A "Don’t Fence Me In” Update

The habit of writing seems to be lost on me of late!  The thought of writing pops up at regular intervals but the action seems absent.  Lately, if there is a structure to anything in my life - I seem to resist it!  Regardless, I am here now, so update time.

COVID-19 VACCINATION update

I am within a week of being fully vaccinated - meaning that I will soon pass the 2 week waiting period after the 2nd shot.  I won’t be barred from seeing my family anymore (specifically my dearest grand daughter.)  FREEDOM!  But I have been fortunate in this pandemic.  No illness and little to no reaction to either shot.   But I will continue mask wearing and social distancing until we are closer to herd immunity ... because that is the sensible, logical and the “adult” thing to do - until we ALL can be free!!

DIET update 

I spent time thinking about my diet - not for weight loss but mostly for health.  I finally settled on a mostly Mediterranean diet.   But it isn’t really ‘mediterranean' if you aren’t being semi compliant!  In the end I settled on listening to my body’s needs! And what is needs are smaller meals, more veggies, less meat, lower carbs and no 'no-nos!’ That is as much limitation as I am willing to do.

EXERCISE update

I miss walking.   Walking "my way."  And during this pandemic,  any kind of walking has been scarce.  I refuse to blame the pandemic. Nothing has kept me from going outside and walking during these months.  Nothing but myself and one small deterrent.

What is most satisfying about walking is the solitary time, walking by myself.  Setting my own pace, viewing the scenery, thinking about things - mind drifting, no socialization or expectations.  But my husband also needs to walk and due to is disabiity, he cannot walk alone.  Oh I know there are blind folks who can do absolutely everything independently, but those kind of people are very rare when you lose vision as a senior.  That means when I walk (with him) I am "on duty."  I have to be on alert the whole time to make sure the obsticals are announced or avoided, always checking our pace since he has exactly one speed - fast - but he doesn’t have the heart and lung capacity for that speed any more.  His mind drifts, he forgets to “listen” to the messages his cane gives him.   I know it sounds (and feels) a little selfish to want to have some alone time on my walks.  But the only fix for this is to find time for 2 walks a day.  Working on this.

CLEANING OUT update

I joined a blog event last fall called Making Space. But as I suspected, I found the discipline of blogging about it hard.  I enjoy reading the posts of others, but I am happy to clean out on my own when the spirit moves me.  

My current decluttering has focused on exercise tapes and cook books.  

I get absolutely NO satisfaction out of exercising indoors.  If I am forced to exercise inside, I prefer to have a list of exercises that I can do while I watch some sort of distracting TV.  And yet I had a shelf and a half of exercise disks - each one I thought would be “the one” that helped me get in shape indoors. I am down to about 5 disks.  Big declutter there.

I hardly ever crack open a cookbook.  Same logic - I buy the book thinking this is “the one” that will help me enjoy cooking.  I will make wonderful tasty things from that book. Never! When I want a new recipe, I just hop on my computer and print something out.  I have several loose leaf binders of recipes I have pulled from the internet that I use when menu building.  I have donated a great number of cookbooks, and now I am in the process of cannibalizing a few - pulling out any recipes I made that were good, but never repeated because ... well ... hardly ever crack open a cookbook.

Funny, I never thought I would get rid of exercise tapes and favorite cookbooks.  And here I doing both.

KNITTING AND CROCHETING update

Scarf - my only knitting project right now. Finger weight yarn and it will take a long time finish because ...

... I started an Annie’s Club project called Plumberry Sampler Afghan in crochet.  

This is an indoor shot of the first 6 rows of this Afghan.  The colors are hard to capture correctly.

This is an outdoor shot and the colors are closer to normal.  

And even with natural light, the colors don’t show as true.

I am enjoying working on this - it is a great crochet learning project.  And the yarn they use for this is wonderful stuff.  Acrylic, but hard to tell without the label.

Queen blanket, also crochet, is well underway.  This is the most satisfying project I am working on at present.  No pictures to share yet but the finished object should look something like this.

My colors will be somewhat different, but you get the idea.  It really is a fun and easy project.

And then there is this little lady, Aja.

Yes, that is a smug and self-satisfied face.  Don’t those eyes say it all.  

