Downsizing to a U-Haul

Roberto at Lakeland's U-Haul

Roberto thought I was a spry senior citizen and not an old fogie because I used an iPhone and had a blog. Little did he know. The U-Haul office was not busy and so I showed him just how spry this senior citizen is--I rapped for him while I reserved a U-Haul.

Now Roberto promised that I would receive a confirmation earlier in the week--found out later it was supposed to be on Wednesday.

Lots on my plate--downsizing and moving to live by family. Months before I cling to Romans 12:12:

• Hope
• Patience and endurance with downsizing
• Constant prayer

Two weeks before I realize I have to focus on one day at a time (and not everything I had to do) and Matthew 6:34 from New Living Translation helps:

So don’t worry about tomorrow, 

for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today’s trouble is enough for today.

The house is sold and not longer do I have to maintain it to show. The boxes multiply as I use many days to substitute teach and free time at home to pack.

June 1, my last day substituting, is very special at Tomlin Middle and of course I rap at the end of every class and tell the students who didn't know all about my YouTube legacy of raps. See HERE.

Tuesday through Friday at least four hours per day my friends Sally and Jake come over and help me pack.  Sally would call Jake over to help her seal each box and he would bring those heavy boxes to the proper place. Sally packs breakables with newspapers into my recycled boxes. Sectioned liquor boxes from Walmart and The Winery in Plant City are so helpful with those breakable items. Gradually clothes get packed into large tubs for "seasonal clothes". Summer clothes go in huge boxes to make wrinkles I will deal with at the other end of the move. My winter coats, two mirrors and other items are already in Huntsville at my brother's house.

Friday Panic.  Friday is the day before the volunteers are coming to pack the van. I call Kerry from my church and tell her of my panic and also health news on Kenny. She puts out an email prayer request for the church. She also mentions the virtues of a 24 foot U-Haul instead of a 20 foot one I am supposed to get. I asked "Surrey" on my iPhone to call U-Haul on Florida Avenue in Lakeland, thinking I would get Roberto. I have not received a confirmation call! Where in Plant City do I pick up the U-Haul?

Instead I get Greg at another U-Haul at another Florida Avenue U-Haul location. Greg who sees my reservation on line, is able to switch my reservation to a 24 foot U-Haul. It wouldn't be delivered to Plant City as Roberto had promised, but I could get it that very night for the same price instead of the Saturday morning 20 foot U-Haul. I call Kerry with the good news and she enlists her husband Dave to go with me to get the van at 6:30 pm. Their son, Sam, always my buddy, comes along for the ride. Dave skillfully puts the van by my garage.  I am so glad he figures out where to put that van. I wasn't sure if it should be by the front door or not.

Back to earlier on Friday.  After those important phone calls Friday morning, I go to Bank of America to see Lisa, "my personal banker" I wrote about HERE. I had arranged my 10 am appointment on line and we close my checking account. (Huntsville doesn't have a Bank of America.) Then I go to my dentist for a gum treatment to save me from false teeth. The hygienist reminds me about water picks and flossing--two items I had neglected during the last two hectic caregiving years. On my way home I stop at Staples to turn in printer and copier cartridges to recycle. I happen to see seven small plastic containers on sale for $7 and I purchase them to replace my wicker baskets in the bathroom. See HERE. Those containers are efficient for first aid, etc., and can easily go into a box ready for my new bathroom and take less space than my baskets take were I to pack them.

Sure enough, when I start to pack up the bathroom, I find that water pick and plan to use it in Huntsville. Friday afternoon Sally picks up Jake at the senior center. Then Sally helps me sort through my fabric,  while Jake helps box things up again. I can donate maybe 40% of the fabric for the quilting group at Sally's church where I also went to Grief & Share.  See HERE.

Saturday morning. Kenny gets out of the hospital Friday night and Saturday morning he stops by to see his friends from church. He is too weak to help. He has lost blood and will undergo tests to discover why next week. See HERE. Newly installed Deacons JP and Kevin pray very special prayers for him. Pray for Kenny, folks. 

From 10:30 to 3:00 pm four strong men (Jason, Dave, JP, Kevin), resourceful Amanda, and six energetic youth packed the van. They start with the upright freezer, take a utility room door off, and move it with  a rented U-Haul appliance dolly; this freezer will fit in my eat-in-kitchen in my Huntsville apartment. Next comes my antique couch, reupholstered in the late '70s with the leg that keeps coming off when you move it. In the van they put pillows between four machines on the seats of that couch: small TV, microwave, printer, and copier. Boxes of books are interspersed among numbered furniture items. Those numbers will help placement of furniture at the other end. China and other items marked FRAGILE were put on top of boxes and furniture. All boxes have the name of the room where they should land in the new apartment.

