Spencer at the beach

Decluttering for January

Some people in our lives are better than BFF's.  They are gifts that inspire, give us many things to thunder, and provide encouragement and sound advice.  Wendy is such a friend.  She turned me on to websites devoted to decluttering (yes, there are such things) and has given me the spark to get started organizing my life.  Here is a list of the clutter removed from my house this past month.  It's a series of highs and lows, ups and downs, but generally the progress is encouraging.

Declutter List January 2012

Jan 10-Recycled all pens in quart-sized yogurt container 
Jan 10-Donated 6 quilts
Jan 11-Cleaned up old plants in front yard and put in yard waste
Jan 12-Donated 1 quilt
Jan 13-Filed papers, receipts, etc. Note to Self: clean out old files
Jan 14-Put photos in albums
Jan 15-Mailed 2 birthday cards (thereby reducing my stock of cards--really reaching here)
Jan 16-Cleaned out 1/2 of an inbox (it's just too hard--whining now!)
Jan 17-Threw away old camisole
Jan 18-Got rid of 2 old jars of crystallized honey
Jan 18-Donated clothes from Sally's, Mother's and my closets
Jan 19-Nothing (losing steam)
Jan 20-Nothing (going downhill fast!)
Jan 21-Started gathering items for church jumble sale (small hope I can recover)
Jan 22-Donated 6 reasonably sized boxes and 1 ironing board to church jumble sale (Sadly donation makes only a small ding in my disgusting mess. Nevertheless, it's a start and hope is renewed.)
Jan 23-Jan 28-Rested on the laurels of 6 boxes
Jan 29-Recycled junk mail
Jan 30-Got rid of old jar of bath salts.  (I never take a bath and person who gave them to me died last year.)
Jan 31-Paid bills and recycled paper.

Raking Leaves

I once read some advice from a Buddhist monk about dealing with depression. I only remember two things: wash your head (hair) and sweep your front porch. Washing your hair, I believe has the benefits of massaging your scalp, warming your body, and doing something to take care of yourself.

Today I raked leaves and I believe it has the same benefits as sweeping. Though I must admit I only have a small yard and only rake the leaves that the neighbor's big oak tree deposits on my side of the fence. If I lived in an area with bigger yards and more deciduous trees I might have another opinion. Here are the benefits as I see them:

>First, there is the nice repetitive sound of rake-rake-rake (the activity sounds like the word); it is like chanting a mantra or an ohm. I don't see that benefit with leaf-blowers, quite frankly.

> Raking is also moderate exercise that keeps your mind occupied with the movement and away from other matters. It keeps you in the present moment and not anticipating the next disaster. Though, this year with no rain the leaves are dry and light, not heavy with moisture, so the amount of exercise and distraction that raking provides is somewhat reduced.

> And then there is bending and stooping to pick up the piles of raked leaves. The benefits are described in the old Shaker hymn 'Tis the Gift to be Simple' When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, to turn, turn, will be our delight till by turning, turning we come round right.

Finally, there is the satisfaction of accomplishing a chore. You don't have to be perfect, because you can always rake again tomorrow, but the yard looks much better after you are done. The leaves are non-judgmental; they don't care if you miss some, and whatever you get done makes a difference.

So, today I raked and felt the benefits. And I may repeat the activity tomorrow.

Location:Home

Staying Healthy?

And another retirement MYTH is realized. I pinched a nerve in my neck and now my left arm has tingly feelings, has become weak and just plain HURTS! Sometimes it's my right arm that tingles, so I must have done a number on my neck. I have no patience, not enough to wait for the left arm to get strong again. That plus the arthritis in my mid-back is bad today. It's hard to exercise or do yoga with numb arms and now a bad back. How to stay healthy when you can't exercise? This has been going on for more than 6 weeks. Patience! I wish I knew what I did to cause the pinched nerve. Or what causes the arthritis to flare. It's a mystery. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Next Steps

Mother and I finished 6 quilts to donate. That doesn't count the ones we did for family and friends. Next quilts will be Mother's heirloom ones. The first one is in the works; it has Ann's name on it. I'll post a picture in this blog.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Move Over Martha Stewart?

In an effort to be more crafty and resolve one of the myths of retirement, I concocted these Halloween decorations. I think Martha has no worries about competition from me!

These decorations were made from sticks the neighbor's oak tree spits out in my yard. I love these sticks and spend way too much time admiring them and gathering them for my projects. Unfortunately my gardener sees them for what they are-sticks and yard trash. He throws away my weekly collection before I can begin my Christmas decorations. I have no Christmas projects to show. The following is one of my precious stick collections that the gardener tossed:

I did make a couple of table runners using my Mother's long arm quilting machine. These runners are intended for Christmas gifts. Even as I was making them, I couldn't help but wonder about who uses such a thing and why? Ann wanted a flannel one because her cats sleep on her dining room table. That's the only reason for a table runner that makes sense to me. It's all about a spoiled pet dog in my house. He doesn't sleep on the table or even on the bed, but just about his every other whim is catered to and painstakingly dealt with. Sigh!

The above are pictures of the runners and details of the quilting. Do you see the kitty in the quilting?

Well, my hobbies are not launching me into retirement. I think learning to cook was not such a good idea either. My house is still 'fragrant' (stinks!) from my Indian pizza experiment. That line at the bottom of the recipe about how your house will stink for a week if you make this dish was more than correct. My house still smells several weeks later! Next time,if there ever is a next time, I will do a better job of reading the recipe BEFORE I begin cooking.

Bottom line: developing hobbies and learning to cook is definately a myth of retirement.

I sorta failed at the never going back to work resolution, too. I am working 12 to 16 hours a week to help complete a project at my old place of employment. This project has an end date, so I'm not willing to concede that never going back to work Is actually a myth. I did find out that this working some in retirement is called 'active retirement'. That sounds a whole lot better than 'failed at retirement, loser!'

Onward!

There's an App for That!

A brief hiatus due to a broken app. It's still broken so I'll do this the old fashioned way.

Narinder found an app for me to further the goal of finally learning to cook. Now I can cook just about Everything? I think a tastebud transplant might be more in order. However, I am putting more effort into cooking--a couple of crock pot meals, and some pasta. So far Spencer is the happiest with my cooking attempts.

There must be an app for just about everything. I am addicted to my iPad, so I app shopping sites, weather, cookbooks, blogging, games, e-books, news, Twitter, Facebook, sports teams, photo manipulation, quilt block design, radio, and so on. The picture in this posting is generated from an app. How did I ever have time to work? App must be a noun and a verb--I app, you app, he apps, we all app, they app. It's at least a word because auto-correct hasn't objected to it.

I wonder what else I can app? I'd better go to the app store and check it out!