medical binders and recipe binders

Four of us now each have a medical binder. They are three ring binders filled with sleeve/page protectors. Medical forms go in the sleeves. There are sections, labeled wide dividers (that are made to work with sleeve/page protectors). We buy the dividers with the half circle labels so the labels do not slide out. Office Depot.  Sections include - immunizations, family records, lab work, Ortho, neuro, asthma/allergist, gyn, ENT, eye, GI, etc. Each binder has slightly different sections as we have different doctors.

Very pleased. I take my binder to doctor’s appointments. If I need to find information, I have it with me. I ask for copies of things and put it directly into a sheet protector in the binder, while I am there. No loose papers/records floating around the house.

(EOB’s and receipts/bills go in a hanging file in my file cabinet by year. Many years ago I made all the hanging files. Like 2000-2019.)

The girls use their binders exactly as I use mine. They keep their own binders. I only keep my own.



AND


I went thru two fat binders of recipes in my kitchen. They took up a lot of room. I realized I used the recipes in one binder much more than the other. I cleaned out a lot of weird things and got myself down to one 2” binder. I kept about 1/3 of the recipes and got rid of 2/3.

Middle made a recipe binder for herself and one for youngest. They all have overlapping recipes and they have unique recipes. So not exact duplicates.

Very pleased.

We are over populated with chipmunks, we have had hundreds of $$$ damage to car

There are five houses. I was in my bare feet when I took these pictures, so I did not photograph the ones in the backyard. The three below are all near the driveway.

The dogs cannot get in them.

I don't think a cat could get in them.

We have not yet had a squirrel in one. But we would not be sad if we did. Too many squirrels (in my opinion).

This is the trap that is in each stone house. They are all baited with peanut butter.

We sold (probably hundreds of) things over the summer.

Four day serious garage sale.

And then I have been systematic listing things (left from sale) on Facebook marketplace, ever since.

For the last several months those things have sold slow but steadily.

Really pleased. More to go.

Vacuuming

My rugs on the inside and outside of the backdoor are very dark and a solid color. They show dirt and hair and stray grass and things that come in on people’s feet. They show everything.

And I get such satisfaction in vacuuming those rugs. Because they go from dirty to very clean, and I can see it. Those rugs get vacuumed at least once a week. (And that is very often for me.)

The carpeting, in the bedrooms and living room and loft, does not provide the same satisfaction. It is neutral. And it shows no dirt.

If I vacuum and there are a lot of zing noises, I have satisfaction. But visually, there is little reward.

So I am unmotivated to vacuum the neutral carpeting. It rarely gets done. In fact when I vacuum carpeting, I am usually moving furniture and deep cleaning.

A carpet salesman or an interior designer would probably recommend my carpeting to clients. They would say - it does not show the dirt and it wears very well.

But I suspect that carpeting actually means we are living with dirty floors. Way dirtier than we realize.

There is a correlation in here somewhere with getting on the scale. And taking pictures. And wearing the most fitted clothes in your closet.

Pantry, added six tiny shelves

An 8" shelf will be added to the very top. (The current top shelf is very full of clear glass serving pieces; they don't really show in these pictures.)

The little shelves, tucked under the big shelves, my husband added this fall to the pantry. There are six of them, three on each side. They add so much more storage space, maximizing what is on the big shelves.

He did a great job, I was able to match paint, they absolutely look like they have always been there.

Food organization - yes, I am channeling Tracy Benjamin with the labels. (I love her.)

I put a basket which is sturdy and attractive and has a lid, on top the little refrigerator in the kitchen. And I put the things that other people eat, but I do not want to see nor eat, in this basket. Pretzels, crackers, cereal, pita crisps, etc.

And both refrigerators now look like an Alzheimer patient lives here.

I labeled shelves.

With three of us using two refrigerators, things were getting ignored. Lost in the shuffle. So now everything has a spot.

And labeled shelves is sort of like the basket. I eat things off that shelf. I do not eat anything from those shelves. Simple but effective on several levels.

Medication is in the drawer on the upper left.
The cases of water are to help regulate the temperature of this refrigerator.
 

The fall

The end of the story is - the next day, today, I had no pain and no lingering issues. Not back, not knees.

Wednesday, 10:30am, walking down the sidewalk, within a block of our house, headed home, the dogs (golden retrievers) and I saw a dog in his own yard.

We had not see him all summer. And I had actually thought maybe he had died over the winter. A dark brown lab. Big. Solid.

There is a sign in the front yard and the back yard, of that house, that they have an electric fence. And while the dog charges to the front of his yard when he sees us, and barks, we had never seen him out of his yard.

Wednesday, he charged forward, to the end of his driveway, but I do not think he barked.

And we were on the opposite sidewalk, across the street.

So I did not give him a lot of thought.

