Simplifying Life - Mark II

mardatha

I'm glad you're feeling better Mary..

Lula-Hula

Hello all,

a glorious monday evening here; blackbirds chirruping away & DD & friend playing out in the garden

I've not been in for a while due to much moping about feeling rather bleak & sorry for myself but have had stern words & my resolve is returning.

Thanks for that link to the fabulous lady singer Ceridwen, what a stunning performance. It gave me goosebumps & brought tears to my eyes too although like yourself not really a fan of that genre. Seeing Piers Morgan swallowing a lump in his throat was comforting too :rolleyes:


A wee bit of simplifying has gone on (no photos as yet though) & I long to have a home that is a minimalist / shabby chic hybrid. My hall seems to be breeding bags at the moment; as soon as I take one to the charity shop or recycling centre, another 2 take it's place . My drawers in the living room are still as they should be although they are filling up what with bargainous finds for card making & festive candles leaping into my trolley at Ts.

The surplus strawberry plants from the allotment seem to have made the transition to my garden quite happily & are now starting to flower :jthe tricky bit will be managing to get the fruit before the resident fruitbat aka DD does. I really want to make jam this year.

Right, off the do the washing up ...

best wishes to all & hugs to Mary

lula
xx

mary43

Lula - wondered where you were. Sorry you were feeling on the 'downside' -still you're on the 'up' now by the sound of it.
I was feeling much better till soc.worker called and told me how tired and drawn I looked ! -don't ya just hate that ! Made me have a glance in the mirror and she wasn't wrong..........I did look pale and tired........oh well, day of rest tomorrow.........well sort of.
Might get around to covering some shoe boxes, well maybe one anyway, and having a sort out of the 'stuff' I'm hoarding in the spare room for christmas and birthday pressies. Had a phone call from a friend this morning -her birthday was last week but manager to find a card I'd done I can send off and I'm sure there's something stashed away I can post to her.
I actually cooked dinner tonight ! Been a while since I did that........OH is usually head chef. I used up the carrots from last night with some broccoli, sausages, new potatos and then microwaved last nights bread sauce -goes a treat with sausages. OH was gobsmacked that he came home and dinner was all ready !
Have to think what to have tomorrow now..........not used to this domestic lark...................lol

ceridwen

I'll borrow Aril's "hat" for today and give a link to today's "post" by a blogger friend of mine:


http://the-creative-spirit.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-believe-wisdom-for-life.html

Reet....must get started on my day proper....choice of 3 eco-events today.....DUH!??? Think I'll probably manage 2 of them.:D

mary43

ceridwen - wondered where you'd been

Thanks for the link...............many wise words.

Been busy at home...........finished off the cross stitch I was doing for MIL, covered 4 shoe boxes ready for xmas pressies - need more boxes and paper now ! And did a lot more to mums scrapbook so it'll soon be ready for photos -question will be - will I be ready to go through them and pick some out for her friend ?
I even managed to do a bit of weeding in the garden this week and walked into town twice ! An achievement for me.
Wretched stomach bug seem to return but there's no appointments at the doctors untill next Friday !! Unbelievable ! So,I'll keep taking the tablets when necessary. I certainly feel tons better in myself than I did though still lacking a lot in energy.
Been told I'll need a full medical before s.s. will take me back.......seriously considering not going back but need to sort out finances and stuff first.
Must admit it's quite nice having the house to ourselves.
No simplifying as such just a bit of a sort out of my 'stash' in the spare room now I've got some boxes to put some stuff in so I know what's for who so I'm getting there.............I think.:j

ceridwen

I've been "around" Mary - just not felt I had owt useful to say on this thread.

Little by little you're heading in the right direction obviously - I always say that as long as someone is "heading in the right direction" then progress is being made/they're getting there ...

Still been focussing on getting my bit of food planted up...good job the house has got a bit emptier...as the garden certainly hasnt:D...hopefully I'll get me some nice food from it this year. Learning by trial and error I am. My little fruit trees look pretty good now - lots of leaves - cant quite figure out why they havent got any blossom though...maybe they dont do so in their first year in their new "home"?? Some salad leaves are starting to poke their little heads above the soil/also some onion sets and a few other bits and bobs. I have a suspicion I planted my tomato seeds a bit late - so may land up buying a few tomato plants:o.

Things are starting to come together a bit now in the Transition Town stuff going on in my area - we've done a lot of the initial planning stage and are moving onto the action stage:D.

