Author's notes: I learned something new today

This blog is a separate place to put selected saved Blogs from my years at SparkPeople.com.  Today, July 31, 2021, I discovered that I can set the publication date!  So I am setting them to the original publication date from SparkPeople.com!.

I also split off a third blog to hold the "Encouraging Words" blogs that have been "hits" over the years.  It's here:  Encouraging Words from OneKidsMom

NOTE:  These will not appear exactly as they originally did on Spark as I've had to "edit around" some things.  I've added photos where the blog had none to begin with.  The emoticons from Spark didn't come over well, so they are gone.  I may have wrapped text around some of the photos differently from how it originally appeared on Spark.  And so on.

Now that they are in date order, you'll be able to fairly easily go from bottom to top in a group, if you want to review a series, for example, related to a specific event (so the Boston Blogs are now marked as published on their original date, and you can read them "in order").

Since only seven blogs show up on the main page at a time, you can skinny them down by the labels.  Do you see the little labels over on the right hand side?  

If you click on one, it will display blogs that share that label.

* "OLY TRI" will get you blogs that I wrote following my Olympic triathlon participation in 2014.  They were all related to both the elation I felt in accomplishing this goal and the assimilation of who I had become in the process.  In the couple of days after, I couldn't even write in my own voice... I had Brenda (my bicycle), and then Eliza (my wetsuit) as the voices.  These are some precious memories that I did not want to lose... so they are here.

* "Injury" will get you blogs surrounding my fall during a training run in November, 2016, and a second fall in January 2017.  It will overlap with a couple of "Events" blogs, because you can apply more than one label to a blog.  I kept these because they show a period of time when I tried maybe a bit TOO hard to overcome the injury.  It took some time before I got to the point where I adjusted to what I can do NOW, as opposed to what I envisioned a few years earlier.

* "Mud Run" will bring up only the ONE blog, The Mud Run story, which was my first featured story on SparkPeople.com.

* "Archived Success Story" will get you the articles published by Spark as success stories.  So far it's just got the first one as I'm having trouble with the images from the "Where are they now" version.  I copied Kevin's success story, too.

You can also navigate directly, using the dates for the archive, also on the right hand side. 

Decluttering blog 8: the resumption in innocence

Decluttering blog 8: the resumption in innocence 

Friday, October 05, 2018 

I'm calling it blog 8, even though I didn't originally title one blog 7. This morning I went back and re-titled the "Back to the Salt Mines" blog to include "Decluttering Blog 7"! So now we're up to blog 8! 

While I was away, I had invited "the kids" to come poke through their stuff, and toss, take, etc. Guess what? After 11 years not doing this, they didn't show up again. So... guess who is left with the same situation she left to go road tripping? 

This morning I started piecing at it even before the sun rose and I went for my walk. I've got some things in the car to head out to Best Buy for electronics recycling, and brought three boxes of "stuff" upstairs... one for DIL, one for son, one not sure yet... plus some stray stuff that got added to the 'on the way out' table, even though I'm not sure where they will land. A couple more boxes got shuffled into the kids' old "bedroom"... and I was able to collapse a folding table, which for now I shuffled into the laundry room. 

So the big room went from this:

To this: 

And now, having taken a break to have my lunch, I'm going to go dispose of the things that made it as far as the car! 

 Hope you're all making progress with whatever your current life effort is, and in the process nurturing yourselves, one good healthy choice at a time, on this Friday, October 5, 2018. Because it *is* the only one we'll ever get! And we're worth taking care of!

Decluttering blog 7: Back to the salt mines

Decluttering blog 7: Back to the salt mines 

Thursday, September 20, 2018 

One of the beauties of being retired is that when I have a packed weekend, as I did last weekend, I have the option of using weekdays as my weekend. And I did. Monday was already scheduled, so that wasn't part of it: I took Tuesday and Wednesday mostly "off". 

Today, though, it was time to start piecing again at the de-clutter project with the goal of getting it "tied off" at a good stopping point so that I can pack my bags and head out next week! 

