Greetings, All.
Mama Cando: Hope all works out well for your families. Sometimes the “other” family just does not act like a family should.
Muffy: Glad you can exercise. It is something that never seemed to be important in my family – no participation in sports, no competitive needs, or need to look/feel buff. Your exercise will go a long way to maintaining your health so good for you.
Little Sister: I understand your dilemma. My 80-year old mother-in-law was told she was old and to ignore her aches and pains. Her cancer had returned. My father, in his 80s was told to eat what he wanted, because he was old, and not to worry about his Type-2 Diabetes. He should live his life the way he wanted to despite my brother telling him to eat better. Brother thought that a better diet would reverse the need for medication that his 80-year old father needed because he was 80. Balance is needed, and the realization that some conditions can be controlled for better quality of life, and when there is not much quantity of life left. No one knows so we try for quality and length.
For me, the winter inertia sets in and is a challenge to overcome. I love to read and learn new things, so I would rather explore on the internet or read a book than get up and get things done. So, I fight that everyday and try to work around the house. I am working on emptying my freezers, yes I have two, plus a second refrigerator that all cost money to operate. Gradually the foods are made into meals or canned. It is easier to cook up new things than get rid of old stuff/junk.
Our basement has one wall of just food storage. Six sturdy shelves from U-Line in various sizes. I need about three more, including one just for the empty canning jars. Some shelves we inherited and now try to get the same depth and height.
The rest of the basement is still full of boxes of Stuff. Hubby was a research professor and has information going back 60 years. I have craft supplies, old teaching materials, and stuff for scrapbooks. All of that needs to just disappear. So, I try to get to a box a day and throw things away. TRY. Some items are being kept, but better organized.
My daughter told her step-sister-in-law that she wanted to just take the items that they wanted –from my family and his family, and let the person who does estate sales deal with the rest. In order to find what they might want, the boxes need to be opened and organized and labeled.
Hubby’s dilemma is that he has information about the birds he saw in high school (class of ’57) and he does not want to part with them. Heart strings! Mine, too for various items. Do I really need those decorative/collectible tea cup/saucer sets and do not use but were given by family or purchased on family vacations? Nope. Can I put them in a box for a sale? Different issue.
Since we live in the country, and ½ mile off a county road, we doubt not get many visitors if we held a garage sale here. I proposed and Hubby agreed that we rent a space in town for the annual September all-city garage sale. That gives me a deadline. Now, I/We must go through: three outbuildings plus my craft room and basement. They all need to be emptied. Since we have not looked at anything there in years there is little reason to keep it. Oh, I suppose I will find a reason to keep the trunk that came from Denmark straight to my grandmother’s first home here in MN. But it needs to be cleaned, and aired out., and it is just a wood box not a fancy trunk. Will I do it? My daughter won’t and I doubt her sons care since they have never seen it. Sorting is a lot of physical work, but the mental letting go is more difficult, so if I can do a little bit per day it will get done.
Same subject, sort of, but different issue. I want to be able to give our two children and their families (5 – 6 grandkids) a room of their own if they ever needed to evacuate the big cities and escape here to the country to survive a pandemic or chaos. So I must also create proper living areas for them as a home base, plus basement shelving dedicated for their items. Again – I need to get rid of unwanted stuff. I see local ads for used bunk beds and would love to get them for the grandkids. Not expensive at $50 a set. However, none of our bedrooms has a wall that is straight for the beds to be put against. This old house has those knee walls/ pony walls, so the beds would need to be put in the middle of the room; goofy.
See, I am procrastinating again by reading the Forum and looking up information about how long propane tanks last and what I still need to get for the Covid-19 and what to do with all of those zipper bags of frozen zucchini. Ok, time to get up and find another box to discard.
Stay healthy everyone.