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!

Distractions.

I was sore today from yesterday's fall, but I'm very thankful it wasn't worse. I tried taking it easy and tried to rest up today, but I'm not so good at resting anymore. So I decided to work on the pinata, since I hadn't done anything with it for a few days.


I made some fresh wall paper paste out of cornstarch and water and waited for it to cool a little. While it was cooling, I sat down to tear some paper. Instead of tearing large pieces of paper into small strips, I grabbed 2 of the rolls of adding machine tape that I came across while sorting boxes in the basement. Mom had gotten it for Bugster to draw on when she was little, and she did use an entire roll, but there were 5 left. 


Instead of throwing them away or donating them, I realized they would make the perfect strips for doing the paper mache on the pinatas. So I tore about half a roll into strips 3" to 4" long. By the time I was done tearing the strips, the paste was cool enough to use, so I set out to put another layer on the pinata. However, there was a problem


Every pinata I've ever made has started off with a rather large balloon. I typically put several layers of paper strips on said balloon until it's ready to add the strings. I've found, if I add the strings followed by a few more layers of paper strips, it balances well, and it hangs much more steadily than, if you try to tie it up when it's all been decorated, and the strings don't break. It's a win/win.


As things dry, the paper becomes hard almost like cardboard. It's amazing how strong it can be. At some point, the balloon needs to be popped, but because the paper strips are pasted directly to the balloon, when the balloon is popped, there is a chance of the balloon deflating too quickly and pulling the paper along with it into the center of the pinata. It's really frustrating when this happens, as I usually have to start over.


So when I started applying the new layers to the balloon today, I was so frustrated when I noticed that the balloon had shrunk since I put the first layers of paper on it a few days ago. I had not gotten enough layers on it the other day, so the pinata started to collapse in on itself as soon as I started adding strips of paper to it, which meant only one thing. 


I needed to start over.


So I went downstairs to get another balloon. I blew it up and set it down while I checked on something else. Several hours and several boxes later, the balloon still sits, inflated, where I set it. 


The good news is that I got several more boxes of craft stuff sorted and put away. 


The bad news is that I have to start over on the pinata. 


Hopefully, I won't get distracted quite as easily tomorrow.

These area few of my fav...er...things.

*Scooter's old EpiPen.

*Wedding gifts still in the box from my grandmother and my aunt along with sweet notes from each of them expressing best wishes for the newly wed couple that was us 25 years ago.

*A sock craft that Hopper made at least 15 years ago that looked like a possessed scarecrow.

*Our tax returns from 1997 and 1998. 

*A 35mm camera from when we were first married.

These are just a few of the things I found when sorting through boxes of craft stuff downstairs today. Granted, not all of them would be categorized as crafts, but they were in boxes on the side of the room that has boxes of crafts stacked to the ceiling that came in from the storage pod on the driveway. These were just some of the the things I found today.

I started a new collection of expired medicines that I'll collect until there is another medicine roundup in town. We dropped off quite a bit of medicine at the last medicine roundup a couple of weeks ago, and I know I'll have quite a bit more by the time there's another one. The EpiPen went into the latest collection of expired medicine.

The wedding gifts were put aside for now. I'll be keeping them, but my mindset is on crafts right now, and I don't know yet where I'll be putting them just yet. I am so glad I came across the cards with the sweet words of my grandmother and my aunt. They brought back wonderful memories of  2 very beautiful women that I miss so much. I'm so very thankful I had them in my life.

The sock craft Hopper made so many years ago had me second guessing myself for awhile. It was a head made of a sock that had yarn hair and felt facial features with stickers for eyes. It had a green felt scarf tied around it, and that was it. It was just a head. It was horribly stained, and I thought about washing it for a moment or two. I wondered how it would fare in the washing machine but figured it wouldn't hold up well. So I considered washing it by hand, but then I looked at it again. It was downright ugly and half scary looking. I could think of no reason I would ever display it, and I realized that as a result I didn't need to wash it. I had a small breakthrough and threw it in the trash. I had several small breakthroughs throughout the last few days, but that was the biggest by far. I look forward to seeing what other breakthroughs I might have in the rest of the boxes.

