WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JULY 2018

csofled

Snowflake1968

My mom never wore any jewelry except for her wedding ring set and a watch my Grandparents bought for her. My brother and I bought her a family ring in the 90's and then a few years before my Dad died he bought her a diamond pendant necklace. These will be the only jewelry items I inherit from my Mom.

My Grandmother though was a great jewelry person, she also had jewelry from her Aunts, Mother, MIL and such. When I was a teen she gave me a ring I admired that had 3 opals and 4 little pearls in it. I lost a pearl out of it, a few years later and it was going to be a costly fix I didn't enjoy the ring as much as I once had so didn't do it. I talked to my Grandmother about it and said I had an idea to have a necklace and earring set made out of the stones I had left. She thought this was a grand idea and decided to give me some gold jewelry to help with the costs. Unfortunately, she told me the story of all of the jewelry she gave me. My Great Grandmother's wedding band, a ring from the army my grandfather had. Her original diamond setting, she had had the diamond reset in a new setting when I was a teen. Her baby ring, a signet ring she bought herself for 25 cents her first year picking potatoes for a job when she was 12. Needless to say when she told me the stories the jewelry meant more to me, so I still have all of these rings in my jewelry box! I never did get that necklace and earring set made.

I now have my Grandmother's wedding ring set. A couple of years ago I did get it resized so that I could wear it. I used the gold from the wedding band and her original diamond setting to give more gold for the jeweler to use to make the diamond bigger for me. I have thought about taking all of the other gold and having a teardrop pendant made. I could just remember the stories of where it all came from. I should really get on that.
I have a lot of her brooches and beads and costume jewelry that I have separated out and am planning on making jewelry pictures for my girls and I with them. I have everything bought, just need to do it.

Rebecca - hope you DH is doing better today
Machka /b] - I have curly hair too, some days it's just a frizzy mess
Kelly - that must have been so much fun shopping
Barbie - Feel better soon
Janet - Beautiful ornament
Kylia - Nice car

I know there is more and I didn't make a list! I can't remember who, but I really enjoyed the pics of the gardens and area the farmer had created.

Tracey in Edmonton

fanncy0626

Katla- some people are just weird! Your husband is right in letting it go. I can't wait to hear what your next adventure with your RV will be!

Rye- (((Hugs))) sorry for your loss. Moms are very special.

Barbie - I hope you get relief soon. My back use to go out once or twice a year. I would end up in bed for a few days with my knees up on a heating pad and that usually helped relax the muscles and took pressure off the nerves. Hopefully you'll be back to normal soon.

De-cluttering my kids definitely did not want any of my stuff or family heirlooms. Since we decided to rent our house and cabin and become snowbirds we have gotten rid of 90% of our belongings. First we did ask our children if they wanted certain items, the piano which was a family heirloom was brought down to Utah and given to my husband's daughter and has since been trashed because it was so old that it could not be tuned. Dishes and Crystal were not wanted by anyone. We had a garage sale and what did not sell we donated it to transitional housing center. We put the rest in our upper level and basement for storage while we rented out the main floor of our house. Now this year we decided to rent the whole house and the cabin so we contracted A consignment/auction house down the street from us who came and removed all of our items from the upper level and cabin and put them on an online auction site. We now have about 20 containers of personal items and artwork in storage in the lower level of our house where we partitioned off a storage area and also have a storage area above our garage. Both my husband and I would never pay to store anything we would probably just auction it off or donate it. Every year we come back to Minnesota we plan on going through what we do have and purging more. Both of theRVs that we have do not have much room for personal items. I do have some treasured knickknacks and pictures in both of them. We now use my husband's Coke collection for every day use rather than selling it for 1/10 of its value. We also don't need to buy anything except items to have fun with. Our next big purchases will be two E-bikes and either a boat or pontoon. We plan on enjoying our retirement! Everything we have is paid for so the kids would only have to sell or continue renting our property. Hopefully we will have spent every last dime of our retirement money by then!



