dryer in one corner of the basement).  Even a nice shelf or two in one of the bathrooms would help it operate more easily and look less messy (and keep the floor and counter area empty for quick cleaning and washing on a regular basis).

I've even done a little bit of knitting on the sock I started in Alaska.

When I first injured my wrist, I was really overwhelmed at the thought of how far behind I was going to get in chores.  But, really, while I'm behind in some things, I've gotten ahead in others.  And, since DH feels kind of like he's to blame for my injury (I'd asked him to have DS1 come help instead of me having to lug furniture into the house), he's been helpful on the important tasks, and not complaining about the ones that are being left undone until my wrist is healed.

More Tiny House Thoughts

I'm calling it tiny house, as it has been prompted by me spending roughly two weeks in a 32 ft RV recently.  A 32 ft RV, while being as long as my house--although that was bumper to bumper, not necessarily interior space--is less than maybe 1/3 the width of my house. Which meant that while we had three 'bedrooms', a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining 'area' and a living 'room', every room was small and narrow.  One bedroom was essentially two bunks on the wall that slid out when the camper was parked. When not parked, those bunks ate a lot of floor space, leaving you a hallway with a width of about 18", maybe, to access the bathroom and rear "master" bedroom.

 A house on wheels, but a very cramped house indeed, without adding people and their belongings.  (Occupancy on this trip varied from 3 to 8, depending on the day, as DD1, Honorary Son, DS2 and two of his friends came and went based on their own vacation plans.  DD2, DH and I were the constants).  I think even if it had been just DH and I, I still would have found it rather more confining than I am comfortable with.  Even so, it wasn't all bad.  While I found many drawbacks (or not-so-good things), I did appreciate the good things of living in an RV/tiny house.

Good Things:

• Less area to get dusty/have to clean.  Who wouldn't love spending less time cleaning less space?
• Everything has an assigned place to be kept.
• Belongings are kept to just the necessities.
• You really think twice before you buy something that requires indoor use or storage.
• You can't put off cleaning up.

Not-so-good Things:

• It looks cluttered very easily.  One thing out of place, one book left on the table, one pair of shoes next to the door, one shirt discarded across the bed and it's a pigsty. . .
• Similarly, it looks/feels dirty very easily.  Walk across that short expanse of flooring six times, and you can practically hear the dirt crunch under your feet.
• Teeny tiny bathrooms without windows don't dry damp (used) towels very well.  Teeny tiny showers are hard to bathe in (forget shaving your legs in the shower).
• No work area, per se.  Counter space is usually nil in a tiny kitchen, and that means doing any sort of batch cooking or baking, or even prepping a meal with many parts is practically impossible.  Unless you want to turn your table, sofa, bed, etc. into somewhere to temporarily hold cooling baked goods, or veggies chopped for stir fry, or even the different parts of a salad before they are all combined in the serving bowl.  Forget trying to make bread; nowhere to knead it.
• Similarly, not much food storage.  I'm not fond of shopping, and going to the grocery store every other day doesn't appeal to me much. But there is only so much cupboard space for bread, crackers, fruits and veggies, nuts. . . The fridge is similarly small, as a typical house-sized kitchen refrigerator takes up kind of a lot of floor space.  
• Also similarly, not much area for serving food.  So, unless you like casseroles, it's kind of hard to serve all your dinner components at the same time.  Me, I prefer to eat my veggies at the same time as I eat my meat, and it's really nice to be able to build my own taco or burrito with as many parts as I like rather than just tortilla-meat-beans-cheese.

I think that what I should take from this recent experience is to use the Good Things as concepts in my regular house.  Maybe not the less space to need cleaning, as I can't really cut down the size of the house at this little place here.  But, the other four ideas I can utilize:

