STILL WORKING ON STORING CHRISTMAS STUFF AWAY - BUT ALMOST THERE AND WOULD BE IF NOT FOR A RUBIK'S CUBE

 My goodness – where did January and February go?!!!

I finished a partnership tax return which is due by March 15. I still have to get back the power of attorney form from client – signed – so I can prepare her business's state exemption form. And – I have to prepare sales tax returns for all 3 businesses by March 20!

I am actually almost finished actually storing away the inside Christmas decorations. I had 2 large filled plastic boxes of inside decorations (as opposed to the tree decorations which were already put away). Being lazy I hate to make down the stairs and up again trips so they were sitting in the dining room. As I go down to change down to change laundry loads I have taken the two boxes down – last one just went down. Also took down the last couple of small fabric decorations which had been missed when the box they are stored in was filled. I do have a box left with a glass domed beaded tree (which I had made some years ago) in it and a smallish plastic Santa of Robert's from when he was a buy both of which I will take downstairs on later trips down for the laundry.

That leaves 3 decorative boxes which have to go to the closet in the Teddys' room with items I don't want stored in the basement as wax (would melt in basement) or otherwise need better care than the basement. Of course this is not easy this year. I have our suitcases which store in the bottom of the same closet out in the middle of that room. We no longer use them as we travel in our small RV, but have kept them as we like them, just in case we need suitcases in the future. (For example if one of us, God forbid, had to go to the hospital.) I took the suitcases out to solve a storage problem in our bedroom. Husband has more clothes than should go in his dresser than he can fit in same. Most of them he does not wear and a good percentage of them do not fit him (no, too big – not too small) but he does not want to get rid of them. The clothes he actually wears – such as his pjs – are sitting on top of his dresser. I came up the idea of storing the clothing he is not wearing and wants to keep in – yes – the suitcases. I got the suitcases out, but he needs me to help back them so they are in the middle of the Teddys' room until we get a chance to pack the clothes away – so there is no easy access to the closet. Oh, add in, part of the Teddy Village blocks the door to that room into the open position and the closet is, of course, behind that door – so I have to be able to move that section of the room into the room where the suitcases are to be able to put the suitcases and these Christmas boxes back. It is all sort of like a room sized Rubik's cube! But every step I take in all of this gets us that closer to being finished.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is amazing what a puzzle storage can be and what needs to be moved to get this or that to store it away or take it out.

STORED AWAY (MOSTLY) INSIDE CHRISTMAS DECORATONS FINALLY

 Well, over the last couple of weekends we have taken down all of the inside Christmas decorations (except one small beaded tree which still has to be put into its box) and stored most of what we took down in the basement.  

It was the most disorganized take down of decorations I have ever done!  Things are not in the correct storage boxes – so decorating next year will be a MESS!  But everything other than that tree is in its box.  

After the stuff was boxed I took the decoration boxes to the basement – stored in the finished half of same in a corner where the boxes fit EXACTLY in their space (so tight, husband could not get them out as they cannot be on any angle when being moved).  I stored my Christmas soft figures (teddy bears, large Mrs. Rudolph Reindeer I made etc.) and Christmas stockings in the box they all go in – also on that side of the basement, but in a different spot.  

The main tree gets carried downstairs section by section as they are heavy – and between same and the stairs I have to rest between the 9 sections.  I stacked them in the box in the order they have go into the box and added the pole, tree skirt and other similar items which fit into the box.  Doing well at this point.  

Then I made a big error which I did not realize until too late.  I had stored the assortment of various sized Santas and elves (varying up to about 3 ½ feet in height – some made by me, some were bought by us and a number of them were Christmas gifts from someone husband worked with) in their individual plastic bags on top of the big tree box where they go and put the basement back together again in front of the box and figures. The box stores under the stairs to upstairs so it is not at all easily accessible when everything else which stores in front of it is back in place.

We have two smaller trees (one goes in the dining room and one in our studio).  They each store in a box.  They also store on top of the Christmas tree box – but are suppose to be UNDER the figures to keep the figures from being squashed or damaged!  So now I have to move at least enough of what is front of the box to be able to reach the figures and remove them from where they are, put the boxes in places, get the figures on top of the boxes, and then put it all back together again.  I cannot do this until I get the laundry done as what is in front of the tree box has to be moved onto the washer and dryer to get them out of the way!!  

And my Teddy Bear Village upstairs remains as Christmas until I have a chance to put away the Christmas items and set it up for ?  Will be a bit late for Valentines Day – which is set up as bears in pairs kissing or holding paws and going to the Asian restaurant and the honey restaurant in the Village.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Always check twice  - and then check again and again – before storing seasonal items away to make sure they are stored in the correct order so they will fit where they need to be without damaging anything and so that what is needed the following year will come out in the correct order.

MORE THINGS TO DO - AS ALWAYS INCLUDING NEW SETUP FOR CHRISTMAS TREE AND DECORATIONS

 To pick up where I left off – 2 weeks ago – I finished my class and exams in 3 days.

We were way behind in decorating inside the house for Christmas. I used to do almost all of it, but in more recent years husband has been helping me. (“Don't climb up on that step stool, I'll put it on the tree for you.)

Our living room has changed over the past year. Back in my April 6 post I wrote about husband buying a small “big screen” TV. I was not happy about (and still am not). This involved rearranging our living room. We were careful to figure out how we would deal with our Christmas tree and decorations both in the living room and also in our dining room as a piece of furniture which used to pushed (it is on wheels) from the living room to the dining room to make room for the tree in the living room and holds a smaller tree in the living room – but could not longer be saved moved as it would be under the tree.

