Hip Check & Clutter

Is that a hockey term? I somehow remember that being the case. I meant it to be a pun.

Yesterday, I had my last physical therapy session and a check-up with my orthopedist. Neither feel more PT is necessary, as long as I continue to weight train on my own. Which I can certainly do. They both did some strength tests with me, where they pressed on my leg and told me to push against them and not let them push me. When I first started all of this, I couldn’t resist them at all on my right and now I can. I still need to do lifestyle changes, such as cross training, resting when necessary, losing weight, going to yoga. All of those things I can do.

I have to admit, I haven’t exactly missed running. It’s been a cold difficult winter. I am relieved to have not had the burden to feel like I had to train. And now that Matt is up to his 3+ hour long runs, even though the weather has been lovely for the most part, I am relieved that its not me!

Kitty health around here is stable. Indy is still on medication to bring his liver values down. I didn’t expect this treatment to go on so long, but his last result was still 130, and we need to get him under 100. Joey was not pleased with the treatment he got for his mouth … liquid antibiotics, but it did get him to eat and the mass has massively shrunk. Yay. He will be on/off antibiotics in two week cycles for a long time. He is not happy about it, but I can live with the treatment.

So my husband and I have bought a new house and have slated 5/7 for the move-in date. To prepare for this, we have been doing some massive amounts of decluttering. It is amazing to me how much stuff can accumulate in seven years. One weekend, we started working on the basement. I had actually started that project myself a few times and had a big pile of stuff for the thrift store, which we still need to bag up and get out of here. We spent 108 minutes that weekend mostly breaking down boxes and cardboard. The municipality we live in does not recycle cardboard and I never actually set up a system for dealing with cardboard. I do have a need to keep some boxes that are in good shape, as I have seven nieces and nephews that live in other cities, so I do ship things to them. But I certainly didn’t need to save all of these.

Fortunately, the new township we are moving to recycles cardboard. That makes me very happy. I am a recycler! I just hate having things go to waste. I like to find some use for things, if I don’t want them. Maybe that is the reason behind my packrat tendencies. Some of it is laziness. As in the case of the big pile of shredding … we never shredded this stuff … who wants to mess with that.

This is just a small sample of the shredding we accumulated from various parts of the office, mostly our lovely filing system:

Fortunately, there are companies that will shred for us!

Magazines? I’m addicted. Glossy paper, matte paper … doesn’t matter as long as its paper and pretty. Here were what I considered the “extraneous” magazines in my craft room.

A post on freecycle and they were gone in a few days!

Whoo.

And cooking? Have I been cooking? Well, not too much. Sorting and reorganizing has been taking center stage. Although a few weeks ago, I made the following Sweet Potato Stew from Joel Fuhrman’s book, Eat for Health. This recipe is from the phase one section.

It was yummy. You can make the veggies smaller if you wish and have it more soupy, but I liked it just the way it was.

Recommended side dishes were brown rice (that I didn’t cook enough) and braised bok choy. I had no idea if I would like the latter item. It was okay. I had never braised before, and honestly, I can’t remember how to do it. Here is what it looked like:

This weekend, we will be working on that basement some more. Surely that is the hardest thing to do before we move … besides actually moving. Oh, and making phone calls. I hate making phone calls. There are a lot of phone calls to make in order to move. Does anyone want a job making my calls for me?