More Deep Cleaning

Today I spent the day deep cleaning again. Eric's closet made the to do list today and all the clothes that were too small we added to the Goodwill pile. Books and magazines also made it to the top of the to do list. I filled up the center of the van again. Most was only one layer, but there were some areas where it was 2 layers deep. John was kind enough to make a trip to Goodwill for me. I am needless to say exhausted. I really don't recommend this type of cleaning with a headache though, it will not make it any better.

The next thing on my agenda will be finding uses for all the regained space. This should be the easy part.

Cleaning

Teri and I finished organizing the fiber by breed. Teri found out that there are a lot of different breeds of sheep. I think everyone learned more about sheep and breeds at dinner than they wanted to.  The fiber is now neatly stored. The only mistake that I made was not labeling the big bags. Oh, well that can happen at a later date. We also went on a deep cleaning spree. The end of the hallway is knee deep in charity for Goodwill. I think it will take me a couple of hours to make a list of everything. I think we are going to try to fill the van.

We also found time to go see the new Star Wars Movie, The Last Jedi.  No spoilers here, just go see it on the big screen. 

More Deep Cleaning

Believe it or not I spent 5 hours cleaning this morning. I have to say that this was fueled by 3 cups of tea and trying to get one last good load off to Goodwill this year. I also have to give credit to my new arthritis medicine. Not to say that I was not sore by lunch time, but I had to work very hard to get sore.

Eric's aide Nikki wanted to learn how to make my style of bed quilt for her boys, so we collaborated on a second big quilt for Eric today.  We are telling Eric that this is his holiday gift from Nikki. I must say that I am really liking the cotton batting. It is easy on my hands and sews up like a dream.

I also think that I have way too many projects in progress. Although now that I am feeling better they are getting finished at a faster pace. I also found my watch at the bottom of you guessed it a knitting bag. It is time to see if I can finish one more project tonight and give John the computer chair so he can change colors on the printer.

Haircuts

We have decided that we will no longer give Eric advance warning for haircuts. He does any number of the following things and more to avoid haircuts. Stays up all night so we will be too tired to go.  Makes mountains of laundry that make the laundry room hard to ignore. Yes, when the laundry room hits knee deep, I will stop to do laundry. Yes Eric has been known to fill the laundry room knee high by himself over night, as he did last night.  Also by looking or acting sick until it is too late to head out for a haircut. That is the bad thing when he knows his schedule so well.

So besides laundry today, I zenned another drawer in my dresser. This leaves 1 empty dresser drawer.  Decided that yarn for a fussy blanket would go into hats instead.  We definitely do not need another fussy blanket around here. The yarn still needs to be wound into cakes. Worked on a knitting UFO. Organized my shirts by type, I am thinking that cardigan sets will be a separate group. Last but not least found more than a few hours to relax and nap.

Instead of heading to Goodwill as planned for today, John and I kept adding things to go to our ever growing pile of donations. I hope to have that out of the house this week.

Deep Cleaning

My deep cleaning by the numbers today:

1 car load to taken Goodwill, thanks to John.

2 boxes ready to be re-homed tommrow. 1 box is full of art supplies. 1 box is full of carrier and gift bags and cfl light bulbs.

3 trips to the recycle bin. My recycle bin is now half full and it will not be collected until next Monday.

Countless projects were put together to be finished soon. I need to finish the deep cleaning of the craft room and its closet. I did manage to get about 3 cubic feet of closet back.

I also managed to get 2 loads of laundry finished. I also found time for a long nap.

More Changes

More deep cleaning in the garage and Teri's old room. More of my the past left the house too. The bicycle that I bought when I was 13 made its way to Goodwill today along with a few other things. All my fiber is off the floor in Teri's old room. I am closer to getting a workbench into the room. The garage looks a whole lot better.

I have also moved some summer shirts that were too small last summer into my daily shirt rotation. My diet is simple, elimated all artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup. My excersice plan is just as simple. I do more cleaning house,including deep cleaning and more walking. Just keep moving. This works for me,but please check with your personal physician before starting any diet or excersice routine.