Moving a coffee table from the back of the living room to the dining room instead of the chest that cannot no longer be pushed there went fine. The tree went up in the new space at the back of the living room – doing well, it's working. Then we started putting the ornaments on the tree. I usually put them in a groupings – all the angels at the top of the tree, bear ornaments in one area, TV/movie characters in another area, souvenir ornaments in yet another area and so on. This was not working and we ended up just putting ornaments on the tree. We had a number of ornaments we did not put on the tree as we gave up – not enough room? A couple of days later I realized the problem – in its old location the tree used to have two “fronts”. Huh? Well the tree faced into the living room – a “front” of the tree. The side of the tree faced our entry way – another “front” of the tree. In the back of the living room it faced into the room – one “front” but two of the other sides faced side walls with no easy view of them and the last side faced the windows. Aha! There is less space for ornaments to be featured!

I have all sorts of Christmas decorations I put around the living room, kitchen and dining room – and a few I put in our entry hall. They hang from things, sit on things, etc. I started putting them out. I did okay in the kitchen – changed the decorations sitting on our window sill to the Christmas ones which belong there. Changed out some mugs from our travel mug collection for Christmas mugs.

I moved on to the dining room. I did not have the energy to put fake greens on the light fixture – so I just hung the “kissing ball” from the bottom of same. I set up the small Christmas tree we setup in there. We belong to Colonial Williamsburg and get an annual ornament from them – these go on this tree. Our dining room is decorated as a 18^th century tavern room so a tree is not really correct in there – but they are ornaments of 18^th century things. Normally this tree would go on the box wheeled from the living room, but the new plan was for it to go on the coffee table from there the main tree is now, moved into the dining room instead of the box. This went okay.

But now I started getting to figurines, stuffed animals, Christmas Lego pieces and such which would get setup in the living room – I did not have enough space for them. WHY? I realized that in the past we had two large flat surfaces for them – the coffee table (which would have been in the living room and without a tree on it) and the box pushed into the dining room (and would have the tree on it, with empty space around it). I was missing the equivalent space of the top of the box! I got most of the items out and setup on “something”. The stuffed Christmas bears still fit well on the sofa in the living room. Some large figurines (Santa, elves…) was a tight fit, but went in the area they normally do by the entrance into the living room – they stick out a bit further into “traffic” which worried my husband, but seem to be okay and have not caused any trips or falls by either of us. The Legos actually got to go on the table the TV is on – they are small enough to sit along the ends of the table and not affect watching TV.

Well, decorations are what they are for now. I will think over the problems for next year to see what/how I can improve where decorations and cut down on being upset at the changes his TV has brought.

I did not get a chance to decorate my “Teddy Bear Village” in the upstairs hall. Poor bears are still celebrating Easter! But I plan to do so during the coming weekend.

We leave our decorations for a while to enjoy them. The big items in the living room – such as the tree – will come down in mid January. I have an agreement with my husband. From mid December to mid January we decorate for Christmas. From mid January to mid December he has the room setup his loom and weave. Around then – or perhaps a little later the other Christmas will also get stored away.

For now we can sit and enjoy looking them.

Oh, I forgot our studio tree! We have a craft studio in what should be our “family room/den”. I put a small tree in the front corner of the room on a dresser (for storage) with some of the various ornaments we have made over the decades.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I do hope that all have/are having a good holiday season!

TRYING TO FIT THINGS INTO SMALL SPACES OR LITTLE TIME

 Have you ever had to fit more in a space than fits?  Yes, I know – that is what is organizer is about, not having to do this, but sometimes…

Back in the normal times before Covid husband and I would go to the movies just about every week.  There was (is?) an independent theater in a nearby community that we would go to. While it had become a multiscreen theater it had not changed over to the terrible lounge seats – still had old style movie theater seats (same type as in school auditoriums, Broadway theaters, etc) and having once sat in lounge seats at movie theater, we vowed never to do so again.  It is currently still “temporarily closed”.  We went to “late showings” - which at this theater means the movie starts 9:30 to 10:30 pm, as opposed to when we used to go to midnight movies in the old days.  While it has some theaters which are rather small, it does have just about full size theaters.   And it was reasonably priced (even for so for seniors) and had a very nice staff.

This is something we have missed – last time we went to a movie was in late February/early March 2020.  We have instead been having our movie night at home watching movies on TV – which is not the same, not only due to small screen, but missing in the atmosphere of a movie theater.  

Husband has recently got into his head to buy a large screen TV for our living room.  I was shocked.  Husband spent a good deal of time decorating our living room in – more or less – colonial style – which is why I was shocked that he would put a big screen TV in it.  (The TV which is in there – not digital – is in a period looking piece of furniture to hide it.  It does not have a cable hookup as we tend to only watch TV in the living room while putting up and taking down our Christmas tree  - when we watch specific Christmas DVDs and New Year's Eve – when, most years we watch “the ball drop” in NYC through Roku – though one year we watched Animal Crossing's New Year Party instead – I actually liked that better. )  

Between this and the price, the idea of a big screen TV in our living room to watch Saturday night movies shocked me.  This discussion has been going on for about a month or so.  He has decided that the theater we used to go to will never reopen and we are too uncomfortable in the lounger seats in other theaters.  (Though we have found one other theater with “real theater seats”, but it is not near us.)