I hadn't mentioned this yet, but the cats appear to know that something's up, since I started working on the decluttering, especially down in the lower level which they've pretty much had to themselves. They greet me in the mornings with more than their usual attention. And they ask to go outside while I'm working at it; they never have been fond of me cleaning. I think they recognize that when I do, it means company is coming or I am leaving them in the care of others! They will really start to go nuts when I pull out the suitcases, though. 

The thing about working on "the kids' level" of the house is that it feels just a tad voyeuristic. I still have to look at each piece of paper I pick up to see if it goes into their box, the recycle bin, the trash, or the shredder! And every so often I trip over one that... I really didn't want to read! But the stuff is too enmeshed to avoid at least some of this, and as much as I'd LIKE the kids to do this themselves, face it, it's been eleven years since they moved out and they haven't yet done it! 

And the dust! OMG, the dust! Eleven years is a long time for stuff to sit untouched. I had pushed the stuff all together so that I cleared off about half the room back in the beginning, but since then? Not much poking at that bear! And the worst part of it? The electronics... parts and pieces in addition to old towers that had been cannibalized by the former residents! 

My challenge will be getting myself to stop in time to pack and travel... but let me tell you, a few minutes addressing this mess has me running to the training session or heading out the door to run!

To show the progress, this photo was from last week: 

And these two from this afternoon:

This should not need to be said, BUT... 8/13/2021 Four days left! Including today. - 8/13/2021 Five Sparking days to go! - 8/12/2021 Only half a dozen Spark Days left 8/11/2021 

And now I'm calling it "good enough for today". Like I said, the challenge is to STOP when overwhelmed! 

 Healthy habits for today: 

• Food is on point between breakfast and lunch. 
• Hydration in progress. 
• Recess was working out with the coach (and now I need another recess as the project has me anxious)! 

 Here's hoping my Spark buds are out there making the best choices you all can, wherever you are on the path to a healthy and balanced lifestyle, on this one and only Thursday, September 20, 2018 we shall ever get! 

Decluttering blog 7: gazingas pins, anyone?

Decluttering blog 7: gazingas pins, anyone? 

Friday, September 14, 2018 

What is a gazingas pin? It's an item you buy kind of automatically, whether you need another one or not. The above photo are a few of mine, found in the current effort to de-stuff the house. Old school log books for diet and exercise. These are just the blank ones, or blank portions of them (those that got 2/3, 1/2, or 3/4 used, with the used pages removed). Free to good homes, since I track on line these days. 

Meantime, I have started on the basement room where the kids left flotsam and jetsam behind, eleven years ago when they moved out. I took my tri gear out of the room, and once it's gone, and I started in on just one or two items, here's how the project ahead looks.

I'm calling a pause for now. I took one box of books, DVD's, and an audio book to the library, and for my trouble found out they also take old VHS tapes! So... another place to distribute something that I had found problematic! Obviously, not giving them things we taped from TV, but there are a number of tapes we paid good money for, too. 

Then I took an old router and switch to Best Buy to recycle, where I found out that they do a digital clear as the first part of their recycle. At least that's what the young man said... no danger of your data being co-opted! Well, not sure how much I trust that? 

 I still have tomorrow to make progress on this. Sunday is reserved for my volunteer gig at a local triathlon, so it's my play day. 

 On the food front: 

• healthy breakfast prepared and savored. Same with healthy lunch. 
• water vessels filled and hydration well in progress 

Haven't had recess yet. It's a hot day, so it would have been better to go earlier. Or maybe swim? 

Hope my Spark buds are out there making the best decisions they can manage, right where they are in the journey, this Friday, September 14th, 2018. After all, it's the only one we'll ever get! And we're worth it.

Decluttering blog 6: the balance of big efforts

Decluttering blog 6: the balance of big efforts 

Thursday, September 13, 2018 

I'm at the point where I just want to close the door and ignore what's in that office! This is the challenge of big projects. You have to strike the balance between the need to finish, and the potential for burn-out! Also the importance of keeping the priorities in front of one! 

All too often, in my case, burn-out has won that battle. Thus the statement about the two most common kinds of clutter: unmade decisions and incomplete projects. The old computers are a prime example of incomplete projects... you upgraded, but you didn't finish the job by clearing off and getting rid of the old. Maybe you thought you might need something more that's stored on the old machine, or maybe you just wanted to play with the new one! 

