I had plans for tonight's post – but things come up and I almost forgot what I had planned to write about.
We were suppose to take mom back to her cancer surgeon today for a second follow up visit. I have spent part of the last two weeks getting the wellness center at mom's assisted living residence to do the blood tests requested by this and also by mom's oncologist and send the results to them. My sister who sees mom a lot more than we do as mom lives near her, had to go in and talk to the staff to get the results sent. I checked with this doctor and the blood work results were finally there – great, we could take her there today. Oh heck, I had not realized that today was Ash Wednesday when I made the appointment. Why does that matter? Well husband is Catholic and cannot eat meat today – so for lunch he had to have Wendys fish instead of his usual lunch. So? Well, often eating fried foods makes his stomach ill and we were concerned about eating lunch, then having to drive out, pick up mom, take her to the doctor, take her back to her residence and then drive home if his stomach was bad. But he figured he would be okay, but was not happy about taking mom to the doctor today.
Yesterday, the day before the appointment, I was called by the doctor's office - though they thought they were calling mom as we gave them my phone number instead – why? - you will see in a later paragraph. They wanted to move her appointment an hour earlier. Big problem. It takes, from the time we arrive at mom's residence, an hour and a half to get her to an appointment 15-30 minutes from there. We have to go up to up to her room, take the big wheels off her wheel chair (or it is terribly heavy and does not fit in the back of our car and she cannot deal with getting in out van). Stop at the wellness office for a list of her meds for the doctor (easier than trying to remember). Get her through the building to the front (only) entrance. (Mom's apartment is literally the furthest in the building – top floor, end of the hall.) We then have to sign her out of the building – and we have to sign in as we run through the lobby coming in and then again when we leave. We have found it easier to take mom to our parked car than try to get her in or out of the car in front of the building – curbs and sidewalk cuts are problems. So we have to push her – uphill – to the parking area – either together or me as too hard for husband to do. Then we have to get her into the car and stow her wheelchair. Then the drive. Then on the other end we have to park – where there is room for mom to get out into her wheelchair (we have to get her a handicapped permit so we can park in those spaces with her) and then get her into the building. This last can be very easy to do – or hard – one building was on a hill with the building at the bottom of the hill and we had trouble finding the doctor's office – out and down hill, then back up hill – with both of us pushing. Most of the doctors offices require one to sign in 15 minutes or 30 minutes before the appointment time or they cancel it. Mom's lunch is at 11:45 am. Her dinner at 4:45 pm. If I make the appointment for 2:30 - it allows us to each lunch, drive out there, pick her at 1 pm and get her to the doctor – after she has eaten lunch. Other than the “doctor with the office from h*ell” she will be back at her residence, with the big wheels back on her wheelchair and settled in, in time for her dinner. So 1:30 pm was a big problem. We compromised on 2 pm.
So now mom was going to have a problem with her lunch, husband was going to have a problem with his lunch – so I had a problem in general. Then I had a thought. I telephoned the doctor's office back and asked about moving the appointment to a different day. Doctor would have plenty of time to her surgery and not rush us, husband did not have to worry about his stomach after lunch, and mom would not miss lunch. First date offered was next Wednesday – my embroidery meeting and my only day out – no way. We settled on a date in mid March. Doctor's office happy. Husband happy. I had to call mom and let her know of the change. I had been texting my sister as I went along in case she spoke to mom before I did, she could let mom know. Mom is hard to reach, at least for me, by telephone. By the time that generally I can call her in the afternoon – she is at dinner. I figured that the best time to call was around 7:30 pm as that is when she calls me. First time I left a message – but knew she would never get it. I called another 4 times as time passed. I went down to cook dinner. Mom called, “Did you call me?” I explained. “No, I never hear that there are messages.” Huh, hear that there is a message, she has to look at the machine – and has being doing so for over 40 years. Okay, go on there from there. She remembered we suppose to go the next day and I explained about the change. Fine with her. We discussed it four times. I also told her that if my sister called and said it was to be earlier tomorrow – that was old news and changed. We did not get a call from her today asking where we were so apparently all went well with the change. Mom is 90 and a year ago I would not question that she understood and would remember the appointment and the change, but a year can make a big difference.
Next wonderfulness was our basement freezer. We have a small freezer that we bought probably 30 years ago or more (it has out lived at least 2 refrigerators, probably 3). We used to grow vegetables in our back yard in summer and would freeze the excess in this freezer. Have not done so in at least a decade and it was being used for backup frozen vegetables and meat since, until about 3 years ago when we somehow switched to buy the food for dinner that day. So it has mostly sat in the basement with some commercial frozen vegetables in it and a few other items. Last year we used it when our refrigerator died and we had some items in its freezer. It had about 4-5 inches of ice on the top coils. Husband will not let me put frozen items at the back of the freezer in the new refrigerator – he read an article that the back needs lots of space for air to circulate – so I have (somehow) a smaller freezer in this refrigerator than our old and I cannot use about 1/6-1/4 of the space in it. I figured I would melt the ice in the basement freezer so it could go back to being used – and since there was nothing in it as we used the last item stored in it about a month ago – this was the time to do it.
I knew it would take a long time and would be messy. I had a plan. I needed to remember to do this when we come home fairly early from running errands. Today was the day. We were home early and I would be making many trips to the basement at night to do laundry and could combine the trips down for both purposes. When we came home I went to the basement and shut off the freezer. I put in two large, deep baking pans – one on the right of one shelf and one on the left of the other shelf to catch the dripping water as I knew the bottom drip pan would not hold anywhere near enough and would be a mess to empty. I grabbed lots of old used for junk purposes towels and spread them in front of the freezer. I propped the door open, set an alarm for an hour and went upstairs to work. An hour later – nothing had started – reset the alarm and back upstairs. An hour later – still no melting, reset again and started to cook dinner. After dinner while watching TV in the kitchen the alarm went off again. I went back down – goody!! Two small puddles (dots) of water in one of the baking pans – it was working. I went back to the kitchen – husband asked what I was doing. I told him. He had to inspect the situation. He decided that what I was doing would never work. He was going to use his heat gun. Luckily he decided that was too hot. We sat there for a couple of hours as he melted the ice with his hairdryer. Dumping the baking pans and a couple of times the bottom drip pan into a bucket. (I have done this before – just with a lot less ice – and knew that I would not be able to carry the baking pans or the drip pan to the sink without spilling. Finally the last big piece of ice was loose and fell free. After dumping the last of the water and ice into the basement sink he went upstairs and I dried the inside of the freezer. It is sitting with the door ajar to dry out before being plugged back in.
Sooo, my post on doing your income taxes will be delayed until at least next week.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Plans are plans - until they go awry. Whether the appointment has to be changed for someone else's convenience or needs or what you plan to do in the house needs to be done differently than you think it will - and takes more of your time as a result, or have you plans to write something and other items come up which need to be written about first - they go awry.
One has to deal with the changes and see what can be done. If nothing else – the appointment change and the change in how we had to defrost the freezer gave me something to write about and you get out of hearing about income taxes for at least a week!