He has been going back and forth with ideas on what to do – then deciding they are no good, then a new idea and then back again.  Just when I thought he had given up – it is becoming reality.  He has bought one for his birthday which is coming up in a while.  

In doing this we had to figure out a lot of things.  His first idea was to have the TV hung on the wall.  Only wall possible was where the TV set furniture is now.  BUT – that is too close to the heat, would have to be hung off center on the wall, and he found out that one has to help the installer hang the TV – if we could do that, we would not need the installer.  

His second idea was to stand it on something.  An obvious choice to me was a large wooden chest he built – it looks like a hope chest – top lifts, lock on front – but on this one, the key in front is the handle to pull down the front and drawers come out with DVDs in it – so the top is stationary and can have (and does have) things put on it.  That is too low for what he wants – he want to “look up at the TV like one looks up at the movie screen in a theater”.  He went looking for a stand to put the TV on – either one that stands on the floor or one that stands on a piece of furniture.  

He found a stand that he liked how it held the TV at a chain computer store's website.  Problem is that the dimensions are obviously wrong – how could something 4 inches tall hold a TV which is so much longer than that?  We drove to the local location of the store – none on display.  We asked a manager about the dimensions – he went to his computer and looked it up – on their website and read the numbers off to husband.  Husband, a bit impatient, pointed out that he had read the same on his computer and how could the stand be 4 inches tall?  Manager agreed that had to be wrong (both he and husband decided it had to be the shipping box dimensions) – but when husband if the boxes “in the back” could be checked for the dimensions – he was told no, “It is a brown box with no writing on it” - then how do they know which item is in the box.  We left.  

He started thinking again – the TV comes with feet, if we got the smaller size than he was looking at (65 inch instead of 70) and we could figure out what to put over the chest of DVDs to make it longer for the feet – it should work.  

We looked at an assortment of ideas of what we could put the TV on.  (In this entire process since it started we have, in our minds, rearranged the furniture in the living room end wall to end wall, side wall to side wall, end wall to side wall and so on.)  

He finally had an  idea and in his words “went back to works” - Ikea.  We bought today a table from Ikea.  It should fit over and around the chest of DVDs – box stays in place and is usable.  Table is extremely modern in design, of course – but if it makes him happy…

We then drove to Costco to buy the TV and have it delivered – believe me, he has done extensive research on where to buy the TV, warranties, service contracts, setup etc.  Problem is that one cannot buy it at the store and have it delivered – it can only be delivered if it is bought online – we hate to order things and have them delivered, but that is what we had to do – after wasting about an hour and a half driving there and home – even worse these days – the gasoline that was used for the drive there and back!  He has ordered the TV.  The table will sit in our van until early next week when we bring it in and assemble it.  

In addition to this mess we had a “discussion” with our cable company over a 20% increase in price (which they lowered for us), the cold water started dripping in our downstairs bathroom sink – after an hour and a half on hold – they could not help us as they no record of our faucet model and were the Canadian office of the company (reached through the US 800 number) and transferred me to their US office – I hung up as I did not have another hour to wait.  And it is tax season and getting closer to when I have to finish returns for clients – and us.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Doing anything today has become hard to do – nothing seems to be easy to do any longer and not just do to Covid and limitations arising from it.  Who ever thought buying a TV would take weeks – maybe even months – of planning, needing to change the plan several times including buying the TV?

CHRISTMAS ALMOST ALL STORED AWAY

 

Well my storage of our Christmas items has progressed. I have put away all 3 regular trees, the Christmas figures (Santas, elves…) that we put out in the living room (most were Christmas gifts from someone husband worked with – one small plastic Santa goes back to when husband was a boy and one elf I sewed and entered in the local tri-county County Fair), and a set of bear figurines that I put out by the month – December is boxed and stored and when I finish putting away the rest of Christmas I will put out the February bears from that set – they go in the corner display unit in our living room (this is NOT part of the Teddy Village I talk about – that is upstairs). (BTW – I store the Christmas bear figurines to this set in holiday design boxes which are sold to store photographs. When the figurines are all put out the boxes are empty and put them under the big Christmas tree in the living room as set dressing of presents as we do not get many Christmas presents – husband buys himself a couple of things and gives them to me to wrap and I do not get any presents – don't need more stuff around the house. But the tree so looked so lonely without any gifts so this way it looks cheerful with (empty boxes as) gifts under it during the entire season.)

The ornaments from the trees has progressed and are boxed and waiting to go downstairs – it is a tall set of steps so as I go down on trips I take the boxes down – second box will go down when I go down to change laundry loads shortly and third will follow later when I go down to bring up the laundry – that leaves one box to go down tomorrow.

I have to pack the assorted small decorations – candles, “greens”, mugs, Lego Christmas figures, and the like in the 2 boxes they store in. These two boxes will be stored on top of the ornament boxes – all of which go in a corner of the basement which is a perfect fit for them.

I have beaded Christmas tree which I made some years ago and is in a glass dome, as well as a large light up teddy bear and the wreath for our front door which will go on top of the stack of boxes.

I have a number of soft decorations – small stuffed toys, as well as items I have embroidered – other stuffed toys, wall hangings, holiday throw pillows, and such. They will go down last to their box which is elsewhere in the basement.

