Final DeCluttering: Minimalists Won’t Like It

Here’s the final episode of going through our kitchen cabinets to declutter. You can watch it HERE.

George had already gone through the cabinets a year ago and consulted me on a few things but we wanted to go through them again now that I’m retired and get rid of a few more things, which we did. We have a lot of cabinet space, so if it gave us joy and we anticipated that we could still use it, we kept it. We have additional cabinets down stairs (almost an entire kitchen but without the sink and stove, but we do have a downstairs fridge). We had fun with the video as you can see. We did have an edge or a tone though to the video after getting a few snarly comments from people telling us we were not decluttering, only reorganizing, or that we just did this in another episode (hello… we have a lot of dishes and a lot of space and we talk a lot) so we kinda felt the need to remind people what DeCluttering actually meant. It does NOT mean getting rid of most everything you own, but I guess YouTube has retrained society into thinking that it does. People are so cut out or trained by social media to tell you how to live your life, so we didn’t mind sharing how we plan to live our life, back.

I’m so thankful that most of our community, the ones that stay, are such a great group of supportive people and are NOT like that. There’s just a few flakes that pop in and out that think they own the universe and have life so figured out that they have to let everyone know, lol. Yes, this is me making fun of those types. lol. I’ve never been a fan and I guess they won’t be a fan of mine either now that I’m on to them and called them out.

Anywho on to OTHER things.

Other Updates

Since I’m not blogging every day like I thought I would and I’m way busier than I ever imagined I would be in retirement, and the day goes by faster than I can turn my head sideways…..I like to leave a blog entry while I’m here.

I’ve had a couple of downer days this week. All I can say is just to bullet point it the best I can.

1. I think it’s nutritionally based. We’ve eaten horribly – lots of things like fried chicken, cheeses, pasta (not whole grain), breads (not all whole grain), creamy things, red meat, and so on.
2. One day I ignored my to do list and therefore I forgot to take my B and D vitamins and these are really important for me for mood purposes.
3. Because of #1, my tummy was very exploded and made me feel and look horrible. And that gave me a bad feeling about myself.
4. Even though I’m on the treadmill daily it’s not taking the weight off and that is depressing because I thought I’d have lost more weight by now. Am I eating more now that I’m off? I would say THIS was my biggest issue this week.
5. Because of #1 and #4, my clothes are actually getting tighter which means a gain in weight now just a lack of weight loss. This makes me very anxious and just quite frankly not acceptable.
6. We are about to go on vacation which means lots of eating and probably less exercising but now I have to refocus on healthy foods because I just cannot gain weight.
7. I have found it difficult to increase from 20 or 25 min on the treadmill to 30 min or more on the treadmill. Mainly because I get bored and tired even though I’m watching a YouTube or listening to music. Is my Stamina so stupid I can push through 5 to 10 more minutes? I thought it would be easy. Part of it is that I want to do other things!
8. We are going to Texas and I’m excited about that but I’m wanting to get a certain amount of things done before I go and it upsets me that things take so much longer to get done than I thought it would.
9. I want my skin to be smoother and I’m struggling with the overwhelming process of what works and what doesn’t. It seems like everything requires such an overwhelming amount of research.
10. I could not get in touch with a family member yesterday after trying all day long. She was not on Facebook for like 20 hours and that was rare as she is on FB a lot of the day for entertainment. I was picturing her laying in the shower or on the floor dead, overdosing on meds, or just having a heart attack or stroke. None good things. Wouldn’t answer texts nor my 6 or 8 phone calls, whatever it was. George had to stop cooking everything and we got in the car and half way there I checked and she got on Facebook so we turned around. If she’s active on FB I know she’s ok. In the middle of the night she texted that her phone was messed up. (Time for a “button” or assisted living!). We all thought she was playing games with us if she wasn’t dead, by ignoring us. Who knows. Honesty: THIS.IS.SO.ANNOYING!

What’s happening?

• I’m having lunch with my former coworkers tomorrow! Looking forward to that, but I dread driving over there, lol. The area I have to drive through is a KNOWN area for drugs and human trafficking, not that they would want me, lol.
• I’m spending a lot of time editing videos so I can get them scheduled while we are on vacation. I’m working on 3/5 now and need to do 3/8’s and 3/12’s and 3/15’s at least, but not sure I can manage that much before we leave. I’m trying though. If worse comes to worse I can just eliminate a Wed video. I don’t know why it matters. It mainly is just me keeping a commitment to myself and the channel subscribers.
• I think I’m making enough money to be able to buy a few things I’ve been wanting and to offset the cost of doing the blog and vlog. George just told me to let it sit in the account though. He usually just lets me spend things out of our normal account and save that up. Sweet of him, but next quarter I’m upgrading to the camera and considering an iPad upgrade, although I may wait and get that for Christmas. Or at least the fall quarter. I’m wanting one with a pencil. lol
• We will soon be packing for TX.
• I got my papers sent off for my grandfather’s Navy records. Finally. Hoping to find out what ship he was on and get info on that ship from WWII. After he left the ship for an appendicitis attack the ship was hit with a bomb. I thought I could find info on it but never did. So hopefully getting information from archives in St Louis will help.
• We are getting $$ back on taxes which we did not anticipate so the mood was good there. George thought we’d have to pay. But the financial advisor knew things we did not which is why we use her.
• George and I had an excursion of sorts on Tuesday. We went to the funeral home as a life group friend had lost her Dad, who was 103 and also in WWII. We went to Snow White and I had BBQ for lunch, fried okra, and navy beans. Also fattening and not helping my weight, lol. But this is what happens. We eat well and often. Then we went to the store to get enough healthy things to be able to eat until we leave for our trip (fruit, salad, whole grain bread, salmon, etc.)
• We are finally going to Long Horn this week to REDO Valentine’s Day. THAT video about our BUM VALENTINE’s dinner is coming this Saturday, lol. It’s at the end of the video.
• Started a new DEVO book and a new iPad book on my Kindle App. (These are on the side bar or at the bottom of my blog, on a GoodReads Widget of my current reads).

If you want to befriend me on Good Reads by all means do it. I’m BACKPORCHWRITER.

Things I still CANNOT GET TO:

• Grandson Bulletin Board
• Puzzle
• Hemming PJ’s

It amazes me that I cannot get these things done but I’m doing all the other things I want to do. When I get back I may cut down on the videos and do one a week til I get these things done.

I’m exited to be planning Quarter 2. I will also probably just do one video a week for a while as we’re going to be extra busy. Then in the summer months (Q3) I’ll be indoors more and going out more and less of a schedule due to the heat.

Life is ok despite all the above and I’m absolutely loving retirement and it makes life so much more enjoyable and less harried not having to work. But I’m amazed at how I fill the time up. Already it’s almost 10 and I have 14 more things to do before noon. ha. That’s just how it goes. Do you find it goes that way with you?

Today I need to: finish promoting today’s video, vacuum while Dexter is at DayCare, grind coffee too as that scares him, exercise, shower, clean kitchen (reboot dishwasher), clean dog bowls and mat, pay a family member’s bills, send sympathy and get well cards to some people, call a family member’s urologist regarding her meds again, print out property tax forms for George and I to get a discount now that he is 65. And that is just before noon. I won’t get that much done before noon! But that is how it goes, I just forward to the next day what I don’t have time to do. lol

Take care