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Friday, February 21, 2020
REORGANIZING AND CLEARING OUT THE LINEN CLOSET - PART 2
Well the new layout on the towel shelf in the linen closet seems to be working. It lays out so evenly and well that I could even label the front of the shelf if I wanted to help husband figure out which are the towels he likes and which he hates. (He takes towels and after he starts using them he realizes that they are not the ones he likes.)
I am not sure if I have mentioned that among the other crafts that husband and I work at, husband does weaving. He had always wanted to do this and a few years ago we found a floor standing loom that was small enough to fit in our living room, but large enough for him to weave scarves, shawls, table runners and the like. This past September he bought a second one that is narrower and smaller to bring to events where he is selling his weaving to demonstrate. He also has a much smaller loom that is a reproduction of a type used in earlier centuries that makes fabric tape used in clothing in the period. (Remember Disney's “Snow White? The ties across the front of her clothing would have been this type of tape.) After a piece is woven it has to be washed to “set” it. If he uses the dryer to dry the pieces they end up with folds that we have to iron to try to get out. He uses large white towels to roll the pieces in to take down the wetness of them (similar to wringing something out so it is not dripping wet). He bought a towel to use for drying himself that he hates and it has been in the linen closet taking up space. I took it out when I redid the layout and brought it to the living room (which is the “loom room” mid January to mid December) for him to have it to use when drying pieces he has woven.
With the new layout working and the removal of the above towel and the two large ones mentioned last week – I decided to move the shelf below the one I worked on. The two larger towels had been on that shelf. Currently they are rolled up in a bag and will stored on the top shelf of the closet in a spot we cannot reach without a step ladder.
The shelf below had our bed sheets, our spare mattress pad, and the 2 large towels and was jammed. The sheets are still in a stack (we have 3 sets – one on the bed, one being washed, and the next ones to put on the bed, so the most in the stack in 2 sets of sheets. The pillowcases hang below the shelf in a wire hanging shelf, like those below the first shelf. There is a second wire shelf hanging with pillowcases from old sets of sheets - the sheets wore out, but the pillowcases are still good. In addition to still being usable for sleeping, they are also good for putting needlework or cloth dolls that we have made to protect them when going to an exhibition. The sheets have remained where they were. The mattress pad is folded in thirds the length of them and then rolled up - for some reason this is the best way to store it. Instead of putting it side to side on the shelf, I put it on the end of the shelf from front to back. Fit perfect – okay, it did take a bit of pushing to get it in place.
I then managed to fit a couple of spare shower towels between the sheets and the pad – they are still folded in quarters and are pushed to the back of the shelf. I put our spare bath mat on top of these spare towels. We have 3 “bar towels” that we use in the bathroom to wipe up things when we notice they are wet. Normally two of them are in use and I will rotate the three of them to laundry one while two are in use. I put the third one of same in front of the spare bath towels/bat mat.
Again, a shelf that seems to work great!
Next I have to go through things on the wire hanging shelves on the inside of the closet door to get rid of stuff. Husband tends to buy shampoos when he is not happy with the one he is using, not like them, and stick on these shelves – and they are not sample bottles. I will toss out about 4 or 5 bottles of shampoo. There are a variety of other items that have accumulated on these shelves that I will also get rid of. Anything of his, of course, I ask before I toss. I hope to have enough room on these shelves so boxes of bandaids do not have to be stacked on each other and fall down on our heads, as well as fit washcloths and guest hand towels on the shelves – or else they will have to be fit on one of the two shelves. I might even be able to put the box of “ear swabs” right side up on a shelf – right now it is sideways and sometimes swabs fall out.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Little by little this is being accomplished. If I tried to do it all at once it would not get done. Try doing small bits of organizing when you can.
This week I hope to defrost a small spare freezer in our basement – there is years of ice in it. We have not really used it in awhile, but the freezer in the new refrigerator seems smaller than the one in the old one – and I am not allowed to put anything against the back wall of it as, apparently, that stops the air from moving correctly.
I am not sure if I have mentioned that among the other crafts that husband and I work at, husband does weaving. He had always wanted to do this and a few years ago we found a floor standing loom that was small enough to fit in our living room, but large enough for him to weave scarves, shawls, table runners and the like. This past September he bought a second one that is narrower and smaller to bring to events where he is selling his weaving to demonstrate. He also has a much smaller loom that is a reproduction of a type used in earlier centuries that makes fabric tape used in clothing in the period. (Remember Disney's “Snow White? The ties across the front of her clothing would have been this type of tape.) After a piece is woven it has to be washed to “set” it. If he uses the dryer to dry the pieces they end up with folds that we have to iron to try to get out. He uses large white towels to roll the pieces in to take down the wetness of them (similar to wringing something out so it is not dripping wet). He bought a towel to use for drying himself that he hates and it has been in the linen closet taking up space. I took it out when I redid the layout and brought it to the living room (which is the “loom room” mid January to mid December) for him to have it to use when drying pieces he has woven.
With the new layout working and the removal of the above towel and the two large ones mentioned last week – I decided to move the shelf below the one I worked on. The two larger towels had been on that shelf. Currently they are rolled up in a bag and will stored on the top shelf of the closet in a spot we cannot reach without a step ladder.
The shelf below had our bed sheets, our spare mattress pad, and the 2 large towels and was jammed. The sheets are still in a stack (we have 3 sets – one on the bed, one being washed, and the next ones to put on the bed, so the most in the stack in 2 sets of sheets. The pillowcases hang below the shelf in a wire hanging shelf, like those below the first shelf. There is a second wire shelf hanging with pillowcases from old sets of sheets - the sheets wore out, but the pillowcases are still good. In addition to still being usable for sleeping, they are also good for putting needlework or cloth dolls that we have made to protect them when going to an exhibition. The sheets have remained where they were. The mattress pad is folded in thirds the length of them and then rolled up - for some reason this is the best way to store it. Instead of putting it side to side on the shelf, I put it on the end of the shelf from front to back. Fit perfect – okay, it did take a bit of pushing to get it in place.
I then managed to fit a couple of spare shower towels between the sheets and the pad – they are still folded in quarters and are pushed to the back of the shelf. I put our spare bath mat on top of these spare towels. We have 3 “bar towels” that we use in the bathroom to wipe up things when we notice they are wet. Normally two of them are in use and I will rotate the three of them to laundry one while two are in use. I put the third one of same in front of the spare bath towels/bat mat.
Again, a shelf that seems to work great!
Next I have to go through things on the wire hanging shelves on the inside of the closet door to get rid of stuff. Husband tends to buy shampoos when he is not happy with the one he is using, not like them, and stick on these shelves – and they are not sample bottles. I will toss out about 4 or 5 bottles of shampoo. There are a variety of other items that have accumulated on these shelves that I will also get rid of. Anything of his, of course, I ask before I toss. I hope to have enough room on these shelves so boxes of bandaids do not have to be stacked on each other and fall down on our heads, as well as fit washcloths and guest hand towels on the shelves – or else they will have to be fit on one of the two shelves. I might even be able to put the box of “ear swabs” right side up on a shelf – right now it is sideways and sometimes swabs fall out.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Little by little this is being accomplished. If I tried to do it all at once it would not get done. Try doing small bits of organizing when you can.