Dog Ziggy. Yes, that is dog Ziggy on my lap in the picture above. You wonder what the canine has been thinking, but he has been staying by my side. Saturday night and Sunday night we get to sleep together in that single bed I got to sleep by the hospital bed. Pharis will get that bed and other items left behind.

Tomorrow morning (Monday) I will pick up my Huntsville brother in Orlando and bring him to that van. We will take Monday and Tuesday to drive to Huntsville with Ziggy and I following in my car. Ziggy has already seen his bed and cage in the back seat of the car. The third seat area and trunk area has miscellaneous items.

Follow trip to Huntsville on my 

Facebook LIKE page 

by clicking on the above link at the right. 

What I Did Over Spring Break

Monday, the first day of the Spring Break when I would not be able to substitute teach all week,  my realtor, Alison Terry, came over at 10 am. I had taken note of her instructions in January when she first gave them to me, and also HER positive coaching by text for two months. I signed the papers for her to list the house on Monday, March 9. 

Now Alison should have been pleased and in fact was,  because major furniture was gone as I have been blogging about on this site. Repairs that I wasn't able to do while I was my late husband's caregiver had been made. My brother loaned me money for a new water softener and I managed to pay him back at the beginning of this month. A new garage door was installed. Even so, the house was to be sold "as is"--no way could I afford to put in a new kitchen or remodel the two bathrooms or put in new rugs. 

Monday when she came Alison took numerous pictures for the listing. Here are some of the items she featured in the MLS side show:

The brick fireplace.

The circular driveway.

The pergola in the backyard.

The French doors to the backyard.

The lighted vanity and drawers in the master bedroom. 

AND

S P A C I O U S   R O O M S!!

The house smelled good thanks to AirWick in six rooms. (I was not aware of the dog smell in my house but she clued me in.) Family pictures were boxed up and much less was on the walls. 

Meanwhile a certain M. M. had fallen in love with our dream house right away when she saw it on the MLS listing Tuesday night. Wednesday M. M.  and a friend were the first ones to come. Sharon, the realtor from Realty 2000,  came half hour earlier  at 3:30. I had to be out by 4:00 with my dog. I gave Sharon my tour, telling her that the master bedroom used to have a king-sized bed, but was changed to a hospital bed for my late husband and a twin bed for me. Hospice had taken the bed back, and instead of thinking of it as the room where my husband died, the master bedroom now had a twin bed and a sewing island, not that I have done that much sewing lately. (Ziggy still has to sleep with his people, even if it is only I in a twin bed.) 

After Sharon's short tour, I met Sharon's  prospective buyers on the front porch. With Ziggy in my arms I managed to give my "Junk of Old People" rap, humorously telling the prospective buyers of my downsizing efforts. 

Then Ziggy and I did what we were supposed to do while three different realtors were showing the house--we left the house until it was dark.  To date there have been maybe a half a dozen showings and 127 people on my Facebook Like Page for this blog who viewed the Wednesday night message from my iPhone:

Dog Ziggy and I have been holding out in a park for three showings of my house tonight. Started to rain and we just made a dash for the car. Realtor just sent me an email to my iPhone that the first prospect to see it are going to make an offer on it!! 

Ten comments followed. Folks, if all you do is read this blog, you might consider clicking on the above right link to Facebook where I do post a lot. 

Thursday the post hole diggers came to put the For Sale sign in. 

I can't believe we forgot Alison's sign, they remarked. 

I took off to see the movie "Still Alice" Thursday afternoon and then wrote on the Facebook Like page my brief review: Family wins out in this wonderful, realistic Alzheimer's movie. 

I added,  At the end of it [Still Alice]  I turned my iPhone back on at 4:39 pm and read this message from my realtor. 

"You received an offer today! Full price."

At 1:30 pm today, Friday, the 13th, I accepted the offer at Alison's office. 

When I came home, the above sign had been been put on that pole in my front yard. 

This afternoon a lady came by to inquire about the For Sale sign and wanted to see inside. I told her there is an offer I accepted and I couldn't let her in, as my realtor had advised, but I did sit on the front porch and chat with her and gave her Alison's card in case it went back on the market. After all, my poem that became my first rap is featured on this blog--Longing to Chat on the Front Porch With You HERE. 