I do have great incentive to get the tree and the items which go on top of it quickly – I can't do the laundry until I put away these items as assorted items which are stored in front of these items are moved to the top of the washer and dryer to get the items out for Christmas – and I had to get them put away – Wednesday night is laundry night! Second load washing first load drying – and a load of Covid masks to follow.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

While it is much more fun to take out the Christmas (or other seasonal) decorations – it is not as much fun to put them away – but it must done so go ahead and get it done – it is February after all!

MISSED LAST WEEK'S POST TO DUE TO EXAMS AND LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS DECORATING

 I hope that all had a good Christmas.  

Sorry I missed posting last week.  Having managed to get the paperwork (per my last post) to the county for our senior real estate exemption the day I posted last, I started on taking the courses I need to take – and pass tests about – 20 hours of classes and 10 hours of tests done online.  I passed all of them and can continue working in 2022.  I took them over the week and had planned to take the biggest of the tests on last Wednesday (12/22) evening but husband had something that had to be done – so I did not get it to it until last Thursday evening.  

I had managed to work at putting out our indoor Christmas decorations over the several evenings before last Thursday – small items which are put out in our kitchen, dining room, front hall and living room.  I skipped many of the decorations such as hanging (fake) greens along our staircase banister and small items due to time limitations.  I also had brought up all three of our Christmas trees (large living room, small dining room and small studio trees) and set them up earlier in last week – also in the evening.  One problem is that since it all kept in the basement and, in particular the big tree sections, much of it is rather heavy, so I have to carry up one of the 9 tree sections (plus lighter tree pole to hang them on) at a time and rest before going back down for the next section.  Then, of course they have to be arranged on the pole, extension cords setup to bring electricity to the tree (and of course the extension which runs up the tree with outlets in 3 different spots -  decided to fall off this year when I set up the pole and I had to wire that back onto the pole).  I did not get to work on the ornaments until the following day – Christmas Eve– and each of the 4 boxes also has to be carried up from the basement with a rest in between – though at least I can hang ornaments while resting.  Again, for the first time since we were married 40+ years ago, not all of the ornaments went on the tree.  Around the equivalent of a box of “lesser” ornaments (plain balls and such) did not make it onto the tree due to time limitations.  

December 26 (Boxing Day to those of you in the UK, Canada, and related countries) I went to work on my Teddy Bear Village.  Yes, I managed to get it set up.  I did some sections differently than in year's past to spread the bears around the 4 sections of the Village a bit more and leave some “breathing” room for the bears in the main section.  Husband guesses that there are 300 bears – I am pretty sure there are a lot less – maybe I will count them when I put them away.  Yes, that is the problem with having fun decorating – in a couple of weeks I will have to take down the tree and decorations downstairs and store them back in the basement (with many trips down and breaks between them again) and store away the decorations from downstairs.  The Teddy Village will stay set up until into early February and then it's residents also have to be stored away to make way for the Valentine Bears (much, much less of them).  

So, all of this diverted my mind from visiting all of you.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes work comes first – such as my classes and exams.   Sometimes what one enjoys has to take precedence over work which can be postponed.  One has to know the difference between the two.  

As I sit here is it December 29 – I wish a good New Year to all.  Keep in mind that small changes and specific ideas are more likely to continue to be done throughout the coming year, as opposed to making resolutions which are too big or non-specific to be kept.   

DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS - MISSING HOOKS?

 This past week, I have been dealing with the inside the house Christmas decorations.  Just to refresh your memories – last year time got away from me and 3 days before Christmas I told my husband that we were not going to have our decorations up – particularly not our Christmas trees.  He was actually glad to hear me say this as he had realized it the week before and was afraid to mention it – if he had I would have been bound and determined to get it all set up.  I ended up taking out the small tabletop tree we set normally setup in our studio and decorate with some of the ornaments we have made over the decades, and setting it up on husband's weaving work table which is in our dining room.  I store our ornaments in 4 boxes starting with the nicest ones and ending with the fill in ones.  I pulled about 25 ornaments out of the nicest ones (and had the most sentimental value) and used them on the tree.   Nothing was cleared out of the room from his weaving – basically the loom room never became the living room and the little tree sat in the midst of the weaving.  In the days after Christmas I did take out some of my small stuffed Christmas/Chanukah animals and put them on the sofa and my Christmas teddy bear village was setup after Christmas (I don't think it has ever gone up before Christmas Eve) but that was it.  My husband reassured that “next year” we would get everything setup again.

Well it is next year.  Since we are stuck in the house due to the corona virus we really want to decorate and take our minds off of it and other miseries of this year.  I put out a good deal of the small decorations and then started on the trees over the weekend.   It was all going well.  I have to set up all 3 trees at the same time as the ornaments we have made are shared between the two and ornaments we have received from our membership in Colonial Williamsburg are split between the main tree and one in our dining room.  Both the studio tree and the dining room tree are due to having too many of the same type of ornaments on the main tree – and this being a way to have all of the ornaments out while not overwhelming the tree with them.  (My teddy bear village was started in much same the way – I set up a small tree with some of the teddy bear ornaments from the main tree and the village grew from that.  

