10 Day Staycation

I haven't posted in weeks. I am sorry about that. I have just been worn out, as usual.

For reasons unknown to me, I was gifted with four weeks of vacation this year at my job. Last year I got one week and I never used it. So now I have five weeks coming to me, plus I'm accruing time as each month goes by. Pretty cool.

Kev and I went to church camp this year and as usual it wore me out. We drove ourselves, which was even more stressful since my car now has 294,000 miles on it with the original engine and transmission. It has been driving perfectly fine, but I know those components won't last forever. Thankfully we got to California and back with no problems whatsoever. Well, except for the air conditioning wasn't working on the way home. Cold air would blow through the system when we were driving at a high speed so we weren't totally without air but it was hotter than it would have been with air.

Dh managed to discover the problem and fix it last week for thirty bucks. I am so thankful, and I can even run the air on high now! I haven't been able to do that for the past three years because it was making a noise when I would run it on high. Now we know why, it was the squirrel cage thingy around the motor that had a few fins broken on one end so they were flying out when the squirrel cage was spinning really fast.

Anyway... my point in blogging this evening is that it is amazing how my stress level has decreased in knowing that I don't have to go to work next week. This morning I had to take Matt to his asthma specialist appointment, thankfully this is a positive experience for both of us. The asthma doctor recognizes that Matt has a needle phobia, therefore would never suggest anything to do with needles, doesn't even put him on the scale. Just listens to his lungs, looks into his nose, ears and throat and asks how he's doing otherwise. And he's a really nice guy. I see him for my asthma, too.

Usually on Fridays, if I have to leave the house, once I get home I feel like I'm overcome with anxiety because I have lost so many hours and now it's time to cook dinner, and then I only have Saturday to get everything done that needs to be done, and then I feel stressed and anxious about church on Sunday morning. Do I go and lose pretty much the entire day? Because when I get home at 2pm (earliest) I'm usually exhausted and have to lay down and sleep for a couple hours, then it's time to get ready to go to work the next day. I end up not going to church for weeks on end because I'm so stressed out already and having to get dressed and go just about does me in. Another component is that Matt doesn't like to go, and dh won't insist that he go (he nods off during the service snoring, anyway) so one of us needs to stay home with him so he isn't alone.

Anyway, today Kev wanted to make dinner, he made cheese enchiladas and they were delicious. But that also meant that after Matt and I got home, I could just relax. I took a nap from 3:30 to 5:30 and woke up feeling very rested, and no anxiety and stress that "oh no I just spent two hours I didn't really have napping".

I have been so stressed out lately that I decided before going to camp I'm just going to take Kava Kava every day, no matter if it will cause liver damage after prolonged usage. The stupid asthma medication, a corticosteroid causes liver damage so oh well.

The Kava Kava works nicely to keep my stress level checked so that I'm not having anxiety attacks. I was doing that for a couple of weeks. No fun.

So now that I have the next nine days off, I am all full of plans for what I need to get done. Note the operative word "need". Because what I would LOVE to do is to just kick back and relax every single day and do as little as possible. Just relax and recuperate and try to get to a place where I feel well rested and back to having some energy.

But no. The house is a dreadful disaster and I am really anxious to make some kind of progress. Lots of decluttering and cleaning needs to be done. I haven't mentioned hoof trims in months because they haven't been done. My poor milkers hooves are in dreadful condition. Which makes it worse for me because I don't have the strength in my hands to trim their hooves when they are as tough as nails. Literally. I can't use the normal trimmers, they do nothing. One of my girls was limping so I had to do her feet and dh helped me. He usually can't because his feet hurt if he stands on them too long. I'm not strong enough to hold their back legs steady and one year I had a rotator cuff shoulder injury due to the herd queen kicking and jerking my arm. I couldn't raise my arm for months and months. Kev can hold them for me, he is strong enough, but it is difficult to get his help. If he's not working with his father for the day that I'm available, he's busy with something else. And frankly I haven't had the energy to even consider doing hoof trims. When dh helped me the one time, luckily he did, because he was able to get me a tool that would actually work. I think he said they were called bullnose snips. For sheet metal work. They actually were able to bite into and crack pieces of the hardened hooves away so I could get down to the new hoof which can be cut with normal clippers. So Kev and I will need to use this tool as the hooves are all very long on everyone. Well, not as disastrously long as I've heard some have gotten (seven inches long?!) but a couple inches, which is terribly long. It makes the milkers unsteady on their feet jumping onto the milking stand and then back down.

