Organization Obsessive Disorder

Posted on by Rilla

Hi, my name is Rilla, and I have OOD, Organization Obsessive Disorder. I organize things obsessively. I posted this Instagram pic of my new custom magnetic spice containers on my Facebook wall last night:

Custom magnetic spice containers – an early birthday gift from Bee.

One of my friends commented on the pic and reminded me of the first time she looked in my fridge and was shocked and highly amused to discover my bins of neatly organized and labeled food.

I assured her I had a very good reason – southern coastal Georgia has HUGE bugs, I was just protecting my food. I also assured her I’ve relaxed a little in my old age, but immediately took that claim back. Organizing still calms me and I very much enjoy a good organizing day.

It started when I was a child. I had an extraordinarily controlling mother, and organizing gave me a sense of control. There was something so soothing and satisfying about opening a messy chaotic cupboard, emptying it out, and putting everything back in neat order. Plus it bought me high approval from my mother, something rare that I was ravenous for…

I was in my teens when I bought my first electronic labeler and it truly changed my life.  Now other people in my life could see where things were supposed to be, and order was maintained long term. I have two, I need a back up in case one suddenly stops working.

Organizing has served me well many times in my life. My first real paid administrative job was working for Revenue Canada, organizing, sorting, and removing staples from boxes upon boxes of documents. I went on to work in the property titles department and spent months organizing huge drawers of files and maps…

When my mom passed away in my early 20′s I soothed and comforted myself by taking mom’s boxes of photos home and spending weeks sorting them and making up a photo album for each of her five children and our dad.

I think I first realized I loved Bee when we were dating the day he allowed me to buy organization bins in all sizes and shapes and organize his entire apartment, complete with neatly printed labels.

Now my organization obsession is mostly visible at work in neatly labeled files, extensive budget projections, and labeled boxes of office supplies…

That said, you don’t have to look too closely to find signs of my obsession in my home too. Emm’s books are organized by height. My pantry holds neatly labeled containers of baking goods, dry goods, and Emm’s snacks (my excuse is the mice). My craft supplies are organized into neatly labeled bins. Emm’s toy bins and drawers are frequently sorted and organized.

Purging gives me a whole other level of thrill. I’m the yard sale queen. I love sorting and eliminating the unnecessary crap in my life. I figure if I haven’t used it in the past year, I won’t need it next year, so bye-bye. I’ve become a pro at hosting yard sales, and made over a thousand dollars last summer when we downsized from a 1200 sq ft rental to our current 631 sq ft home. I’m very proud of myself.

A deliriously fun afternoon for me is emptying the shed and sorting everything into neat and tidy organized labeled bins. I love nothing better than standing back and admiring my hard work, knowing when I need the hose sprayer or the fish fertilizer they will be exactly where they are supposed to be.

If I had a catch phrase it would be “everything in its designated space”.

I had a group of girlfriends over for tea recently and brought my recipe binder out to share some recipes. I wasn’t surprised that they found my recipe binder amusing – each recipe is neatly typed, in alphabetical order, and organized by meal categories. I also have a PDF file of all my recipes on my google documents to share when a recipe is requested.

Just yesterday I spent a good hour sorting pictures into folders on my computer.

I have a problem. And I like it.

Need something organized? For a mere $25/hour, I’m your man.

Kidding!! Call me a control freak, but I only like organizing my own stuff. Bummer, huh?

Communication Breakdown

Posted on by Rilla

The Happy Couple at Work

For the past few years we have done the exact same thing on Saturdays. We make a menu for the week, write a grocery list, and do a week’s worth of grocery shopping after work on Saturday night. Last Saturday we worked late…

Me: Bee, I’ll go ahead to the grocery store and meet you there.

Bee: Great, I’ll close up the salon and walk over. *kiss kiss*

Thirty minutes later I am finished shopping and as I’m checking out and loading the cart I look around, he should have been here by now… no sign of Bee.

I spend the next thirty minutes looking for Bee. He’s not waiting in the car, he’s not at the salon, he’s not in the store… Where the heck is that man?!