BACK TO PACKING. 

Reflections on Peter Walsh's New Book

I am in the process of selling my house and also I am dieting with Weight Watchers. Peter Walsh points out that dieting and decluttering all go together in his book released this past week. Amazon got it to me on the release date, February 24th, and I have been enthusiastically reading it during planning periods while I substitute teach.

Peter also adds a third element to decluttering and eating and exercising--mindfulness. And so he launches a plan to work on all three. In this very thoughtful and might I add organized book, he takes twenty-two volunteers on a six-week program. 

From 9/14/12

My Decluttering

But decluttering has taken/is taking me much longer than six weeks.  Walsh uses a room-by-room approach to decluttering as I did when I went through Mindy Starns Clark's book, The House That Cleans Itself.  15 people got Mindy's book that she mailed me beginning HERE IN 2012.* Those of you who have been following my blog saw me prioritize areas to work on, Alzheimer's proofing the house as I went. Along the way I did get help from Pharis for the outside of the property #9. The last two areas, I never got to--the garage #11 and the workshop #10 as my caregiving days became more difficult and even house maintenance took a back seat to caregiving, a sad fact that I have had to remedy in recent days.  My Huntsville brother and Pharis were the ones to clean out Areas #10 and #11 and give me new purposes for those rooms--the garage has hosted three garage sales in 2015 and the emptied workshop is now the staging area for my move to Huntsville, Alabama (Rocket City) as the above banner suggests. The whole project has become a downsizing with rooms changing and furniture leaving the house as I have been chronicling recently.

My Dieting and Exercising

I started back to Weight Watchers at the end of 2011 as reported HERE. In 2012 I lost 25 pounds and I kept off 15 of it as the caregiving proceeded. Who knows! I might have gained all 25 pounds back! As I reported in that first Weight Watcher post, I chose 7 am Saturday as my meeting time. Spring of 2012 also saw a respite cruise paid for by family and on that cruise I maintained my weight. During the last years of caregiving, I chose caregiving above dieting, realizing that I was called to be there for my husband above all while also having to work to make ends meet. My husband did not want me walking outside and so I did get a treadmill that is going with me when I move and that treadmill might have helped my stress level. I might add that Peter says you don't need a treadmill, but because Huntsville is a colder climate, I might not be able to walk outside in the Winter. 

After my husband died, I went back to that 7 am Saturday morning meeting. Weight Watchers has been for me a great social and inspirational time. Why I even checked out Weight Watchers in Huntsville, Alabama last December.  This morning my total weight loss since 2011 is 31.2 pounds. Here I am today with my Lakeland, Florida leader. I looked all over this computer and my Notebook computer and could not find my "before" picture, but people are starting to notice the change. My weight loss is helping me decide  what clothes to keep as I downsize. 

In Walsh's book, he does not plug Weight Watchers, but I certainly want to and studies have showed that Weight Watchers is the best diet program around. 

Mindfulness

This area of the soul, the self, for me incorporates my Christian belief and I have been meditating on Scripture regularly. In fact, with a clue from Georgene who has often commented on this blog, I started typing up numerous Scripture passages to meditate on and apply. 

In my caregiving and in my widowhood, Scripture is precious to me--it sustains my days and nights. I also was helped by Staci Eastin's book The Organized Heart, a book that helps us Christian believers be mindful. See HERE and also HERE where I reviewed it. 

So you can see I totally resonated with Lose the CLUTTER, Lose the WEIGHT--with all three of the author's main points, plus learned so much more. 

New Insights from Peter Walsh

Before Alzheimer's came into the picture seven years ago (by my estimation), my husband worked, I would watch Peter Walsh on the Home and Garden Network's "Clean Sweep" in the summers before retirement when I taught in public school. (Those were the days I watched TV before my husband sort of took over the big TV.)  Peter would produce episodes like this one he has pictured on his LIKE* page in his native Australia. 

