Category Archives: Housekeeping – Maintenance

February 1, 2018 · 2:12 pm

Thursday+ Project

You already know what a slob I am, and that I put lots of things – almost anything – above cleaning stuff out.  I feel the need, however, every 30 years or so, to go through things.  We have NEVER stayed anywhere for more than 7 years. Our first house closing was in 1970. Our second was in 1977. Third 1981, and last 1987.  ( know these dates because of a wonderful wooden plaque my parents had made. It has a mounted champagne cork on one side and a gold plaque mounted on the other with the dates – added to each time we bought another home. We’ve had it on a wall somewhere since 1970 (some 48 years now. :0) ) When you move, you’re forced to go through things, purging, cleaning and reorganizing.

I use the guest room walk-in closet as storage for my off-season clothes. I ALSO use it for our son’s leftover luggage, some memory boxes I created, bedding for the guest room bed, and LOTS and LOTS of other things.

 

My goal is to only have linens for the guest room plus my out of season clothes. Everything else has got to go – either somewhere else, be donated, or thrown away. I plan to spend a couple of days (or whatever is needed) to take the time to go through everything carefully, armed with a large trash can, large leaf bags for donated items, a pen and paper to list what I’m donating, and cleaning supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know. It’s disgusting. It’s a good thing we’re friends, ’cause I wouldn’t show this mess to just anyone….

Wish me luck, please, on healing this.

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Changes, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , ,

January 29, 2018 · 4:35 pm

Monday’s Project Update

Before – I honestly couldn’t get much more IN, and actually had a few things falling on me while trying to take things out. I filled a leaf bag, relocated some things, cleaned the shelves and the floor, and then put what should be in there back.

 

I don’t think a cleaning closet ever looks ‘pretty,’ but this one looks a  LOT better than it did this morning!  I’m not sure you can tell, but there are about HALF as many bottles of ‘stuff’ as there were this morning. You can actually see the floor now. Things are clean and organized as to type of cleaner, and – best of all – nothing falls on you when you try to take something out!  Hooray!!

Since we’re bowling with friends tonight, I’m going to declare victory for the day and do some serious resting before we need to leave.

I hope you’ve had a good day, too. :0)

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as

January 29, 2018 · 12:57 pm

And Yet Another Project…

laughpls.blogspot.com

This purging/cleaning/re-organizing ‘trip’ I’ve been on continues. It may drive me to drink because it’s not like me at all. I may be in the running for the world’s worst housekeeper. I’m not DIRTY, but I’m not NEAT, either. It has been over 30 years since we built our home on top of our ridge line in Greenwood, Arkansas. We have a nice, big house that encourages one to keep bringing more into it. And we have. Things come in, but rarely go out.

I finally decided that enough was enough (to coin a phrase :0) ) and am determined to use this year to really clean things out around here. I’ve also made a promise to do it again every thirty years…..

I’m trying to get donations together once a month – every month – this year for our local library in Greenwood and the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith. We made a donation to the Veterans store earlier this month, and today we took several bags of books to our local library, just in time to make our goal for January!

My new project is to go through what I call my cleaning closet in the utility room. It’s to the point that if I brought another cleaning supply of anything into the house it COULD IN NO WAY go into the closet…. Things don’t fly out at you when you open the door, but….. UGH.

This is the infamous cleaning closet in the utility room. I had to open the door to the garage to get these pictures.

Ugh. Things don’t fall out when I open the door, but it’s close. Things have been jammed in there for years and I can’t even see what’s behind the stuff at the front of the shelves.

top shelf

 

I don’t believe anyone could get one more thing on these shelves. I hang my head in shame, but I AM going to try to do something about it now.

Pretty frightful, isn’t it.

 

I’m going to tackle this one shelf at a time. This may take a couple of days, but I’m determined to make this much more usable.

Here I go!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , ,

January 28, 2018 · 4:17 pm

Bookshelves Project Finished!

It took me two days, but the purging/cleaning/reorganizing of the guest room bookshelves and my bedroom bookshelf is finished!

This is the set of guest room bookshelves. The guest room is our son’s old bedroom – hence the really large built-in bookshelves, a desk, a walk-in-closet, etc. When it was no longer needed by our son, we hired a man to cut a doorway between the bedroom and the bathroom, allowing us to give our guests more privacy with a private bath they can access from the bedroom.

 

This is the set of built-in bookshelves on my side of the master bedroom.  I can now see what I have, reach everything, and it’s CLEAN.

I gathered enough books in this project that well have a nice-sized donation to take to the local library tomorrow for their semi-annual fundraising sale.

NEXT PROJECT:  the cleaning closet in the utility room. (Pics to follow)

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , ,

January 28, 2018 · 12:04 pm

Shhhhh!

I saw a set up for selling plants at the co-op as we drove by last week. I did some research and discovered that February is a good months to start onion sets in Arkansas.  We’ll check there tomorrow and see what’s what.  We had such good luck last year that I’ve been enjoying them since harvest and still have two nice hanging mesh bags of onions in the pantry. :0)

 

We have six 4’x4′ raised bed planters like this in our square foot garden. If we DO get onion sets, I’ll first have to mix some Mel’s Mix to top off a couple of the planters. We don’t have string strung yet to create the ‘square feet’ for the garden, either.  I’m not really in planting mode yet. I’m still thinking about how I’m going to set up my greenhouse so that I can get seeds growing. And I really wasn’t planning to start THAT until March….

______________________

I’m still in cleaning out mode, feeling better and better as I get areas around the house finally cleaned out and decluttered.

I’m working upstairs today – the second day of working on my bookshelves on my side of the bedroom, plus the shelves in the guest room. I’m hoping to finish that today.  During this process, I found a bunch of books that I no longer need, so I brought them downstairs to the office. About a third of them were saleable on Amazon, and the rest I listed to donate to our local library.  I have to concentrate on the ‘cleaning’ part of this because I see a book on art, want to sit right down and look at it, drooling over the pictures…

My goal this year is to continually gather donations for our local library fundraisers and the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith. I would like to be able to make a donation each month this year. I’m also trying to gather an extra large bag of trash each week. This week I’ll be putting out TWO extra bags!