This week I hope to defrost a small spare freezer in our basement – there is years of ice in it. We have not really used it in awhile, but the freezer in the new refrigerator seems smaller than the one in the old one – and I am not allowed to put anything against the back wall of it as, apparently, that stops the air from moving correctly.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
REORGANIZING AND CLEARING OUT THE LINEN CLOSET
That was a short week!
I am starting a new project. We have a linen closet in our upstairs hall. We keep what I presume is normal stuff in it – towels, bed linens, cleaning supplies, band aids + related, spare shampoo, spare soap, spare Diabetic supplies, and the like. It had been fairly well organized, but suddenly it just doesn't work any longer. This is not a large closet – similar to our other closets – about 2 feet across and a little less in depth. It is one of our closets that has the roof line coming down through the ceiling so the ceiling is not flat.
Mostly the problem is in the towels – somehow they no longer seem to fit. I started looking through them to try to figure what the problem is. I remembered that we have 2 bath sheets with our name embroidered on them. When we were first married a local store was doing the embroidery and it was something that “everyone” was doing. The towels are also red (white embroidery) which is not my favorite color. These two towels are on the shelf below our other towels and behind the spare mattress cover. I pulled the towels out for now I will bag them (in clear bag so I know what it is in it) and store, if they fit, on the top shelf of the closet – in the back of same.
We have too many of our other bath sized towels also. I figure if I keep 4 of the bath size and 2 each of the size each of us uses for our hair plus 2 towels for the top of the cart in the bathroom (we have no counter and made the cart instead) where they can be reached and store the rest of the towels away – and one set of each will be in use and one set stored. In case you were wondering – husband likes a towel on top of the cart so if he drops anything – on them nothing will break – he tends to drop a lot of things lately.
I will refold the larger towels in thirds so I can get 4 rows of towels on the shelf. I have been rolling the hand towels and will continue to do so – I will keep all of them available as I change them twice a week and have 5 sets in each bathroom (downstairs half bathroom has its towels in the cabinet under the sink there).
We have set of wire small shelves that hangs inside the door of this closet to hold bottles and things. I am going to go through the assortment of started and upstarted shampoos and lotions on the shelves and get rid of them. That will allow us to store some of other things on the shelves more safely – we both get hit in the head by bandaid packages that are stacked on each other above the height of the front of the shelves and fall on us. I am sure that there a lot of other items on these shelves that can be tossed out.
I might even find a place to hang the roll paper towels which wanders around in this closet. I have gone through the top shelf (where the extra towels will go) before and gotten rid of excess items from up there but I am sure that there are more items to get rid.
Other than the top shelf, towel shelf, and bedding shelf I have a half depth shelf below them which holds cleaning supplies. The bottom of the closet is where our laundry hangs (off the half depth shelf above it) and where we keep spare toilet paper and boxes of tissues. I also have 4 wire hanging shelves. Two of them hang from the bedding shelf. One has our spare pillow cases and the other has older spare pillowcases – just in case they are needed. We do have a single bed in the spare bedroom and some of these spare pillow cases are for it (bed has sheets on it and spare blanket for it would be one of the twin bed blankets we use in the RV and in winter in our bed for extra warmth). The other two hanging shelves hold spare medical items and small items – which hopefully will fit in the shelves on the inside of the door.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Try to find a small area to work on – especially if it is one that you know has stuff you can get rid of.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL OF YOU.
I am starting a new project. We have a linen closet in our upstairs hall. We keep what I presume is normal stuff in it – towels, bed linens, cleaning supplies, band aids + related, spare shampoo, spare soap, spare Diabetic supplies, and the like. It had been fairly well organized, but suddenly it just doesn't work any longer. This is not a large closet – similar to our other closets – about 2 feet across and a little less in depth. It is one of our closets that has the roof line coming down through the ceiling so the ceiling is not flat.
Mostly the problem is in the towels – somehow they no longer seem to fit. I started looking through them to try to figure what the problem is. I remembered that we have 2 bath sheets with our name embroidered on them. When we were first married a local store was doing the embroidery and it was something that “everyone” was doing. The towels are also red (white embroidery) which is not my favorite color. These two towels are on the shelf below our other towels and behind the spare mattress cover. I pulled the towels out for now I will bag them (in clear bag so I know what it is in it) and store, if they fit, on the top shelf of the closet – in the back of same.
We have too many of our other bath sized towels also. I figure if I keep 4 of the bath size and 2 each of the size each of us uses for our hair plus 2 towels for the top of the cart in the bathroom (we have no counter and made the cart instead) where they can be reached and store the rest of the towels away – and one set of each will be in use and one set stored. In case you were wondering – husband likes a towel on top of the cart so if he drops anything – on them nothing will break – he tends to drop a lot of things lately.
I will refold the larger towels in thirds so I can get 4 rows of towels on the shelf. I have been rolling the hand towels and will continue to do so – I will keep all of them available as I change them twice a week and have 5 sets in each bathroom (downstairs half bathroom has its towels in the cabinet under the sink there).
We have set of wire small shelves that hangs inside the door of this closet to hold bottles and things. I am going to go through the assortment of started and upstarted shampoos and lotions on the shelves and get rid of them. That will allow us to store some of other things on the shelves more safely – we both get hit in the head by bandaid packages that are stacked on each other above the height of the front of the shelves and fall on us. I am sure that there a lot of other items on these shelves that can be tossed out.
I might even find a place to hang the roll paper towels which wanders around in this closet. I have gone through the top shelf (where the extra towels will go) before and gotten rid of excess items from up there but I am sure that there are more items to get rid.
Other than the top shelf, towel shelf, and bedding shelf I have a half depth shelf below them which holds cleaning supplies. The bottom of the closet is where our laundry hangs (off the half depth shelf above it) and where we keep spare toilet paper and boxes of tissues. I also have 4 wire hanging shelves. Two of them hang from the bedding shelf. One has our spare pillow cases and the other has older spare pillowcases – just in case they are needed. We do have a single bed in the spare bedroom and some of these spare pillow cases are for it (bed has sheets on it and spare blanket for it would be one of the twin bed blankets we use in the RV and in winter in our bed for extra warmth). The other two hanging shelves hold spare medical items and small items – which hopefully will fit in the shelves on the inside of the door.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Try to find a small area to work on – especially if it is one that you know has stuff you can get rid of.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL OF YOU.
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Mom's house and doctors plus stored away Christmas
Mom is taking much of everyone's time again. Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch once said of his mother - “One mother can take care of 6 children, but 6 children cannot take care of one mother”. It is true. I have 2 sisters, we each have a husband, but there is a niece and nephew – that is 8 adults to divide up taking care of mom.
