CLEANING, AND ORGANIZATION OR ONE CAN LOSE ONE'S TOYS

Have you found that time is passing slowly and too fast at the same time?  It does for me.  Like many others staying home during this Covid-19 pandemic I had big plans for the time we would be stuck home and made a mental list of what needs to be to done in the house and also of what I wanted to get done in the house.  Most of it involving either cleaning or organizing.  I am still inching along. 

I am not the best housekeeper in the world, but I used to be a lot better.  When husband was working full time – and out of the house --  I had a set a housework schedule.   I did housework on Wednesdays with the kitchen and the downstairs dusting and floors done on one week, then the upstairs bathroom, floors and dusting on the next, with the downstairs bathroom, dusting and floors  on the next, the upstairs dusting and floors done again on the 4th week of the month.  On months with a 5th Wednesday I would do tasks that did not need to be done as often. 

Then my husband quit his job – it was not a spontaneous choice, we had discussed it, set up rules (me - “You cannot be with me every minuted of every day or I will kill you.” and “It is not vacation so we cannot eat out everyday.”) and so on.  At first it all went as planned – we would eat lunch (at home) on Mondays and discuss the week ahead when I had things to do, he had things he wanted to do and when and what we do together or apart.  Housework was still done on a regular basis.  I still had several accounting clients so I was out of the house at least the equivalent once a week for work and he was working in his wood  shop making items for us to sell at craft fairs. First mistake I made – I used to go out for lunch alone on Fridays.  Mondays and Fridays I would run errands – and Fridays I would go out for lunch (inexpensively) by myself.  I called it “going out for lunch with the office” as I was “the office”.  First Friday he was home I offered for him to join me “this one time”.  Guess what?  Yes, Friday lunch out was added to our normal Saturday and Sunday lunches out and Friday dinner out followed along with our Saturday night dinner out and Sunday night take in Chinese food for dinner. 

This was about a year before the economic problems of 2008.  I lost clients as long time (and older) clients decided it was too hard to deal with their businesses, shut them down and retired.  So I was home more (and getting less done).  At the same time the price of gasoline jumped – high.  Husband pointed out to me that it made no sense for me to spend money on the gas to drive to the supermarket and for him to spend money on the gas to drive to Home Depot – separately – when both were in the same shopping center. 

Little by little this took over until we reached the point we were at before the pandemic – lunch out at Wendys 5 days a week, dinner out or Chinese food in – 3 day weekends, and spending almost all our time together.  Somewhere along the way I stopped cleaning the house on Wednesdays – or for that matter – mostly stopped cleaning it altogether.

I have been trying to catch up on cleaning and putting stuff away since we have been stuck home.  It is sort of working – not as regular as before, but getting done.  Much time is still taken up not doing anything.  We tend to stay at the table after lunch and watch TV a bit longer than we used to (or I would like).  I am am trying to get back to how I used to get the work done. 

Early in after Corona reared its head it dawned on me that if one of us became ill with it, we had no place for us to sleep separately.  We have a spare bedroom – with a bed – which intended as a guest room and was used as same 3 times in the earlier years in the house – all 3 times by my niece and once also by her brother, my nephew (they were small children at the time and could share the bed).  Since then my teddy bears have taken over the room – on shelves, pictures on the walls, sitting on the bed, and so on.  There are also older video games and such stored in the room.  Over the years our spare luggage and husband's out of season clothing moved into the closet in this room.  My dollhouse that husband made for me when we were dating is in the room.  Also in the room is spare things including a portable (analog) TV and a small wooden bench husband made (TV sits on the bench). 

Back in March the small floor space in the room was covered in bears and their things and the TV/bench.  In April when the thought of one of us needing to sleep in there came to mind, husband could not take any mention of either of us getting ill (not that he would be happy to hear about it now – but then it was no mention to be made.  Instead I told him that I had space in the trunk under the teddy bear village in the upstairs hall that used to be used for Christmas storage and I wanted to store items floating around the spare bedroom in it.  This process cleared out space to be able to get next to the bed and I also found stuff to use for the teddy village.  I thought I did a great job of making the room usable.

Two things this past month made me realize that I did not do such a good job.  When our bedroom air conditioner was not working I offered for husband to sleep in the (single) bed in the spare bedroom and I would make myself up something to sleep on the floor next to the bed.  He walked into the room and glanced around.  “Ummm, it will need a lot of work – it has not been dusted in years and if we slept in here we would get sick and be sneezing like crazy.  Also there is not enough room on the floor for you to sleep and me go to get up and go to the bathroom without stepping on you.  Not going to work.”  Okay, I tried – now I know I have to go in there and give the room a good cleaning.  Even worse for me, though, I had to move the teddy bear village to store in the trunk under it.  I had stored away the bears in the Christmas set up in the village to do so.  Well, now it was July and I went to set up an Independence Day village of bears and came up missing a bear that had been out for the Christmas village.  (These bears are figurines and small plastic toys not stuffed toys.)  As I looked for her, I realized that other bears were missing also.  I have looked everywhere for them – I cleaned up all of the packing, bears, and stuff that are used for the village during the year.  I went to the basement and unpacked and repacked all of the bears in the 3 medium sized boxes of bears from the Christmas setup.  I even took the village apart again and emptied out the trunk under it – no missing bears found.  My next step will involve clearing out and cleaning up the spare room some more.  At this point the only 2 things I can think of is that I shoved a box of bears under the bed or (horrible to think) I threw the box out!  So at time in the coming week we will see if the TV in the room still works and then – whether it does or not – we will move it and the bench out of the room so I have the room to lie down and look under the bed and hopefully find a box of missing bears with other items that I know are stored under there. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I guess husband was right about not enough room for me to sleep and him walk in and out of bed if I cannot lie down and look under the bed.  I hate it when he is right.  Then again, if I had been more careful when I took the Christmas village down – I would know where the missing bears were. 

ARE YOUR FINANCES - CHECKING ACCOUNT - UNDER CONTROL?

Boy has my financial juggling gone astray today!  We live on limited income from a variety of sources and sometimes we have a timing problem (bills due out this week, money coming coming in next week type of thing).  As an accountant I am pretty good at this juggling. 

I had it all planned out.  We have dividends coming in on Monday which would cover almost all of our bills due out in the next week – except our RV payment and that is due out this week.  I knew that later in February we would need to take money out of husband's IRA to cover our car insurance, but had time until same. 

Well, the money to cover the RV payment was to come from the monthly client I have and she pays me quarterly when I go and do her books, etc. and I was due for a check in January.  I tried to go to her last week, but when I called on Monday she was going to the doctor on Tuesday and did not expect to come into her place of business on Wednesday or Thursday either – maybe Friday she suggested?  Friday it actually was suppose to be nice weather here and in Pennsylvania and husband was ready to go to Pennsylvania for the day and I could not disappoint him – who knows when the weather would be right in both places again as it has been so long since they were.

So I said that I would be in this week.  I telephoned her on Monday to go yesterday, Tuesday, but she still was not feeling well so today, Wednesday it had to be.  In addition to needing to do her bank rec, payroll taxes have to be filed by the end of January so I had to go there now!  I was glad that weather stayed nice and no snow or rain.

I planned last night to deal with my problem – I wrote out a deposit slip for her check.  I checked where  branches of our bank are near her. I checked where a post office was near her.  My plan was that when I finished doing her books I would take the check from her, deposit and mail out the RV payment. 

When I got there she had a bad month and not only could not pay me, she could not pay her rent either.  I did her books.  I had her sign her payroll tax forms.  I dealt with a couple of problems she had which are not related to what I am suppose to do, but I do things for her – she is in her 80s. 

Well, I have my check – but cannot deposit it until she calls and says okay.  I need to get that RV check out tomorrow, so we will have to go and take the money out of husband's IRA now and hope that she says I can cash check when the bills that were to be paid later in February with the IRA money come due.   Just when I think I have it all taken care of….

I am sure that all of you have had similar problems.  The important thing to do is keep track of it all – accurately so that nothing bounces – and if there is that rare occasion that something goes wrong and it does bounce – both the bank and who you paid will look at your records and say “hey, this never happens with you – of course we understand and will waive the fees for the bounced check/late payment”.  (Yes, I did mess up badly once a few years ago and the fees were waived by both by the bank for the bounced check and by the company I had paid with the check as our record was so good that they could excuse the one error.)

To help keep my records accurate I use a software program to help me – Quickbooks (Quicken it's non- business alternative is good also).  I keep my checkbook by hand and also in the program – and the two of them better agree or I have a problem to look for.  The software lets me memorize the payments and when they are do and will remind me when I open it what bills need to be paid and what money should be coming in.   It also lets me keep my personal expenses separate from our various businesses and each of them separate from the others.  Lets me set up accounts for our tax related expenses and income to keep track of them for the taxes when they filed the following year. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Now is the time to get started so that next tax season will easier for you to deal with your income taxes (presuming that you are in the US and need to do so).  It is also a good time to start keeping better financial records in general as we all need to do same and it is easier to start with the start of a year than in the middle of it.    

