Red Rover...Red Rover...I'm really all over.

I feel like I've been all over the place the last couple of weeks. I can't seem to stay on task for beans, but at least I'm getting little bits done all over the place.

We haven't gotten back out to the yard since Hubster almost fell out of the apple tree. I'd had every intention of getting out there myself and cutting down some of the smaller elms that I could just snip off with hand clippers, but it hasn't happened. I'm hoping it will happen next week. We'll see.

Scooter came down with a wicked cold and then decided to share it with Hopper and me. I don't really think it's the flu, (and am I ever grateful we already got our flu shots this year!!). I don't think the flu has hit our state yet. It's some sort of a nasty chest and head cold that's resulted in breathing treatments and cough syrup with codeine on a daily basis. Thankfully, the cough syrup is no longer needed, but the nebulizer treatments are still a nightly thing. At this, Scooter has missed 2 straight weeks from school from this stuff. We're hoping she'll finally get to go back to school on Monday.

I finally made it in for my doctor's appointment and blood work. Everything was fine, which is really good. I've had a lot more energy since I changed the time I take the amino acid I use for nerve pain. It definitely seemed to be interfering with my thyroid meds, and I was just exhausted all the time. It's nice to have a little extra energy.

I've got so much to do it's not funny, so the energy spurts are much needed! I still have to finish up with the tomatoes and apples. We have quite a few tomatoes that we brought in when we closed down the garden that have ripened up that I'd like to can, so we have them for this winter. The ones that are a little over-ripe will be cooked down for sauce and canned, as well. I'll still have some green ones, so I'd like to actually try fried green tomatoes, since I think I'll try it every year and never get around to making them. I've heard they're good.

I've got probably a couple of bushels of apples left from the tree. They're going to be a bit more work. I've got to peel, core and slice them up before canning some apple pie filling. I might make some apple butter, too. I haven't completely decided. It depends on how much energy I actually end up with for the day.

And while I haven't been posting here regularly like I used to, I am making progress. I have gotten into the habit of walking on the treadmill for a very short time every single day. I haven't missed a day in 2 weeks. I'd love it, if I could say I hadn't missed a singe day in 2 years. Stay tuned. It's only 102 weeks before we'll know, if I can do it. 

Since the workout room is downstairs, and I have to walk by the boxes in the craft area every time I go to the treadmill, I've been trying to sort through something each time I go through. Some days I get a full box sorted. Other days, I only get rid of one or two things, but it's progress. Still. I'm amazed at how much easier the decision making process is today compared to when I started this journey almost 3 years ago!

Yesterday I had to dig some stuff out in the garage, so I could put it up for sale on Craigslist. I filled up a big outdoor trash can with stuff I realized I could part with while trying to find all the parts of the bunkbeds I needed to get together. I decided to bring in a box of paperwork that had been packed away 5 years ago shortly after we lost Daddy. 

It's been a difficult box to sort through. A lot of emotions have come up while going through it, and it was a bit too much for me to try to do in one sitting. I'll continue working on it in the next week. The apples and maters are the bigger priority.

In the meantime, duty calls. 

'Tis time to get off my butt and get busy!

Goodbye?

Our household was hit by a stomach bug Hubster brought home from work. Yesterday was the first time I'd felt almost normal in a week, and I took full advantage of the improvement. Scooter is feeling better this morning, and her coloring is a bit better, so hopefully she's on the mend as well. 

Even though I still need to finish Hopper's birthday gift, I worked in the kitchen/dining room yesterday. I'm hoping to finish up in there today, and I'm encouraged at the changes in there. 

Awhile back, I put a shelf in the baker's rack, because we're so limited for storage in the kitchen. The shelf allows for double decker storage, and it's made a big difference in how things are working out in the kitchen. It's helped tremendously. And we did put the credenzas down int he laundry room, so we had the extra storage down there for the overflow from the kitchen as well. I just hadn't gotten around to taking the cake pans and baking dishes down there until yesterday. So I washed the dust out of them and took them downstairs.

1 10x14 glass cake pan, 

1 11x15 ceramic baking dish

1 6" round ceramic baking dish

1 glass pie dish 

1 silicone heart cupcake pan

1 silicone heart cake pan

1 2-piece set silicone birthday cake pans

1 tin of Christmas cookie cutters

It's amazing how much more room there is on the kitchen counters and table without all that stuff in there. There has never been enough storage room for the stuff that we use regularly in the kitchen, let alone all the extras that we don't use as often. I have been known to store the extras in the oven, but as soon as I get used to using the oven for storage, something is left in there that that melts when I turn the oven on without checking it. If I left them in sight, at least I wouldn't have smoke billowing out of the oven. Now it won't be an issue. Yay!

I didn't get out of the house very often when we first moved to Colorado 18 years ago. Between Scooter's constant hospitalizations and my own health problems, I was fairly busy and just didn't have the time. On one of those rare occasions when everyone was well enough, we went for a walk as a family. There was yard sale on the street over from where we lived, and we decided to browse. 

