Category Archives: I am not martha stewart

I want to be FREE… of paper.

Posted in Home improvement, I am not martha stewart by
Do you all keep file boxes for your important data? You know, bills, and such?

I am having a bit of a time with parting with my data. I keep a box for each year and organize into folders for bank cards, utilities, investments, health/medical stuff, insurance, etc.

The reality is once I get through the year, the only thing I ever pull out again is usually tax related items. Because, drilled into my head from previous experience is the fact that the only really important stuff to hang onto are tax files.

Now that I do 75% of my bill paying online, I have less paper, but I’m still buried from accumulated paper over the years.

We’ve been married for almost 13 years, hence almost as many boxes cluttering my upstairs closet. I did make an effort, oh, about 6 years ago to weed through the data, and I consolidated 3 years into one box…. but then I got bored and never finished.

I don’t want to turn into my MIL and have 40 years of data rotting in the basement.

So what do you all do for organizing your household paperwork? What do you keep? What do you toss?

And more importantly, how do you dispose the data? I have TWO shredders that worked for like a month, and died. I’m not buying an industrial shredder for one clean-up effort. But I must shred and have no resources to shred large quantities of paper.

Please share.

Because I am buried in useless paper that would be much happier as recycled paper.

And I want my space back.

A fresh start

Posted in Home improvement, I am not martha stewart, Thoughts by
Things are finally getting back to normal here from the holiday. Yesterday we lugged the last box of Xmas decor into the basement and my family room looked a lot bigger again without a tree and a mountain of toys.

I had this crazy idea, back before Halloween… that for each holiday of “stuff/decor” I was going to buy color-coordinating containers to put stuff in rather than miscellaneous cardboard boxes. So all my Fall decor is in orange 18-30 gallon plastic containers… and now (after raiding Target of the last clearance aisles) 10 red and green containers for the holiday decor.

The goal is to get rid of as much cardboard as possible.

1. Because the storage area in the unfinished side of the basement is risky (we had one flood a year back and I feel much safer with all my stuff in plastic and up/off the floor)
2. Keeps my sanity when I have to ask S. to bring up any seasonal stuff.
3. I feel organized.
4. Cardboard sucks and there’s only so many times you can tape and retape a box.

All of David’s (baby) clothes that he outgrew are also in big blue containers. Stacked in the corner should we ever need them again.

The crazy thing about all of this, is I feel so much better not wading through junk downstairs anymore. There was a time (before the basement was partially finished) when our basement was a graveyard… a dumping ground. When we were forced to organize and throw out stuff it took us TWO FULL DAYS and an entire dumpster.

Soon I can rest easy that my basement is a friendly environment, and not have that perpetual monkey on my back that I need to clean and organize. Sometimes tasks like that can be so overwhelming.

Next up after the basement is finito, the walk-in closet above the garage. 7×10 feet of more stuff I probably don’t need. Half of it is old baby stuff. Most days when I have to venture in there for something I don’t spend a lot of time. It’s currently a wasted space that could function as a sitting room, or a crafts room.

No matter what happens this year, I do plan to get rid of all of the contents (some of the stuff can’t be reused anyway). I feel like having it stare me in the face is doing me no good. Just a reminder that I’ve been perpetually waiting for 2 1/2 years.

Cleaning is good. Sorta like cleansing the soul at the same time.

The most wonderful time of the year

Posted in family, holiday cheer, I am not martha stewart, Shopping by

I like to shop, normally.

I really do.

But this year I will freely admit I am DREADING holiday shopping. It’s just once more stress component added on to my work situation, S. work issues, babymaking issues, the fact that I don’t have time to houseclean, so forth and so on. Et cetera!

No, I’m not a scrooge.

But considering I am one of those people who usually puts a lot of thought into the “perfect” gift, I am a bit, well……. guilty this year.

I am declaring…. “Christmas Lite”

As in, we will be focusing on the part of Christmas that is not rushing around or standing in line at the mall. Let me back up… I would gladly stand in line at my favorite local bakery for sweets, but I won’t be at Macy’s behind the person opening a new, revolving account at the register when 30 angry people are in line.

We will celebrate the holidays with the things we enjoy most- being together with those we love and counting our blessings that we still have the opportunity to laugh and reminisce.

So.

If you are a member of my dear family, please don’t expect the perfect gift this year. More than likely, your gift will be a gift card. It’s not that I don’t love you enough… it’s that I love you too much to give you a lousy gift you don’t want because I will be soooooo off the mark this year (my brain being off-kilter and all).

Having my friends and family is all I want this year.

and a BFP at the end of my next cycle, that would be good too…

just sayin’…

I’m not normally this crabby, I swear

Posted in Handbags, I am not martha stewart, Infertility, Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, secondary infertility by

Thank god this week is over. I can’t even put my finger on what’s been REALLY bad about this week, it’s just the overriding panic about everything that has gone wrong lately.

It’s catching up with me. I just can’t get my ass out of the rut I am in. I haven’t even switched over to my newest handbag I bought two weeks ago. It’s sitting in the bag, wrapped tenderly, saying “OPEN ME! You spent good money on me and I am the IT color for the Fall season, and FALL will be over before you know it!”

I’ve not been eating particularly well. I’ve been drinking a lot of coffee and soda. I have not exercised in three weeks. I have skated through every day of work in the last 4 months. I have washed and rewashed the same load of laundry all week because I can’t remember to put it in the dryer. I have an intense need to drown myself in chocolate, but I don’t have any.

I am the dog tied to the bumper of Chevy Chase’s moving car in the movie “Vacation”. Beat up and forgotten.

ok, bad analogy, sorry.

And let’s talk about yesterdays blood draw. Thanks to everyone WILLING that hCG number down, it did go down (again) to 12. No Metho yet. Crazy as it sounds, I am happy about that, although I know that zero may still be far off. I am still technically pregnant SINCE MAY. I may hold some sort of record I think.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record. Let me sum up the year: pregnancy in January, miscarriage in January. TTC in March, April. Pregnancy in May. Miscarriage in JULY. THREE MONTHS LATER.. still not near a new cycle.

Add it up folks… I’ve only had AF TWICE this year. And I wonder why I am crazy. It’s pent-up hormones. I feel like an android. I think my body forgot about me too.

If you live in NJ, and feel rumbling under you feet today…. it’s not an earthquake. It’s just me exploding from my nuclear meltdown.

I promise to get back to myself next week.

I just need more time here in the dumps.

Next visit to the vampire lab is Monday.

Gotta Snickers bar?