A QUICK TRIP AND I CAUGHT UP ON MY PILE OF STUFF TO DO

Well, I had a bit of a chance to catch up this past week.  The pile on top of my desk which has to be done before I get to the folder of things to do, is down to scanning in articles from various issues of a magazine related to reenacting that I convinced my husband that we don’t need to keep in full.  Much of these magazines are ads for items related to “the hobby”.  There seems to be 3-5 articles of varying length that he wants to keep.  He has gone through the magazines and circled in the table of contents those articles he wants.  I am scanning in the articles here and there as I get a chance - luckily they are not in color so they scan a lot faster. 

We did go away for the day last Saturday to the state sheep and wool festival.  We have never been there before.  It went as our trips go.  The ride there was suppose to be 2 hours.  Husband printed the directions from Googlemaps.  He also turned on the GPS app in his cell phone.  They did not always agree.  The road both sent us on for most of the trip is a picturesque limited access road that curves around and through mountains.  It was so curvy that husband was getting motion sickness, even though he was driving.  We were pretty sure we could not go home the same way as he could not deal with the curves again - especially in the dark with no street lights.  When we were towards the end of the trip there the two sets of directions varied from each other.  The Googlemaps version had us get off the main road sooner than the GPS.  We decided to go with the GPS and stayed on the road.  All of a sudden the GPS froze.  (We eventually figured out that there was no cell service there!)  Now we had a problem.  As we kept driving and tried to remember where the GPS said to get off the road, I saw a sign to the fairgrounds we had to go to and we exited the road.  10 miles to the fairgrounds and no further signs appeared.  I had out the Googlemaps directions and kept looking for roads that were listed on it.  We were approaching one and I had to calculate quickly - turn right or left?  Luckily I guessed correctly and we turned right and not much further on came to the road the fairgrounds were on.  Fair was okay - not a worth a trip back in the future.  (Very limited weaving related items - other than wool, of course, which we could not afford - and weaving items were why husband wanted to go.)  Talk about disorganized - I noticed that people had a small booklet with map and vendors in it.  I walked back to the gate and asked for one - I was told that they hard run out “3 hours ago”.  This means that 3 hours into the first of two days of the event (which ran 9 hours the first day) they were out of their handouts - not good planning to me.  After we drove to a, yes, another Golden Corral about an hour from the fairgrounds and vaguely on the way home.  Dinner was another bust and I will not bother you with the details unless someone writes and asks.  Now we had to get home.  I looked at the (paper) map and found that an Interstate road near the restaurant headed in the general direction of home, that connected to another major road and that just left figuring out how to get to one of 3 bridges after those two roads to get us home.  I have a mapping/GPS program in my other laptop (the good one) which I had brought with me (I generally take it on trips for something just like this) and I am able to find a place by looking at and moving the map and then adding a start, end, or via point there.  I did that with several points so that the route would stay where I wanted it and it had no problem getting us home.  It was much a quicker trip home than the one getting to the area and straight road - no curve after curve.

Just for fun - and my luck, I did get a mailing from Equifax that I am, of course, included in their latest security breach.  I tried to find out how to do all the things I need to do with them as a result, by mail as I will not put my information online and don’t trust doing it by phone.  I sort of got an answer from their recorded info phone line and have sent in to them about this.  Now I will also send in a request for husband as our credit info is mostly joint.  Then I will be calling Trans Union and Experian to do the same with them.  And I have such a unique name that I have been sure that I am the only one with it in the world - now there may be many of me if my identity is being used by others.  What will happen to my 843-850 (it varies some months) credit rating now?

I wrote the newsletter for my embroidery chapter in only one afternoon - first time since we changed to this new format I was able to do so, it was common before.  One member’s email is suddenly bouncing back and she did not return my phone message, so I mailed her a printed copy and asked for her new email.

I am packed, my laptop is charging, and I am going to a client tomorrow.  I have written checks for bills to go out in the mail on Friday.  I have calculated how much I need to transfer from savings to checking to pay the bills and have cash for a trip next week (we hope).  The needed papers are in my “Friday errands” envelope.  I have a deposit slip with these papers as I am due to get a check from my client tomorrow and will deposit it Friday also.         

Laundry is in washer.  First load about to go to the dryer when my cell phone alarm rings that it is time to go down again.

I did so well that rather than take a shower tonight in a rush at the last minute and go to bed with wet hair, I was able to take a leisurely shower before dinner.  Ahhhh.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Work at what is piled up little by little, try to keep more from being added and there will be less left in your “pile” of todos. 

I know my stack of todos will be piled up again soon - especially if we take a short trip next week - but sooner or later it is gone again.

Don’t eat all the Halloween candy - and check what your children eat before they do.  Have a safe Halloween.

                   

A WEEK SO BAD THAT I AM POSTING A DAY LATE

Well, I just finished posting last week’s post which did not post itself on schedule.  So much for listening to suggestions of prewriting the posts and setting them up to post by themselves.  Even worse, I am day late with this week’s post.  It has been that kind of week - heck, September was an overstuffed month altogether.

Well, I have learned, mostly to eat with my new teeth, after some adjustments from the dentist, - but I now whistle when I say the “s” sound.  I hope that can be fixed also.

Last Saturday I went to the Long Island Fair with a friend my embroidery chapter.  I was so organized - I bought a curtain rod to hang our banner (handmade by some earlier members), I brought handouts with our information, I brought our tiny plastic suitcase with things for exhibitions (including plate stands to put framed needlework pictures on), I brought pieces I have made/started in the past from the chapter, I brought things to work on and I brought lunch for husband (who was joining us) and myself.  I did forget to bring a table cover.  I have never forgotten same before and we have been involved with the Fair for 30 years.  Oh well, we got by without one.  Sunday we mostly had a chance to rest - and then had to run at the end of the day and pick up our entries at the Fair.

Monday we went to the dentist and working on my teeth, the “s” is a little better, but not gone. 

I had planned to go to a client on Tuesday, but she was not available and I had to go on Wednesday, so I tried to get most things done for the week.  This included the newsletter for my embroidery chapter.  It goes out on the last Wednesday of the month.  I wrote it up Tuesday night - with a question out to the chapter president about her column.  I figured that, Wednesday, since I have been getting back a bit earlier from the client than I used to - she has to leave about an hour earlier than she used to, I would be able to easily finish the newsletter and set up our banking for today (Thursday).  Oh boy, was I wrong.  When I got there she had a major problem - which I will not go into, but I was making phone calls for her and trying to figure out how to best resolve the problem for her.  She is in her 70s or 80s, with a very small business and I treat her like I would my mom.  So, I got home just in time to make dinner.  With normal things after dinner (and we eat late) it was almost midnight by the time I went up.

It took until 1 am to finish the newsletter - when I actually had finished it, there were all sorts of double and overlapping lines which were suppose to be single lines and I could not get text to wrap around a photo and finally realized that the photo did not fit any way - which easily resolved the problem.  So the newsletter went out a few hours late - but I am guessing that no one reads it before Thursday morning anyway, so they probably did not notice it went out late.

I also managed to figure out where to get money to pay all of the bills through the end of the month, okay, that is Saturday, all the bills until around the 10th of next month.  I called up one of our credit cards to get the “points” money credited to our account to help with the bills going out around the 10th of next month.  I thought it was for around $20, but anything helps.  I apparently I have not been organized about calling for the credit of these points to the account.  I normally call when the points balance passes $50 - somehow it was over $200, not $20, it pays almost all of that bill - yippee!  That will help with the October bills.

I spent part of the day today on the phone with the client trying to fax something to someone else in the same business space as her, for her - her fax machine never works - to resolve what we were working on yesterday - which has to be resolved by October 5.  The friend’s fax was not working either.  We pay per call on our landline and they are in NYC so the calls for the fax are not cheap (okay, not cheap to me or husband as we grew up in homes and the time when a call to the next county was not done unless there was an emergency) and the multiple attempts to fax were also using paper for the receipt saying it did not go out.  I finally mailed the papers to her and hopefully she will have it on Monday and the matter will be timely resolved.

As a result of all of this craziness, I did not get to the laundry last night. Normally that would not be that bad, but last week I did the laundry a day early due to the holiday and then never did finish putting it away.  So tonight I have to do a lot of laundry as there is an extra 2 days worth - and somehow my two weeks plus of panties is down to one spare pair.  I am also writing this post.  I had planned for “craft night” - when I get a chance to do some embroidery or other craft from 11:20 pm to 2:00 am - to hem the piece I am embroidery as one is suppose to do so but I am lazy (yes, I admit it, I am the laziest person I know, I will carry in multiple packages from the car no matter what they weigh just to avoid a second trip - drives my husband crazy).  The threads are starting to pull out of the edges of the piece, so I need to hem.  That is not to be.  As I started this post husband came down and told me that he sold something on his webpage.  He was told that I had to write this post and then I will be up to do the paperwork for him.  (I am an accountant, I love paperwork.)  So, this post will be brief.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Sooner or later everything important gets done - or it doesn’t.

CHRISTMAS FOLLOWUP AND NEW YEAR'S TO COME

Well, Christmas is over.  Did you have a good Christmas?  I will tell you about ours in a little while. 

Did you find all the gifts you had bought to give to people?  I admit it, once when my youngest sister was young (she is 12 years younger than me) my husband and I forgot to bring her gift when we got together with my family for Chanukah - terribly embarrassing and of course we had to get the gift and bring it to her later that week.

I finished decorating our two main trees on Thursday.  I did the rest of the decorating, including a small tree with the brass ornaments we have received as contributors to Colonial Williamsburg over the past few decades - they were taking up too much room on the main tree, we have 2 duplicate ornaments and put one set of them on the main tree and the rest on a small tree in our dining room. 

