January in a nutshell!

Ha, bet you thought I had fallen of the face of the earth now, didn’t you?

Well that’s OK, you are forgiven for thinking so 😉 I am after all the the one who has been a bit on the quiet side!

I’m not sure why, but it’s been a slow start this year with the things I have on my agenda, which is why you haven’t heard much from me lately! Thankfully it seems like I’m finally getting my butt back into gear, and I’m sure I’ll pick up speed going forward…

So what have I been up to in January?

The most important thing is that I’m back at work, ever so slowly, half a day a week – yeah I know, stupid really, all I get done in those few hours is pretty much show up for lunch, have a meeting, chat with people and then I go home 😉 Hopefully I get more done when I start up with two half days a week, mid February. And I’m hoping I’ll step up more, after I see my neurologist in March, but we’ll just have to wait and see what she says first.

I gave you a list of goals a couple of weeks back? This year around, I think I’ll give you guys a monthly sum-up, of how I’m doing with those goals, and not just a tally of my decluttering, like I did last year.

So here it is – my January in a nutshell!

Declutter
Have I decluttered anything in January? Well, yes I’ve been working away at it the last couple of days (finally got my act together) and a post is on its way 😉 It will have to count as a February shed though!

Activity and exercise
I have a plan to be more active this year, and so far this month I have been out on an average 2,5 times a week… Not a lot I know, but the weather have been really shitty, and I took a spill on the ice a few weeks back, which kept me out of the walking loop for a few days 😦

Only buying necessities
I’m on schedule, so far so good. But what about my allowances?

Books – bought 5 dollars worth of e-books (3 I think it was)
Eating out – we’ve done pretty shitty in January, as we have eaten out 10 times. There have been a few reasons for why. Like, we have been working at someone’s house and I just needed food “now”, and a few times we have been meeting people helping them look at stuff and ending up eating in the process. And one of the days I was hanging out with someone at the hospital all day, and just needed a quick bite… So it racks up! Regardless, we will have to do better in February.
Flowers and plants – no purchases, quite the opposite, I gave away a couple of my plants to the neighbour instead 🙂
Buying a non essentials – yes, one purchase, but it was really a replacement purchase of sorts.. I’ll tell you about it later!

Other financial goals
Mortgage: I paid my yearly down payment, 10 days ago, and I’m now finally under half left of my original mortgage, phew 🙂

Other activities/projects this year
We finally got the job done at my sisters place, installing the heaviest ceiling lamp on earth, over her dining table (it’s still hanging.. I think…), installed a ceiling lamp in her hallway, and we got her very long TV network cable hidden away (she has the TV at the opposite side of the room from where the plug is), I have to say.. her place is coming along really nice and she seems happy with the job we did…

Other stuff? Well, there are still a few things on the agenda at my step mums new place, but that is going to have to be a February thing!

That’s it for now.. see you in February 😉

Plans for 2015?

We are halfway into January, and you’re wondering, do I have any plans for 2015?

Yes, off course 🙂

I have plans within the areas of decluttering, finance, exercise and life in general! Why don’t you let me tell you all about it 😉

Declutter
In 2014, the focus was mostly on decluttering, and I’m afraid I still have ways to go 😦 Seems like decluttering and getting less stuff, inspires me to want less and less. So I will continue this in 2015. Last years goal was to declutter one item a day (365 items) and I far succeeded that, so I thought maybe I should try that one, one more time.. I think it will be harder this year to find the 365 items, but I’m sure gonna try 😉

I don’t know if you remember! Just like I’m reading myself out of my bookshelf, I’ve decided to watch myself out of my movie collection, and I also have this big, actually huge, photo project which I mentioned for you guys in November, that I will be spending time on this year.

My declutter goals for 2015;

365 items
100 Movies – that’s half of my collection
Cut my physical DVD series collection by 30% (yeah, that’s a lot, I have a lot, a lot of series)
34 books – I did 82 or something like that, out-the-door last year, but now I’m getting into more of the books I love…
Photo collection – oh lord… I can’t even tell you what my goal is for this year! Half maybe?
My overall goal is to keep key photos as physical photos, scan the other ones I’d like to have access to, and get rid of the rest. Now having several thousand photos, this is a task that will take time, and most likely spill over into 2016…

Only buying necessities
My focus last year on only buying necessities ( I want, I want – I want it now!!!) served me very well, as I had to spend quite a bit on medical treatments instead. It served me so well, I think I’d like to continue the focus this year. But with a small change compared to last years – I will add an allowance;

Books – I can still buy up to 10 books/magazines – preferable as e-books
Eating out – We did pretty good last year – we will try to squeeze even more this year, by reducing another 25% on last years results.
Flowers and plants – stay at the same level of last years result
New allowance: I can buy up to 10 non essentials throughout the year 🙂

Other financial goals
Last year I managed to pay off my car (a few months early) and I’m pretty happy with that 🙂 My ultimate goal on the other hand, is to have my house mortgage paid off, in 16 years or less, compared to the 25 it was originally. I’m 7 years in and have almost halved the mortgage so far, which is phenomenal! But it’s getting harder now that I’m on a severely reduced pay due to not working so much. Every January I pay a lump sum towards the mortgage, so my goal for 2015 is to save up 60 000 NOK for my lump sum in January 2016. If I manage that on my reduced pay, I’m doing very well.

