Winter Blues

Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:23 pm

I removed. Sorry folks.

Eric

Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:53 pm

DDF......You come up with the most approppriate songs. :wink:

I feel like the world has caved in, but after looking at the poor and the

brave soldiers, somehow my junk ( to me) doesn't seem quite so bad...

I "will" get there, :roll:

Just need some help right now. Which Grandson, and Hubby have very kindly offered. :oops:

Hubby has tomorrow off, I think both of us need to get out of here for a few hours.
Take all the things our son wants and go to the Red Lobster for dinner.Have to go to Calgary for that, but would be a nice break..

Then go buy Flowers. A few Pretty ones.

Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:08 am

Eric - I was almost POed over the clip - here we all are fighting junk, clutter, holiday stress and you post this very downer clip - until I read the quote at the end. Thanks.

Green and Rainbow - hang in there. Got G off this morning for his business/customer hunting trip. Going to help Mom with her tree and cleaning. Will bring her a bouquet of flowers. Have only gotten 3 gifts. Still much to do but have decided NOT to allow myself to stress. The house is currently on hold. I have to get my shopping done and more baking. Looks like the kids and grands may be spending a night with us sometime between now and Christmas or maybe a day or 2 after Christmas. No place for them to sleep at the moment since I have been using the spare bedroom as a depository of "deal with later" stuff. Sigh :!:

I look back to last year. Christmas Eve - trying to wrap gifts, cook my drunk pork roast to bring for Christmas dinner, trying to make room for the kids and grands. About 2 pm I had a melt down. Shaking, sobbing generally nuts. I will NOT do that this year. If it gets done good if not oh well. This old earth will keep on spinning. IF the bedroom gets cleaned out great - if not B&H will get our bed, G & I will sleep in our recliners and the grands can sleep on the couches or the air mattress on the floor. I refuse to let stress ruin my Christmas.

Both of my sisters are so organized. They have the majority of their shopping done before Thanksgiving. Every year I tell myself that I will plan better but it never happens. Oh well.

Take care all. Wine, dinner out, Christmas music, more wine, a long walk, more wine, flowers, did I say wine?

You guys and gals are the best.

Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:25 pm

Green Mantis wrote:ElizabethB............

This I "need" help on....I have a brand new breadmaker---except it's 5 yrs old!!! Still in the box, never unpacked.

WHAT should I DO with it???

Ideas anybody??????

RAINBOWGARDENER-----HELP????? I need ideas PLEASE??
.

In your situation, with a bunch of stuff to get rid of, some of which is unused/ good quality, I might think about an eBay selling service. It is a place that you can take your stuff to, they do all the work of selling it on eBay and share the take with you. You could of course do it yourself, but in the meantime while you are waiting to get the time and energy to take and upload photos, write descriptions, post on eBay, deal with responses, the stuff is still cluttering up your house.

Generally you don't pay the selling service anything unless/ until the item(s) sell and then they take 1/4 - 1/2. So I wouldn't do it for any little stuff, just donate it. But if you have some items with actual value, that way you get them out of the house, you don't have to do any work, and you still get a little bit of cash back out of it. I'd make a separate pile somewhere until you get a few items collected and then contact a seller.

Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:41 pm

OMG - yes e-Bay. My baby brother fly fishes. He was given bunches of feathers for fly making because he promtes sponsers on his radio show and in his "how to" demos. Any way - he had all of these really beautiful, long feathers. He sold them on e-Bay as "hair feathers" fot those girls weaving feathers in their hair. In 6 months he made $2K selling fethers :!:

WHAT

You can make a buck on anything on e-bay. I was blown away at the response bro got for feathers :!:

Oh well - there is a sucker born every day.

Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:08 am

Well this sucker is done buying. :oops:

Still working on trying to get this house straightened up, hubby found the good china, finally. So will get it upstairs and get the dishwasher going again. :roll:

Haven't got a tree up or any decorating done, just not in the mood, yet anyway?

Tonight we are doing a real good tidy, and get our TV up, the living room arranged, etc.

I did decide to sell some things on our local kijiji, sold the breadmaker, still have other things, but our son's kitchen things are wearing out, so he is getting a bunch of things.

After taking things out of cupboards, :roll:

putting them in son's tote and selling the breadmaker made a big difference.

Haven't wrapped any gifts, I just feel worn out. Hopefully by tonight I will feel a bit more enthusiastic.

Just not in the Christmas Mood this year??? Guess the move, stress with the contractor, and un-loading things just caught up with me.

To be honest I'd like to go somewhere else for Christmas....... :oops:

Hope the Christmas spirit hits soon???

Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:25 am

Green - you worry me. If the tree doesn't get up it doesn't get up. When your family arrives let them put up the tree. It may actually be a treat for them. Mom has been seriously stressed so I went to her house yesterday to put up her tree and decorate. I could see the relief in her. I enjoyed it. I put out decorations that are as old as I am. Got rid of Scrouge. Renewed my Christmas spirit. Let your family do that for your. If the gifts don't get wrapped they don't get wrapped - no big deal. Pick 1 or 2 of your family members to wrap for you. What happened to "It's the thought that counts"? If the kids have to sleep on sleeping bags on the floor they will survive.

Glad you found your china but if you keep going the way you are going there may be nothing left of YOU by Christmas.

Chill Chick - be cool - it REALLY is all good.