Friday afternoon I also went to wrap the gifts.  Since we bought few gifts this should be a fairly quick process.  When I can I put our gifts to ourselves into recycled small Christmas gift shopping bags (the bags were received with gifts from others in the old days when we traded gifts with others).  I thought I had plenty of Christmas wrapping paper as I had not made any notes under “Christmas” in my “buy” shopping list in my cell phone.  Oh no!  Just a bit left on one roll.  I had plan to wrap our gifts as husband was busy upstairs and I could wrap the gift I had for him that he did not know about without him seeing it.  Plans changed due to the shortage of wrapping paper.  It was more important to nicely wrap his niece’s gifts.  I laid out the Barbie for one and DVD set for the other on the paper and cut the paper and wrapped the gifts.  I then needed paper to wrap the scarves husband had made them, which I then planned to put into two of the recycled bags.   I laid out the rolled up scarves and cut a large enough piece to go around the larger scarf, which was, of course the thicker of the two rolls.  Luckily, there was plenty to wrap both scarves.  I then went up to talk to husband about the exact wrapping and including a photo with each of the scarf while it was being made.  He got all excited as he was not ready to wrap the scarves and had to print laundry instructions for them.  I told him to calm down and not rush - but of course he did.  While he was doing so I went back down and wrapped in the paper which was left, two of his gifts and used small pieces of the wrapping paper which had been left over in the past to wrap a couple of pieces which I planned to put in his stocking.  The other items, which were small enough, I put into other of gift bags.  I put all 4 of my 4/$1 hair clips in one bag for me.  He came down and we wrapped his nieces gifts.  His gifts and my one gift when into 2 regular paper shopping bags (mixed, I did not take a bag just for my bag of hair clips) and the 4 gifts for his nieces into another paper shopping bag.  Did not want to chance forgetting a gift for a niece as I did with my sister decades ago.  The bags were set aside in the dining room out of the way.           

Saturday afternoon I got ready for Christmas Eve dinner.  I put the ham in the oven and careful read the directions for the other items I was making 3 hours before we planned to eat.

I then took out the ornament I had embroidered for my husband.  I was unhappy with it when it was assembled and decided it needed a decorative edging.  I sat and braided red pearl cotton (a type of thread).  I then stitched the braid around the front edge of the ornament - made it much better looking.  I then wrapped it in tissue paper, having run out of wrapping paper, and added it to the bags of husband’s gifts.  I then returned to my cooking.

One of the things I was making as a side dish is something called dried corn.  This is a Pennsylvania food.  Corn is dried by heat for storage.  When it is cooked it is soaked to bring it back.  In the past we had bought the canned - ready to heat and eat - version.  The one company that makes this item had shut down several years ago and finally someone had bought up the business and was making it again.  When we were in the Lancaster, PA area we had bought the canned version and also a version in a package.  We have made the canned version and it was not what it used to be.  For Christmas we decided to make the packaged version.  This version is just the dried corn itself, so it has to be soaked for use.  I had misread the package and had thought it would be soaking and cooking for an hour and then another 5 minutes after adding milk - oops, it was to soak for an hour and then cook for 40 minutes plus the 5 minutes after adding milk.  Luckily I caught it in time - and hour and 45 minutes would be just about 15 minutes longer than when we would sit down and we were having soup first.  It came out pretty close to what we had before.

We had meat tortellini in chicken broth for the soup.  Not much involved in cooking same, boil the tortellini, add to the chicken broth when same almost heated. 

We had also bought a box of potatoes au gratin.  I had never made this before. I waited until the ham came out as I wanted the ham to set a bit before slicing and eating and the potatoes needed a temperature 25F degrees higher than the ham.  I of course checked the ham with a meat thermometer to make sure it was cooked through.  I followed the instructions for the potatoes.  I took out the size baking dish needed and added the cheese mix plus butter and milk as it said.  I then was to mix with a whisk - uhhh, the size baking dish it called for was completely filled and any mixing would make it run over, so I had to take it out of the baking dish, mix it and then put it back in.  I careful added the dried potatoes to make sure I did not run the cheese mixture out of the baking dish. The box said that the sauce would thicken as it cooked, not really.  I cooked it almost double the time with no luck - and I have a fairly quick oven and the oven had been well preheated by the ham cooking in it.  We had it anyway.

Dinner in the dining room with tablecloth and cloth napkins and the good china and silverware.  3 hours of cooking 45 minutes of eating and then the clean up has to be done.  I had looked up in advance the times for mass.  Several years ago midnight mass was moved to 10 or 11 pm at most of the churches around here.  We found one that still has it at midnight and it is a pleasant church with nicer people than the others.  When I checked the times I found out that there was a midnight mass and also a 10 pm mass.  Husband decided we should go to the 10 pm mass.  (His choice as it is his holiday.)  Clean up had to wait until we returned. 

When it was time for bed husband went up and - spoiler alert -  “Santa” put our gifts under the tree from the bags in the dining room.  So Christmas Eve had gone fairly well.

We go to a family member of husband’s on Christmas Day.  We got there and gave the nieces their gifts - which were lost in the numerous and huge gifts from Santa and other relatives.  Then the host started in on the subject which polite people have been avoiding discussing, especially when they are the host and they know that their guests disagree with them - the election.  Husband got so ill over this discussion that we had to go home and he had to go to bed.  Short Christmas Day.

We are now awaiting New Years.  I am getting ready for the change.  I have made up a list of the todo’s and appointment reminders I need to put into my computer organizer for 2017.  I have some entries which are annual ones and are already in the softwear data through 2020, but the daily, weekly, monthly and so on entries I put in each year as they might change and to keep the file smaller.  On January 1 or 2 I will back up the file for my archive as 2015-2016.  I will then delete the 2015 entries.  I will then add the 2017 entries and I will be ready to go for the new year - and still have this year for reference if needed.  I keep 2 years current each time and back up 2 years each time.  This has worked great for me since the early 2000's. 

We have renewed all our prescriptions so as we start the new medical insurance year, we know that we have a start on it and won’t have to worry about any changes not made in the insurance company’s systems for prescriptions delaying us from a needed renewal.

We don’t have plans for New Year’s Eve yet.  Husband is thinking of finding out if the movie theater we go to will be open then.  Normally we do not do much.  We watch the ball fall here in Manhattan on TV.  No, we have never gone.  It is too big a crowd for us to be happy with in so many ways. 

When I was a girl New Year’s Eve was confusing to me.  I could not understand why it was a bigger deal than the change of any other month.  I would be allowed to stay up until midnight.  At that time “The Tonight Show” was done in New York City by Johnny Carson.  On New Year’s Eve they would do the show live and cut away to the ball drop.  I remember one year it was to be New Year’s Eve on Saturday and I was not sure if they would show the ball drop as the show was only on Monday to Friday.  My parents, correctly, assure me that they would show it. 

Since I am talking about New Year’s and this blog is, at least nominally, about organizing - the question of resolutions has to be mentioned.  I found that I never kept any and felt bad about it.  One year, some decade or so ago, I made my last resolution which was not to make any further resolutions.  I do think over the past year and changes I might like to make or things I might like to do, but I do not make any resolutions - they just cause guilt when they are not kept.

Think of one thing you would like to change to make your life better or easier - and try to do it.  Don’t resolve, just try. 

I am going to try to do a better job of regular cleaning of the house.  I used to be much better at doing so.  When first married in and were in our apartment, husband would come Friday night and fall asleep early after dinner from the week.  I was also working full time then outside the house.  When he went to sleep I would clean the apartment.  As we went along we bought the house and I stopped working outside the house and moved the accounting practice I had taken over from my dad into the house and was therefore in the house more, I started doing the cleaning on Wednesday mornings.  When he left work, I moved it to Wednesday nights.   I am thinking Tuesday nights might be a better choice and will see about it.  It is in my calender as a “todo” and I will schedule it for Tuesdays instead.  I spread the chores over the month - one week upstairs, the next down, repeat.

My best wishes for a wonderful New Year for us all.


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TRYING TO GET EVERYTHING DONE FOR THE HOLIDAY

Well, here it is - another Wednesday night.  I feel like I got did nothing this past week as I see so much I need/want to do with so little time left before the 25th.

I managed to start putting up some of the smaller Christmas decorations, okay, I set up my Christmas bear figurines which go in the living room and this week I set up the ones which go upstairs in a little village and a small tree which goes with them which has all teddy bear ornaments.  I did not finish setting up the lighting for the village though.  We did get the outside lights up on the bushes - and the new wreath for the front door as you know.  That leaves about 8 boxes of decorations for inside the house and three trees of varying sizes to go. We don’t have much other of the holiday other than the decorations so I go big on the decorations.

I know, I know almost 2 weeks to go seems like plenty of time.  But I don’t have all that time free. I took off time tonight to take a 3 hour online test I needed to take to be able to continue to work next year - I already finished 5 smaller tests - and the reading for all 6 courses.  I managed to finish the exam with 6 minutes to spare and pass it with an 88 - 70 was needed for credit.  Now at least I have that behind me and know that I can work next year.  I promise myself, next time I will get the courses earlier in the year and get them done earlier to avoid the last minute rush.

I went to a client this week - work must be fit in also - it is very important of course, but that was another day gone from my time.