1. Everything has an assigned area to be kept.  This is a motto we've tried hard to have through the years.  But, it's not always easy, and with the kids grown up and being mostly transient (dorms, apartments, shared rental houses and sometimes short stints at this little place here), we find ourselves with a house that has gotten pretty full.  To the point where "this is DS2's, it gets stored in his old room until he gets a permanent house of his own" and "well, sure DD1 doesn't have room in her current apartment for this (couch, end table, box of cookware/serving dishes), but this is something that will be useful in her next home, so we'll toss it in our basement until then" has resulted in being really cluttered up with stuff that is irrelevant to my and DH's daily lives.  It also, since the kids' old bedrooms and now our basement are so packed with things that are being stored, makes it incredibly hard to keep those areas cleaned and dusted.  If you don't see the corners of the floor for two years (or more), you can't sweep them or keep the cobwebs from forming.  I think I should reassign areas.  Former childrens' bedrooms should be for those (now adult) people to sleep in when they are here; as well as any other overnight guests we might have when they aren't.  Their stored belongings should go elsewhere.  Like the attic.  Or maybe a shed.  (I not so jokingly told DH a few months ago that this year for Christmas we should buy each of our offspring a shed.  A shed that would be kept here, lined up in a row with the sheds belonging to their siblings.  And all their belongings that are being stored at this little place here could be kept in the appropriate person's shed rather than taking up room in my house.)
2. Belongings are kept to just the necessities.  This kind of ties in with the personal shed idea.  DH and I don't need extra pots and pans, books, camping gear, end tables, dining room table, etc.  Heaven knows we've accumulated just about all that the two of us need by now.  Why keep all those extras in our living space?  But also, we need to make sure that we aren't buying more items than we actually are going to use.  I have to confess that I'm rather guilty of having more crafting stuff than I've actually had time to make use of in the last handful of years.  Clothing, too has gotten a bit out of hand.  As I had less kids to have to outfit, I've fallen into some impulse buying where clothes for DH and I are concerned.  I need to go back to only buying needed wardrobe items rather than "ooh, I like this, and it's on sale/found secondhand/otherwise cheap".  Which ties in nicely with the next concept:
3. You really think twice before you buy something that requires indoor use or storage.  Yep, that sundress at Walmart is cute, but I all ready have a sundress or two that fit, and more closet space, not less, would be nice.  That polo shirt at the thrift shop looks just like new and is DH's size, but remember he has about a dozen polo shirts all ready. And fabric, oh fabric!  Being a quilter I am a sucker for even small cuts of fabric that I think would be nice in a future quilt.  Yarn too; I have only been knitting for 4 years, but somehow my stash of yarn has grown to several containers, all of which must be stored somewhere.  If only I actually knit as many pairs of socks as I have acquired yarn for!  DH isn't much better, the garage is filling up too with things that seemed awesome at the time, but have gotten little or no use and still need a place to be kept.   We need to stop doing that.  Use up the old first, before bringing in new.
4. You can't put off cleaning up.  When there is lots of space (or you think you have lots of space), it is easy to procrastinate about cleaning stuff up.  Why put away your book when you will just want to read it tomorrow?  Just leave it on the couch.  Same with this magazine, or the newspaper DH isn't done reading. Why go through the mail right now when you can just set it on the counter until tomorrow, when you have more time?  Except sometimes tomorrow is busier.  Or someone else brings in the mail and, seeing the pile all ready on the counter, tosses it there for you to look at later.  And pretty soon there is so much mail you can't even use the counter and you really don't think you have time to go through a stack of mail that huge.

Hmm.  Me thinks I have much to learn.  And apply.  Then maybe I won't feel so overwhelmed trying to keep this little place here cleaned and organized.

The Clutter Has Eaten My Brain

(and because it's great and very relevant theme music for this post, I provide this link for your listening pleasure.  "And the worms ate into his brain.")

DD2 has come home from college.  Her dorm room is now spread between the basement, the upstairs hallway (hopefully cleaned up by this weekend), and the bedroom both daughters shared while growing up.  The same bedroom where K3 and Toad now sleep when they spend Friday nights with us, since it is the only room with two beds.

Meanwhile, DD1's lease on her apartment where she's lived for the past two school years is up.  She is staying in Grand Rapids this summer to work,  and also take a couple final classes so she will be qualified to do her student teaching this Fall and graduate in December.  She found a sub-lease for May through the beginning of August, and rather than move her belongings twice in four months she decided to live rather minimalist over the summer, and brought most of her apartment home to me and DH. (She will most likely be living at this little place here while doing her student teaching as it is unpaid as well as more than full time work, and she will not have any income to pay a lease with, let alone buy groceries or put gas into her car to get to school/teaching and back daily).  Her love seat takes up most of the area in my living room where the toy box and buckets of Duplos for the grandkids to play with have been located since last fall.  The rest of the contents of her former apartment are in the basement (with DD2's stuff) and in their former bedroom (with DD2's stuff, and where the grandkids bunk on Fridays).