Normally I would just go home and schlep the groceries up our 28 stairs myself, but I spent all day Friday spring cleaning the house and my hip is inflamed and there’s no way I’m going to manage four trips up the stairs loaded down with a week’s worth of groceries by myself…

We have plans to go to a friend’s place for a potluck dinner, Emm has been there all day having a playdate… I catch a glimpse of Cee going into the grocery store, and it dawns on me… I bet he walked to our friend’s place…

I jump in the car and sure enough… he’s there… He insists when I said I’d meet him there, that “there” was our friend’s place… I insist “there” was the grocery store… Both words were in the same freakin’ sentence. I rant about wasting 30 minutes looking for him while he sheepishly apologizes and laughs while pretending to flinch away from my tongue lashing… *sigh*

…. The following day…

Me: Bee, my hip was in too much pain to finish cleaning the bathroom on Friday. Could you clean the toilet, please? I’d like the entire base cleaned too and the floor around and behind the toilet.

Bee: No problem, hun. I’ll do it later…

… Later that night…

Me: *goes in to use the bathroom and opens the toilet lid only to discover he cleaned everything BUT the inside of the toilet bowl* BEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Bee: What?!

Me: You cleaned the toilet?

Bee: Yes, like you said. I did the base and the floor…

Me: Did you miss something?

Bee: What?

Me: Think about it… it’ll come to you…

Bee: Nope… I did just what you said…

Me: What about the part you POOP IN! (Emm was present, so I didn’t say SHIT, like I was thinking!) The bowl! You didn’t clean the bowl!

Bee: *bursts out laughing* But you didn’t SAY to do the bowl…

Me: IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT YOU CLEAN THE POOP BOWL!!!!

Bee: *laughing so hard he’s crying* Time to do bedtime prayers with Emm.

Me: Lord? Help.

Bee & Emm: *laughing hard* Amen.

For the record, I cleaned the shit bowl myself.

Home & Yard Progress Pics & Projects

Posted on by Rilla

Bored? I uploaded a pile of pics to my Rilla’s Villa Facebook page today:

Summer 2011 Outside Move in Pics

Summer 2011 Inside Move in Pics

Spring 2012 Outside Progress & Plan Pics

Spring 2012 Inside Progress & Plan Pics

As we make further improvements to the home and yard I’ll post new pics to that page so they are all together in one spot. I hope you enjoy!

Projects we’ve completed or currently in progress:

  • Installed a new low flush toilet
  • Closed in the window opening behind the wood stove
  • Pruned the fruit trees
  • Removed the roofs off the weird structures in the yard
  • Got all the electrical checked and an outdoor outlet installed
  • Cleaned up the yard and had a large load of garbage removed
  • Built an herb container garden
  • Cleaned up the garden bed next to the shed and planted tulips and lavender
  • Cleaned and organized the shed
  • Installed a new baseboard heater in the bathroom
  • Installed a programmable thermostat in the main living area
  • Hung pictures and curtain rods

Here are some of the future projects in roughly the order we plan to finish them:

This summer:

  • Install new metal roof and replace the skylight
  • Install new energy and water efficient kitchen and laundry appliances
  • Build a new gravel pathway and stairs up to the front door
  • Remove the trellis on the deck and put in new railings
  • Paint the white fence posts and the door gate in funky 70′s colours
  • Stain the deck
  • Paint the front door
  • Finish deer fencing the yard
  • Plant a cherry tree
  • Build a play fort for Emm

Next year:

  • Tile the wall behind the wood stove in the living room
  • Paint the kitchen, living room/dining room, and bathroom
  • Water proof an area under the deck for firewood stacking
  • Grow a veggie garden

Unknown future years when we can afford it:

  • Add a third water cistern
  • Gut and renovate the kitchen and bathroom

Playing Hooky

Posted on by Rilla

Em and his Pokeball

Usually being a one car family is no big deal, but every once in a blue moon it’s a bit too complicated. Today Bee has a hair class to take, and it’s off island, which leaves me car-less all day. Em carpools to school with the neighbor girl, so getting him to school is no problem, it’s getting him back home that’s a bit more challenging. Usually I would ask my aunt or uncle to pick our son up after school and bring him home for me, but they are out of town for a couple weeks. Or I would ask my dad to pick him up, but dad’s sick right now and I don’t want to be a burden… So that leaves… playing hooky!

