ANOTHER WEEK AND AT LEAST WHAT HAS TO BE DONE IS ......DONE!

 Goodness – another week again – seems like I just posted yesterday!!

Have you found that time moves differently since Covid started? I find this. I think I did something a couple of weeks ago and when checking on something about it in my computer organizer – I see that it has been a month and a half!! Things I do by rote, suddenly I forget to do. File on my computer drive are not in the order they should be.

I am trying hard right now to get everything back to where it belongs and how it should be. One problem is that husband was miserable staying home all the time and is now trying to make up for it – I pray for rain so we will stay in the house and I will get things done. Even as I writing and posting this (at 1:30 am) I have just moved the first load of laundry to the dryer and put the second load in to wash.

REALLY need to clean the house. Husband had started vacuuming the floors out of boredom – but no longer does. (I prefer to “Swiffer” them, sound of a vacuum has scared me since I was a child.

Four things I have extremely cautious to do on time – clients tax returns, pay our bills, the laundry, and cook meals/wash the dishes.

Does anyone else use the toe of their “fuzzy” slippers (while wearing them) to gather dust bunnies together and then pick them up and throw them out with their hand?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I try to keep doing the little things which HAVE to be done to help me keep going. We are fed. We have clean clothing and towels/bed linens. We have our medications and take them as we should.

What do you ALWAYS do as it so important to be done?

ONE NEEDS TO HAVE PLANS WHEN ONE IS STUCK HOME DUE TO AN INJURY OR ILLNESS

 My foot is much healed  - though not completely yet – since last week.  

It has been hard staying off my foot as much as possible.  This means, of course, sitting in one place or another and greatly limiting switching to other places – though we did have to go out for a bit of food shopping.  Staying off my foot seems to be working as it seems be about half better already.  

Husband has been trying to help as much as possible – he even washed the dishes for a couple of days.  He has always been upset that I did not replace our dishwasher when it died – as much as he did not want me having to wash the dishes by hand, he did not want to have to do so himself when I could not.  Even long before Covid I would put on a mask (he has them for his woodworking) or tying a towel around my face and putting on disposable plastic gloves when ill so he would not have to do the dishes.    He also cooked – but he has always been the cook of the two of us.   

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One needs to be prepared for when cannot do the normal housework – or other jobs which one normally does.  What sort of plans do YOU have for when you cannot deal with house, cooking, or work for a period of time.  

Do you have someone else to take over or help you – spouse, child, parent, housemate or really good friend?  Do you have disposable goods – paper plates, cups, napkins to use when you cannot deal with washing up after meals?  The telephone number of a place which delivers for an affordable price?

Whether an injury or an illness which keeps one home one needs to be prepared to be able to eat and deal with one's house should something happen.

HOW WAS YOUR FIRST WEEK OF THE NEW YEAR - I CAUGHT A COLD

So here we are, a week into a new year.  Hard to believe.

First, something I heard on TV, that is very true.  Many of us date things in this format – 01/01/20 for January 1, 2020.  Do not use the 20 on it's own for the year.  Why, when you have always done this?    Well, if you write 01/01/20, the year part of the date can be changed in the future to any year in this year in this decade – such as 01/01/2021  or 01/01/2029 – see what I mean – in theory the date would not run out for 10 years on say a blank check or memo note, etc.  So instead date things as 01/01/2020 to avoid problems.

So how has your organizing, cleaning, etc. been going this year?  Mine not so much.  I managed to come down with a cold last week – not anything major, just enough to make me miserable.  Husband is  a hypochondriac.  So when I get sick he does not want me to touch anything – I even get my 2 liter soda bottle with an X on it so he does not touch it.  Biggest problem is cooking and dishes. 

We normally eat lunch out so that is easy.  But he does not want me to cook dinner with my germ covered hands.  When we were younger, had more money and there were more places at which we could afford to eat dinner, we would go out for dinner or bring stuff in.  Not really a choice any more other than the weekly dinner at Ikea, at Wendys and at the Asian buffet.  One night in a week we can deal with deli turkey (even though we ate same 5 times in 2 weeks while doing the event with our reenactment unit in the last 2 weeks).  But night after night?   We brought in Chinese food one night  - husband looked around for the paper goods – something new for us, we never used to have paper plates, bowls, cups, etc. as we considered it wasteful – last year he bought all of these for use in our RV and we had used them last time I had a “bug”, but when I finally was able to clear out the dining room – it all went out to the RV.  He found plastic plates in the basement – intended for craft use – and there is plastic tablewear in the secretary in the living room.  But as he unpacked the Chinese soup he was upset about not having a paper bowl for the soup – my suggestion - “there” is a stack of previous soup containers brought in – all washed and ready for use – he was not happy, but it did the trick.  He keeps saying that we need to replace the (non-working) dishwasher if just for when I am sick.  (I had figured out that it took me the same time to wash the dishes, etc as it did to load the machine and then rewash what did not wash – plus reading about the new machines they seemed too much work with the need to clean filters and other things.  (Our original dishwasher came with the house or we never would have had one – though we did replace that one once.)  My solution is to put on disposable plastic gloves when I wash the dishes.

We were not sure if we were to have snow today (report changed constantly and TV news did not agree channel to channel) so we made sure that we had lunch for today and dinner when we shopped yesterday.  (I used to be organized – read the store circulars, had a shopping list, bought stuff on sale and used the saved coupons – but now with him along – we food shop just about day by day and due to changes in the coupons available and what we can eat and use – coupons that match what we buy are rare.  I still have a shopping list, instead of being a paper on the fridge (if we need more – add it or we won't have it) it is in my cell phone – the other day I tried to remove an item as bought it – and the entire list erased itself and since it can only synced automatically – the computer version was pffft also.  Luckily husband managed to bring up a list from the day before for me.  Some things really are better on paper.

It did not snow enough to matter, went out for lunch and tonight we were having turkey sausages with macaroni (pasta – he is Italian by background all types of pasta are called macaroni).  He is cooking as I am sick.  Despite my hinting “am I cooking tonight or you?” about an hour before dinner, we did not get downstairs to cook until about 20 minutes before we would normally eat dinner.  I was out of tomato “gravy” (sauce to you and me).  I had mentioned this when we picked this dinner and he said “no problem”.  So we are very late starting to make dinner and he has to make “the gravy” - something he actually taught me how to do from his mom's recipe (which for some reason is simpler and quicker by about 5 and a half hours than the recipe his sister makes which she says is how their mom made it.)  He should know what he is doing since he taught me – right?

“What do I start first, the gravy or the water for the macaroni?” he asked.  “Heating the pan for the sausages” - my reply.  I tell him which (cast iron) pan to take out - “you need the one without the ridges.”  He starts to take the one with the ridges – the one that last time I used it, filled our kitchen with smoke and the smoke detector would not go off for hours and I have still had not had a chance to clean it http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/07/not-in-pennsylvania.html  He took out the correct pan and put it on the stove – turned on the burner for it to heat.  Then I had him start the water to boil – I have to tell him which pot for which food.  Then we started making the gravy.  I make 2 large cans of tomatoes with 2 small cans of tomato sauce.  Lately I have been using one large can of petite diced tomatoes and one of puree – gives him the pieces of tomatoes and also a thicker liquid than if I just used the tomatoes.  “What do I add to it?” - Sheesh – he taught me – and I point him to the spice cabinet (built by him to fit our apartment kitchen, but fit perfectly here also – noticed that I need to clear it out as there is a lot of stuff that we have not used in decades and will not use again, such as “Mrs. Dash” - I mostly just stick my hand in and pull out what I need – showing him where, made me notice this – new job to do.  Macaroni added to the boiling (no salt no oil) water.  “What now” -he said exasperated.  I told him to take some water on his finger and drop in the pan - “If it dances it is ready”.  It did and he added the sausages.  Now, it took him longer to add the items to the gravy than it would take me to cook the gravy, so we are even further behind.  Next though, was to heat the leftover half can of soup for him to have soup before dinner. 

So eventually we had dinner.  I got sick – I won't say it was his cooking… Then to wash the dished I put on disposable gloves and washed them – they are air drying now. 

My embroidery group met today.  I did not go.  I thought and thought about where I could sit in the relatively small room we meet in and not infect all of the other members, then realized that the proper thing to do was not to go.  So last night I telephoned the group president and told her and that I would email the treasurer's report to her and to the secretary.  I wrote it and emailed it.  This afternoon I checked my email – I had sent them both the January 2019 minutes instead of the treasurer's report – so now I will email to the chapter members. I have to stop messing up and needing to do things over and over. 

I had planned on running errands today that are easier to run without husband, but since I did not go to the meeting – we were together – he actually did not complain about the errands, some of which annoy him.   We went to our reenactment unit's bank and I redeposited some cash as I had needed to take out some cash and we needed less than we thought.  I also got a copy of the cash check as we have a grant and the cash was for part of the costs of same and we need to submit all copies of all checks, deposits and a lot of other paperwork – with a check sending back the excess of the grant money to the non- profit which gave us the grant and when I got home later I emailed copies of everything I had to the member who got us the grant and is handling the paperwork. Hopefully something done on the first try.   

