Thursday-11:15am

After a good long rest, the next big project is the rest of the kitchen. I foresee a lot of jar scrubbing ahead of me again--hehe!

My big t-shirts (what I wear to bed) arrived yesterday. What a deal! No shipping, no tax, a t-shirt sale, plus 20% off one item. Dirt cheap! Hope they last me 8-9 years like the last ones have--hehe! Miss Karma went hiding, of course.

Never met a bag she didn't like? hehe!

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Dagan and Leah came after work. I was rather immobile and in my robe. Dagan made chicken stir fry and after dinner Leah put together a meatloaf for me. (My goodbye-to-meats foods for the next few days--hehe!) I sent almost everything home with them except for some tuna, just in case I go thru terrible meat withdrawal. Forgot to send the rest of the hamburger and chicken from the freezer home with them--so I'll have to try to remember to have them take it with them after we go to the eyedoctor's on Saturday. :)

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I'm getting all set. Am going to have an extra large grocery order in May, but that's okay. It's all good, right? :) May 3rd is when I get my check and order groceries, so that's my cut off day. Wish me luck! If I am feeling weak--I plan to watch Food, Inc around then so that should bolster my conviction for the shift.

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I am a little less sore today. Be on R&R the rest of the week so I am in shape for the eyedoctor on Saturday. I'll need to wash clothes one day here. Or maybe I can spread out the loads on different days? Good idea.

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Oh--Iggy--I misspelled kuzu and fixed it on that post--it wasn't kuru, sorry. It is a wild root starch. I bought several odd items over at this place in town called Tochi's that has all these natural and foreign foods you can't find in the grocery store. (Love that packed little store!) I was trying a lot of oriental cooking at the time. Going to get those cookbooks out again, too. That's why I needed to know what the heck I still had in the pantry--ROFL!

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I am so pleased, tho, with how well I spread out the pantry project over the days with the 30 minute sessions (altho, I learned I should have quit before that last day or so and taken a break for a couple days--but better to know for next time, right?). And I still plan on being off the pain pills by the 3rd, too. All is going well. Soft gray rainy morning. I'm back on days. Life is good. And it will be even better after a couple of days R&R--ROFL!! Later...:):)

Wednesday-3:45am

Beautiful sunny day yesterday!

A windows-wide-open day and Miss Karma was at her post.

Her "don't bother me" look.

I started on the other side of the pantry during the night.

Got it all emptied out.

This side was much easier to empty for me--items much lighter and smaller. Then I started cleaning and organizing and kept working sessions during the night and all morning. I got this far--TaDa!!!

I was reorganizing jars (sizes for storage of some items) and then had to clean off the remnants of old labels.

Saw a lot of this spray bottle--hehe! I'd spray and leave. Come back and scrape. Then ran the dishwasher for a couple of loads.

This was as far as I had gotten by noon.

That was all she wrote for me for the day.

I met Caroline in my robe! That has only happened a couple of times. She put all the jars up on the top shelf, scrubbed down the pantry floor, wiped down the silver garbage can, and put it back in the pantry for me. Even went down and got my mail for me. I didn't have the trash ready or anything, but she pulled out and took what was in the big silver can for me. Even put in a new bag for me. Grateful. I couldn't hardly move anymore yesterday. She's such a sweetheart! :)

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I was in bed not too long after Caroline left. After I got up tonight (first time in days that I have gone to bed and woke up on a different day--hehe!) I finished up with putting the few things back on the pantry floor. Oh--Caroline had even wheeled my trusty little green cart in yesterday, too.

I still have more things to return to the pantry on these shelves, but everything looks so nice and clean--and organized! I can find everything again! Ahhh!

When you glance at the pantry--it looks just the same. You'd never know I have spent six days on it so far--hehe!

I still have to go thru everything on right side of the art table, but that's all that's left--and it can sit there for a good long while and not bother me at all--hehe! I'm done in for a while.

A lot of my old Tupperware containers can be given away. (Funny--some of these I bought when Dagan was a toddler!!) I've been getting rid of what used to be a massive amount of Tupperware little by little over the past few moves--hehe! Just going to keep a few of them. I have been using glass for leftovers lately--and glass jars for the storage of my staples, as you can tell, for decades. But the large Tupperware containers I have on the floor of the pantry--priceless! Nothing better to store flour and rice, etc. I'll probably never get rid of those large ones. :)

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Dagan and Leah are going to stop by tonight. I've made it around the clock enough to stay awake, too! We're probably just going to visit more than anything. I am useless, anyways--and they know it--hehe! ;)

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Speaking of useless. I'm going to go lean back in my comfy chair (Karma is sleeping between my legs) and watch Psych (from Caroline). I don't think I am going to be up to moving much at all for a few days. I am proud of myself, tho--only the one extra pain pill! Still just taking the one half pill before I go to bed. So far, anyways--been tolerating pretty well. Pride goeth before the fall, tho, and all that...don't want to be too cocky--hehe! :)

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Happy Wednesday!! :):)

Tuesday-1:30am

Karma observed while I puttered away all morning after I got a burst of energy.

TaDa! One side put together!

Can see the counter tops again!

I moved the soup cans over to the art table. This is the accumulated stack of foods that I don't plan to return to the pantry--either have meat or are quite processed. I guess this is my eat first or see if Dagan and Leah want pile--hehe!

I have slept and been up again since midnight. Will probably work on the other side of the pantry during the night here. This side will be so much easier. Lots of small light things--can use both hands most of the time. :)

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No matter what, this is going to be the worst this place has ever looked when Caroline has come to clean--hehe! But--I can have her clean the dirty, dusty floor in the pantry really well while it is empty--and just skip the rest of the kitchen floor that's still stacked with stuff. *she chuckles to herself* I am just so happy to see such progress!!