She has made large strides with my husband.  And he has put great effort into it.  Several times a day, he goes into the bedroom to “visit” Aja.  He sits on the bed and she jumps up and rubs and rubs and rubs - and he pets - and usually it ends peacefully.  She gets herself over stimulated ending in a hiss or a swipe, but that is more rare now.  Oh, she does come out of the bedroom and wanders around the condo regularly, but she is most comfortable where her two beds are and food and litter - and she has safety behind the gate at the bedroom door (it has a cat door in it - and no one but her can pass through.) So she can come out any time she wants.

Here she is behind my recliner.  And if you look close, Milo is in the recliner.  Guess she felt the coast was clear if he was asleep.

Next month it will be the first anniversary of her adoption.  She has come sooo far since that skinny frightened and distrustful cat came to live with us.  Change is hard for her.  Not everyone could give her the time and distance she needed to adjust.  I kind of feel like she was just meant to be with us.  We love her so much and she has shown in her own way that those feelings are returned.

I think I hit all the topics.  Until next time ... 

Making Space #3

I am joining Beckie at http://www.Fieldlilies.blogspot.com)

 on an informal challenge called Making Space. 

My ability to stick to any kind of schedule is near impossible so I have decide to forgo the idea of a regular schedule.  Don't know if it is stubbornness on my part or just a growing lack of discipline, but there you have it!  Despite few regular posts in Making Space, I am still working towards decluttering.  I just haven't shared my progress.  Of course, part of this event is blog sharing - so here goes.

A picture, 2 cook books, a cat and dog hair shaver, a set of 9 miniature metal vehicles, a canvas bag, a candle, a plastic Chinese carry out container (heading for the trash like it should have months ago).

A free standing floor fan by Casablanca that is beautiful but doesn't work any more and the cost to fix it was ridiculous ... and most importantly it was a very heavy fan and hard to lift ... so it is history.   

And a whistling tea kettle that has never whistled!  Not from day one!  And 4 days ago, I tried to use it for a cup of hot tea and promptly forgot it!  By the time I returned to the kitchen the water was all gone.  There was no damage to the stove or the kettle, but as a future safety measure this tea kettle had to go.  I love the look of it on my stove, but forgetting things seems to be a risk at 73 that I need to compensate for.  So I purchased a replacement.

My new tea kettle!

Whistles like a dream.  It took a bit of effort to find this replacement - the one I ordered from Amazon came broken.  I wasn't willing to try for a second delivery with the Christmas delivery rush now upon us and delays rampant.  So I went into a brick and mortar store to buy one - got in and out fast!   The choices were surprisingly slim.  Black was not my first choice, but it looks fine with my black appliances - and it whistles!!   Fire hazards I don't need.   Now I won't burn down my condo - or other condos - at least not with a tea kettle!

That makes 18 items this time around that have gone on to 'other lives' with someone else (or were laid to rest in the trash), and with this post a grand total of 39 in 3 posts.  

Funny little mind game in the challenge:  Knowing the grand total of items decluttered since I started this challenge has resulted in an unanticipated positive realization.  Although I am not moving car-loads of items out the door almost everyday like I did in my major downsizing effort to move to this condo, the grand total reminds me each time of the full scope of items that no longer are in my way - items I no longer have to live around!  A good feeling each time that number grows.   

Making Space #2

For some reason I am unable to confine myself to any kind of structure, rules or regulations.  It is a pattern that seems to be developing the older I get.  At 73 I am become more emboldened to miss deadlines and resist expectations ... finding them to be uncomfortable like wearing tummy slimming panty hose over a tummy that refuses to be slimmed.   

No, I am not at the "breaking the law" stage or anything ... at least not yet!  🤣 Joking of course.  Truth: I am not breaking the law, and Truth: I wouldn't admit it here if I did, and Truth: I might want to try that sometime - you know, like jay-walking or something. Ha!  But Final Truth: I am not going to do something really stupid.  I am not totally insane ... at least not yet! 🤣 !   

Anyway, back on topic - if there is a deadline I am definitely going to miss it - even if I made the deadline myself!  And that is what I am doing weekly with my Making Space posts. Missing the deadline. Going forward - I am participating but the posts will just be ... well ... a surprise!    

You see I had these decluttering items ready for a post for the last 2 weeks.  They sat in a bag near my table - technically still in my house but waiting for the "decluttering ax" to fall right after I posted about them.  

There are 11 items here mostly going into the trash but the children's cloth books will go to the thrift store along with the shorts that don't fit (for the same reason I don't wear tummy slimming panty hose) and a tee shirt that shrunk upon washing or my breasts grew or I gained weight.  (I like option #1.)

With this post 21 items total have been discarded.