We passed the house and were on our way down the block when I suddenly was knocked down, hard.

I landed full weight, hard on both knees, on the sidewalk. Sudden. Like a linebacker hit me from behind. There was no catching myself.

And I had one leash in each hand. (And a poop bag). I held on to the dogs tighter. I did not drop either leash. (Nor the poop bag.)

As soon as I hit, I rolled to sit down and grabbed for the pup. She was frantic. Going every which way. I pulled her in my lap and wrapped both arms around her, tight.

I saw out of the corner of my eye that the older dog was on her feet and still with me. I saw the brown lab was right with us, moving. Like so close he was touching all of us.

The older dog was standing still and did not look too afraid. She was not cowering. She was not barking. She was just calmly staying with me.

The pup was frantic. I think she thought - he is going to eat me.

So I sat on the sidewalk, holding her as tight as I could, eyeing the lab, and yelling for help.

An old man and a woman, from two different houses, came to help.

He chased the lab back to his own yard and pounded on their doors. Front and inside garage, the big garage door was open. Really pounded. And yelled. No one came. He was afraid to open the door, to put the dog in the house, because his hackles were raised.

Then the old man came back to us. Still yelling at the dog to stay home. And he asked if I wanted him to call and ambulance, he said - you went down really hard.

I said - Let me get up on my feet and see.

He said he would hang on to the pup. And I showed him how.

The lady said she would hang on to the older dog and I said, she will just stay with me.

And I got to my feet, watching the pup closely. She was still clearly thinking - he might come back over here and eat me. 

I was very shocked to have no pain in either knee. I could stand. I could walk.

They both said they would walk home with me. I said I thought I was okay and was almost home.

When we got home, my right knee started to hurt. Not like bone hurt. But like scrapped knee hurt. (I was wearing pants). I did not even look. I got two soft ice packs and strapped them to my knees and sat down.

When I looked later the right knee was scraped.

And my husband stopped on his way home, after work,  and knocked on their door. He said - telling point - they had to come out on the porch to talk, the dog was going nuts inside.

My husband is very nice and very diplomatic. But he can also be very clear.

He told them what happened. He told them he was as concerned for the dogs as he was for me. He told them two neighbors had to help me. One had to chase their dog home so I could even get up. And he told them they needed to fix whatever was going on so people could walk down the sidewalk with their dogs, safely.

They were an older couple who spends most of the year in Florida (who summers in Florida!?!). They have been home for about ten days.

And they were really horrified by what had happened. Aghast. They had no idea. 

So neither of their neighbors went (after my fall) and found them later. The woman (who helped me) told me the dog has left its yard four times with her. I don't know if it knocked her down. I don’t know if that is four times in the last ten days or since she has lived there. Clearly she did not tell them. 

I had told my husband that I had no idea what the dog’s intentions were. Still. It might have been friendly and just over exuberant. It might have been hostile. No idea. And I wonder if the electric fence is not working (since they got home), and they don’t know it.

I did not have my pepper spray with me. But even if I had, I could not have used it. It was all I could do to hang on to the pup. And the lab was constant motion, all around us, very close.

26,000

Middle has a Fitbit.

She has had many fitbits. On 4th, 5th or 6th one in fact. (We only paid for the first One. Best Buy with extended warranty. They die within a year for her. Best Buy replaces and starts warrantee over each time. One time they gave her a new one plus $20 because the price had gone down. They have upgraded her a couple times because the models have changed. It is the gift that keeps on giving.)

Youngest had one. BIG MISTAKE - We bought it at Target. They refer us to the manufacturer when it dies. They would only replace one. Very sad. Hers die very similar schedule to middle's. She is currently without. She does not use it as much as middle does. (She has an android phone, so that might be part of it.)

Moral of that story, only buy at Best Buy. (check to see if this is still in place before you buy, though).

Back to middle. She really uses her Fitbit. Steps. Sleep. Incoming texts and phone calls.

And on Sunday, at the home and garden tour, she says we walked 26,000 steps that day.

When we went, I was not (at all) sure I would be able to do it. So many stairs.

One thing that helped was bad weather and low turn out. So we did not stand in many lines. We could just keep walking.and it is very distracting. You want to go up and down the stairs to see everything.

And there was one stop/tour that was very far from the others and we drove to that one.

So I did fine. I did not even think about finding a chair. I did not even consider skipping any of the houses.

I painted this week

Two weeks ago, I would not have been able to do it. Paint. At the community theater.

Moving ladders, up and down ladders, standing on ladders, painting over my head.

This week, I made it just fine. (Middle went with me. Both times.)

On Tuesday, I walked the dogs early, painted (2 hours) in the late morning***, ran a couple errands, and then sat outside with the dog’s for about an hour.  Then, I worked on copying photos over to Shutterfly. (I am up to 2012.) I did not let myself take a nap.