Already a fan from back then, I enjoyed these gems from his book this week:

• Somehow, at some point, you became too large for your comfort.
• Given the environment we live in . . .  How can your body and home not get to this point?
• If the stuff you own is not helping you create the life you want, then let it go. My main job in Huntsville is to write that counseling dissertation on dementia caregiving. I do not need stuff. 
• Pitfall #1: Not seeing enough improvement. Oh yes. I can come home and be upset. Yet I look around and it looks so much different than it does before I decided to sell and move. 
• Pitfall #2: Lack of time. Walsh suggests you schedule tasks like you would any other appointment. I know that perfection is gone, but today I will pack-up my books which are not selling and donate them.
• Pitfall #3: Resistance from family. Had my husband still been living, I would have had to leave things the way he was used to. But since his death, my Huntsville brother spent time here in January to help me get repair projects underway and to clean out areas #10 and #11 of my home as I mentioned above.
• Pitfall #4: Isolation. Weight Watchers is such a great group of friends. They cheer you on and understand when you blow it. I do not feel alone. Also, I have learned to ask for help. 
• Task 1: DEVELOP A VISION FOR WHAT YOU WANT FROM YOUR KITCHEN. 
• Task 2: SEPARATE THE "BENIGN" FROM THE "MALIGNANT" ITEMS. Malignant items are defined as any items that make you feel guilty, sad, nostalgic or angry. 
• Task 3: CLEAN OUT YOUR FRIDGE AND FREEZER. 
• Task 4: CLEAN OUT YOUR PANTRY. 
• Task 5: CLEAR OFF ALL HORIZONTAL SURFACES.    

There are 11 tasks in all,  and this chapter ends with physical activities. The book continues with the bedroom, bedroom closet and the bathroom. 

Then Peter Walsh goes into meddling with my desk and finances. He suggests zones. Zone 1 should be the area by your desk. That has me thinking about getting rid of my four-drawer file cabinet and just keeping selected filing arrangements. Zone 2 represents material that one uses infrequently. I am going to label Zone 2 boxes for my move, put them in the workshop move staging area, and keep Zone 1 material available. The author tells you to back up your computer files. I have already been trying to change my email because I am moving from the Tampa area and cannot have a Tampa Road Runner email. I do like what he says about maintaining your changes and will perhaps discuss this in another blog post or when I move to Rocket City (Huntsville, Alabama). 

So this week I am all into Peter Walsh insights. Shoo away your extra shoes, he says. Yesterday I brought a dozen or more pair of shoes to put here by the music room in the school where I substituted. 

_______________________________________

Today we have rain today in Plant City, so I canceled my 7th garage/yard sale and am just working on my downsizing and putting the house on the market today. Besides, the 80th Annual Plant City Strawberry Festival is on and that is the focus in our area now. 

My deadline for having the house go on the market is March 9th and I have to get back to making my rooms look spacious, downsizing and packing. Might try to get to the festival sometime next week with friends from last fall's cruise I invited. Probably will put books into the car to donate when it stops raining, because books have not sold well in my garage sales. 

Carol

* One of my blogger friends (also a caregiver whom I interviewed) suggested I form a "The House That Cleans Itself" group on Facebook; that group is not as active as is the Plant City and Friends FB "LIKE" page that I regularly post on and which has 74 members. I am also following Peter Walsh's FB "LIKE" page now and we have messaged each other. His next book, I believe, is on downsizing for seniors or for your parents who are seniors needing to go to a nursing home.

Moving, Part Four

I took this picture in June of 3013 so I could write about Shingles. I knew I wanted to write about Shingles, but I didn't know I would do it from personal experience.  Oh I did have a prescription to get my shingles vaccine, but didn't want to spend the money and my husband was going downhill and that was my priority. So this is the first thing that has come back to haunt me. You see I have had Shingles recently with its physical pain and with the realization this might have been avoided. 

The next thing that has come back to haunt me is plumbing. I have well water and  have not maintained the water softener and consequently have rust in the water.  I should have been on top of this in the past. Actually the plumber was called almost a year ago about the rust problem and he didn't show. See HERE.  I didn't keep on the problem, perhaps because I was attending to my husband. 

When the sink clogged up and the wash machine over flowed, I did get a new plumber. He solved that and was to bring someone else in to give an estimate for helping with the rust. Before that could happen, however, Sally gave me another plumber who has put in a new water softener and saving me maybe $700.

How can I substitute  teach all January and have plumbers come to the house? My retired brother from Huntsville recognized the problem and came to Plant City. Together we strategized on what would be needed for the house to sell. 

We went through all my books and had three stacks:

1. Books I need to keep.
2. Books for my Huntsville nephew to sell on Amazon.
3. Books for a yard sale or eventually to donate. 

My brother was honest about what should not be moved. My realtor also is honest about the house. Less furniture will mean an easier move and will allow us to have the rug cleaned. The rooms will look larger. Pharis and my brother both cleaned out the workshop and the garage. When I went through the series on this blog, The House That Cleans Itself, the workshop and the garage were the last two areas that I didn't get to because of my caregiving duties.