The next 4 days we will be involved with our reenacting unit for a candlelight nights event at the local restoration village.  Our unit takes over a house there from our period (late 1700s) and interprets it as if there was a period holiday party going on in it.  The event is only from 5 pm to 9:30 pm, but we have to dress in period clothes, drive to and from the village, set up the building for the night, and then close down the building at the end of the night, so the 4 and half hour event takes us seven hours plus and when we come home afterwards we first make and eat dinner - so it basically takes up the entire day for the 4 days.  Today we went out and ran our errands for the rest of the week and mailed out bill payments for all bills due between now and Monday.  It is an event we enjoy, but it does take a chunk of time.

So in between all this I will need to finish clearing out the dining room - stuff for the RV will go out to the RV and stuff for husband’s weaving will be stored in our studio.  I was pleasantly surprised today when I came downstairs after working at my computer in the afternoon to find that husband cleared out most of the living room of his weaving stuff for me to decorate the room.  The original agreement was that I would have it from after Thanksgiving - something I never expected to happen and I had planned to put all the decorations up around his loom and related items - I had even figured that at least I could use the table he uses for warping (setting up the threads to weave through) the loom to put ornaments and such on while I set up, though he has stored the table away.  I was very happy that he had the consideration not only to stop weaving, but also to make room for me. 

On Monday I received the paperwork I mentioned last week for my embroidery club to reserve our meeting room for 2017.  I filled in the papers at the table at Wendys while I waited for husband to get us lunch as the papers have to be notarized - we then went to the bank and had same done.  Later when we came home I did the rest of the paperwork needed and husband mailed it for me yesterday (Tuesday) so it is on its way.  I also had promised to write something for the chapter president and had started it a couple of weeks ago and mostly finished it today and sent it to her for her to read and see if changes or additions are needed.  I also have some questions out to members (by email) for info I was missing. 

See, I got a lot done, it just does not register as there is so much else to do.  As I sit here writing to all of you, I am also doing the laundry - one load has washed and is in the dryer and the other is washing - more loads to do, but when these 2 are done, we are okay through the weekend if I don’t get to the other loads.  Dishes are washed daily - well, three times a day, I wash them after each meal.

How are you coming along with your plans for the holiday?  Remember one can only do what one can do.  When time runs out - then one is done - by definition.  Okay, I admit it, I will keep putting stuff up until it is all up, even if that means the day after Christmas. 

GETTING EXTRA TASKS DONE - SOMEHOW

This week I wanted to talk about fitting in things that have to be done now and then.  One can set up a routine for the week to help one get the house cleaning and other tasks done, but every now and then (more now than then it seems) other things have to be done.  Some are planned, some just pop up.  Some are fun, but some are just things to be done - some even are things one dreads doing.
           
I have on numerous times mentioned our RV.  The weather is getting cold.  Before the weather gets freezing we have to winterize it.  If you live in an area which gets cold in winter you probably know that if water freezes in your pipes they will split and you will have a problem.  This is more likely to happen if the house or the area of the house where the pipe is located is not heated.  (With the huge snow storms here the past few years this has happened to people who lost their electric power and had no heat.  Husband worried about in our basement as some of the pipes are attached to the inside of the exterior walls as it was much colder than normal here and ran an electric heater in the basement to keep the pipes warm.)  Winterizing the RV is, basically, getting all of the water out of the pipes, valves, etc. and replacing it with non-toxic anti-freeze.  Sounds simple.  It is not as that simple and there is an entire process that needs to be followed to do it - we have it written down, but still manage to always forget something.  Today we winterized the RV. 

My husband has started weaving on a loom this year.  So, every week or so I help him do what is called “warping the loom”.  This is putting the threads on the loom to weave through.  It is a relatively tedious process.  He needs my help to bring the warp threads out to a dowel to measure them out and then when all the threads are on the dowel, I bring the dowel to the loom - v e r y  s l o w l y - and I keep tension on the threads, as he winds them onto the loom.  When he finishes weaving a piece I know that he will soon be looking to warp the loom again.  So, when he finished a piece, I knew that he would be looking to warp the loom.  After we finished winterizing the RV - which took most of the afternoon, I saw him walk into the living room (where the loom is) and look around and sort of sigh.  I knew what was going on.  He wanted to warp the loom, but did not want to ask me to do so after spending the afternoon with the RV.  I made the offer and we spent most of the rest of the time before dinner warping the loom. 

So this afternoon was mostly used up with these two chores.  I managed to check my email and that was about it.  (I am writing this at night after dinner.)

I have worked as an accountant most of my life. (I started helping my dad add up columns of numbers when I was 12, so I do mean most of my life.)  I have reached a point now where I have a couple of regular clients for whom I do their books on a regular basis and a handful of income tax clients.  Unfortunately there is no exemption by IRS for a practice this small and I have to take annual classes and exams as the same as if I worked full time and actually made money doing this.  While I can take the classes and exams as home study, it still is something else which must be fit into my time and takes about 20 hours in total.  I get nervous every year about fitting time to take the exams into my schedule.  I managed to do some of the smaller classes last night, which helped me get a bit less nervous.  I still have some more of the smaller classes to do.  I also have a large class and a 3 hour exam I have to take which I have not taken before.  This scares the heck out of me.  Not only do I have to do well on the exam to keep working - I also have to find a 3 hour block of time to take the exam.  Somehow, I know I will do so - special things always manage to somehow be fit into one’s schedule.

Then I know that later this month the other big special things to do will start - Christmas decorating.  Somehow no matter how busy we all are, we somehow manage to fit in decorating the house and the tree and buying and wrapping gifts.  And then somehow, when it is all over, we find the time to take it all down and store it away.  Okay - our decorations tend to stay up longer than they should - but the year they stayed up until April, it really was only because it was a freezing winter and our garage door froze to the ground and we could not get out the storage boxes to store the ornaments.  So rather than take off the ornaments and leave them about, the tree stayed up. But for now, let us just think of the fun of decorating and how nice everything will look - if we can just find the time to decorate.

So, in between the normal daily, weekly, monthly tasks we all somehow manage to fit in these other tasks. How we do it varies from person to person and time to time.  I just “found some time” I hope to keep available to get things done.  On Monday nights I read comics online.  Mostly I was reading the entire week of each comic’s strips.  Some (most) weeks this reading ran over to Tuesday.  Two weeks ago I  decided it takes too much time.  I looked through the strips as I read them.  I dropped one strip.  Five others I decided I will only read the Sunday strips.  I like the characters, but can do with just a quick visit to them.  (Sunday strips generally have nothing to do with weekday strips so I won’t be missing any “plot”.)  Over time I may drop some of these strips, but I will see what I decide.  The remaining strips are ones which I like the most and want to keep reading.  This has cut out over an hour of time that I spent reading my comics and I now seem to be able to able to finish them on Monday night, leaving Tuesday night free for whatever else I need to do.  (Hence, why I was able to take part of the classes I need to take last night.) 

How do you fit in things which need to be done to your busy schedule? Do you need to fit in making Thanksgiving dinner next week?       

REMINDERS

I have been having another computer (sort of) problem and it gave me the idea for this column - reminders.

Among the problems I have is that I lose track of time and/or forget I have to do something.  I have found that reminders work great to deal with this.  It can also remind one to do something that one does not really want to do and tries to ignore.

I use my cell phone and my computer for reminders.  My husband had the wonderfulness known as a Palm Pilot.  Perhaps you remember them.  He could enter information into a calendar, a to do list, an address book, or a memo list in his Pilot and sync it with the calendar from Palm (or some other ones also if he preferred) and the same information was on the Pilot and on his computer.  I had liked the idea of a calendar on my computer, but since I don’t keep it on all the time it was inconvenient to use as I had to turn the computer on, so I did not keep my calendar on my computer.  He lent me his Pilot to see if it made if it made using a computer calendar convenient for me.  I used to be on the road locally and I was using a calendar book, which I could carry in my brief case, to keep track of my appointments.  I also recorded what I did in it - for work especially.  The Pilot was to replace it.  If I liked it we would buy me one also.

Well, I did like it.  Instead of buying one, however, he told me to keep his.  At work his secretary kept track of his appointments and at home I did, so he had found he had not needed it while I was using it.   We found a nice program to use with it (instead of the one which came with it) and I was happy.  It would go to work with me in my brief case.  If I was going someplace that I might need to make an appointment or otherwise see if I would be free on a certain date, I would bring it with me in my tee shirt pocket.  Then horrors, of horrors, Windows updated to Windows XP.  The calendar program I was using only worked through Windows Millennium.  I switched computers with husband when I needed a new one as his ran on same and that gave me some more years, but then I had to give in and upgrade to XP.  Luckily I had received for one of my laptops a program I had never used - Lotus Organizer.  I tried that and it was even better than what I had before and worked with the Pilot.  Problem solved.
                   
When we had to update our cell phones we got Palm Centros.  They also synced with the Organizer program, were smaller than the Pilot, and since I did not have to carry a separate cell phone - it fit in my pocket!  This worked terrifically for me until husband decided to get one of the “new” Android phones and I had to get a new cell phone when we split our plans.  He did some research and found out that the Blackberry Centro - new at that time - could be made to work with the Organizer with old Blackberry software.  I was back in business.  Next problem was the upgrade to Windows 7 - but husband managed to get the Organizer work with it also.  The Blackberry won’t work with the Organizer to do list, but since most of my to dos are in the house, I use the Centro for same, using it as a PDA and for its games.  I keep both the phones synced to the Organizer program and if I have to dos outside the house I put them in the calendar section so they sync to the Blackberry calendar.