I've been trying to reorganize the necessities (a large portion of the grandkid entertainment items have moved into the dining room) so that we can all operate somewhat enjoyably on a day to day basis with all this stuff packed into my house.  But I don't think I can make it work.  Everywhere I look is stuff!  Stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff. . . Even in a tidy arrangement, it's just too much in this living space.  Everywhere I look, everywhere I turn, there's more stuff!  I can't even enjoy my own stuff (books, sewing, knitting, the computer)! My ability to operate, to think clearly, to remain sane, has gone out the window. I have no brain cells left to function.

The clutter has eaten my brain.  (Envision me singing that line like Pink Floyd.  Because yes, that's exactly what it sounded like when I said it out loud).

April Goals

April has lived up to it's reputation (April showers. . .) so far.  I think we've had rain at least half the day 4 days of the six April has given at this point.  At least the weekend was beautiful (and full of outdoor work), and this coming weekend looks promising as well.

With the wet weather, I've had lots of indoor time for thinking and planning.  Some of which has resulted in my list of goals for the month.

1. ride 12 times (barring any more lost shoes or lame horses)
2. lose 2 pounds
3. lose 1" of waist
4. walk 1/2 hr 3-4x week (wonder if walking in the woods with the grandkids on Saturday mornings counts?  I haven't so far because it's been a less than vigorous pace, but then again it is usually an hour or more, so maybe could count as 1 half-hour vigorous walk session?)
5. try 4 new recipes
6. do 1 jigsaw puzzle
7. read 2 books -- 1 non- & 1 fiction
8. 1 hr declutter/organizing per week
9. reduce anxiety
10. finish Peru socks & K3 sweater
11. plant peas, lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots & potatoes in garden
12. put the Quarter Horse up for sale

All of these goals are totally obtainable.  Not one of them is out of the question. (Well, maybe #11 is, since it is more dependent on the weather than the rest of them.  I can't plant seeds into cold,waterlogged soil. . . )

Number 9 seems a little nebulous, but if I said that it could also be listed as "be kinder to myself" or "take a nap when I need to" or "just because I did it when I was 20, 30, 40 doesn't mean I have to do it now at 45" or "just say 'not my issue'" maybe that gives you an idea of what the objective is with this one.  I, more often than not, find myself feeling over faced, exhausted, or with people trying to put more responsibility on my shoulders than necessary. 

DH and I have had a few conversations lately on where the line is between helping and enabling.  Which is sort of ironic since some of the things he would prefer me to be responsible for (versus him being responsible) could fall on the enabling side. I understand that he's kind of overwhelmed at work, but does that mean it's okay to expect me to pick up more of the tasks at home if doing so is overwhelming me? Does he really require 2-3 hours "relaxing" on the couch in front of the TV with the computer on his lap everyday after work?  Or could he, perhaps, do a few chores instead?

I won't even get into the whole when/if/how long each week we should have the grandkids over. . . that is definitely a balancing act between 'for the good of the child' and 'enabling a parent to not change their ways'.  That topic, though, is probably the biggest source of my anxiety this year.  And the impetus for the helping vs enabling conversations between DH & I. There are so many other things I'd rather spend my time with him doing than rehashing the 'what to do about the kids' topic every few days.

Another source of my anxiety is that the population of this little place here will be changing again at the end of April.  And it will be in flux for no one really knows how many months after that.  DD2 will be coming home from college when the semester ends, but then leaving for her study abroad trip a couple of weeks later.  She'll be gone for six weeks, then home for about a month before leaving to go back to college.  Right about the time DD2 heads back to the U.P., DD1 very likely will be moving home again in order to do her student teaching.  Apparently, even though student teaching is an unpaid semester of full time work, those education students doing the teaching are not allowed to work elsewhere (the premise being they are teaching all day, plus doing lesson planning and grading papers in the evenings and on weekends and so have no time for outside employment). As such, with no income, DD1 has requested to move back home for her final semester of college and has asked to be assigned to a school within a reasonable commute of this little place here.  We aren't really expecting her to move out immediately after her graduation in December, so I have no idea, once April ends, when DH & I will return to empty nest status.  There is a strong possibility that there will be a wedding for DD1 and Honorary Son before the nest is emptied again.