I was putting ornaments on the main tree – running into the studio to put some there – and doing well.  My husband had been helping me, but had to go to work on the computer.  I suddenly realized that I was almost out of hooks.  I should have some in the first box and some in one of the later boxes – and I had not found the second bag of them.  As I was about to start the fill in layers – glass balls in various colors that I stick behind the main ornaments wherever there is an empty spot and then some small ornaments and icicles I put over the ornament also to fill in – and I had no more hooks – I also had never found any of the longer hooks and had 3 nice ornaments sitting there waiting for the longer hooks.   I have now being looking for two days for the missing ornament hooks.  Today I went through the boxes of ornaments for the teddy village looking for the hooks for same – figuring that perhaps somehow I stored the hooks together last year since the main tree had not been set up.  NONE there either!  

Not being able to finish the main tree makes me sad enough, but not being able to decorate the teddy village tree – well, is heart breaking.  In addition to not going out shopping this year due to the pandemic, I use soft hooks that are not sold around here – I buy them when we go to Pennsylvania on trips, so it is not a case of run out and buy some more.  I guess I will end up using paper clips to hang ornaments – but the reason I like the soft ones I they can be made shorted and longer as needed as they bend easier and then can go back to how they were.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I again wish all a happy holiday of the season – whether yours is Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza or my teddy bears holiday of the winter solstice.
Let us all work hard to stay well so that, hopefully long before, this time next year life will be back to normal and we can worry about the normal petty problems of the holidays instead of trying to make sure we survive Covid-19.  Let is be in our rear window long before then.

COVID 19 # 7 - USE YOUR TIME TO DO PROJECTS YOU HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO DO - THE TRUNK UNDER THE BEAR VILLAGE

Wow – another week already!

I actually got a project done that has been sitting awhile this past week – and ended up clearing up more things than I planned.

I have mentioned (I am sure) that I have a little village which is like a fancy Christmas village setup – but is cheap, has bears instead of people, and we now change it to seasonal “scenes”.  It sits on a board on a wicker trunk – so there is no access to trunk when the board and village is on it.  This is in front a window in a nook at the top of our stairs by the bedrooms and our office (which is in what should be a be a bedroom).  When it was only a Christmas village there were some Christmas decoration items stored in it – I would take them out before the village was set up and put them back after it was taken down and.  Since this can no longer be done as there is always a village set up there, that space in the trunk is empty and has been calling me.  I have items in our third bedroom – aka the teddys' room (you did not think these bears were the only ones I have, the stuffed and non small figure ones took over the smallest bedroom some decades ago – and I have been planned to store some of the teddy bear items (I have much more than “bears” themselves) in the trunk. 

Problem has been that we are always in a rush and I don't have a chance between setups – and when it is setup – well, buildings, bears, Christmas tree,  heavy board have to all be removed and placed someplace safe – so I don't do it.  To help me get around to dealing with storing the items while I am stuck home – when I stored the Christmas/winter village items away I left a bare number of bears out in the village.  Basically the “storyline” has been that the bears are self-isolating and only certain bears are out – police, fire, those who sell food/have a restaurant, are shopping, exercising (bear on roller skates), and an accountant bear with clients sitting away from him are out.  They were all spaced 6 inches apart, the size equivalent of 6 feet I figured.  Husband was not happy with this as he is depressed about everything to begin with. 

So earlier this week I moved the bears, buildings to safe places, and the tree out of the way and slid the board off the back.  I started with some old tee shirts of great sentimental value that were out in the teddys room – I put them in a clear kitchen sized garbage bag and knotted it closed (after squeezing out the air and put it in the box.  I then found a small carton of bear and some other stuff.  I am guessing it has been sitting since we had the house treated for bedbugs in 2011.  Some items of husband's boyhood were also in the carton and I stored much of it in the trunk.  Some of it were small bear items which were good to use in the village including some bears and I set all of that aside on my office desk to keep available.  I threw out some unrelated things also. 

When I was finished with the carton there was a still a lot of room in the trunk.  We have a stack of round plastic storage modules (1970s) and also a stereo cabinet which we had bought for and used for storing various items on its shelves.  I first went through the stereo cabinet as it was in front of the plastic module stack.  Some of what was in it was put there also when we had the house treated for bedbugs and I put those items back where they belonged.  Others I wanted available and left in the cabinet.  Other items were related to old computer games of husbands – so I put them back and mentioned them to him – he has since looked them up and when the Covid-19 problem is over and we can go to the post office again without being woried about being outside, he will put them up for sale online.  I

I then pulled the stereo cabinet forward (it is on wheels) and started on the stack behind it.  I tossed some items, found some more of husband's computer games – which I added to the others in the stereo cabinet and found – of course – more bear items.  Again  I either tossed them, put them aside to use in the village or stored them in the trunk.  With the stack of plastic module empty, I removed them and pushed the stereo cabinet into where they had been – wow – it could actually be used as a bedroom now if we needed it – there is room to walk all the way to almost head of the bed.  (Still a spare TV in there, spare as is there is a TV to watch in the room plus the one on the floor - have to find out if it works or not and figure out what to do with it.)

When I was finished there was still room in the trunk, but I had gone through what was there to go thru and dealt with it.  I closed the top of the trunk and attempted to slide the board on top. Problem – it is a small space.  While there is enough room for the board at the top of the trunk, at the bottom of the wall due to the molding along the walls, there is not enough room for the board to sit across the space – and the board had slid down on an angle and was wedged into the wall.  I juggled it and managed to get it to shift, but it was too heavy for me to lift and it was then wedged into the other wall!  I finally had admit to defeat and get husband to help me lift it from both sides at the same time and slide it into place on top on the top of the trunk.  Next time I will not be lazy – I will remove the board from the area as I used to do to store it in the basement during the year – so this will not happen again. 