The family house is cleared out – mostly due to my sisters, brother-in-laws, and niblings. ( I had invented a genderless word for nieces and nephews combined as there should be one – niblings. When I posted this on some group that I am on, someone replied that someone before me had come up with a word for nieces and nephews combined – guess what it was – yes, they also came up with niblings. I am now spreading the word in hope that this long missing word becomes common. Now I need a common word for aunts and uncles – any ideas out there?) There is a broker showing the house now. So, new problems come up.
The family house is in the county and township as husband and I live in. The county (and included townships and a city) has had for decades ongoing problems with the local real estate taxes and how properly the houses are assessed for the value to be taxed, In attempting to fix one problem an entirely new one arose. One can “grieve” their assessment (value of the house to be used for the real estate tax calculations) which means that one files with the county and says that the amount they say the house is worth is wrong and it should be less. There is no downside to this – they cannot raise your assessment, only lower it if they agree with you. One can do this one's self or one can use one of several companies which do the paperwork and deal with the county for you. Husband and I have done this for a long time with a company and our house value has always been lowered. Mom has not done in the past until last year (which is for next year's taxes) as she was afraid of losing her senior partial exemption from part of the school tax (part of the real estate taxes), though I had assured her it would not.
Two problems arose with the sale of the house related to the real estate taxes. First one is that since mom has this senior exemption she amount she pays for real estate taxes is probably less than someone buying her house will pay (it based on income and being over 65 plus one cannot have children in school). The second is that the broker told my sister that mom's taxes are terribly high – higher than the neighbor next door with the same model house, with additions that mom does not have. So yesterday my sister emailed me for help with same – since I am in the same county/township and know the system. First thing I did was take the copies of mom's tax bills that my sister emailed to me and add up what the tax would be without the senior exemption – took a little time as I had to add up all the lines of taxes – once I had the total percentage of the taxes that are charged all I had to do was multiply the assessed value (a small percentage of the actual value of the property/house) by this total percent of taxes and there it was. Even with both the school and other real estate taxes added together it was much less than the broker said it was. Also I telephoned the company which is handling the appeal and they said that due to the county revaluing all the properties in an attempt to even off the assessments mom's assessment will go down as she had not appealed her taxes while other had. I emailed all this to my sister and mentioned that the broker should be able to figure out what the full real estate taxes on a property is.
Well, a thought occurred to me today - there is another house in the county, in a different township, which has the same address. We found this out one year a couple of decades ago when mom's check to pay her real estate taxes was returned to her marked that the taxes had already been paid by someone else. I was going to check on same, but found an email from my sister that she had already thought of this and the huge high taxes (the taxes on this house are so high compared to other houses on the street that it does not make sense at all and there will be problems selling the house) and checked – the taxes the broker has is about $6,000 a year more than per mom's bill or on line and is actually the real estate taxes for the other house with the same address. My sister will tell this to the broker, as well as pointing out that the value of the house for the next year's taxes (starts in September) will be lower as value of the house is lower and I will get a letter from a the company handling the grieving of the assessment saying that same is being done. (Based on mail I receive from them for our house this should not be hard and mom should actually have had this paperwork at home – but her records were lacking as well as the letters might be in the stacks of papers I still have here to go through.)
At the same time I was relaxing from taking mom to the various doctors and thinking “Good, we have time now and can get her to a plastic surgeon for the possible cancer growths on her face and get to Costco for hearing aids . Oh, well, It is about 3 months since we last took her to the oncologist, the surgeon for her cancer and the cardiologist who put in her replacement pacemaker. Guess what – they all either wanted her back in 3 months or wanted blood work done. So I have an appointment set up with her surgeon. I asked doctor's staff if mom needed blood work and they had to check with the doctor and get back to me – did so today and I have to call back and give them the info for the “wellness” office at her residence as they will do the blood work there. I already gave that info to her oncologist – I had given the wellness office two sets of paperwork for blood work in November, they did the first one and apparently lost the second one to be done now. Hopefully the two sets of tests will be done together so poor mom does not have to be stuck twice for blood. We have an appointment for to have her pacemaker battery tested at the doctor's office, but they were suppose to set up for when one of their staff goes to mom's residence (lots of heart patients there – not surprising) to do test the pacemaker there. Have not heard back so I have to make sure they are set up to do that and then cancel the appointment. So, we are back on the doctors-go-round, luckily the doctor from heck does not need to be seen for a couple of months.
And it is about to be my work busy season – income tax season!
I did manage to take down and store away our small Christmas tree and Christmas stuffed dolls, pillows, and stockings – a small assortment of what I normally put out. I switched out a set of bear figurines that I keep in the living room and change by month to keep it seasonal and went from Christmas – the bears for same were only half put out on display – to February (Valentine's Day and bear “dressed” as cherry pie for Geo Washington's birthday). The Christmas ones are all stored away in their boxes. My Teddy Bear Christmas village never actually was finished and will be partially taken down soon, with some bears added and others rearranged for Valentine's Day. One can only do what one can do – and this Christmas season was not one that had time to get everything done.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Mom's doctors, blood work and related comes first – health over all other things.
The family house is cleared out – mostly due to my sisters, brother-in-laws, and niblings. ( I had invented a genderless word for nieces and nephews combined as there should be one – niblings. When I posted this on some group that I am on, someone replied that someone before me had come up with a word for nieces and nephews combined – guess what it was – yes, they also came up with niblings. I am now spreading the word in hope that this long missing word becomes common. Now I need a common word for aunts and uncles – any ideas out there?) There is a broker showing the house now. So, new problems come up.
The family house is in the county and township as husband and I live in. The county (and included townships and a city) has had for decades ongoing problems with the local real estate taxes and how properly the houses are assessed for the value to be taxed, In attempting to fix one problem an entirely new one arose. One can “grieve” their assessment (value of the house to be used for the real estate tax calculations) which means that one files with the county and says that the amount they say the house is worth is wrong and it should be less. There is no downside to this – they cannot raise your assessment, only lower it if they agree with you. One can do this one's self or one can use one of several companies which do the paperwork and deal with the county for you. Husband and I have done this for a long time with a company and our house value has always been lowered. Mom has not done in the past until last year (which is for next year's taxes) as she was afraid of losing her senior partial exemption from part of the school tax (part of the real estate taxes), though I had assured her it would not.
Two problems arose with the sale of the house related to the real estate taxes. First one is that since mom has this senior exemption she amount she pays for real estate taxes is probably less than someone buying her house will pay (it based on income and being over 65 plus one cannot have children in school). The second is that the broker told my sister that mom's taxes are terribly high – higher than the neighbor next door with the same model house, with additions that mom does not have. So yesterday my sister emailed me for help with same – since I am in the same county/township and know the system. First thing I did was take the copies of mom's tax bills that my sister emailed to me and add up what the tax would be without the senior exemption – took a little time as I had to add up all the lines of taxes – once I had the total percentage of the taxes that are charged all I had to do was multiply the assessed value (a small percentage of the actual value of the property/house) by this total percent of taxes and there it was. Even with both the school and other real estate taxes added together it was much less than the broker said it was. Also I telephoned the company which is handling the appeal and they said that due to the county revaluing all the properties in an attempt to even off the assessments mom's assessment will go down as she had not appealed her taxes while other had. I emailed all this to my sister and mentioned that the broker should be able to figure out what the full real estate taxes on a property is.