We went to our bank vault – I keep my “offsite data backup” in it.  I used to make a data backup once a month and send to work with husband and he would bring home the one I sent with him the month before.  When he quit his job, I needed an alternative – our bank vault became the alternate.  (I use 2 USB flash drives – one is at the bank, other is here to update the next month.)  We got one of the “platform” employees that is good and I figured, okay husband won't be getting upset. But when we went to go into the vault area with the employee – we had to wait as other employees were in there on bank business – that annoyed him. 

Not doing laundry tonight (I start on Wednesday nights and continue into Thursday – Friday if needed) due to my cold – I figure to give it another day of recovery before I start.  Since the washer and dryer were not being used, husband washed a scarf he finished weaving  ( just a minute – I have to double check that he shut off the water to the washer – afraid if the hose breaks it will make a mess in basement, so we keep the water to the hose shut off when not in use. …… He did shut the water off, but did not push in control of the washer to make sure it was off. 

So how was your first week of the new year?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Treat the new year as a new opportunity for a clean slate – but don't go crazy trying to change everything at once – change one small thing and keep at it – then when that is going well – change another and continue and so on.

CLEARING OUT THE FAMILY HOME.

I have several large plastic bags with stuff that we took from my family home.

I am not calling it mom's house as my sisters and I do as it is really the family home. My family moved there when I was 5. My (now) middle sister was 6 months old and “baby” sister was 7 years in the future. While I remember the apartment that my parents and I – and middle sister briefly – lived in before the house, my sisters have no memories of any other home growing up. It was a huge house to me coming from the 3 room apartment we lived in before. When middle sister was born I was moved from sleeping on the opposite side of my parents bedroom from where they slept (I often wonder how they managed to create my sister with me sleeping in their bedroom) to a cot in the living room. Since the only TV (a large 1950s console set) was in the living room I got to watch such late night shows as “the Late Show” (old movies) and the early versions of “the Tonight Show – back when Johnny Carson was just a page at NBC, California with my parents – or they could not watch them. I have been thinking a lot about those early days of our family lately – both as my mother is 90 and with the clearing out of our house for the sale of it. I have not taken a lot of family stuff as I am in my mid 60s and have no children to inherit any of the family house – it will eventually reside with my niece or nephew any way.

Since we had the bed bugs here in our home I am always concerned about getting them again. We have a device called a Packtite. It is the size of a very large softsided suitcase with a rack and a heater in it. It is intended to place suitcases in after one has been on a trip to heat the suitcases and what is in them to kill any bed bugs that might have come home with one. Because I am a crazy person, we have it set up with a laundry basket – that we drilled in holes in the bottom of to allow for air flow – in it and we heat any soft items – paper, fabric and the like that we bring into the house – that we are concerned might have bed bugs in them. So the items from my family home - mostly papers and needlework of mine from when I was much younger – all has to be heated.

I am doing so in small batches and have finished two large bags so far. I am going through these items I took when there or my sister set aside for me. (She said she had a box for me – I expected an office files sized box- there were two of them plus other stuff in the box she left.) It is a trip down memory lane and a record of what I considered important enough to keep at one or another point in time. I have found work appointment books from my early days in accounting (could have used one of them when I was positive that I knew a building in a scene on “Blue Bloods” and went crazy to find it and then figure out how I knew it – it was where a client had his factory – the work appointment books also have clients contact info). School grades – I did as badly as I remember. Lots of occasion cards – birthdays, engagement – ours and friends, anniversaries, Valentines (old boyfriends same went straight to the paper shredder), and so on. I have been weeding through – baby age birthday cards, one copy of wedding related paper items, cards from certain people – parents, sisters, husband, a few very good friends, a special aunt &uncle, my grandparents were kept – others were shredded. I found some remembrances of things such as graduation or awards programs – kept, articles I had published in the college newspaper – kept, personal diaries – kept.

Of course I am keeping my needlework – finished or not. I did leave behind two latch hooked throw rugs that were finished except for the edging as I figured they might sell and make a couple of buck for mom, plus husband said to me as I looked at them “Where would we put them?”. I did decide after leaving them if when we went back they were still there I would take them – but we did not get back while they were still in sight.

So I am trying to figure out what to add to the mess of stuff here in husband and my home, without going overboard. I was a bit “lucky”. My toys would have been the hardest to deal with and decide who “lived” and who “died” but the house was hit by Hurricane Sandy and the basement where most of the toys were flooded and they had to be tossed out then by the crew that came in and worked on the basement. Not only were they not there for me to deal with, I had already “mourned their loss”.

There were 5 items in particular that I was looking for. My Girl Scout sash -with my few badges and my annual star pins on it. I had put together a loose leaf book with hand copied lyrics to old folk songs. My dad had given me one of his army shirts from when he was in same during World War II during the late 1960s/early 1970s when wearing army shirts was popular. There is a stapled binding, thin, soft-covered book about our family in “the old country”. Lastly, when I was in high school I embroidered a table cloth. When I got married we could not find it, I figured if any of it ever would turn up – it would be as the house was emptied. I have the army shirt and the loose leaf book of song lyrics. The other items did not show up.

There has been a tag sale by a company that my sister found and much of the contents of the house are gone. We have to go in and clean and fix it up a bit before we sell it. The next day neighbor already is telling us about someone she knows who is interested in the house.

Just in case anyone is interested – mom has had her pacemaker (or its battery – story of what is to be done was different to my sister and me) replaced, so we won't have to figure out how to plug into a wall outlet if it dies. :-) She has also had (within the same week) surgery to remove a lesion that was causing her anemia. As of tonight she is back in her apartment at her assisted living facility – pretty good for a 90 year old woman I think.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - If you were getting ready of your family home – or your own home – what would you be looking for as you would want to make sure that you kept them?

MOM AND MY FAMILY HOME

We are currently dealing with mom and two cardiologists. For those of you who joined since or have forgotten, mom is 90. Shortly after her 90^th birthday she started having problems (http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/05/sometimes-fate-is-having-fun-with-one.html) and can no longer live at home alone. She went through short term physical rehab at a very nice local facility and since then has moved into their assisted living facility. While they do a great job of helping her and taking care of her – mostly she gets around by herself - they have been doing physical therapy and she can walk with a walker better than she has done in years - and she is back in her full mind again from just the fact of having people around her and things to keep her mind active.

Back in August it was found that she blood clots in her legs and she was given medication. She was also referred to my brother-on-law's cardiologist who is also a vein doctor for followup scan about a week after the clots were discovered. I posted the story of that nightmare - wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/29 Her leg was not scanned. We ended up going back not the 3 weeks later that this doctor wanted, but instead on October 7 as it took until then to get an appointment. The scan was not done then either as the appointment was made by a third party appointment service for someone who does not do scans – understand we drove out to where mom is, got her into the car, took her to the doctor's office and had her medical history taken – and nothing else – TWICE (and of course her medical insurance was billed for 2 office visits). When we left the second time we made an appointment for the scan – for this coming Saturday (remember this is about 2 months after we were told that she needed to have her legs scanned right away and then a week later when her leg was not scanned - we were told it needed to be done in 3 weeks). Despite everything we had been told, the doctor does not do the scan, so after it is done we will first have to return on November for the doctor to interpret the scan.

Next problem – mom has a pacemaker. It was put in 10 years ago. The battery in it is tested every few months and the last test was at the start of October and we were told that the battery had less than 2 months left on it. Soooo, the replacement of the pacemaker was moved into priority. This came up shortly before the second time mom did not have the leg scan and we asked that cardiologist's office (per the doctor – they only do heart “plumbing” and we need someone who does heart “electricity” for this) for a cardiologist who would do this procedure as mom's doctor for same is an hour away where our family home is. We were upset that this doctor would have the same sort of circus for an office as the other, but it is quite the opposite. Mom was seen by this doctor (M) a week after she had been in the other doctor (B)'s office. Yes, she needs to have her pacemaker replaced. I was telephoned the next morning with two appointments – a week later (yesterday) for presurgery exam at hospital and next week she will have the procedure. 2½ weeks and this will be done – the other doctor 21/2 months and still nothing has been done!

In the middle of running with mom (plus all the car problems) I realized that I had to renew one of husband's medications and called the pharmacy. The doctor refused to renew it without an exam. We really cannot fit in a doctor visit for us right now – mom's pacemaker does take precedence, so I telephoned and explained and made appointments for us the first week in November. Ummm, I missed that we are going for blood work in the morning of the day mom is scheduled to have her scans read – and it is election day! Well, we work it out somehow. Doctor renewed prescription for 10 days – when we were not due in for 3 weeks – but we had enough left to work it out.

Then it occurred to me that the scan of her legs would be done between the presurgery testing and the surgery – telephoned the doctor doing the surgery to make sure that this would not be a problem – we did not want to give up the appointment that would, hopefully, finally resolve her leg scans, but the pacemaker is more of an emergency. It is not a problem.