_______________________

I hope you’re having a nice Sunday,too.

4 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Arkansas, Greenwood, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tagged as , , ,

January 27, 2018 · 1:15 pm

Current Projects Update

(1) My husband put a HEAVY piece of 1/4″ thick metal on the CNC table yesterday. He loaded the code he wrote to talk to the computer that guides the torch. He was able to cut out the rounded triangular piece with the holes in it that you see in the model picture just below the horizontal tubing above. He had to turn the speed of the cutting down to crawl because the metal was so thick, but he was able to do it! There is no way in the world he would have been able to cut the piece out by hand and cut the holes to specifications if we didn’t have the CNC machine and my husband’s expertise. Hooray!  I think he’s going to work on the horizontal tube next. I’ll post pics as he starts putting the tool together.

(2)  We cut out the new Christmas mailbox decoration yesterday before my husband did the heavy metal cutting. (He DID have some ‘heavy metal’ playing on the speakers while he was doing it :0) )

Here’s the picture from which we are working.

First, my husband created the code needed that tells the torch needs to cut to create the design we would like. The computer-guided torch then cuts the design out while we watch. This is the cut out metal design. We’ll get the rough spots off the back and then my husband will make the part that attaches it to the mailbox and he’ll weld the two together. Then we’ll mark the piece using a transparency printed on our printer and an overhead projector. I’ll show you pics as the work progresses. I’ve stored this in my painting area for the moment, because it won’t be needed until the end of the year. I’m working on the pumpkin mailbox decoration you can see on my painting table in the background, trying to pump up the orange color. I would LIKE for it to glow in the dark when car lights hit it…

(3) Our third project started yesterday was the complete emptying and cleaning out of our front hall closet – made unusable due to our stashing of ‘stuff.’ My goal was to put things that should be elsewhere in their proper place, see if there was anything we wanted to donate to the Veterans Thrift Shop, throw stuff away, and reorganize what was left, putting it in a clean closet. That project is FINISHED!

This is the closet when I started.

 

This is the cleaned out closet.

 

 

 

We now can use the closet as a front hall closet – hanging up visitors’ coats.

We have a bin in the basement where we store extra out of season coats, vests, etc., so we moved what we didn’t need now down there until the spring. We now have two large leaf bags of nice winter things for the people who shop at the Veteran’s Thrift Shop, plus some exercise stuff that was redundant to the equipment I’m using, or not being used enough to keep.  We want to add to the donation bags a bit more before we make the trip to Fort Smith, but should do that by the first week in February, at the latest.  Another area checked off!

TODAY’S PROJECT:

I have a set of nice, big shelves on my side of the bedroom, plus an even larger set in the guest room. I’ve been going through both, but at a very slow pace. I’m going to try to get both sets of shelves so that I can find and reach the books on the shelves, getting rid of a bunch in the process. A lot of moving, hauling, shelving and cleaning ahead – my exercise for this wonderful rainy day!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, Lewis projects, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , ,

January 26, 2018 · 10:04 am

Friday’s Projects – Thing One and Thing Two

THING ONE:

We’ll use our CNC table and computer set-up to cut out this metal design for the mailbox. It’ll be about 2 feet high and 2-1/2 feet or so wide. (My husband converted the image we found on the net to computer code.)  We’re doing this today because my husband wants to work on a part for the welding lathe he’s building. We have about half a sheet of metal on the table currently, so cutting out this design serves two purposes – a start to the mailbox decoration AND being able to clean off the table and put the really heavy metal for the welder part on it.

 

THING TWO:

Front Hall Closet Clean-out

This is a closet used for stashing. We hardly ever use it, otherwise, because people come into the house from the garage, rather than the front door. I’m going to change that, making it a closet where we can actually hang guests’ coats! (What a concept!) :0)

 

It’s embarrassing to post these pictures, but you already knew I was a slob. I hate housekeeping, second only to bookkeeping, taxes, and other legal stuff. I’m determined to go through my house, one area at a time, and take everything out, go through it to decide whether we want to keep it, donate it, or pitch it. If we’re keeping it, I’ll decide where it needs to live. A lot of this stuff should probably be elsewhere. I’ll clean the closet thoroughly and then reorganize what we’re keeping.

 

Here is a close up of the top of the closet.

 

And a close up of the bottom.

I don’t know how long this will take. I’ll put everything I take out onto our couch. That will give me the motivation to keep going until all of it has been sorted. I’ll post pics when the project is finished.

First, we enjoy our good friends at Lunch Bunch. We’ll do a few errands while we’re out. We’ll take care of animals when we get back, cut out the mailbox decoration, get the metal sheet remaining off the CNC table, and then I’ll begin.

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, Lewis projects, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , ,

January 18, 2018 · 11:17 am

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

ONE STEP FORWARD – I’m happy to report that I FINALLY got the counter top under and behind where the printer WAS and the computer screen IS – dusted and wiped down. Until you’ve tried to clean a gazillion wires with velcro ties of dust, dog and cat hair, and other “ickies,” you have NO idea what my morning has been like.  After several steps with dustpan and brush, then heavy-duty cleaner and wiping down wires, and finally Pledge, my area is now cleaner than it’s been in at least a couple of years and smells nicely of lemons. :0)

As I told you before, we moved the printer over after my husband extended the counter top with plywood and supports, opening up my work area and in preparation for the new computer my husband is building for me. My son convinced me, after talking about it a LONG time, to change from my PC and Microsoft to a MAC. In some ways it has been good. I had to learn to do EVERYTHING all over again. Anything I did by habit or with any confidence was wrong with the MAC. My son set up the computer and tested it, then helped me learn (with me taking extensive notes) how to do things. I’ve used it for at least a couple of years now.