The garage is now the designated spot for garage sales. One was held last Saturday and later in February more yard sales will happen.

Saturday, January 24,  we (my brother and I) had another yard sale for my stuff and only signs at the end of the street publicized the event. Even so I made $335.50. Large items included that corner cabinet I featured December 25 on this blog HERE. That corner cabinet would be problematic to move. A large chest was also sold. More yard sales will follow at the end of February. and someone is coming tonight to look at the piano tonight.

The workshop is now the designated place for boxes to be moved and boxes to be packed and put in the workshop. Where have I gotten these boxes? From the cafeteria at the high school where I have been substituting.

The house will be sold "as is" and has yet to be put on the market. The carpet will be cleaned on February 6th rather than taken up.

So much has been done and I have my marching orders. I have this table of stuff to go through before the carpet cleaner comes on February 6th.

Where the pool table used to be

I am so grateful for my brother from Huntsville, Alabama, who was able to come for a week when I just had thrown my hands up in despair at getting ready to move. Logically this retired rocket scientist took me through rooms and we made decisions. He met with the plumbers, and the carpet cleaners. I am so grateful for Pharis who has been fixing things around here so the house will be ready to sell and who is even coming today while my brother is driving back to Huntsville, Alabama.

Moving, Part One

I had three yard sales in October and got rid of my late husband's tools and I will have more yard sales because I am putting my house on the market.  I contacted a realtor, Alison Terry,  and she is like a real dutch uncle. The second day of January Alison put it to me:

You have too much stuff. 

Make each room look spacious. 

Take up the carpet and just paint the floor. 

I am thinking it will be like no one lives in the house. Where will I put the stuff I need when I move? If she's going to be my realtor, however, I better obey her!

My realtor. Alison,  is in my Toastmaster's club and she remembered when I did a speech on "The House That Cleans Itself".  She thought it would be all pretty when she came here. Wrong. I have clutter again after six months of being a widow and previously a hard year when my husband went downhill with dementia.  Plus the rug has bad stains that surfaced.

Just take the carpet up and paint the concrete. 

Now to take up the rug means I had to get rid of the large couch in the family room that stretched from the fireplace to the garage door. Where Ziggy is sitting in the picture is my late husband's "Archie Bucker" seat--his favorite place in the house.

Now you can't move the couch and the pool table outside for a regular yard sale. So I put both the couch and the pool table on three virtual yard sales on Facebook on January 3rd and have been so busy with FB messages since then. I decided that when I talked to someone, I would know; they needed to call me after I messaged them, not just comment on the Facebook group. I was asking $75 for the couch and $800 for the pool table. Within an hour I had a lot of interest with Facebook messages.   

Two couples called me from the laundromat and came by when a comforter was dry. They thought the two-piece couch had the third section in the middle and at one time it did, but my late husband and I had gotten rid of that piece. When they phoned, they asked it were curved and I said "yes" because I thought they meant the curving on top. So they didn't take it. I guess I misled them on the phone. 

But these two couples did thoughtfully help me. They put that couch in the garage for the next person. Then they helped me move furniture. First they moved the living room couch to the adjoining family room. 

Coincidentally the big TV my husband watched in that family room went dead the same day.

They took the big TV to the curve and when I returned from church on Sunday it was gone along with the remote control and instruction manual I also put with it.  I gave them the big TV stand--such nice young folk. And of course I rapped for them! Only I didn't remind them to secure the garage which is getting a new door on January 20th.

So now remembrances of my husband's favorite "Archie Bunker" spot where he watched that TV are gone. See HERE for how this spot was his favorite spot.

After that it continued to be an adventure discovering who would take the couch now in the garage along with the pool table. One husband came by when I was at church and opened the garage with my not being there. 

Breaking and entering--ya think? 

He told his wife it had holes and rips, which wasn't accurate and didn't take it, after she had told me she was first and scolded me for not letting her get a chance before the above lovely group.

I had Pharis come over and secure the property after that gentleman entered the garage while I wasn't there.

Sunday night another wife came by. She would send an email to her husband and they would decide. He said "no".

So it was offered to a family of four who decided to take it. The dad tied it down while the son showed me some karate moves. Nice family! Of course I did rap for them as well.

Meanwhile, several people are interested in the the pool table. Now a pool table is a huge project to move. It involves setting it up at another location. Stay tuned.

Selling the house and moving is indeed an adventure. 

First Yard Sale

On Labor Day my guests decided they would help a widow [me] with yard sales--their idea. I dared not take them up on this generous offer. Three Saturdays in October seemed the perfect plan. 

