This and That

 Hi friends,

It's been a busy week and I've been fighting a cold. It is something I fight every year in October when the weather transitions from warm autumn to cooler autumn. It's a bummer but it is what it is.

This October I have been busy decluttering and I've written about it in this space from time to time, not just in October but over the past long while. Some weeks and months I do much more in terms of decluttering than other weeks and months.  This  month the kitchen seems to be getting a lot of attention and so far I've gotten rid of many items from my small cupboards.  Metal bake ware, plastics and Tupperware which are long past their prime and lots and lots of glass jars, plastic and metal coffee containers, papers, cardboard and so on have been recycled.  I also got rid of lots of small items from the bathroom and many items from the closet, dresser drawers and shoes I no longer fit or need, have been given away. Several items were taken to the storage unit in the building and one standing fan had to be taken to the recycling center. I also have 2 large metal patio chairs which are past their better days. If they fit in the car they too can go to the recycling center.  Otherwise I'm not sure when I can take them.

In between decluttering jobs, I clean the cobwebs from the corners. Literally.  I did this less than 6 months ago but the cobwebs seem to accumulate very quickly as does the dust. I've been trying to keep on top of it all.  There is still a lot to recycle and to get rid of but I'm starting to see a real difference in the spaces in my home. I will keep at it and when I am all done with the tasks I will see what I can do to free up actual floor space.  I am not aiming for a minimalist home as such. But I am aiming to pare down the items I use and keep only what I actually use.  I intend to keep doing my hobbies too and hobbies tend to take up a lot of space.  I am trying to find a happy balance for daily living and for hobbies, some of which may be more sporadic.

I'm still doing Flylady routines almost every day.  It seems to help everything run more smoothly even though I haven't implemented the full Flylady system. Once I get started on doing things and cleaning things I just keep on going.  It means much more is getting done every week.

The weather here has been beautifully sunny this past week with the exception of Friday when it poured rain.  But it has also been very cold. I took some garden photos on Saturday. I'm sharing what might be the last of my garden photos for this year.

 

It has now been about 2 months since I did any work in the garden so I'm amazed at how well the plants have done though many of them are way past their prime.  This week I noticed that the pansies and the petunias are pretty much done. I think it was simply too cold for them as our temperatures went down to 4 at night. The geraniums are still producing a lot of new blooms but I'm not sure how long that will continue. 

Something was eating the leaves in  my garden this year but they didn't touch the leaves of most of the flowers. This is the first time I've had this happen and I'm not certain whether it is pests, rodents, or my neighbour's cat.

 

In any case, I am hoping that I will put the garden to rest by the end of October and wash and cover the patio chair cushions. I don't have storage for the patio things but I do try to keep the cushions out of the rain over the winter and I move the table umbrella and the table and chairs so they are no so directly impacted by the winter elements. As a side note, I read that the Farmer's Almanac forecast is for a mild November and a very cold winter.  The other day, our local meteorologist said that this year we are experiencing La Niña.  La Niña refers to the periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific and is the colder counterpart of El Niño.

The Black Eyed Susans have now lost all their yellow petals.

But the zinnias have new buds! I can't believe it. But they were very late to bloom this year and maybe they are confused.  The photo shows evidence of my neglect of the garden over the past 2 months since summer ended.

When it gets cold outside I usually start baking.  I saw this cinnamon loaf at Mari's Blog called My Little Corner of the World.  Check it out if you like cinnamon and sweets. I misread the recipe and ended up making two loaves but I only put frosting on one of them.  After trying both, I think it is better with frosting.  Overall though, the recipe is to sweet for me and I have to be careful about that due to blood sugar issues.

On Friday I went to the hospital to have a colonoscopy. I had one just under a year ago but the doctor couldn't find the one small cyst she thought she saw during that exam so I had to return in 6 months.  The follow up appointment was delayed due to Covid 19 and I also put off the appointment as long as I could.  But I had to get it over with or forfeit my spot in the GI follow up care and Friday was the day.  This time the doctor had a good look around she discovered I didn't have a cyst after all.  What she saw last time was actually a part of the colon itself. That was good news. 

She did find something, but it wasn't quite a cyst. I'm not sure what it is called but she said they are common and are often left intact. I suggested she cut it out anyway and she agreed. It will be biopsied as per the usual practice. 

The good news is I don't need to have another procedure for 5 years and I'm very happy about that.  Not only do I dislike the preparation but I get very nervous about the procedure itself. They sedate me but I am wide awake as per my preference. Due to the light sedation I didn't even need 10 minute recovery afterward.  They let me go but not before making sure my ride was there as stated.  I took a few photos but haven't posted any with people due to privacy issues.

Photo of the nursing station

Photo of the recovery room before they start bringing the patients in for recovery.

We had snow in the north and at higher elevations (none in the city) for the past two weekends. The record snowfall  created havoc on the highways and some serious accidents as well.