So, yeah, I feel that it's important for me to get a grip on my anxiety level before this month is over.  Coping mechanisms will be needed in the future for sure.

Falling Short Again

These were my official March goals:

1. Ride at least 12 times (preferably three rides a week).
2. Walk 1/2 hour 3-4x a week (actually, this was a directive from my Dr. in late February and is in effect until mid-April) plus workout at least once a week.
3. Lose 2 pounds (a February do-over).
4. Lose at least 1" from my waist (also February do-over).
5. Try one new recipe a week (need to eat more meat and veggies and less starch/pasta/potato/rice).
6. Do one jigsaw puzzle.
7. Read one novel and one horse related non-fiction from my book collection.
8. Spend at least 1 hour a week on decluttering/organizing.
9. Put the Quarter Horse up for sale (need to get current nice photos and a video of him being ridden would be helpful to speed up the sale).
10. Knit a sweater for Toad (to be an Easter gift) and at least start a sweater for K3 (hopefully also for Easter, although her end of April birthday will be a backup date).
11. Start my tomato, pepper, broccoli and cabbage seeds.

Now that March has come to an end I see that, like February, I fell a bit short of accomplishing those goals. Honestly, March was a struggle, and so far April has been fairly anxious too.  Not to blame the days I spend with Toad and K3, but a whole bunch of my (previous project/relaxation) time has gone there.  In addition to the hours they are actually here each week--typically close to 24 continuous-- at least another hour or two weekly is spent in discussion with DH that relates to them (or, rather, the parenting they are getting or not getting at home).  It's a tough time.  That's a topic for another post, one of these days, when I feel like I have an answer.  Or, at least, can write about it objectively and not sound like I am bashing anyone. Like I said, it's a tough time.

To update where I am with the goals I set for March is the topic of this particular post, so let's get on with it.

Goal #1, well, I came pretty close.  I had 9 or 10 rides out of the 12 I had set as target.  Could have made all twelve except that the Quarter Horse again lost a shoe, which resulted in three lost days that could have been (and two of them had been reserved as) riding time.  Darn all this rain and mud we've had and continue to have!!

Goal #2.  Nope, nope, big NOPE.  I have failed so bad at this.  My only hope is that the exhaustion and strong heart-pounding I feel after slogging through ankle deep mud to feed a few of the horses (who live in round the clock turnout) at the eventing barn has made up for some of those walks that didn't happen.  Honestly, just getting the morning feed done at the eventing barn and then 6-10 stalls (depending on the day) cleaned at the dressage barn have been leaving me pretty much wiped out on physical activity for the remainder of the day Monday through Friday.  And I can't wait to go back to my Dr. later this month and ask him WHY?!? I am feeling worse in terms of energy level even though I am taking both the D3 and Iron supplements he put me on back in mid-February.  Six weeks should be at least starting to make a difference, shouldn't they?  If those 'lacks' are the real problems (which I'm skeptical they are; I asked for a referral to an endocrinologist and this was the answer I was given).

Goals 3 & 4:  Depends on how you look at it.  On my official weigh and measure day (March 31st) I was up 2.5 pounds from the beginning of the month, and down slightly in measurement of various body parts (ribcage, waist, hips, thigh, upper arm. . .) and I was also on my period.  Normally I wouldn't jump on the scale again until the end of April, but that 2.5 pounds really bugged me, so on April 2nd (the end of my period) I reweighed myself and found that I weighed 3.5 pounds less than I had on the 31st, which meant a loss of one pound in the month of March--and a pretty clear indication of how menstruation can affect your weight/shape.  I didn't remeasure, so not sure what the real loss in inches for the month was.

Goal #5, met.  YAY, I got one!  New recipes were an Amish style chicken and noodles dish, a doctored up corn--who would have thought corn with onion, garlic and chives would be delicious?!? (it was awesome, definitely a keeper recipe and one I will put on the blog), a seasoned green bean recipe, and a dinner (pork chops) recipe I can't remember at the moment.

