Comments On Article: Another Reason To Organize

Kieva A. Uplifting you and all your family in prayer.

Donna... Oh my goodness I felt like I was at my grandmother's house when I saw the photos of the 1940s house you shared. Those photos will be looked at many times in days to come as my heart is fed of a happy time in my younger life. Bless you.

Sincerely

Karen S

NZ

Grandma Donna Wrote,

Kieva, you certainly have our prayers for you, your baby and your family.  I worked many years in a small school that was called the School of Hope. It was a birth to five program for children with disabilities.  It was during a time when some doctors still suggested institutionalize the babies and children. As Darlene R stated in her comment, the institution was recommended for her brother. 

Our little school brought the parents and their babies there to us so we together, could start early intervention.  We have come a long way today from even then and the babies and children taught me many things. When I think about "our" children with down's syndrome (It takes a village to raise a child) , the very first thing that brings to mind is joy and love. The other children brought besides joy and love was determination, especially in my classroom that I was transferred to with children the severe profound disabilities.  

Kieva, you wrote, My mind has been so preoccupied by worries of the future and the world outside of our home... I feel that there are many more people than realized that are in Mama Bear state right now ready if things get much worse.  God will put those Mama Bears on your path with you when needed.  You will find them first in the maternity ward and then in NICU, not everyone is a Mama Bear but you will recognize them along your journey.  We will pray for you to have your Mama Bears with you and know our thoughts, prayers and love are with you.  Donna, and many here in the forum.

Kieva A, I've had three hospitalizations, two unexpected and one expected. A relative came to help the first time, and in her no-nonsense way told me I hadn't been teaching my son the things he needed to know about taking care of himself. She was right! While she was here she taught him to load and run the dishwasher and how to do laundry. She said he needed more skills than that, so when I was home and well enough, I began to teach him the basics of how to run a household. I don't know if it was because he is a boy that I never thought to teach him those things, but I am grateful my relative laid it on the line! By the third hospitalization my son could cook simple meals for himself like cheese omelette with vegetables on the side, or spaghetti. He would get very anxious when I was in the hospital and knowing how to take care of himself helped him be less anxious. My husband has always been good about doing household tasks but of course he had to go to work. My son now likes helping to keep the house in order. :) I'm sure your family too will do fine in your absence. 

Margaret P, Thank you for your prayers . We are very glad to know in advance so that we can prepare but also "grieve and process" this news before hand so that we can get that over with before baby arrives. There is a bit of a grieving process to finding out your child has any disabilities even if those disabilities are a blessing in disguise. So many learn the day of and spend the first few weeks just grieved and shell shocked instead of being able to enjoy their baby in the moment as much as medically possible. I am grateful this isn't the case for us. 

Darlene R, I am so glad institutionalizing them is no longer a suggestion. Thank you for your encouraging word and telling me about your loved one. I do believe this baby will be a wonderful blessing to our family also. 

Karen S, thank you very much for your prayers!

Gdonna, I had no idea you worked with children with disabilities. I worked at a group home for people with intellectual disabilities for a short time and I saw the same among the adults with DS. I do plan to sign my baby up for early intervention programs as soon as I can. Thank you also for your prayers.

Stephanie G, My son does his own laundry at this time and does know how to do dishes along with many other chores. He has OCD so he's been reluctant to cook though. He's afraid he will cook something wrong and make someone sick. But I think I'll work on teaching him a few simple dishes. That would very much help my husband in my absence. Thank you for the suggestion. 

I am surprised by all the responses to my comment. Thank you to all for your kind words of encouragement. 

Tip: Before clicking "Post", mark all text and press Ctrl+C (copy). Then you won't loose everything, if something happens. Just a tip from someone who have lost everything several times.

What a great job you have done with all that darn paperwork! You should give yourselves a treat when completely done, you sure deserve it. The worst thing about messy paperwork is that you suspect something very important might hide in the mess and get lost if you decide to discard it all without going through it.

DH and I are in our early sixties, but I already tell him often that he has to remember that someone one day have to tidy up all our belongings, so why not make it easy for them. I am in a process of clearing out things that I don't use anymore (realizing so is the hardest part, we get used to the things around us). So for the past ten years or so, I have sold and donated a lot. I don't trash anything that is working and/or nice. The world is already full of waste that is just being moved around. Repair it, use it or donate it.

