Tension, unhand me!

Middle daughter had a gigantic meltdown at 5:30 this morning while getting ready for school. The tension put the muscles in my neck and shoulders into gargantuan knots, and I've yet to be able to untie them.

I was able to get quite a bit accomplished in the kitchen today in spite of things, but I think I'm taking the entire evening off. I'll be doing homework...I'll be reading Buried in Treasures, but I'm done with anything physical. I'll be sitting with two heating pads set on high for awhile, and then I'll be going to bed early.

Hoping I can finish the kitchen tomorrow. . .

Groovin.

The other day on the Hoarders board, Dr. Deibler suggested I read a book called Buried In Treasures Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding by David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. It came in today's mail. I've been working on the insurance claim (and actually making progress), so I haven't really check the book out too much. It's sort of a workbook with self-assessment tests in it to help people in my situation try to find their way out of the abyss.

I am very much looking forward to reading it in its entirety and using the suggestions in it to help make decisions on what to keep and what to toss. I hurriedly did the first self-assessment test, and it showed I have mild hoarding tendencies with a but more of a problem with knowing how to let go of things. However, I think I may have rushed through things a bit or wasn't totally honest with myself, because when I look around I think it's more of a problem than the initial test result shows. I'll be asking both my husband and our oldest daughter to take the same assessment test and see what numbers they come up with as well. I think that will give me a better idea. I think it can just be really easy not to see things in ourselves sometimes.

I'm really looking forward to finishing up the insurance claims. I'm in a groove now and have finally figured out how I'm doing things. Part of the difficulty I've had is that there are several hundred pictures of damages that I've got to sort through. Then I have to describe each item that was damaged and remember what I've gotten done and not forget to do it all. I've gotten to the point of being on a roll. As I'm finished with putting the item on the claim form, have labeled each picture accordingly and have accounted for everything, I move the pictures associated with the item in a documents folder on the computer.

I've gotten some of the more frustrating items out of the way, so I'm hoping the rest goes a little more quickly. I am looking forward to getting this monkey off my back, so I can work on dehoarding again. It's weighed so heavily on my mind the last several weeks I've felt almost paralyzed. I'll be glad when I'm done with it.

I'm really looking forward to getting to that book and back to dehoarding!