My sister will get mom to the hospital for the pacemaker surgery as it is 9 am. We figured out that between allowing for rush hour traffic (as we do not live near where mom is) and then the hour and a half we need to pick her up, get her in the car, drive her the 20 minute trip (and again – it is rush hour, so need more time) and then get her into the hospital – at 8:30 – would mean that we would have to leave home at 5:30 am. My sister lives near mom and the hospital.

Okay, so 4 doctor appointments for mom, 2 doctor appointments for each of us, I have to go to a client tomorrow, my birthday falls in the middle of all this which is all within a month – and at some point we will be called to go pick up our RV out of state. We also had reenactment event, board meeting, and general meeting – which husband as VP had to run and we had signed up to do a presentation for the meeting – over the past weekend. And on the day between our blood work appointments and our doctor appointments I have my embroidery guild meeting.

That's a lot of stuff – well, we can go for weeks with nothing to do, so it is a lot of stuff for us to do. But that it is not all. We - mostly my sisters - have been working on getting stuff out of the family home so it can be sold. http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/clearing-out-my-old-closet-at-family.html A tag sale company is will hold a sale in the house this coming weekend. My sister had set aside of box of stuff she came across of my stuff. Since the sale starts Friday and I have to work tomorrow – we had to go today and get the stuff. I had hoped it was one or more of the items I told her I wanted – a tablecloth I embroidered in high school which has disappeared and a small book about our family in the old country. I expected a small, office size file box. There was a huge box waiting for me. Some was not mine and I left them for the sale, some we tossed out, most of it I don't really want, but much of it had my name or other info on it and I took it home to shred it. I also now have an embroidery that I made for one of my parents special anniversaries for them.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I was about to write the thought of the week I was going to write about with all this going on I have kept up – I am doing the laundry, the vehicles are taken of…

Then I remembered – we checked the oil in the car today (it has a problem, there is a class action suit, and we hope it will recalled and fixed) and it was down ½ quart – and we forgot to add oil. Normally it would not matter and I make note to add the oil tomorrow, but tomorrow I am driving to almost Manhattan for work and will be driving in stop and go traffic, at least one way. So I texted husband upstairs (yes, I am that lazy) and he came down and we added the oil – in the dark.

Then I remembered – that it had been raining Sunday when we arrived home from the reenactment event and we had not unpacked the van – we had brought 2 folding reproduction stools, only one of our box benches, a flat table top, the legs to the table and a twin sized blanket (it was cold I used it to keep warm until the sun warmed up the air a bit – and then when it rained, it kept me dry.) Husband will be driving the van tomorrow as I will have the car – so we had to unpack the van.

What more can I say for the thought of the week than – it is life, it goes on, one has to do what one can do, when one can do it.

PLANNING YOUR ORGANIZING

Another week – another post – but not much done during the week. 

Last week, as mentioned, I hurt a muscle in my stomach and husband would not let me do anything heavy so I would heal.  This meant that I could do computer work, some cooking (not “heavy” pots) and such.  He carried the laundry bag downstairs so I could do the laundry and then carried the basket of clean items upstairs (twice as I did clothes one day and towels the next) for me.  The basket of clean clothes that I carry upstairs on one hip with one hand normally, he can barely lift.  Unfortunately after feeling better, today my back was hurting – I could not even twist to see the office phone to dial as I had to lean around the file holder stack on my desk – I had to go to the kitchen to call our bank to see if something coming into the account had arrived.  So not much done again this last week.

I will say that we were very pleasantly surprised after using up most of our available time last week to prepare for the reenactment event I mentioned that it was much easier to do than we had figured how it had been explained. 

Rather than hand everything over the fence, we were allowed to drive right to the space set aside for our unit.  The people from the museum that was having the event were the nicest people we have ever met running an event – and we started doing craft shows in the 1980s.  They bent over backwards – if we wanted the space set a different way, they were glad for us to do it and helped us.  They were helping us unpack.  They had tables out for us to use – one less thing for us to have to take out and set up.  When we had finished unpacking I asked one of the men to help me back the van out of the museum grounds.  He sent me up the road about a block to a school that was letting them use their parking lot  - okay, a small bit of disorganization, the lot was small and full – there was a children's soccer game going on.  There were no spaces.  The fellow (not from our unit, but a friend) who was the blacksmith followed me in – he had a regular car and told me he as going to park between the two rows as another car had done.  I luckily saw a father and son heading to their car and got that space.  Not sure what later cars did – demonstrators, volunteers, and the public. 

Despite my back I held up one of the tent poles (this is a reproduction tent – not a modern popup tent) for the unit set up as our members put it up.  We had table next to the tent with plenty of room for the wooden drying racks we were using as display for the scarves husband had woven.  After we set up I found a space between our table and the unit's setup to sit and embroider.  Other members set up across the aisle from us in a group.

I talk about this in this column as organizing a setup for a display – whether a craft show, a reenactment event, a flea market, or a display setup up involves advance planning and then one has to hope that all goes as expected.  We have learned to carry a variety of setup items that we do not normally need or use – just in case.  Even if one knows the space that one will have it may be different than it was last year or otherwise expected.  If the person that the next space is reserved for does not show up, one may be able to expand into their space.  One may have to deal with uneven ground – or even a large puddle or flooded area.  This time we were lucky.  The venue's employees were nice and accommodating and the space well situated and not limited.  We have gone to craft shows where we are supposed to have the same space as the year before – a corner space with 2 sides to display on – and found that the setup had changed or an error was made and one had different space in a different area midaisle with one side to work with.  As we did this when we brought more items for setup than we needed, one has to be prepared for anything. 

Think of trying to organize your home – you have plans to clear out the closet in the spare room and then find items there that you had not remembered.  You are not ready to deal with those items – maybe not enough garbage bags (or the bags you have are too small) or you need help to move what you find.  Or maybe you have to sort a lot of very small items and have no where to sort them.  One has to be ready to deal with situations that one did not expect when organizing. 

As to the event we did – very nice.  Husband has been weaving for about 3, maybe 4 years and has tried to sell his scarves and table runners online.  No sales of same at all.  He has been despondent about weaving and no one buying.  Our thought was that if the pieces could be seen in person it would be different and hoped that to be true.  Craft shows around here for the most part are buy and sell junk shows – no chance of selling an actual hand woven scarf if commercial scarves for $8 each are being sold, which is why he jumped at this chance to sell, especially in the fall (okay, it did not feel like fall, it was in the upper 80/lower 90Fs) but he sold a scarf partway through the day and then near closing, 5 scarves to one woman.  Yippee.  He is again happy to weave. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Plan for everything you can think of for a specific organizing chore.  There will be things that happen out of your control, but try to anticipate what you will need and the time you will need to do it.  Then “play it by ear” if something not anticipated pops up!

2018 SEEMS TO BE CONTINUING INTO 2019

Well, this year seems to be a continuation of last year.  Not only did husband hurt himself again (as I mentioned last week) - although a lot less than he did last year, I am doing things over again.

I still have one client who has an employee - herself.  I have to prepare an IRS W2 form for her each January, along with a covering form named (appropriately) W3.  Then since I don’t use a business name, I also have to prepare a similar form for people one pays that are not employees called 1099-MISC which also needs a covering form named 1096.  Unlike most IRS forms which one can download from their website and fill in, these forms have red markings on the copies which go to IRS and can only be filled in as a preprinted form - available from IRS for free and can also be purchased at stationary stores and online.  One can also buy software to fill in the forms, The alternative to filling in the forms is to do it online free at the IRS website (or various companies that charge to do so).  Most companies have payroll companies which take care of their payroll for them and deal with this for them.

Knowing I will need to do this and knowing that my typing is terrible, even with the word processing typewriter (lets one type a line, check it, and then print it) I have, I always order more forms than I need to have spares.  I do this in December so I will have them in January to fill them in.  I did so last month - in December 2018, ordering forms for the 2018 year.  The forms arrived within the 10 days they are suppose to arrive.  I opened the envelope - remember all the craziness last month - and I checked the form numbers and how many of them had been sent - all okay.  I put them under my desk where I keep the forms to wait for this month.  I am so organized about this since I do it every year.       

Last Thursday I decided to fill in the forms while I had some time.  I know what the client’s payroll is and can do so without having gone to her yet this month.  These forms used to be that the form to the employee/other person had to be given to them by the end of January and mailed to IRS by the end of February.  Due to the increasing number of fraudulent tax forms being filed, as of 2 years ago the IRS copies also have to be filed by the end of January.  So I fill in the forms before I go to my client so I can have her sign them and mail them out.  (I used to bring them to her in February and they were signed and mailed then.) 

It took me all 6 copies of the W2 forms I have, and at least 2-3 of the other forms to get a correctly typed form and over Thursday and Friday.  I breathed a sigh of relief and scanning them into my computer to keep a copy of them on same. I scanned in the W3 and W2 forms.  I then scanned in the 1096 form and was about to scan in the 1099 form when I noticed something and got extremely upset.  I had not received 2018 forms - I was sent 2017 forms and none of the forms I had typed were usable.  Not only that, but since one can no longer pick up forms at local IRS offices, I had to order them again - during the Federal government shut down!