The taxes? Put in the bag of shredables. I've always struggled with which paperwork to keep and what not to keep. So while it was fun seeing what our income was in 1997 and 1998, we didn't think it was necessary to keep the records any longer. I still had a slight twinge of regret over not keeping any of it, but by the time I acknowledged it, the papers were already in the bag. I could leave them there.

Besides. I'm thinking that the more paperwork we have around that has social security numbers on it, the higher the risk of identity theft. So in the long run, I was thankful we made the decision to get rid of them. 

Speaking of identity theft...enter the 35mm camera. 

When I was 9 months pregnant with Bugster, we got base housing for the first time. We went to some sort of introduction meeting where different aspects of living on base were discussed. During the course of the meeting, we were advised to engrave Hubster's full name and social security number on any electronic device we owned to make it more recoverable, should it ever be stolen. We could check out an engraver through the military police to mark everything, so being the dutiful military wife, I did just that.

At this point, I don't remember what all I marked, but I shudder at the thought of electronics that we've disposed of over the years having my husband's full name and social security number engraved on them! I'm just glad that it was 24 years ago, and well before the age of computers and rampant identity theft, and that hopefully any electronics that still have his information on it has long since been buried deep under mounds of trash in a landfill.

The 35mm camera I came across today was one of the things I'd engraved with almost everything needed to steal my husband's identity. Thankfully, I remembered to check the bottom of the camera before sticking it in the box of stuff to be donated. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the data on the camera and how close I came to sticking it in that box without a second thought. 

Thankfully, I was able to gouge the offending information from the bottom of the camera without too much of an issue. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled. I don't want anything like that to slip through my hands and find its way into the wrong hands. 

Catching Zs on Mother's Day Eve.

Woke up this morning with chest and head congestion. It could just be a result of having our windows open over night. I'm really hoping that I'm not getting what the rest of the family has been dealing with lately, but I'm not holding my breath. I've had a headache for the better part of the day. Shoot, I've had them the better part of the week, and I'm not one to typically get headaches. I guess I'll know before too long.

All things considered, I'm happy with what I got done today. 

I got 5 loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away. I got 5 totes of clean clothes packed away for further sorting once things slow down around here. They're clothes that Bugster will eventually go through to see, if she wants to use any of them for her little ones. 


And then...

Are you ready for this? 

I found MORE laundry!

Thankfully, it wasn't a huge box. It was just a plastic under the bed storage tote full of clothes I'd washed before I put them in storage years ago. The bad thing is that they smell super musty-on the verge of mildewy, even. I'm not sure what happened that they smell the way they do. I think it has to do with the basement flooding 2 years ago and then the tote going into the storage pod on the drive. It doesn't matter why they smelled so rank. They won't smell that way for long. I've got the washing machine full and soaking overnight, and I'll finish the rest up in the next day or so.


I worked downstairs today in the craft area, too. I spent a couple of hours straightening things up, so the area was more conducive to sorting boxes and actually putting things away permanently. I still have a ton to do down there, but rearranging things and picking up a bit made it possible to empty 2 boxes before stopping for the night.  

All in all, I'm satisfied with what I got done today. I feel it was a product day. I'm just finding it amazing that even when I feel like I have productive days I'm not getting nearly as much done as I did when Mom was here. She was such a tremendous help!


Still. I have to remember what my grandfather used to say about situations like this. "When you're feeling bad about not getting everything you wanted to get done in a day, you need to look around and see what you did get done." 


I got enough done, and I'll sleep well tonight.

Uff Da!

I've been meaning to write more often than I have since Mom went back home, but I've been busy, and by the time I sit down to write, I'm either so tired I fall asleep, or I can't put my thoughts into words. It doesn't help that we've all been sick around here, and I've had daily headaches for over a week. But blogging has helped me work through things by talking about them, and I need to make it a priority again. I may just have to switch up the time of day I sit down to blog and see, if that helps.