On Wednesday the dogs went to the beauty parlor, so I had the day off.

We painted (4 hours) in the afternoon. Then ran errands. I did not let myself take a nap (again). And it was easier than it had been on Tuesday (to stay awake and then go to bed st a normal time).

I purposely did not do any arm weights all week. Painting, particularly over your head, for hours at a time, is  tough.

Sunday and Monday, I tried not to take a nap. I might have dozed a little in the evenings.

So noticeably better this week.

And this was the first week of weaning off my last steroid inhaler. One puff twice a day. Two weeks at that level and then I try to stop.

To recap - major asthma trouble most of July. Major steroids. It took me all of August and will take nearly half of September to wean myself off oral, nebulizer, and two inhalers. Goodness.

***I figured out that if I walk the dogs early, we can paint for two hours (morning volunteer shift is 10am-12pm) and then let the dogs out when we get home. I am not sure why that did not occur to me.  So I can go paint a couple times a week. Two hours of painting is more pleasant than four also.

Proactive fix - drying racks

I have four drying racks. The standing kind.

They get a lot of use. Drying big quilts, comforters, sleeping bags, mattress pad covers. I set up all four and drape the big thing over them. Often I put one or two box fans under there too.

Sometimes when everyone is home, all four are full of pool towels. Sometimes one is full of bras. Or several are full of sweaters.

But where to store them has always been an issue. Cleaning out the tool cabinet, when we got the work bench this spring, I found two bike hangers. These were intended for hanging bikes on a wall, which my husband vetoed.

They were perfect for hanging the drying racks on the laundry room wall. My husband mounted them in a stud. They are super sturdy.

A set of hooks were moved from the laundry room to the garage. The hooks, mounted in the garage, now hold dog walking supplies.

And in their place, back in the laundry room, went a pull out, wall mounted drying rack for small things. Very very handy.

This mounted upside down, so it pulls up instead of down.
We wanted to hang it higher. 

And now the rod above the washer and dryer is 100% available for extra hangers. So when I am hanging things, fresh from the dryer, the needed hanger is right there. Very much appreciated.

A fix

I ended up with piles at the bottom of the stairs that just sort of lived there. My dog walking clothes, things headed up stairs.

The fix is two sets of hangers on the back door.

So now the banister and the stairs, can look like this -

The kids needed something to set things on in the living room, that was sturdy and carefree

For $10, I was able to buy an unfinished top from the lumber yard. Round and nicely sanded. And it was pine. So I was not going to be worried about it, at all. I was okay with it being painted.

It took middle about five coats to cover the (originally) red legs. The yellow is nearly the color of the walls.

This was a $10 redo, just the price of the top. We had the paint. We had brushes and sandpaper. Youngest was able to reuse all the bolts and screws to trade out the tops.

Stool with the original top, so you can see the size difference.

English style gardens

Over planted, lush, full. Lots of varieties. One plant here, another variety next to it. Lots of types all squished in together.

When we plant in that format, in the spring when things come up, we cannot tell the weed from “good” plant. We are afraid to pull anything. And we end up with a weed patch.

A large section of pachysandra in the front, showed me a different option.  It is so full that it keeps the weeds down. And if one pops up, it is easy to identify, and gets pulled immediately.

That has lead to our planting large sections of one plant only.

We can identify weeds in those sections. And if something “good” pops up, from a neighboring area, we can transplant it. Or give it to a neighbor.

And we still get that “full look”.

The secret to the English garden look I love, I think, is not being able to see the dirt.

Monarchs and milkweed

Two summers ago, I planted milkweed seeds, purchased thru a “save the monarchs” type group. Did not grow.

Last summer friend dug milkweed roots for me. He dug them far from farmlands and roadways. They came from a pond at a DNR fishery. (DNR - department of natural resources.)

Once milkweed gets exposed to chemicals, monarchs avoid it. Forever. That might well be adding to the monarch shortage. The milkweed along farm fields, is often now un-eatable. 

Root planted milkweed just outside our living room window. And it came up this year. A good clump of  it came up. And thrived. I was very excited.

Both my grandmothers would think I was a little nuts for starting milkweed in a yard. But I was smart where I started it. House on one side. Grass path on the other side. Evergreens, dense evergreens that can hold their own, on both ends. So it is a contained area. And if it goes under the grass to the next bed, I am okay with that and will let it fill that (currently empty) bed.

A month or more ago we were invaded by tussock moth caterpillars. My husband removed them all. And every day he checks to see if any more have hatched. Most days he plucks at least one.

https://journeynorth.org/tm/monarch/milkweed_ecology_answers.html

Today, we counted 8 caterpillars in our patch. And I think there are enough leaves to support them. Because my husband is removing the tussock caterpillars (which mow down leaves at an alarmingly fast pace), only the monarch's are feeding.