 

 

 

On Saturday we also had a provincial election. I voted by mail in ballot along with almost 700,000 other people.  Approximately 500,000 people returned their mail in ballots on time to be counted but the counting doesn't start until November 2nd.  Even without the mail in ballots, the election was handily won by our incumbent Premier John Horgan.  He now has a majority government by which to rule.  That was his goal when he took a gamble and called an election a year earlier than required. His win is historic in that it is the very first time that the New Democratic Party (NDP) has won 2 consecutive elections in the province.

 

In other big political news, the Opposition Party of Canada,  brought a "No Confidence" motion against the Prime Minister of Canada on October 21.  They wanted to create a special committee to probe the government's ethics and spending in response to the pandemic and a scandal related to the WE Charity.  Members of Parliament (MPs) voted 180-146 to defeat the opposition motion, with the NDP, Greens and Independent MPs voting with the Liberals.  It means we will not have a snap federal election this fall.

I hope things can settle down for awhile with all the politics here.  People want and stable governments to help steer the nation while we recover from the pandemic.

Thanks for reading my post today. Stay safe everyone and do what you can to stay happy and high in spirits. May you be blessed today and each day hereafter. May you and your loved ones have continued health or improving health. May you have the material things and the finances you need and last but not least, may you have the strength and confidence to handle whatever comes in your path. 

 

Various Kinds of Tidying Up

The weather has been very nice here for a few weeks so have been  managing to do a bit of gardening  here and there between many other appointments and social engagements.  I'm still working on trying to finish planting then I will work on cleaning all the patio furniture.  Stage 1 water restrictions were effected on May 15th a full two weeks early due to the record breaking temperatures we've had.

Meanwhile in Kenya they are experiencing record rainfalls which are expected to continue through to June.

A friend's house was damaged and needs restorative work due to the heavy rainfall experienced in his town. They had to mop up all the water that had gotten inside the house too.  The heavy duty rains have only been occurring in the last few years and so restoration work is not a business there as of yet. Anyway I'm sure most people affected by such damage could not afford to pay for that kind of work so it is just as well.

You can see from the above photo that water had made it to the front door.

There was water all around the home.

 Though this home has been damaged, many others in Kenya have been flooded out of their homes.  Still others have lost their lives due to the torrential rains. The country's infrastructure is simply incapable of dealing with the forces of nature.

In related news, I watched a documentary last night that discussed the issue of recent extreme weather events and the scientific projections as to what we can expect in future.  In a nutshell, the weather is going to get even wilder and more extreme and cities and citizens will need to adapt.

Within 35 years it is said that Canada can expect:

• Double the number of extremely heavy precipitation events - with periods of drought in between.
• 5 times as many hot days over 30 degrees.
• 100% increase in wildfires.
• 50% less snowfall across the prairies.
• More hail and 50% more ice storms.
• More intense hurricanes.

We have certainly seen a lot of evidence of heavy rains starting earlier in the season, record breaking hot temperatures, devastating wildfires such as those going on right now in the north country and a lot more hail and ice storms than I can ever recall.  It is difficult enough for developed nations to cope with these kinds of extreme and rapid changes. It is that much more difficult for developing nations to do so.  If anyone is interested in the documentary, you may be able to watch it here depending on where you live in the world.

In addition to doing a bit of work outdoors and trying to enjoy the warm temperatures before they become too hot for comfort I am also working indoors.  I've been working on the ongoing decluttering & downsizing project that has literally been going on for years.  I seem to make so much progress and then end up right back where I started after a short while but I may have hit on a solution that will help me out.

I recently read the books, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and "Spark Joy:  An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up", both written by Marie Kondo, Japanese organizational consultant.  She calls her organizing and tidying method, the KonMarie Method.  I think it was Jeanie from the blog The Marmalade Gypsy who alerted me to this approach to tidying.  After I read her thoughts on the book I investigated and found a long waiting list for the book at the library. I put my name on the list and it took at least 8 months to get a turn to read it. I actually put my name on the list for both books.

The books are easy to read and I found many of the points made by Ms. Kondo resonated with me. The author writes about her early years of organizing and decluttering experiences while still a young girl living in the family home and afterwards. Everything she tried did not really work.  Ultimately she came up with her own method and that is what she now calls the KonMarie Method.  Up until now I've been decluttering and getting rid of things.  But I  have been decluttering slowly, a bit at a time over a long period. I also was still holding on to things that I did not use but felt bad about letting go of for various reasons.  In addition, I looked for more storage and better storage solutions thinking that would help keep good control over the "stuff".  Nothing ever worked for more than a temporary period.

Ms. Kondo's years of hands on experience led her to realize that slowly decluttering doesn't work. You need to do it all rather quickly and she recommends a time line of about 6 months.  She also takes a far more radical approach to letting go of things than I did.  Some of what she suggests seem amusing to the  average North American reader, for example, saying thank you to things that  you are letting go as they have served their purpose.  But in Ms. Kondo's spiritual practise all things are imbued with an energy so saying "thank you" to your sweaters and dresses is something that doesn't seem foolish to her or many of her in country (Japan) clients.  Even though I do not practise her religion I think there is value in appreciating those things we have taken the trouble to purchase or acquire and letting them go with good thoughts and acknowledgement that they have served their purpose. This approach probably frees your  mind not to focus on any feelings of guilt or remorse for wasted funds or for not keeping what someone might have given you. Finally, Ms. Kondo believes that more storage for your things is NOT the answer and in fact leads one to forget about what it is they actually own. I can attest that this is true in my life. I was amazed to discover just how many pair of tan coloured capris I own (*smile).