Trying to Find Balance

I told myself to take a day off from cleaning out the garage, instead I only worked 2 hours in the zenning project. I am sure the good folks at my local Goodwill store will think that I am a silly mom. This batch will be mostly Hot Wheel Cars that Eric can no longer safely play with and even more McDonald's Happy Meal Toys. I think they lost some of their appeal to Eric when he could no longer see them. I also think that Teri will agree with John, "it's time to pass the toys on to other kids, so that they can have toys to play with". John already has plans for the space in the garage.

The hard part for me in letting go of some of Eric's old favorite toys is that he has lost so much ground over the years that he can no longer make the toys "work right". "Play time" is mostly hugging his favorite stuffed animals with John and I making up stories about what the friends are doing. Or even watching Sesame Street with Elmo.

I am finding it hard to make a balance between getting the garage finished before it hits the 100's in Tucson and spending enough time resting. As much as I would like to get the whole garage cleaned by this weekend, I know that much of a push will not be good for my arthritis. My body has not yet fully recovered from the yarn reorganization when I pushed it too hard this weekend to get the next project done. I have been fighting with a body that just wants to sit and sleep today.

The funny thing about this whole cleaning process, is that when I started zenning the house after reading "Zenning Your House in 5 Minutes a Day" I had a hard time just working for 5 minutes to throw things out. Now I only stop when exhaustion hits. This varies from day to day depending on my body. For the most part I can part with stuff without anxiety. I have learned which stuff to keep and which I just don't need anymore. I also learned that it is too time consuming to have a garage sale. Goodwill is the lazy woman's garage sale with a lot less work and no clean up afterward. With the added bonus of the people that Goodwill helps.

I wish I could say that it is bedtime at 11:00 pm, but I started Eric's meds late so I still have a while to stay awake. I am sure that this will not help my arthritis flare up either.

Bits and Pieces

I have finally found a pair of pants that fits after a 2 year search. This is very good news.  As usual the there is a down side.  I can't find another pair of pants with the UCP code 7-06254-39523-8 at any Macy's store in Tucson or on line at Macy's.com.  If anyone from Macy's reads this blog post please consider restocking this style of pants. 

I started a new round of deep cleaning this afternoon and have already filled one box. Hopefully by next weekend I will have a few more boxes filled and dropped of at the Goodwill.  I also had to tink a scarf that was halfway finished, because it started unraveling at the bottom.  So much for starting a scarf while watching a movie.  

Also keep those tabs coming in.. Eric has just dropped off the latest batch to our Tucson Ronal McDonald House. For those keeping track it was 25.9 pounds of tabs.  I think that my dad would have been very proud of Eric for his commitment to collecting tabs to help the sick kids. 

A Finishing Touch

Today Mike Levy from The Blind Guys here in Tucson installed our new Hunter Douglas Vignette Modern Roman Shades with the new Power View Motorization. The instlation went very smoothly and they fit the space to perfection.  The pebble is easy to use and we can even use or pads and phones to adjust the blinds. 

But I need to digress for a moment. John did our homework. He researched every Hunter Douglas shop in Tucson. We interviewed 3 Hunter Douglas shops in Tucson before we picked out The Blind Guys. We are very happy with the results. Durning the day the fabric has a red brown color and at night it looks more brown. 

The smaller blind is run off a battery pack.  The larger blind is running off an AC plug.  All that is left to do is to take down the curtain rods from the last window coverings, that will be done after our vist with Teri is over. 

I would like to make it very clear the we did not receive any condersition from either the Hunter Douglas Company or The Blind Guys.  The money for the  blinds came out of the money we budgeted for the kitchen remodel.  

On another note just when I thought I was over with the deep cleaning, I found more things to recycle. I am also making another trip to Goodwill this weekend. It seems to easier to get rid of things that we don't need anymore. 

Results.

I meant to spend the day finishing with the cleaning and organizing of the craft room. I got distracted. I instead spent the day working in the living room.  So far I managed to fill 3 boxes for Goodwill. Hopefully we can get it out of the house tomorrow. With each bit of decluttering I do, I feel a little lighter. The space around me seems to be getting larger, with more room to move.