The weather is gorgeous, it’s supposed to be well over 20 degrees celcius. At 9 AM we opened the doors, put the music on, and read Ellen’s #ClassicJokeMonday on twitter together while eating breakfast…

By 10 AM Em was looking for something to do, and moaning about having to miss school (he’s definitely my child, I was total school keener t00), so I made him a “school” list:

Math

Jump on the trampoline while counting to 1000.

Art

Draw your favorite planet with a spaceship, in full colour.

Science

Build a huge lego spaceship.

Free Time

Build every puzzle, on your bedroom floor, while eating a snack.

Literacy

Read your entire 12 book box set of the Magic School Bus.

Chores

Finish them all (there’s a laminated list on the fridge that he’s supposed to do daily) to earn one netflix movie or 60 minutes on a video game device of your choice

Lunch

Eat a chicken sandwich, applesauce, apple, and tortilla chips.

He eagerly took the list, and informed me they start the day at school in the gym by singing the Canadian Anthem, and proceeded to sing it for me in his best off-tune silly voice. I love that kid.

Hugelkultur plus Lasagna Gardening – Prepping New Beds

Posted on by Rilla

Branches to go on the hugelkultur.

We bought a house this month. We moved in as renters last summer, and in the process of cleaning up the wilds, we unburied some old raised beds, with rotting wood borders. They were thigh high in weeds and grass, so we put down some cardboard to smother the vegetation, and started adding mulch. My father in law rakes up about 15 bags of maple leaves every fall, which we gladly take and rake onto our garden beds. After a few months of burning firewood in our wood stove we had a few buckets of ash to add. We usually throw kitchen scraps on too, but our yard isn’t deer fenced yet, so we’ve been putting our compost out to  be picked up by the local recycling company all winter.

Some friends of ours have recently introduced me to the concept of hugelkultur, which is an amazing solution to our water issues. Problem is, we adore lasagna gardening… So I’m showing Bee sites on hugelkultur and he says: Why don’t we combine the two? Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.

Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for raised garden beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc. As the years pass, the deep soil of your raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets – so your hugelkultur becomes sort of self tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm your soil giving you a slightly longer growing season. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water – and then refeeding that to your garden plants later. Plus, by holding SO much water, hugelkultur could be part of a system for growing garden crops in the desert with no irrigation. (SOURCE)

Cue google searching “hugelkultur plus lasagna gardening” and I discover (my new favorite gardening blogger) Northwest Edible Life’s article, Half-Ass Hugelkultur. Yay! Someone has already done this before me (and she does the kitchen scrap layers too, like me!!). I’m ecstatic. Not only do we now have a viable non-irrigation irrigation solution, but I’m determined to at least ask if we can have the piles of pithy wood that our neighbor has so kindly piled all along our property border, along with the massive pile of plum tree branches from our pruning adventure…

Watch this spot for progress reports…

My Gran’s Adventures

Posted on by Rilla

My Gran as a young coal miner’s bride

My gran lives independently in a grandparent suite at my aunt’s house. I was born out East where my Gran and her family live, but my family moved out West when I was very young, so our relationship has been primarily long distance. I try to call her as often as possible and we have a long history of letter writing (she had email for a long time, but they live in the country and don’t have a reliable connection). This was a recent phone conversation I had with her…

Me: Hi Grandma! How are you doing?

Gran: Oh, very good for an old lady. You know I’m going to be 89 this year?

Me: Wow! So much for dying young. You know you’re going to live to be over 100 years old, right?

Gran: That’s what my grandson keeps saying. I guess somebody has to do it. What’s new with you?