As soon as I finished the first book, I commenced clearing out my closets and dresser drawers again even though I just did a similar clear out within the last year or less. I made good progress using the method and hope to continue over the next few months to make even more progress. Ms. Kondo says to work on everything over a short period rather than a long period and the short period is about 6 months. I think I can make some good progress within that time frame.  She also outlines the sequencing of what to tackle in the process of tidying up and gives rationale for why she recommends a particular order.

I have to confess I did not strictly follow the KonMarie method in the work I've done so far.  It is because I do not like to have a big jumble of clothing piled on the floor, or on my bed.  That would be too overwhelming.  But I did try to adhere to the suggestions as closely as possible and make as much progress as possible.  For those that don't want to deal with all clothing at one time, she does recommend tackling a subset of clothing items and working through all subsets until the entire job is done.  The other suggestion I did not follow is throwing things away once I decided I no  longer needed them.  Instead I packed them up and posted them for giveaway. This requires a bit more work but keeps "stuff" out of the landfill and that is important to me. Others may find that having bags around tempts them to go and look in the bags and retrieve items never to get rid of them. I'm happy I do not seem to have this problem so bags are okay until a new home is found for the items.  I also know that there are a few things I will be unable to implement from the books. Things like having nothing in the bathtub (soaps and tools kept elsewhere), having nothing near the sink (soap and implements kept under the sink) and storing absolutely everything in the closet (like books).  These particular suggestions will not work for me but that is okay. My main objective is to pare down my things and keep them in a tidier way.

The red topped storage containers were picked up within a few hours of posting.  There were 5 of them taking up a lot of space.  Though these were purchased not so very long ago I no longer need them because I've decided I do not need to keep so many dried goods in my cupboard.  I plan to empty and give away even more containers.

I dislike throwing out virtually anything that can be used for other purposes but I also don't like hanging onto everything just in case I might  need it  later. One can have too many interests and not enough time to do everything so you have to pick and choose those things you will focus on and get rid of the rest.  I do a lot of sewing and have done a lot for my mom over the past year.  The scraps of fabric were posted for giveaway and also picked very soon after posting.  I mostly keep fabric that will be used later for quilting but I think I still have a tub of fabrics somewhere that can be given away and will need to check for it. Most of it would have been fabric I inherited and will likely never use.

Although it can be frustrating having clutter in a smaller home, the good thing is you are forced to address your possessions and make decisions about what to do with them.  Many people (myself included) mindlessly accumulate things even if we don't necessarily spend a lot of money in  accumulating them. If one is not careful, pretty soon you have far more than you need. I want to be a conscious consumer not a mindless one. I also want to prioritize those things I decide are worth keeping and other things that can be obtained when needed. Not everything needs to be kept on hand just in case it is needed.

In the past, books were hard for me to let go of and paperwork too. I tend to keep a lot of both.  I have gotten to the point where letting books go is much easier because I can get books at the library and return them. Sometimes I buy inexpensive books and give them away when done.  With papers, I don't like to throw anything out until I've deal with it and made sure it is shredded or burned. Making time to do that is difficult but it will be done.  Once it is done, I will have arrived at my goal and my prioritized "clutter" will be my crafting items.

In addition to tidying my things, I've also been busy week tidying my financial matters and planning for end of life.  I've attended a seminar about pre-planning my funeral because I saw an advertisement in the paper.  It got me motivated to make some firm plans when I learned that the cost of a burial plot in my general neighbourhood now sells for approximately $28,000 and that doesn't even cover the cost of funeral services, or any of the others costs like caskets or urns, etc.  The other thing I want to look into is ways to have a  more "green" funeral if possible.

After my meeting I will have a lot of work to do to figure out what I want for my own arrangements and hope to make some firm decisions in the next few months. This will take a load off of my mind as it is something I've been meaning to do for quite some time.

The other related areas I want to address are some adjustments to financial plans, redoing my Last Will & Testament and just getting a better handle on all these issues in general. Though I have taken care of a lot of things, I want to make sure everything is brought up to date and kept in a very organized and clear way for my executor.

What about you dear reader? 

Have you thought about pre-planning a funeral for yourself or a loved one
or do you find this too difficult to deal with?

Do you have to contend with such high costs for burial plots and funeral services?

Perhaps these are not issues that most people like to think about.  

But I think peace of mind over last wishes is such a wonderful gift to give oneself and loved ones. 

There is also the assurance that matters related to costs have been handled. 

When it is time to say goodbye, the grieving family and loved ones don't have to deal with all these decisions for you.

I'm joining in with Our World Tuesday today. Thank you for stopping by!