Well, a thought occurred to me today - there is another house in the county, in a different township, which has the same address. We found this out one year a couple of decades ago when mom's check to pay her real estate taxes was returned to her marked that the taxes had already been paid by someone else. I was going to check on same, but found an email from my sister that she had already thought of this and the huge high taxes (the taxes on this house are so high compared to other houses on the street that it does not make sense at all and there will be problems selling the house) and checked – the taxes the broker has is about $6,000 a year more than per mom's bill or on line and is actually the real estate taxes for the other house with the same address. My sister will tell this to the broker, as well as pointing out that the value of the house for the next year's taxes (starts in September) will be lower as value of the house is lower and I will get a letter from a the company handling the grieving of the assessment saying that same is being done. (Based on mail I receive from them for our house this should not be hard and mom should actually have had this paperwork at home – but her records were lacking as well as the letters might be in the stacks of papers I still have here to go through.)
At the same time I was relaxing from taking mom to the various doctors and thinking “Good, we have time now and can get her to a plastic surgeon for the possible cancer growths on her face and get to Costco for hearing aids . Oh, well, It is about 3 months since we last took her to the oncologist, the surgeon for her cancer and the cardiologist who put in her replacement pacemaker. Guess what – they all either wanted her back in 3 months or wanted blood work done. So I have an appointment set up with her surgeon. I asked doctor's staff if mom needed blood work and they had to check with the doctor and get back to me – did so today and I have to call back and give them the info for the “wellness” office at her residence as they will do the blood work there. I already gave that info to her oncologist – I had given the wellness office two sets of paperwork for blood work in November, they did the first one and apparently lost the second one to be done now. Hopefully the two sets of tests will be done together so poor mom does not have to be stuck twice for blood. We have an appointment for to have her pacemaker battery tested at the doctor's office, but they were suppose to set up for when one of their staff goes to mom's residence (lots of heart patients there – not surprising) to do test the pacemaker there. Have not heard back so I have to make sure they are set up to do that and then cancel the appointment. So, we are back on the doctors-go-round, luckily the doctor from heck does not need to be seen for a couple of months.
And it is about to be my work busy season – income tax season!
I did manage to take down and store away our small Christmas tree and Christmas stuffed dolls, pillows, and stockings – a small assortment of what I normally put out. I switched out a set of bear figurines that I keep in the living room and change by month to keep it seasonal and went from Christmas – the bears for same were only half put out on display – to February (Valentine's Day and bear “dressed” as cherry pie for Geo Washington's birthday). The Christmas ones are all stored away in their boxes. My Teddy Bear Christmas village never actually was finished and will be partially taken down soon, with some bears added and others rearranged for Valentine's Day. One can only do what one can do – and this Christmas season was not one that had time to get everything done.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Mom's doctors, blood work and related comes first – health over all other things.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
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.
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.
Thursday, January 23, 2020
CLEARING OUT THE SPICE CABINET AND MOM'S HOUSE IS NOW CLEARED OUT
Well, mom's house is cleared out according to my sister. The furniture people did not take much of the furniture as the pieces were “too large”. Okay, I understand the living room sofa was custom made for the room and is a bit large – it is two or three pieces and goes along two walls, and turns in the corner. (Let's see, my parents gave me y 6th grade graduation gift -a small portable typewriter – while we were getting the sofa so it is over 50 years old.) I am not sure, but I would have removed the boards from the dining room table and set them either on it or next to it as with the boards it holds at least a dozen people comfortably and may have looked intimidatingly large with them in – and the boards were in to display stuff for the tag sales. My dresser was a long one, but the other dresser that was my sister's and her desk were small. The first fellow took the 3 night stands in the house and the chairs to the kitchen table, but the kitchen table was left and seats 4-5 people so it was not huge. The dresser in the other small bedroom was smaller than mine, but larger than the small one that my other sister had and my mom's desk in her bedroom was a regular student desk so not large. Gee, I wonder if they realized (my sister might not have known) that the long server in the dining in front of the window is 3 pieces – two cabinets and the center is a matching section that is empty with fabric on the doors – the radiator was there and this way the heat came through the fabric or the doors could be opened to let more heat into the room – someone might have liked either or both of the actual cabinets- 2 drawers and 2 shelves below – then again they would need to either take half of the large counter top or get new tops for them. My dad had a lovely old, large desk – also rejected as too large – okay, if it hadn't been I would have taken it, but all I have room for is my old child's desk from when I was in second grade. (Yes, I am that short – able to use my desk from second grade – still hit my knee on the same spot on the leg of the desk.)
It bothers me that it does not bother me to have the house emptied and sold. Will the actual sale make me breakdown wailing? Has anyone else been through this and not gotten at least a bit upset?
We took my mom to the doctor with the office from h*ll last Friday so he could tell us what we knew from reading the report that was faxed to us instead of to her other doctor. So all is well with that. The doctor is very nice – no problem with him, just his office which is not run by him, but by the hospital group he is associate with. While talking with him I mentioned a little about the problems (4 pm appointment, take in at 5:30,saw doctor at 6 pm) we have had. Mostly asked if there is way to speak to him by phone as the phone number on the card goes to an office in a different state for making appointments. He gave us a different number - but only for questions, not emergencies as only answered during their open hours. I also managed to, politely, mention that when we came in for the scan the office was closed, lights out, and no one in the building knew about the scan tech being there – he was surprised and said that someone should have been at the reception desk for his office and he would check on this.
When first married we lived in an apartment. Husband saw in one of my “ladies magazines” a project to make a spice cabinet. He took it and changed it and we made it. It stands on the floor is about the depth of a cabinet across (used to sit next to the end of the cabinet in the apartment, now next to a small wall about the same depth next to our cabinet (behind the wall is the heat duct for the bathroom above the kitchen). The original had shelves in the door with holes for test tubes to put spices in. The one he made us has one shelf on each door with same – and knife blocks below them for our cooking knifes. We actually put smaller of same in the holes instead of test tubes. Against the back of the cabinet are thin shelves (cabinet is about 6 inches deep and the shelves are 3 inches deep. The shelves hold spice bottles and such very well. The cabinet is just short of 3 feet tall.
I have the spices arranged so that the ones I use often are in a grabable spot. But since husband has been cooking for the past 2-3 weeks as I was “covered in germs” - yes, he is that afraid of catching a cold – I had to look into the cabinet to tell him where spices he needed were located. When I did so my eye fell on a bottle of something called Mrs. Dash. I have no memory of buying it (well, I don't actually remember buying much of what is in the cabinet) or what the heck we used it for and made a mental note to clear out the cabinet as much as possible and in my dreams of how much space I would have, dreamed of lining up cans of soup on the shelves where they could easily be seen.
