Empty nest is not what I expected

It has been almost two months since we dropped our daughter off at college.  In that time my laundry has decreased by more than half, my groceries have decreased, and my own household chores have increased.

Did you know that going from a household of three people to two people literally cuts the laundry in half?  You would think it would only reduce by 1/3, but no.. half.  This fact still baffles me.  However, a downside to this is that I don't have 'full loads' anymore and my dear husband ran out of socks.  I need to rethink my schedule here.

The decrease in groceries wasn't surprising at all.  We almost lost a gallon of milk though.  I don't drink it very often, and neither does my husband.  So when I saw him having a full glass every meal for the last three days I knew something was up.  I guess we need to downsize to half gallons now.  The irony of this is that my husband just finished the gallon yesterday morning.  As he was making dinner last night he went to get some milk, and there was none.  We had to change the menu for the evening, but all worked out.  We both had a good laugh about it though.

The chores.. well.. what can I say.  I don't like chores.  If I could get the cats toilet trained, then I'd have less to do, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

All in all, this empty nest isn't so bad.  I miss my little bear and love the phone calls and texts I receive from her.  I know she'll be home for the holidays as well as random long weekends.  The most important thing is that she is doing what she has always dreamed of doing, and being successful at it.  In my book, I call that a win.

My CGM, George, needed his own space.

Have you ever had so many cords strung across the room that it looked like a spider web?  Me neither, but sometimes it sure can feel like it.


The top cord is for my phone.  The bottom cord is for my CGM*, George.
Yes, there are 5 pairs of slippers here.  The pig ones oink when I walk.

I had been trying to think of something to clean this up.  If I had to get up in the middle of the night I usually knocked 'George', my phone, or both off the headboard, unplugging them in the process.  Something had to change.

Talk about timing!  A couple months back, a friend of mine from high school, Jessica, contacted me about her business.  She is a professional organizer and recommends products from Clever Container.  She asked if I would be willing to bring the catalog into work, and show my friends to see if anyone was interested in anything.  I looked through the catalog and found many things that would organize my house and car.  There was one item that really caught my eye.

Cord Charmer


I immediately had visions of organization.  Or at least visions of less of a spider web effect.  I told Jessica how awesome this item would be and proceeded to explain.  I think I might have rambled on for awhile about cyborg body parts.  Anyways, a couple weeks later I received a Cord Charmer in the mail. (Thank you Jessica!) 

The beginning of the month, my husband said, "Let's get this thing installed.  It can't be that hard." ... and it wasn't.  Here is a step by step picture process:

Step 1: Remove old face plate



Step 2:  Mount Cord Charmer as a regular face plate.



Step 3:  Plug in the cord and wrap the extra around the pegs.
A small rubberband is included to hold the cord in place.

 

Step 4:  Put cover over the wrapped cord.



Step 5:  Plug in George.

 Viola! George has his own personal recharging zone.  The only remaining problem was that my phone charger still needed to be plugged in, and with the cord container on the right side, it wouldn't work.  The cord would have farther to go, and I would trip over it even more.  SO.....we turned it upside down.

Even though the shelf is curved, thanks to his colorful skin, George doesn't slide off. 

It took all of 15 minutes to have this fully installed and ready to go.  That even includes moving all those slippers.  Maybe that should be my next project.  A slipper organizer.



So much nicer.  Only one cord... and more slippers?
I really need to do something about those.

 One of my concerns about having George that far away at night was the distance.  Was it too far to pick up the signal from the transmitter?  It took a couple days before he needed a charge, and I was never so excited to plug him in and go to sleep.  It was the acid test.  Would he be close enough?  He was!  There were readings throughout the night.  Not all of them were pretty, but they were there, and THAT was the goal of that night.

*CGM = A continuous glucose monitor.  A totally cool device that monitors my glucose levels and tells me if I'm running in the normal, low, or high range. 

Disclosure:  Although I did not pay for my cord charmer it was not in exchange for a review.  In fact Jessica didn't even know I had a blog when she contacted me.  However, when I asked, she gave me permission to post her contact information.  If interested, you may contact her at www.mycleverbiz.com/JessicaLewis.

How I take time for myself - Post 6

Today's suggested posts were "News-style post" or "Write about a time you had to take he high road", neither one was setting off any ideas for me. So I looked through the "Bonus Prompts" and found one that really fit.

Yesterday I had to leave work early because "Freeda" (my insulin pump) was going to be yelling at me that she was empty. I had only 1 unit left and at .875/hour that wouldn't have lasted long enough with out me shushing her the entire drive home. It is amazing how getting home just 1 hour earlier than normal allows you to get so much more done! I was able to get dinner rewarmed and ready for company that was showing up at 5:30. A load of laundry made it into the machine, and subsequently the dryer so everyone had work uniforms today. Dishes were rinsed/washed and loaded in the dishwasher as appropriate so that the 5 hours I spent scrubbing my kitchen on Sunday wasn't in vain. I got the coffee pot set to auto-run in the morning. My kitties (all three) were talking to me, really loudly, when I put their wet food bowls away, so I spoiled them and gave them a little. They normally only get wet food on Saturday, but I'm a pushover when it comes to my furkids. I also was able to get a batch of bread started. That sounds WAY more impressive than it really is. I have a bread machine, so I just throw in the ingredients and hit start. Three hours later TADA, fresh bread. This has saved my family so much money over the years, not to mention how good the house smells when it is baking.

After all this, I looked at the clock and it was barely 8pm. What?! It is usually 11pm by the time I finish my chores. I even did a double take and checked other clocks just to make sure the one I was looking at was accurate. It was. So... I grabbed my robe, my fuzzy pig slippers, my book.. and hid in my room. Is this taking time for myself? I say yes. Did I specifically arrange it? No, but then again this is about TAKING time not MAKING time, right?

Now.. if I can only figure out how to do that more often. Any suggestions?