My home is a mess

Emm-in-a-pickle

Morning all.
Cat - Hope the birthday meal was fun, happy birthday to your DD. Also hope you`re enjoying your new washer/drier, but most of all, I hope it helps make your home an ironing-free zone!
Laurel - how infuriating!! You are a star to call it a `slight bump on life`s road` - I`d have probably had a good ol` Proper Rant!
YL - postponing the ironing is Step 1. (weigh the cast, watch trashy telly, anything...) Step 2 is sort through the toppling pile, make another pile asking yourself "IF I had just shaken out & hung this item up as soon as the machine had stopped, would it really have needed ironing at all?" Step 3 is take a long look at the `un-necessary pile` and resolve to do something about it next time you wash. Then you can iron the stuff, telling each item from that pile that it`ll be it`s last ironing!!
Also, think of all the things you`d rather be doing right then instead of ironing stuff that could have been prevented before the stuff got creased in a pile.
BB, well done there, nothing wrong with a late start when the opportunity arises!
Bearcub, about the carehome - I worked in a lovely nursing home (now residential) before my current hospital post. There were periods when staffing was a nightmare, but this is true of everywhere, and there were folks like you who took time to visit and were always much appreciated. The one thing that I felt made that home really outstanding was the Bosses. Mr. boss was a keen gardener himself, and tried to involve residents. Indoor planters, raised beds outside, and a large greenhouse that some of the folks had a portion in. (One old man was found to be emptying his catheter bag on his tomato plants...then there was the time !!!!!!`s sweet peas got eaten by the marauding sheep belonging to the farm next door...and an indoor water feature which got moved out of the lounge because it made several of the ladies keep wanting the loo...I could write a book about that place, honestly!)
Another thing about the bosses was that they were always taking the residents who were well enough OUT - anywhere, and even in winter, the minibus was always in use, popular venues were the local WI coffee mornings, Darby & Joan club, garden centre, local market, `mini picnics` and the pub!. They did the organising of regular volunteers & family members plus any staff who could be spared, to push wheelchairs. Not everyone wanted to go out, but the stay-at-homes would be full of vicarious interest when the others came back (or clucking about the foolishness of those who went `gadding about`...)
Great news about your ex-riding pupil, Bless her! And I await news of your new cat/ cats...
Messy status...?
Chicken curry & chips tonight, which means peeling dirty Cheshire potatoes, which means mess. Never mind, I wants `em...with a bit of salad. Mmmmm!
Have to nip down to farmshop, then I`m planning a bit of a potter in caravan of Doom. Then I`m thinking of putting some stuff in caravan that`s cluttering up spare room of Doom. Tetris, see?
Drags self off to make a start...

jpscloud

Hello all, been a bit overwhelmed with various house related things... finally called it a day on decorating yesterday, with bedroom painted (except door and frame) - major achievement considering it's been two and a half years since I started it!) and boxroom painted except door and frame and radiator.

It's not a brilliant job, I can see some patchy bits where the cheap paint hasn't covered properly even after three coats but it looks so much better than before anyway.

I put up some shelves in my bedroom but the drill packed up before I could do the rest in boxroom and kitchen, so have another on order from Amazon. I sold some of my up to date academic books that I had intended to keep for sentimental reasons, and will use that money to pay for the drill.

The loft leak is fixed, thank goodness. The loo piping has developed a slight leak after the plumber changed the flush system, he came back and thought he'd fixed it but it is dripping again - he said he'd be back today to sort it out.

Yesterday I had a full day with not having to go out, and not having anyone coming here, so I could be as scruffy as I liked and get jobs finished. I didn't really get much done but am now putting things away in the boxroom.

I've still got some things I should probably get rid of, but am gradually sorting the wheat from the chaff now. Things won't be back in order before starting work again on Monday but I'm not too worried as my bedroom is fine and it shouldn't take too much to restore order downstairs.

The spare room of doom is not done, and the garden is not done. Never mind, can't do everything!

Cat happy 18th to your DD, and Emm I hope you enjoy your day off!

bearcub, I would be tempted to bring all the puddies home too

Re. dementia, I once had a summer job as an activities coordinator for a dementia home. One of the things some of the patients with more advanced dementia really enjoyed was sorting out a bag of yarn that was all mixed up. Somehow just handling the yarn soothed them, and not just the women... men too! It was a nice group activity. I kept a special bag of waste yarn for this, and at the end of the day I would jumble it all up again specially for those people.

I would put a few knitting needles and crochet hooks out as well, with some good yarn, and some people with less advanced dementia would make squares which we'd eventually put together for lap blankets. Sqaures are good because they can be put down and picked up, and don't need too much concentration.

If she has a tv in her room she might enjoy natural history dvds which can be picked up very cheaply. I lent some of my dvds to the residents and they used to ask for them again and again.