Now I will press Ctrl+C before clicking "Add Reply".

Wishing you a lovely summer, we still haven't had much summer here in Denmark, sigh.

I live in a Baltimore suburb and would love to offer you support while you are here. I'm about 30 minutes away from John's Hopkins. I work during the day, but could bring you food, or take you out for a break during your stay.  You can email me at nemesis4t4@gmail.com anytime. 

I’ve also been making a list of free things, along with a list of ways to bring down the costs on the things that do cost money, as you mentioned — water, heat, cleaning supplies.

My bicycle, as an e-bike, isn’t free to use, because there is maintenance over time (mostly tires and brake pads), but it is very very inexpensive.  A full battery charge (from zero) would costs 22¢ of electricity based on 32¢ per kilowatt hour and allowing 10% for inefficiency.  I, however, charge my battery with our solar generator, and that cost has already been paid.  I get 40 - 60 miles per full battery, depending on how much pedaling I do and how many hills there are.  That’s more than enough to get me through the month.  My e-bike is more of a moped style with a great carrying capacity and a bench type seat instead of a bicycle style seat.  It was a large expense but my son works at a bike shop so that was a big help.  So while making my lists, I am trying to make sure I use the bike more!

I also live close to my town’s downtown business area, so there are plenty of places I can walk!

30+ years ago, I used to make all of my cleaners, but since then my interest has waxed and waned, and eventually I decided that letting my family use the cleaners they wanted was more important than saving money on cleaners, because it meant they were doing some of the cleaning!!!  But now I am preparing to once again make our cleaners.  I’ll keep buying our laundry detergent (I don’t love homemade no matter which recipes I use) and the name brand blue hand wash dish detergent (in 1 gallon jugs) because it has so many great uses throughout the house, but other than that we’ll be using what I make with vinegar, washing soda (but not together as the acid and base cancel each other out), baking soda, Fels Naptha, essential oils (lemon, peppermint, and lavender), beeswax, and olive oil.  I also plan to infuse vinegar with lemon peels, orange peels, etc.  I’ve done all of this before, of course, so it just takes making it a habit.  And I do already use my homemade furniture polish and label remover paste.  I recently found out that Fels Naptha is fantastic at cleaning upholstery, and I stocked up on 24 bars when the manufacturer was changing ($30 well spent).

I guess I might try basic handmade laundry detergent again after all, using the Fels Naptha and making the gel, after I get a basic top loading agitator washing machine

Long ago I worked someplace where making photocopies was one of the benefits for customers.  I had a customer who regularly brought greeting cards to be photocopied before she sent them to people, so she would have a record of what she sent.  She told me she filed the copies.  This always seemed to me to be on the mental illness side of paper hoarding.  I felt sorry for her that she felt she would potentially need to prove in the future that she’d sent cards.  She also had me photocopy bills, etc.  So if she was paying a bill she would want a photocopy of the payment stub and her check.  Whereas when I paid a bill back then I would write the check number and amount on the part of the bill I kept

Kimberly F, 

That poor woman! Not only did she have to store all that but it took time. Banks back then returned cancelled checks and eventually they just sent copies. So she probably had those too! I hope she had organized it all so it was easy to dispose of when the time came.

This morning I got started on actually tearing down one of the sheds I've recently cleaned out.  It's going well and I think I might get the job done in a single day.  I'm kind of excited, because it feels like the ultimate decluttering - actually getting rid of the building the clutter was stored in, and returning that space to nature! :)

I got back from my morning walk and settled in to browse the Internet, and there was Tea pulling down a building while I've been procrastinating for days about weeding a flowerbed! The flowerbed is now weeded. It's been restored to artificiality, since I dug out all of the "nature." :) 

How wonderful to be able to restore nature! I'm glad you recovered from your injuries enough to get back to doing things, Tea S. 

Kimberly F I hope the customer who copied everything didn't leave her paperwork mess for others to clean up!

Would you mind sharing your label remover? I've got an novel shaped bottle I would like to keep if I can get the labels off of it. 

Sharon A, I took note of your email. When the time comes I might very well need the company. It would also be nice to meet someone else who follows this page. I don't know many like minded people around me. Thank you so much for the offer.