Last weekend (we had reached the point where I was told that I would be “allowed” to start cooking again) and I decided to go through the cabinet. Mrs. Dash, dill from when I made sour pickles, popcorn flavored saltt, spices that I don't remember using, and a variety of other items – OUT! I checked a few spices to see what they were used for - OUT! Old Bay Seasoning (used on seafood, especially shrimp in the Baltimore, MD area and husband used to use it – not out, he thought maybe we might have shrimp and he would put it on same again or maybe even chicken - I know it will be too spicy for him, I barely could eat it back then, but I kept it.
Kept the basics – salt, pepper, lo salt salt. Ground cinnamon (which I think I have used for some holiday dish I made) and sugar cinnamon (well, it tastes nice on pancakes or French toast) I kept – cinnamon sticks – out. Nutmeg - used at Thanksgiving – kept. Cream of tartar – useful for stuff – kept. Minced onion, minced garlic and basil -used for tomato “gravy' (sauce). Bay leaves – used in a beef stew I used to make and plan to make again. Allspice, ginger, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, marjoram, parsley, oregano – all kept, despite not knowing what we will use them for. Kept a small jar of sesame seeds – not sure why, just seemed like something to keep.
Also we store in this cabinet wooden toothpicks – used mostly for crafts, but also for food related purposes.
When I was done I had a half a kitchen garbage bag of bottles – but somehow I hardly picked up room in the cabinet – certainly not enough for the lines of soup cans I had thought I would I store there. So, what to use the space for? Well, we take at doctor's “suggestion” a number of OTC vitamins. The small bottles of them (refilled from larger bottles kept in the kitchen pantry closet) sat on top of the cabinet – along with a candle lamp (looks nice and used in black outs), table salt and pepper shakers, napkin holder with paper napkins, a shop tape measure (meaning not a sewing one), 3 day of the week pill boxes (two his, one mine) and some “dropped there because it is convenient “ paper clips and other similar sized items. It was actually rather crowded and some things would fall off the top when one walked past. I put the OTC vitamins in the cabinet on the top shelf. Now our day of the week boxes on top are no longer sitting between the napkin holder and front of the cabinet – subject to getting knocked off.
So in the end the work did not result in a lot of usable space, but it is better than before and the doors to it do close better than they have in awhile. As I go along I will think about some of what I kept and if it can go also.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Doing a small task might be what it is needed to get one started - or started again – on working on clearing out things no longer needed. If you find something small and think “well, dealing with that won't do much” if you do it, it might get you started on doing more – since the spice cabinet, I cleared off most of the stuff piled on my dresser. It was primarily reenacting stuff left after our December event- small items put away where they belong and the clothes I wore (that reek of smoke) are in the basement laundry sorter – to be washed and stored away. We have 3 plastic boxes in which we keep things such as OTC meds, sickness thermometer and such. These items are kept in these boxes as the boxes fit in the bag we take when we travel in our RV with all of this – and our prescription meds fit in one of the boxes also. By keeping the OTC and such in these boxes we don't need one set for home and one set for travel. In the summer the boxes end up on my dresser (the bag they go in goes under our bedroom TV) and in the cold weather, when we are less apt to travel I put them in the upper shelf of plastic storage piece next to my dresser (in hot weather the spare blanket goes in this space). So now they are where they belong for the winter and the bag is where it belongs. I found more socks that were on top of the dresser for darning and now they have joined their need to be darned friends.
So try one small task that you need to do and see where it leads. (Now sorting through and storing what I brought from the family house – that is another story – what does one do with the proofs of the yearbook of which one was editor?)
It bothers me that it does not bother me to have the house emptied and sold. Will the actual sale make me breakdown wailing? Has anyone else been through this and not gotten at least a bit upset?
We took my mom to the doctor with the office from h*ll last Friday so he could tell us what we knew from reading the report that was faxed to us instead of to her other doctor. So all is well with that. The doctor is very nice – no problem with him, just his office which is not run by him, but by the hospital group he is associate with. While talking with him I mentioned a little about the problems (4 pm appointment, take in at 5:30,saw doctor at 6 pm) we have had. Mostly asked if there is way to speak to him by phone as the phone number on the card goes to an office in a different state for making appointments. He gave us a different number - but only for questions, not emergencies as only answered during their open hours. I also managed to, politely, mention that when we came in for the scan the office was closed, lights out, and no one in the building knew about the scan tech being there – he was surprised and said that someone should have been at the reception desk for his office and he would check on this.
When first married we lived in an apartment. Husband saw in one of my “ladies magazines” a project to make a spice cabinet. He took it and changed it and we made it. It stands on the floor is about the depth of a cabinet across (used to sit next to the end of the cabinet in the apartment, now next to a small wall about the same depth next to our cabinet (behind the wall is the heat duct for the bathroom above the kitchen). The original had shelves in the door with holes for test tubes to put spices in. The one he made us has one shelf on each door with same – and knife blocks below them for our cooking knifes. We actually put smaller of same in the holes instead of test tubes. Against the back of the cabinet are thin shelves (cabinet is about 6 inches deep and the shelves are 3 inches deep. The shelves hold spice bottles and such very well. The cabinet is just short of 3 feet tall.
I have the spices arranged so that the ones I use often are in a grabable spot. But since husband has been cooking for the past 2-3 weeks as I was “covered in germs” - yes, he is that afraid of catching a cold – I had to look into the cabinet to tell him where spices he needed were located. When I did so my eye fell on a bottle of something called Mrs. Dash. I have no memory of buying it (well, I don't actually remember buying much of what is in the cabinet) or what the heck we used it for and made a mental note to clear out the cabinet as much as possible and in my dreams of how much space I would have, dreamed of lining up cans of soup on the shelves where they could easily be seen.
Last weekend (we had reached the point where I was told that I would be “allowed” to start cooking again) and I decided to go through the cabinet. Mrs. Dash, dill from when I made sour pickles, popcorn flavored saltt, spices that I don't remember using, and a variety of other items – OUT! I checked a few spices to see what they were used for - OUT! Old Bay Seasoning (used on seafood, especially shrimp in the Baltimore, MD area and husband used to use it – not out, he thought maybe we might have shrimp and he would put it on same again or maybe even chicken - I know it will be too spicy for him, I barely could eat it back then, but I kept it.
Kept the basics – salt, pepper, lo salt salt. Ground cinnamon (which I think I have used for some holiday dish I made) and sugar cinnamon (well, it tastes nice on pancakes or French toast) I kept – cinnamon sticks – out. Nutmeg - used at Thanksgiving – kept. Cream of tartar – useful for stuff – kept. Minced onion, minced garlic and basil -used for tomato “gravy' (sauce). Bay leaves – used in a beef stew I used to make and plan to make again. Allspice, ginger, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, marjoram, parsley, oregano – all kept, despite not knowing what we will use them for. Kept a small jar of sesame seeds – not sure why, just seemed like something to keep.
Also we store in this cabinet wooden toothpicks – used mostly for crafts, but also for food related purposes.