I've been working on the boxes of paperwork that came in from the garage. I've gone through 6 or 7 boxes so far. I've thrown out a gigantic black bag full of trash, and I've gotten 10 bags of shredables from it all, so it's definitely progress. It's really exciting to know that I won't have to ever sort through the stuff that has gone to the shredables or out the door to the trash. What a relief!

There have been some adorable things I've come across, like Bugster's drawings from when she was tiny. She was just under a year old when she drew her first face, so some of these drawings are absolutely amazing and precious, both. I'm glad I dated so many of them at the time she was drawing them. Some of the cards she made when she was about 5 are precious. She says how much she loves one of us on the front of the card, fills the inside of it with Xs and Os or with hearts to make sure we know they're full of love, and then she writes, "The End" on the backs of the cards. 

And right now, I just can't throw them away. If I do ever get to the point I do throw them away, I won't do it before scanning them into the computer, so I have a digital copy of them. They're absolutely precious, and I can't bring myself to part with them just yet.

That being said, I am simply amazed at some of the things I saved over the years. Not only did I hang onto the little pictures Bugster drew, but I can't count how many pieces of paper I came across that only possessed a scribble or two. 

I can tell how stressful our lives were at the time each box was packed away based on how many things I find that I failed to give myself permission to throw away. Some boxes correlate withe exceptionally stressful times in our lives and are full of page after page of scribbled papers, proofs of purchases and UPC codes that take up as much as 1/8 of the box of paperwork. 

I also realize that I didn't throw a single receipt from a doctor's office over the years, and I kept each explanation of benefits that we received from the insurance companies, as well. I wrote before about not knowing what I was supposed to keep and save from paperwork, and while I have tossed the vast majority of these in the shredables, I wish that I'd at least kept track of the dates of service to put a timeline together of the doctors' visits over the years. It would have been staggering. If nothing else, it would have been interesting to put together a timeline of hospitalizations and trips back and forth to Norfolk, and I still may try to piece one together from the paperwork I've saved, but I am not going to try to dig anything out of the shredables to do so.

I've come across used gift wrap that I found pretty at the time and for whatever reason found irresistible enough to squirrel away. I'm sure some I saved for craft projects, but I allowed myself to let it go. I've already started a second big black bag for trash, and the gift wrap has found it's way to the bottom of the bag. 


I know that some of the paperwork has been saved, because I was overwhelmed at the time it was tossed into the box and I didn't have the time to sort through it. Most boxes so far have contained everything from newspaper articles to shut off notices from the utility companies (paying the bills were the last thing on our minds when Scooter and Hopper were in the hospital, and we didn't know, if they were going to come home or not!), to candy wrappers and greeting cards. And none of that really came as a surprise, because it wasn't uncommon for a table or counter's contents to end up in a box when we were getting ready for a birthday celebration or the holidays.


There have been a few things I've found that took me off guard. Like poems I'd written in junior high and high school that make it very obvious looking back that I had depression issues. Like my little red vinyl wallet with the blue heart on the front from elementary school that still had pictures in it of kids I knew growing up. Like mildewed black and white portraits of me, 1 of my sisters and 2 of my brothers that I'd salvaged in the hopes of getting them restored.


But nothing quite prepared me for the last thing I found carefully placed in a sandwich bag....

Scooter O'Shea's belly button!

 

Progress.

Not sure where to start.  

Things are going well, though.

The pod on the driveway? 

It's not there anymore. It was picked up last Wednesday. We are all so very thankful it's gone, and of course the neighbors are thrilled! The yard, the entire street, even, looks so much bigger with that thing gone! And do you have any idea how wonderful it is to be able to park in the driveway for the first time in 20 months? Let's just say we'll never take it for granted again. 


Last week, Mom helped me go through 20 boxes in the basement. Of the 20 boxes we sorted through, I only kept 4, and I'll eventually be going through them again and getting rid of more stuff. I just didn't want to take the time to do it now. Too much going on. So, like I said, Mom helped me sort through 20 boxes. I kept 4. For now. I'm looking forward to being well enough to sort through the rest of the boxes downstairs. 