But in the next nine days, hoof trims will get done. It is one of the things I must do. Kev says he will help me. Not this weekend but one day next week when he's not at work.

I filed an extension in April for our taxes, I thought I was ready but at the last minute as I was going over the return I discovered some problems and ended up filing an extension. I need to find a tax person to help me. The thought of that is overwhelming, but it has to be done.

I have to get that moving as October 15th will be here before I know it.

I want to get my room cleaned and decluttered. I want to get my bathroom cleaned and decluttered.

We had to buy a new air conditioning unit, a heat pump. We previously had a split system. Now the spot where the inside part of the split system is empty. I want that area redone, part of the wall has to be knocked out and refinished. Then the books in the milk crates in the living room (since the book shelf collapsed last week) can be put into the living room shelves, and the canned goods which reside there can go into the pantry area where they should go. I doubt that will happen.

I need to do a thorough cleaning and vacuuming of Matt's room.

The living room needs to be seriously decluttered.

The kitchen needs work - all the counters need to be cleaned and bleached. The floor swept and mopped. I'd like to get under the kitchen sink cleaned out.

The main bathroom needs to be power washed with a sandblaster. Enough said.

I would dearly love to see the living room and dining room carpet scrubbed and cleaned.

And then I need to get caught up on dh's mileage and books.

I told dh I'm getting the house cleaned up, then I'm making a chore list and we're all going to stick to it.

I would also love to get a menu put together and do the shopping. I know we'd spend less on food if we had a good meal plan put together - that we'd follow!!

Need I go on?

Obviously there is more to do than one person could possible complete in the next nine days. Maybe one person who could work hard non-stop for 14 hours a day. At very least, impossible for one person who is constantly running on empty and tired and worn out and needs to take a nap every day.

My mother in law had a good suggestion. Plan to clean for three hours a day and then call it a day. That would be twenty-seven hours worth of cleaning in the next nine days. Surely that would make a dent. Kev says if there is throwing away to be done, he's willing to help me. Maybe he can help me declutter my bedroom. I think I'm really ready to make a big effort to get rid of a bunch of stuff that I'm never going to sell on eBay.

Oh, the other thing I need to get going on is the garden! Right now it is a desolate barren land. Some of the tomato plants survived. The eggplants are thriving. And a couple of watermelon plants are still alive and well. Oh, and the weeds. The purslane (actually an edible weed) is going bonkers. I have pulled up almost a full wheelbarrow of it - which the chickens loved - and it is still coming up all over the garden.

I did have a nice day with Matt. We went to Denny's for "breakfast" and it was very crowded. We got there at 9:15 and the doctor's appointment was at 10am. Our food didn't arrive until 9:46 and so we only got to eat a little bit of it before we had to leave. Matt really wanted an oreo shake but we had to leave before I could even think about ordering him one. I know he doesn't need the extra calories so it was probably good we had to leave. We did take our food with us to go. After the doctor's visit Matt wanted to go see a movie, so we had about an hour and ten minutes to kill. We went to the local outlet mall looking for a big and tall men's store but they didn't have one. Then we went to Savers to see if we could find some shorts for Matt. He needs an extra couple pair. I found a pair of Van's tennis shoes there for him that cost $5.99. Not the prettiest things, but wide enough for his wide foot. Then we ran in to Walmart to get some shoestrings and his doctor said we could try Zyrtec-D to try and cut down on the congestion Matt has when he awakens which causes him to hack and spit for an hour. Poor guy, he just doesn't get how social unacceptable it is to hack and spit like that. I hope the Zyrtec-D helps. The doctor said he didn't see much going on in his throat, like post nasal drip. So maybe it's just he's gotten into the habit of spitting and hacking.

We saw G-Force, which was a pretty cute movie.

Well, I guess I should get to bed now. I'm tired already. Tomorrow I am planning to work on a mailing for our church with hopes to have it ready to mail on Monday. I left work on Thursday with work that still needs to be done for our fiscal year closing so I have to work on that, too.

It's supposed to rain this weekend. I hope so. I love the rain and my garden would sure love a good watering. I remembered with some horror this afternoon just after waking from my nap that I left the little baby watermelon I'd picked, which seemed to be perfectly ripe, out in the garden on my gardening table. So it is probably ruined for human consumption.

Until next time.

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