We went looking online.  I can buy the forms - they will run me around $60 for all 4 forms as they sold in much larger quantities than even I with my terrible typing would need to make one form of each.  I also would have to make sure that the forms were attached multiple parts that allow one to type all copies at once (W2 forms are 6 part, the 1099 forms are 4 part and the others are 2 part) as if they are not I would have to type each copy of the form separately.  (The forms have extra copies as there are copies  for IRS, state, employer, and the W2 has 3 copies for the employee - the 1099 has one copy, and the other two have a copy to file with IRS and copy for the employer to keep.) 

I can file them directly online with IRS, but I don’t like the idea of putting the client’s and my Social Security number through the Internet, but if nothing else works, that will be what I have to do.

So, I am waiting to see if I receive the forms from IRS before I go to the client - and then start typing them all over again.  If I don’t received them in time, I will have to file them online.  If I do receive them in time - I have to type them all over again!!

I am not sure why we are in a “place” where it seems that everything we do - from something as simple to as buying a Barbie doll to tax forms that I prepare every year to ordering checks has to be redone. 

On the other hand, I did get the second order of the checks I ordered and this order seems to be correct.  I am currently shredding the incorrect ones.  (I held on to them in case they wanted them back.)  To make sure I did not “muck it up” I stored the second, correct set before starting to shred the first set.  I am shredding them a bit at a time to not overwhelm the shredder.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes when we are in a “bad” time it just goes on and on.  I know that at some point - hopefully soon - this will end and I will be able to go back to doing things once.  One just has to do what needs to be done until there is change in karma.

WHAT EATS UP MY TIME THESE DAYS?

Do you have control over your time?  How much of you time is governed by other people who need you or make plans which involve you - and are not the king of people you can say no to?

When my husband worked full time at his job all of my time during the day on weekdays was my own.  Yes, I had to go to work and I went to my embroidery meetings, but I could easily plan what I was doing when back then. 

Husband and I were in what is called a rotational art exhibit - okay, we were each in two of them.  In this type of exhibition (run by two different township park departments) the artist, after having his/her work reviewed and approved, goes to a showcase.  Different venues - town offices, libraries, local businesses... sign up with the program also and come to the showcase.  They select which artist’s works they would like to have in their venue and they and the artist agree on which month (or two month period) the exhibition will be for. There would be months when we had 3 shows at 3 different venues (he had work in 2 different media in the show).  Since he was working full time I was allowed to represent both of us - I also set up and took down the exhibitions.  I could schedule the exhibitions, set them up and then take them down.  When husband quit his job and worked part time from home we would do all of this together and there was always a problem with him as to when we were doing it, why we were doing it (we only sold 3 small pieces over the time he exhibited, my work was not for sale, so I did not sell any).  It amazed me how much easier it was when I did this all alone, then when we did it together.  Due to the fact that one of libraries may be where we got bedbugs, we stopped doing the shows - and it was relief to stop - although before he started coming along, this would not have been true.

When he first quit his job we had an agreement that we would each go our own way during the day - and we did for awhile.  Then gasoline prices went up and up and up and husband pointed out that we were wasting money at the high price of gas for me to drive to the supermarket and him to drive separately to the Home Depot in the same parking lot and we started sort of car pooling for errands like this.  Before I knew it, we were together all day, every day (except the days I went out to work and the days I went to my embroidery meeting). 

Clients of mine, older senior citizens, had to shut down their business due to the economy and gradually I ended up with only one monthly business client. I used to go out to clients at least 8 days a month - some days to multiple clients - and had no problem scheduling them - now the 1 client is a problem to schedule. 

I am not the world’s best house cleaner.  I had a schedule - on Wednesdays I would clean - First Wednesday of the month I would dust, vacuum & wash floors, and clean the toilet upstairs.  Second Wednesday of the month I would do the same downstairs.  Third week I would do the upstairs - except the toilet - again.  Fourth week I would do the same as the second, but would clean the kitchen instead of the bathroom.  On the occasional fifth Wednesday I would do another chore that had not been done and needed doing.  Now - forget it!  It is hard to clean toilets or wash floors when as soon as one is mid cleaning one’s husband appears and says “I have to go in NOW.”  And there is always a reason that the other bathroom is not where he wants to be.  It has gotten so bad that I ended waiting until he fell asleep at night and then cleaned the upstairs bathroom - at 3 in the morning!

This comes up right now as the past 2 weeks I feel like screaming!  Last week on Tuesday he decided it was time to put up the Christmas lights, and then looked at the bushes and the piles of fallen leaves and said “We can’t put up the lights with all these leaves here - there will be a fire.”  Okay, so we are going to suddenly clear up the leaves.  He found online at a home store near us a rack to hold the garbage bags and it was in stock at the store.  We go there  - I really don’t think we need the rack - without even knowing what it was.  The store does not have any, even though the company website says that they do - and, while it is still November at that time, they don’t have it because it is a “fall” item and the main office therefore took all of them back! Oh, and according to them the website saying they have something does not mean anything - good thing husband did not buy it online and go to pick it up at the store.  We lost an hour and a half of limited sunlight (remember we get started late and had already run errands) on that fool’s errand.  We come home and we start clearing the leaves.  Over the years husband has come up with a variety of methods to do this - vacuum them, shred them with a vacuum, and I don’t know what else - my system is a snow shovel  - yes, a snow shovel.  First I quickly rake the leaves out from between the bushes onto the driveway in a line of leaves.  I shovel them into the garbage bag in the garbage pail, stop periodically to tamp them down with the shovel, then when the bag is full (probably overfull) I close the bad with a bag tie, drag the garbage can to by the curb, lay the pail down on it’s side, stand it up again with the open end down, pull the can off the bag and there it is - a bag of leaves where it needs to be for pickup.  I am doing the work due to the pain that is still healing in his left arm and shoulder.  He has to help (you know, like small children have to help).  He wants to hold the rake for me to push the leaves against when shoveling, this is not needed as there is a line of leaves to push against and at the end I use the pail.  Then he decides that too many leaves are falling and puts the rake over the leaves - resulting in almost all of the leaves falling off.  I convince him to go and get more bags and bag ties to keep him busy.  We eventually end up with about a dozen or more bags sitting at the curb - they were picked the next day as Wednesday is yard pickup.  Wednesday we run errands and then go to clear the last of the leaves - these are leaves around the driveway where he is worried that mice will nest - he is shocked that new leaves are where we cleared the day before!  Now, if I was involved in planning this ahead of time - we would not have had errands to run - I would make sure they were otherwise scheduled - and we would have eaten a quick lunch at home to give us enough time, instead of our daily half hour plus leisurely lunch at Wendys.

We had checked the light strands ahead of time, as we had not had a chance to check them when we took them down (I made a reminder in my cell phone for the middle of October about this, as well as about the 2 strands that went out while out last year and had purchased replacement lights.  We had to wait after clearing the leaves for a day that was not below freezing and it was not raining.  Over the weekend we put out the lights.  I am, again, doing the work.  We did a little bit different setup as he had some ideas, All was going well.  We have a holly tree and the lights have to be (literally) thrown onto the upper part of it as neither of us likes to go on a ladder.  I was trying to figure out how to put the higher lights on it - figuring a ladder will be needed - and he grabs the strand and throws it - and then is reminded of his shoulder and arm - and was back in pain like a few weeks ago!  (Yes, the lights are up, look nice - one of his ideas I thought was terrible works very well.)

We spent yesterday evening taking apart his computer as it had stopped working - believe it or not it as the battery that keeps the time and such going as this is his desktop computer.  So the time I would have spent washing dishes - I was lifting his computer (because even before he threw the light strand he should not have lifted it) as well as clearing off my desk for him to work on.  I did some of my magic - “It needs a CR2032 battery, I guess we will have to buy one.”  I go to our bag of button batteries (travels with us on trips) and find one, still sealed in the package.  Then I did the dishes after we changed the battery, put the computer back on his side of the office on the floor and he had restarted the computer.

I have to take 20 hours of classes to do tax returns next year - I took 2 hours of them the other evening and I should have much more of them done by now - only 26 days to go - 6 days of which we will be involved in reenacting, two days of which will be Christmas Eve and Day, that leaves 18 days left!  And Christmas decorations, shopping for one of his nieces (other is  finished) and regular housework is left - oh, and he is still trying to fit in a one day trip to Lancaster, PA.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is hard to make our time our own to be able to schedule what work needs to be done, but we have to do it.  This time of year, especially, we have to make time for what we need to do as well as what we have to do. 

THANKSGIVING IS HERE AGAIN

For those of you in the U.S., Thanksgiving is tomorrow, at least as I write this (by the time you read this, it is probably today or yesterday for you).  Rather than retell the story of organizing for Thanksgiving past, I will post links to my prior Thanksgiving posts at the end of this post.

