Head start?

I guess I got a head start. I had totally forgotten to check out what this week's de-cluttering project was going to be.

But yesterday I stopped at Office Depot and bought 2 binder de-cluttering tools. One for the little things and one for the full sized papers.

I went through my weekly schedule binder and my wallet. Threw out or shredded tons of stuff....mostly (so many) appointment cards and receipts.

Now if my binder slides to the side a little...nothing falls out. Hurray!

 Now I have no problems closing my wallet/purse...I guess you can really call it a "wallet on a string". I switched to it a few months ago and I absolutely love it. It's a pity it's so darn ugly.

I just checked to see what "hot spot" was on the list for this week at Simple Mom... It was...

Papers!

How about that, huh? Like I said...I got a head start.

I still have a bunch more but I think I'm on my way!

Wanna join me?

Organizing

I love the ideas my friend at Weaver Girl Guz comes up with and finds.

So I tend to be a copycat.

I hope she doesn't mind. (I love ya, C.)

I could use the motivation.

I Need a Time Manager

About a month ago I started working from home, abstracting leases.

I have never "worked from home" except for being a stay at home mom of 2 little kids. During that time I have had a few retail jobs, obviously, in the store with a schedule and a time clock to punch.

The boys are now in middle school and with my RA not quite under control I can't work a job like that again. But...this abstracting job just "fell in my lap". Thanks C!

I have to figure this out!

I want to do well.

I want to keep up with all of the work that needs to be done.

I want to make my family, friends and most of all...myself proud.

I will make a schedule and stick to it.

I will use these forms for it. (Sorry it's so small, I couldn't figure out how to make it larger.)




I will "Just do it!"

If it's not one thing, it's another

One and a half days after my rheumatologist PA told me to use the anti-inflammatory patch at night and the gel during the day (I got both of them as samples from the doctor)...my left hip doesn't hurt anymore. Yahoo! So I guess I have to use something around the clock or it's as good as not taking anything. 


OK, I get it now. (I guess I'm a little slow that way)


But...now my right SI joint aches and right shoulder is in spasms. Really? Come on! I can't catch a break! 


I do have an appointment with my massage therapist today. Hopefully she can fix this, without it slipping back like my hip has been doing. 


Please!

Thing a Day: 25.9

I know that today is actually the 27th but this is actually a continuation of Day 25.

This is a very sad topic but I do have many Jewish friends who may want to see this as well as other people that have read the book without "having to".

Here is a copy of my 13 year old son's Project for Elie Wiesel's Night...And he didn't make me wait for it to get graded after I told him how good I thought it was.


Foreign Jews deported by the government
Rail cars intercepted by the German Gestapo
Forced under gunpoint into digging mass graves
For themselves
The babies used as target practice



Germany invades Hungary
Nice, with much freedom
Then starts an anti-Semitic presence
Forced to stay in homes
Arrests of Jewish leaders
Gold, silver, money, watches, other valuables
All taken away
All Jews marked by their own star
With the threat of death on not wearing them



Moved to live behind the barbed wire fences
Kept prisoner in their own neighborhoods
Then forced to abandon all possessions
And march into cattle cars
Eighty in each one



Oppressive heat
Little breathable air
Darkness everywhere
Not enough room to sit down
So they sleep standing
Germans nail the doors shut
People become lunatics
As they near the destination
Fire can be seen through the small windows
And the smell of burning flesh moves through the car



The arrivals step out of the train car after it enters Auschwitz
And proceed towards processing at Birkenau
The Nazi doctor Josef Mengele leads the “selection”
Making the “good” live to work
And the “bad” to get executed with gaseous pesticide in false showers
And cremated in open pits
Those too old and too young, get killed
Those ill, insane, crippled, disabled in any way, get killed
Others that do not meet Nazi standards, get killed



They are forced to take off their clothing
Then every part of their body shaved
The hair used for textiles
They are showered
They are disinfected with gasoline
They are clothed in prison uniforms
They are now homogenized
Alike in their suffering and torture



They are forced to walk under gunpoint
Through villages
At an almost leisurely pace
Until they arrive at the work camp
Auschwitz III
Buna



Stripped of all valuables
Even gold teeth
And sometimes shoes
Forced to work to support the Nazi cause
Beaten by their superiors and other prisoners
Some are transferred away
Others given twenty lashes for occurrences that are not even crimes
Their possessions consist of eating utensils
Living in fear of American air raids
German-led executions
The constant threat of “selection”
And the omnipresent danger of death



No one knows whether to stay or to leave
Staying means liberation
Or possibly certain death
Leaving means if one survives the transit
He does not face certain death
Marching through the dark and snow
The SS with orders to shoot all that stop
Sons abandoning fathers
Forty-two miles of torture
Ending at a deserted village
Where the prisoners are allowed to rest
And where sleep is the cruelest enemy



From there they march to Gleiwitz
Three days without sustenance
They are herded into cattle cars
Sans roofs
One hundred in each one
When passing through towns
People throw in bread
The prisoners fight to the death
Less than twenty leave each car



People fall very ill in the barracks
And do not leave until it is time for their cremation
On April 5, the murder of Jews begins
On April 10, it stops
On April 11, the prisoners are prisoners no longer
The starved eat and drink
Finally free

Thing a Day: 25.1

Need to cheer myself up after helping my son...too depressing

I don't think this dad knows what kind of monster he just created.

Thing a Day: 25

I know I keep missing my TAD's but there never seems to be anything worthwhile to mention.

Today I helped my 13 (.89 according to him) year old figure out what he wanted to do for his project relating to "Night" by Elie Wiesel.

Thanks to SparkNotes, I was able to remember the story. It is a like a virtual Cliff Notes book. (I survived high school English classes with help from Cliff.)

I had also pulled out this book I purchased while I was visiting Dachau when I was 17. I was leafing thru it. It helped me think about a subject I haven't seen in such depth since I was there. I have never been able to bring myself to watch "Schindler's List" after having learned about it in Hebrew school during junior high .

In the end he has decided to write a poem explaining the process from them being taken from their homes to the peoples ending ...however the Nazi's would decide their endings would be.

If my son will allow it, I will share it after it has been graded. A good grade will be at least one of his requirements for allowing me.

Sorry about such a sad subject but...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -Santayana