My neighbor Cindy down the road loaned me tables Thursday,  and even after her errands came by and helped me set them up in our second backyard where there is some concrete.  

Cindy's tables loaded in my GMC

Friday night, after much afternoon rain, I called Sally and she commandeered her husband Jake to help me put out tools from my husband's workshop on those tables for today's yard sale. Jake always likes to feel useful. Soon my teenager neighbor Esteban came over to help.

You can't see much of the tools, but you can barely see two port-a-potties and a shower chair.  Jake, Esteban and myself then put tarps over the covered tables as it got dark Friday night. It did rain some during the night, but I was ready as I could be. 

I set my alarm for 5 am for Saturday morning. By 6:30 am when their doors opened I was at Weight Watchers. I lost another 6/10 of a pound. I did not stay for the Weight Watcher meeting, but started out for home, fearing that someone would be there in the dark to buy. Just before I got home, in the dark, I put out two yellow signs to direct people to my house. Returning home at 7 am no one was at the house and it was still dark. 

At 8 am I had my first customer. At 9 am Marilyn and her husband George were here. Marilyn even brought lunch to prepare for all of us later. Soon Marianne and Greg were here. Marilyn and Marianne were part of my summer writer's group, and Marianne was the gal I interviewed HERE about her Early Onset Alzheimer's. She is doing great and knows so much about dementia that she was even helping Jake who has a later stage of Alzheimer's after Sally dropped him off. Jake was great at keeping dog Ziggy from running off. 

The day turned out to be pleasant--no rain. Soon this skilled group moved the yard sale down the driveway and closer to the street. People have to be able to see the stuff you are selling if they are going to stop, I was advised. "Many hands make light work" and soon the tables were closer to the street. 

We interacted with all my country neighbors. One, Lee, is a caregiver and he bought those two port-a-potty chairs, the shower chair and the elevated toilet seat from Lowes' that I had written about HERE. I sold all four items for a dollar a piece to this caregiver whose wife has Parkinson's disease. It warmed my heart that I could do this and I prayed with him about his caregiving journey and told him about this blog. Just love your wife, I advised him, even when she is difficult--it's her disease that makes her that way. 

It was curious to me that my late husband had so many cabinets with drawers for his carpentry supplies--maybe a dozen! It was equally amusing to me that men would buy this stuff! Everything went cheaply, and even so I made $409 after Cindy and her crew came back about 5:30. She was pleased that we would be storing her tables in my garage now, ready for the sales the next two Saturdays, instead of in the second back yard as had been the plan. 

Safe and ready for next yard sale

Dog Ziggy and I are tired and ready for bed now. 

Five for My Fifth Year of Blogging

Walking to His Spot in the Den

I will give you the five most popular blog posts by number of views this fifth year of Plant City Lady and Friends. As usual, you can click on the red to find that post.

September 7, 2013. Hubby walks. I think that having an article in two local newspapers which give mention to this blog bumped up the views to 433.

February 4, 2013. The post on GERD got the second amount of views this year (335). I would have thought that the post on my hearing aids would have gotten more hits. I am not suffering from GERD any longer.

October 16, 2013. Dealing with stress (315 views). Actually I like the part two stress post better on 12/1/13--very practical for me, but it had much less views. 

June 14, 2013. Granddaughter's quilt (278 views). More quilts are coming.

January 7, 2013.  The fourth area of The House That Cleans Itself series was a popular post with 218 views. Shortly after that I had a genuine Southern hissy fit with Google because pictures on blogs were not going to be free. In short, they won. So now I am paying $2.49 a month for the privilege of posting my messes for you all.

As I review 2013, many things happened or haven't happened.  

1. We have a volunteer caregiver, Kenny, to enable me to continue to work.
2. Hubby survived UTIs and was not placed in a nursing home as his doctor expected. 
3. We have a volunteer for yard and home maintenance, Pharis. Essentially he is covering the front and back yards (areas 8 and 9) in the home organizational project I started in 2012. 
4. Hubby is walking thanks to our chiropractor.
5. I did not turn out to have thyroid cancer and I got hearing aids. 
6. We solved my husband's shaving and showering routines.
7. I was put on YouTube as MC AC The Rap Lady. More raps need to be put up, but I am not skilled in doing this. My niece and nephew videotaped me and are producing this YouTube channel. 
8. I kept my weight down, although I need to lose more. 
9. I have not finished two areas (10 and 11) in The House That Cleans Itself as other priorities crept into our lives. The workshop is next. 
10. I started my seminary counseling dissertation on being a dementia caregiver. 

