Stuff and Stuff

[gategrrl]

Sorry for the longish absence from the halls of LJ, but it's been a weird and busy and just...off-beat July-going-into-August season this year. Two family visits on the East Coast in wildly varying locations in two separate trips, a wedding immediately after one trip, and a birthday party immediately after the second not to mention the usual doctor's visits woven in the blank spaces AND boning up on the California Virtual Academy and how it runs, and trying to decide whether or not to continue this coming semester with Stenography because I'll be doing public homeschooling with Mermaid? Not to mention the shifting summer camp schedules of both kids...I've been in a tizzy, dear friends.

Anyhoo, what did I start this entry for?  **thinks for a moment**

Okay: weight/exercise stuff: I've said this before, and I'll probably say it again: I've gone off the map for it, but considering how going on "vacation" knocks me off my stride, I guess I haven't done too badly. My YMCA has also wonderfully expanded their building this summer AND has expanded their offerings, so now I have more chances to take Pilates (which I've actually been wanting to take for a while, but their schedule and my schedule just never lined up) AND they now have spinning classes! Spinning! How awesome is that? I may just try that to add variety, because honestly, the elliptical machine and the recumbent bike? They are boring as sin at this point.

The Guy and I have also started (okay, at this point it's just me) semi-regularly taking Goldy (see icon) for walks. He's happier, he coughs less often from his heart condition, and I'm happier too, because I'm not just making excuses not to walk the poor animal. PLUS my kids like coming sometimes, and it gets them out of the house, even if for 15 or 20 minutes.

Book reviews: Although I know I'm not the best book reviewer evah, and betacandy isn't reluctant to have me keep blathering all over Hathor Legacy site, I've been reading new books, although, per the first paragraph of this entry, I've been slacking off. There are a few books on my TBR stack that were released at the beginning of last month that I still haven't gotten around to reading. I'm getting on that now.

DeCluttering, and more the to point, Cleaning Up: Not the neatest person in the world here. Growing up, I was content to let my hardworking, neatnick mother do a lot of the work to making our house nice (although many of my friends told me they were afraid to come over, because of the Museum-like atmosphere). It's a continuing battle between me and slovenly habits, and my desire to live in a place that helps keep my messy mind clear. With Mermaid at home for school this coming school year, it's even more important. I have a feeling we're going to do many of her lessons at the library to get out of the house and so we/she doesn't feel isolated.

And, what else?  **thinks some more**  Nope, can't think of anything.  Comments?

Comments

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

I wondered where you've been. Not that you come off as a net addict, but you've been quieter than usual. I knew that you've been busy though.

Weight: I keep sabotaging myself. WHY? I keep stress eating. Restarting tomorrow. I want to lose ten pounds (first goal) so I can wear all the clothes I've foudn from...

Decluttering. I'm a packrat. This is very hard to change, but I'm on a massive cleaning spree. I'm so sick and tired of mopey Kerri so I want to toss her in the garbage. To do that, I need to clean house.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

I think emotional eating is the hardest eating habit to break. I think like any other habit, there are going to be backslides, but I think the key is substituting it for another activity as much/often as possible.

I really do think decluttering is one way to relieve stress. I really wish that much of the STUFF in our house would just go away. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually want to jettison many of my books. I just don't want books around that I don't like much because my tastes have changed, or I haven't picked them up in years, or months...it's anathema to me because I was a huge book packrat. But there you go. And papers. OMG, the papers. I still have papers/stories I've written or saved since I was in Jr. High. Now, fat chance I'll get rid of some of those, BUT there's a ton of other papers that I hung onto that I'm realizing are just clutter. If I really feel I have to keep them, I may start scanning the most "precious" of those.

Gah.

Look, I think you're awesome and strong, you're holding up incredibly well to adversity and for *so long* (we get an edited version on LJ, I know, but...) and to me, it's a wonder you weren't consigned to the looney bin months ago! I would have been!

Have you ever gone to the Flylady site? Google it. She's got a Master Plan for decluttering, and how to do it. Ignore the "godspeak" (which really isn't that bad) stuff, and get down to the meat of it. Some people are turned off by the shmoopsiness, but it the principles are sound. I think I made it sound worse than it is.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

Ages ago, you suggested to me about selling my books online. Even coming up with a list of titles and prices and posting them on LJ. While I still am thinking about doing that, why can't you do it as well? it might give you a few extra bucks to help with the crazy expenses that keep popping up.

I'll check out the site.

And who's to say I'm not in a looney bin? I could have lost it and now I'm just beyond help LOL

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

What I've been doing is Paperback Book Swap...but I might stop doing that, because, "free" as the other books are, the costs of mailing the books does add up.

If you have books that aren't book club editions, you can sell them to online book dealers. I have a website bookmarked that compares buying prices (that the stores will buy your books for you for). In the end, I might donate the kid-oriented ones to a local Girls Club in the Valley that came to my attention a few months ago. These are disadvantaged kids who often don't have the opportunity to go to camps because their folks are dirt poor or simply don't have the funds. They also get after-school tutoring and help. They're sort of like the YMCA without the C, necessarily.

And oh, believe me, I have a ton of books I've already gotten rid of; and they're the ones I couldn't stand to have in the house any longer. Actually, the ones that are still hanging around by the end of the summer for Book Swap? I think I'm going to donate to a Friend's of a Library association. At least, the ones I don't think are appropriate for a Girls' Club.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like some good stuff amidst the chaos and WTF that was July. :D