Whenever it acts up, though, my husband is really frustrated that he can’t help me solve the problem. He knows nothing about MACs and is at the point where he doesn’t want to. Our son lives and works in Thailand, so when something goes wrong, I have to wait until we’re both awake (there is a 12 hour time difference) and then depend on him to walk me through telling him exactly what’s wrong, and working to fix it. Stressful, at best. Add to that my husband haranguing me about having the MAC and his wanting me to change back, and you can picture me tearing out what little hair I have left….

TWO STEPS BACK – (ONE) SO – we’re starting to receive parts for the new PC each day. My husband will put it together on the counter to my right, installing everything, testing everything, then moving things from the MAC to the new computer, testing again to make SURE all is there and reachable, before switching over, selling the MAC, and I learn again how to do things under Microsoft Windows 10…

(TWO) – I crowed and patted myself on the head recently because I had done my Creative Artworks bookkeeping for the LAST time (:0)  and was totaling up the various tax deduction categories in preparation for our CPA to send the tax booklet that organizes our stuff the way he likes it. That came to a screeching halt a few days ago when our scanner suddenly wouldn’t work. I HAVE to have copies of some stuff and couldn’t make them. The scanner would scan something halfway and then quit. Over and over. It wouldn’t simply make a copy when I pushed the button on the front, either. We worked and worked with it, but couldn’t get it to work the way it should. AND it was a fairly new scanner!  My husband contacted Amazon and they said they would send us a new one with instructions on sending the current one back to them.

We received the new scanner this morning.  My husband got rid of the old software, installed the new and we were again ready to scan. It did the same thing the old one did! After much frustration, my husband figured out that it was a communications problem, and instead of plugging it into our hub, plugged it directly into the back of the computer. It worked!

TODAY’S 2ND PROJECT – figure out where I was in the plugging-the-receipts-and-totals-into-the-CPA-book-project and see if I can get it wrapped up. THEN it will be a matter of waiting for some paperwork from Schwab and dumping it all on our wonderful CPA.

I hope that you’re making more steps forward than back today.

2 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , , ,

January 16, 2018 · 1:21 pm

Your Home is…

Francine Jay via Lisa Bearnes Richey

I think these nice folks were looking at ME when they wrote this reminder….

I AM making progress in my efforts to tackle one area at a time, take everything out, look through it, decide what to keep, what to donate, what to throw away, and THEN how to reorganize what is left after a thorough cleaning. I figure I should go through things this way at least once each 30 years or so – just to keep up to date…

My husband is getting me a computer. He HATES my MAC. He’s a retired computer analyst, used to knowing everything about computers. Lately he is realizing that the field is growing faster than he can keep up. He hasn’t given up, and he wants to be able to fix any problems I have when my computer is getting wonky. It really makes him angry – feeling inadequate – when he can’t begin to solve any problems on the MAC, so he finally convinced me to let him build a new computer for me – a PC with Windows 10.

He has promised me that he’ll build it on the counter beside me, taking all the time he wants to bend Windows 10 to his will, making sure all is good before we CAREFULLY move my stuff from the MAC to the PC. When we’ve tested everything and we’re sure we have everything we need from the computer I’m using now, we’ll make the switch. We’ll wipe the MAC and sell it, since it’s a good computer and fairly up to date on what is being sold now.

To this end, we decided to move the printer over beside one of our file cabinets. The printer is wider than the file cabinet, so he built an extender for the counter top and we put the printer on it. Now I have a lot more usable space for working.

I also discovered, to my horror, a truly contest-winning amount of dust and grime that was living under and behind the printer and my MAC screen, among the rivers of wiring that string along the counter. This will be my project of the day – to move stuff from one side to the other, thoroughly clean the counter top, and then figure out the best way to arrange things so I can reach them easily and the area can be cleaned again in another 30 years or so…

In the past we’ve always moved often enough that we were forced to go through things, being ruthless about what we would pay to move and what needed to be purged. We’ve lived in our home on the top of the ridge line for over 30 years.  Internalizing the quote above, that ‘Your Home in LIVING SPACE, not Storage Space” hits me right between the eyes. The two nice ladies took one look at me and said, “Linda Lewis, this means YOU!”

At least I can look to various places in our home and see that progress has been made. I’ll just keep tackling one area at a time, healing things as I go. :0)

 

3 Comments

Filed under Challenges, Changes, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , ,

January 13, 2018 · 10:25 am

No Ice!

It has been really cold for Arkansas already this winter. Our ‘worst’ month is usually February, and it has snowed on my birthday in March. Usually, though, we have a cold snap and then Indian Summer type weather through January. I think I mentioned before that last year I was still harvesting lettuce in January…

We have had no ice, though, and I’m very grateful. That’s the only thing that truly paralyzes us. We live on top of a ridge line. Our driveway is steep, 650 feet or so down to the road that runs in front of the house. It becomes a ski slope in the winter. We can navigate it down and up again if it snows because of the snow tires on the truck. Ice is another story. Not only does the ice make it impossible for us to go out, it breaks the branches of the trees. We still haven’t fully recovered from the damage from an ice storm in 2000!

That said, our 90 pound,  10-month-old lab puppy, Amber, LOVES this weather. She finally isn’t panting from being too hot. Her coat is very thick and she seems to grin all the time she’s outside. When it’s seriously cold, we don’t let her stay out long because she’s a huge dog with very little brain at this point, but we try to let her out often. When it warms up to our high of 36 today, I’ll take her out for her no-pull collar training session on the leash for the day – Day Three.

The fact that it’s too cold to be comfortable outside has helped in my efforts to declutter our house. Religiously every 30 years or so I go through the stuff in our house, taking everything out of an area, cleaning, donating what we think someone else might be able to use, throwing out what should have been thrown out years ago, and then reorganizing what goes back in. Yesterday it was our “coat, hat, muffler, and glove area” in the utility room and back bathroom. Today it will be the front hall closet.

So far, I’ve kept my promise of filling an EXTRA big trash bag to put out for the trash people each week. I’m piling things up for donations to our local library and the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith before the end of this month. My goal is to have donations each month, but if I don’t make it, the goal still stands and will remind me that I have much more to do. I’m trying not to be overwhelmed by how MANY areas in our house are crying out for my attention!