Thanks 
for your prayers, everyone! 

How can I pray for you in 2014? 

Hugs,

Carol

Incidentally, one of the most viewed blog posts ever 

on December 31, 2009 features Southern New Years Recipes. 

Enjoying My Christmas Quilts

Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign. (Isaiah 7:14) He told us that Jesus Christ was coming in the Old Testament, He did come and transform history (and my life). It is the season to celebrate the difference Jesus Christ has made in history and in my life.

Several years ago I made this wall hanging that I use every Christmas. I have learned more about quilts since then, but am sentimental about this quilt.  It was from a cloth book that was to be made into a child's book. I made several cloth books for relatives years ago. 

I also have a quilt Christmas tree skirt and have made Christmas tree skirts for several others in the family.

Hubby forgets what he is getting for Christmas even though he was there when I purchased it. Our dementia loved ones are hardly aware of the times and the seasons--yesterday, today, tomorrow, Christmas. 

Last Christmas we flew out of town to be with your son, I mentioned to hubby.  

I don't know what you are talking about, he replied, but I leave it in your capable hands. 


Now my capable hands got me in trouble last Thursday where I went through the garage ceiling  to get the artificial tree.  Kenny informed me that tree is not going back into the attic after the holidays. It will go into the workshop that will be the next room to clean out. 


This year we are spending Christmas with hubby's daughter and family here in Plant City and I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas. 

Author of "The House That Cleans" Itself on TV

Excuse the flash on the TV, but this morning I enjoyed the 30 minute interview of Mindy Starns Clark  I had videotaped. You may recall that I have been blogging about her book for sometime and Mindy had sent me 15 books to distribute to people who read this blog. 

Mindy quipped that some people wipe their feet when they come in the house, but she used to wipe her feet when she left! Also, when she was first married she called for help because there was a raccoon in their bedroom after the window had been left open in their third story apartment. The help that came remarked, 

"Boy that raccoon did a lot of damage!" 

We do have critters in our neighborhood. A possum died in the backyard and Kenny said leave it alone and a vulture would get it. Sure enough--the the corpse disappeared leaving a backbone.  Won't leave a window open for a critter to come in! I have enough evidence of paper clutter still to deal with!  

Mindy said simply that she was housekeeping impaired. She writes detective stories, so, determined to change, she looked at the messes as a detective. She examined the evidence--those messes always seemed to happen the same way. Her house changed.  Her popular book, The House That Cleans Itself,  is now in its second printing. You can order it from my widget at the right. 

When my family from Alabama came for the Thanksgiving week, I was pleased that my sister-in-law noted some changes in the house because I had been implementing a house that would clean itself. (They also saw paper clutter of course in the den.) 

Mindy wasn't going to change, but the house would have to change, she said in this interview.  

I am not done applying her book. I still have changes to the house to make things simpler. The workshop is next. Hate to even show you the "before" picture of the workshop. Trying to be very careful what comes into the house now this season. This especially important because I never got around to the yard sale. 

More Baths and Less Talk

Disclaimer: This is not a book review about a very funny book where UK author Nick Hornby rattles on and on about the books he buys each month, but then reviews the books he actually reads each month.  

However, the title of the book has everything to do with the topic of this post.

At the end of August our lives were thrown upside down when my husband couldn't walk. You add a disability to Alzheimer's and life indeed is complicated and my stress and ability to cope with life is hammered. When I showed neighbor/caregiver Kenny the title of this book, we both laughed. Kenny has been helping me with my husband's showers and today's shave and shower was the most successful to date. Hubby needs more baths and I need less talk. It's all about the wife nag factor. I know he needs more baths and cranberry juice to avoid another UTI, but I need to shut my mouth about this fact. 

This morning Kenny skillfully suggested that hubby sit on the toilet while he gave him a razor shave. The idea was that hubby is already in the room where he showers. 

Now I was outside enjoying Pharis and his daughter Dezarae landscaping in Area 8 of my project, The House That Cleans Itself. When I left you HERE last May, one of the plants in the front yard was dying. Those were removed and new croton plants have come to our front door, mainly purchased from a country neighbor about two miles away. Stephanie sells wonderful plants cheaply and gives more help than Home Depot. 

Huge Landscaping Improvements Being Undertaken

Pharis has many plans to save this the yard and improve the house, including the roof. How blessed are we!

Meanwhile I popped back inside and Kenny had gotten hubby in the shower without me! 