When I was done I had a half a kitchen garbage bag of bottles – but somehow I hardly picked up room in the cabinet – certainly not enough for the lines of soup cans I had thought I would I store there. So, what to use the space for? Well, we take at doctor's “suggestion” a number of OTC vitamins. The small bottles of them (refilled from larger bottles kept in the kitchen pantry closet) sat on top of the cabinet – along with a candle lamp (looks nice and used in black outs), table salt and pepper shakers, napkin holder with paper napkins, a shop tape measure (meaning not a sewing one), 3 day of the week pill boxes (two his, one mine) and some “dropped there because it is convenient “ paper clips and other similar sized items. It was actually rather crowded and some things would fall off the top when one walked past. I put the OTC vitamins in the cabinet on the top shelf. Now our day of the week boxes on top are no longer sitting between the napkin holder and front of the cabinet – subject to getting knocked off.
So in the end the work did not result in a lot of usable space, but it is better than before and the doors to it do close better than they have in awhile. As I go along I will think about some of what I kept and if it can go also.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Doing a small task might be what it is needed to get one started - or started again – on working on clearing out things no longer needed. If you find something small and think “well, dealing with that won't do much” if you do it, it might get you started on doing more – since the spice cabinet, I cleared off most of the stuff piled on my dresser. It was primarily reenacting stuff left after our December event- small items put away where they belong and the clothes I wore (that reek of smoke) are in the basement laundry sorter – to be washed and stored away. We have 3 plastic boxes in which we keep things such as OTC meds, sickness thermometer and such. These items are kept in these boxes as the boxes fit in the bag we take when we travel in our RV with all of this – and our prescription meds fit in one of the boxes also. By keeping the OTC and such in these boxes we don't need one set for home and one set for travel. In the summer the boxes end up on my dresser (the bag they go in goes under our bedroom TV) and in the cold weather, when we are less apt to travel I put them in the upper shelf of plastic storage piece next to my dresser (in hot weather the spare blanket goes in this space). So now they are where they belong for the winter and the bag is where it belongs. I found more socks that were on top of the dresser for darning and now they have joined their need to be darned friends.
So try one small task that you need to do and see where it leads. (Now sorting through and storing what I brought from the family house – that is another story – what does one do with the proofs of the yearbook of which one was editor?)
Thursday, January 16, 2020
MY COLD CONTINUES AND HUSBAND KEEPS COOKING DINNER, CLEARING OUT STUFF FROM MOM'S HOUSE
Been a busy week between doing nothing. I still have the tail end of the cold I had last week – mostly coughing fits, which upset my husband. He still does not want me touching things – like food and dishes as he is afraid of catching the cold.
Eating dinner has continued to be an adventure. He used to be a such a good cook and enjoy it so much – no longer. We ate out our usual 3 nights for the weekend, which helped a bit, but then we were back to cooking at home. While out on Monday we stopped in at the Walmart Neighborhood Market (supermarket only) to buy stuff for dinner. We came up with the idea of making a soup we like, for dinner. It was too late to make it so we were going to buy what we needed and make it yesterday (Tues), but unlike Walmarts normally this one has a terrible produce deprtment and we could not find good potatoes or onions.
So today we bought same and are making the soup for tomorrow. Husband made it so I would not touch it. Now remember, he was always the better cook. First thing to do is cut up the onions. I would use a paring knife; he takes out the largest knife we own. I didn't want to criticize, so I said nothing and hoped he would not hurt himself. He did not. Then onto the potatoes – he had major trouble as he could not cut through them – they were not our usual red potatoes as same looked terrible, but similar edible skin potatoes. As he finally started swearing I simply said “I usually use a small knife for that.” He then went and took the smallest knife we have – the one I only use to open sealed food packages as it is too small to cut with – and proceed to cut the potatoes with it. Then the meat had to be cut up. The rest of the vegetables added were frozen ones – including some I had split into bags in the freezer when I made normal amount of soup in December at the holidays. We have added more meat to make it a dinner entree this time. I watched it as it cooked – stirring it now and then. I just shut it off and took the pot off the stove to cool off. It should cook 2 hours, I let it cook an hour and a half as it will cook again tomorrow before we eat it. This also allows about 2 hours before we go to bed so we can put in the fridge without needing to put the pot in ice water to cool it off.
At the same time I have our clothes in the washing machine – deal with my cold is I put in washer, I move to dryer, he takes the clothes out of the dryer (because the heat of same will kill all the “germs”) and then he will hang up his shirts, but I can fold the rest. I did not do other than clothes last week and probably won't this week either – what fun next week – plus our reenacting clothing still needs to washed and stored until the next event, probably in the spring.
Monday I had telephone call from my sister. She had someone who could come and would take stuff from our family home for his non-profit thrift shop and we would get a receipt for the donation. She also had someone coming today to take furniture, so could husband and I go on Tuesday so she did not have take off 2 days from work? So we went. While we waited for the fellow to come we walked around the house looking for certain items. I should mention that there have already been 2 tag sales – one by a professional and one by my sister. The fellow was amazing – he packed the stuff so quickly – and I was surprised that breakables were not wrapped – most of what was around the in the house in smaller things are now gone including several closets of clothing (including the gown I wore to his sister's wedding as a bridesmaid), all the bed linens & towels, drinking glasses (at least 2 sets of same), candle holders (lots of same), toys and anything else you can imagine – plus other stuff. In our walk around the house before and while I wandered around while they were there (husband went out to the car as he was tired – we had to get there earlier than we normally wake up) some items were found that, yes, we took. My mom had embroidered a lovely (large) wreath of flowers on blue velvet back in the 1970s/80s and my sister had asked if I wanted it and I had said no. In the interim I thought about it and decided I wanted it, but when we were there just before the first tag sale, I did not see it and presumed that it had been taken by one of my sisters or mom had asked for it. But it was in the dining room. I looked at it and the frame was damaged and huge. I told husband that I wanted it, but if we could get it out of the frame – that was great. A quick trip to the car – we have all sorts of useful things in the car – and a large Swiss army knife was found (no staple removers in dad's office) and he pulled the staples out so I could keep the needlework. I plan to refinish it in the same manner I finish embroidery pieces that I make, but don't plan to hang up – as an unquilted small quilt piece.
Our first stop was my dad's office. We are still hoping to find the book about our family and husband wanted to see what show business books were there. My sister had mentioned in the list of things that the fellow could take and what he could not take that there were office supplies in the office closet – so I had to look. I am about to run out of what is called columnar paper – that is the accounting paper with number columns on it – and have not really wanted to spend the money to buy a new book of it – husband tried downloading from online, but it was not that usable – and I found a number of books of it in the closet – now here. Husband found a book he wanted – we took that too. Just before the fellow the arrived husband found 2 ceramic mugs from the Williamsburg Pottery – perfect to use for reenacting and not cheap – so we were putting them in the car when the fellow arrived. He was very nice and I said, very efficient.
At first husband stayed with me in the house as we did not know the fellow and we followed him as he looked at what was in the house – as we walked around in my parents' bedroom I noticed a stack of tablecloths – there the long missing and looked for, tablecloth that I had embroidered in high school was there! So now the only thing I have not found that I was looking for is that book!
