So I was talking with a few friends a while back about my blogging and mentioned that I was considering starting a new series that was just me talking about what’s on my mind. They said they thought that was a fabulous idea to help my readers get to know me better. I’ve been meaning to do this before now, but it just sparked in my brain to actually start it while I had my laptop fired up 🙂
I had a blog way back when when it was rare for people to blog’ and I used the picture of myself above (from several years ago) and called that very first blog, “Ponderings of my Predicaments”. So I decided to pull that out of the photo archives on my computer and use it. I think it looks very reflective as if I really am pondering my predicaments 🙂
My House and My Mouth
I’ve been cleaning and decluttering my house since June 8th. Really hitting it hard and gathering things in boxes and bags I want to get rid of (or hopefully sell). I’m suffering for it, but was trying to push through the pain. I have spinal stenosis which means I have nerves in my back that are getting pinched. The worst pain is when I’m bent over and forward like when you get clothes out of the dryer or reach for something in the back of the fridge (I SO miss our old bottom freezer fridge!) or make the bed. The official term is, “narrowing of the nerve root exit points”. It’s in my lower left back, but I’ve been having pain in my entire lower back since starting the cleaning efforts. I’ve been spending a lot of time at night with my ice pack and my TENS unit.
So why the sudden burst of ambition to clean? Mostly I’m just sick of the clutter and it affects my mood. My husband is a self-described hoarder (no…really!) and our son is 15 and autistic and loves children’s books that play music. They’re EVERYWHERE! Toys and books for Evan and papers and bottles and old junk retro collectables for my husband. He even saves Snapple lids. It’s never ending.
In addition to that however, I’m wanting to have a series of yard sales next month and depending on how that goes, maybe another few in August. I want to get rid of things but I also need to raise some money for some dental work. I have $200 saved, but need another $450. Ugh. It never ends. I have a missing tooth in the front that broke off the partial and so I look like a jack-o-lantern when I smile. I’m embarrased and try to talk with my mouth as closed as possible when in public. It doesn’t do a lot for a girl’s self-esteem. My dentist just fixed that a few months ago. He did it himself instead of sending it to the lab to have it fixed trying to be nice and save me about $60. I go back to see him in a few weeks.
In addition to the financial part of that, I had to go on a waiting list before the work on my mouth can be done. It’s a dental clinic that bills according to your income. We used to live in the county the clinic is in, so the fee was really low for us then. But almost 3 years ago we moved back to my hometown to be near my mom who was diagosed with Alzheimer’s, and that is about 3 counties away, so we no longer live in the same county as the clinic. Any other dentist is much more expensive even though the fee is raised by my current clinic as an out-of-county patient. Anyway, I’m hoping to raise enough to get my mouth taken care of for sure and if there’s any left over I’d love a weekend away to visit some friends in the Cincinnati area. We haven’t spent a night away from home since 2006 right before my husband went on dialysis. He had his kidney transplant in 2011 (and is doing great with that), so we could have gone away 7 years ago. Needless to say, it’s been a long time coming. Way overdue. Since my husband is disabled now, the income doesn’t allow for a lot of extras.
So lately my mind has been on my house and my mouth. That’s the pondering of my current predicament 🙂