Merry Christmas

Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:07 am

Nice post, Elizabeth! All I can say is I agree 100%. People take all the fun out of Christmas for themselves, by stressing about inessentials. The only essential is sharing the Christmas spirit (joy, love, hope) with friends and family, building memories and traditions. Being together stringing popcorn, singing Christmas carols, or whatever makes you feel the holiday is way more important than what your house looks like.

Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:47 am

Rainbow - love you girl! We may have very diverse opinions about lots of stuff (can't be discussed on this forum) but at heart we both have a strong sence of family values and what is really important in life. That is what gives me strength. My sister's sister-in-law lives in Cincinnati. She is this small town southern girl living in a big northern city. I see her every 2 or 3 years and laugh my a off at her big city stories. She worked for "Joy of Cooking" until they moved their operation to Forida a few years ago. The stories she tells keep me in stitches.

BTW - I am putting together a seed package for you. It won't get out until next year - just too much on my plate right now. But any way - hopeflly stuff you do not have and can still grow. No cheating :!:

It will be a SURPRISE :!:

Hang in there Green!

Merry Christmas one and all.

Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:03 pm

Well have decided that the kids will have to help a bunch.

Why not, they're the ones that are coming out so they can help the old gal get her Christmas Spirit back.

It's obviously time to relax, and let what happens happen.. I've got almost all my groceries, just not all the presents, but since they all waited until it was too late to tell me what they want, they are going to get a gift card with the money in it to go buy it themselves.

Yes they will be all over the place, but the place is a mess anyway sooooo really won't matter.

I'll get everything cleaned up after they leave.

Then I won't feel so pressured. I'll have "all" winter to get it done then. :wink:

Have a great christmas all of you.

Thanks so much for your support. Really appreciated.

Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:44 pm

Just wanted to update a bit.

Cleaning, sorting, putting things away, and things to the dump, still going on.

Not quite so discouraging now, that I realized I seriously can't do it "all" at once.

After a clean-up in the living room of a bunch of little fiddly, with what do you do with this stuff, things.?

Then I can put books dvd's and office supplies away. Then pictures on the wall.

But what I am really Happy about today, is I bought myself some beautiful

cut flowers in the store last night.

They are the most beautiful White lily's

with the most awesome scent. It's wafting through the house, smells wonderful.

Flowers "Really" do cheer a person up!!!! :clap:

Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:20 pm

I just found this thread. Wow, this is very insightful and I see you have all helped each other through this season! Unfortunately I must admit that I am quite familiar to some of your own peccadilloes. I struggle with Seasonal Affected Disorder. I have way too much stuff. Things are not neat and tidy. There seems to be too much to do and not enough time. The Christmas season is quite stressful. Etc. etc. etc.

To tell the truth, this year we did not put up a tree, or any lights, or even the front door wreath. It just seemed to be too much bother, so it didn't get done. Nevertheless, the holiday came and went just like always.

I think that my wife suffers a bit more from SAD, she gets quite depressed over the winter, even though she won't admit to it. She has a strong tendency to hibernate as much as she can.... I really need to buy her flowers! Although I've never really been into cut flowers, I can see how they would be a good mood lifter. As Green said

Flowers "Really" do cheer a person up!!!!

Unfortunately part of our problem is that my wife and I are too similar in our habits. If one of us was a hoarder and the other a space-monger we could counteract each other's foibles, but we're both collectors. The fact that we each like our own collections and fail to appreciate the other's is beside the point. :roll:

For the past many years I have worked outside all year round, including in the winter. That really helps me deal with SAD, since I am getting as much sunlight as is humanly possible. This year, however, I am doing different work, and am inside all day long. I do get out briefly, and so am getting a couple hours of sun each day, but I don't think it is enough. Nevertheless we (editorial we) carry on.

There is so much wisdom shared, encouragement, and commiseration among QueenB, Green, and Rainbow! Bravo! :clap:

Now I really must see about finding that box of kitchen gadgets that's been in the basement since we moved ten years ago. I think there's a steamer basket or three in it that I could use for tomorrow's dinner. I hope I can find the right box!

Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:57 pm

Something tells me, if you haven't seen it in ten yrs, it's time for a clean-up. :eek:

Doesn't take long to get a "lot" of "things" we never use, or need. :roll:

But one box or tote at a time I guess. I look at it this way, if 2 things go out

one thing "might" be allowed in. But right now that rule is out the door, it's

out the door, nothing back in. Except for my Beautiful flowers.

This is taking way longer than I ever thought, but my junk, my clean-up. :oops:

SAD syndrome is not easy to live with, but we just have to do even one small clean up a day.

At least I have lovely flowers to smell well I sort.

Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:55 pm

Well, I'm going to start with the flowers. Cleaning the mess is just that: a chore. It's gotta be done...... sometime. And the results will be worthwhile. But I think an immediate mood lifter is in order. I will check tonight though to see if I can find a vase to put flowers in. We only have twenty or so. But where are they? I hate to buy flowers in a vase when the flowers will be gone in a few days, but the vase will hang on forever :roll:

Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:34 am

you can buy the flowers as "stems" without a vase!

Keep plugging away at the clean up, just make sure a little bit gets done each day.

Do be sure you get outside in sunlight at least some (I have trouble working this one out myself in this cold weather).

Notice the days getting longer! Celebrate Imbolc/groundhog's day, Feb 2 at which time we will be half way to spring equinox!