Author: admin (Page 26 of 89)

We just finished packing everything up. When all was said and done, the only large thing we have to get rid of is the smaller desk. We decided to use the dresser that didn’t sell and we are just going to keep the fridge for future use in one of the rentals. I boxed up a few things to keep and try to sell on ebay and a few books to donate to the senior center. There are about 5 more boxes of things to go to the second-hand store. But we really sold a lot of stuff! We ended with $206 after I bought my snacks and my bakery things from the Amish. Not bad for two days.

Now back to work on the house. Less than two weeks left, and we move the piano and organ a week from today, so we have to be finished with the sheet rock mudding and sanding by then!

It was busy this morning, but the afternoon got pretty slow. I got rid of a lot of small stuff and made over $125 today, but there is still some big stuff that I’d like to see go, because I don’t want to have to figure out where to store it. Tomorrow is just the morning, then I can get on with life. This sitting around all day is for the birds (even if I did make over $100 doing it!)

As of today, we have 15 days to finish.

We got the flooring down in the shower/laundry/closet and put the tub and tub surround in place. We then closed the door from the main house for good and covered it over with paneling on the inside (left over paneling from elsewhere). It really looks like a big closet with a bathtub in it now! Very cool. We still have to finish sheet rocking, mudding and taping in there, though, plus the plumber needs to hook up the tub.

In the kitchen, we removed the carpet from the portion that will have vinyl and pulled all the staples, then put the leveling stuff on last night. That had to dry overnight, so tonight we will be able to put the vinyl in, then set the cabinets, put on the countertop, and maybe even put in the sink. That is a lot for one night, but we’ll see.

The problem area is getting the fan in the shower room, because the wall we wanted to put it through is about a foot thick and many, many layers. The hole saw won’t go through it. We can’t go through the outside wall because that is brick. So that leaves the roof, but there are multiple ceilings to go through to get out that way. I’m letting Dad try to think of a solution!

We also still need to have the electrical inspected before we can finish closing up the walls, which delays the sheet rocking in several places. I don’t want to move anything else over there until we are past the really dusty phase of sanding the sheet rock, so the moving is at a stand still.

But I have my garage sale tomorrow and the next day, so I’ll be busy with that for a while!

So, I went and took some pictures. They show the back of the building with my window boxes and cool table top on the wall, the kitchen as it looks today,  a couple shots of the new bath/laundry/closet, then a shot of the beautiful curtain over my mirrors in the fitness studio (the flooring you see is the piece to go in the kitchen), and finally our hammock that I finally hung today (we’ve had it since Dad was at Jenny-O.)

I’ve been way overeating the past couple of days (after I actually made my goal on Wednesday – 14 pounds lost), and I stopped last night to ask why. I am totally freaking out about being able to move by the end of the month. Except we have to move, because someone else is planning to move in here. But there is SO MUCH left to do at the new place. And SO MUCH left to do here. And I’m really not sure we can get it all done.

But I’ve been here before. Well, not exactly the same thing, but where I didn’t think we’d make a deadline. So what I did when I couldn’t sleep this a.m. was get up and make a countdown tablet, with each day showing how many days are left and spaces to list what I needed to do that day at each place and what I was planning to do that day for just myself. Hopefully it will help me keep a bit of my focus on taking care of myself. And it will help me remember that a goal is met by doing a little each day.

The plumbers didn’t quite finish yesterday, so now I’m also really worried that the plumbing bill will be more than we budgeted and the money is almost gone. But I know we’ll figure it out. And we are doing the best we can with the resources we have, so I can’t expect any more of either of us.

Some of the best advice I’ve gotten in my life came from my little brother, Duncan. When I was having trouble with my lower back in my 30’s, I mentioned it to him, because he had suffered back pain already, but seemed to be doing well. He said it was essential to strengthen the muscles of the thighs and the abs, so they do all the work and not the back.

He didn’t have any official training, but his advice was right on the mark. The transverse abdominus is the muscle that fires just before we make any movement. Its sole purpose is to stabilize the back. There are exercises specific to this muscle, but I didn’t know that. I just did a bunch of ab exercises, as well as thigh exercises. Soon I was enjoying that so much that I expanded to a complete body strength workout two to three times a week.

And, amazingly enough, I’ve had very little back trouble since. My doctors and therapists can’t believe it, because my back looks quite bad on xray. But it doesn’t bother me, because it is well supported and protected by my muscles!

So, whether you are having back trouble or not, find some exercises for your abs and do them regularly.

Another?

How about just the fence and the flowers?

And this one I think is cool because there are so many different things in it:

Here is the pair of cabinet doors after I’ve cleaned them up as much as I know how:

Here is the christening gown, all ironed up and on a small (although plastic) hanger.

And here is something else I made yesterday. I’d been saving these fancy hankies for years and years, so I washed and ironed them, then displayed them in a frame I had in my garage sale pile. I think they turned out pretty nice! I ripped the backing paper a little, but I think that makes it look older!

First there are VHS movies:

And there are DVD movies, first the Feature Films for Families movies:

And some kid’s movies:

Some family or grownup movies:

And some exercise videos/dvds:

And, finally, some books on tape:

Please let me know if you would like any of these, before I sell them at my garage sale weekend after this coming weekend.

If you have heard of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) you may feel that this is what you need to amp up your aerobic workouts. Well, maybe; maybe not.

HIIT, when done right, involves really high intensity intervals. Like at an intensity that most of us don’t care to work out. Like gasping for breath and honestly wishing it was over. Unfortunately, anticipating a workout like that may motivate you enough to actually do it. Because, really, who wants their workout to be painful?

But the good news is that interval training has always been a good way to increase the effectiveness of your workout. Interval training, not HIIT. What is the difference, you ask? Interval training merely involves changing the intensity at intervals during your workout. The hard intervals don’t need to be at 85 – 90% of maximum. You can go from 20% of maximum to 30% of maximum and still have a more effective workout than a steady state workout where you maybe work at 25% of maximum all the time. The reason is that this increased demand on your heart just when it was starting to get efficient at it’s current level of work builds the heart’s strength.

What might an interval workout look like? You might walk two blocks, then jog a block, then back to walking another two blocks, and continue to alternate. You might alternate between jogging a block then running a block, whatever the difference between jogging and running is for you. You might run up and down hills. You decide what you want to do. Just remember to let your rest intervals be slower than your normal steady state exercise, so you actually recover from the faster, harder intervals or you will exhaust yourself before you can finish. But your interval workout does not need to be as long as your normal workout, because it is a more intense workout as a whole.

If your workouts are getting stale, try incorporating an interval day and see if it doesn’t help!

I’m downsizing my Christmas collection. I’ve already saved each of your stockings and ornaments that I knew were yours. Other than that, I’ve taken a picture of everything I’m getting rid of. There are little numbers in each picture, which are on a slip of about 1″ paper (for size comparison.) If there is anything you would like, let me know and I’ll bring it on Labor Day weekend!

There you go. The pix all turned out pretty good. You can ask for an entire grouping or just one item from any grouping.