Mary from Minnesota \ Arizona

csofled

This is part of what I spent the week going through with my parents. There is at least this much more to be removed again. We said to the 2 Junk workers they can expect to be returning to this address again! My mom is an organized hoarder. Much of what was gotten rid of was brand new not even opened. Linens, clothing and food. I'll admit raising 5 kids meant the accumulation of a lot of stuff. She is at the point of being able to get rid of the bulk readily. She for some reason wanted to keep a lot of little things which I readily "allowed" as my time was limited to this week and I was going for bulk removal. We had to ban my dad from being around for this as he just got "sick" seeing us "dump" his well earned goods. Kept reminding him he hadn't seen any of it the whole 15 years he has lived in this house. They are downsizing from over 6000 sq ft to 1800 sq ft. The amount of space they currently occupy in their home now: Mom's sitting room, the kitchen/dining area, Dad's den and their bedroom! The picture in the garage with the garbage bags alone came from her pantry. All expired foods! Her counter tops are overflowing still. She grew up poor. My dad made riches. She compensated. It was a tough week for me as I did not completely know of their mental and physical decline. My brother and wife live up the street and bear the brunt of this and my sister around the corner, who is not much help. A good thing that came out of this visit besides the purging is that my mom and I bonded on a level we have never had before. There were confessions on both sides and a new level of relationship established. A good thing.

I have been on my own decluttering journey for the past several years. It's just stuff. The memories exist in your heart. Take a picture if need be. Keep around that which brings you peace and joy. Nothing that is a mental or physical burden.




Cheri
happily back home in Tx catching up on laundry

rdonnini

I will be ready to join you in August.

cityjaneLondon

Good going Cheri! :flowerforyou: You have worked really hard.

Today I cooked my first octopus. I have never cooked one before, though it is my favourite food to eat out.
I bought one from the local fishmonger, who had to dig around in his deep chest freezer to find it.
I just put it, still frozen, with liquid, into the IP and pressed 12 minutes. Perfect!
Just now I cut the head off as I'm too lazy to clean it and just used the tentacles. They are marinating in the fridge in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper, oregano and a few drops of smoke liquid.
Don’t know how I'm going to serve them, but I'll think of something!
The head I've frozen as I don't want to stink the garbage out for two weeks until the next collection. :noway:
I have a conflicted relationship with octopus as I have read several books about the fascinating creatures. Very intelligent. I always say I'm going to stop eating them, but it doesn't happen. They could be part of my last ever meal on earth.

Love to all, Heather UK xxxxxxx

coastalgosgal

Went home, scarfed down a waffle with peanut butter, slept and rested in son's side of the lower level living room, because neighbors roof was being worked on! The upper level bedroom sounded like Jack hammers in there!
Came back to hospital, and husband is off getting an MRI.
Rebecca

Vickil57

Meg--I love the goat story.

Was I do to make my life easier is have a lady that comes in everyother Tuesday and does all the dusty, cleans the bathroom and kitchen floors and vacumns. I do little things between. Once in awhile I will get in the cleaning mood and do more. But enjoy not having to dust.

Margaret--I enjoy the pictures and enjoy getting to see pieces of different lives. Please do not stop posting them.

Rebecca--Sending prayers and hugs. Great news that it is not the liver.


Re--Sorry for the loss of your mother. It is not easy and never expected.
Heather--The hedge looks very nice and best part it is done and can be checked off your to do list.

Janetr--Beautiful!

Out of time. Blessings, Vicki GI NE

Poerava14

Barbie: Sending healing energy your way. This back pain seems to be taking longer than usual to heal. ((hugs))

Rebecca: In your pocket, sending up prayers and virtual support.

Katla: Agree with the others who say 'let it go'. Never good to make plans based on assumptions. Don't give this person the power to steal your bliss.

On decluttering: Bravo to all of you who have tackled it. Add me to the "Happiness is a Truckload of BIG Trashbags Heading to the Dump" Club. I studied Feng Shui years ago, and whenever I feel I'm energetically or psychically stuck, I know I need to rearrange and declutter my main living rooms. Always works. The only thing I have from my grandmother is her prominent swatch of white hair. Machka: I vote for letting your natural color grow out. Eventually, it will all even out. In the meantime, your braids will look really cool with extra color woven in.

Have to channel my inner Lisa and KJ this week... I haven't tackled a home improvement project by myself in many years. DH has always been so proficient at this. However, his skills are compromised, so I have to texture and paint 1/2 a wall, where our new TV will go. I'm going to You Tube Academy now. Wish me luck.

Oh, just realized that July is ending. Here is my report card:
July resolutions:
> Meditate and practice Reiki daily - A
> Swimming and aquatics everyday, if possible - B
> Embrace and appreciate being able to serve as a caregiver - B
> Be lighter - A. I'm down .8 which is better than being up on the scale, right?


Stay well friends. We can do this, and then some!!!
Rori
Colorado Foothills

barbiecat

I've loved reading everything you all have written about de-cluttering. It's not an easy process and inspiration from others is helpful. When my mother died in 1991 I was her only heir so I got everything. We moved into her house immediately and gave away some furniture and put a ton of stuff in storage--some hers, some ours. For months I had dreams of my mother walking around her house saying disapproving things about what I had done with her possessions. It took almost ten years to go through and discard what was in storage. When we moved we found a buyer for a bunch of furniture we didn't want for our new house. Now my remaining challenge is photos that I am scanning a few each day and throwing the originals away.