Though I don’t enjoy going through things and cleaning, I DO enjoy each area when it’s finished. I like the feeling of accomplishment, the cleaner, more organized area, the feel that I’m getting better control of our ‘stuff,’ and the happy feeling that I’m sharing things that we have enjoyed with others.

I hope you’re having a happy Saturday. Stay warm and enjoy your day!

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Amazing Animals, Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Mother Nature, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , ,

January 9, 2018 · 10:56 am

Tuesday’s Project

As with the file cabinets, I’m good about putting things IN, but not so good about taking things OUT. Our buffet has gotten to the point that we cannot get anything more IN.     TIME TO PURGE!  My husband hoards pill bottles. He’s not sure why. I’m going to solve this problem today. I love place mats, tablecloths, cloth napkins…..

 

Here you get an idea of what came out of the drawers of the buffet. Some I packed nicely in plastic, but most were just stacked and slid into the drawers. Then, when I changed place mats, I pulled out two of the four and put the ones I was not now using in the drawer, on top of the pile.

 

Time has passed and we’ve changed our daily pottery – a nice combination of aqua and brown.  I’m going to go through what we have with that in mind, trying to keep only the things that look good with the pottery, my china, or other things I have, donating the rest.

This is another project that has been a long time coming. I’ll feel better when I have things in more control, where I can remove something from a drawer without half of the contents trying to come out, and actually be able to put something back IN to the drawer with the other place mats, for example, where they belong.

Waste basket and donation bag are ready!

5 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , ,

January 8, 2018 · 1:06 pm

Out With the Old….

curatti.com

I’ve been working in my dining area and kitchen for parts of 3 days now, trying to purge/reorganize/clean. I have now done

  • the window sill
  • the top of the buffet
  • the dining table
  • the divider top between the kitchen and the dining area
  • the kitchen counter tops

It’s amazing how much ‘stuff’ accumulates around here. I swear to you that there is some hanky-panky and things are reproducing when we’re not watching. What is helping me on the counter tops is picturing my husband with too many plastic bags in each hands fighting with the dog when he’s trying to bring in a load from the car and plopping the whole bunch down on a part of the counter top. I’m trying to make sure that there is nothing breakable, “spillable,” or “dumpable” on a good part of each area, having learned the hard way that no thought will be given as the bags come plopping down. In this effort I’ve relocated a lot of things and gotten rid of the rest.

I’m enjoying a rest now and then I’ll tackle what we call the ‘go-out’ table (holding things we want to take with us the next time we go to town) which unfortunately also acts as a dumping table.

The remaining project for today will be trying to make sense of my hats and scarves in the utility room. This is more complicated than it sounds because nothing can be down low, due to the cats. Nothing can be high, because then I can’t reach them, and hard decisions will have to be made on which things should be given away…

As I move through the house, though, I’m feeling better about being in better control of my space. I’m getting rid of a BUNCH of ‘stuff,’ relocating some things that should live elsewhere, gathering things that I’ll donate to the library or the Veterans Thrift Store, and things being easier to clean when there are fewer THINGS.

I’m hoping that this urge to get my things in better order will continue. It’s quite unusual for this old broad, so I’m doing a bunch of it as quickly as I can…

 

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , ,

January 4, 2018 · 12:07 pm

Pat, Pat, Pat….

sunnystreets.blogspot.com

Me again. Patting myself on the head. Sorry if this is aggravating, but it’s such a NEW THING for me to be actually getting ahead of some things, rather than always having to run the bulldozer and wear a dust mask.

My husband is already getting tired of my saying, “Let’s talk about my desk again!”  After at least 20 years of stuffing and ignoring the problem, my desk is as clean as if we just set it up, moving in to a new house. \

I love my desk. As you can see in this picture, there is a roll top with a key that I close, if needed or desired, though I usually leave it up. There are 6 small drawers – 3 on each side, with a larger drawer underneath. In the center are  7 slots and two pencil/pen holders in the opening between.

This is a closeup of the roll top part with the key.

On the right you can see one of the guides for the roll top to come down. There are 7 drawers under the flat part of the desk – two filing cabinet type drawers and two smaller ones above, plus the center drawer.

This shows you the pull outs on each side that give you more writing space, or a place to hold stuff to the side while you’re working in the middle.

My husband thought I would go for a more modern desk 35 years ago, such as the ones made for computers, printers, etc.  He gave me the option again when we moved here about 30 years ago, and again, when we changed the office around to face the desk in a different direction. I loved my choice then and still treasure my desk now. I’ve always loved lots of cubbies, nooks, crannies, and maybe a secret spot or two…

15 drawers gives you a LOT of space to stash things. It takes many years to finally get to the point you can no longer find things, and it seems like a treasure hunt when you finally go through everything, empty each drawer, and clean things.

I found some good things I can donate to others. I now have things organized so I can actually FIND things again, plus I’ll have a great bag of extra trash to put out the next time the wonderful trash people come and will whisk it away. :0)

8 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Changes, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as ,

January 3, 2018 · 11:19 am

“Bit by a Dead Bee”

pearlsofpromiseministries.com

I know that this title was one of the episodes of Breaking Bad on TV, but my parents were using the term when I was growing up in the dark ages, so I think the TV folks borrowed it. My parents used it to describe frenzied behavior of any type, and I use it here in the same way.

I have definitely been ‘bit by a dead bee,” in that I’ve done more cleaning out and re-organizing around my house than I’ve done in years. I don’t know WHICH dead bee bit me, but I’m thinking of marking this period of behavior totally unlike me on my calendar. it’s so rare.

It started before Thanksgiving, when I was running the bulldozer trying to get the house at least marginally presentable for our friend Nora to come share Thanksgiving dinner with us. I cleaned off the usual really piled up areas, and then I was ‘bit.’ I have been feeling the need to get rid of ‘stuff,’ either by donating it, throwing it away, or deciding where it should live. In each step MORE things that have been sorely neglected pop up to say, “And what have you done for ME lately?”