Right now? Old friend Mount St. Omigawd East is being used as a staging area for things on their way out. Two, correction, three of the pictured boxes have planned homes, just haven't got them distributed to them. 

Before I head out on the great road trip in a week or two, I need to have this table cleared off again. That *might* mean re-consolidating back into the office some of these things, those that haven't yet been delivered to their next home (or those that don't have a new home identified yet). Sigh.

There is a balance, as I started out to say, especially in long-term projects. I will be taking time off the project as I have trip prep coming up. I haven't even started on the area that Shasta wants to start on... I'm supposed to separate out the things that belong to the kids! If I haven't done this in the past 11 years? What makes me think I'll get it done before I leave on the next trip?

The challenge is to put the things I'd been making the most progress on aside, to pre-prepare for the kids to go through their own piles (which I'm hoping they will do while I'm on my trip), and be as ready as I can be for Shasta's first work day (October 6th).

Meantime, daily living goes on. 

Today's start: 

• Water vessels filled, hydration in progress. 
• Recess will be early, the workout with the coach. 
• Meaningful activity also planned, a review of the finances. 
• If I get the box of electronic recycles to Best Buy, that's gravy! 

The weekend will feature a volunteer gig at a local triathlon, so that will be an early morning on Sunday. 

Hope my Spark buds are all out there making the best decisions they can, at whatever point of the journey they occupy on this one and only Thursday, September 13, 2018, we'll ever get. Because we're worth taking care of, body, mind, and spirit! 

Decluttering blog 5: While I'm waiting for the vision to become clear

Decluttering blog 5: While I'm waiting for the vision to become clear 

Wednesday, September 12, 2018 

I'm still puttering through my clutter. Clutter is not always physical. Sometimes it is electronic. 

Clearing off the data from 3 old cell phones and getting them *to* Best Buy (which recycles them for free for residential folks) was a HUGE victory. 

Yesterday I cleared apps and accounts off a tablet that will be going the same way. Still ahead of me are no less than four desktop computers and one laptop in need of similar treatment. 

I don't know about you all, but when a new device enters the house, often the focus is on getting it set up, and the old one never gets cleared off, but this really does need to be done before sending it to be recycled. Having worked in the IT world, I'm a bit paranoid. 

I will be keeping one desktop and one laptop. I'm on that laptop as I type this. The desktop I intend to use for converting old data from floppies and zip drives (because the laptop doesn't have a 3.5 inch floppy drive, very few current machines do). What kind of old data? Why, digital photos, of course. And any digital documents that I'd backed up that might still need to be kept. Once THAT is complete, I can let go of that desktop, too. 

If I thought the PAPER clutter was a huge job, the digital clutter will take even more time (and energy)! The problem with generations of technology moving so fast is that soon we will no longer have the means to READ the older stuff. I'll need to weed through it and decide what gets put on the external hard drive, and what can just be let go of. 

Yes, calling this a five year project to downsize is *not* an exaggeration. 

Today's healthy start: 

• Out for a brisk walk before breakfast. 
• Healthy breakfast prepared, savored, and tracked. 
• Water vessels filled, enabling the hydration that's in progress. 
• Paper declutter task of the day done, including taking a break for a healthy snack. Wrapped up about lunch time. 

Here's hoping all my Spark buds are out there, too, making the best decisions they can, and moving forward in their OWN experiments of one in life this one and only Wednesday, September 12, 2018 we'll ever get! Because we are each and every one of us worth it!

Decluttering blog 4: Shasta gives me homework

Decluttering blog 4: Shasta gives me homework 

Monday, September 10, 2018 

Shasta is my organizer lady's name. Yesterday she sent me an e-mail with this opening line: "General ideas of what we will be doing together and organizing your home." 

Being me, and just having run my morning race, my initial reaction was "OMG, I don't want to do this!" Especially once I read on: 

"Starting with basement first, In this Area we will be doing a little pre-clean and prep. This is the area where we will will store some of your belongings " 

No, no, no! I do not want to store things. I want to get rid of things! I cringed. 

