Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

stuff

Happy Valentines Day! Eat Cake!

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This is the mini chocolate cake I made for my Mom’s 94th birthday. I took a picture of today’s, but WordPress won’t let me upload it. Gah! Suffice it to say, it looks like this, but on a red heart plate. I use Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil’s Food cake mix and also Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy milk chocolate frosting. In case you need the secret recipe. For emergencies.

Happy New Year! Happy Valentines Day! I lost a month. More like two. Actually three, to be exact. Long story short, my mom had medical challenges and three months later here we are, coming out the other side. Tonight we get to celebrate her 95th birthday at her new Assisted Living home.

Since she is also a Valentines Day baby, it is especially sweet she is doing much better and we know she has a fabulous group of minions helping her out. Besides my sister and myself. We’re good, but very human. We wear down.

So now that mom has more staff, we are trying to get back on track with our to do lists, right after we finish clearing out her apartment this next week. And sell the car. And sort paper files.

Can we chat about stuff? I had too much of my own mess before this move. Still haven’t cleaned out all the stuff from Mom’s prior move two years ago.

If you’re thinking about downsizing or moving, start cleaning out yesterday. But not my new craft supplies I purchased when I had five or ten minutes to kill between running errands, buying groceries, and helping mom. I call it craft therapy for when you don’t have time to get to an actual therapist.          

On this holiday I am grateful for family, friends, hugs and well wishes. Good thoughts helped too. Especially appreciated my friend Kathy helping me wrangle two bookcases, one LaZBoy, and a very stout round kitchen table into my house. My dad built the kitchen table in my youth and it could withstand a nuclear blast.

It also didn’t fit inside the hatchback. I volunteered to be ballast and we drove with the tabletop on the bumper and me holding on for dear life to the bottom pedestal. It was a long block, but we made it. Now Spec Ops Cat thinks he has a new cat enrichment gym. And I need to rearrange my house and get rid of more overstuffed chairs. Still stuff.

While we celebrate this day of giving thanks for love, I want to acknowledge all the good in this world. Especially by the people who give a small part of themselves when they don’t realize how much it can mean to a brain dead, exhausted caregiver unable to even do simple math. Bless you all.

Like texts from friends just checking in, when they know all you’ve got time for is to maybe send an emoji. And they still care.

Grocery checkers who smile at you and make you laugh, when you really need a lift to your spirits.

Medical professionals who can’t give you a definite answer, but try to help.

Your dentist gets you in pronto to fix a tooth you just broke in half eating a Wheat Thin.

Your brother-in-law figures out why the new GFCI plug isn’t working so you don’t have to keep manually hurking your garage door up and tripping over the extension cord running from the house to the freezer in the garage.

Les Schwab mechanic angels figure out your flashing low tire pressure light isn’t right, but it needs to be replaced. And they do it.

The two sets of craft stamps you really want and thought you missed, miraculously show up on a flying trip in and out of Tuesday Morning.

Chocolate chip cookies, Goobers, cinnamon toast, a Big Mac and fries. And I only started gaining weight this week. It’s back to chicken, broccoli and rice!

For all the caregivers out there, hugs and best wishes. There are no calories for you today. Really. Take a deep breath. Now another. You’ve earned it.

Yes, you can make a cake just for yourself. Or buy cupcakes, cookies, or anything else you need to cope. And there are free meditation lessons on YouTube.

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day everybody!

Time For A Spring Whittle?

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Wreath bells and decorations. The pine cones are in the garage. Somewhere.

I’m rebooting myself. If we can do it to computers, we can do it to ourselves. Between the crazy cold weather, my too long sick bay recovery and the state of my house, something needs to be rebooted. So I’ve decided to start with moi.

Mucking out the house seems a first priority. Since Spec Ops Cat refuses to do dishes and housework, I had to keep up with those necessities. But cleaning out closets when homebound has led to a plethora of boxes in the living room bound for Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity and recycling.

Normally I would move all this flotsam into the garage, but it’s a mess too. Seems when I’m not feeling well I order things from Home Shopping Network to cheer me up. Then I throw the empty boxes into the garage until I can break them down. That also includes my Christmas wreath.