For the past day or two, the focus has been on my desk. I have a roll top wooden desk that we bought 35 years or so ago. Since having this house built in 1987,  I have put things INTO the drawers, but then they get lost in the shuffle, never to be seen again – until now.

I love my desk. It has a nice flat space for working with a tray type center drawer underneath and then three drawers on either side. Two of the drawers on the sides are small and two are file cabinet type drawers. At the top of each side, right under the flat part of the desk, are two pull-out pieces for extra writing space. Above the flat part of the desk there are two reasonable-sizes drawers, one on each side. Above each of these are three small drawers then between them, going across the desk are slots. Above that, is the roll top which I can pull down, if I’d like. (Usually, there is so much ‘stuff’, it isn’t possible to close it. I just love the roll top for its looks.)

So – 7 drawers under the flat part of the desk, 8 above the flat part, 2 shelves, and 7 slots. That’s a LOT of space for someone like me to squirrel away goodies and stuff for a long time, ignoring the buildup.

I have finished cleaning out the drawers now and am concentrating on the flat part of the desk which has received stuff I’d like to keep, but either put away in the now clean drawers, move somewhere else, or give away. I’ve filled a big trash can, too.

I think it was definitely due some attention. I’ll take pics when it’s finished.

5 Comments

Filed under Attitude, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , ,

December 28, 2017 · 11:30 am

Brrrr!

imgarcade.com

I know I’m going to show you what a weenie I am when it comes to cold weather, but the weather is really getting our attention this week. In Arkansas, last year, I was still growing lettuce outside in December and January.  It’s 24 degrees F. outside now. It’s supposed to get to 38 this afternoon. AND we’re having a cold front come through this weekend!  Lows in the single digits or teens usually comes to us in February…

The good part of this is that, other than gathering the sticks Amber has laboriously gathered for display in the front yard, and cleaning up the two empty planters in which she continues to dig, I’m not even thinking about spending much time outside.

The one thing I AM planning to do in the next few months is organize my greenhouse so I’ll be ready to start seeds around the 1st of March (depending on the temperature in there.) I’m reading every day and researching on the net ideas for how to get set up. I’m making plans of which seeds to start first. I’m even dreaming about where to put my first-ever home-grown transplants in my raised bed square foot garden this spring! And THIS from the lady who still wears the moniker, “Serial Seed Killer.”

 

While the weather is wet and cold, I’m concentrating on trying to go through our STUFF, room-by-room, closet-by-closet, shelf-by-shelf, drawer-by -drawer, in the hope I can do some serious damage by the start of spring. I’m trying to get into a ruthless frame of mind – using a ‘less-is-more’ mantra.

I hope that you’re able to stay warm and dry wherever you are, making this a fun day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, greenhouse, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Mother Nature, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , ,

December 20, 2017 · 9:42 am

Can You Smell It?

“Falling Rain” – quotesgram.com

 

We had a bit of drizzle, and sprinkling on the windshield as we went to town for errands yesterday. Then we had a more serious rain late yesterday afternoon. The intermittent rain is still going today. We really need it. We’re in a drought and under a burn ban. I’m not even complaining as I stand outside in the rain waiting for the doggies to take care of things. :0)

I’m especially grateful because we have an excellent chance of a cold front with rain that MAY change to flurries this weekend! A double gift from Mother Nature for sure if we get more good rain PLUS a pretty, white Christmas with snow that will look pretty, but not cause problems on the road. The very BEST kind of snow!

__________________

Yesterday I consolidated two notebooks of low carb recipes into one, plus punched holes into a whole stack of recipes I printed from the net and put them into the notebook. Now I have all the loose recipes in one place, organized so there is hope of finding the one I’m looking for again! I have the notebook on the kitchen desk along with the most used low carb recipe books.

Today’s project is moving my warm weather clothes OUT and my cool weather clothes INTO my closet.

 

balletpumpsandroses.com

 

If I finish that, my poor little duck and hedgehog yard ornaments are awaiting possible repair after our 81 pound lab puppy, Amber, bit off beak and nose respectively. I have some pieces I retrieved from the yard, along with the critters, but I’m not sure I have enough for a full repair. Fingers crossed.

I hope that your day is productive and fun.

Leave a comment

Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Lewis projects, Mother Nature, Organizing/DeCluttering, project refurb

Tagged as , , ,

December 18, 2017 · 4:20 pm

CleanER Garage Counter Top

The last big area that needed bailing out around here at the moment is my counter top in the garage. The area is difficult because I have bulbs in peat moss overwintering, a whole huge basket filled with iris rhizomes waiting for early spring to be planted somewhere, stuff brought in from the front porch, else. It’s also the area where my husband has decided is the extra storage for pop, tea, wine, beer, water, etc.

At least now there is a clean area of counter top between stuff that needs to be up off the ground so the doggies can’t get them and part of the drinks area. And the counter top is actually shiny!

To the left of this picture is my elliptical trainer, now being used for at least 15 minutes daily. There is a fan attached to the wall in front of the trainer that I can turn on when it’s too warm in the garage. Now I’m wearing a vest at least part of the time because we’ve had a cool spell lately. It’s funny that this is the only place we could put the trainer. It has to be on concrete or hard flooring without rugs or carpet. We didn’t want it in the kitchen, pantry, dining area or utility room, so this was the only space left. It’s only a bit difficult when we’re having weather extremes.

5 Comments

Filed under exercise, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob

Tagged as , ,

December 17, 2017 · 3:59 pm

Final Project of the Day

I know. I can hear you saying to yourself – or out loud – “Why don’t you put things away so you don’t end up with piles of “stuff” everywhere? Haven’t we been through this before?”

It’s true. I have no excuse. I get busy and the current project takes precedence, so I end up with things falling on my head, demanding that I finally reorganize, throw away, etc.

This is the ‘before’ pic of my desk in the office.

I just finished cleaning things up, and there IS a piece of furniture under all that mess! I KNEW it! :0)

Now, after 4 projects today, I feel that I have earned a cup of coffee. I’ll put my feet up and either watch the football game with my husband, read my book, or completely veg out and take a nap.