Me: We’re doing well. We just finalized the purchase of our first home.

Gran: Oh, how exciting! I just got back from a shopping trip to the states with a girlfriend. Feeling a little tired today.

Me: I bet! That’s a lot of walking. Did you find anything to buy?

Gran: I was looking for a new dress, but they don’t make dresses for little old ladies anymore. They all show way too much skin!

Me: *laughing* That’s not good. Do you have any plans this weekend?

Gran: No, just enjoying the nice weather… *and so on…*

Letting Go and Living Now

Posted on by Rilla


The two most important people in my life – My son Emm & my husband Bee

The lonely use Facebook in lonely ways-they lurk and comment around looking for attention–while those with active social lives reaffirm their social buoyancy, using the site to send messages and make plans in the real world. (Source)

After I lost my childhood church community (that’s a whole post in itself) in the year 2000, I really craved community and found it in the most unconventional place – online. I joined a number of online forums – my interests were generally weight loss, parenting, and natural living groups. I immersed myself in these communities and even had the opportunity to meet a few women briefly in real life.

The major con to online communities is that you spend a lot of time living in your head, thinking about and responding to the dramas playing out in other people’s lives (real and imaginary), and your own real life sometimes passes you by without much notice.

Since moving to this southern gulf island temporarily in 2003 (permanently in 2008) I finally found my Community and my Home. I have family, both immediate and extended, a close-knit group of girlfriends that I meet up with at least once a week, often more. I have interests – gardening, nature, photography, movies, reading, writing… My husband and I opened a hair salon and spa here, and we work together almost everyday. We love our clients and get to spend all day interacting with some of the coolest people on earth.

My real life is busy and fun and I no longer have the time or desire to spend time and energy investing in online communities. I don’t mean to minimize the very real and special connections I made with the people that I met over the years, but sometimes letting go is the healthiest thing to do for the people you love most in real life.

I posted this on my blog’s page earlier this week:

I joined and participated in a number of online forums over the past fifteen years, but gradually, over time, my real life interfered and I eventually deactivated all my accounts. I am more present in my real life now…

It is very interesting to me how once I stopped supporting and engaging in online communities, how it so quickly felt as though I never truly existed there. Yes, I had fleeting real life meetings and special connections with real people there, but I have to admit something… my real life local community is much richer and more fulfilling now that I have let that part of my life go…

Letting go… We fear it because we are conditioned to avoid conflict or the remotest possibility we might hurt someone’s feelings, or be rejected… yet letting go, in my experience, has more often opened exciting new opportunities and experiences…

I let go… so I could grab hold of the people and experiences that are the most meaningful to me – family, friends, nature, career, passions… Life is so short… I can’t let it pass me by…

I figure the people that really have an interest in me and my life will find and read this blog, and will continue to comment and be a part of my real life. The others will fade away. I’m okay with that.

Whole Foods, Whole Health

Posted on by Rilla


Garden Beds being prepped to grow our own organic food

People that know me now probably don’t know that for seventeen years of my life I was addicted to Diet Coke. I drank four to six cans of it every single day and refused to even consider letting it go. When my son was diagnosed with a long list of food allergies in 2004 I started making some pretty drastic changes to our diet. I replaced all our fruits and veggies with organic produce, I started shopping for locally raised free-range antibiotic and hormone free meats, I replaced all dairy with organic sources, I bought bulk organic legumes and grains. I eliminated foods with unrecognizable unpronounceable ingredients, and developed a cache of delicious homemade whole foods recipes. We stopped eating fast food and I finally took the time to research artificial sweeteners. The Diet Coke was the last to go, but when I did it, I did it cold turkey and it’s been almost six years now since I knowingly consumed anything that contained artificial sweeteners.

