Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

@NatureLover Good morning! I went to bed early last night. I was pretty wiped out. Clean sheet night is always the best! I hope you had a good sleep.

I'm feeling somewhat better this morning. Not sure why.. I was up and down all night. Must have been the sultana slice. 😂 I think I probably just cried it all out yesterday and then distracted myself enough in the late afternoon to put distance between the pain and today.
Thank you for recognising that I was struggling in the mindfulness. The counsellor didn't. He reminded me of one I was seeing quite a few years back that I felt I had to explain myself to. Hard work. 😂 We were just not suited. I think yesterday was the aftermath of everything the mindfulness brought up. It's been a rough couple of months... covid.. surgery.. my friend.. isolation.. missing my daughter and granddaughter... working on a relationship with my sister after being no contact with my family for 15+ years and she likes to talk about the past and she still has some of the same thought patterns still as the others so it's hard... I'm slowly reprogramming her.. at least she is open and accepting she just hasn't known better... finding out that maybe my aunt is my birth mother but nobody who might know is talking...

Its been a lot for this old girl.. especially when all the things I do for my mental health haven't been allowed.. the exercising and gardening because of the surgery.. all the OCD things because although they make me feel safe it's a trap! 😂

So how are you today my friend? Clean hair blowing in the breeze on your walk or are you getting the cats and dogs that we had here yesterday?
I'm only on my first coffee so still formulating my plan for the day. 😁

Hi @Escaped_Goat , thanks for your newsy post and I'm so glad you're feeling a bit better this morning! Distraction is so good and sultana slice seems to be too 🙂

You really have had a tough couple of months. 😞 I'm impressed you're working on a relationship with your sister when it's hard work and troubling. I reckon getting through however we can (while being safe) is OK at this time of Covid-19, even with OCD stuff if it makes us feel safer at the moment.

Is it your current counsellor that didn't 'get it' about the mindfulness? That's worrisome if so.

Haha, it's too cold to have clean hair blowing in the wind, I'm all covered up. Haven't actually had the first walk of the day yet but better get it in soon as it's going to rain later. I rang my psychiatrist yesterday to ask if he does Telehealth appointments, and he does, which means I have to go out this morning to post the updated referral to him before my next appointment. I r e a l l y don't want to go out! I'm going to tempt myself to go out by popping to the shops to get one of those stir-thru pasta sauces, they are a treat.

Good luck planning your day... 🙂

@NatureLover Haha! It was a bit of a read for first thing. I'm definitely going to say the sultana slice helped. 😂

My sister became the scapegoat for the other siblings after I left the family so she ended up in a place of hurt and depression too. She contacted me but at first was very closed off to hearing anything other than her side of growing up with our mother. It's only been over the last year or so that we have talked more and only in recent months that I have felt able to actually really be a big sister and teach her that the ideas we grew up with are wrong and crazy and racist and so much more. Last year she finally accepted that we had different relationships with the same parents and that I wasn't taking anything from her good relationship by saying mine was bad. So that's nice. We have peace on that front. I just need her to stop gossiping to me about the others because I really don't want to know about them and the awful things they say and do.. it upsets me. She finds it amusing that they are all so petty and horrible but I'm built differently to her and it just upsets me. I'm happy to have her in my life and I do love her so I think it's worth working on but it is hard at times.

Ohh no not my counsellor.. I meant the one running the mindfulness thing the other night.

Ohh.. stir through sauce yummy! I'm thinking of making soup today... I have a butternut looking at me waiting to become food! You should get condensed milk too 😂 😂

I bought one of those kambook soup makers a bunch of years ago before they became popular and expensive... best thing ever! Well... for someone that makes a lot of purée type soups and was constantly either burning herself with splatters or painting the walls and ceiling. :face_with_rolling_eyes:🤣😂

I might even make bread today. One can't really have soup without bread.. right? Isn't there some sort of kitchen law that says so?

Hehe about the soup and bread, @Escaped_Goat ...have I corrupted you into making bread? 😄

I have Type 2 Diabetes so had better not get the condensed milk, much as I want to. It's only me to eat it, unless I give some to my nice neighbour, and I've noticed she doesn't like to accept things as she's very independent, which I can understand as I am too. So if she didn't take any sultana slice then I would have to eat it ALL! I am really tempted though and it's nice hearing how much you enjoyed it.

I'm sorry there's been so much hurt and damage in your family. It does sound hard with your sister and I hope she will come to accept that you don't want to hear about what the others in the family do.

Oh, OK re your counsellor...I'm glad if your current counsellor is good.

Ok, I am going to go out now! (I've been quietly psyching myself up while doing my morning stuff.) Then a walk when I get home with the precious pasta stir-thru sauce...I just hope there is some on the shelf!

Yay, I made it out and there was stir-thru sauce on the shelf as my reward. I also accidentally checked on the condensed milk...luckily there wasn't any or I would've bought it lol.

Am out for a walk which does so much good for my soul.

I hope you can plan something nice for your day...something for yourself. Even just half of something maybe...a teeny tiny little something...

@Escaped_Goat

@NatureLover Glad your sauce was there! What about light condensed milk? Any better? You could give some to neighbors to bribe them into raking leaves maybe? I'm sure it would work. 😂

I have bread in the machine. Only just put in in so it's going to be a late lunch.

My dog had a massive seizure so I was busy comforting her. She comes to me just beforehand and I hold her while she seizes. This was the longest lasting one she's had.. poor baby. She's curled up in her chair under a blanket now.

Soup weather got me thinking and as I haven't packed the sewing machine away yet I'm going to sew a bunch of new bowl cozies for the family this afternoon. I use mine all the time and was thinking I need a spare for when it's in the wash and I noticed the ones I made for my son & partner are looking well used when I saw them on the line the other day. So there's my nice thing to do today. That and eat fresh bread 🍞😁

Oh no, I am sorry to hear about your dog! 😞 Poor girl. It must be awful to watch.

I'm glad you've got two nice things to do for yourself and your family. What sort of bread did you make? I like using half wholemeal and half white, and adding sesame seeds and flaxseeds. But there's no wholemeal in the shops at the moment.

And I don't know what a bowl cosy is...?

Do you mean sweetened condensed milk? I didn't know they had light. Good idea re bribing the neighbours.

@Escaped_Goat

@NatureLover I just made plain white bread this time.

Bowl cozy it's a pot holder kind of for your bowl.

Not just for soup. My daughter uses hers for her morning porridge too. 😀

@NatureLover One bowl cozy made... but then the bread was ready so I'm eating freshly made warm bread with carrot cake marmalade on. I'll get back to the bowl cozies soon.
Put a movie on.. can't follow the plot because the girls hair is distracting me. They have been living in the wilderness but I know for a fact you need a flat iron to achieve those perfect square waves. 😂

I did some laundry so I have folding to do later.. woohoo!

Hows your day going?

Hi @Escaped_Goat , your bread sounds like it worked out nicely. Not that I've ever heard of carrot cake marmalade, but I do like marmalade.

Thanks for the picture of the bowl cozies - that makes sense now. They look good...I use one of my face washers for that.

I've been lying down this afternoon. I needed some down time with no household chores. It was too cold to doze properly though. I realised that I forgot to throw away 1 item yesterday, so now I need to do 2 today. Hmmm...harder to do at the end of the day when it's getting dark. I've made myself a notice though to stick on the wall, to remind me.

Haha, do you like the folding? And did you make any more bowl cozies? Sounds like your day has been successful, anyway...