Busy with Summer Chores This Past Week

     Summer...my favorite time of the year. I know I am almost alone in that sentiment, but that is ok. I am soaking up this summer with everything I have in me. When you feel like you skipped an entire summer, you will cherish the one in front of you like it manna from Heaven, and hey, it might just be for me!

I will share about Jacksonville at the end. For now, let's just do one of those old fashioned blog posts that women like to see or at least me on this point. Topic - cleaning and sorting and just all the random stuff of one's week.

After getting back from Jacksonville, I really began to feel like my old teacher days. Oh no, the 4th is over and the summer will almost be over. I need to put my tail in gear and get some things done that hade been saved for summer. I kind of decided I would leave off the beach for the week and get back to that next week. I wanted desperately to clean my windows which got ignored last year entirely. That is not a good thing on the back with the salty air, and they were driving me crazy. I had attempted to clean the ones that I could get to on the upper deck by hand, but I wasn't satisfied. In fact, I wasn't even sure if my old way of doing it would work after a full year of neglect, and that I might have to hire a professional. I have used the kind of Windex that you put on the end of your hose twice a year and that has always kept them clean. I ended up trying the spray kind, but I had to do it two days in a row. Basically, it got off the top layer of grime the first day and during the day looked great, but the next morning I could tell it would take more. I did the same routine again the next day and it is much better. I have two windows downstairs on one side that still have a layer of salty grime. I am going to have to figure out another plan of action for them, but TRUST me I will be back to my regular spring and fall routine. It makes it a much easier job and I have spent entirely too much time on windows due to not doing it last year. One of the perils of waterfront living.

Then I set myself on cleaning out a storage room which we call the "Fishing Room." It is not air conditioned, but just a storage room downstairs with a quick entry from the water. My in-laws kept their Christmas tree and wrapping supplies in there, but for the life of me I don't remember much else being in there. It has a shower in there and that was used by Paul Allen and crew back in middle and high school. We have always used it as the storage for fishing, boating supplies, etc. 

Over time it had become a disaster. Jeff is not one to put things back after using them and I won't rat on him too much, because I have my own things to take care of, but that room was killing me. Even though it is not in my line of sight, it was just a royal mess. I set out to tidy it. Not really deal with everything in there, but hopefully get it to a point that Jeff would be interested in organizing it and dealing with the clutter. Now,  if I really wanted to show you the bad I would show you a full before, but I actually started before I thought to do that.

You can see the entry door at the bottom of the stairs ajar. The little short door goes under the house. On the other side of the house is a full sized door and we keep yard tools and lawn mower in there. On the fishing room side of the house, it is not tall enough for one to stand up completely, but I almost can. We have some outdoor Christmas decorations in there. Although, I have downsized so much of that. We aren't getting younger, so I have gotten rid of much of those decorations. 

It has a big sink and the shower. That paint sitting on the ledge is gone now. I had really planned to paint this room a decade ago and this was leftover paint I had planned to start using. It is toast now.

Wondering what the shower looks like. A very nice shower filled with fishing poles.

This is the other side of the entry door from the stairs. More just stuff AND fishing poles. I can't say anything because I have way too much in my craft room, but he says some of them are freshwater poles from as far back as college and some belonged to his dad.

Then into the larger area... 

The double doors lead out the back side of the house right, so easy access for when Jeff returns from fishing. I must say that Paul Allen uses the room too. He did notice that I had worked. He said he had not let Miles go in there because there were hooks all over the place. He would be right. Lots of stuff was on the floor.

Our home has one of those in-house vacuums. It is really nice and I like it much. I don't use it as often as I once did. It doesn't seem to cut off and that unnerves me so I keep it unplugged. I would have to go plug it in to use it and you can imagine how that goes. I had someone look at it and they found nothing wrong. It does an amazing job though. 

Of course, Gus had to approve of my clean up job.

Oh and that curtain drives me nuts. You can't see from the outside that it doesn't fit the window because of bushes, but I really need to deal with that. I am going to try to find some coordinating fabric and sew something on the bottom.

Along with lots of stuff on the floor that table had so much stuff on it. I cleaned it off as much as I could and put it back in the cabinets.

As you can see it is a nice storage room and I am lucky to have it. It keeps all those fishing poles out of the garage. I wanted to tidy it enough to bring back in the 2 plastic tubs of inflatables and extra life jackets that are just in the playroom. 

I have always wanted to paint it, but that still hasn't happened and it is not happening this summer as I have more pressing things I want to do with the time I have left.

Windows and cleaning out that room have swallowed 3 full days of my time and energy.

*****

I read a blog post the other day. I think it is one to read. I loved the message of blogging. She called it the old fashioned way, but for those of us who still like blogs I think it is what drew me to them in the first place. I want to get back to that. Even though my time is limited and I am not able to comment and communicate as much as I would like, I think I am going to hop back into it as much as time will allow. I am not going to let my inabilities to do as much as I want to hinder me anymore.

I am going to stop this post here with a little update on our Mayo visit, but I have more to share about the things I notice in just daily life being home. I will say that the past few years have renewed my love for my home. Home is that place where you feel comfortable. I have really embraced home.

*****

We made it to our Mayo appointment for Jeff. As I said, I didn't know that I would hear anything super special and that turned out to be true. We are trying to adjust to this new thing in our lives. I did enjoy meeting the doctor and while nothing "new" was added I was glad we went. There are different perspectives here in this diagnosis. There is Jeff's, mine, and the kids. Those perspectives are all different. I am working on mine so that I can help with the other's. 

I thought the appointment went as well as it could and the doctor is one I am glad we have. We will stay with the Mayo Clinic for now even though it is a long drive. I don't think anything over here is going to match it not even in Pensacola. The medication dosage has been upped which I expected. He has some trials with it and can even up it more and will then meet on a video appointment in 3 months. A wee bit of physical therapy has been ordered to just show him some techniques to help with balance and the kind of shuffle and freezing of feet. The doctor thinks Jeff can do this on his own if he is shown some techniques. We are working on getting that set up in Pensacola where there are more resources than here for such PT.

I wish I could type more about where we are in this journey, but I am just not ready. I am going to share more in the future as I sort out how to best share useful things and honor Jeff. 

*****

Like I said, I plan to blog more even if it is short posts. I will be back in a few days with some stitching and more stuff happening over here in Home Ec Major Land.

Grateful and blessed,

Sandy