I hope you’ve had a happy day!

Leave a comment

Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , ,

December 17, 2017 · 2:14 pm

Projects for the Day – 1, 2, and 3

PROJECT 1 – FOOD –

I –

  • grocery shopped and put stuff away, then
  • made sausage balls and
  • got a chicken and veggies dinner going in the crock pot,
  • fixed baby carrots and cut up celery for lunches this week, and then
  • fixed lunch

 

 

PROJECT 2 – CLEANING UP AND ORGANIZING –

I cleaned up the table beside my chair in the living room

Before –

After –

PROJECT 3 – PAYING BILLS –

I’m doing that as soon as I finish this post –

AND THEN

I’ll tackle cleaning up my desk in the office. There is so much ‘stuff’ on it I may not finish it today, but if I do – I’ll post pics.

Leave a comment

Filed under Cherishing the Quiet Day, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

Tagged as , , , , , ,

December 13, 2017 · 11:55 am

Project of the Day Update

Before

 

After

Ahhh. There was actually a place for most everything that was on the desk. I did bring a pile of recipes that need to have holes punched so that they can go into the recipe book, but everything else found a home.

Caution:  Look quickly – I’ve had a LOT of practice in piling things up….

1 Comment

Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Lewis projects

Tagged as , ,

December 13, 2017 · 11:05 am

Project for the Day

Sassy Senior Lady via Doreen Adamson-Liber

If I haven’t admitted it before, now you know what a slob I am.

Despite my efforts here and there – I’ve never been a great housekeeper – things ‘accumulate’ and, then, I think, reproduce like rabbits, causing the jumble you see before you. My husband and i both contribute to it.  On any given day there are other priorities, so it gets lost in transit.

Well, today is the day THIS will be the focus.

I’ll take everything off and TRY to organize this so that it’s not a catchall. I’m planning to move some of my cookbooks here to get them off the other counter space in the kitchen.

I’ll report back to you later on my efforts.

4 Comments

Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Lewis projects

Tagged as , ,

November 29, 2017 · 11:15 am

Greenhouse Repair

This picture shows you the break in the pvc pipe rib for the greenhouse.

 

My husband drilled into the wood uprights on either side of the louvered fan and attached guy wires to the wood.

 

He used a cement drill to drill a hole in the ground at the proper angle for the guy wires, ran the wire around the stake (held in place by a hose clamp.

This picture shows you the completed guy wire fix for the end of the greenhouse.  It’s nice and sturdy now, thank goodness.

 

Here’s the fix from the side.

So, thanks to my wonderful husband, things are once again in good shape. He’s definitely a keeper.

When he came in, and could man the phone, I went out and got an 8 foot brick planter cleaned out where we have two really large hydrangea plants. I cut off all the branches and disposed of them. I have 4 more planters to clean out and then I’ll put mulch in them. :0)

 

3 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Lewis projects

Tagged as

November 29, 2017 · 9:59 am

Best Laid Plans

I was PLANNING to clean out another flower planter yesterday. My husband came in and told me we had a problem with the greenhouse. The end ‘wall’ you’re looking at in this photo had broken loose because the last pvc pipe ‘rib’ closest to the lumber had broken. The rib isn’t repairable. We would have to take the whole end of the greenhouse apart and replace the whole rib,  probably resulting in more damage.

My husband, who is really good at figuring out how to fix things, figured out that we could attach heavy wire (like that used in the guy wires for the ham radio tower) to the upright pieces of wood on either side of the louvered exhaust fan. He is outside as I type (waiting for an important phone call we’re expecting) drilling a hole some distance away from the end of the greenhouse. He’ll then pound in a metal stake with the sledge hammer. Then we’ll attach the wires with what I think are called turnbolts – metal things with rings on each end and a threaded length in between that you can turn to tighten the wire until it’s taught.

 

The stake and ‘guy wire’ type attachment should keep the end of the greenhouse secure. I’m not sure what he’s planning about the broken pvc pipe. Maybe we can just ignore it and rewrap the transparent liner stuff on the end carefully.

Anyhow, my best laid plans had to be set aside, once again, in order to try to fix the greenhouse – again before it is forecast to rain today…  I’m lucky to have a guy who can look at something and figure out how it works and what needs to be done to fix it. I don’t have a clue – although I’m a pretty good helper and ‘gofer.’

If I can get the yard under control for the winter, I’m planning to start moving things around in the greenhouse, getting ready for planting seeds later. I’ll post pics as I get things organized in there.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Lewis projects

Tagged as ,

November 18, 2017 · 11:30 am

Before the Rains Come…

I just realized how MANY times we’re rushing around here, trying to get things done ‘before the rains come.’

 

Today I was planning to get out and work in my flower planters, trying to get them pruned and cleared out so that I can add mulch. Today is much too windy to actually put mulch in there, but there is a lot of work to do before the planters are ready.

Of course, my husband said, in a pained voice, “Do you have time for me?” Since I spoil him unmercifully, I stopped what I was doing and was sucked into a “paint the outside trim on the house” project. We each had a some paint in a throw-away bucket. While my husband was getting the paint and the buckets, I used a scraper to get the loose, peeling paint off the wood around the garage door. He painted one side while I painted the other. He finished before I did and went around to the back. When I asked him if I should tackle the inside wall of the back porch, he agreed that I should. So he was painting on the outside of the porch while I was working inside. I painted over all the places where our dear puppy. Amber, had chewed the wood, regardless of Bitter Apple spray or Louisiana Hot Sauce. The wall was originally painted white, but there were SEVERAL places where it was down to the bare whatever-it-was that was supposed to be solid wood. Is anything actually made of real wood anymore? Anyhow, when I used the paint on these places, the rest of the wall looked yellow. So I ended up painting the whole wall.

My husband announced that it looked like his patience and his paint would run out at the same time. We agreed that since we couldn’t get everything done today, particularly since part of what we need to do requires a ladder, we would stop when our paint ran out. Mine lasted JUST long enough to finish painting the porch wall.