She went on with a section called "How to start getting organized "

It said: " Visualize your ideal set up. Take a minute to visualize how you’d like your living space to look 👀 like. Getting clear on what that is is a really important place to start." 

Well, that's all true, but it's the hardest part for me. A minute is far from sufficient for a good thought about what I want my space to look like. Certainly not like the motley unmatched collection of furniture and stuff... although, argues the 😈, some of it is functional. Isn't function more important than "look"?

I've been observing my processes as I go about my day. My spaces tend to change somewhat "organically". Depending on where I go upon entering the house, my athletic gear can end up in the master bedroom, the dining room, or the front hallway. Surprise, I have little satellite "piles" in all these places! Although I have a designated spot for certain bits of it, and I always put THOSE back in their spots. It doesn't look tidy, but I can always find my Garmin and my RoadId! 

As far as organizing what I KEEP, the rest of it makes sense: 

"What you can start doing now is deciding what you need in terms of storage and tools. Think about what you’re going to keep and feel comfortable with getting rid of or what is not going to serve you. 😊" 

Getting comfortable with getting rid of things is actually easy right now... I am working on letting go as I putter through my clutter! I shredded another box of papers and am filling those two boxes with things that are on their way OUT. I got around to greeting cards over the weekend. I am accepting that I am NOT going to become the lady who sends these! I'm willing to let them go to someone who wants them for craft projects!

Shasta continues: "I have come out with five general ideas: 

1. You want to put things where they belong, where they fit.
2. find easy storage to use that way you don’t have to go searching for things.
3. Store things based on how you use them keep in mind where you want things stored. 
4. find a good room to start your organizing process. 
5. follow the same formula in every room " 

I set it aside and let it soak for a while, to overcome that initial resistance. I'm thinking I want to get rid of about 2/3's of the stuff in my house! I have three bookshelves, one in the parlor, one in the master bedroom, and one in the "office turned junk room". I have already done significant reduction on two of them (parlor and MBR):

If I truly got rid of 2/3 of my stuff... I could have ONE bookcase, right? 

• Already went for a walk. I joined a neighbor who was missing her walking partner and since I wanted to go slow, I decided to follow along and see what route they use. She was OK with having a substitute partner and we talked about the things we normally do when we pause to talk.
• Water vessels have been filled, and hydration is in progress. 
• Healthy breakfast on board and tracked for WW points *and* for Spark. 
• In process of puttering through the clutter, with breaks built in. 

 Anyway, as you can see... there has been considerable progress, but there is still MUCH to be done to shrink to a single case. 

Today's healthy start: 

Here's hoping my Spark buds are also working on making the best decisions you can, wherever you are on your health journeys, this Monday September 10, 2018. After all, it's the only one we'll ever get, and WE are worth taking care of! 

Decluttering blog 3: decluttering the schedule

 Decluttering blog 3: decluttering the schedule

Friday, September 07, 2018 

I went for an early morning walk. It's cooled down here, and it was misty, so I was damp by the time I walked back in my front door. The coolness and the motion and the quiet gave me my meditative time of the day, much as my morning commute to work used to give me. Several years ago, while my son was deployed abroad, I had started to leave the radio off on the drive to work, so that I could talk to myself, write blogs in my head, etc., and essentially, have that meditative time. A morning walk is the perfect substitute for this commute meditation. 

That means getting back on a more regular schedule... going to bed on time, so that I'm fully rested in the morning. Which implies I also need to not be eating past supper to stay awake (fatigue eating, driven by wanting to watch a later TV show?) I used to tape things and watch them in the morning before work if it was something I wanted to see. 

Two time / schedule models came to mind: the part-time work schedule I had my last year on the job, and the school day schedule. The beauty of the school-day schedule is moving around from task (subject) to task. 

As someone noted in the comments yesterday, one thing that takes a LOT of time is shredding documents that no longer need to be kept (but should not head for the trash or recycle bin whole). It's also tedious and boring, so I don't want to spend whole days at a time on this task. If I can put in a half hour on that, day by day, eventually, I'll get to the bottom of it! But since it's one way to get free boxes to hold stuff that's headed OUT, it was a good place to start! 

Two days a week, I have "PE", the workouts with the coach! Plus, whatever training / events I do. 