So, what does this boring recitals of cell phones, Windows versions, and computer calendars have to do with real organizing?   I use the setup to remind me of what I have to do from day to day. How?
First, there is the obvious. I put any appointments I make into the calendar section.  Doctor appointment?  It’s in there and I can set a reminder to remind me in advance - weeks, days, hours, minutes before - of the appointment.  A regular monthly club meeting - I put them all in at once using the repeat feature.  Holidays?  I have the ones which occur on the same date every year (Christmas, New Year’s Day, etc.) set up to repeat annually, automatically.  Holidays which are on a certain day (3rd Monday of February for example) I also set up to repeat annually, also automatically.  The reason I love the Organizer (unfortunately no longer available as it is a “dead” program - but there are alternatives) is the variety of ways it allows the appointments (and to dos) to be entered and repeated.  (I could even repeat something every 13 days, for example, or every 3rd Tuesday, or every 5 months, or every 3rd year.)  Holidays that vary around (such as Easter) I will go in and set by hand for 5 years and then do so again towards the end of the 5 years.  Birthdays, anniversaries can be set in to repeat year to year.  Children’s dance classes, little league, religious classes, etc. can be in the calendar to remind you.

If we are going on a trip I enter the hotels, or more recently the campgrounds, into the calendar section.  For example I enter “John Hancock hotel, 4 nights, reservation number 345678A, $95 a night” on each night that we will be staying at the hotel.  Now, this tells me where we and when we will be sleeping, but can be confusing as we don’t always sleep where we are going and it is off from the days as it shows the nights at the hotel.  So I also enter, separately what we plan to do, in a general sense.  For the above it was a complete trip, for example, the first day would say “drive to Boston” - this would match the first night at the hotel as we would be staying there after driving to Boston.  The next 3 days would say “Boston” as that is where we plan to go, Boston and the surrounding area - these days match the remaining 3 nights of our stay.  Now the last day - which does not list a hotel for the night - we are still in Boston, but will be driving home and there is no hotel for the night and I will enter “drive home from Boston”.  So now I have a record of where we are staying and when - and all the reservation details, as well as what we plan to do each day.  If I want to keep a record of what we did each day, I make a to do (or memo, this is called different things by different programs) and list what I want a record of having done.


Second, I use the to dos (memos) to keep track of what has to be done.  Huh?  Well, every day at 6:45 pm a reminder rings in my PDA to remind me to stop doing what I am doing (I am generally on the computer or otherwise working in our office), backup the computer data, sync the phones and the computer, as it will soon be time to make dinner. I have a weekly reminder to write my entry for this blog on Tuesday nights and another - also weekly - to remind me to post it on Wednesday night.  And, yes, just like the clock we all set in the morning, it is not uncommon for me to reset the alarm on the to do to finish what I am doing at the computer or to write the blog on Wednesday if I can’t do it on Tuesday. 

A reminder can be set for any reason - husband does not like cold ketchup; on Thursday afternoons I have a reminder to take out chopped turkey to defrost and the ketchup to warm up.  I have reminders to do the laundry on Wednesday and Thursday nights, I have reminders to check my email once a day (I do not check it again unless I did not receive  an email I expected to receive or I sent one out and expect a reply.  My email does not come in automatically when it arrives.  This lets me not get stuck constantly dealing with email.)  I have reminders to change the towels in the house (twice a week in the bathrooms, three times a week in the kitchen) and to change the bedding once a week. Being a crazy accountant, I have things I do at the end of the month to sort of close out one month and start another - reminder for each. 

I also have standard times to set reminders on an ongoing basis.  I put in a reminder to make telephone calls at 1:30 pm. I put in a reminder for things to do in the late evening after dinner at 11 pm (we stay up late) and so on. 

I enjoy doing embroidery, but never seemed to get a chance to stitch on whatever (and there are always several) piece I am working on.  I have a Thursday night “to do” which sets aside the time for me to stitch then. 

Now, things which I will do while at the computer and while looking at the Organizer calendar, I do not necessarily set up with an alarm to remind me.  When I go to our office (also known as the second bedroom, lest you envision a huge business office) I turn on my computer, sync the 2 phones with Organizer (one at a time, first the Curve and then the Centro) and open Organizer.   I will first make any adjustments needed due to the syncing - I check off finished to dos for example.  I then look at the page, the same as one would look at any paper appointment book, and I see what I have to do and any appointments.  (Important appointments, such as doctors, will have an alarm a few days before, reset as we go closer to the appointment.)  I then know what needs to be done - starting with checking my email.  When I am finished at the end of the session, I back up my data, then the calendar data, and then sync again - again first the Curve and then the Centro.  As soon as I leave my computer and make any changes they no longer agree among the three - Curve, Centro, and computer, which is why I sync them when I start so they will all have any changes made and then again when I leave - so they will all be the same going forward until a change is made.

Third, I also use the address books in the three and sync them together so they all have the same information in them.  (My current problem is that the Centro has stopped syncing the address book.  Based on syncing it with my laptop - something normally only done when on a trip - I find that it is a software problem in my desktop computer and I will need to delete and reinstall the syncing software.)  Names, phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.  There is also a section to list other information - great for remembering the doctor’s nurse’s name when one goes in or the name of a business associates wife - and if it is in your cell phone - you know you will always have it with you.  A campground we go to frequently has notes on which spaces we like and which we do not.

Lastly, all 3 have a memo section.  What is this?  Just for notes you need to make and have.  A shopping list.  The sizes that one needs for Christmas shopping.  Which sewing machine one has.  Which books on certain subject one has (stops one from buying a duplicate). Notes made while someplace on how to do something. I have a memo with a listing by state and main road of where there are places we have found to eat while in transit - due to the RV needing a bit more space in a parking lot I also note if there is a problem (“small parking lot”). I list the exit from the road.  Much cheaper (if one is not on a toll road) than eating at truck stops along the way.  So basically, a memo section can hold anything - no alarms though.            

Okay you are thinking, but unlike this crazy person who uses old stuff, I have an android or an Iphone and the software she mentioned no longer exists - what do I do?  Well, first every cell phone has an address book of some type, so that is easy to use.  I asked my husband and he told me that there is a calender in android phones and in Iphones (and I think I had one in my old flip phone) so that is available for you to use.  If there is no software for a calender or to dos or memos - there are apps.  I understand that Google has a calender and one can set it up to sync with an android or Iphone and then the info will be on your computer and on your phone.  Even better than just a sound alarm - you can have Siri or Cortana remind you of your appointments and things to do.  Even setting an alarm clock can help remind you to do something.       

Now, I know I get carried away with my reminders - but your cell phone can be a very useful tool to help you stay on track with what you have to or want to get done.  Want to sort stuff in the back room where it all just seems to have piled up?  Set a reminder to go in there and work for 10 minutes a day - or once a week - or in between - or less often. If you have to return books to the library and you know you will forget in the morning - stick them in a bag and hang it on the door you will leave by - or the closet door (clothing or coat) - or on the kitchen table.  All sorts of reminders work and really help. 

How do you remind yourself what to do and when to do it 

HOW CAN I BE SO BUSY DOING NOTHING?

Have you ever gone through on of those time periods where you have things to do and don’t get to them as you have minor things to do like crazy - although none of them are really anything of importance?  I have been going through a period of time like this the last few weeks and sometimes it always seems that way to me.

First, as you know from prior posts, husband has been planning trips that I have to try to work around.  If we are going on a trip household chores - especially laundry and financial - have to planned around and for the trips. Laundry must be done so we have clean clothes to bring.  Bills have to be paid before we go away which will be due while we will be away and we have to make sure we have money in the checking account for the bills, cash for the trip, etc.  When one does not know how long one is going away for or even if one is going away or not, this is hard to do.  So I have to plan for the maximum amount of time we will be away - and all possible dates (will we leave Tuesday?  Wednesday?  Thursday?  Next Monday?) for the trip.
                   
Also mentioned before one day a month I have to go out to a client for work.  I generally go on a Tuesday or Thursday due to a variety of reasons.  I had to go to the client last week and file her sales taxes after I came home (I have no Internet access at her place of business).  One of the trips we were planning was also last week.  So I had to make sure I went to her early in the week so I would be available whenever we actually went.  Then there were a couple of problems I had to deal with for her after I was home - Time running like sand through my fingers.

We then went on the trip.  It ended up a day trip to the Valley Forge, PA area, followed by a ride to Lancaster, PA for dinner and home.  The shortness of the trip allowed me to catch up on some paperwork sitting on my desk (bank recs and such).

As I mentioned last week we made a frame for my embroidery piece a week ago Monday, and then after husband painted it, we framed the piece Tuesday (after I came home from my client).  Over the weekend we had to take the piece to the event it was entered in.  I also had another piece entered in the same event.  So, last Sunday we had to drive to the location of the event and drop off the pieces.  Another good chunk of a day gone.

Monday night our reenactment unit had their monthly meeting.  I had to prepare paperwork to bring (I am on the board and have to give a report each time).  This took up a chunk of the afternoon and the meeting runs so late that we eat dinner part before - soup - and then the main part after the meeting, around 11 pm.