I said something when I saw this and my husband snapped back. I should have left them alone--not said anything like the book title suggests:

MORE BATHS AND LESS TALKING

In the midst of many hard days, today is so encouraging. Thank you, LORD, for people coming alongside this journey. 

Handicapped Husband Adjustments

Hubby and Walker

Saturday afternoon I had a date with my handicapped husband. Alzheimer's is not new to us, but physical handicaps are. It is hard for him to walk even though Extra Strength Tylenol helps the arthritis. I let hubby off at the movie theater with the walker and then I went to park the car.

When I got to the theater, he was inside sitting down waiting for me to buy the tickets to "The Butler". We both enjoyed that movie, but hubby insisted that he had seen it before--strange to me, but I didn't comment. Memory and dementia are strange bedfellows and produce different realities.

At the end of the movie he needed to use the theater bathroom--to pee. I panicked. I could not go in the men's restroom with him. At home he was using the urinal container we took home from the hospital.  I remember hearing a waitress say how a husband was allowed to go to the lady's room with his care receiver wife when the staff blocked off that ladies room at that restaurant. I didn't want to cause a scene. Our issue was not remembering what to do at this stage of the disease, but physically being able to use the facility with an arthritic knee. Somehow it worked out and hubby came out with his walker as if nothing was the matter. Then we walked across the street and hubby sat down on the bench pictured above while I did an errand.

My errand. I have been substituting for many days in a special education class and had promised students they each would have their own books to mark up and read. Although these students are in middle school, the reading level is much lower and I had to get what would interest each and I was able to satisfy most of them with their own book from Mrs. Johnson. Still there were three more books that I had to secure.  I went to Books-a-Million while hubby waited.  Bingo!  Within a few minutes I had a Goosebumps book, Dog Finds Lost Dolphins! and More True Stories of Amazing Animal Heroes, and Extreme Biology: From Superbugs to Clones. . . Get to the Edge of Science for those reluctant readers I am teaching this month--books to motivate them to read that they also can write in. Not only that, but I got a valuable phone number (1-800-353-7034) for those magazines that I wrote about earlier and hadn't been able to get rid of even after writing to the publisher. So far our outing as a couple was working.

Back at the bench, hubby and I went inside nearby Grillsmith Restaurant. These days I am holding the door open for hubby. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner inside the restaurant (me salmon and hubby beef) while he spotted a dog at the outside seating where leashed pets are allowed. We met that dog when we went outside after our meal.

Hubby again waited at the bench while I went to get the car. It is a little hard for him to climb up to our Expedition, but so far it is working. Then I stored the walker in the backseat of our car. (So glad I do not have to lift the wheel chair because it is very heavy.) Meanwhile volunteer caregiver Kenny is going to pick up an application for a handicapped tag for us that I can bring to my husband's doctor (the doctor that almost put him in a nursing home). We are both much happier with hubby at home instead of in a nursing home.

There are practical issues for a home bathroom when someone is handicapped. It was just hard for my husband to get the the bathroom in time when he needed to. We have had some near misses and misses in the bathroom with the result that someone had to clean up the floor and wash the rug.  I thought of a solution. It is so much easier to wash a rug that would cover the area, than to have to reach to both sides at the back of the toilet to clean up where that rug wasn't down. I cut up one rug to add to the commode rug with my Viking (quilting) sewing machine. I used hem facing to sew both sides to connect it.

Custom Toilet Rug

It is hard for hubby to sit down and get up from regular toilets even with the walker.  I purchased a Moen Home Care Locking Elevated Toilet Seat With Support Handles that I happened to spot at Lowes when I went looking for shower grab bars. This elevated seat can be removed when we have company.

Pictured at Lowes

With Total Coverage Rug 

It is crowded between two walls, but it works with the custom rug I sewed.

I also purchased the Moen Home Care grab bars for our shower to be installed by Plant City First Baptists "Second Saturday" volunteers that I found out about at our monthly Alzheimer's Association meeting.


Kenny has been so helpful. He knows just what to say for hubby's showers to help him get in the shower and even shaves him now since he can't stand. It was Kenny's brother-in-law who came over to install that Moen Home Care seat.

Let me bring you your walker, I say.

I don't need it, he says.

Let's bring it just in case is my reply. Most every time we need it because of that awful arthritis.

There's a lot of adjustment with dementia. Add another handicap that the care receiver forgets he has and more adjustments need to happen. I love my hubby, who would make all these adjustments for me if the situation were reversed.