This is Week 3 of knee replacement recovery.  Wow, pain meds really do their job well.  I seem to have forgotten how bad this stage was the first time around.  Jessica spent her Fall Break taking care of me and has gone back to work today.  The house has been really quite without her and Gavin and Lola pup here.

Since Jessica and Johnny would not be around as much as last time, we opted to try freezer to crockpot cooking this go round.  So far, so good.  We are liking it.  Most recipes will service 3 adults twice plus one more.  So we have been doing clean the fridge night once a week.  So here is this weeks menu

Saturday:         chicken/broccoli/rice-crockpot
Sunday:           Mexican casserole-crockpot
Monday:          Leftovers
Tuesday:         Hawaiian Chicken-cokcpot
Wednesday:    Meatball Lasagna-oven
Thursday:        Turkey Kielbasa, Mac/Chees, veggies-stovetop
Friday:            Clean Fridge
Saturday:        Beef Strogonoff-crockpot

With the exception of Thursday, everything was prepped and put in freezer on Sunday.  We just pull it out a day or two before needed to let thaw, put in crock and let her rip.  Of course, there are things that need added at the end like rice or cheese on some dinners.

Ahhhh....I did it!

Who could forget these horrible shots.......

view from doorway



left



right



This room had become the household dumping ground.  If you did not have time to put away, or did not know where it went or better yet..it did not have a home, this is where you put it.  I am happy to say that with the help of my daughter I now have a functioning office/bedroom again.

 

 

 

These are views from the doorway that you could barely step thru 31 days ago.  My grandson can sleep and play in this room and to the left, I have a desk and sewing area.

 

 

I chose this space because I wanted my grandson to have a room to sleep in and a place to play.  Doing this for G was a good way to ensure completion.  Not to mention having told a friend at work who saw the before pictures.  I had to complete to save face :)

 

After all the stuff was taken from the room, my daughter helped to sort and purge the Christmas stuff.  Hubby and daughter put all those boxes into the attic.  They also put the white iron daybed in the attic and brought down the wooden bookcase headboard bed.

 

Next came the cleaning of the room and moving the furniture.  Again with daughter's help.  After that, the purge continued.  I still have 3 totes of paperwork to sort, but the file cabinet is empty and ready for proper files.  I took 5 boxes to Goodwill last weekend and have another box nearly full.  About 8 bags of trash went to the dump.  Hubby was kinda tired of coming home and seeing more bags on the front porch.

 

This room has 2 built in bookcases.  I chose to put the desk butted up to the one behind the door.  This gives me a nice long area to accomodate my PC and printer.  I have my Menu Planning, Recipe and Annie Dog binders on this desk.  To the left of the desk on the bookcase is my Cinderella collection along with office supplies and current file box.  The photo boxes on the right end of the desk hold extra office supplies.   On the back of the door, I repurposed a hanging system that was holding baby stuff to become my mail center.  I have envelopes, stamps and bills in the pockets.  At the end of the desk is a rolling table that has my sewing machine under it.

The rest of the room belongs to G and the puppies.  The bed has 3 drawers underneath and they are used for G's clothes and extra linen.  The organizing rack at the foot of the bed, used to hold his clothes, now it houses toys.  A closet maid shelf unit was turned on the side to hold more toys.  His wagon and slide were brought in from the living room.  The little rug is the only purchase made for this make-over.  I do intend to get a larger rug to put under the play rug as we have concrete floors and they are quite cool.


I cannot decide which is my proudest moment.  The one where G actually slept in the bed for the first time or when he went from the craft room down the hall and came back with a bin of dinosaurs from the toy rack. 

The hardest part for me was admitting I needed a swift kick and help to get this done.  I have put it off for so long I dreaded the job it had become.  After starting, I realized it was not as bad or as hard as I expected.  This will be what I have to remember as I tackle the rest of my home.

Please enjoy the rest of my after photos.

Beautiful isn't it.

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Christmas is ready for the attic

Sunday my daughter helped to purge Christmas stuff and pack it up.  Felt nice to see it down to 5 boxes ready for the attic.  I do not do the attic pull down stairs, so we wait on Hubby to have a chance to put them up for me. 

What is left to sort is not as bad as I thought it might be.  I plan to attack those bins on Thursday (took the day off).  The sewing items are already contained so it will just be a matter of putting them back into the room once it is time to load back. 

Hope everyone is making good progress and feeling good about yourselves as you do!

Much Progress

Saturday was a productive day for me.

The room is empty except for the computer and a few books and the furniture.  Three bags of trash went straight out of the house.  The white wire Christmas tree, that should not have been put in the attic years ago, is gone too. A large part of the mess is my Christmas stuff that has not been put back into the attic.  Today I plan to sort and purge at least the Christmas stuff.  There are only 7 bins plus what is on the table. 

The daybed frame will go in the attic and my son's bookcase headboard brought down to use.  

This week's goal is to clean the floor, move the furniture and remove the daybed platform that I have been using as a tall counter for my printer and magazine racks.  This is the piece in the right corner covered with a sheet.  Of course, I would like to get everything except the paper sorted by Saturday. 

Plan of attack

Last night I mapped out my attack of "the" room.  

There are several boxes for Goodwill from earlier attempts to purge the home.  Those will be loaded into the truck as soon as I get home today.  Then the emptying of the room begins in earnest.  Hopefully by lunch Saturday all but furniture will be out.  Then on Sunday, Husband can put the bed frame in the attic.

Depending on when the Little Fella comes over, it will be sort, sort and more sorting.  I hope to have one box of paper to finalize and file after the sorting.  A large amount for Goodwill and probably an even larger amount of trash.  Come to think of it, maybe I should pick up an extra outdoor garbage can before I come home. :)  That way I can empty it on my way to work tomorrow morning.  We do not subscribe to pickup and haul our cans to the dump.  A nice clean can would be nice to have since I will be hauling it.

Wish me luck.

NO progress

No progress was made this week due to unexpected issues at work.  I did not have my customary 2 afternoons a week off.  Hopefully this week will go smoother.  Since I am behind, I plan to empty the room of all but furniture by next Saturday.  Then I can start the whole sort process.  I do have my boxes gathered for donate, trash and go to other family members.  Once the stuff is out, I intend to scrub down the room, move the bed and desk.  In the back right corner there is a bed platform turned on its back covered by a sheet.  On top of this are my under utilized organization containers, printer and a few decorative items.  This piece will be leaving the space. 

Time will tell.....

In the beginning

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