The things that I pared down today were baskets, about 50% are leaving the house. Flower vases seemed to be another thing that we have too many of, so far 7 are leaving the house and I will still have a nice selection of vases.  What are the odds of me finding anymore vases? How did I land up with so many vases? Also since we went to a new drawer storage system, all my old dividers are leaving the house too. Some things that seemed so important to me in the 1980's and 90's just don't seem to be necessary anymore.  I am a lot more casual when we have company over.  Can we all give a collective bye-bye to the individual butter plates. Yes, special plates just for butter, the thought of having a proper table and pulling them out then washing them by hand both before and after a party is gone.  

As a family member of generational pack rats it seems at times very hard to do all this decluttering. I think back to one of my grandmothers houses and my parents house and have made a conscious  decision to change my ways. It is a long and slow process. I strongly suggest that family members be patient and not do any pushing. You might cause a stalling of a project that you so dearly want. 

A Place for Projects

John spent part of the weekend putting up a shelf in the craft room for me.  I filled it up with projects waiting to be started. It took me less time to fill up the shelf then for John to install it.  I think I have enough projects to keep me knitting for a while.   By moving some of my projects off the first rack, I have more room for larger items on the first rack.   

Slowly things are either finding their way to a better place or out the door. We finished the rest of our Bookmans runs today. The rest of the books will go to Goodwill on Friday along with a few other boxes. 

Getting There

Today was spent doing bits and pieces on the kitchen remodel. The counter was polished.  Bits of missing grout, electrical plates were put in place. The exhaust system was put in place. The exhaust system can be a little different with an electrical range.  Excess grout was washed off. The back door and base plate were repaired. 

I on the other hand found that that if I put my phone on my left ear everything sounds all squeaky and funny.  I am using the medicine that I got yesterday. I was very tired all day and only got about 5% of my to do list done.  Hopefully the ear will heal fast.  I still have a lot of work to do.  John started the Bookman's runs. I made the first trip to Goodwill for this project.  

Overdone

I can honestly say that I might have overdone it by more than a little. My goal today was to wash 3 loads of laundry, take all of Teri's Charity boxes to Goodwill, make dinner and, and, and, I think I might have recycled the rest of the list when I got too tired.

About 2/3 of what Teri had for Goodwill filled up the center of the van. So I dropped that off and debated weather I should finish the job today. I was sore and tired but not ready for lunch, so I thought what the heck and finished tallying and loading Teri's stuff into the car. Then there was still room in the car so I decided to gather our stuff for Goodwill. I managed to fill the van yet again. The guy at Goodwill did not believe that I had managed to fill up the center of the van twice in a few hours. I can honestly say that I got a lot of stuff out of the house that will not come back again.

This left me a little to tired to move let alone cook lunch for myself. So instead of going for my 1st idea, which was a couple of donuts and a cup of tea, I went home. The pomegranate looked and tasted great, but it was still not enough for lunch so I added a couple of Justin's dark chocolate peanut butter cups to top things off. The peanut butter had the protein and who can say no to dark chocolate.

I found a little time to get some holiday shopping done before it was time to pick up Eric. Eric had a great time at his day program today. I am so happy that he is well enough to go to program. I even managed to get a little more cleaning done before it was time to make dinner. I wonder if I am going to be fired for not spraying the casserole dish with Pam? Well it is time to fold the last of the laundry and hopefully knit a few more hats after dinner.

Can You do too Much Cleaning?

I am at the point of spring cleaning of throwing up my hands and running straight to my spinning wheel. This does not mean that I will stop, it just means that we are almost finished. Or so I think so. With each round of deep cleaning a little more leaves the house. I take time to reorganize things like my fiber stash. I can say that I am making progress there. I no longer have it scattered around the house hiding. It is now in one of 3 places being spun, in a box in the garage and in Teri's closet. Teri's closet has less fiber than last November when we had to stuff things in. I now have about 2 inches of clearance at the top of the clothing rack. No more has been added to the garage and I have space under my desk for my feet.

I am also down on works in works in progress in knitting. I am down to about 8 UFO's from way to many to count. Some are even new projects since the last count. I am enjoying working on things for me. The yarn stash is not down as much as the fiber, because of all the spinning. Less fluff more yarn, who would have thunk.