Miracles of miracles Monday, the sun came out and it was pleasant outside. I toddled out to the garage and proceeded to breakdown cardboard boxes and fill the entire recycling cart to the brim. Then I actually unwound the wire off the wreath, salvaging the bells and pine cones, and put the very dead fir limbs into the yard debris. 

Now I also kept the round wire frame. I’ve been doing this for years, buying holiday wreaths and then saving the frames. Haven’t used one yet. But I might. I’ve watched too many YouTube craft videos this year and I own an unused glue gun. Chaos will certainly reign at some point when it comes to these two items. I can only imagine the things I can stick myself to with a small amount of effort.

Yesterday I almost took the electronic recycling in the back of Subie to the drop off place, but I couldn’t get my butt out the door. Today is another day! The old HP printer and monitor belonged to the ancient computer I finally switched to my new computer. It only took six months, two technicians and a ton of chocolate. I’ve kept the old desktop just in case. I might need a doorstop or a boat anchor.

But I like to think this is progress. I also dragged some boxes to sort from my parent’s house out of my exercise room, it holds equipment, not that I use it. I am happy to say Subie will be driving a vintage punch bowl set to a friend of mine to donate to her church. One more box out of the house.

I watched a lot of videos while cooped up and stumbled upon Mari Kondo’s Netflix series about Tidying Up. Basically it all comes down to one thing – you have to sort your crap, er stuff. But the series gave me hope that one day I will again park Subie in the middle of the garage and perhaps see the rug in the exercise room.

Don’t get me started on my office. Between papers and books, it’s easier to fight my way to the computer and ignore it. But I am whittling on it all. That’s my new word for sorting and cleaning. Whittling. Doesn’t seem that hard to whittle away a box at a time.

My goal is to have it done by this Fall. Or at least by the time I buy another holiday wreath.

It could happen! 

Got anything to whittle at your house?   

Can We All Downsize In Place?

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by Kimberly A. Cook               (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

I’m reading a book about getting organized titled, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,” by Marie Kondo. She has two rules of getting organized and the first one is the hardest; discard what doesn’t give you joy. This includes sorting everything in your entire house.

Goldmine! Not that I need these, but I had to bring a few home! For decorating. Really!
Goldmine! Not that I need these, but I had to bring a few home! For decorating. Really!

It sounds simple, but she recommends a six-month process to make this happen. I think I’ve been trying to do this for sixteen years myself. Truly, I have a collection of decluttering books! Case in point.

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is realizing our lives and activities have changed but we hang onto the clothes or sports equipment or artwork from the past.

Another favorite organizing book had some powerful advice; “storage is sorrow.” Whether past triumphs or tragedies or both, if we don’t love the items or display them as keepsakes, storage is not honoring the role of those items now, so set them free!

Easier said than done. Lately I’ve been shopping my clothes closet. While pretty organized, I have more stuff than I can remember. Found some shoes I’d forgotten about which are just the right sandals for this summer. Breaking in one pair of them today.

I’ve also been watching a lot of style tv shows, a favorite is “Love, Lust or Run” with Stacy London and “Dare to Wear” on TLC. Think I must be craving a change in fashion. Part of it comes from getting used to my thinner bod and wearing clothes that actually fit. New experience.

So today I boxed up some clothes to donate that I truly loved but am not willing to pay the cost of tailoring. I’m going to set them free so someone else can enjoy them and I have a cleaner closet. Now, I have drawn some lines so far; beads, yarn and books. Yes, I will sort them, but I’m not going to be brutal about it. Luckily they don’t take up much space. Okay, if I’m truthful I’m not going to get rid of beads – period. But the books and yarn are smaller than a bass boat! I think.

Of course, my fun trips to my favorite antique mall are not stopping either, but I’m trying to be very careful what I bring home. Last visit I came across a basket of 45 RPM records and sorted through. Pounced on one by Elvis and several made in Hawaii with the label in a red and white floral print. Plan on using them as wall decorations in the Maui/Elvis in Hawaii bathroom. Now if I can just find where I put them …..

P.S. For those of you keeping track, I finally switched out my cable tv modem this past weekend. With cussing and lots of chocolate, I made it work. Then I downgraded my tv package, kept football of course, and they sent me a new DVR to switch out. Sigh. Now I have to actually watch the shows on my old DVR. Stop the insanity!