Here’s where it gets sort of sticky. I replaced the Diet Coke with Classic Coke. I justified it with the fact that Canada produces it with “real” sugar, and at least it’s not made with high fructose corn syrup, like in the United States. I decided this morning that I’m cutting it out cold turkey, along with all other sweetened sodas. I’m also cutting out my occasional Cheezies, Mars bars, Cadbury, and After Eight chocolate bar indulgences. My regular diet is healthy whole organic foods, my treats should be too.

I have lost over thirty pounds since last summer, but am currently taking a summer sabbatical from my weight loss efforts, and will be focusing on maintaining my weight by eating low carbohydrate whole foods and spending as much time outdoors as possible. We are in the process of cleaning up our yard and prepping a garden, and as the weather gets progressively nicer, I am going to start working in a forty minute walk to work a few times a week. I may resume the hCG Protocol diet in October when the weather starts getting rainier and the days are shortening, but that remains to be seen.

Note: I deleted my weight loss youtube vlogs, wordpress blog, My Fitness Pal account, and left all weight loss related FB groups. The community support was fantastic, but it consumes way too much of my time.

At the End of Life…

Posted on by Rilla

Spring always bring on a reflective mood. There’s something about the rejuvenation of trees and bulbs and the blossoming of fruit trees (pic above is plum blossoms in our garden) that makes me want to be a better person. I close my eyes and imagine myself nearing the end of my life. I imagine I’m somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 or 85 years old, and I’m reflecting on my past before I pass from this life to the next… What things do I imagine I will have done that leave me satisfied and ready to complete my life and rest in peace? (Yes, I can type with my eyes closed.)

1. My family. I have a close and loving relationship with my family – my husband, my son, his family (daughter in law and grandchildren), my dad (who has likely passed on now), and my aunt and uncle. I also see my siblings and their family on a regular basis and their children are grown and having families now…

2. My friends. I have a close-knit group of friends who I see weekly. We share garden plants, laughter, tea, and socialize regularly.

3. The outdoors. I spend time outside everyday puttering around my garden, walking along the ocean, kayaking, camping, and sitting in the sunshine on my deck.

4. My achievements. I’ve finished writing my book and published it for my family and closest friends. I’ve run a 5K. My husband and I have run our own successful salon business till retirement.  We’ve paid off my mortgage and student loans and are debt free so our child’s family won’t be burdened with our finances. We’ve traveled and seen the Mediterranean countries, Australia, Thailand, Africa…

5. My faith. I’ve lived a life that lines up with my core spiritual beliefs.

6. My community and environment. I’ve invested time, energy and finances in making my local and world community & environment a better place to live in through volunteer work and support of worthy causes. I live in as eco-conscious a manner as possible.

7. My health. I eat whole organic foods and am connected to the source of our food by growing my own garden and purchasing from ethical suppliers. I am physically active by working fitness into my daily routine. I have a healthy loving relationship with my body at every weight, and choose to eat intuitively. I practice regular self care, and honor my need for both solitude and friendship.

What values, accomplishments, and dreams do you hope to see fulfilled by the end of your life?

Where to put the head?

Posted on by Rilla

Creepy Head Under My Bed

I’m married to a hair stylist named “Bee”. He has this head that he calls “Judy” (which creeps me out even more because my deceased mother’s name was Judith or Jude…). He wants to keep it at home so he can practice hair styles in the evening after work. I walked into the dim bedroom last night and just about jumped out of my skin when I caught a glimpse of hair and her face. *shivers*

He used to keep it under the sink in our spa room at work. The first time I opened the cupboard and saw her plastic eyes staring out at me I jumped and shrieked. It was terrifying.

Then it was moved under my desk. I went to reach for something one day, and the end of the Christmas twinkle lights was lighting up her face in the dark recesses under the reception desk… *cue terrified shrieking and adrenaline rush that won’t stop*

So where should “Judy” live? I’m tempted to sneak her out to the curb on garbage day and lay her on the top of the garbage so when the garbage man lifts the lid he has the shit scared out of him… but then Bee would have no head to practice hair styles on… So yeah, funny, but not practical… Ideas?

PS Tops of closets are equally as terrifying as under the bed or under sinks or under desks…