Goal #6 also met.  Doing a jigsaw puzzle has been a nice mental break. Plus, the drawers of puzzles I have in an old dresser are slowly getting emptied.

Goal #7, sort of.  I did read the novel; enjoyed it immensely.  The non-fiction book got set aside and I will have to decide if I want to keep and finish it, keep it for reference (using the index when seeking the info within) without finishing, or just get rid of it.

Goal #8 I didn't keep close track of the time, but I think I managed to pull this one off.  At least, the "Goodwill Box" in the basement has gotten a little fuller (and should be taken in for donation in April) as well as several non-usable items being disposed of.

Goal #9 has not officially happened.  I guess I did some 'research' on best place/way to market him but I haven't pulled the plug and put up a listing yet.  Partly due to that lost shoe (and resultant lameness) in the latter part of March.

Goal #10 Got this one done!  With the exception of the buttons, Toad's sweater is finished.  K3's is started.  One adjustment to the goal has been made: they will not be Easter gifts (due to how many things seem to get lost and never used at their home) but will stay at this little place here for use when the grandkids need a sweater or jacket here (weather appropriate clothing, or the lack of, is an ongoing issue when they come to visit).

Goal #11  This one also got accomplished as intended!  There are dozens of little green sprouts soaking up the sun in front of the sliding glass door in my living room.

 

To Create, Or To Clean?

That is the question.  Consciously, subconsciously, that seems to be my internal struggle more often than not. It's no wonder that I am so constantly fatigued any more, and that my brain seems to be in a near permanent state of fogginess.

Scenario:  I'm done working at the horse farms for the day. I have my riding gear with me, I could just zip into the barn bathroom and change, then grab my horse and ride.  Yet, I'm tired from working since the sun came up hours and hours ago, and I know more work awaits me at home. Do I ride (create a horse that is a little more athletic, a little more polished in it's training and a rider who is also a little more of each) or do I skip riding and go home to tackle the laundry, sweeping, dish washing, bed making, etc etc etc?

Scenario: I'm home from work (whether I rode or not), I've had my lunch, and there are three to four hours between now and when DH will be home from work (and dinner needs to be on the table, ready to eat).  I have knitting projects, sewing projects, and a counted cross stitch project I could quite happily spend the entire time span working on.  Yet, there are dust bunnies creeping out from under the couch (despite just being evicted last week), a pile of shirts in need of ironing, a cruddy stove top that needs to be cleaned and scrubbed, and muddyfoot prints on the mudroom floor again. (Could we please be done with the freeze/thaw mud cycle of the season?!?) Do I relax my brain creating something lovely with my hands or do I stuff my creativity in the closet for another day and use my hands in less enjoyable pursuits?

Scenario: I have a book calling my name that I've been wanting to read since early January but have made myself finish several library books first, as they have a due date and the book with the siren call is mine all mine.  I know once I start this book, it will be a fast read and that I could finish it in a weekend. Yet, this weekend is also the monthly (FREE!) trash collection at the township hall and I could cut down on a lot of clutter if I rounded up some of the no longer useful/worn out/unrepairable items around this little place here.  Do I grab that book and spent a blissful couple of days in an alternate life as the main character, or do I avert my eyes from the bookshelf, plug my ears, and get down to the business of locating junk to take to the township hall?

Now, this one is really bad.  Scenario:  I have several pair of hand knit socks (some of the first ones I made in 2013) with  worn out spots on heels or balls of the feet.  All they need is to be darned, and they will give me a few more years of use.  I love my hand knit socks.  They fit so well, and they are so warm and comfy.  I have never darned a sock before, but I did look it up last year and the concept seems simple enough.  I'm sure I can do it.  I even acquired a darning egg from one of the local antique malls for a few bucks.  Darning socks could be seen as a chore (fixing something) or as a creative outlet (learning a new skill and 'creating' a usable pair of socks).  Yet, I am the only one who benefits from the repaired socks, and doing a deep cleaning of our bedroom benefits both DH and I.  Do I darn the socks, or do I gut the bedroom, clean it thoroughly, and replace all the furnishings (and closet contents) to their places (and pitching junk into the bin to be taken to the township)?

