MULTI-TASKING THURSDAY

HERE I SIT catching my breath.  Spending time here allows me to operate our HOME office, use the internet/computer, study and research health issues etc., thumb through magazines and books, write letters/correspondences, go through boxes in my lap, watch movies, day dream and think about what needs done around here and the COTTAGE.  Talk on the telephone.  Fold laundry.  Polish my fingernails, put make-up on and curl my hair.  Work on the budget.  Write out checks.  Plan meals, visit with my Sweet Heart, decorate in my head, draw, write books, sew, think and pray.  Also take naps.  All in one location. 

It's possible to multi-task.  I'm doing it.

 

The area around my recliner needs tidied up in the worse way.  So I will clean today.  To the right of my chair are a couple of LONGABERGER Baskets that hold bills, receipts, files, calendar, bill book, books and magazines to read, notebooks.  Another basket for incoming and outgoing mail. Another basket holds medicines.  

Cleaning away.  It looks so much better that I can pat myself on ze back and say out loud, "Good job, dd!" 

I'm sorting through old papers and more greeting cards.  Scanned the newspaper, decluttered some about my reading chair.  Watered the screened-in porch plants.   

One could say that I am very lazy to do so much while sitting instead of walking about the house all day long.  I have a history of having a bad back so standing is challenging.  My feet still hurt, but are much better. There was a period of 20 months where I could hardly walk.  After I got the September 2020 flu shot, my back decided to hurt so badly I could not stand more than 5 minutes.  It hurt beyond words.  Sitting in my recliner was when I was not in plan.  So what's a Lady to do, but sit and work while sitting.        

With my health issues, I have to sit a great deal, but stay busy.  Need to get things done.  I need not apologize to others for being active as I sit.  I do what I can.   

When it comes to chores, I have to do them during little windows of time.  For example, last night after being gone all day, I cleaned the powder room toilet and wiped the tile floor around the toilet before going to sit in my chair.  Mark that off the list of things to do.

At the present, I can not clean an entire room in a day.  So I may get the cleaning products out for the next day of deep cleaning.  Clean for 20 minutes then move to the chair.  Sort the laundry, but not get to it until the next day.  Write out a grocery list and hang onto to it for a couple of days before actually going to market.  The purchased canned goods may stay in their bags until the next day.  This was a suggested way to deal with canned goods during the pandemic, so I did something right without trying.    

Women are known to be great multi-takers even when elderly.  God wired us this way.  We can accomplish much even when sitting.

This morning, before sitting, I put some grocery items away and stared at the disarray in the small pantry.  The order seems to have vanished.  Another day I'll tidy this back into what it should be.  A load of laundry is washing in the miniature washing machine that I hooked up to the kitchen faucet.  I'll hang the items later and let them air dry.  

The pile of laundry has grown as I came across boxes of children's clothing when I was working over at the COTTAGE.  I will launder all items refreshing them with WOOLITE and see about getting them into the hands of someone who needs them.  

Laundry would go so much faster if I spent a couple of hours at the local Laundromat.  Maybe I should just get on with it and do a multitude of loads there and dry them as well.  I haven't been to the local Laundromat since 2020 when the Pandemic flared up.  We purchased a miniature washing machine so I could do laundry at HOME.  No dryer.  There's a rack in the Kitchen to hang wet items on.  Skipping using the clothes dryer skips the way the dryer fluffs up the items.  

Clothing seem to dry so much nicer with a clothes dryer.  If you have a clothesline to hang items on, bed sheets, blankets, tablecloths and cloth diapers dry so nicely, but in my opinion towels seem too stiff when dried on a clothesline.  Hard as cardboard when they should be soft to the touch.  

Staying inside today as the heat index is 103.  The air conditioner is blowing inside.  No walk today.  Dishes to wash, another load of laundry to do.  

No breakfast.  Lunch was organic Butternut Squash soup with plant based crackers.  Supper will be a large vegetable salad with boiled eggs.  Better get the eggs boiled.  

Life on the Prairie is good.  I am blessed to be at HOME.

~d 

I'm wearing blue on the front row and my Sister is in the grey coat.  
Mom and two of my cousins.  Guessing it's the Winter of 1961.

Multi-tasking

Sometimes I cannot multi-task.  Women are notorious multi-taskers.  I have my moments when I cannot concentrate on one big project with so many other things going on and I get overly tired thinking about all that needs to be done.  Other times, the multi-tasking is doable without breaking a sweat.  

THESE DAYS the multi-tasking is overly active with juggling the old with the new.  The damaged with the reusable.  Replacing the lost.  

THOUGHTS OF:    
How to make room for us in this small cottage.  
How to decorate it.  
What needs to be done to the cottage to clean it up and put it in better repair.  
How to store the things we need to hang onto.  
Letting go of the things we no longer need.

At present I'm thinking about Living room furniture that will replace what we lost in the house fire.  What style, color or texture next to what size and shape.  With that said, I have to document ALL that was lost.

This is an ongoing task.  I am presently going through the boxes that are holding things that have been cleaned by one company.  Right at the moment I am jotting down what is in every box and placing the box in the room it will go into.  Another box to hold give aways and another box if the items still stink of smoke.


This afternoon I worked on what was returned to us from a different company that cleaned what they could and returned what they couldn't clean at all.  MY TEDDY BEAR COLLECTION took a serious hit.  So smoked damaged that I don't want to believe it.  The ones that don't stink too badly will go to the launder mat and I will wash them to see if the smoke smell does come out.  If so then I will dye the badly stained bears a dark brown or black.  I would still have some bears to love.

IF NOT...the bears will have to make their way to the trashcan and hibernate in the dump.  Forever trash.

Going through the boxes, taking pictures of the items with green numbered tags attached to each item, and jotting down what each thing is.  Pictures of everything.  Then there's a pile of what is going to be thrown away for sure and a pile for what I will try to clean as best I can.

THIS HURT as I went through a box that held my PROM DRESS.  Badly smoke stained and stinks to high heaven.  Formal wear from my daughter's high school years and a gorgeous evening gown she wore as a bridesmaid for a dear friend of hers all trash.  

Forging ahead and taking note of what was to what is.  It has gotten easier to throw damaged things away.  I have a very long ways to go.  THIS YEAR my hobby is fire recovery.  I can't imagine doing all of this and holding down a job as well.  I'd be a basket case if I were doing both.  Very emotionally taxing.
  

Evenings are spent watching HOME FIRES.  Disappointed that Season 3 will not take place at the time.  This series has intrigued me the entire time.  Now my Husband is enjoying this time era.  TOGETHER we are watching this story line unfold before our eyes.  

When I check up on these actors in the present day compared the characters they play, it's amazing how different a person can look with a different hair style or color.  Make-up and clothing does so much.

BEDTIME IS LATE as I multi-task this season in life.  As I find our treasures in good shape, it is hard to go to bed and sleep, but sleep I must. 

SWEET DREAMS,  
d