Getting Things Under Control - Re-Training Myself

I’ve tried to keep myself busy so that I do not worry over my finances. At the end of the month, that’s when I face my $400 a month shortfall. I finally got the $104 break from Medicaid’s paying my Medicare premiums, but that means that next month, I still have a $300 shortfall. At this time of the month, I face either stalling “this” payment, or renewing “that” loan, or begging for payment arrangements, or whatever. A few weeks ago, I was without internet and TV for two days. Next time, it will be for a longer time.

Anyhow, that’s what I’m trying to stop thinking about.

So, I did finish sorting the charity crafting items that our team has made this year. Normally, I would have distributed to several places, several times by the Fall. But with my recent car worries, I kept holding off.

Now that I know I can drive safely for a while, I need to get these things into the hands that need them.

I began sorting on Thursday, and finished yesterday. Every Friday, I come home from our 2-hour meeting with whatever each of us has made. I come home with a bag filled with a variety of hats, scarves, gloves, lap covers, shawls, and baby things. The number varies. But I’ve been distracted with the money problems, so I have just been tossing the bags in a corner in the back bedroom. Now I had to get all those bags in one spot, dump them, and make piles of where each item was destined to go. I’m so glad I happened to have a stash of Hefty lawn bags left from the box I bought last year. I have at least half a dozen stuffed-tight of those, with tags as to contents attached. And I also have at least half a dozen smaller bags, but still sizable and stuffed.

Hopefully, I will get these to their “homes” this coming week.

In the meantime, I have been trying to re-train myself.

For years, it seems, I was involved in 24/7 care-giving.If you’ve ever done that for an extended period of time, you know that the needs of the patient come first, and housekeeping is last (except for cleanliness, laundry, food, of course). So, as I retrieved bags from this corner or that, I took anything else in that spot and plopped it into several boxes: Park Wide Yard Sale, Safe Nest, my Etsy shop, and trash. I was so proud of myself. I also immediately re-stashed anything else into its proper place. I am so far behind in this task that it will take me many months to completely de-clutter, but I am so satisfied to know I am doing it more easily and more often now that I’ve lost weight and my joints are not screaming at me at every motion.

My goal is to get a spot where I can come home every Friday and immediately put the completed items into a separate tote for each destination. Several years ago, I did that, before the care-giving, so I know I can do it again, once it’s under control.

All in all, I’m getting things done and keeping my mind from freaking out.