Pictures -

Milkweed patch outside our living room window

This is the good kind. A monarch caterpillar.
(Taken with my iPhone)

cold air returns

We have cold air returns in most rooms of the house. Interestingly, not the kitchen.

I have two Goldens that keep me company most days. They belong to a neighbor. It is a mutually beneficial situation.

However, middle and I both have asthma and assorted people have dog allergies. And I did not want dog dander pulled into the duct work of the house.

So our heating/air conditioning guys came and put filters on the three cold air returns that are exposed to dogs. We keep all the bedroom doors in the house shut when the dogs are here.

The cold air returns (with filter added) are in the living room, top of stairs, my sewing room. So these are in the “main” areas of the house.


Purpose of filter - to keep dog hair out of the duct work. The dog is only in the kitchen, hall, living room.


When the service man came to clean/check air conditioner, this past week, he took out the filters and had me wash them with the hose in the kitchen sink. Then he put them back. Interestingly, the cold air duct at the top of the stairs, is always the dirtiest, it must pull from downstairs kitchen. We do not have a cold air return in the kitchen/hall.

We are going to do the same thing in the late fall when he comes to check the furnace.



And we have two tower filters in my bedroom. And two tower filters in the other downstairs bedroom. There is also one in the living room. These are good quality tower filters from Target with permanent/washable filters.

aprons

Simplicity
Daisy Kingdom
pattern #7481

It was discontinued long ago.

They come up, new, unopened, on eBay for very high prices. High demand, low availability.

Clearly simplicity could sell a lot of them if they republished.

It is just a great style wrap around apron. No ties. It slips over the head.

I had been eyeing it, but refusing to pay $50 for a pattern. Someone gave me a certificate for $25. And I found one listed for $40 with free shipping. So I grabbed it. Unopened, never cut.

If you don’t know, patterns are all together. One back piece with the lines for all the sizes. If you cut it at the lines for a size small, you lose the rest of the sizes.

So I traced the XL on grid fabric, and am saving it. And I interfaced the tissue paper pattern so it is sturdy. I am cutting and trying the size L first.

And I am using odds and ends of fabric I already have to make these aprons. (I think for Christmas). So this is a clean out activity. I am lining all the the aprons. So they will use up a lot of fabric. A lot.

And I am piping them. Piping on the edges. Which is easy to sew, makes for a very clean edge, and looks very polished.

Gretchen, great list

https://gretchenrubin.com/2018/07/25-secrets-of-adulthood-that-ive-learned-the-hard-way

I have no idea if it is junk or a valuable thing that is floating around the house, no idea

Oldest and youngest, home for a visit, sorted thru a box of weird electronics stuff, so helpful.

The winter I had surgery, 2013, oldest went thru a massive pile of cords. Like every stray cord in the house. Sorted, labeled, discarded, kept. He got it into one bin. With a lid. And the bin was not full. With a shelf for it in the garage. It was a bin that could live on, practically. And has.

This sort project was every weird “electronic” thing in the house, I had it all in a box. I have collected as we have sorted thru the house. A controller from this. Remote from that. Discs. Tapes. Cords. All kinds of orphan things. They sorted. Middle was their running girl. Garbage. Donate. It goes with this or that. A lot of stuff, sorted. Box now empty.

Fabulous.

Forever known as BAD ASTHMA JULY 2018

This week and part of next, a food and Med schedule:

6am
Food
Oral steroid
Zpac

10am
Two inhalers

Noon (food)

6pm
Food (last food of the day)
Oral steroid

10pm
One Inhaler
My regular meds

Nebulizer every 4-6 hours as I want it. Hint - I want it, every 4 hours. I can't make it past 4.

Still rolling thru the kitchen

Before -

After -

Everything came from Bed Bath Beyond.
This was the most expensive drawer.
The plastic in the old knife drawer had massive cracks and was discolored.
  I had 20% off every item at BBB. All these drawers will now probably last the rest of my life. Many other drawers were free, so I felt free to get what I actually wanted.

I have no before picture. Just visualize wraps and boxes spilling out the top in a wadded up mess.

Yes, those are two US post office boxes. I looked at several stores and could not find plastic bins the correct size. I dug through my box stash and these worked perfectly. Free.

I have no before picture. Just imagine small plastic ware in a big mess. Lids, containers, so many small pieces. I sorted everything. If it was Tupperware brand, I kept it. But I moved it to my large Tupperware containers in the cupboard above our microwave. And they are sorted. One size and the corresponding lids in one large container. There are 3-4 large containers will small sets in them. So yes, if I want to use the big container, I have to dump the little ones in something else. I am okay with that. The big ones do not get used very often. I have several of each.

This is a giant, empty drawer. My second empty drawer. 

Yes, those are also ten empty shelves.