Overwhelmed

I shouldn't be now.  At my age and time of life.  I do it to myself, and I doubt I will change.

I pretty much do what's on my calendar during the week and fizzle out about Thursday afternoon.  I then start looking forward to the weekend as the 2 days that I will work hard, clean, organize, whatever.  And then I don't and end up starting Monday morning behind.

Last week was a rough one with Katherine being sick from Wednesday afternoon to Friday night - on my watch.  I hear she is a little better.  She stayed home from school Friday, and Paige and James came over and played, so she perked up a little.  But when she wasn't being distracted, she was just miserable and whining and feverish.  No one knows what her problem is.  She says her eyebrows hurt and her legs hurt.  Sometimes, she will just collapse and cry with her legs hurting.  Fever lasted from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning, and no one has been sleeping at their house - except maybe Graysen.  Emily and Ryan were supposed to go to a Mariners game with her work people, but she had to cancel just to get some sleep.  I'm sorry that happened, but I'm also glad I didn't end up babysitting Friday night. 

She's not supposed to sleep during the day - because of staying up all night when she does - but who am I to disturb these few moments of rest for her.

Paige is Graysen's very, very best friend.  She's a year older, and therefore Graysen listens to everything she says (although does stand up for herself a little) and loves everything Paige wears or owns.  They got out the black tutus and played some sort of fairy game outside for a long time.  I didn't ask!  Looks like it may have had something to do with cocoons and butterflies, but I don't know.

This is a silly thing, but I feel the stress of having four bestsellers checked out of the library and only three weeks to read them.  I have one more week, and I've read 1-1/2 so far.  There are more than 50 people waiting for them, so I don't get to renew or keep them past their due dates.  The Vineyard ended up being pretty good but not a book I was rushing home to read every day.  Now, I'm halfway through Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan, and it's much easier reading and a better story.  To me.  I'll probably finish it by Tuesday and then have to choose which of the remaining two to read. 

I know those aren't serious problems, and it won't even matter if I clean up the clutter in the apartment.  I just have so many stacks and meaning-to's. 

1.  My hutch full of dishes and pictures and whatever else comes to rest there is dusty.  But - glass shelves, lots of dishes - and it gets ignored.  I need Elise to help me with it, but finding a time when both of us is in a hutch-cleaning mood is almost impossible.

The table is another problem too.  There's always a box coming or going and just stacks of things - mail, books, coloring things.  In this picture, I actually see a roll of Christmas paper standing in the corner that has been there long enough to become invisible to me.

2.  Selling on Ebay.  I opened a box in the garage and found a bunch of smocking and embroidery magazines and books that I can probably sell on Ebay or one of my Facebook pages, but it's such a pain.

 First I have to take pictures, and lately the glossy surfaces have a glare on them that I hate.  I'm not really wanting to edit each one of them. 

I just want to take some quick pictures, write a description, and wait and see what happens.  It's so not that easy.  Even if I do sell them, there's the shipping - addressing the envelopes, figuring out the postage and then going to the post office.  Almost not worth it.

3.  I need a new computer that doesn't have the four keys missing and other signs of age.  On one hand, I hate to spend the money when this one works perfectly fine - just aggravating - but then I really want to change from Windows 7 to Windows 10 before I get too old to learn it.  All those decisions though.  Then there will be all that learning and changing out files and tiring stuff.

I started to post a picture of it, but then saw how really bad it looks.  The girls spent a lot of time with ABC Mouse on it this week.  They don't mind the missing keys.

4.  Elise has been here for a year, and we do pretty well on space, but we need to make an appointment with each other to look in every kitchen cabinet and figure out what we have and what we need, if anything.  Probably a lot of stuff could go to the garage. 

Our coffee area could be spruced up a little, it looks like.  I'm proud of us for paring down our mug and cup collection to just a few favorite each, most of which seem to be in the dishwasher.

This was Mike's baking cabinet, and I hate to change it around.  I keep the girls' snacks here, the ones I don't have to hide from us.  But that springform pan on the top shelf has never been used and, it's safe to say, will never be used by me and will probably be finding a new home.  I'm curious to see what's in that basket.

There are four of these mystery baskets on the tops of the cabinets.  It will be nice to see what I put in them when I moved in, but I imagine most of it can go downstairs if I haven't used it in all this time.  Probably cookie cutters and fancy paper plates and napkins.

5.  Stella's diabetes is still a problem.  The new insulin dose is not doing anything to help her glucose levels, and she's still not happy with low-carb food.  She's hanging in there, but we have to decide one day if begging for food the rest of her life is something we need to do to her  It's so hard, and no amount of explaining it's for her own good makes her feel any better. 

6.  All the things I want to do with and for the girls and am either too tired or too old or too lethargic to do.  Since the puppet show a couple of weeks ago, I've been promising them we would make some along with a small theater, but so far all we've done is looked at a few books and traced a few puppets.  Luckily, they have far too much to do to worry about it, but I'm still guilty.  I don't take them to the park or do outside things as much as I should - although I do a lot more than I want to!  Their quilts are still not made.  I just can't make myself sew.  I should be making them doll clothes, pillowcases, and twirly gowns - all of which I COULD do if I would.

Graysen spent a happy afternoon coloring and decorating these Halloween puppets.

7.  Donation box in the garage needs to be delivered.

8.  Blog never gets written, and I'm two weeks behind on my StoryWorth memories and even more behind on answering emails.  I don't even look at FB that often any more, so I hope people don't think I don't "like" them any more.

That's quite a bit of procrastination there, and maybe that will make me feel bad enough to get up and do something about it.  Or maybe not take on any new distractions.

Positives just to balance things out.
1.  I've been looking for some sort of coffee table or ottoman for our love seat, which is the only size couch that will fit here, something that won't overwhelm it and will fit in a long narrow room.  I saw one for sale on the Snoqualmie Buy, Sell, and Trade FB page, asked about it and reserved it.  The girl and I played tag over times to pick up and finally managed to get together last weekend.  It's perfect.  Used enough to I don't have to worry about the girls getting it dirty but in good enough shape for us.  It has a cute little removable tray on it that we like a lot and, best of all, storage for those games and toys that end up all over the room.  It's easy for them to lift the lid to take things out and makes for a quick cleanup.  Best $40 I spent all month. 

That flowered love seat though!  I loved it when it was a sun room couch or in my sewing room, but it looks silly now.  But the 3 or 4 people who visit here a year, which includes the maintenance man, don't care what it looks like.

2.  Graysen's long awaited Moana dance camp is next week in North Bend, so I'll have a little more free time while she has fun.  I'll still have to entertain Kate on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but there is a park right there at the community center she can play in, hopefully.  We're having another heat wave this week, 0% change of rain with highs from 83 to 90 degrees.

3.  Nice evenings to read and drink tea on the balcony.  This week has been too chilly for that.  Maybe even pool time for Emily and Elise and the girls.

4.  My experimental online savings account yielded $6.85 this month instead of the usual $.01 it was getting in the regular Chase savings account.  I can see that I'll be moving the rest of it soon.  I was a little reluctant to do something new, but since Clark Howard recommended it, I thought I would try it. Also, my 401K is creeping back up from it's sad decline in the early months of the year.


This has been a pitifully whiny blog post.  I hope I can look back on it and see if I do anything this week to make it better.  I really am grateful for all I have and don't take myself seriously on this.  I'm just unhappy with my lethargy today.