Another "subject" might be finding a place for items I'm letting go of and distributing donations and recycles to new homes outside of my house! Yesterday I took another box of books to the library, and two bags of clothing / shoes to the mission boxes. I have a growing little box of the last three cell phones I have used and their various attachments, to take to Best Buy, which will recycle them, but at this point, it's still in the car. Some FedEx envelopes that used to be part of my employment back in 1998-2000 can go back to a FedEx store. Also, in the car. Again, let's do a bit at a time, and eventually we can get to a freed-up space. 

And another change up: cleaning the spaces that cry out for it. Today washed off the bottom two shelves of the bar. Yes, even though I don't drink, there's a wet bar in my TV/Computer/Treadmill room. You can actually see the dust on the glasses on that top shelf, which did not get done in the time-box.

Bottom line: progress is being made. I e-mailed the kids with the deadline (when the organizer lady next shows up) to come go through their stuff and decide to pitch, donate, or take it home... any of those choices being a way for it to go away from my house! 

And it's quitting time... so here I am blogging! That's both the school schedule AND the part-time schedule; they both end at this time of day (2:30 - 3:30 p.m. or so). 

Here's hoping my Spark buds out there are making good decisions to support their mental, physical, and emotional health on this the one and only Friday September 7th, 2018, we'll ever get! 

Decluttering blog 2: the assessment

Decluttering blog 2: the assessment 

Thursday, September 06, 2018 

Well folks, the gal who came to assess my mess is NOT a decluttering / downsizing specialist. Her organization stuff is from personal / professional experience, but more like "organize your closets/laundry room" sort of organizer. No certifications, etc. She's young, she's enthusiastic, and she's the only one my "Home Advisor" brought up for a project of the sort I requested. Oh, and the reason she didn't show was that she had written me down as a "maybe"! She wasn't sure from our phone conversation whether I was truly serious about this project! 

But I'm willing to give a youngster a shot, and I walked her through Barb's house of horrors, from the office that became a junk room, to the guest room that kind of gathered storage stuff, to the bedroom with my Imelda Marcos sized collection of running shoes, to the various spots in the house where tri gear gathers, to the exercise / TV room to the basement where the kids still have things that were there 10 years ago when they moved out. Make that 11 years ago. 

And... my bubbly little organizer lady decided she would advise starting with that basement area, do it in two three-hour sessions, and we put it on the books for two Saturdays: October 6 & 13th. She says while she works on that room, I can keep working on the office upstairs (which is my personal "first room to revive" goal). But she wants to clear out that space downstairs, clean it out, open up air circulation, etc. She says she likes to start with the dirtiest parts of a job first... that space would certainly qualify! 

I'm somewhat troubled by the organizer's suggestion about "little baskets" to keep my "stuff" in line... no, no, no! The biggest hurdle is GETTING RID OF STUFF, not storing stuff I no longer love, need, or use! So... like I said, I'm giving this a shot... who knows? We might BOTH learn a thing or six! 

Between now and then I expect to continue to "piece" at things, but I also have some upcoming interruptions to routine... MOBYCARP, are you ready and uninjured for the Wineglass Marathon? I've got a bit of driving to do to get there, but have blocked out the time to do it! 

Meantime, today is going well: 

• Morning brisk walk before breakfast 
• Healthy breakfast 
• Water vessels filled, hydration well under way by now. 
• Workout with the coach was today 

Hope your Spark-day is going similarly well, and that you are making the best decisions you can in the context of your day, this one and only Thursday, September 6th, 2018 we will ever get!

Decluttering Blog 1 It takes Time

Decluttering blog 1: It takes time!

Wednesday, August 29, 2018 

No big surprise there. Any worthwhile goal takes time. As with large weight losses, if your house / files / whatever are at an "overwhelmed" stage, it is going to take time to even attempt to restore some level of order.

It is also a tough job to start. Just as the first five steps out the door to run are the hardest, deciding and starting in with the problem spaces in your home are probably the hardest ones. 

According to the YouTube videos from ClutterClarity.Com that I stumbled across last week, there are five resources to balance when taking on downsizing, de-cluttering, or moving. 