I replaced the buildings, tree and bears – dusted it all first.  I added a few of the newly found bears also.    I then took the plastic modules downstairs.  Husband saw me doing this - “You are not throwing those out are you?”  I asked if he had a use for them – he did not, just did not want them tossed out “in case”.  I explained that I planned to replace a storage piece located behind my work table in our studio with it and said that was fine – he just did not want it thrown out.  One module either had green paint in it or a piece of green plastic or such melted in when we had the bed bug treatment (they heat the house VERY HOT for the treatment) and I told him I will throw that one module out if I cannot clean it. 

So right now, the stack of modules, the empty carton and the problem module are in our dining room waiting for me to now move out the storage piece from behind my work table to put the stack there.  The carton will go out to our porch to use for putting out recycling when again our township is collecting them.  The other piece of the module piece I will see if I can clean. 

The storage piece behind my studio work table came as a small cabinet with/to sit over my computer desk and I did not want it there then – I will see what we can do with it when I move the stuff out of it (ribbons, laces, rolls of velcro and such) or it will end up getting tossed out  when life and garbage collection are more normal.

As to the bears – we have decided that the bears “decided” that since it over 2 weeks, all of the bears have continuously been in our house and none of them are sick – the spring village can be set up and I hope to do so this coming week. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

If you are stuck in your house – use the time to do projects you have not had time to do.  If you have children – perhaps you can get them to “help” you to keep them busy.  Yes, they may be more trouble than help, but if you try to make a game out of it or give a prize for the one does the most, finds the most etc.  it will keep them busy also. 

Please take care of yourself and yours – stay well. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR - I STILL DO NOT MAKE RESOLUTIONS

Well, another year gone by – they really do seem to go by faster and faster. 

As those of you who have been reading my posts for over a year (and I thank you for doing so) I don't believe in making resolutions.  I never kept them and felt guilty for not doing so.  Instead I just decide that what is past is past and the future is a clean slate.

We still are running behind on getting things in life done. 

The Saturday before Christmas I realized that there was no way that our extensive (okay, overly and ridiculously extensive) inside Christmas decorations would be put up before or during Christmas.  We were doing three nights with our reenactment unit at an 18th century house in a local restoration village.  The event is annual, with the days for it changing every year.  It is a candlelight night event – each house is lit as it would have been in the period it is displayed and the Christmas decorations also match the period.  The other houses in the village are set in the 1800s; the one we interpret is set in the late 1700s – we say to the guests coming in that it is 1775, the year that our unit generally “is in”.  While it is an evening event husband and I have to start dressing by 3 pm to drive there and have the set up on time and by the time we shut the house down (a lot of candles to blow out and we have to make sure that no one in our unit left anything behind) , lock it up, drive home and change back to modern clothing it is around 11 pm and we are making dinner and sitting down to eat it.  So basically the days we do this event – we do almost nothing else.  So I would not getting to work on decorating the house on Saturday or Sunday night.   I had to take 2 more (online) exams for my professional education to work next year and I would have left – Monday before Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, Thursday after Christmas, and Monday before New Year's Eve to take the classes.  Not being completely crazy I knew that I had to take them Sunday after the event and Monday nights, so that on the extremely, extremely rare chance I did not pass both exams and had to take one (or the other) class again, I had a chance to do so.  Hence, there would no time to put up the decorations, especially since our living room was not cleared up from husband's weaving due to a recent sales event we went to, the dining room still had stuff for the RV in it (I tried to take same out the week before – but it was COLD and husband did not want me to open the RV door as it would make it cold inside(?).)  Plus reenacting stuff that stores in the box/benches that we bring to event and they are kept along the dining room walls – and they needed “straightening up”.  So as all this hit while at the reenactment event, I fought back a couple of tears and decided that even if 80 or 90% of our Christmas is the decorations, it just would not be this year.  Since we were married the only year we have not decorated for Christmas in the house was the year we had the bed bugs – oh, well, 2 years of 40 is not a bed record. 

I thought about what to do as an alternative.  I was concerned about telling husband about the no decorations – he looks forward to them.  I came up with I would set up the small tree that we normally set up in our studio covered with ornaments we have made, in the living room on a table and put a limited number of favored ornaments on it.  I approached husband about this and said to him “We are not going to have decorations this year.” His reaction was that he had already realized this and had been afraid to say anything to me about it as he did not want me to take it as a challenge. I told him of my plan about the small tree and he thought it a great idea. 

I set the tree up on Christmas Eve afternoon.  I also wrapped the gifts for his nieces and for him that afternoon.   We have most of the decorations in 6 large plastic boxes.  I store the boxes in a corner of our basement.  To make life easy when I put the house decorations on top of the pile, so I just took those boxes off the stack and put them aside (on matching boxes that hold the bear village Christmas stuff in a separate pile as the stack would be too tall otherwise for the room).  I store the ornaments in 4 boxes which are numbered so the nicest ones are in box 1 to be featured and get prime choice of locations, down to box 4 which has the fill in at the end decorations.  So I opened box 1 on the top of the pile and looked in – I made the angel we use on the tree and she has two friends that husband I also stitched – they came out.  Then I was looking at what else was there and convenient.  I took out more ornaments that we have made and went upstairs to set up the tree. 