A black iron plant stand, shaped to fit in a corner, caught my eye. It was about 5ft tall and had some pretty scrolled iron on it. I've always had a thing for wrought iron and things that look like it, so in spite of the fact we didn't have a lot of extra money at the time, Hubster told me to splurge and spend the $5 they were asking for it. I have used it in the kitchen ever since. It has been such a big part of my life for so long that it came as a slight shock for me a couple of weeks ago when I realized it was no longer working for me. I needed something more functional than decorative.

I window shop on Craigslist from time to time in the off chance I can find a solution for a specific need, and a couple of weeks ago was no different. I came across a tall narrow cabinet that was just what we needed. It wasn't intended to be used in the kitchen, as it's more of a tall skinny desk thing, but thankfully, the kitchen police haven't come around and told me that I'll be cited for using it in the wrong room.

There is a cabinet area with a door at the top with 2 adjustable shelves. Just under it is a docking station where one can hide a power strip and the power cords for cell phones, etc., so they are conveniently available to charge small electronics at any given time. Directly under the docking station is an open area for storage. One one side of the upper cabinet is a section of 4 mail slots and the other side has a place to hang keys that will be perfect for hanging the aprons.

The bottom portion of the cupboard is deeper than the top. Toward the top of the lower section is a small board that pulls out for a writing surface followed by a shallow drawer. There is an open space that follows with holes for adjustable shelves, but there wasn't a shelf included, which is fine. I don't know that we'll need one there anyway, and if we do, I think I have something that will work.

The bottom of the tower ends in a rather large drawer. I'm not sure, if it's supposed to be a file cabinet or what. There aren't any supports in it to hang files on, but it doesn't really matter. I'm not going to be using it for a filing cabinet anyway. I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to store in it just yet. I may store lids to the plastic containers, aprons, cake decorating supplies, or kitchen towels. I haven't made up my mind just yet. It will come to me, but I know I will not be using it for files.

The flash or regret over not having the beloved iron shelf in the corner of the kitchen holding plants has been quickly replaced by delight at having something so practical. 

For years, I've struggled with having a place to put the weekly pill boxes where they are out of sight, but where we will still remember to use them. I've also never quite figured out what to do with the large bottles of vitamins that I used to fill the boxes. I've carted them around in boxes or baskets from one room to another never knowing exactly where to store them. They now have a permanent home in the cabinet at the top of the tower stored neatly with the weekly pill boxes. 

I'm not sure what I'll do with the plant stand. I'll figure it out eventually. In the meantime, I'm the closest I've ever been to a completely organized kitchen, and I can't express the relief this small change has given me. 

It's taking awhile, but I am slowly but surely getting there.

Wherever 'there' is. 

RFP

When I was working in the closet yesterday, I came across a pair of shoes that I no longer wear. I got them at a shoe store several years ago after having my gait tested on a treadmill. They were so comfortable, and I could walk in them for hours without getting a back ache. 


I vaguely remembered something being wrong with them, but for whatever reason I hung onto them when I went through our bedroom and the big purge a year ago. I must have felt they were irreplaceable. I do know I'd wanted to get another pair, but I don't recall whether or not I looked to see, if anything was available last year or not. So after I tried them on and realized what was wrong with them, (the air pocket in the right shoe had deflated), I checked to see, if I could find the identical pair online. 


I couldn't.


I found several pairs in different colors. I'm just wasn't sure they'd fit the same way this pair did, and I wasn't willing to take the chance and spend the money not knowing for sure. I took the shoestrings out for the girls and gave them each one. Then I took the shoes and tossed them in the bottom of the big black trash bag that goes out tomorrow. 


Scooter was bummed that I threw them. She wanted to play with them. She has a habit of taking every pair of slippers or shoes I'm not wearing at the time and piling them up beside her or walking around in them, and she wanted these shoes. Thus, the bottom of the trash bag. Good thing I had a shoestring to offer as a consolation prize.


Even though it's likely to be a glaringly obvious thing to others, it didn't dawn on me until today that I could just go get another gait test at the shoe store. When the time is right, I'll pack myself up in car, get myself on the treadmill at the store, and get myself a new pair of shoes. They don't have to be the same brand. They don't have to be the same style. They just have to be the right ones for my gait, and they'll be able to help me at that store. 


So the shoes no longer live in my closet. I think I was hanging onto them, so I wouldn't forget that experience I had when I had my gait tested the first time. It was such a neat experience. I could never seem to pick out a pair of shoes that felt right until then, and it was life changing. It allowed me to get out and walk trails that I normally couldn't walk. I was active and healthy and happy. I want that again, but I don't need the shoes to remind me. 


I will remember. When the time is right, I. will. remember. 


I'm slowly but surely remembering that I don't need to use objects to remember important things, and it's helping me to slowly but surely get rid of stuff. 


Relentless forward progress and all.