Some residents used to really enjoy art activities as well - you can get some nice "colouring in" stuff that adults enjoy (print off free "mandalas" or landscape scenes, etc.) and provide some decent colouring pencils.

In the summer I got some patio planters cheap and grew tomatoes and herbs in the communal patio areas - it was amazingly popular and great for stimulating conversation.

Emm-in-a-pickle

Laurel - colouring is good, painting and salt-dough modelling too. I`d also forgotten how useful a wool-tangle is for the very muddled & agitated folk especially. It is calming, somehow...
I`ve shifted stuff around in caravan of Doom, and peeled spuds for tonight & cleaned up after myself, also cleaned downstairs loo & handbasin. Going out on bee-watch for a bit, then early night! Daftie-dogs spare bed & another floor-cushion that`s hers are in WM. I`ve done enough today, methinks...
Have a nice evening all xx

gettingready

done NOTHING so far - apart from taking to dog for a nice 2 hour dog in the woods...
now - coffee and will get started.. sigh....

to do:

• Completely change litter trays, clean them, desinfect, put new litter in
• Deal with the PILE of washing up in the kitchen
• Take off/wash/dry/put back on my bedding
• Clean the bathroom
• Damp dust all
• Clean sofas (soapy water)
• 2 loads of washing 9apart from my bedding)
• Vacuum the flat
• Mop the flat

Should be done by 9 pm... sigh.....

bearcub

Evening Messies.

Well done, Emms, for the messy Tetris, and thank you for the encouragement re the care home.

A big :T to jps for finishing her 30 month project, and good news about the leak in the loft. Shame about the drill, though. and, no, you can't do everything. Don't even try - you'll exhaust yourself, and find yourself going backwards. Not literally. Obviously.

Pretty big list, GR.

The lady I mentioned needed to talk yesterday. Sadly, she couldn't do some of the suggestions, because she now lacks fine motor skills, but OH suggested a child's jigsaw, as long as it had a reasonable picture. Since I make cards, I wondered if, for her, I could cut some larger petals or similar, for her to make some greetings cards. I helped another lady with a frame get out of her room, simply by holding the door for her (while another resident was pulling at my other hand!), as it was slow progress. I kept making encouraging comments, and eventually she laughed. She told me that it was the first time she'd laughed for ages, as she keeps crying since she's been in there. I'm not 'patting myself on the back', but both of those ladies made me feel that I am meant to be there.

Well, we have our new cats or, at least, we should be able to collect them on Wednesday. I had intended that we should have one or two slightly older cats ie between 2 and 6 years old. We looked at a number, and really liked two that had already been reserved. Then, we came to another pen, containing a ginger cat and a black kitten, or that was how they seemed. In fact, they're both about 11 months old, and were dumped on a CPL volunteer's doorstep. OH just loves ginger cats - we had one some years ago who was totally daft - and OH was smitten. So, I had little choice in the matter, but I don't mind. Both are very affectionate, although the little black one is a bit nervy. I'm getting quite :jnow!

And no de-messying done.

gettingready

Yup, prety big list,

Gave up on washing the bedding today, would not dry so left this till tomorrow.

Now - vacuum and mop and I am done for todayt so....hmmmmm

Still, done most of it

bearcub

Well done for what you got done, anyway, GD. What rubbish English. <rolls eyes> I did put way the washing up, and the only washing I did was the cat's bed, so that it's clean for the new cats. I have had a good day, though, and I'm out tomorrow. Ah well, there's always Monday. :rotfl:

gettingready

Bearcub - what new cats???????

Time to relax.. brought all 4 cats from the garden, dog still half dead after earlier waLK SO...

Universal and Law and Order - SVU....

jpscloud

Well done de-messiers! bearcub I just had another thought - when I worked with the dementia patients I got the Pets As Therapy people to send a volunteer with a lovely dog to come once a week and just hang out with the residents for a bit. They absolutely loved it - the animals have to be registered and tested before they are allowed to do therapy work so it's safe.

Plumber didn't turn up and hasn't answered my calls... maybe it was too nice a day to work! I'll have to hope I can get him to come some time in the week but that is a pain as I'm back at work.

It's the last day of my holidays tomorrow, I can't believe how quickly summer went. Hoping the weather will be fairly good as I am planning to do a bit in the garden as well as tidy up my living room/study-come-dining-room areas a bit.

I'm just making the most of my last night staying up without worrying about getting enough sleep to be up at 5am!

I must also sort out all my stores - I've stockpiled a few things so that I won't have to nip to the supermarket so much during term time, hope this will cut down on grocery bills a bit. I need to sort out the store cupboard and find room for everything. That's not as bad as it sounds because I did a massive de-messying in there last year.

Have a good night all, sweet dreams!

gettingready

I was thinking to get Zara cert as PAT dog but with working full time, no time really

My friend's dog is a PAT dog (GS too).. It does work really,.....