Activity and exercise
Due to illness I have not been the most active person the last few years, every time I think I’m ready to start exercising, I’ve managed to screw that up somehow, and I’ve gotten worse again. Now on the other hand, I’m feeling better than ever and I think it’s time to give it another shot. But this time around I’m going to be careful about it and take my time!!!

The goal for this year is to build up to, by the end of the year: 7 days of activity a week, with 3 of these as real workouts.

By activity I mean something that gets me up and going and preferable out of the house, like a walk in the neighbour hood, work in the yard, run around playing with kids… just about anything that gets me out of that couch, gives me some fresh air, and brings me into a moving state 😉
With real workout I mean an activity like for example going to the gym, yoga, biking, running, Rollerblade … you get the drift.

Other activities/projects this year
I have a few other things on my agenda 🙂 Like; travel, projects in my yard, other projects, throw a garden party, ++
But these, I think I’ll tell you more about, as we move into the year 😉

So that’s it for my 2015 goals… enough don’t you think?

Finally back at work… sort off!

As some of you know, about half a year ago I made a decision to take a two month hiatus from work, for health reasons.

My neurologist and me, had made a 5 month plan, where the focus was on treatments, rest, exercise and a slow reintroduction back at work. I’m not sure if you remember my “wonderful” plan:

From the headline of this post, you can probably gather, that things didn’t quite go according to my original plan. Turns out my two month hiatus turned into 6 month off work!

We can have the best intentions, but sometimes there is no rushing the body, it seems to take it’s own time, regardless of what we want! And that’s pretty much why this has taken much longer than I thought it would do.

So what’s been going on, these 6 months;

Medications:
I followed my original plan when it came to medication and that seemed to kick-start my body into getting a little better.

Workouts:
Have not gone according to plan, at all! For some reasons the treatment I started, aggravated an inflammation in my hip early July, and I’m still struggling with it (going in for an MRI on the 19th) so it kinda put a dent into my workout plan. I have done walks and stuff, but no gym 😦

Treatments:
I’ve done extensive treatments these last 6 months. As I’ve earlier mentioned, I started going to an osteopath. Turns out I ended up switching between two, since they did different things.. as one have specialized in cranial osteopathy.

To be frank with you, the progress has been excruciating slow, and my original osteopath actually had to throw in the towel. But I have continued to work with the one that does cranial manipulation, and he is still hanging in there 😉 and during the last few weeks, we are finally seeing some good progress.

A couple of months into my hiatus, my neurologist and me decided it was time to try medical Botox. It’s a know treatment for people that suffers with chronic migraines (you can read about it here), and we decided that maybe it would be worth a try for my 24/7 tension headache/migraines. It’s a treatment you take every three months and I was really lucky and got an appointment quick. My first round of medical Botox I got early September, and my second treatment I had just a month ago, in early December.

It seems like that second treatment is actually doing something for me! 🙂 As my osteopath treatments is having much better effect than ever before. My daily basis headache (the one that is present 24/7 – yes that’s, 24 hours a day, every day) has gotten better and better, to the point where this is the best it’s been since August 4th, 2010. And my migraine attacks seems to have reduced some as well the last couple of weeks. Woohoo!!!

So I might finally be on the mend 😉

And therefore, I think it’s time to get back to work (been kind of antsy to get back)!

My neurologist on the other hand, wants us to reap the benefits of me feeling better, a little longer before I get “hot and heavy” at work again, and she didn’t really want me back quite yet. So we compromised 🙂

Tomorrow I will start back at work, but only one half day a week! Yes I know, sound puny, but that was all she would allow me to do. And it gives me a chance to clear my mailbox, say hello to people, catch up a little with what’s going on, and get to know my new department (we were reorganized as of January 1st).

Then in 5 weeks time (February 16th), I will start work two half days a week, and do that until I have seen my neurologist again, end of March.

And hopefully by then I will have had even more progress with my osteopath, and maybe if I’m lucky, even had a day or two without a headache? My world, wouldn’t that be grand 🙂

So you can see, this is slow going. But guess that’s always the way isn’t it, there really is no rushing it. It’s probably taken a long time to get bad, and it needs a long time to get good.

In hindsight I do realise, I should have not pushed my body as much as I did. When I originally started feeling bad early 2010, I should have taken it easy right out of the bat, instead of what I did, which was to continue to work as hard as I could. If I had know then, what I know now… sheesh… I would have taken 6 months of right away… and maybe never have ended up in all the trouble of the last 4,7 years…

So if you are out there, struggling with health problems! Listen to what the body is trying to tell you! Slow down! Take care of yourself! Your health is the most important thing in your life… without it… well we all know how that goes!