Tuesday we went back to where we dropped off my embroidery as we were judging in other categories.  This takes up most of the day. Then we had to eat lunch and run our regular errands on the way home.  Oh, I got to check my entries - I got a red ribbon (2nd) for the embroidery and nothing for the smaller piece.  Oh, well, it is for fun.  (First prize is a whopping $5, so it is not done for the money.)
               
In between all of this I helped husband warp (set up the threads to weave through) his loom.  This takes about an hour or more to do.  He finished the piece and today we had to wash it. 

Some how I have managed to catch up on followup I had to do from my embroidery group meeting about a coming project.  I also am the “web master” and change the website after the meeting to feature the next meeting.  So, of course, with cleaning and other much more important things to do, I decided that the website was missing an “about us” page and have spent parts of three days doing it - while doing everything else.

This coming weekend our reenactment group is having an event.  I have to set up the embroidery I work on at events (I demonstrate period needlework) so that all the threads I might need are set up on reproduction “bobbins” (piece of wood) so I do not have to take out anything modern.  We will also be packing our van for the event a day or so before.  The president of the group cannot come, so husband will be in charge of the event as VP, more work for me.

Next weekend my embroidery group will be demonstrating needlework at the event I have my pieces entered in.  I will have to pack in advance for that - including items belonging to the group that I have here.  The day after husband and I will go back to the event (it runs 2 weekends) and pick up my pieces.

Then it will be next month and it starts all over!

So, I keep doing things, but never have time to GET THINGS DONE around the house.  It amazes me how quickly the time passes.  If I want to make a telephone call - for services needed, let alone family - it sits on my calendar for days and days - sometimes weeks and weeks.  I really need to call my mom to say hello!

Have you found this happens to you?  You are always doing things, but nothing you need to get done, gets done just the “other stuff”?

ONE YEAR OF POSTS - HAVE I GOTTEN AHEAD ON MY ORGANIZING?

Well, this post is the start of my second year of posting.  Pretty good for a procrastinator who has tried 3or 4 times before to start a blog - this is my 53rd continuous post.  I did write several before I started to make sure I would keep going.

In the past year I have written about my adventures - or at least attempts - in organizing including my early attempts at organizing,the kitchen, organizing books, the December holidays, winter weather & later in the years hurricane prep, computers - including the replacement of my hard drive, income taxes, our studio, our tiny RV, medications, finances, my hatred of sheets and even an odd item found in my sofa.  Some posts read better to me than others and seem more interesting than others.  But, I have managed to write and post by late Wednesday night (very early Thursday am?)  every week.  Last week I thought I would miss the post as our Internet went down when I was ready to post.  (It has been happening this lately - 3 times in 2 weeks for a few hours each time and, of course, when we call and complain there is no record of any outage at the cable company we get our Internet service from.)  I plan to make a listing by subject on the site - when I figure out how to, so postings can be referred to by subject by you kind readers.

I was concerned that I might be late in this post.  You know how it is - there are weeks when there is nothing which has to be accomplished by a deadline - and then suddenly 5 different things suddenly have to be done and all have a short deadline.  But everything was done and a planned trip which was going to take up time getting ready was cut back to a one day trip.  Whew, I wouldn’t want to miss or be late with this post.

We have a very small corporation (gross income less than $1,000 a year) and the returns are due March 15.  I cannot prepare the return until after I do our personal return - which I get out after my client’s returns in April before the deadline.  So I put the corporation returns on extension - to September 15 - yes, tomorrow.  Most years I am doing the return at the last minute.  This year I decided I would good and get the return done in July.  I did the calculations then, but ended up with other things to do and the returns themselves were put off to August - still not too bad.  I did the Federal return in August and then looked at our “new” state return.  I almost fainted.  Not only is there no longer a simplified return for small corporations (which are much larger even than our tiny corporation), but the regular return was redone and is now 8 pages long, plus I had to an attachment form 2 pages long, and another return because of where our corporation is located 4 pages long.  It is aimed at huge corporations with multiple locations.  At one point I found a section (we’ll call B) which could not be done until another section (we’ll call E) was done - so I went to section E and I needed information from section B to complete it - so I needed E to do B and B to do E!  Luckily I knew the answer from E would be zero, I am not sure what one does it if something else, which it will be in most cases.  In the middle I had a question and sent it by email to state tax department.  (They say on the site and on their telephone message when one calls them to send an email rather than calling, so I do.  I have never had an answer by email and usually they tell me to call them - and I sit and listen for 15 minutes to repeating messages telling me to go online instead - when I did and was told to call - and then their system hangs up as it is too busy.)  This time they called me - what a shock!  I was able to finish the return Monday and it was out in the mail today - the 14th - with a day to go before it was due.  So, yes, I did know this return had to be done - and I will try to get it out earlier next year since I now know sort of what has to be done on the state return - I think.

I am not sure, but I think I mentioned that I enjoy stitching embroidery.  I finished a piece which I started 10 years ago - some time off in the middle when dealing with the bed bugs    and other pieces in between.  It was finished in March and I knew how I wanted it framed.  I planed to enter it at the county fair - which is actually the county fair for 3 counties and held in the manner of the late 1800s at a restoration village - with the original fair grounds recreated from photos - which is in late September to early October.  Plenty of time.  Unfortunately when I started the piece we had access to low cost picture frame molding.  In the ensuing 10 years the place no longer sells same.  So now I was stuck trying to find a frame which looked like I imagined in my head, was the correct size and shape, and was cheap.  Not easy to do as the piece is a square.  When I went to the various chain craft stores (the major source of cheap frames) they did not have the size.  I found one slightly larger in Ikea in a different color and we were going to buy that one and I would add fabric to the piece so it would large enough to fit the frame and husband would cut a mat for it, but then, about 2 weeks ago, I found a frame in Michael’s - the exact size I wanted and the color I wanted!  We bought it.  It sat in the house waiting to be used.  The end of last week we went to frame the piece (which also involves stretching the fabric over a back board and this piece has to be centered exactly) we found out that the frame is made of plastic over MDF board.  It is intended to hang from 2 hooks on the back of its back board - something we have never seen before.  In the interim between finishing the piece and now I found out the national of my embroidery group is having an exhibition starting next year and my starry eyes thought that perhaps I could enter and get into the show.  For this show the pieces have to be hung by wire - not any other method.  So the frame’s hangers could not be used and plastic over MDF is not good to put screws into, so that was it.  I figured, well that’s that for now - the Ikea frame would take too much work.  Husband went around and found some pieces of wood left over from other frames he made and there was just enough to make the frame for this one.  So, over the weekend, in a great rush of course, we made the frame.  While I was at work yesterday he painted and last night we assembled it.  Not exactly the look I wanted - but it is frame and it is black and will do - and I greatly appreciate his not giving up, even when I do. 

In the middle of everything else, I had to go to a client yesterday - which took up the day - but it is how I make my income.

We planned to go away for 3 days - figuring one day for a comfortable drive down, one day at a quilt show, and one day in the Lancaster, PA area. (You probably see this area mentioned a lot it is a nice relaxing place within a few hours drive.)  So last evening after working all day and then framing the embroidery, I brought the bills and related items downstairs to work on them in the kitchen - while I did the laundry a day early to have clean clothes to take with us - to deal with them as it all had to be done by today.  For extra fun - when I paid the bills last week there was some other problem and I paid them, but did not post them to computer, which I use as a double check on what I do.  So I had to finish up last weeks bills before starting on this week’s bills, plus the laptop I was using (my work one, not this one, as it has the software needed in it) is not the easiest one to use when one is used to using the desktop with all the extra keys it has.  I had to write an envelope for one bill and sent it through the house network to print it upstairs - but of course since I last used that laptop, the printer code reset and I had to run upstairs, put an envelope in the printer (and announce to husband - don’t print anything until this envelope is printed), run down, start printing, realize the code was wrong, try to access the router drive as it has the correct code on it - but the laptop would not access the house network, run upstairs and get the code, update it in the laptop, print the envelope and then run upstairs to get it.  Exhausting.  Well, all was done and ready to go out in the mail today and the clothes were washed and dried and this morning I folded them. Then today we decided to just drive down for a day - so all that work did not have to be done for today, but it was. 

So at this point I don’t know if I am further along in organizing or not.  I will keep trying, that is all I can do. I hope you will continue on my journey with me and feel free to tell me about yours or comment on what I have written.  Thank you for reading “me”.

Remember - instead of waiting for January to start at “the new year” there are lots of new years to use - I started with September as that is when it is the new year for school, the TV season, and the Jewish holidays.  February is Asian Lunar New Year.  Then again, every day is the start of a new year!

BEST LAID PLANS... PART 2

Well, last week I left off with my computer having Windows reinstalled and having to reinstall software.  The computer is still not up to full working set up.  I figure it will take at least another week.

I started installing software in, more or less, the order that 1 - I thought it was of importance and 2 - I thought I could install it myself.  In addition to installing the software much of it needs to have its registration information given again (from the original registration of the software into this computer).  Luckily when programs have needed to be registered I have made a record of the registration information which was given to activate the program - in one case of the “hidden” location the registration information (is validation the correct term) where the information has to be entered.  