My appointment with my primary care doctor is first thing Wednesday morning. I will keep doing stretches and taking the almost useless meds until then along with using the heating pad. This is different from what was involved with my surgery.

Barbie

skuehn48

wildhorsewendy

Hi Sisters,

Katla, I am very sensitive to moods as well and it used to upset my applecart completely if I knew someone was angry with me. I have slowly learned that you can't control someone's feelings. If they choose to be angry, that is their freedom to do so. When The Bad Thing happened in my life, my husband was very very angry with me. For no reason! I had done nothing wrong to deserve it and I knew it was his problem, not mine. Men often choose to feel anger, rather than another emotion, as it is the one they are most comfortable with feeling. It is easy to feel anger back when someone is unjustly angry with you. But that road leads only to escalated anger. I chose to feel love and forgiveness and that has been the right road for me.

Kelly, last night I figured out why my progress with Clair has been so slow. I was playing the wrong notes with the left hand! No wonder they would not stick in my head and didn't sound right. I thought it was because my piano was out of tune...but I finally noticed that in the first two lines of notes there is not a cleft symbol (I think that is the right word-I'm not that technical) but a treble...so now I need to refigure out what notes to hit with my left hand!

Rye, you have inspired me to pull out my Sony 200 camera again and try to get it working and buy the right lense for it so I can do my blurred background pics of my horses. I had to fix my card reader yesterday as the pins were bent and then the card came up as corrupted, so I tried a spare one that I found and it worked...I took some pics yesterday and now I have to see if I can get them off the card onto my computer... Holding my breath!

Okay, my goal today is to reach 20,000 steps on my fitbit. I was at 12,000 yesterday just working around my land, gardening and wheelbarrowing dirt from the roundpen. I figure if I add in a walk with the dogs I can probably reach 20thou. I've got my student coming today though, so I will need to get busy early this morning.

Wendy

megblair1

Hi my friends. I stayed home from work today and graded on line papers. They were mostly bad. Only 1 person even followed the directions! *heavy sigh

I think I have my first-ever bladder infection! Burning, urgency, some blood…yow! I have an appointment at 0750 tomorrow. Not sure how that happened; I don’t have any of the usual risk factors. Well except 1: peeing after intercourse…haven’t done that in 8 months :O :O :O OK, OK TMI but hilarious nonetheless. Gotta laugh or cry and I crack myself up!

Rebecca: glad all seems well with hubby


Lisa NC: There is a lot of chaos at my work too. I don’t trust anyone! Lots of mysterious “resignations” and the president seems to be throwing faculty under the bus. So I just keep my head down!

Machka: I too have done the hair thing. I have “Shirley Temple hair”…all ringlets. I don’t know what I like best, so I just keep changing it. Right now it’s mid-back, so I either scrunch it or blow and iron it so the ends are smoothed under. Loved the photos!

Allie: not only do kids want new, they think anything more that 5 or 6 years old is hopeless.

Heather: you are so right; sometimes getting help makes everything go faster and easier (and usually better than I can do). And it looks nice! Octopus??? I had a great mental image of you beheading it.

Kylia: I used to have a ’67 Mustang coupe that was named Maryanne. I had the original owner’s manual and that was her name. She was Tahoe Turquoise. I sold her after the head cracked and the gear linkage went out because we didn’t have the time or money to fix her up. I love older cars!

KJ: Thanks for the update on Re

Re: (((hugs!))) and more (((hugs)))

Maureli: welcome! What shall we call you?

Carol: cute pic!

Barbie: sorry your back woes continue! Sending you healing thoughts!

Janet: beautiful!!!

Katla: we now seem to have resident foxes in the area. I had been noticing “dog poo” after Benny Beagle died that didn’t quite look dog. It was then I heard and saw on the news reports of foxes running around and sleeping in backyards! What kind of clock do you have? I collect antique clocks.

Cheri (and everyone else going through other people’s stuff): I feel for you. Our house has a 5-car garage with 30’ ceilings and it got so stuffed with my parents’ things that I could barely fit my Volkswagen in it! Stuff was literally piled to the ceiling! Each time my parents moved into a littler place, I got the stuff. They also had storage sheds. We had several HUGE garage sales that ended on the 3rd day with us still opening boxes. It was quite the sight.