And here I am, about to start work again, if ever so slowly! And this time around, I HAVE to be better at paying attention…

PS:

Another kitchen run!

The first group of workers are done at my step-mums place (only the bathroom left to do), and there is a massive change from how it was before they started. Even though most of the major work is done, there are still a few tasks left, so I guess it’s my time to get to work 😉

We are trying to get the kitchen done, and Fridays work was the kitchen ventilator. As always, it took much longer than I thought. A quick couple of hours job turned into a few hours more! Hmmm, isn’t that always the way…?

Anyhow, it’s done (phew)! Now…did I manage to remember to take a before photo? Off course not… 😦 Could I at least take a photo of the discarded parts? Yes, off course! And the after photo? Absolutely 🙂

Today was the day to put the the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers back together. Remember I told you about taking them down to have them professionally painted? We picked them up before Christmas, but decided to wait until after the holidays to put them back up. Well, there is no more excuse, it is well after the holidays, and time 🙂

So here we are, one kitchen almost done…

Not very exciting… I know… but it is what I’ve been up to the last few days… 😉

A bump in the road!

Hi there!

I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch. I caught that dreaded winter cold, which put me out of commission for a few days 😦

I’m all better now 😉 so the last couple of days I’ve been trying to put together a post. For some reason, every time I sit down to write it, what ends up on “paper” is NOT even close to what I originally intended to write… it’s like my mind have an agenda on it’s own…!!!

And guess what, the result is a bunch of unfinished posts!

I’m coming to realise I might just have to let that topic, I’ve been mulling around, go… at least this time around, and maybe just write about something different, a lighter topic maybe?

So here I am, trying to get my ducks in a row…

While I’m figuring this out, please hang in there 🙂

PS. How do you guys handle “road bumps” in your writing?

My 2014 goals – how did I do?

In 2009, after having lived in the US for two years, I came home with enough stuff to fill up a entire house (after having furnished an empty condo in Houston), and I already had a house full. Since then I have slowly but surely gotten rid of stuff, and I’ve dwindled it down to one household again. But as good as I had been at it, I felt that there was still more that could go out of the house. Which is why I decided a year ago that I would make 2014 a year to declutter and living with less.

And to be accountable – I started this blog 🙂

I decided my main goal, would be to get rid of an average of at least one item a day, all through 2014 – yepp, 365 items!

I also made a second goal, a promise in my post I want. I want – I want it now!!! – to make an effort to buy only necessities, needs rather than wants.

Have I managed what I set out to do? The short answer – YES!

So here it is – my MAIN goal;

2014 tally of items out-the-door – 634 items, 2200 bookmarks and 14485 emails 🙂

Curious about what items I shed? Check it out;

January tally – 63 items
February tally – 45 items, 2200 bookmarks and 2450 emails
March tally – 12 items and 7535 emails
April tally – 58 items and about 4500 emails
May tally – 126 items
June tally – 22 items
July tally – 22 items
August tally – 45 items
September tally – 103 items
October tally – 7 items
November tally – 23 items
December tally – 108 items

My second goal – only buying necessities;

I did better on this during 2014 than I did in 2013 (which was the first time I tried this). I replaced broken items, only if I had too. I used up before replacing or even did not replaced at all.

I did really good at not buying anything but necessities, until my trip to US in September, when I ended up buying some clothing I didn’t really strictly “need”. I do however have an excuse as my luggage was lost for several days, and I got sick of walking around in oversized men’s clothing that I had borrowed. So I caved and bought some ladies things 😉 And it’s not like the clothing won’t come in handy, when I wear out my older stuff…

Other than that, as far as I know, there are only a few other items I got, that were strictly not a necessity. 1 small box set I thought was really cute, that I really haven’t found a use for, yet! And then I got a a few cheap IKEA wine glasses for my birthday grill party, as I did not have enough glasses for the champagne toast! (thinking about it, I believe this could be considered a necessity 😉 )

I did have some allowances for the year! Things I could do and things I could get that aren’t really necessities;

Books – I could buy up to 10 books/magazines – I bought one physical book, and two or three e-books

Eating out – the goal was to cut down to half the amount of times we (a friend and I) eat out compared to 2013 – we didn’t quite manage, as we only cut 39% on times. But what we did manage was to cut the amount we spent, with more than 50%, which was ultimately the goal.

Flowers and plants – The goal for 2014 was to cut down to procuring less than half of what I normally would – Done 🙂 I did even better than half as I cut my procurement of plants for the garden closer to 70% compared to any other years.

So all in all, I would say that I passed my goals for 2014!

Did I pass with flying colours? Hmmm, probably not, I’m sure I could have done better, but I’m pretty happy 🙂

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Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)