Check In

Good Geeze Louise. Didn’t we already complete this year’s family penance for daring to be alive?

Guess not.

Youngest daughter’s been back in the hospital; it’ll be a week tomorrow. She wasn’t able to keep anything down for days and days. Her liver enzymes were off the charts. (And to answer before you ask – she had a hysterectomy three-ish years ago, so no, she’s not pregnant, Nothing viral/bacterial, either.) She was doing slightly better yesterday and may – hopefully – be going home tomorrow.

Then my DIL was driving home yesterday when someone made an illegal turn in front of her. She’s got a sore neck and her youngest has had raging panic attacks ever since. Their vehicle isn’t drivable for now. She said she’s waiting to hear back tomorrow from the repair shop to see if it can be fixed.

---

I’m Here

Me? I’m mostly okay.

The legs are achy because I’ve been on the run all weekend, including watering our expanding (both in size and in number of plants) garden. At left is our mostly-tomato-plant jungle. There are a few tomatoes in the foliage. I’m more than okay for them to be shaded, because it keeps them from getting too tough to eat.

It’s approaching monsoon season, which also contributes to the ouchiness. Emphatic changes in humidity play havoc with arthritis and other assorted and sundry health issues.

The additional green stuff in the yard is likewise actually green. Still small, for the most part – but growing.

✓ Numbers Game
I’m down fifty-ish pounds and counting. It’s tough now, with the busy season at work, to keep cooking low carb. However, I don’t want to do a lot of premade stuff, so I stumble into the kitchen after signing off work, and… yeah. Sometimes dinner is cheese sticks, pepperoni, and a few low-carb crackers. Not my first choice, obviously. If its’s the only choice, though, I deal.

Tonight the diet took a hike. We did bean-and-cheese burritos on low-carb tortillas. It’s kind of like getting two giant burgers with the works, a large fries, and a diet Coke, and pretending you’re sticking to your diet. Considering how tired I am tonight, I don’t care.

✓ More Numbers
I got another raise effective this month, and this week I’m covering an extra day for my weekend person, so working six ten-hour days. It’s terrific for the paycheck, murder on the body.

---

The Ta-Da List

This weekend I went on a culling-out-the-crap bender.

✓ Kitchen
Our kitchen drawers were my fingernails-on-chalkboard spot. I hit the dollar store and bought drawer organizers, eliminated a bunch of superfluous and duplicated/triplicated stuff, and have the remainder orderly enough to be functional. Threw away, donated, all the usual suspects.

✓ Closet
I did a fast dash through my closet at lunchtime today. It didn’t take long, because I’ve been staying on top of it for a while. But since I KNOW I’m eating low carb forever, it was time to hand off dresses as much as 6-8 inches too large in the waistline; same for pants and a few tops. I don’t mind big and baggy around the house. When it’s so big it’s literally at risk of falling off, though, it’s time to say goodbye.

There’s a disabled couple in town. We know they’re struggling and think she can probably wear some of the clothes. (We never donate or give away anything that belongs in the garbage. It’s all nice stuff, some of it worn maybe twice, if that.) We give them things all the time. Whatever they can’t use directly they sell in their own garage sales, so it’s a win for them, regardless.

Unlisted Numbers

A few things aren’t in line for arbitrary reduction any time soon.

✓ Shoes
I own four pair and one of those is dedicated to gardening. The gardening pair isn’t suitable for anything else. If I could find a pair of sandals I love, I’d gladly reduce the total number to three. I wear shoes because they’re a necessary evil.

✓ Purses/handbags
I own two regular-size purses and one fancy-event velvet one, and they aren’t going anywhere unless I find replacements. If/when I find one I like better, the corresponding older variant gets donated or trashed, depending on its condition. Same as with shoes – I more tolerate than like them.

Before G, I was downright Spartan. I’m not the world’s best housekeeper because of physical limitations, and more junk means more to clean. Even with G doing nearly all the cleaning, at some point it gets to be too much and I find myself going through things with a fine-toothed bulldozer!

Still on the To-Do List

✗ Cleanup on Aisle 7
We have a LOT of cleaning supplies. I kid you not – we have many, many shelves and cubbies full of nothing but cleaning stuff. When my daughter moved out, she left behind countless bottles, cans, and whatnot; and of course we brought our own. They take up a ridiculous amount of space we could use for other things. Post-COVID, the idea of getting rid of surplus cleaning supplies rankles, I won’t lie. But the idea of more space appeals to me more than hoarding PineSol.

✗ Pantry. Again.
Like my closet, the pantry cleanout and rearrange is a routine for us. We go through a few times a year and dump anything expired or chronically unused, and arrange so we can actually see what we have. For example, Low-carb or not, I still keep a few staples like flour and sugar. I see no point in keeping an extra bag of them. I also need to tear through my spice stash. I probably won’t be getting rid of any spices, but they could 100% stand to better arranged, so I can actually see what I have. I know there’s a bottle of Italian seasoning somewhere in the pantry. A few nights ago I wasted probably half an hour looking for it. (Never found it, either.)

✗ Linen Closet
Like the pantry, this is a regular thing for us. It’s also not too bad, but I’m going to dig through and get rid of more. There’s one offending shelf where a lot more needs to go. Because it IS a small job, I suspect this will be the next thing I tackle.

✗ Books and magazines
This one could be a trigger for some of my friends. I read my books – then pass them on. Period. A few constants won’t be going anywhere, mainly reference books on my pet subjects. But after a while, I even give some of those the side-eye. When there’s enough overlap to justify it, I’ll go slash-and-burn (figuratively speaking) on my reference collection, too.

✗ Clear more mimosa
This shows you how stubborn these things are. It’s thigh high on me. Last week it was maybe four inches.

And it didn’t come alone. G is constantly chopping these things down.

Honestly they’re pretty trees, and it IS tempting to plant one further out in the yard. Unfortunately, if we get another giant going in the neighborhood, we’ll live in a jungle soon.

Which might not be terrible, if the jungle weren’t assaulting roofs and foundations.

If a volunteer mimosa sprouts in a place I actually want a tree, there’s a possibility I’ll let it stand.

Maybe.

But I’m hoping before it comes to that, we’ll have a mesquite and/or an acacia established and running the yard like a boss.