Installing software takes time - which is why the backups were made to begin with - and while the installations are being done I have been using my larger, slower, “kitchen” laptop to get some work done.  I also, by hand, copied all of the entries in my Palm Centro to the organizer on this laptop so I was finally able to sync the two and not lose any entries.  I am continuing to do so until the computer is setup and the software for the organizer, the sync program, and the sync program for my cell phone are installed on the desktop computer - they will be put in towards the end of software installation.  Tuesday and Wednesday last week were spent installing software to the point that the computer was partially workable. 

Thursday I installed my email software - a freeware program.  I am not good at updating programs and was using a rather old version of the program.  Husband told me to install the newest version.  I did so.  He then tried to copy my profile from the old hard drive to the new.  It did not work in the program.  He tried all kinds of things.  Finally we reached the conclusion that old profile did not work in the new version of the program.  We uninstalled the email program and installed the old version from my old downloads file.  The program would not open.  The computer thought the deleted version was still running.  We rebooted the computer - 3 times; it did not help.  Finally husband figured out what to do.  So after about 2 or 3 hours of installing and uninstalling and rebooting, I finally had my email program back.  I had only been checking my more critical email and the accounts more likely to have email, so for the first time since the previous Friday I finally checked all my email accounts.  No surprises, thank goodness.

On Friday I tried to add 2 of our printers to my computer, the 2 I actually use on a regular basis.  (We have a travel printer which was not of immediate need, a plastic tape label printer - I don’t think I have ever printed on it from the computer, a photo printer - only husband uses, and an older printer which still needs to run on a parallel port.)  Our printers were purchased before my version of Windows.  The disks therefore did not work.  When I tried to have the computer add the printers, they were not listed.  Panic set in.  I then looked in the downloads file from the old hard drive and found - YES - the printer drivers!!  We installed them and as of last Friday I can print again!  Well, I guess, technically, I always could print by copying what I needed to print to a laptop, but who wants to do that.  

Since then I have not had a chance to install more software.  I am coping with the fact that my computer looks “wrong”.  I don’t know how I had it set before, but buttons look smaller, icons look bigger.  One button just looks wrong.  Husband says to me that can wait until all is up and running.

On Monday morning we get not one, but two orders for our craft business.  We have few enough orders that when we have one I have to remember how I do the paperwork for our records.  Not only do we have 2 sales, but one of them is for multiple items - goodness knows how long since we had same - and is for our home state - which means sales tax was collected and I have to remember how I do an invoice with sales tax.  All of this would be minor, except I am using alternative software, other than I normally use, for some of this as the software I normally use is not yet - let’s hear it - installed.  I have a program which lets me write pdf files with multiple pages. The program I am using instead makes one page pdfs, so I have to start a folder to hold what is normally a single file until I can fix it.  The software I use to print labels is not yet - let’s hear it again - installed.  Husband manages to print a label on his computer with some program he has - we had to figure out which Avery label number the labels were.  The orders went out on time, but I still have to get around to straightening out my records to what I like. 

At this point husband suggests that I make a backup with the new backup program - so if anything happens as we go, we have everything to this point saved.  Of course there are problems using the new backup program.  I finally had to leave him working on it as I had to make dinner.  He figured it out and I have a backup - which hopefully will work if I ever - oh, I hope not - need it.

Tuesday I went to work.  No dealing with the desktop.  I just had to use my work laptop - unchanged, everything as it was.  What a pleasant thought.  All went fine until I was done.  I keep the info on a USB flash drive as I keep all my data on same and each client’s info is on its own flash drive so I can just bring that client’s info with me when I go to the client and I am always using the correct version of the info as it is on a specific flash drive.  When I am done and about to leave the client, I back up the info to the laptop’s hard drive (and then again at home onto my regular backups).  I finished work and went to back up the flash drive - I get message that the drive is full and it cannot be backed up.  Panic starts to hit me.  Then I think about it.  I have about 3 backups at home from last month.  I did not do that much work while here that I could not easily duplicate it next month if needed.  I can deal with it.  I come home.  I put the flash drive in my desktop - as I thought, the drive is only about 1/3 full.  All the work I did was there and it was easily copied to my backup.  Okay, one problem easily solved.       

When I made the list of programs on the old computer we realized that some software related to the processor chip was missing.  I found the instructions for the software - which apparently is on the mother board disks.  Husband installed the software for me while I was out today.

Today I had to go to a board meeting for an embroidery group I am treasurer of.  Normally I am the most organized person there.  I have notes and information - whatever might be needed.  Between not being able to work on my computer and prepare in advance and dealing with this client and running to back up it’s data tonight, I am not prepared for the board meeting - or the errands I plan to run tomorrow around the meeting.  I printed out a financial report and quickly made some notes on the back.  When I got to the meeting today I explained, that they are about to see the other me - the one without her computer to keep her organized.  Luckily, I still managed to come up with most of the info needed. 

I still have not hooked up the USB hub with my flash drives - archive, data, backup A and backup B and I am waiting until a few other programs are reinstalled and ready to use. For now I put the flash drives in and take them out as I need them. 

Hopefully when I next post it will all be resolved - I doubt it though.

Have you ever been through a mess like this?

Organizing your computer data to protect it - backing up

Lately in the news there have been reports of computers being “hijacked” and people being told that they had to pay a ransom to get the use of their computers back and if one pays, one may or may not actually get their computer use back.  The amount asked can vary from a few hundred to over ten thousand dollars depending on whose computer it is and who has hijacked it. 

There has also been - as I am sure you know - those who will send a virus, worm, or other malware to others’ computers.

In all of the above cases having a good, up to date firewall, virus protection, and malware software is important.  Also one should be careful about emails and who they are from.  Never open an attachment in an email if you do not know the person or if you do not know that the email is validly from the person you know.  I have on a number of occasions received an email from someone or other, people well known to me and who I correspond with by email, and the subject line seems odd. I don’t open the email, but instead send an email to the person asking if the email is really from them.  Often it is not and the person has had their account hacked - I then delete the email UNOPENED.  I hate to cast aspersions, but in most cases, requests from Linkedin, saying that someone has invited you to join are dangerous and not from the person - delete them UNOPENED!  You can contact the person separately to double check if you want, but there is a good chance it not from the person.  All of these steps will help protect your computer from being hacked, as well as from viruses, worms and other malware.       

Something which is very important to do is to back up your computer - often.  If this is done it will help restore your computer if something does happen to it.  I back up my data after each session of working on the computer (if I work on the computer in the afternoon I back it up and then if I come back in the evening and work again, I back the data up again).  I also back up my data once a week and then once a month I back it up to keep it “offsite”.   On a different date once a month I also back up the entire computer - or in my case - all 3 computers.

I keep almost all of my data off the computer on USB thumb drives (also called stick drives and other similar names) and use them for most of my back ups.  They are rather inexpensive.  (I will just call them drives to save time and space in this post.)  I know about “the cloud”, but prefer not to put my information out in same, another place for it to be hacked so I use the drives.  The ones I use vary from 4 to 16 gigabits, with some smaller ones, which used to be used for backing up and have been replaced with bigger newer ones, being used for things such as the drive on which I keep my copy of my blog posts, temporary use, or moving info from one computer to another if it is easier than sending it through the central drive on our router. 
               
I have a drive for my data - I organize it into folders.  It holds my letters and other such, my financial information, my spreadsheets, and so on of regular data.  My calender data has to be on the computer, so it is not on the drive.  I also have a variety of other drives for different data purposes - one for each business client (I take the drive to the client when I work and use it in my business laptop and on my desktop at home, this way the data on it is always the correct data to use), one for my current project of scanning in instructions and warranties, one for information I need in our RV when we are traveling, etc. 

I also use the drives for backups.  I have an A and B drive for daily backups of the data drive, calender, and clients.  I use the A one and next time the B one, and then the A one again.  This way the most data I can lose is the just completed session of work (or fun). 

This worked well until I had a problem.  There was a problem with the computer and the data and by the time I realized it, I had overwritten the backups several time and had to go back and redo my work.  So, I came up with the idea of a weekly backup.  This is another drive.  I have 6 folders for my data, 6 folders for my calender and 3 folders for my clients (I generally only work once a month on each client’s info).  I back up one week to each of the folders and then go back and over write them.  So the folders on this drive read, for example - Backup, 0408 Backup, 0415 Backup, 0422 Backup, 0429 Backup, 0506 Backup - and the one without a date would have been backed up on 05/13 and I will change the name on it when I go to backup again to include that date and the 0408 will have the date removed and become the backup to be written over.  The other folders are similarly named for their various purposes.  If I find that problem has been continued - I have 6 weeks of backups to go back to for reference. 

Once a month I copy the data drive, calender, and other data I need to be sure of, to another set of 2 drives for offsite storage.  Sounds complicated?  I used to send one of the drives to work with my husband and he would bring the old one back - off site - away from our house.  When he stopped going out to work I was stumped.  Then I had the idea to keep the offsite drive in our safe deposit box and I go there once a month and take the last one and leave the newest updated one in the box.  Simple to do and if (God forbid) something happened to my house there is a backup.  These drives also have a copy of my last archive disk - more about that later. 
           
For all of the above backups I use a freeware program called Syncback. 

When I do this I also burn two DVD disks (I use a rewritable disks) of the data on the offsite drive as DVDs are more stable than the USB thumb drives - just in case.  One DVD is available at home for me to use.  The second DVD goes into my emergency “grab it folder” just in case there is a disaster coming so I have a quick way to grab information to take with me.  (I will talk about this folder some other time.)
   