Vicki: here’s the shy goat! You can see how much of my hair is grey.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/orTghFyXrCwivDVuXIVGdYoorGTIV9AitLo0tLL7xuZYzH9Z-1kGOqdO4OgBWxPRl_Da9g1hs0SUGRzp3XdgIEIWxaU78-f4JjKB3tygsPjuCk94dYd7SF_SJlQewJFAON_Q8xrsSQ=w1006-h755-no

OK friends, that’s all I have to report! Take care, Meg from Omaha where I smell goat!

coastalgosgal

Yes eliminating what isn't wrong. MRI showed nothing, so that's good.👍
So a bout of vertigo I guess I can handle. Liver being wonky, not so much. Poor guy. He had some green grapes that I brought. His broth was disgusting, I can see why he wouldn't want it. He's had a couple bites of jello. Baby steps.
Rebecca

wildhorsewendy

Janet, that is so regal!

Well, I managed to transfer pics off the memory card and onto my laptop. Here are three that I took yesterday. A picture of my front porch, a peek into my bedroom from the window and my handsome roo with his girlie:



Wendy

PS: There's a ghost me reflecting in the window

grandmallie

Evening..
I didn't see the post about Re's mom,
I'm so sorry to hear about her mom,been there done that..
Found out today Dear friend of mine in Florida passed away.the last time I saw him he was happy and hanging out in the pool..he was one of the people who went to the pool every day..we had alot of good times..glad I got to.know him..
Re-my sincerest condolences ..I sure hope your mom had her affairs in order...it's is in nerving to say the least to deal with an estate.

janetr7476

Thanks ladies for your nice comments. I guess working on the ornaments is like knitting and/or crocheting to others. Just calming.

Lanette I look online at pages from differ sites Etsy, Pinterest etc. But a lot of the fancier ones are simplified versions of a kit for sa!e I found online that are much too involved for me to replicate.

Thanks again

Janetr OKC

pipcd34

lhscapil wrote: »

Barbie - hope you can get in to see your doctor soon. Glad the meds are giving you some relief - glad Jake is able to help with dog walking and chores. I so appreciate your tips on decluttering - addressing the physical AND the mental/emotional part.

Heather - you are a girl on fire with your cleaning out and new house planning! That hedge looks great.

Rebecca - thank you for the update on your DH. With his vertigo - and what you've had in the past, I wonder if there's a virus going around? So grateful it's not his liver, and hopefully a run of the mill illness that is over soon.

Katla - glad you enjoyed the Skinny on Fat episodes you were able to watch. Looks like there's another free episode on tonight for 24 hours. I'll post the link as soon as they email it to me. Your miffed former neighbor might have been suffering from the heat grumpies too. Hard to tell sometimes what sets people off for no good reason. Seems like so many people these days are on medications that tend to alter their moods (or maybe should be I used to want to delve into the problems when confronted with odd behavior like this but now I just do a hasty apologize and exit the premises ASAP . When is your next RV adventure?

Janetr - another stunning ornament! Where do you get your ideas? That apple pie your DH made sounded great. Bad boy, lol.

Carol - cute DGD! So neat that she is getting interested in the sport of running at an early age.

Machka - your hair is super lovely, curly or not.

So interesting hearing about those of you who have left/right problems. I've heard that a super brain strengthening exercise is to brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. I tried it last night - I sure need more practice!

Pip - are you riding your bike to work in the heat today? Not so bad in the early morning. You are superwoman.

OK ladies, it's going to be another hot one here. DH is mowing - mainly dandelion blossoms as lawn is brown. My niece in Indiana is in labor right now so keeping tabs on her thru my SIL. Hope all goes well for her.

Going out to pump iron.

Keep cool ladies!

Lanette
Sunny SW WA State

Not today, I have. But I’ve been riding to work in the morning, I don’t want to wear myself out. When it’s this hot I don’t feel it as much as u might think cuz I’m getting a constant flow of air. It when u are at a stop sign, that’s when u start dripping

SophieRosieMom

Ladies, here's the 10th episode of The Real Skinny on Fat if anyone is interested - hope the link works:

https://www.therealskinnyonfat.com/episodes/ep10fv.html

Lanette
Cooler SW WA State

janetr7476

I forgot to tell you about our llama tragedy. The number of llamas was becoming too large for the pasture. The two oldest female offspring were sold two or three months ago. That left only one female, Mama. Papa and oldest male offspring, Rocky, kept sparring for leadership. A couple of weeks ago in a rather savage battle Rocky was mortally wounded and had to be put down. It was very sad.

This morning's visitors to our backyard. They were very loudly saying good morning



Janetr OKC