Most of the time, I automatically choose the less fun option, the chore, the cleaning.  (Oh man, how I hate housework!  I was once offered a job at $10 an hour-- back when minimum wage was $5/hr--cleaning houses and I turned it down because my dislike of cleaning is that strong.  Except stalls; I love cleaning up after horses.  But cleaning up after people sucks.)

It's part a feeling of responsibility and part a guilt reaction (Who doesn't work full time?  Who therefore is in charge of cleaning and running the house?)  This line of thought and action is like torturing myself!  It's like constantly punishing myself by withholding the fun stuff from my life until the not so fun work is completed.  And I have to say, anymore, its like the work will never be completed.  Just when I think I start to get ahead, when I can forecast the ending of the mountain of cleaning, something happens and more is piled on.  DH's work schedule picks up and he is no longer cleaning up after himself, let alone being around to help with heavy household tasks.  A holiday or school break comes and I have a houseful for several days or a week, exponentially multiplying dirty dishes and towels to be washed and food to be purchased and cooked.  We get the grandkids for 24 hours once a week, making not only more things to clean (toys, bedding, dishes, shoes and coats on the mudroom floor. . .), but also taking out pretty much two days from my time that should be spent cleaning.

I can't turn a blind eye, either, because my very nature is that of someone who craves order and organization.  To try to operate in chaos, in clutter, drives me nuts.  So, the more things pile up, be it dust, or DH's unopened mail on the counter, or clean clothes on the laundry counter in need of folding and putting away, or cooking detritus on the stovetop or footprints on the mudroom floor or even couch pillows out of position, the more stressed I feel.  Somebody has to clean this up!  Somebody needs to make order!  Unfortunately, by default that somebody is me.


I dream of a week of vacation. Not the kind of vacation where I go away and then when I get home have to catch up on all the work that didn't get done while I was gone, like every vacation I've ever taken my entire adult life.  A vacation where someone else does the cleaning and all I do is creating.  Whether it's in the form of riding, or reading, or sewing, or knitting, or cross stitching, every waking hour is spent in something enjoyable that lets me satisfy my need to be creative.  I don't even have to do the laundry, because someone else will wash, dry, and put away my clothes for me that week.  I just have to eat (preferably awesome food made by someone else), and create.

Wouldn't that be nice.

I Think That Qualifies as "In Like a Lion"

I don't know about where you live, but at this little place here March came in in a crazy mix of weather.

February 28th was a very warm day with thunderstorms that rolled through after dark.  Strong thunderstorms. With heavy, driving rain.  By sunrise on March first, we had received about two inches of rain.  There was water everywhere (luckily, it all stayed outside), and on my drive to work I noted how much flooding there was in many farm fields.  The water was all the way up to the shoulder of the road in several, and the creek I pass over about a mile from my house had risen to less than two feet of the bottom of it's bridge. Normally there is about a 5 foot difference between bridge and waterline there.

During the day, the wind grew, and on my drive home in the afternoon I noticed that one old barn on my route was blown over.  I'm positive that rickety barn was standing on my way to work that morning, but by afternoon it was a heap of rubble.

Also during the day, the temperature plummeted; and dinner time found it to be about thirty degrees colder than dinner time on Feb. 28th had been.  Now instead of heavy rain, the evening included heavy wet, blowing snow.  White out conditions at times.  Several local areas lost power (thankfully, not this little place here).  And despite the ground having been thoroughly thawed and warmed enough that we had earthworms and spring peepers making an appearance before Tuesday's thunderstorms, on Thursday we woke up to roughly an inch of snow on the ground.  In other words, it snowed so hard that it accumulated faster than it melted when contacting the soil.

Some of the roads were slick and icy for the morning commute on Thursday.  By afternoon, everything had melted again.  Thursday night, however, was very cold, and on Friday morning the ground was frozen, rough and hard.

Given a beginning like that, I am hoping that March will get gentler, and ease us on into Spring.

Also given a beginning like that, I'm a bit hesitant to get too lofty with my personal goals for March!  My original plan was to reset many of my February goals, and add in a few more specific to the month of March itself (such as getting seeds started indoors ASAP).  Now five days into the month, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't overbook myself, because weather conditions and working outdoors every morning during the week greatly affect my energy levels for the latter half of each day--the time I have for working on these goals.