I also have an external hard drive and once a month - in the middle of the month - I back up my computers to it.  (Desktop, work laptop, and kitchen laptop) This will allow the restoration of the entire computer if needed.  I recently had to get a larger one, and I now back up to the new hard drive monthly and the old hard drive quarterly - just in case.  I use a commercial program for the backups to these drives.  I keep a few years of the backups on these drives.
           
This is a lot of backups - daily, weekly, monthly, and computer monthly, and there are other unusual ones but it allays my fear of losing data.  Early in our use of home computers we had an electric surge on our Commodore 128 and we lost the hard drive and all the data on it - this is why I keep as little data as possible on the hard drive and back it all up - a lot.  We also disconnect our computers when they are not in use - we have them plugged into surge protector boxes which are plugged into regular multiplug boxes and we unplug the surge protectors from the multiplug boxes so the computers and peripherals are not plugged in when not in use for protection.

Now, the archive.  One accumulates a lot of data over the years and decades.  Too much data in every day use can make the data cumbersome.  I have another USB thumb drive that use as an archive.  Each year I move last year’s data to the archive drive and add it to the data there.  I do this about a month or so into the year, as I like to do the bank reconciliations on the December statements and post interest (such as it is these days) received, so it is usually done in late January or early February.  Sometimes I will do a second update to the archive of business items related to the prior year, later in the year.  When I transfer these files to the archive I back up the archive to, yes, 2 DVD disks, which are kept in the same places as the monthly offsite DVD drives.  I also will copy the updated archive to the off site drives - (first the one I have in the house waiting to go to the vault, and then when I bring the one in the vault home, I copy the new archive to it also). 

I delete everything which has been copied to the archive drive from my assorted data drives.  I then do a backup of everything to one of the daily backup drives.  I then format the OTHER one of the daily backup drives and back up the data drive, etc to it, so it no longer has what has been transferred to the archive drive - just the current data.  I then format the FIRST daily backup drive and run the backup.  This way each of them has a clean version of the backup and the items moved to the archive drive is no longer on the daily backup drives. 

I am sure by now your brain is swimming.  I use my computers for work as well as personal and I don’t want to chance a client being audited and not having everything I need, nor do I want to look for a letter I wrote to a craft show about our doing the show, and then the following year be missing the information I need for the new show.  Also, well, in case you have not figured it out, I am a bit crazy and don’t want to lose any information.  I have had times when I make a mistake doing something on the computer and as I try to fix it I get into more and more of a problem.  I know that I can always pull out the last backup and replace the what I have messed up and start over. 

The important thing is to make sure you backup your data and your computer on a regular basis.  This way if anything happens to your computer or your data, you have not lost the work you have done, the photos of your children etc. 

I just remembered - I have tried in the past to backup my email and it has not worked as it is too cumbersome - I will try again to do this, but in the meantime I leave my email in my account and on my computer so it is in two places.
                           

TAXES PART 3 MORE DEDUCTIONS - THE FINAL PART

Wow, I thought I might not get a chance to write and post this week.  I am in the final leg of doing tax returns for clients (ours waits until the clients returns are finished), preparing for a club meeting today, my husband’s birthday this past Monday and a day trip out of state for his birthday yesterday, Tuesday, I have not had a chance to write the post, something I usually do overnight Tuesday to Wednesday.  So here it goes -

The last two posts were about income and the most common types of deductions for personal income taxes and saving the paperwork during the year (and sort of what you should be looking for now if you did not save the paperwork during the year) so that the returns can be easily prepared and filed.  Today I am going to talk about some common,but less common deductions which go on the same form - Schedule A.  You also know that I will now tell you that you should not rely on this post for income tax advice and you should always check with your tax preparer and that different things apply to different people and different situations.

There are an assortment of situations in which one suffers a financial loss. called a casualty loss.  Sometimes one can deduct part of the loss on their taxes if they file Schedule A.  If you had a theft loss, a accident, such as car accident, vandalism, fire, or storm damage or a bank in which you have money becoming insolvent - these are some of the losses which can be deducted.  You need to fill in another form 4684 and attach it to your return, which will give you the information to fill in Schedule A.  So if you had any of these situations, keep any paperwork you have - insurance claims, police or fire reports, etc.  (Put them in what?  Yes, your envelope.)  There are limits on this deduction - you have to subtract $100 for each event and the loss has to be more than 10% as calculated in a certain manner and you have to subtract any insurance payment or other reimbursement from your loss.  When you do the paperwork for this type of loss you can take the loss in value of the item(s) as the deduction amount.  What does this mean?  If your car was hit by someone it is a casualty loss.  The loss is not what it cost you to fix the car - it is the difference in value before and after the accident.  If the car was worth $20,000 immediately before the accident and immediately after the accident it is worth $10,000 - your loss would be $10,000 - but then you have to subtract what you received from insurance (yours or someone else’s) and/or what the person who hit you (or anyone else) paid you towards the damage to the car.  Then you subtract $100 and then you will have to do the 10% of your income (calculated a certain way) calculation.  If you have an item stolen - then the value after the casualty is zero (unless it only partially stolen).  This is the sort of thing that makes it good to have someone help you with your taxes.  I thought I would mention it as not everyone knows about it.

Then there are what are called miscellaneous and certain job expenses.  If you have certain expenses related to your job (and you are not self- employed) they can be deducted - maybe.  Like medical expenses the expenses in the category have to be more than a certain percentage of your income 2%.

First, job expenses.  There are specific job expenses which are allowed  - union or other dues required for your job.  Uniforms or other special clothes you need to provide for your job.  This category can be odd.  One reason doctors traditionally wear white coats?  The white coats are deductible, a suit jacket is not.  Deducible clothing can not be clothing which can be worn for every day purposes. This would also include tools if you are required to provide your own tools for work. Commuting to work - your trip to your normal work place and home again - is not deductible, but if your boss sends you out from work and you pay the cost of getting to the other location - it is deductible.  There is a form 2106 (isn’t it great how there is a form for everything?) on which one lists their job related expenses - the instructions will let you know what can be deducted, as does the instructions for Schedule A.  Some job related education can be deducted - read the instructions.  If your boss reimburses you for expenses it is income to you and you want to deduct the expenses you paid out to decrease this income.  You can deduct the job expenses allowed against what your boss reimbursed you for same even if you cannot itemize your deductions using the form 2106.  If your expenses are more than the your boss gave you - that’s when it is deducted on your Schedule A.  Certain expenses are allowed based on your job.

You can also deduct in this section of Schedule A expenses related to making your investments - publications, a safe deposit box if you keep financial papers in it, if you pay your income tax by credit card and you are charged a fee by your credit card company, what you pay for your income tax preparation or consultation, and other items - again they are listed in the instructions for Schedule A.  Did you have to close a CD early and pay a fee for doing so?  Yes, it is deductible here.

There is also a listing of items you cannot deduct in the instructions for this section in the instructions.  Again - keep all the paperwork and put it into your envelope as you get it.

You may wonder why some deductions are allowed less a percentage.  This is an attempt to make the taxes fair (yes, I said fair).  Your medical expenses can be deducted, for example to the extent that they are more than 10% of your income?  Why?  Well in a simplified explanation, our friends at IRS realize two things - first, everyone has normal medical expenses and second, people with higher incomes can afford to pay more for their normal medical expenses than someone who makes less money.  At the present time the amount they consider to be what is normal for a family is up to the 10%.  But they also realize that older people often have more medical expenses and therefore once one is older, the percentage falls to 7.5% of income.  Oh - did I mention that medical expenses include dental expenses? 

Similarly the idea is that casualty losses of up to 10% can be absorbed by someone, while larger amounts cannot be as easily absorbed - and again those with higher incomes can deduct less - in terms of dollars - than someone with a lower income.

The same idea applies to the job and “miscellaneous” deductions - 2% is normal for these expenses to be, and over that is what is unusual and can be deducted. In this case there is also an understanding that someone who receives reimbursement for their job expenses might be better off not using Schedule A and itemizing (listing) their deductions, so on form 2106 they can offset their reimbursement and job expenses.

Even the idea of itemized deductions is IRS’s understanding that not everyone is the same.  Everyone is allowed a “standard deduction” which is what IRS thinks the average person should have in all of these items. (And there are different standard deduction amounts for single people, married couples, heads of household, and older people.)  If you have more you are allowed to list what you actually have in these expenses and deduct the actual expenses you have itemized (listed).  Once one’s income is over a certain amount than one is not allowed to deduct as much of their itemized deductions - again, those with higher incomes can better afford the expenses listed and are more limited as to what they can deduct.

See, you didn’t know that IRS could be nice to you, did you?

Taxes are much too hard to explain in simple terms so all of this is a generalized, basic idea to tell you what the average person should be aware to keep paperwork to help with their taxes.  An envelope - big manila, labeled and in a specific place is a great start to helping you keep it all together for your taxes.  Not mentioned here is an assortment of specific items - such as if you own a house - keep the papers from when you bought it and any major repairs or additions until you sell the house. 

The instruction books from IRS are actually a good source of help.  If you look at them online in pdf format you can search the instructions to find what you need.   

Talk to you next week - on a new topic, but don’t forget to start your envelope for this year if you have not done so yet - make your 2016 taxes easy to file in 2017!