I feel like I'm healing well. I feel well most days and had gotten to the point I wasn't needing the stronger pain medicines like I had early on. Then I wasn't thinking and was pushing the shopping cart this weekend when The Hubster and I were shopping. I was doing fine until I tried turning a corner. I felt it then and I'm still feeling it tonight. I haven't done much of anything yesterday or today. I'm trying to take it really easy, so I  can heal up from it, but it really irritated me that I did it without even thinking about things.


I really am feeling well overall, though. Much better than I expected to feel, and much, much better than I did after I had my c-sections. I am thrilled I had the surgery, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I just need to stay away from the shopping carts for awhile, so I don't overdo. I can do that. 

I'll be here sporadically while Mom is still visiting. I've never felt like I've gotten enough time with my parents as an adult, because we've always lived so far apart. Now that Mom's here, I want to spend every moment I can with her. It's been amazing having her here, and we're making lifelong memories. I want to be present for them, so I can store them in my heart.

So. That's what's going on in my life. I'll be back as I can. 


I hope each and every one of you is doing well!

An early Christmas.

I am ever so glad it was warm outside today. Well. Warm for Colorado in December. It was in the 50s, and we needed every degree of warmth possible to complete our task, plus the space heater, but complete it we did.

The. Storage. Pod. Is. Empty.

My mother and my husband did the vast majority of the leg work with a little help from Hopper. We thought of hiring Frank the last couple of hours to help out. I wish we'd have thought of it sooner. It was a great investment, and he was a huge help. 


Our basement holds most of the contents of the pod at this point, but it does not feel like it will be impossible to get through the boxes, even though they take up a large portion of the family room. It's going to take awhile to get through the crafts and get them sorted. There's a lot of crafts, and while I have quite the craft area I will not have room for everything, so I will be paring down as I go along. I think it's going to be a case of "easier said than done," but I refuse to be intimidated. I will get through it.

I meant to take pictures in the pod before we started unloading, but it's just as well I didn't. By the time we finally finished, I felt like a Popsicle I was so cold, and I doubt my fingers would have been able to operate the buttons on a camera. Now that everything is inside, I'll make sure I get pictures before I start going through boxes tomorrow.

I know we have a lot of games that we'd gotten for the girls over the years, but realistically, I know we won't be using them all, and many of them are still brand new. I want to go through them, get out the ones I don't think the girls will use, and donate them to one of the local toy drives in time for Christmas. Hopefully, they'll bring smiles to a few faces this Season.

I'm exhausted tonight from my role in today's adventure. I didn't lift anything. I left that up to The Hubster and Mom. However, I stood in the pod for the 5 hours it took us to go through and delegated. The craft boxes went on one side of the family room. The games, toys, and other boxes that are going to require a bit more time to sort went on the other side. The books all went in the workout room. 


Speaking of books, The Hubster was in shock when we came across 13 more boxes of books after he thought he'd already moved all the boxes down to the workout room. He's positive he's not going to be able to fit them all on the bookshelves we have ready for him to use. He's looking at paring down, too.


Emptying the pod today has been an eye-opening experience. It's made us very much aware of what it is that we struggle with hoarding, and it's made us very much aware that we do not want to continue down the path we'd chosen. We no longer choose to go down that road. 


We've decided to take a detour that will lead us to our real lives. 


Merry Christmas to us.

Just checkin in...

I'm feeling much better than I expected to feel 11 days post-op. I am just so relieved to have the surgery out of the way and to be feeling the way I am. I definitely feel better than I did at this point in the recovery after my c-sections, so I'm quite happy about that.

When I went in to get the staples out last week, I asked the doctor, if it was okay for me to go through the boxes that The Hubster was bringing in from the pod on the driveway. She said that it was as long as I rested, if I felt tired. So I've been sorting and resting as needed. I've gotten through quite a bit so far, and I couldn't be happier.

We're about halfway through the pod at this point. Things have either been tossed in the trash, cleaned for donation, set aside for someone else, or kept for our use. So far, we're keeping very little except the craft stuff. And we're on such a roll that decisions are coming easier for me all the time. 