I had planned to put the tree on an outdoor type of table with slats that husband uses for setting up his loom – but the feet of the stand did not match the slat positions.  I stood and tried to think where I could I find something to put on the tabletop – thought of a small table that we take to reenactment events and  the top of it was in the dining room.  It fit the table perfectly and even though there is hardware under it to attach the legs, it did not rock.  I was concerned the three might scratch it and that might upset husband so I went looking for something fabric to put on it.  I found two old, worn hand towels in green.  I covered the table, set up the tree, and then folded the towels over the stand to make a tree skirt – perfect.   

I put the ornaments I had brought upstairs on the tree.  Much too bare.  Back to box 1 in the basement.  Hmmm, ornaments dated with the year we got married – good, ornaments of Geo Washington and Thomas Jefferson and their houses, good.  What else?  Luckily I label the small (old gift) boxes that hold the ornaments as several are packed in each one and the only way to get them back in the boxes is to know what goes in each, so I was able to scan the outside of the boxes and find some ornaments from a Folk craft festival we have gone to since we started dating.  I left it at that – with actual blank space on the tree.  As I went through wrapping the gifts and such I found a new ornament we bought (crafts store going out of business $1 teddy bear ornament for 50c – had to buy same) and the membership one we received from Colonial Williamsburg for 2019 – both of them were added.  I did not have the on/off switched extension cord,which is stored with the large tree, so found a regular one and we plug and unplug the tree by hand. Oh, and there was a large light up teddy bear on the box stack, so I brought him upstairs and sat him on the bench husband uses when weaving.  Finished, such as it was to be.

We went out for Christmas Eve dinner to the Asian buffet we go to a weekend night.  When there we discussed the decorations.  Husband said to me “How hard would be it to get out the Christmas stockings also?” So they went out also when we got home.

As the week went alone we decided that we missed the Christmas and Chanukah teddy bears (and some stuffed friends of theirs.  New Year's Eve I managed to pull most if not all of them from their storage box and put them out.  I also decorated the tree in the Teddy Village the same night.  Right now it is New Year's Day night – I had planned to finish setting up the village with the bears “that come to the parade” today or tonight, but husband had plans to go out for dinner (Wendys) and then a movie so I did not have a chance – just got home from the movies and I am writing to all of you (will get them) out tomorrow.

So, we did what we felt was the minimum decorating  for the holidays that we felt comfortable with.  The walls of Jericho did not shake and fall.  Most people might even think it plenty of decorating.  I plan next year to make sure it all goes up on time.  Today when we shut off the RV from charging its batteries (plugged it in yesterday) I finally moved the rest of the stuff for it back into the RV for the winter and got my spare pair of warm socks out of it to wash and use during the winter.

Normally on Wednesdays I start laundry for the week - not this week, as we went to the movies.  The laundry will get done tomorrow and Friday, maybe even Saturday.  I write and send out the newsletter for my embroidery chapter the last Wednesday of the month as we meet the first Wednesday – since this month we are meeting the second Wednesday (a meeting on New Year's Day would not work), I started it before we went out for dinner – it will be a day late – hey, sometimes that happens, it will still be in plenty of time before the meeting. 

There is only so much time that I have use and I have to deal with that idea.  What can be done is done, what cannot, has to ignored and/ore delayed.  I hope over the next year in general to be better caught up on everything which has been slipping our fingers this past year plus and get life back to a normal level of unfinished things. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

You can only do what you can do with the time you have – try to let the small things go.  If you did make resolutions last year and did not keep them, see what is important and try to do better at one or two of them and don't make a long list of resolutions as then you will not keep any of them.  Just try to deal with one or two problem and see where you go from there.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

CHRISTMAS AND OTHER HOLIDAYS - AND GETTING READY

Another week gone already?

Are you ready for Christmas or Chanukah or Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa or whatever holiday)s) you celebrate?

Me, I have not packed away Thanksgiving yet.  Well, the dishes, pots, silverware etc were put away, but my decorations are still out.  I don't put out as many for Thanksgiving as I do for Christmas (maybe 1/20th as much as for Christmas or less), but I have the decorations from when we used to have the families here for Thanksgiving dinner and I still put them out – I need to. 

I have to get them packed away and get the indoor Christmas decorations put out – at least most of them.  I generally don't get to my bear village until Christmas Eve or even Christmas night so they “know” they will be put out late.

We still have a lot of stuff in the house that has to go back into our RV from when we cleared it out in October to take it in for the extended service time.  The larger pieces – the bed assembly and such – are back in it.  I have several fabric shopping bags with stuff from it, including the plastic containers that we use for food (snacks) storage when we travel.  It has been bad weather most days around here the last week or so since I realized I had to get all that out to the RV.  Oh, and the vacuum cleaner – we keep a hand held – plug in vacuum in the RV in case we make a mess and need to clean it up.  (Lots of vents in the RV for air to move in and out so animals can smell food in it – hence the plastic containers and concern requiring a vacuum cleaner.)  It is on my dining room table – not a good place for it to be.

We  (and by we, I meant I) also have to store reenacting stuff in the box benches in the dining room that we store it in.  We had the last event of the year that we needed our stuff for last Saturday – more on that later, if I remember – the only remaining events are the 6 days – this coming weekend and next – that we will be doing the candlelight night event at the local restoration village and we need little for that other than our period clothing. 