I have gotten the first box of things for Goodwill boxed and John will drop it off tomorrow. I am hoping to be done with spring cleaning tomorrow. Then maybe I won't dream I am cleaning the house at night.  The worst nightmare ever.

Well dinner is ready so it is time to go. Please enjoy your families.

The Knife Ran Away with the Fork and Other Odds and Ends

It never ceases to amaze me what things just tend to sprout legs and walk away. This month it seems to be my steak knifes and dinner forks. Really!!! I bought most of these while in high school with Betty Crocker points. For those of you not old enough to remember the Betty Crocker Catalog you missed a wonderful way to furnish your houses through a brand loyalty program.  Almost all Betty Crocker items had little point coupons that were saved and later exchanged for things like silverware (My Oneida Patrick Henry pattern) or dishes (the white Correlle Plates that I still use) and a few higher end things like some of my Le Creuset Pans, almost all of my cookie sheets and cupcake pans, furniture like the bar stool in Eric's room. You could even get toys for the kids. Some were free with enough points, some had big discounts with points. Well you get the idea that I just loved this program. Over the past month or so 8 dinner forks and steak knifes walked away. I am pretty sure that the dish washer did not eat them. Since the Patrick Henry pattern was exclusive to the Betty Crocker catalog (yes it was a big enough program to have exclusive items) I doubt that I will be able to find the pattern on line. So I will hunt local thrift stores and see if I can replace what walked away. If I can't find anymore pieces and more walk away I will be forced to replace the silverware that I have had all my adult life.

Yes I know this is one of the cost of having help for Eric in the house. Odd things have disappeared over time such as a make up set of Teri's, a prayer shawl of John's, a one of a kind scarf with some of my first hand spun yarn and even a kitchen knife (I found this one kinda of scarry). Some providers have even said in the past that most of our stuff is so old it is not worth stealing.  So my question is why would anyone one want to steal 40 year old silverware? John did notice that they seemed to go away in pairs of a steak knife and dinner fork so some one would have a set. They have gone away one at a time until I noticed that instead of having 18 forks and steak knifes I have 10.  Really, if you go to a place like Goodwill or garage sales you can pick up silverware really cheaply. Also at Goodwill you will be helping people with your purchase.

I guess if enough disappears I will box up the rest and give it to Teri since we have the same pattern. Then I will have to go through the process of picking out the right silverware that fits just right in my hand. If I am really lucky I will find some made in the USA. As I said before this was bought in the 1970's so I don't know if it is still made here.

As for  the odds and ends, we went to have the new back to Eric's new wheelchair molded today. since Eric got his first wheelchair at age 3, I thought the insurance companies question of weather our house was wheelchair accessible was a bit odd. They did not ask that question 20 years ago.

This is the mold they used, which is filled with bean bags.

This is the chair after it was molded to Eric, with all the air sucked out.

This is the final mold covered with plaster that will be sent to the company to make the back of Eric's new wheelchair.

 

What boggles my mind is the estimated cost of the back alone is $1,800.  All I can say is wow.

Eric is still home sick although I am not doing a much suctioning as in the past week, I am still getting up a lot. I have personally hit the point of tired and exhausted. I will try my very best not to be as cranky as I feel.

 

Well I hear some knitting calling my name so I will go and listen to my knitting. 

Eric's Day Off

Eric had a day off do to the holiday today. So we took the day to do a charity run to Goodwill, the whole back of my car was full. We then became a very long train at Target. I pushed Eric in his chair and pulled the shopping cart behind us. As I recall this used to be a much shorter train when Eric was 3 and using his Kirschall chair, back when he was much younger. I did manage to fill the cart and make it as heavy as Eric and his chair. The thing that did surprise me at Target was that they did not provide carry out help with the very full basket. Most other stores in Tucson provide carry out help when I am shopping alone with Eric. Even if I don't buy as much.

We made our way home and I put the grocery's away under Eric's careful "supervision". While Eric took his afternoon nap, I managed to finish his 2nd quilt. Talk to my mom, start another Charity box, clean the guest/craft room some more. I also got laundry done, cooked and cleaned up the mess for dinner.

