Today I made more progress towards my big clean out.  However, there is still quite a bit left to do. 

Anyway, let me give you an update on the cats in residence.  My family grew from 3 to 4 overnight.  No, there is not a third kitten, but actually a father cat that has now joined the party.  Tonight as I was feeding the mother cat, the father cat would strategically place himself between me and the kittens.  It’s like he knew mama had to eat so he must protect the “nest” or in this case the flowerbed.  The mama did much the same as she has in recent nights.  She walks up about 2-3 feet away from me and eats while she cautiously looks at me and all around in between bites.  She did talk to me tonight though and she didn’t seem quite as timid as usual.  When she was finished, she returned to the flowerbed across the yard to join dad and babies.  The four of them laid there together like a family for about 10 minutes and then Pop decided he needed to go.  That left the mother cat there nursing her kittens and gave me my queue to go back inside. 

They have been so much fun to watch this week.

Okay, so I just know you are anxiously awaiting the next 10 Ways to Relieve Stress, right?  ha ha…

Well, here they are, Second 10 (again my comments in italics):

1. Use time wisely – I wish I were better at this, but then again whose to say that choosing to watch another rerun of the Andy Griffith Show isn’t a good use of my time?
2. Simplify meal times – Many of you know that I don’t really cook and therefore only visit the grocery store about once every other month – so if by “simplifying meals” they mean plan out a week in advance, well… that would just cause me more stress
3. Always make copies of important papers – Now I will say, this one is important and can reduce the amount of anxiety you can feel when the last or only copy you had of something cannot be found
4. Anticipate your needs – Okay, if anyone has a clue how to anticipate needs… please feel free to share because really, your guess is as good as mine
5. Repair things that don’t work properly – Anyone know a good handyman?  I would end up ensuring the item would never work again if I tried to fix anything
6. Ask for help with jobs you dislike – Any takers on cleaning my bathrooms???
7. Break large tasks into bite-size portions – So then you can have a hundred different tasks to complete as opposed to just one
8. Look at problems as challenges – ha ha ha…  easier said than done in many cases
9. Unclutter your life – trying to do some of that this week
10. Smile – well now it is a fact that it takes less muscles to smile than it takes to frown… 

Okay, so I know these are corny… but kinda fun and different.  I have more… just wait.

I have been on vacation from work this week and what a nice, relaxing week it has been so far.  I have slept in each morning, hung out in pj’s all day, watched some TV, and worked on cleaning out my back bedroom. 

Since I moved in 4 years ago I’ve needed to go through boxes that were still left unpacked.  Yes, I did say 4 years… I procrastinate.  So anyway, I have started.  I’m still working on it – I mean Rome wasn’t built in a day (or in my case, a week).  I didn’t realize what a pack rat I am.  I’ve saved all sorts of things from greetings cards I’ve received for all occassions, passed notes from friends in school, movie tickets, programs, concert tickets, school IDs, letters, keychains, notebooks, college textbooks, and apparently any other item that at some point meant something to me.  However, much of it now is simply junk.  So I’ve performed my own version of the TV show Clean Sweep this week and started setting aside only the most valuable things while tossing or putting to yardsale the rest. 

I still have a quite a way to go, but its definitely a start in the right direction.  Now I have the pile of junk beginning to form at my front door waiting for me to haul it off.  Hopefully I won’t let it sit there too long – I have a tendency to do that too.

In between sifting through boxes and sneezing from all of the dust they have collected, I have been watching the new family that has moved into my backyard.  A stray cat has decided that she and her two kittens are taking up residence with me.  I must admit, they are fun to watch as the kittens jump around and explore their great new world.  They look to be about 4 or 5 weeks old.  Tonight I had my first close up success with the adult cat while her kittens hid in a shrub around the corner of my house.  She ate a little food about three feet away from me and even let me take a picture.  We are making progress – or on second thought, are we?  Do I really need a stray cat and her kittens hanging around?  Should I really be encouraging this?  Well, probably not, but I just can’t help but try to befriend them…

Anyway, as I continued to clean out I found some handout I received from who knows where listing 100 Ways to Relieve Stress.  I glanced through the list and thought I would share these entertaining tips 10 at a time over my next 10 posts… feel free to ignore, but some of them are quite amusing. 

First 10 (my comments in italics):

1. Get up 15 minutes earlier – okay, so if you know me… then you know this just isn’t happening
2. Prepare for the morning the night before – I like to procrastinate too much
3. Avoid tight fitting clothes – As much as I would like to… my waistline has other ideas
4. Set appointments ahead – Ahead of what?
5. Don’t rely on memory… write it down – I have never relied on memory, mine’s never been good
6. Practice preventitive maintenance – on what? everything?  your car, your health, your house, the list is endless and would probably cause more stress just thinking about all the things you need to prevent
7. Make duplicate keys – why?
8. Say “no” more often – don’t we all wish we could do this?
9. Set priorities in your life – I have priorities, just sometimes they get switched around through no fault of my own
10. Avoid negative people – okay, so wouldn’t we all love to live in a world where we could avoid negative people?  Just isn’t going to happen… they’re everywhere

Stay tuned… I’ll post 10 more next time… fascinating stuff really… joking… ha ha

Until then, I’ll just be cleaning out and cat watching…