We got our paint brushes cleaned up, threw away the old plastic buckets and closed up the paint. We’re using a new stuff you spray into the bucket of paint to keep it from drying up. It would be great if it works, because the gallon of paint we got is really good and EXPENSIVE.

So, now my husband is cleaning up the shop, and I am going to finish my coffee and then take the dog out to help me clean up a flower planter or two ‘before it rains.’

2 Comments

Filed under Arkansas, Greenwood, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Mother Nature

Tagged as ,

November 6, 2017 · 10:35 am

Feeling Creaky

For the past two days I have been mixing and spraying weed killer. We’ve had really perfect weather for it, except for a bit too much wind, but I was able to work around that. It needed to be sunny and in the 70s or 80s, and we had both of those.

On Saturday I mixed and sprayed 6 gallons.  Yesterday I did the same. There is always more than could be done, but I got a pretty good job done. If we get another good day, my husband says that if I’ll mix it, he’ll spray the weed killer up and down our 650 foot driveway – if I’ll drive down to the bottom and pick him up. :0)

Meanwhile, our work outside is done until the rains are finished for the week and it’s a bit warmer in the afternoons. I have to admit I feel pretty creaky today, so it’s a nice thing to be forced to work inside. :0)  I tried to get down the awful, rocky slope past the civilized part of the back yard yesterday to spray the weed trees remaining, slipped and fell down, injuring my dignity, but nothing else. It took me several minutes to get up, since the bare rocks and dirt don’t provide good hand or foot holds, but I managed, inelegantly, to haul my rear end up and get back to the civilized part of the yard.  Fortunately, one of my survival skills is the ability to stand back and “see” myself from a distance at times like these. I was laughing and saying bad words simultaneously.

I told my husband that we’ll have to burn the trees down or hire someone more agile than I to cut them down.

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as ,

November 1, 2017 · 12:36 pm

Good Idea for Aquarium Cleaning

This is the dining area side of our 5 gallon aquarium where our four goldfish live, swim, and laugh. You can see them in a huddle on the right of the aquarium.

The past week the water has been looking a bit cloudy. Usually, I change the filter, but I had done this recently and the water wasn’t clear. I was siphoning out some of the water to replace it when my husband made a good suggestion – he suggested that I siphon out half of the water, fill it up with the aged replacement water I have, and then do it again – resulting in a change of approximately three-quarters of the water in the tank without having to disturb the fish.

I did that this morning. It was easy. The fish didn’t even realize what was going on, and the water now looks nice and clear!

 

This is the kitchen side of the aquarium.

4 Comments

Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as

October 23, 2017 · 4:39 pm

Garden Progress

We have a LOT to do outside.

We have a lot of HAVE-TO’S – where we’re acting like grownups, making sure we’re ready for the coming cold weather. In this group, my husband is turning off the irrigation system that automatically waters everything in all the planters around the house, plus the deck planters.  In doing this, he found that two of the three outside faucets leak. This isn’t surprising after 30 years, I guess, so we went to Yeagers and got some replacement washers and he’s trying to get them installed in all three faucets. He finished the one for the well house, and is now working on the two on the back of the house. To do THAT, he has to shut off the water to the house.  Always happy to do my part, I immediately wanted to get a glass of water from the tap and go to the bathroom…

We also have the group of things that SHOULD be done to show that someone cares what things look like up here. In this group is weed whacking, weed and bug killing, cleaning up the beds around the house that are now full of leaves, pruning, etc. I did some of the pressure washing this morning. This afternoon I’m doing some of the weed whacking. I’ve been at it for a couple of hours now, so I’m taking a break and drinking some water. I’ll heck on my husband’s progress, armed with more kleenex and band-aids, and then I’ll do another hitch. None of the ‘should’s’ will be finished quickly. I figure if we try to do a bit each day, eventually we’ll get things under control or run out of good weather.

Finally, we have my real LOVE, working in my raised bed square foot garden. The fall garden is small, but is coming along fine. I’m still waiting for my book on the basics of getting my greenhouse organized well and running right. I’m supposed to get the book by Halloween or before. I’m watching the weather forecast for when we’re due for frosts or freezes, and I MAY have to go ahead and dig up a few things before I have a clue what I’m doing. I have some sheets ready to put over the garden plants at night, so hopefully I can keep that going until we have a deep freeze.

I love this time of year, thought I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by my to-do list. I keep reminding myself – one day at a time…

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Greenwood, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tagged as ,

October 23, 2017 · 1:38 pm

Plan B

beginwithyes

 

My husband helped me hook up the pressure washer this morning.

 

 

PLAN A: I was planning to use it on our brick planters which have hard water stains on them. I worked and worked and then finally conceded that the pressure washing wasn’t doing anything. I guess the next step is to get some muriatic acid or other hard water stain remover, gloves, old clothes and shoes, and goggles and see what I can do.

PLAN B: Since we had the pressure washer hooked up, I went ahead and cleaned the front porch, porch pad, and the sidewalk that runs from the front porch to the garage/driveway pad.

I’m not finished with the pressure washer for the year, but I feel that I made significant progress with it today. I could become addicted to this thing. If other tools made SUCH a difference  and lasted for a reasonable period of time, I would be a MUCH better housekeeper…

Leave a comment

Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob

Tagged as , , , , ,

October 8, 2017 · 3:34 pm

More Than Enough

I FINALLY got a picture of Amber with one of her squeaky toys in her mouth.

This is quite a feat, I have to say, because her standard reaction when she hears the camera turn on and the flash flip, is to drop the toy. I’ve also tried to turn the camera on in another room and then try to sneak up on her, but she sees/hears/smells me before I even enter the room and comes up to greet me – AFTER dropping the toy…

While you’re looking at the photo, look behind her back at the bottom drawer on the set of drawers beside my computer cut out. This is thanks to Amber – not meaning to hurt the drawer or chewing on it – but the fact that she isn’t careful where her claws are on any of her feet while she chews on a toy. I’ll tackle the drawer with one of the stain crayon thingies one day.