Here are my official March goals:

1. Ride at least 12 times (preferably three rides a week).
2. Walk 1/2 hour 3-4x a week (actually, this was a directive from my Dr. in late February and is in effect until mid-April) plus workout at least once a week.
3. Lose 2 pounds (a February do-over).
4. Lose at least 1" from my waist (also February do-over).
5. Try one new recipe a week (need to eat more meat and veggies and less starch/pasta/potato/rice).
6. Do one jigsaw puzzle.
7. Read one novel and one horse related non-fiction from my book collection.
8. Spend at least 1 hour a week on decluttering/organizing.
9. Put the Quarter Horse up for sale (need to get current nice photos and a video of him being ridden would be helpful to speed up the sale).
10. Knit a sweater for Toad (to be an Easter gift) and at least start a sweater for K3 (hopefully also for Easter, although her end of April birthday will be a backup date).
11. Start my tomato, pepper, broccoli and cabbage seeds.

Goodbye, February

Well, this month has flown by. I know that February typically does, being shorter than the other months after all, but yet this one seems to just have whizzed through my life.

Time to revisit my February goals and see how I did.

My Goals for Feb:

1. ride 16 times (so, 4x p/week)
2. workout (other than riding) at least 2x per week
3. lose 2 pounds
4. lose 1" of waist
5. try one new recipe a week  
6. do one puzzle
7. read one horse book (non-fiction) and one novel
8. spend 30 minutes a day cleaning/decluttering

Goal #1: not met.  The Quarter Horse developed a worrisome cough shortly after the beginning of the month. At rest, he was okay, but when I rode at anything other than a walk he would have episodes of coughing so hard I would nearly lose my seat.  So I gave him lots of rest between rides (riding like once a week) for most of the month.  Counting the weekly lessons I took on T and the few rides on the Quarter Horse, I rode all of 8 times this month.  Which is only 50% of my goal.  On the upside, his cough seems to have resolved itself and the last couple of rides were great.

Goal #2: Started out well, fizzled in second week with busy afternoons.  That was followed by my annual physical, and a couple other appointments for blood work and follow ups, which greatly ate into what 'free' time I'd planned to use for working out. Workouts totaled six for the month.  So, 75% of goal.

Goal #3: Nope.  Scale still says the same number as it did 27 days ago.

Goal #4: Lost 1/2".  Better than no loss at all, but could also be the difference between being bloated or not.  However, I did lose a total of almost two inches off other parts of my body, parts (like upper arms!)which are not subject to bloat. 

Goal #5: Nailed it!  Garlic chicken calzones, a new venison stroganoff recipe, duck tinga (Mexican duck), and banana snack cake.

Goal #6: achieved!

Goal #7: Done and done! Although it took me a lot longer to read each book than I had thought; I used to fly through books and now it seems like it took about three weeks for the non-fiction and a week and a half for the novel.

Goal #8:  Ha ha ha.  Not.  On a daily basis, this was a huge fail.  On the other hand, there were several days that I spent 3-4 hours at it. Overall, it didn't total 1/2 hr per day.  I decided (since we haven't owned a vacuum in eons, not having any carpeting in the house at this little place here) to bring the shop vac in from the garage and suck up all the collected dust/hair/fuzz/whatnot from where the floors meet the walls and the broom or dust mop don't reach into(because DH never installed baseboards when we built the house).  This entailed going room by room, pulling everything away from the walls in order to use the wedge shaped nozzle to vacuum in the small crevice that made up the borders of the room.  Moving stuff out and back (and sometimes sucking up enormous dust bunnies under furniture--like I said in yesterday's post, things got really cluttered and out of control while DS1 & family lived with us, and it is taking me forever and a lot of mental/emotional energy as well as physical energy, to get things decluttered, cleaned and organized) took hours.  Honestly, I've only gotten four rooms, two hall ways and one set of stairs done with the shop vac so far. 


Overall, not a bad month.  I did accomplish quite a bit more than I would have without setting goals. A small part of the house is totally cleaned and decluttered. That's good for my state of mind. (Disorganization is so depressing!)I think March needs some goals too. I'll have to take a look at what's on my calendar and come up with next month's (hopefully realistic)list.