•  Time 
•  Energy 
•  Space 
•  Skills 
•  Money 

Mt. St. Omigawd East Nov 2018

Funny thing, these are the same elements of ANY goal! When you set out to lose / maintain your weight, you have to clear out enough time, energy, space, develop skills, and in some cases, spend money on the tools (like deciding what foods to purchase, whether to join a gym, workout clothing, hire a trainer, etc.)

As with fad diets, the professional organizing industry may try to sell us "quick fixes" but in fact, as with weight loss, if we don't manage those five resources above, MAINTAINING the space won't happen. We might clear it out once (think my January efforts, or my annual "get ready for Thanksgiving dinner" / Fall Cleaning, Tax Prep for the papers)... but it all comes back, a bit at a time, until we're back at the overwhelmed state.

I have worked on my home multiple times over my life... similar to how I've worked on my weight multiple times over my life. As with figuring out the lifestyle to manage the weight (a way of eating, and a level of activity)... I have to figure out how dealing with my physical stuff becomes a daily thing.

So, here I am again! I have started. I am trying to pace myself and not burn out. I've given myself a goal of "five years out" to be ready to actually downsize to a smaller living space. 

Why five years? To deal with it in a way that honors those resources. To avoid burning out, to learn the skills, and practice them along the way, to stretch out the budget. And to emotionally adjust to the idea before I'm forced into it by some unforeseen health situation. 

Why do it at all? As a gift to my son, so he doesn't have to do it (in the event of that unforeseen situation). As a gift to myself, building my personal refuge, right where I live now.

I love my "buffer zone" of yard space. I don't particularly relish the idea of moving into a "senior living community". But if I hope to stay here with that buffer, I have to be able to keep it as a safe place for my level of fitness and health. Even if I opt NOT to downsize in terms of moving, having less "stuff" in the way opens up the ability to take on other projects, such as: 

•  replacing carpets that the dog destroyed. I have three rooms that qualify for this description, and add damage the cats have added adds the stairs and hallway to that tally. You have to be able to *get* to the carpets to replace them! 
•  restoring furniture. I have five pieces I would like to "do", but there's little point if it sits on shabby, frayed, stained carpets. Which, by the way, can be a safety hazard to an aging person! 
•  When the budget allows, I'd like to redo the kitchen and the main bathroom. Put in those "aging appropriate" assist bars, etc. 

But it all starts with a goal, then a plan. For help with the plan, I'm doing something I did with fitness by hiring a personal trainer. I've started investigating professional organizers, hoping to find one who will work with the same kind of mindset as Laura Moore (the principal of ClutterClarity, mentioned above)... who will teach me to enjoy the process, the same as I learned to love exercise, and learned to love eating healthy.

To get back to the topic line: this morning I set out to handle three related areas that have been gathering paper and junk since my January efforts last cleared them out: the phone shelf in the kitchen (where I put things I don't want the cats playing with), the vanity in the master bedroom (which tends to collect prescription receipts and other junk), and the computer table where I'm typing right now, because it gathers bills I've paid online! 

Estimates, anyone, for how long to tackle these three spaces, which, remember, were cleared out seven months back? I started after breakfast. I finished about 12:30, breaking for lunch. Done for the day! That was supposed to be a "small" task. But even small tasks take time. 

The bigger task will be to actually follow a better system, so that the gathering doesn't happen in the first place. I've never been particularly good at this. Nor have I ever much liked it... I'm an "ooh, shiny" kind of interrupt driven. But if I want to live into my dotage and have my independence... if I want my son to not have to deal with this as a HUGE issue... it's time to deal with my behaviors. 

And which might interest the Spark crew? About the time I started actually *working* on this? My food and activity straightened out, too. Four days with no avoidance eating!

For today: 

• Healthy breakfast and lunch prepared and consumed. 
• Water vessels filled. Hydration in progress. 
• Recess is planned, and now I'm ready to go out and walk, and it's a nice day for it, too. 
• Meaningful activity (decluttering) task of the day - done! 

 Here's hoping all of you are making the best decisions for a full and healthy life you can, this one and only Wednesday, August 29, 2018 we'll ever get! We're worth it!