Goals, Ramblings, Planning and Ramblings

I am popping in today but must admit it might take all day to write this post. My new life! I am not complaining in the least. I made it through an entire week. 

It will be a hodgepodge of topics as I just letting my mind roll on.

My favorite part of my new "job" are the smiles in the morning. He loves to look in the mirror and let me sing to him. 

My least favorite part of the job is the poopy diapers which he just did one.  Although that is foot kissing time. Like I said I am sure I will stopping and starting this post a good bit.

Goals

I made three for the new year!!! Yeah I know it is the 15th and I am just now posting them.

My first one is a rather odd one.

It is to live by the motto; 

"A place for everything and everything in its place."

I am a stacker, a piler, whatever you want to call it. These piles can exist in a room that is totally clean except for the pile that I just never follow through on putting away or making a decision on what to do with the stuff. I have one in my kitchen, my desk, and my bedroom almost always. 

I am simply resolving to do better. The first step in this plan is to keep the kitchen island free of things. That is my work space for the kitchen and I am working on daily going by and clearing it and making sure absolutely nothing gets placed there because that is the beginning of the end.

Along with that I am trying to handle things once and be a better decision maker on doing something with this stuff. It is just the random stuff brought in and laid down.

My second one is be more content. I think in the days of so much content coming over the WWW that we are in just overload of looking and thinking we need something different. I don't think this is a new concept at all. I can remember looking at my magazines in the "old days" and thinking that everything was so perfect and I needed to clean more or work harder when in actuality I was living life and doing as much as I could fit in - in a day. Those pictures are staged as well as most of what we see daily pouring in. I think it is just too much and we can become addicted to it all.

I have to say that this goal is working on itself with my lack of time now. I do want to be content and not think I need new just because.

My third goal is a critical one. I let my health slip a bit at the end of the summer. I don't know what happened to me this year, but I was just in a worn out slump. I didn't walk, go to the gym, go outside and putter in my flowers. For one thing it was so dang hot, but that is not the reason. It was more mental than that. I ate more which added back some pounds, so I am diligently getting those back off.  Even gluten free can have calories! 

I am making progress and know that my health is just not an option to let slide. Having the issues I have means that walking, lifting light weights two days a week, and eating from approved list of foods is a MUST!!!!---no matter the feelings.

I think I have my mind set on that one. 

Decluttering

January always means start the clearing out stuff process. I have been working on this for the past 4 Januarys (since retirement) and I must say that I have surprised myself this year. Not so much to contend with as I REALLY am on the last bit of cleaning out the things I don't want. 

I am down to the nitty gritty. I will show you what I mean.

I have cleared the main level that we live on pretty well. I had a few items that I pulled out of the dining room this year and tried to sell them on eBay to no avail. These I have tried to pawn off to all family members. For those of you who are new we moved into my husband's parents' home after my mother-in-law passed away from a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's. Lots of repairs and stuff to go through. We had an estate sale, but there were still things. I lived a very busy life teaching so much of it didn't get fully cleaned out until I retired. 

Here are collector plates that do not sell on eBay for any kind of decent price to make it worth the trouble. 

Complete with the certificates and purchase price for the taking, but no one is interested:)

I am boxing them up for now and I am making one closet downstairs that holds a few pieces such as this. For me this is out of my way. I am going to let everyone know in the family that they are there. I am not sure if I am just going to let that closet go or actually empty in 2019, but everything like this that I simply don't want is going in that one place. I have the space for it.

Bottom line is though that I will feel good about the rest of the house and the final bit of stuff will be corralled in one place. 

If I don't deal with it by December 2019, then I am guess I am admitting defeat on the #1 goal. Huh?!

Doggies

They are as lively as ever. Lemony is back in full force. I think those ears may have been bothering her even when we had the allergies to her skin. Either way, she is feeling great. She is playing with Gus daily. She generally gets in one spot in the living room and pivots to play. She makes Gus do all the work which is fine by him. They had a tennis ball the other day. They look as if they are kissing. They both had their mouth wrapped around it tugging on it. 

Gardening

There is not much going on in the way of gardening, but the usual January items are going on. Camellias are blooming and I planted three of them in the side yard a couple of years ago.  They have a few blooms now. There are several on our street to enjoy.

I took a stroll around the house on Sunday afternoon to look at all that needed doing when it warms up. It actually has been warm one day and very cold the next, but when it warms up to means March.

I have some serious window washing to do which if I speak too much about that I will be reminded of the painter. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you feel my frustration?!

I will have to do some touch ups to the downstairs doors on the deck. He got in a rush and it rained a lot which he should have had it done anyway.

I will stop.

The roses have kept on even though they look straggly with no leaves and need pruning, but that happens President's Day.

Anyway I have a long list of outdoor chores to do, so that means I need to be working on my indoor chores when I am not busy with Tucker.

Stitching

I am still working on WTNT's "Berry Days at Thistle Farm." It was supposed to be done on 36 count and I have done it on 32 count. I am not loving 32 count. I think it is that wishy washy number where one over two is not enough and two over two is thick. I am not exactly loving it, but plowing through. I am not sure how I am going to finish it. I had one idea in mind, but I am leaning towards another. I have made a bunch of color substitutions which I will share about when I finish it.

Planner

I have to share this with y'all. I have been using the same planner for the last 8 years. I can't go digital even though I am quite tech savvy for my age due to having to keep up in the teaching field and the fact that we had an amazing tech teacher that led inservice in the summer. 

This planner is my life line. 

I decided to go cheaper this year and ordered another kind off Etsy. 

Let's just say this was a bad idea. The planner off of Etsy was just fine, but it was not the planner for me or the one that has guided me happily for the last 8 years, so I promptly remedied that after a week of the other one and the stars are aligned now.

Yes, I am much happier.

I use an Erin Condren life planner and it is perfect for me. Worth the splurge. I won't make that mistake again.

Jeans

Last thing. I think I may have found jeans that I love. It has been a very long time since I can say that. I ordered these...

https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/86794?page=l-l-bean-1912-jeans-favorite-fit-straight-leg&bc=12-27-622-513283&feat=513283-GN2&csp=f

right after Christmas and have worn them OFTEN since then. I plan to order another pair of them. They fit great. Not too tight. Just a straight leg. Fits high but not too high. Finally a pair of Goldilocks for me.

I am stopping for now. More later maybe.

Sandy