Husband has to move his weaving stuff to our studio – won't be able to get to my side of same after he does, but the “loom room” will again be the living room when he does. 

After all that I can start putting up the decorations and the trees. 

We have been busy the last week since I spoke to all of you.  I went to Manhattan to a client on Thursday, which took most of the day especially the travel back and forth.  When I got home husband was waiting to pack our van for the reenactment event that was coming up on (now last) Saturday. 

It was at a historic home that one of our members works at and was a colonial crafts event that we were allowed (encouraged) to sell our work at.  The local community had their tree lighting and other events that day so crowds were expected in the community.  Husband had been weaving scarves to sell.  It was to rain on Friday – and maybe Saturday – so when I arrived home on Thursday husband suggested that we pack the van while it was not raining, though dark.  He was concerned about the tables and racks getting wet on Saturday if it was still raining, so we put everything in very large plastic bags – some items needed two bags – one on each end, overlapping, to cover them.  He had put two tables in the back of the van before I came home.  We needed to put most of what we were bringing in the main section of the van (where we have a back seat and the middle seat is out & permanently in our storage shed to make an open space).  It was a cold night and damp in advance of the rain.  He went to slide the side door open and it did not budge.  He tried again – and again.  He then went in the front door and climbed through to the main section and went to open the door – which is pushing instead of pulling it open from outside as we thought that somehow it had frozen closed and needed to be forced open. 

Ha ha!  He get the door open and the overhead rubber gasket that keeps water from going into the van fell down – on me.  It would not fit back into place.  I called our mechanic – if I have not mentioned it is a local shop and 4 blocks from our house – it was almost 5:30 and I thought they closed at same.  His newest mechanic answered (there are 3 including the owner) and he knows us by name from all of our crazy car problems.  I explained and he told me we should bring it over – if we left it sitting it would flood in the coming rain, at the very least they would have it indoors and fix it the next day.  We drove over hoping the side door would not roll open – it did not.  He got the gasket back in place and we were set again.  We went home and loaded the van.  Friday we ran normal errands and picked up deli turkey to make sandwiches for the next day. 

Saturday it was misty more than raining and we were able to get everything inside to set up dry.  We had a nice room in the museum – the exhibition was on 19th century needlework so it went well with his weaving and my embroidery demonstration.  We fit in the room perfectly.  The event had people there most of the day – estimate is 75-100 people and since it was raining on and off and nasty the rest of the day, that was pretty good. 

Still no chance to pack away Thanksgiving decorations and start on Christmas though.  Each day has had new things to waste the day.  I did manage to fit in taking most of the smaller exams I need to take to prepare income taxes next year for pay.  They are online classes from an approved company and I use them every year.  Two more small classes and tests and then the large 3 hour timed test – 6 hours of class time to do.  That last one is always the one that scares me.  I know that someway I will fit them in  before the end of the month as I always do.

I hope to get the stuff out to the RV and pack away the Thanksgiving – at least the downstairs stuff, if not the Teddy Village Thanksgiving stuff tomorrow and hopefully start with the dining room decorations.  I need to push a large linen style looking chest from the living room to the dining room before I start the dining room.  It holds a small sized tree in the dining room and the large tree in the living room goes where the chest is the rest of the year.  (It looks like a linen or hope chest, but instead of the top lifting the front drops down and there are drawers in it for DVDs – husband made it.)

The front hall and the living have decorations also and then the 3 downstairs trees – big one in the living room, small ones in the dining room and studio and beaded one that I made in the living room also – on the coffee table.  I was going to change the bear figurines (separate from the teddy village) that are in a corner shelf unit in the living room – but his big loom is in front of the corner unit. 

I did put up the wire hanging piece we bought a few years ago to hold Christmas/holiday cards.  It is a long piece with little wire spots to clip papers – in this the cards – to and I hang it from our mug rack near the ceiling in the kitchen with red ribbons.  I had figured a better way to hang it last year when I took it down and clipped a note into one of the wire spots to remind me – good idea it worked perfectly and I clipped the note back in for next year.

We did finish our shopping – we bought books for his two nieces – the only gifts we buy.  I send my adult niblings (that is actually a work – I made it up and then found it already existed – it means nieces and nephews combined) checks for gifts.  He has bought some DVDs and such – which he would have bought anyway – and given it to me to wrap for Christmas – I actually stick them in recycled Christmas gift bags – why waste paper.  At some point we have to figure out what we are going to do for Christmas Eve dinner – maybe the Asian buffet we go to will be open?  We are also figuring we will go there for dinner tomorrow as we won't be able to eat out this or next weekend due to the reenactment, so it will break the meals at home up a bit. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Whatever holiday you celebrate – take time to enjoy it.  In the future it will generally be the good times that are remembered – if the problems and misadventures are remembered they will become humorous in retrospect - “Hey remember the year that Susan and Carl got into the box of chocolates when they were little and took a bite out of each and then put them back?”   “Remember the year we forgot to bring Ellen's gift and we all had to get together again the next week for her to get it?”  Trust me, these things are terrible in the moment, but hilarious in the future.

It is the memories of the time together - even if you are just two like us  - that matter in the end.  If the decorations are not finished – they will be by new year's.  If you will be alone try to find someplace where there are other people, I know that there are community holiday dinners even around here  - where no one would think that they exist.

Oh, and as I learned at home growing up – there is always a room to throw all the stuff I you can't figure out what to do with in so the house will look nice for any family or friends who come by.  :-)