I’ve been vacuuming today, as I have every day over the past few weeks, trying to keep up with the MORE THAN ENOUGH dog and cat hair. I’m a failure. :0(

I’ve tried using the Furminator on Amber –

because she’s shedding so much – even with colder weather coming on. Besides having MORE THAN ENOUGH hair, she has MORE THAN ENOUGH teeth, which she readily uses on us. She’s no longer using us as chew toys so much (plus we’re learning techniques to avoid triggering her toothy response), but the Furminator definitely brings out the teeth.

Today I vacuumed the first floor tiles (pantry, kitchen, dining area, utility room, hallway, and two half baths) and then moved to the foyer between the stairs and our office. Then I got about half of the living room done before the battery on my easy-to-use portable Dyson gave out. That was really kind of good, actually, because MY personal energy battery was giving out by then, too.

 

I completely filled up the canister on the vacuum TWICE today. UGH

I’ll give the vacuum an hour or so to charge back up – getting a cold drink and putting my feet up to recharge MY battery, as well, and then continue on. It would be good if my efforts lasted more than a day. I’m really grossed out by all the hair and ‘stuff’ I vacuum up each time.

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as , ,

October 5, 2017 · 2:46 pm

A Nice Thursday

Today has been a really nice day.

The weather is a bit warm, but not enough that we’ve had to close up and turn on the a/c. Doors and windows open are a wonderful change, and the ceiling fans make it very comfortable.

I told you about the deer I saw on the way to my massage. My massage was particularly luxurious today because my back stopped hurting. I didn’t have to consciously try to relax into the massage. I could just ENJOY. AHHHHHH! Thank you, Lynn.

I have a list as long as my arm of things that need my attention. I let a lot of them slide while I was hurting, and so I’m trying to take a few each day until I’m reasonably caught up again.

 

The aquarium water looked  a bit murky, so I siphoned out 3/4 of the water, wiped the inside of the tank, then replaced the water with treated water that has been breathing and aging for several weeks. I changed the filter and turned everything back on. The fish seemed happy with my attention.

 

Since our temperatures are supposed to get more fall like early next week, I finally took the time to scrub out Amber’s kiddie pool. I had emptied it and left it upside down, but then hurt my back, so it was not only yucky, it had been rained on so there was a small lake weighing down the BACK of the pool. I scrubbed it with a broom and Simple Green, then hosed it out, turned it over, and scrubbed the back. I carried it around to the garage and put it between my counter and my elliptical trainer until I bring it out again next Spring.

I harvested two tomatoes from the planter on the east end of the house. I still have no idea if the two new tomato plants will do well or not. I’ll need to remove the old plants soon.

I still have two things on my list for today –

  • I learned that taking the planter tray of seedlings out onto the deck to get more sun and maybe some rain was a disaster, so I’ll clean up the planter and put it away.
  • Amber has developed a fun new hobby – digging! We dug out our two Rio Samba bushes recently in preparation for planting new ones early next spring. We’re also using some of the soil in the brick planters to fill mole, Molly, and Amber holes in the yard before replenishing the planters with fresh potting mix. Amber found them and has had a GREAT time digging in the planters. She comes to the door, looking innocent and sweet, with a black nose, mouth, and front feet. I’ve had to get a washcloth and towels to clean her up before I can let her back into the house with us. I haven’t been able to catch her doing it yet; but when I do, I’ll have to warn her, and then zap her if the warning isn’t enough.

I hope you’ve been having a fun day, too. I can’t wait for the nice, cool, fall weather!!

 

 

 

2 Comments

Filed under Challenges, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 30, 2017 · 10:58 am

A Step Too Far

We got the competitor of the Sleep Number Mattress (Comfortaire) in January of 2006. At that time we would have had to buy a bed frame, headboard, etc. in order to put in the new mattress because it’s basically two fancy air mattresses each with its own control. We looked all around, but were out of style yet again in that people didn’t want bookcase headboards. We decided to build our own.

This is what we built. Not as elegant as what you see in the stores, but the headboard has storage, controls for various things in the middle, lights, etc. The bed frame is solid wood and weighs a ton (more or less :0) ) It’s strong enough to house all the stuff you need to control the air in the mattress, the pump, hoses, etc., and the mattresses themselves, kind of like building a frame for a swimming pool.

We made frames on the headboard so we could decorate it with river rock.

 

We love this bed because we’re never in agreement on how firm the mattress should be. I also tend to change my firmness from time to time to accommodate my back, while my husband sets it and forgets it, other than hitting the button to replace any air that has been lost.

We also like an electric blanket for the same reason. With dual controls, we can both be comfortable. In January of 2006 my husband decided to ‘be neat’ with the electronics for the blanket. The wires ran all over the place, so he put the wires that ran from the headboard to the end of the blanket in the space under the plywood that was the mattress support of the frame of the bed. He also wired the controls into the headboard nicely, and THEN finished putting the headboard together.

This has worked beautifully for 11 years. I realized that when we put the electric blanket on the bed this time (because we LOVE to have the attic fan on at night when the weather allows it), I had it set on HIGH, but it was only warm. I froze to death several nights in a row, even with adding an afghan on my side of the bed,  before telling my husband we needed to get a new electric blanket.

We got busy during the day yesterday, but we decided to plug in the new blanket when we went up to bed last night. Easy, peezy, right?

When it became clear that we would have to take the whole bed apart in order to get the wiring for the non-functioning blanket out, I told my husband I refused. We ended up cutting the wires, cutting off the controls, and cutting off the plug in at the end of the bed. (Needless to say, our former plans of saving the blanket in case of emergency went out the window. It doesn’t make a good blanket by itself, so we can’t even donate it now. :0(  )  I did mention that we might have gone a step too far in trying to be neat 11 years ago…

At a little after 1 a.m. this morning, we finally got the bed together again with clean sheets, the new electric blanket with modernized controls,  a comforter, etc.

We both slept blissfully well last night. Ahhhhh.

 

2 Comments

Filed under Challenges, Changes, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as , , , ,