We're about halfway through the pod at this time. Tomorrow, we're going to get it emptied. We want it off the driveway. Granted, that means we'll have to put what remains where it will fit, and it will take up quite a bit of room downstairs and in the garage, but I'll continue to work on sorting as many boxes as possible, so we can get the basement cleared as quickly as we can. 


We're hoping to completely clean the pod out tomorrow and call the company on Monday to come and pick it up. The company has up to a week after we call to pick it up. That being the case, we will be able to park in the driveway before Christmas! We are SO thrilled with that! The driveway is going to look so naked once it's gone. 


That's okay.


Nudity has it's place.

Wake Up Little Suzy. Wake Up!

I slept today.

A lot.

I've just been beat today, so I figured I probably needed the rest.

I wasn't able to get a lot done besides a couple loads of laundry and the dishes, but what can I say? I didn't have much time after sleeping so much.

I did use Old English polish on the shelving unit we'd gotten for hubby to use as a bookshelf for his collection of books. It turned the dried out and drab looking oak into something quite presentable. He is now free to load the thing down with books. Well...almost.

Tomorrow the kids have an early release day at school. So Frank will be coming over to help me out and make a little money for the school formal dance that's coming up. So I'll have him help me with cutting some extra shelves to go in the bookshelf unit for Hubster. It should be easy enough to cut the shelves. It's just a matter of measuring and cutting, and it shouldn't take very long.

This is one of the things that we need to have done before we can get the storage pod emptied on the driveway. At least by having the shelving unit ready, Hubster can get the several boxes of books in the pod emptied and put away. Not everything in the shed has a place to go just yet. But it will make things so much easier overall, if at least some of them have an immediate place to go when they're unloaded.

This is something we've needed for a very long time. A place for my husband to put his books. Shortly after I wrote this post, I happened to look at the dresser in our bedroom and noticed all the books my husband had stacked on his side of the bed. I only counted what I could see. I didn't count the ones that were stacked on the floor-only those I could spot easily. We were both quite surprised when I counted 56 books in view. That's a lot of books. Hubster has since cleaned the books off the dresser and just boxed them up, but he really deserves a place to store them on a more permanent level. This is it.

So in spite of the fact that I slept most of the day, I feel like I got something done toward the whole dehoarding/decluttering/organizing process. It will be nice to cross it off my list entirely tomorrow.

Humilation can be a great motivator.

Today was a really long day, but I got a lot accomplished and may have solved a small but horrifying and embarrassing mystery along the way. Normally, I think I would literally die of embarrassment rather than mention this to a soul, but I'm trying really hard to be honest on my blog about how hoarding has affected me or our family. And this is a direct result of the hoarding. So, if you don't see any sort of post from me for a day or two, assume I'm dead and call the authorities.

I've been so busy working on the pinata and getting some other things together for our family reunion that's coming up next week that I had to scramble this morning to get things ready for the electrician to come over. He was supposed to be over at 1:00 this afternoon, but he almost always shows up early, so I wanted to be ready, and I had a ton to get done.

The other night, Bugster came over and watched the girls for me, so I could run some errands and get some stuff I needed for the pinatas. While she was here, she boxed the stuff up that was all over in the office. There was a lot on the floor, and it kills me to pick things up from the floor, especially when there's a lot to pick up, so she boxed things up for me. Plus, it gives me a better frame of mind to be able to walk in the office and not have something underfoot the entire time, and it may be easier to just deal with one box at a time when it comes to sorting things. So it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I know that boxing things up isn't always a good idea. But I just needed the space something fierce. One of the air conditioners is in the office, and the electrician is going to install a dedicated outlet for each of the air conditioners, and I needed to make room. And the night that Bugster came over and boxed things up for me it was hot in the house. It had been a very warm day, and the air conditioners kept popping the breaker, and by the time I got back from running errands, she was feeling half sick from the heat. So she left the rather large pile on the floor for me to finish.