So - its all still a bit "work in progress" in my life...maybe thats how things continue? - but daylight is distinctly visible on the horizon anyway..:D

mary43

ceridwen - I got some free seeds from the bbc.dig it website -saw it on the freebie board. They only came yesterday and tomatoes a chap down the road has been growing for us in his greenhouse along with the runner beans and courgettes. Bit late for this year anyway so I gave them to him for next year. The carrots we got we're having another go at despite last years being as big as my little finger nail..............lol Always worth another go.
Went out into the garden a little while back and did a bit more weeding and general tidying up -till my back said 'ouch !'...........I really must know my limits !
If there are any boot fairs around where you are you might be able to pick some tomato plants up cheap.
Received copy of the Probate thing this morning from mums solicitor.She seems to think everything could be sorted by June 6th. Not sure whether there's anything else to be signed..............must ring her Monday. Brother is back in Spain now and not back till July.
Boot fair at the local school tomorrow.........couldn't make the last one -just didn't have the energy to walk round it but tomorrow,hopefully, I'll make it ok. Fingers crossed:j

firework

hi all, pleased to hear you're feeling a little bit better mary and nice to hear the rest of you are all pottering along again... i keep coming and going from here, seem to have had a blip in terms of simplifying - haven't seen my dining table for 4 weeks now... how can that happen? however we have finally moved our filing cabinet downstairs where it is now instantly accessible and so incoming papers etc can all be immediately dealt with/filed away instead of having to wait for me to take them upstairs and do it. this used to involve me putting said papers in a big heap for about a month then dumping them in a bag at the foot of the stairs for a week then dragging them upstairs where they would hang about lurking from one room to the next before eventually making it in a crumpled and dishevelled state to the filing cabinet in the spare room. and you could simply repeat the process in reverse for any shredding to be done - lol!

the moving of the cabinet had a domino effect, because it was moved i could rearrange the remaining spare room furniture - and transform the room from dumping ground to a room of requirement... it has a guest bed (should there be any), can be used as sick bay if one of us is ill - meaning someone at least gets a nights sleep!, it has space for ironing to be done if necessary and spare food to be stored and it also houses ds's clothes meaning more space in his room for fun stuff. OH calls the spare room the bunker due the large and increasing volume of spare supplies in there! apparently he had commented to his mother that he didn't know what was wrong with me as i keep squirrelling food away upstairs (he obviously thinks i've gone quite mad) his mother told me she just looked at him and said...AND? she too has spare supplies squirreled away upstairs lol!! he'll soon shut his face if we all get quarantined in a flu pandemic (god forbid).

anyway the dominos kept on falling : because the spare room was in order DS's room had extra space for play and was rearranged accordingly much to his delight, this in turn means he has less toys cluttering our living room. because the cabinet came downstairs the sea of paperwork is subsiding and i expect to have a view of the table top by morning... yipeee breakfast on the table. because i have space for storage the spare supplies can increase and my time at the shops reduces bit by bit...:j

ah, simple, cost free solutions - sometimes you just wonder why you didn't do them sooner tho!

ceridwen

Just a thought - because its Sunday:

I've just been reading my personal emails and had been forwarded one by a good friend that I thought might be worth sharing here.

I managed to find it by googling for it:

http://able2know.org/topic/84654-1

To me - it would have been an obvious thing to do for those players to make the choices they did - but it bears repeating, as some people wouldnt have.

Sometimes what does it cost just to show a little politeness/consideration? I remember being astonished once when a woman came up and made a point of thanking me for having had a couple of dances with her son - because people wouldnt normally do so. "Why not?" thought me in puzzlement - as I make it a rule if I'm dancing anywhere to have 1 or 2 dances with anyone who asks me to - before passing on...The thought hadnt crossed my mind of doing anything any different in his case - just because he was obviously disabled (cant remember the name of it at present - I'm tired...). To me - that had just been simple good manners - no big deal.

mary43

firework - you do seem to be doing well despite the dining table being out of sight............bit like my desk..........lol
I decluttered the kitchen table but my desk sadly is strewn with 'stuff'.......most of it papers that need filing or stuff I need to deal with.
I did make a vow at new year to deal with stuff as it comes through the post but I'd badly lapsed on that one. Filing cabinet also needs a good sort out -there's stuff in there I dont really need anymore that I ought to shred............just a case of feeling in the right mood. If I'm not then I'll end up shredding things I shouldn't knowing me................lol
Trudged round a boot fair this morning -my word it felt like miles........quite a big one, to the point where half way round you feel in a kind of trance and really don't 'see' what you're looking at.
Still, I was very good.......despite taking my bag (just in case) I only bought some trailing plants that I wanted ..........no bric a brac..........no clutter............:j It got so hot I was glad to get indoors. Not very good in the heat and bright sunshine so I'm staying in where it's cool.......for a while anyway.

ceridwen - agree with you all the way on that one.