This year is rather worse than even most recent years.  Until this past Monday we were still debating - cook dinner or go to an Asian buffet (they do put out a turkey for carving - and each person carves their own serving). 
On Monday we bought our turkey.  It is from the same specialty supermarket that we bought from last year and the year before.  Due to our letter about our problem last year  with the turkey not being fully cooked (the breast was blood raw) after following their directions, they sent us a gift card for about 3 times the price of the turkey.  So this year’s turkey (and next year’s and part of the year after’s turkey) was free.  Due to the warnings this year about problems with turkeys and salmonella, I was concerned about putting the turkey - even though it is still in its packaging - on the right hand top shelf of our refrigerator, the only one tall enough to hold the turkey - even though it is lying down.  So I was going to put it on one of my platters - but then realized that they are pottery and might absorb any leaks and any salmonella in the leaks.  I thought and thought where I might have a large enough glass plate to hold it.  So it is sitting on a lovely large dessert serving plate that we received as a wedding gift.  (Yes, we have used it to serve dessert over the decades.)  That left 2 small corners at the front of the shelf to put anything on it.  Husband, a few weeks ago, had decided that the caffeinated diet soda he has at lunch made his shoulder/arm feel better.  So we have a started bottle of decaf soda and one of caffeinated soda in the fridge.  I put the decaf one on the right corner of the shelf.  I then went to put the caffeinated one on the left corner of the shelf - I had forgotten that one of the reasons I hate this fridge (even before we bought it, but it was the closest to what I wanted that we could find in the emergency situation of our old one - around 30 years old - dying) is that the light bulb is in the front of it - in the middle of the fridge and one cannot put anything tall there - so the soda bottle could not go there.  I managed to balance it - 3/4 of it on the center of the shelf and the front end sticking off.  I warned husband - so he would be careful not to knock it off the shelf  - and made him repeat to me what I said - so he cannot say I did not tell him.  Of course right after this, he stopped drinking soda and switched to ice tea, so I have been drinking the decaf soda to get rid of the extra bottle.  It is down enough that the bottle can lay on a lower shelf as there is so little soda left, it does not reach the neck of the bottle while it is lying down.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went out shopping for the other things we need for the dinner.  Of course the stores (we went to 2 different supermarkets and a Walmart) were jammed and out of things.  I am annoyed that since we waited this long items - milk, stuffing, eggs and such - that I would normally buy in Walmart as they are cheaper there, had to bought at the supermarket and we probably blew at least $5 on the difference.  (I think I have said that I am cheap.)  We had to go out again today for items we did not find yesterday - another Walmart and a different supermarket.  I never did get the mixed (green) beans I wanted.  Somehow everything we picked is what he wanted, the mixed beans were what I wanted - plain green beans it is. 

I have not cleared out the dining room yet.  Nor have I cleared off the kitchen counters to have room to work.  I guess whatever is in the way in the dining room will be pushed to far end - hey, it’s only us, I would like it nicer, but between dealing with his shoulder and the RV winterizing mess (which will be continued next week) I am soooo behind in getting ready.  In reading my prior Thanksgiving posts (I found I already repeated myself at least once, and not repeating myself was why I read them) I was reminded that I have to go to the basement, move all the boxes of Christmas decorations in front of the very small closet that has our gas meter, a blanket cut in half for reenactments (in sealed plastic bags and rarely used kitchen stuff and get the platter for carving out and wash it.

I don’t know if you go shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, we do not.  Never found anything worth getting.  I have to wonder if people buy new TVs every year as that always seems to be the big draw.  Then again, as I have mentioned, we do very little gift shopping, as well as little shopping for us.  For us if we are shopping something needs replacing or there is something very new (and not expensive) that husband has decided he needs.

Remember that what you buy has to be paid for and you don’t want to be in debt forever for something that is gone in a year or two or less.  Also - everything you buy has to be stored - either by you or the person you give it to - think about that when buying items for yourself or as a gift. For example husband decided last week to buy a chair at Ikea. It is a small kitchen table chair and it has a low back and is smaller than our regular chairs.  He had noticed the chairs at Wendys where we have lunch are more comfortable for his shoulder and arm - after jokes about maybe since we go there so office we can borrow/rent a chair from them, he decided to look in Ikea after dinner last week.  Now, we are the type of people who can shop for a package of hair pins for a week or two, but he sat in several chairs and then announced one was perfect (and “only $39") and we bought it and assembled it that night and he loves it. This left me with the chair he used before (and hopefully will again).  It is now in the dining room against the wall (we keep furniture against the wall in the colonial “room at rest” manner) - out of the way until we need it again and looks decorative.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Those of you in the U.S. - have a nice Thanksgiving. 

All of you - think before you shop during the holidays (and in general) before overspending or buying unneeded items which will quickly be unwanted - by yourself or as gifts.  One of the movie theater chains we used to go to had a trailer to sell its gift cards for holiday gifts.  It has people receiving gifts that were not appropriate and of course those who received their gift cards were happy.  I will never forget one sequence - a man receives a sweater as a gift.  The sweater is huge - his arms are lost in the sleeves and the sweater covers him to below his knees and he is so sad and upset and shaking his head.  You don’t want to be the person who gives a gift like that!  (And no, I am not pushing movie gift cards.)

Prior Thanksgiving posts -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2015/11/thanksgiving-and-other-holidays.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/11/
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/11/semi-unorganized-thanksgiving.html

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year!

Huh? It’s September? 

I am again reminding everyone that one does not have to wait for January 1 to start a new year, turn a new page, start organizing.  Every day is the start of a new year.

When I was a child my year started in September.  School started then - a new school year.  The new TV shows came on for the year (later this became the start of the fall season) - a new TV year.  And in either September or October, being Jewish, it was the religious new year also - the anniversary of the beginning of the world we were told..  The January 1 new year always seemed lacking in reason to me - what was starting anew - just the newly printed calendars.

It is a bit arbitrary.  The new year used to start on March 25 - talk about crazy, Could you imagine March 24, 2018 being followed by March 25, 2019?  This change of year changed at various dates in various places based on the religion practiced in the area starting in 1582.  In the British countries, including their colonies here in America, the change to January 1 as the start of the new year was made in 1750.  (And this led to all sorts of problems as there was also an adjustment to the calendar of 11 days at the time to correct errors in the prior adjustments by leap year days. If you were born on April 10, 1720 O.S. (old style), you would change your birthday to April 21, 1720 for example.)   

The Lunar New Year is in February.  The Muslim New Year occurs at a different time each year in the common (western) calendar although it falls on the same day of the Muslim calendar.  It will vary over the entire year over time.  (The common calendar is a solar calendar- it is based on the travel of the earth around the sun and how long it takes.  The use of the different number of days in various months and leap year day keep the common calendar set more or less fixed against the seasons of the year.  While there are a number of lunar calendars ( based on the length of the months at about 29 days in the time it takes the moon to travel around the earth), some of them will insert a leap year adjustment of some sort - in the Jewish calendar it is an extra month added a number of times over a cycle of years - the Muslim calendar does not add an extra month to adjust for the solar year and so its holidays move through the year over a period of years as there is an 11 day difference in the length of the year.)

Okay, now we are getting religion classes and history lessons.  Back then people had less stuff to deal with and could keep it better organized.  What is going on?

What I am saying (and I have posted similar in the past) is that the day we consider to be the golden time to start organizing (or doing something else) is a fairly arbitrary day.  If today is September 5 - it will be a year until the next September 5, so it is also the start of a new year.

Make sense (I hope)?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Since every day is the start of a new year, do not put off starting or doing something until January 1.  Start NOW!  Okay, maybe today is too soon, pick a day soon and start THEN!  No more procrastination.  No more New Year's resolutions left uncompleted.  Pick one thing, just one thing and do it.  Then do something else - one thing at time adds up.

ARE WE REALLY SO DIFFERENT THAN EVERYONE ELSE?

I am sure that all of you read books about organizing.  I have read lots of them over the years (decades?).  One of the reasons I started this blog is that circumstances and problems in the books seem so remote from our situation and I am guessing that others feel this way also.

For the past couple of decades husband and I go to a chain book store (which one we go to has changed several times due to store openings and closing) on Friday nights after dinner for someplace to go. I tended to wander around while he looked at what he wanted to look at.  I found the section of cartoon books and started reading them - I read quickly and would read while we were there, mark the page where I left off in my small, pocket notebook and pick up again the following week.  Then I was wandering around in the book store one night and found a book on a subject I did not know existed - organizing!  I started reading that book - one thing it did was tell me that there were people whose homes were much worse than mine. I finished it after a couple of weeks and found another - and another, etc.  Every now and then I would have read all the books on organizing and decluttering in whichever book store we were in and I would have to wait until new books were written and arrived. I did this year after year after year.  I found that while that while I did not necessarily get a lot of actual help from the books - every now then and idea worked or helped me figure out what would work - it did give me the impetus to keep working on clearing up our house.