As I waited in the house as they went through everything my eye fell on 2 pewter, 18th century looking candle holders. (Not antiques, just looking like.). I picked them up and walked out to husband in the car and showed them to him – he agreed we needed to take them for reenacting – perfect for extra candle holders at the candlelight nights event.
As the fellow was finishing he asked about several large black garbage bags in the kitchen. I texted my sister – yes, they were garbage not stuff she was keeping. He went through the bags and most of what was in them – kitchen items not actual food or paper garbage – he took also – another 2 cartons worth!
I have not yet spoken to my sister about the furniture man today and how much he took.
It is amazing how much stuff a family of 5 accumulates over 60 years – and I know that mom was always donating stuff to different organizations. One thing I can say – We do have less stuff than my family did – well, there are the teddy bears - larger and smaller - and their friends…
So think about it – when one day your house has to be cleared out – how much will there be? Enough for children to take what they want, plus 2 tag sales, plus a thrift shop truck load, plus…?
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Try looking through one room – perhaps your kitchen or your living room – anything there you no longer like? Did you buy new set of dishes and still have the old set? Every one item that you get rid of is one less for the thrift shop man to come and take later.
Eating dinner has continued to be an adventure. He used to be a such a good cook and enjoy it so much – no longer. We ate out our usual 3 nights for the weekend, which helped a bit, but then we were back to cooking at home. While out on Monday we stopped in at the Walmart Neighborhood Market (supermarket only) to buy stuff for dinner. We came up with the idea of making a soup we like, for dinner. It was too late to make it so we were going to buy what we needed and make it yesterday (Tues), but unlike Walmarts normally this one has a terrible produce deprtment and we could not find good potatoes or onions.
So today we bought same and are making the soup for tomorrow. Husband made it so I would not touch it. Now remember, he was always the better cook. First thing to do is cut up the onions. I would use a paring knife; he takes out the largest knife we own. I didn't want to criticize, so I said nothing and hoped he would not hurt himself. He did not. Then onto the potatoes – he had major trouble as he could not cut through them – they were not our usual red potatoes as same looked terrible, but similar edible skin potatoes. As he finally started swearing I simply said “I usually use a small knife for that.” He then went and took the smallest knife we have – the one I only use to open sealed food packages as it is too small to cut with – and proceed to cut the potatoes with it. Then the meat had to be cut up. The rest of the vegetables added were frozen ones – including some I had split into bags in the freezer when I made normal amount of soup in December at the holidays. We have added more meat to make it a dinner entree this time. I watched it as it cooked – stirring it now and then. I just shut it off and took the pot off the stove to cool off. It should cook 2 hours, I let it cook an hour and a half as it will cook again tomorrow before we eat it. This also allows about 2 hours before we go to bed so we can put in the fridge without needing to put the pot in ice water to cool it off.
At the same time I have our clothes in the washing machine – deal with my cold is I put in washer, I move to dryer, he takes the clothes out of the dryer (because the heat of same will kill all the “germs”) and then he will hang up his shirts, but I can fold the rest. I did not do other than clothes last week and probably won't this week either – what fun next week – plus our reenacting clothing still needs to washed and stored until the next event, probably in the spring.
Monday I had telephone call from my sister. She had someone who could come and would take stuff from our family home for his non-profit thrift shop and we would get a receipt for the donation. She also had someone coming today to take furniture, so could husband and I go on Tuesday so she did not have take off 2 days from work? So we went. While we waited for the fellow to come we walked around the house looking for certain items. I should mention that there have already been 2 tag sales – one by a professional and one by my sister. The fellow was amazing – he packed the stuff so quickly – and I was surprised that breakables were not wrapped – most of what was around the in the house in smaller things are now gone including several closets of clothing (including the gown I wore to his sister's wedding as a bridesmaid), all the bed linens & towels, drinking glasses (at least 2 sets of same), candle holders (lots of same), toys and anything else you can imagine – plus other stuff. In our walk around the house before and while I wandered around while they were there (husband went out to the car as he was tired – we had to get there earlier than we normally wake up) some items were found that, yes, we took. My mom had embroidered a lovely (large) wreath of flowers on blue velvet back in the 1970s/80s and my sister had asked if I wanted it and I had said no. In the interim I thought about it and decided I wanted it, but when we were there just before the first tag sale, I did not see it and presumed that it had been taken by one of my sisters or mom had asked for it. But it was in the dining room. I looked at it and the frame was damaged and huge. I told husband that I wanted it, but if we could get it out of the frame – that was great. A quick trip to the car – we have all sorts of useful things in the car – and a large Swiss army knife was found (no staple removers in dad's office) and he pulled the staples out so I could keep the needlework. I plan to refinish it in the same manner I finish embroidery pieces that I make, but don't plan to hang up – as an unquilted small quilt piece.
Our first stop was my dad's office. We are still hoping to find the book about our family and husband wanted to see what show business books were there. My sister had mentioned in the list of things that the fellow could take and what he could not take that there were office supplies in the office closet – so I had to look. I am about to run out of what is called columnar paper – that is the accounting paper with number columns on it – and have not really wanted to spend the money to buy a new book of it – husband tried downloading from online, but it was not that usable – and I found a number of books of it in the closet – now here. Husband found a book he wanted – we took that too. Just before the fellow the arrived husband found 2 ceramic mugs from the Williamsburg Pottery – perfect to use for reenacting and not cheap – so we were putting them in the car when the fellow arrived. He was very nice and I said, very efficient.
At first husband stayed with me in the house as we did not know the fellow and we followed him as he looked at what was in the house – as we walked around in my parents' bedroom I noticed a stack of tablecloths – there the long missing and looked for, tablecloth that I had embroidered in high school was there! So now the only thing I have not found that I was looking for is that book!
As I waited in the house as they went through everything my eye fell on 2 pewter, 18th century looking candle holders. (Not antiques, just looking like.). I picked them up and walked out to husband in the car and showed them to him – he agreed we needed to take them for reenacting – perfect for extra candle holders at the candlelight nights event.
As the fellow was finishing he asked about several large black garbage bags in the kitchen. I texted my sister – yes, they were garbage not stuff she was keeping. He went through the bags and most of what was in them – kitchen items not actual food or paper garbage – he took also – another 2 cartons worth!
I have not yet spoken to my sister about the furniture man today and how much he took.
It is amazing how much stuff a family of 5 accumulates over 60 years – and I know that mom was always donating stuff to different organizations. One thing I can say – We do have less stuff than my family did – well, there are the teddy bears - larger and smaller - and their friends…
So think about it – when one day your house has to be cleared out – how much will there be? Enough for children to take what they want, plus 2 tag sales, plus a thrift shop truck load, plus…?
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Try looking through one room – perhaps your kitchen or your living room – anything there you no longer like? Did you buy new set of dishes and still have the old set? Every one item that you get rid of is one less for the thrift shop man to come and take later.
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