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I have such an odd assortment of ingredients in there--from all the different types of diets I have tried. Xanthan gum, potato starch, arrow root flour, kuzu, dried shrimp, dulse, nori, wood ears, brown rice syrup, cooking sherry, crystalized ginger....a wide variety of food stuffs basically inedible in their present form. Most of my "pre-packaged" foods are now sitting on the art table--and I have a few Lean Cuisines left in the freezer. Gazing into my crystalized ginger I think I can predict the future--ROFL! Be a whole lot more cooking and baking from scratch again--hehe!

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I did take a pain pill when I woke up. Warranted, I felt. I want to keep going on the pantry as long as I was still feeling so-so after sleeping. Speaking of...time to empty the other side. :):)

Monday-5am

Well, the chaos has remained the same all night long.

I'm just not sure about doing anything yet...

...so I'm holding off a day or so...

...to rest...

...and wait for the pain level to subside a bit more before I continue on. See--I'm being good. :) After just having gone thru that flare for weeks, I don't want to start a pain loop up again. Especially since I am weaning off of pain pills. And I am actually doing quite well so far.

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Just proves how I had built up a tolerance to the darvocet. There was not a huge leap in the pain level so far--going down to a quarter of what I was taking. A bump up--but nothing like I expected. I had grown fairly immune to the benefits, I guess. Was sore all the time anyways like I said. I am more sore, but nothing intolerable if I watch my activity closely.

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Been sleeping well, too. So far, so good, eh? I should be off the darvocet by May--tada! I may be a little less physically functional, but not all that much less, I don't think. ?? Hey--I'm not that functional in the first place--ROFL!! Time will tell, right? I'm very happy. Don't care if it takes me a month to clean the pantry! The more I am off the pills the more I feel like myself in my head, you know? I guess I'd rather choose my brain feeling better and my body feeling worse--hehe! :):)

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They're still talking cooler and rainy today. Good sleeping weather--ahhh!

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But I heard there were 54 tornadoes across Mississippi yesterday! And there's snow in western North Dakota right now. Seems like we keep hearing about mother nature acting up all over the world! Volcanoes, earthquakes, floods. I wonder if we actually are having so much more damaging weather or the information is just out there globally in an instant these days?

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I guess I can be grateful it is just raining up here and I can sleep peacefully today. I can dream...even if I don't remember much. Yesterday I was dreaming something about crafting--hehe! That's good! That's good! I'll take crafting dreams!

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Sweet dreams! Whenever you sleep next. :):)

Sunday-6:30am

Karma tried to stay awake to watch The Blind Side with me during the night.

She may have lost interest but I thought it was excellent!! :) I think you've all probably heard about it with Sandra Bullock winning the Oscar and then finding out about her cheating husband all in--what--a week or something like that? What a shame.

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I was pretty sore after all that lifting and carrying, so I took it easy tonight. Just added a bit to the chaos and cleared out the bottom of the pantry there on the floor--both sides--and swept. Next I will clean off shelves & floor and decide where things will go--start scrubbing bottles and jars and putting things away on the one side--so I can then start on the other side. I have no more surface area to set anything--hehe!

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The sun is coming up. Well, not the sun really--shall we say the sky is getting lighter? That would be a bit more accurate--chuckle! We expect rain and clouds for a couple more days, I guess. Meanwhile--while I'm sleeping, have a happy Sunday, everybody!! :):)

Saturday-8:30am

I decided to post now before I go to bed. And what did I do all night? Got a long overdo bite by the pantry cleaning bug.

I'm not kidding--it has to be at least a couple of years--maybe three--since I did a complete cleaning in here.

And since I am wanting to switch to become a sort of macrobiotic/vegetarian/oriental eater...

...this is a lot to empty out in order to clean and organize.

Left side top to bottom.

Right side top to bottom.

No wonder I've been putting it off so long. Totally overwhelming.

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So I decided to set the timer for half hour increments. And took at least an hour break in between cleaning sessions. Trying not to overdo it. :)

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First I had to clean off the art table to have some more space to pile things.

By morning I had emptied most of one side.

Will be a lot of wiping down with a hot rag--you know that slightly greasy kitchen dust.

Oops! I missed the picture of the other side of the kitchen--which is also packed--all over the stove. And this is the art table now.

I have a few things already on the craft table, too. This is what I saw in the dark last night. Buddha Karma watching from the chair. (You know her fear of being stepped on--she decided to get out of my way--hehe!)

Seems like I especially get glowing cat eye pictures at night--with or without a flash.

Karma was all wound up from all the excitement. As soon as she knew I was taking a break she was racing around, clawing the furniture (well, she has no claws--pawing the furniture), meowing, and curious about everything I was doing. She'd go check out the pantry and look up at the counters, etc. Silly girl!

She better not get into much while I am sleeping now today. ;) I think the surfaces are too crowded for her to be able to step on anything really. I left the stool up in the pantry and she's already been up on an empty shelf, I think. Big excitement in Fargo--ROFL!

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Looks like a good sleeping day--cloudy and dark. When I get up--I'll see how I'm feeling after I "thaw out" and maybe I'll start on the cleaning and organizing. Not sure how much I'll do--or if I will do anything at all, for that matter. I'm only hoping to be done before Caroline comes on Tuesday--so no hurry. I don't want to set off a fibro flare, that's for sure. :)

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It will be sooo nice when I get the entire pantry done. After the pantry is done then I will work on the rest of the kitchen. I have been inspired by all the bloggers who have been cleaning and organizing lately and also motivated by switching my eating habits. It was time to dig out the weird dried oriental stuff I have so I know what I have and can find them easily...like lotus seeds and star anise. Don't ask. I've never actually tried them--hehe!

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Tired. Sore. No surprise. But am already organizing in my head....:):)