Then something else caught my attention.  Remember we are reenactors (or living historians which is the classier name).  I found “BBC History” magazine.  I loved it and decided to subscribe.  The US price was $75 and there was no electronic version available in the US.  (Yes, I liked it that much.  I read nothing in the electronic version, but to get a subscription to this I was willing to.)  So instead of reading books on organizing I would instead read the magazine when we at the book store.  After several years of doing this, a $45 US subscription was offered this past fall and I can now read the magazine - slowly and savoring every article not rushing through reading what was of the most interest and hoping I made it to the articles of lesser interest as I had to do before at home.  (And yes, I did repurpose one of the plastic magazine holders which was leftover when I convinced husband to get rid of the collected issues of a magazine we no longer subscribe to - I am scanning in the articles he is interested in, into the computer for this magazine, but we ended up with a couple of empty magazine holders.)

Also during this period the book store we go to cut their hours back so Friday nights they close an hour earlier than before, so we don’t always get there on Fridays any longer - with the crazy weather we have had, we have not gotten there much at all this year so far.  I suggested to husband that we go there once a week in the afternoon for something to do and we did so this past weekend. 

I checked the list in my mobile phone and found which books I was in the midst of reading when I switched to reading the BBC magazine and found that one of the books was still on the shelf and I settled into a chair to continue reading from where I left off.

Now I know that our life is different as we have no children and are together and home almost the time.  Also we each have a small professional practice which is run from home (which takes much less space since I scanned all of client’s tax returns and papers other than the most recent year into the computer and he has few files) as well as small craft business we also run from home (and none of these make money).  But when I started reading this book I was reminded of how the authors tend to think that everyone’s life is the same - or very similar - in what they tell one to do.

Have you found your life to be the same as the lives being organized in books about same? 

In the past I attributed the fact that we have no children and much of our “stuff” is work related to what made the books seem lacking in universality to me. 

Everyone has sooooo much clothing.  Get rid of the excess!  Get rid of clothes you have not worn in a year (umm, warm winter, no snow - get rid of my coat and boots that I will need next year? no party this year - dump the party dress I will need again sometime?)!  Store your sports equipment like this.  Food shop like this. Make separate areas in your kitchen for each type of cooking!  Set up your children’s stuff like this!  Have a lovely neat walk in area around your door with a mirror and table (room for neither in our entry)!  Keep track of all those things you have to do - parties, work events, children’s events like this (if we have one event a year it is a lot)!            
                       
I suddenly had an epiphany reading this book as to why what the professional organizers write is so unrelated to reality as husband and I live it - they are dealing with the homes of people rich enough to pay them to come in and organize it for them!!  They are not dealing with the homes of people who could never think of paying them as they need their money to pay for the food and house and other items they need. 

What made me suddenly realize this?

The author of the book I am currently reading states that one should not buy cheap clothing as it does not last even a year.  Surprises me.  I have tee shirts that I bought for $8  more than 20 years ago - some have holes or stains and have been made into nightwear, but the others are going strong in my wardrobe.  She seems to feel that if that if one “only” spends $100 a piece of clothing it is junk.  Do any of you feel this way or spend that much on a piece of clothing? We don’t, well I guess I did, my wedding gown (with hat) was $275 custom made for me - and I thought it a waste of money at the time, but had to make my mother in law to be, happyish. (I wanted to elope.)

Along the same lines as clothing, the author in talking about finding the furniture and storage that one needs in their home says to buy “good quality furniture” and that the sort of furniture Ikea sells will not last at all - not even a year.  About half of our furniture is knock down (the sort of furniture, like Ikea’s, that one buys flat and assembles themselves), especially in the office and our studio, as well as storage pieces.  I know that some of the “kd” furniture is better quality than others and would rate Ikea’s pretty good.  When husband quit his job and we switched to trying support ourselves with our craft business and my tiny accounting practice he constantly complained that his computer desk was not enough space.  After a lot of convincing him to change - we bought our first purchases at Ikea - a small computer stand desk and a long table to put next to him (they make and L shape) so he could deal with orders and such easily. (Desk was easy to assemble - table involved much screaming and arguing as more complicated.)  11 years on they are still in great condition.  But along with my idea that the professionals are used to working with people able to afford their services, the idea that something reasonably priced - or what I would think is reasonably priced and she would consider cheap,  would work well, would not occur to her. 

So, I now know why the information in the books seems to not be realistic to me.  It is based on a life style and budget beyond ours.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
                       
If you read a book or article about organizing, take into account that the people the professional organizers work with and their problems are probably those of wealthier people.  Use the information to help you decide what will work for you, but if it makes no sense for you - remember that it may not be aimed at someone like you (or me).  We all have common sense - it is in us somewhere, think about what makes sense to YOU in how to do something.

I know even within our house, what works for me does not work for husband.  I like a small work space in our office - he likes a large space to spread out (as per the work table he needed from Ikea).  I like to have papers that I am likely to need oftenish in folders in a stack of folder holder trays next to me - he likes all the papers laid out so he can see all of them all the time.  It took me decades to convince him to let me sort his shirts by color, now he likes them that way.

What works for you that is not something that works for others?  I would love it if some of you would reply to the blog with your thoughts - I know you are out there.


I wish you a Happy Easter or a Happy Passover if either applies to you.

PLANNING A TRIP WHEN ONE DOES NOT WHEN ONE WILL GO OR FOR HOW LONG

First, if any readers are in the area hit by Hurricane Harvey - I am so sorry for you and the others hit by the storm. I live in the area hit by Hurricane Sandy - just out of the heavily damaged areas, but my mom was in the area where she had extensive water damage to our family home - and know how bad that was - and you are in a much worse situation.  I hope that all are safe and well.  It will take a long time, but life more normal will return.

In the old days when we went to hotels when we traveled - like normal people - we would take several short weekend trips during the year to the Lancaster, PA area and a longer vacation during which we went to Washington, DC for a weekend, then Charlottesville, VA, then someplace different each year (although the place might repeat every few years) and then to the various historic areas near Williamsburgh, VA, two days in Lancaster and then home.  It was so much the same that we would take out the prior year’s schedule and change the date - change the few days that varied and book the same hotels.  We had it worked out that we stayed in each area when the hotel price was the cheapest - DC on the weekend, Lancaster midweek, etc. 

Since the bedbugs and the switch to our tiny RV this has changed.  We go away for shorter times, fewer times during the year.  Our trip is also much more weather based - why go to some place outside if it will rain and we will not be able to go.  We have also changed what used to be weekend trips to Lancaster to midweek trips - it is easier to get last minute reservations at campgrounds and we avoid weekend tourists plus on Sundays most activities and restaurants are closed, so when we went there Friday to Monday - one day there was little to do.

So this year we have only traveled for multiple days once - just before July 4th weekend.  The weather has been wrong or something has been happening to cause us not to go away.  We have taken a couple of one day trips as a result of this.  So we were all ready for a nice week to 10 day trip like we used to take (although back then generally 2 and a half weeks). 

We were going back to the Williamsburg, VA area, a place that as lovers of our country’s early history find so many places to go and learn something new each time.  Then the trouble in Charlottesville occurred and we decided that we were uncomfortable traveling down there as we were concerned about similar problems arising there among the American Revolutionary and Civil War battle fields and historic sites. 

So we were looking elsewhere - meaning Pennsylvania - for a longer trip.  Two separate people - in totally unrelated circumstances - told us to go to a textile museum in PA. I took this as a sign that we were intended to go there this summer.  We started planning a 5 day trip which would involve our normal Lancaster places plus this museum and a couple of other places. 

We were to leave this past Monday and stay through Saturday. Then we found out about our dentist retiring and I have to get my new upper dental plate done before he does.  I got a telephone call last Friday that they needed an extra appointment  - Tuesday (yesterday).  So the trip was postponed and shortened to today (Wednesday through Friday).  The museum is out.

Have you ever tried to make arrangements for and around a trip when you don’t know when the trip will be? Oh boy - that takes odd organizing!  

So last Thursday I paid and mailed out last Friday all of the bills due until next Monday and transferred money into our checking account for cash for the trip and if any additional bills popped up.                                             

I normally would email out the monthly newsletter of my embroidery chapter tonight.  I sent it out a day early so I would not have to do it while away - easier to do it from my desktop computer.

I have a check list that I print out each time we go on a trip.  It lists all the things we need to do for the trip by category.  I cross out anything that does not apply to a trip and then cross out each thing as I do it.  Whatever needs to be done at the last minute is circled and also listed on the side of the paper and crossed off when done. 

I normally will do laundry the night of two days before we go on a trip - so the next day (the day before we leave) we can put the clothes and  we need in the RV for the trip.  I also normally pack snacks that we bring and assorted other needed items.  If the bed in the RV is not made up - I make it up.  In this case since we had not been away a full week and the next planned trip had been for maybe 3 days, I left the bed made up and covered it over. 

I was not really able to do any of the normal things to get ready. In the pouring rain yesterday we did fill the water tanks.  If stuck we can fill them at the RV park, but it is easier to fill them at home.  I did the laundry last night - filled the laundry bag we use to bring our clothes to the RV (who needs luggage - laundry bag in, put clothes on hanging shelves in “closet”.  Use laundry bag for dirty laundry and carry it back into the house in same. 