While Eric was thumping I managed to get some of the boxes from the craft room out to the garage. I also decided to skip folding laundry tonight.And I almost finished another hat. I am at the decrease rows on the dpn's. Well it has been a very long day and I have a very busy day tomorrow.

Driving Around Town

Today I spent part of the day driving around town doing errands. About half way through my errands I realized how easy having a car makes all this possible. I also started to wonder weather all this would be possible without the use of modern transportation.

When I stopped by the Post Office I could not find a parking place, not a good sign. So I went and made my next stop at Goodwill, 2 large bags and 1 box to charity. Yes a little less clutter in the house. Then I was passing another Post Office, yes there was room to park my car so the Halloween candy went off to Operation Gratitude, 1 more box out of the house. Things are getting better, less clutter. I found a unique way to lighten my purse. I dropped off the change in my wallet at the bank, $5.00 in change gone did make my purse lighter. I did not realize how heavy $5.00 of change is.

Then it was off to World Care to drop off new and used medical supplies. Now this is truly an organization that would be hard pressed to operate without modern transportation. These wonderful people keep used medical equipment out of the landfill. When equipment is used in this country we generally do not reuse it, crutches, braces, wheel chairs can all be refurbished and sent to disaster zones and third world countries where these items are very scarce and are always needed. 1 more box out of the house and hopefully a new home for some ankle foot orthoics.

Then I made a little time to test drive a new sewing machine, 2 more brands to test drive. I was way out on the east side of town and had just under an hour before Eric arrives at home. So off to Trader Joe's to get things for dinner and then to Sunflower to get the things I needed that Trader Joe's does not carry. 

Hulling 2 large bags and 3 boxes would be very hard with out a car. So would my 20 plus miles of driving be hard to do without a car. I do love our modern age and my car.

I just got the frozen food put away when the school bus came.  Eric and I, with Joe's(Eric's afternoon aide) help filled another box for Operation Gratitude with a lot of small beanie baby toys. This means 1 more box will be gone tomorrow. I hope I can get into the parking lot of the Post Office tomorrow.

With dinner cooking it is time to work on tomorrow's to do list. Yes I know that this will make me look like an over achiever today, but I never know what tonight or tomorrow will bring. Have a good evening and enjoy your families.

Wednesday - The Most Wonderful Day

For a day that started of achy and grouchy it turned into the most wonderful day. I got a tweet very early in the morning from Melissa at http://www.NeoKnits@blogspot.com That through a random number generator,I had won a free copy of the Bliss Shawlette. What a wonderful pattern. I can not wait for the projects in my basket to get finished so I can start the new pattern. Please take a minute to stop by Melissa's blog and check out her wonderful patterns. These patterns are wonderful, they would make a great addition to your knitting line up or if you are a local yarn shop owner, these pattern will cause the yarn and patterns to fly out of your doors.

The next delight came in the mail from http://PhatFibres@Blogspot.com I had won one of her many contests featuring independent fiber artists. The yarn came from A shop on esty called my 8 kids It is a super wash yarn called Blue Monday. The coloring is simply wonderful. It was well over 100 degrees and humid due to the season, but the yarn is so soft and cuddly that it stayed on my shoulder all afternoon. I would like to know her secret to being a mom of 8, running an on-line studio and dyeing such beautiful yarn and fiber. I personally have trouble keeping up with 2 kids. By the way the yarn is back on my shoulder. I think it is going to have to be a shawl. I am in love with this yarn.

I was so happy with all this it almost did not matter that on day 1 of my 12 day sale of 10% off everything in the shop I did not have one sale. Everything in my shop will be 10% off till July 26 at 11:59 p.m. There is a link on the side of my blog to my Art Fire Studio.

I also did more deep cleaning yesterday, I hope that by next week that the dinning room will finally be cleared of all the junk that got moved in during construction. It would have been done by now, except that I am in a zenning mood and am de-cluttering the house. I have another Bookmans and Goodwill run for Teri to do. I will really miss her help when she goes off to law school.

Speaking of Teri going off to law school , she has bought the most wonderful sheet set for her dorm room. She has really learned about household things like sheets even if she did not let on.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.