I put it off for a couple of days, because I knew I'd hurt when I was done. Sitting on the floor kills my back, and I'd have to sit on the floor, because sitting on a stool and reaching to the floor hurts it even more. So I grabbed the home phone, my cell and my drink and sat down on the floor to get busy. I was able to get rid of 3 more bags of shredables, 5 grocery bags of trash, found some missing socks, and put the small pile of stuff I saved away to sort later. I didn't have time to do it this morning.

By the time I got done and had worked a bit more on another pinata, I realized it was getting sort of late, and I needed to work in the bedroom. So I woke my husband up and told him that I was sorry, but that I had to get things cleared for the electrician to work in there. He understood and got up and showered and then did what he needed to do in the garage, so the electrician could get to the panel without a problem. He also helped me move the bed, which is a Goliath of a piece of furniture. I couldn't move it without him.

I was flabbergasted at the amount of dust under and behind the bed, and I went on a cleaning frenzy to get as much done as quickly as possible. I found several pair of socks that had slid under the bed, several medicine bottles that had disappeared over the months since I'd gotten things cleaned under the bed (most were empty), and several pair of shoes I'd thought I'd thrown away. I'll be going through the shoes as time permits and wearing them around the house. If they're horribly uncomfortable, or if my back hurts after wearing them, I'll pitch them in the trash. Otherwise, I'll have an extra pair or two to wear outside when I'm gardening or working in the yard. I think I actually filled the canister vac up with dust bunnies. They were thick to say the least.

When I was done there, I realized that things were going to fall over in the hallway, if I didn't straighten things up a bit. I threw a lot of stuff away and condensed what I will be going through later into two much smaller stacks than had been in there. However, when I came across one box, I froze in my tracks for a minute. And I was angry. I have no idea how this box came to be, but it frustrates me to no end. I know that it wasn't me who did it. That being said, I'm not angry at the person responsible for putting the items in the box, because I know that they were trying to help. It just didn't work out that way.

I hate just filling boxes to go through later. I despise it. I'd honestly rather have the mess than the boxes most of the time, because I know that I'll eventually get to it, if I can see the mess. When things are boxed up, it makes it harder for me to remember what I've got to do. Needless to say, Buster was shocked I'd asked her to just box things up in the office the other night, because she knows how I feel about it.

Well, what I found today just confirmed why I hate to have things boxed up. The box was only about half full, and a gallon water jug took up most of the space that had been used. However, when I pulled back the newspaper that was under the water jug, my heart sank. There in the bottom of the box was a bag of potatoes and an onion. There were probably only a couple or 3 potatoes in the bag. It wasn't like a full bag went to waste. However, there was evidence of rotten potato juice on the newspapers that were under them. And the onion was hollowed out. It has sprouted at one point, but the sprouts were long since brown. There were also carcasses of several small bugs in the box. They looked to be little beetles, but I didn't examine them very closely.

Finding this box explains so very much. Rotten potatoes are one of my biggest asthma triggers. And these had been dead a long time. But I can't help but think that they have played a major role in my asthma over the last several months. The asthma I've had to take oral steroids for 6 or so times over the last 8 months. I have had so many sinus issues as well, and that's probably why I didn't smell them. At this point, the smell was pretty much gone, except for the smell of dust. And it doesn't help that this box was in the hallway that has the air intake for the furnace. Yep. This box has played a very negative role in my recent health. No more.

Finding this box released all sorts of emotions for me. Shame. Frustration. Anger. Humilation. Relief. Understanding. Inspiration. Motivation.

I am so motivated to see this dehoarding to an end. I am motivated that the health of our family will improve greatly once we get through this ordeal. So as embarrassing as it was, I'm glad on so many levels that I came across this box. I can't wait to get everything finished, so we can have the duct work in the house thoroughly cleaned, since it will never again be as bad as it's been. We will be breathing easy then!

Oh. And the electrician? Yeah. He didn't show up. He'd been out of town for a funeral and had gotten stuck out of state an extra day. He'll be here at 1:00 tomorrow. And it won't even bother us that we won't be able to use the electricity while he's working on things, because it's going to be nice and cool! We're getting a break from the heat. The high tomorrow is in the 50s! That just sounds heavenly!