Last night I used a table in the dining room to line up what needed to go out today.  Laundry bag of clothes.  Cloth tote bag with stuff that goes in the “car” part of the RV - spare eyeglasses, coupons etc.  Cloth tote bag with general items to go into the RV - spare paper cups, paper towels, etc.  Two cloth tote bags with food related stuff.  One, which is the only one with a blue handle, had the stuff for the refrigerator.  Soda, juice (in case of a Diabetes low), home bottled water (the water gets rather warm sitting in the tanks on a hot day and such.  The last tote bag had the non-refrigerator snacks. Although, since the fridge bag is the heaviest (by far), I did put the 2 liter bottle of soda in the other food bag.  All of the snacks which are not in the fridge travel in plastic boxes which seal close to prevent animals smelling the food and getting in to visit.  Laptops/tablet were charged overnight and on the kitchen table to go.  Spare shoes were in plastic shopping bags to go out.  EZPass for tolls was put on the windshield. Bag of last minute stuff to Ready to go!

The weather still seemed to be holding as nice, so this morning I called the RV park and was able to get a reservation for 2 nights - tonight and tomorrow night - for the space next to the one we usually get - so now we know about another spot level enough for us to use. 

So we took about 4 trips of stuff out to the RV this morning - I had figured out where to store the various packed bags so that other than the fridge stuff, it did not have to be unpacked until we were in the RV tonight.  I have told husband that we could do this and now we have. 

So we are finally on a short trip again this summer.  So far, so good.


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Being able to plan for something that is fluid takes a bit more work, but it can be done.  If you do something on a regular or semi-regular basis - make up a checklist and keep it in your computer and print it out each time - and use it.  It makes rushing through getting ready so much easier.

   




               

MAKING CHANGES TO GET MYSELF GOING AGAIN

I admit it.  Just because something is written in my task list does not mean it gets done.  Sound familiar?  I have my house cleaning scheduled for Wednesday.  In the old days before husband was home all the time and my schedule went topsy turvy this worked.  On days without appointments I would wake up around 9:30 am normally or 10:00 am on a lazy day.  I would work in my home office most mornings until around 1:30 or 2:00 pm and then I would go out for the days errands.  Most days this would be a quick run to the post office - send out any mail and pick up mail at our post office box.  Then lunch at home (except Fridays - my day out alone) and then back to work in the office.  On Wednesdays however, I would do my housework.  When during the day I did it, depended on which Wednesday it was.  I also start the laundry Wednesday night - right now while I am writing to you the second wash load is in and the first dry load.

I have different chores to do on different Wednesdays.  On the first Wednesday of the month I have my embroidery chapter meeting in the morning, so I have a lot of normal stuff to catch up on during the day of daily things, so I keep it light.  I am suppose to dust upstairs and clean the floors.  We have only three rooms with carpeting - our office, the Teddy Bear’s room (aka the just about never used guest room), and our craft studio.  The rest of the house is easy cleaning - either 1950's hardwood floors or some sort of vinyl flooring.  I used to do this in the afternoon after I came home from my meeting and while husband was at work.  It includes dusting the computers and related in the home office.  Well, now when I get in there husband is working at his computer.  He does not find it funny when I try to clean around him.  So this is no longer such an easy thing to do.

On the second Wednesday of the month I am suppose to clean the floors and dust downstairs as well as clean the downstairs tiny bathroom.  I used to do this when I returned from the post office - long before he was home.  If he is working at his computer this is not too bad to deal with in terms of dealing with him about it as he is not near where I am working.  If he is weaving or otherwise working downstairs - I have to clean around him - and invariably he will need the bathroom immediately after I have cleaned it and it is still drying.  Downstairs are not the hardest  floors to clean - they are basically “swiffered” and the kitchen and bathroom floors washed.  BUT the dining room often has items in transit which makes it hard to clean around them and the living room has some of the furniture out of place (the coffee table is wedged between two chairs to clear the middle of the room for example) and has husband’s warp table and loom in the middle of the room which also makes it hard to get around and clean. 

On the third Wednesday of the month I am suppose to again dust and clean the floors upstairs, as well as cleaning the bathroom upstairs - only slightly larger than the downstairs tiny one.  This used to be a “do in the morning” job, but no longer.  Now, again, I have to work around husband in the office - and like downstairs - if I clean the bathroom, he will immediately show up and need to use it.

On the fourth Wednesday of the month I again do downstairs - dusting and floors and clean the kitchen - same problems as the second Wednesday.

If there is a fifth Wednesday I would find some special project that needed doing.

Well, now the days are later days then before.  In addition I have a new project on Wednesday nights when I should be getting the cleaning done - writing my post for all of you.  Now, I am suppose to do this on Tuesday night, but never get to it. 

SO, I have decided that as of September I will move my cleaning to Tuesday nights.  I will see how this goes in terms of actually cleaning.  It won’t help with husband, but it might work on Tuesday to get me up and doing it. 

Late this afternoon I found my desk clear of things to do and an hour before I had to go make dinner.  Too late to make a phone call to our local real estate tax assessor’s office - which I have been calling for a couple of weeks and actually get a message telling me that no one is available to take my call - call back another time.  One more try and I call my county legislator.  What to do? 

Ah, now that the Teddy Bear Christmas village was packed away and the boxes moved to the dining room (see what I mean about it being a holding area) to go to the basement, and what needed to be stored in the trunk the village sits on, I could put away the line of bears and Cabbage Patch Kids waiting to see Santa.  First I had to take the bears sitting on the bed in the Teddy Bear’s room and put them on the trunk in the hall - where they are suppose to be.  Then the crew that goes on the bed went there.  Wow, one could actually walk into the room again.  I then started poking around to see what else I could deal with.  I pulled out the empty boxes that were floating around in there and put them in the hall - husband is going to store assorted papers he has collected on movies in the boxes, which will free up the shelves they were on for books - which we need space for.  But that is his to do.  I then went through some bags and boxes in the Teddy’s room to see what I could get rid of - I found in the closet there when I cleaned it out for husband to use for storage an entire carton of Teddy Bear items packed away when the house was treated for bed bugs - in 2009 - which have never been put back in place.  Not enough time to go through it , but a quick look showed I did still want most of what was in it.  Perhaps I will get a matching box to use for my storage in that closet.    Well, now at least I can get in and out of the room and I can get to the bear figurines I put out in the living room by month again - right now March is still out!

Why am I suddenly trying to get things done and get back on schedule?  I think it is the dish drying rack.  Since the dishwasher broke, I would wash the dishes and put them in same to dry.  It was large.  It was out of sight.  I would then take out what I needed each time we were eating, add whatever else I needed that was not in the dishwasher and put that all in to dry.  So basically nothing was put away unless it became too overcrowded in the dishwasher or it was a holiday and I knew I would need extra space. Now after each meal the dishes (and of course etc. is included in dishes) are washed and piled in the rack.  When next we eat I take out what we need as I go along.  Then before I wash again - everything else is put away.  Not easy - some items had no place to go, such as spare pudding size cups which I use for storage of extra half can of soup, extra frozen tomato sauce, etc. - but I have found homes for them.  Generally the glass we each use for the day end up never being stored away as it is used meal to meal and sometimes between.   I am not sure that this putting away of the dishes has not gotten me motivated to clean, declutter, and organize more again.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes a small change can inspire you to do more.  Go with it.  I use anything I can to help me get the inspiration to make the house cleaner and more organized.

TO TRAVEL OR NOT TO TRAVEL - THAT IS THE QUESTION?

I have mentioned that we have a very small RV.  We had planned to go away last week from Tuesday through Friday for Memorial Day.  Hotels are had enough to get a holiday reservation; RV parks basically one has to book a year in advance - some more than that.  Since people tend to return to the same parks year to year, one has to find a space that the people who have been going there no longer want.  So going away Memorial Day weekend is next to impossible with the RV.  But if one goes during the week before or after and is not there over the weekend, it is much easier.  There is also the problem that unlike many hotel reservations which may be canceled until the last minute - or almost the last minute - and one gets a refund, RV parks have much stricter cancellation rules.  We try not to make reservations until we know we are going. 

Last week we went from day to day planning to go - but it was always going to rain while we planned to be away.  Understand, we are not “made of sugar”, we do not melt in rain, but when is paying for a trip and the events which one is planning to go to are all outside - such as farmer’s markets, where large numbers of the outside vendors don’t come if it rains or leave very early - it is a waste of money to go.  (This is the same problem we had earlier in the year when trying to drive down to Pennsylvania for a day and the same farmer’s markets.)

So we did not go.  We figured we go this week.  But again, rain, rain, rain.  We finally pushed it back to going away tomorrow and coming back Friday (the next day).  Now it is to rain on, yes, Friday.  The market will be light on vendors. 

In addition to husband wanting to go away and the fact that we are paying a large loan monthly on this RV which we are having a problem using, the darn thing has barely been driven since last October.  Oh sure, it has gone up the block to the service station and once for gas, but mostly it has sat on its wheels with its car battery not getting charged - RV batteries are plugged in twice monthly to keep them charged - not a good thing for an engine.  So it really needs a trip also.

