Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Sleepless in the Mid-Atlantic



It happens these days that insomnia is the only way I find time to collect my thoughts and do some blogging.  Watching the moon fall across the sky, I can sit without distraction.  There is no reason for my inability to sleep.  I have been Uber busy leading the life of a workhorse keeping up with very small children, then working strenuously on my son and DIL's home to get it ready for sale.  Weeding, mulching, trimming trees, bundling twigs, planting annuals...all to get it ready to put on the market.  When we finished this we turned to the inside of the house and helped them pack to get the house ready for house shoppers.

My DIL is a hoarder collector of all kinds of stuff and she gets very attached to memorabilia.  I can sell you two boxed and never opened Baltimore Orioles bobble head dolls! ( I also discovered that fancy letter boxes would be a nice Christmas gift.)  My son is a sound engineer and owns three four guitars along with enough sound system equipment to furnish a studio.  Various relatives have donated odds and ends furniture to the young couple over the years and if you add all the wedding gifts, mostly kitchen stuff and linens, then you have a two-bedroom 900 square foot house that has only pathways between rooms to move about.  For many days it has looked like an episode of Hoarders or some tragic accident of nature.

They finally rented a storage unit and have it now two-thirds filled it with crap all their extra stuff.  We packed boxes, lifted heavy furniture, loaded a file cabinet, and threw out as much stuff as they would let us after we finished the yard.

I remember one year when I moved my daughter into college and my mother-in-law into our house in a matter of weeks.  I had hoped then that this type of craziness would no longer fill my life.  ( I really have to find a way to be out of town when they make the move into the newly purchased house!)

Monday, after this super weekend, I came home and realized I had to go over my house with a fine tooth comb after the departure of little ones.  I got 6 loads of laundry done, (haven't yet stripped the two beds upstairs,) and dusted, vacuumed and mopped floors, cleaned out the toy cupboard to throw away stuff, cleaned out the DVDs and separated children's books from library books, completing just the main rooms on the main floor.  Next, after Tuesdays volunteer morning, I have to do bathrooms, my master bedroom and the main floor closets.  The basement and upstairs will have to wait a day or two more.

I am not writing all this to brag about my industrious life style.  This is just he way that I am.  I do get pleasure out of having things neat and organized for at least a short time.  I could also write about months being a couch potato, but that will happen this winter.

At any rate one would think that restorative sleep is what my body would demand after all this physical and mindless labor.  But it seems that I get about 5 hours of sleep and then find myself wide awake waiting for morning to begin so that I can get more stuff done.  I am sure a therapist could have a field day with such antics, but unless they can help me sleep through the night, I have no desire to know why I am this way.


11 comments:

  1. I love it. "Unless a therapist can...." sentence is great.

    I envy you and your industrius style. I love a clean house but am unwilling to pay somebody to clean it or take on all of the work for myself.

    I blame my migraines when in fact I think I am actually just lazy.

    Also - I am a hoarder, too. I did stop bringing more stuff into the house, though. I only buy things that I am using to live. No more decorations or knick knacks etc..

    Well, unless it is electronics. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You have been busy.

    Mike was also a collector while I am a minimalist. I know anger is a stage of grief--and that is one thing that I am angry about--all the stuff I am left to deal with. But not just yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You can come do that for my house ;). It sure needs it and I have been in a bout of sinusitis which leaves me zero energy for anything.

    Actually MSG can do that to me if I got any at all in some food where I had no idea it was there. Whenever I don't fall right back asleep at night, I go reading labels. If you eat out, it can be tricky to even find it was there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder if it might be a new stage of age. I too have been busy de-junking and rehabbing my house (I thought I was selling, I'm not). And still my sleep the last couple of months has backed down to six hours. I only take occasional naps. It feels permanent.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just reading the list of all the things you do is exhausting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh man, I hate it when I can't sleep, but you sound as though you've accepted it gracefully.

    Do kids ever completely move out/away? Maybe not. Our oldest son, DIL & baby are moving in with us in 2 weeks. I think their stay will only be for a matter of days/weeks, until they can get settled in Portland. It will be great to have them closer by, but I sincerely hope there will be no bobble-headed dolls.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, Kerry and I so agree. I wake innumerably times during the night. Usually in the silence of four am, I begin to think creatively and think of turning on the computer.

    It would be harder for you to say no that it would for me, but that's what you have to say to keep your sanity. No is a one word sentence. They have a fleet of younger and stronger friends to do the lifting and the arranging. No. It's ok not to say that word. We used to volunteer our truck too...we had tall wooden sides. When G bought a lid for this truck, it helped me to say no. "No," I can't help because the lid doesn't come off. "No," I can't help because I have carpal tunnel, have a just recovering hip, am old. LOL Saying no takes you into a new plateau of life. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, i know i'm sleepless with kittens to be fed in the middle of the night, but if i did as much hard work in a day as you've done, i might not be able to wake to feed them!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wish my children were hoarders. I am a hoarder and Ron was a hoarder. We have kept all this stuff for our kids and they don't want any of it so I am stuck. Someday there is going to be one big auction around here.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Understand a lot you share. I like everything organized and tidy to some it would seem almost an addiction. Just the way I am.
    Not a hoarder but trying to keep meaningful things in these later years. Many years living in large homes and now in my small cottage which I love but still more here then I want.
    On sleeping, always in my lifetime it was not a problem - but now
    a different story. Now do not sleep as well.
    Can I say'
    proud of you and yes on the longer winter days you can rest...

    ReplyDelete
  11. You are a busy lady. Don't quite understand why You have to do all this stuff for the kids, unless it's your choice.
    Minimalist here. I've moved so many times via goose neck stock trailer, that if it doesn't fit, it doesn't move...

    ReplyDelete

Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.