So, we decided to drive it up to Connecticut for a day - go to a large store there we like to stop at and then on to a casino for dinner (no really, we go, we eat dinner, walk around and come home - no gambling).  We know that the store and the casino have parking for the RV - we have picked this casino over another as the other has the RV parking far away and we would need to depend on a shuttle back and forth. 

We then had to find a routing to the store.  It is apparently too new, despite being over 5 years old, for many GPS programs.  We found this out on our last trip when the GPS we used got us lost in a less than desirable looking area as it did not know where the store is.  In addition in Connecticut, as in New York, it can not go on “parkways” and the GPS devices route using a parkway there.  We finally got the routing straightened out.  Yippee!

Immediately after getting the routing straightened out, the weather comes on during the news - not only will it rain there, but there will tornadoes.  Tornadoes?  This is not a tornado area!  So we still do not know if we are going or not - tomorrow.

Now, how does this relate to organizing?  Ever try to organize to go on a trip?  Not so easy, huh? Now imagine if the trip was on - off - on - off - date changed - off - on - off - date changed again - location changed...
               
I did the clothing laundry yesterday so we could pack today.  Well, at least it is done.  We will throw a change of clothes in the RV just in case.

Today I went out and finally did some prep work on the RV.  I cleaned the toilet - when we dewinterized it, the toilet was full of mold - and we cannot use any normal cleaner in it as it cannot have bleach or Lysol used on it.  I had to use vinegar to sanitize it and dish soap to clean it.

I also brought out a bag of assorted items to be returned to the RV - small items.  Also the bedding and towels - we brought them in when it went for the state inspection.  I took inventory of supplies - plenty of toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues.  Also hand soap, dish soap, and mouthwash.  I added a small spray bottle o vinegar in case we have a mold problem again.  I noted what we need to replace - at this point if we go we will have to bring items we are using at home - like toothpaste - until we buy replacements for what we took out last fall. 

Normally I would make up the bed before a trip.  I was going to even though we don’t plan on sleeping, but I had other things to do and the bed is too time consuming to deal with.  Everything is there if I need to make it up.  http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/06/making-up-bed-in-very-small-space-our-rv.html

I just packed some snacks - much less than usual - crackers for the front of the car in case either or both of us has low blood glucose.  A small plastic box with 2 packages of cereal and some diet brownies.  I also pulled out our Saturday pills and put them into a small travel box.  Why Saturday?  If we come home as we plan to, we want our Friday pills in their proper places and would have a day to put back Saturday whether we stay away an extra day or come home.

It is not at all easy to stay organized when one is not sure if one will be going away or for how long, especially when one has to deal with home - the house one lives in - and travel home - the RV one will be traveling in.  Plus I had to get out the monthly newsletter for my embroidery chapter - I had planned to bring the info if we were away this week and send it out from wherever we were.  It did go out on time. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK - Don’t over think things. (We do.)  Things will always go wrong.  Sometimes one can plan and plan to no avail. 

Sometimes one even has to stay with the broken cell phone that doesn’t get Internet on the cell service as all of the Androids are physically too big for my pockets and my hands. 


       

HOLIDAYS AND TAXES - UNRELATED SUBJECTS

Hello again. 

We did not go away for my husband’s birthday due to, yes, rain again.  There is no point in going to outdoor market when a good chunk of the outdoor vendors will not be, especially if one is going to travel 3+ hours each way and pay over $20 in tolls to go there.         

I have been busy finishing up client’s tax returns and have only one left to do and I am waiting for the information to do it.  So I started on our personal and business returns.  Money goes back and forth between us and the business - something is on our credit card for the business or vice versa, so the first thing I have to do is make sure what the business owes us is the same amount on the business’s books and on our books.  Sometimes I post something on one set of books and forget to post it on the other. That took 2 days to work out - and the end of 2015 I got it to match, so the differences were all last year - finally both the business and our books agree. 

Next week is holiday time - Monday night is the start of Passover and next Friday is Good Friday, followed, of course, by Easter Sunday.  If you are having people in for the holidays - do you have your house ready?  Now is the time to start.  Try to do better than throwing everything in that extra room with door that stays closed when people are over.  - You thought I didn’t know about that?  I started doing this when I was a kid - cleaning my room meant throwing everything in the bottom of the closet - this would result in my finding the leftover Halloween candy sometime the following August - luckily I never had bugs or other little visitors as a result of that.  Try to actually toss out some items - or take them for donation.  (I took 5 suitcases today for donation - one hard side rolling bag and the rest were soft bags that I managed to fit into the rolling bag. - a little more room in a closet for other stuff.)  Plan out your menu if you doing the cooking or assign who will bring which dish if you have an arrangement where everyone brings part of the dinner.  I keep my recipes for the holidays on the computer.  They used to be in a cooking program (technically they still are, but it needs a parallel printer to print them out and that means running cables...) I printed them out and scanned them (remember I posted last October about how great and important it is to have a scanner and a printer - this is one example) into the computer.  Now I can print them out when needed.  I print the recipes I will use and throw them out as they are finished with - easy to see what still needs to be done. Even if you not are not going to be responsible for the hosting or cooking - make sure that everyone’s clothes will be ready for them to wear for the holidays. 


THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Income taxes (here in the U.S.) are due April 18, a week from this coming Tuesday.  There is still time to get them finished.  If you find that you will not have them done - whether because you are too busy to do them, can’t find info, or did not get info from someone needed to prepare them, you can file for an extension of time to FILE.  It is not an extension of time to pay - so make sure you have paid in enough for your taxes - from withholding or by filing estimated taxes - to be at least as close as possible.  If your income is the same as last year as far as you know -then make sure you have paid in at least the same in taxes as your taxes were last year - 110% of last year’s if you have a high income. 

There is a form from IRS to file to get the extension - it is automatic and you will have until October 15, 2017 to file.  Depending on your state you might also have to file a form for an automatic extension or it might just be automatic. Again, this is an extension of time to FILE the return, not to pay the taxes. 

If you do get an extension try to prepare and file your returns as soon as possible so if you do owe  additional taxes you will pay as little in possible in any penalties and interest for paying late - and if you are getting a refund, don’t you want the money as soon as possible?

If you have not filed your taxes in the past - get them filed also.  The April 18 date may be important for you too.  If a return is filed more than 3 years late you will lose any refund due you and if you owe money on the returns you are adding penalties and interest to what you owe - every month and if you have not filed a return - then IRS (and the state’s) 3 years to go after you for taxes owed does not start to run and they can come after you until you file a return (then they have 3 years) or forever. 

If you get a large refund you might want to change the amount withheld for taxes or pay less in estimates - a refund may be exciting, but IRS and your state is using your money.  If you can pay less in advance without underpaying the taxes that is money in your pocket (or even better your bank account) during the year on which you can make (the current tiny rate of) interest or you can pay down a bill and pay less interest.                                                     
If you owe money - file your returns even if you cannot pay the amount due.  Pay as much as you can and attach a letter explaining.  Depending on how much you owe, a payment plan from IRS (state) maybe easier than you think to get - but you are paying interest (and will pay penalties for underpaying your taxes) until the amount due is paid off.

Another reason for paying your taxes is that there is a scam in which someone calls you and rather threateningly tells you that they are from the IRS (state) and you owe taxes - which won’t worry you if you know you don’t owe any taxes.  In case you haven’t heard this - IRS (state) will not call you for payment of taxes without having mailed something to you first.  Don’t fall for this scam.  (Or similar ones claiming that if you do not pay immediately with a gift card your utilities will be shut off.)  One thing to remember is that IRS, states, utilities will never tell you to buy gift cards to pay off an amount owed - especially not Apple gift cards. They will not want you to wire money to them.  (There are postal laws that can be used against fraudsters, so they want they want the money otherwise sent to them - by wire, UPS, FedEx, etc.- to avoid the postal laws.) They will want payments by check.  (They may also take credit cards and charge you a fee for using same.)  Also if anyone ever calls claiming to be from the government or a utility and threatens you for payment.  If you are unsure, ask if you can call them back - a refusal to allow you to do so is another indication that they are not legitimate.  Call the government agency or the utility directly and ask them if this was a legitimate call.  If you have a tax preparer - you should be able to call them for help.  But again - if one is not delinquent, then one knows that one does not owe the money. Personally I do not talk to anyone who calls.  We have our answering machine on all the time and we screen our calls (originally as we did not want to have to tell all the people who thought we were a pizza place, a doctor, or an eyeglass store that they were wrong, but now it is so we don’t talk to any of these con men).  IRS has a link on the first page of their site to information about current scams.

I do have to give you a bit of disclaimer.  I am not a CPA, just a garden variety of accountant and tax preparer.  The information I have given (other than the fraud warnings) may or may not apply to you.  It is always a good idea to use a legitimate tax preparer (IRS has a directory of tax preparers who meet certain education standards and have a good history of no problems with returns on their website). You can also find free help depending on your return and circumstances through various programs - check at your local library for these programs.   IRS’s website is irs.gov   

And don’t forget - it is never too early to start preparing for next year’s returns.